1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I was doing some scrolling on the local Craigslist the other week and stumbled upon a decent looking og paint 68 gmc. I went down to take a look and next thing I know it's in my driveway, funny how that works. The plan was to clean it up and flip it but I get the feeling it's not going anywhere. Either way, it's a cool truck and I wanted to document the progress. These were the best pictures in the ad

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

The plan is to work out some dents, clr some rust off, replace the rockers and paint match the patina. It's a straight 6 3 on the tree truck, it's gonna stay factory height, factory running gear, just clean everything up and go through it all.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Just a small amount of elbow grease brought that old paint right back to life. I plan on pulling off the front fenders and hood and cleaning/waxing/fixing every little detail the best I can. I have a set of original steelies getting blasted now, I found a set of gray gmc dog dish caps ok eBay that are on the way. My plan is to just collect parts for now and then go through it with a fine toothed comb in a month or so.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

A few more as it sits now. Just curious, on the steelies and caps. I am torn on what color to paint the steelies. I've searched and searched and I couldn't find a truck with gray dog dish caps that didn't have a gray painted wheel. I've always painted my steelies white but idk how that would look with a gray cap. Any opinions? I will also be running skinny white wall tires

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Last one

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

nice find!

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Very nice, looking forward to seeing the transformation :chevy::gmc2:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I recently purchased nearly a twin to your GMC right down to the 503 green paint. My goals are essentially the same as well. I'll be following along, it'll be fun to see how it goes ........

Steve weim55 Colorado

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I don't know why this site loads pictures upside down??.......

I was going to go with primary body color on mine. The white caps go well with the white bumpers and std. trim on a '67. The gray trim and caps make it tougher on a '68 for the right look. Still think that 503 green body color for steel wheels would look great on that '68.

Steve weim55 Colorado

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

So the LF fender had me a little nervous with that primer on there so I pulled it off the truck and did some fine sanding to see what was underneath... I still have a little work to do but was very relieved to see there was nothing but og paint under there

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Here's a little after shot, still needs a little work but looks a ton better

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Couple more overall of the fender

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Last but not least I picked up two gmc nub style caps this weekend. Just need two more. Also grabbed an old set of 6 lug steelies I had, I'm gonna get them ready to blast and powdercoat silver so I can mount the skinny white wall tires and check that box :smoke:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I thought I recognized this truck I was checking it out on CL also, glad to see it found a good home :mm:
Looking forward to watching the transformation :chevy:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Thanks Larry, I was pretty stoked to bring her home. Its hard to find one that's still all og paint :chevy:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Somehow I missed this one. I like where it's headed! Any more progress on it?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not at all haha, I wish. I have been digging on the blazer, I am hoping to pull this one in the garage by the end of the summer. My plan is to spend an hour or so on the engine to make sure I can get it to run and then blow the front end apart and start going through it piece by piece. I will keep you guys posted as I get it started

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Same here. I'm at my limit at home though...

If I remember right, it had been on there for quite some time as well.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

So did you just use clr and a green scotchbrite on the truck? Or something like stainless steel?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Actually all I did in the pictures above was rub some turtle wax on the old dry paint. I will clr each panel as i work through it but it really doesn't need much. Probably the roof and the bed sides, everything else should clean up nicely.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Had the wheels off the orange truck the other day and I couldn't help myself. Not exactly the direction we are headed but still cool none the less, it's a decent pic of the fender all cleaned up

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Really like this truck. Just like every truck you own,...

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Haha thanks man, I realized the very first post I ever made on this forum I mentioned how much I disliked the old gmc front end, now I own 3 of em :lol:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

So pearl finally got some love yesterday, not a lot but hey it was enough to get my pumped up about working on her. I did a little investigation on the passenger side to wrap my head around what needed to be done. First step was to pull out the 80s cloth bucket seat that was bolted into the floor board with a tap con...

Once I had the seat out I was able to get to the cab corner to clean out 50 years of crud. I was actually very surprised how solid it was once I got down to the metal. The picture of the dustpan filled with dirt was just the one cab corner, it's really amazing it was still there. Once I got it all clean I sprayed some ospho on the inside to kill the surface rust and hopefully preserve what's left.

After I got the cab corner clean I wanted to investigate the rot around the rockers. I knew I needed to put rockers on it based on the outside but I wasn't sure how much of the floor board was intact. Someone used a cheap spray in bedliner years ago on the entire floorboard and gas tank of this thing so it was really hard to tell what was good and what was bad. I discovered that the old bedliner actually come up pretty easy, I just used a plastic putty scraper and it came right up. I followed the OG paint all the way down to the edge of the rocker and found solid metal up to the edge of the wire gutter. I was pretty pleased, I knew I was going to need rockers and I think I can get away with just replacing inner and outer rockers. Finally I took a hammer and did some tapping around the rocker to see how strong it was, as suspected it was filled with bondo and fell apart as soon as I touched it haha.

Finally I took a spray bottle of ospho around the truck and sprayed a few rust areas that I was concerned about, I think she is pretty sealed up now. The only other piece I want to address is the drivers side cab corner so it doesn't hold moisture until I can get her in the garage.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

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Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not sure why but I cannot get this picture to post right side up... Anyone else have this problem? It looks correct on my desktop and as soon as I post it it's upside down. I even tried rotating and saving the file as a new name and it still does it...

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I don't think I ever documented my game plan for this truck, so here it goes:

Most of the sheet metal on this truck has either a dent or minor rust. My plan is to pull the truck in the garage at the end of summer and pull the bed and the front wrap off. I am going to go through each panel with a fine toothed comb and tap out all of the dents that I can, fix all of the rust that I can, and neutralize what I can't. I have a pretty good paint match that I am going to use to blend all of the new sheet metal. So far I know I am going to have to replace inner and outer rockers, possibly the drivers cab corner, kick panel on the drivers side (pass is solid), small spot on the drivers side firewall, rf fender cup and behind the wheel well, front hood edge under the trim, and a handful of spots in the bed.

While I have the sheet metal off I am going to swap out the original 3 speed trans with a factory 3 speed electric overdrive trans that I kept from an old 68 I had. I am going to go through the motor top to bottom and replace what needs to be replaced and freshen it up to the point of drivability. I am going to repaint the engine, probably powdercoat the core support, I have factory inner fenders that are perfect that are already powdercoated, hopefully leave the firewall original paint, and leave the insides of the fenders original paint.

I am going to leave the interior pretty stock, it has all of the original pieces and it really hasn't been touched. Radio delete, correct glovebox door and instrument cluster paint matched, cigarette lighter delete, black heater control, pretty standard. I will obviously put a carpet kit in, new dash pad, clean everything up and make sure all the gauges work. I have a set of buddy bucket seats that I am contemplating throwing in it, my only reservation is the cost of having them reupholstered.

So in summary, from the outside it will look like a very factory hopefully survivor truck with OG paint, zero rust, factory steel wheels with gmc caps, and a touch of patina. Under the hood it will look new but factory, and the interior will look new but factory.

The only piece I am undecided about is the bed.. I have a fair amount of rot on the inside edges of the bed floor, I was thinking about getting a new bed floor and just cutting out the bad metal and breaking a new 90 degree flange on the inner bedsides essentially doing a bed floor raise until I got clean metal. But then once I do that I would have to put spacers between the crossmembers and the frame rails to bring everything up to the correct height. Has anyone dealt with this before? Just curious what other ideas you guys have.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

3" body lift "hockey pucks" work good for raising the bed floor.
I like you raising the bed floor idea a lot.
Plus it will give you more room when you eventually slam this truck.
Coilovers maybe?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Hmmmmmm

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Didn't know you ended up with this truck. Glad you scooped it up! I had my eye on it but clearly never pulled the trigger. Glad that primer sanded off. Love your plans for it!

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

i like the plan. stock ride height?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Thanks man, it should make a pretty clean little shorty when i'm done
Thanks, yea we are going grandpa style with this one. I am pulling the bed off this weekend and rolling the truck into the shop. We will see how it goes :smoke:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

i LOVE grandpa style. subscribed.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not the greatest progress on this one but I did manage to get the bed pulled off. Crazy thing was every single bolt just backed right out, no torch, drilling, cut wheel, I've never had that happen on the bed bolts. Next plan is to disassemble the bed and put it in storage for the winter.

I also pulled out the spark plugs, cleaned the ends and sprayed wd-40 in the cylinders. Hooked up a new battery to see how she cranked and she turned over like a new truck. Definitely glad to see that, especially since that is the first time it's cranked in over 20 years.

Hopefully in the next month or so I'll put the orange truck in winter storage which will free up a space in the shop to bring this girl under the knife.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

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Any more progress on this one?

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Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not yet, my orange truck is blown apart in the garage addressing some electrical issues. Once it's back together I will put it into winter storage and pull this girl into the garage. Hopefully in the next month or so

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

The gmc is going to look good

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Thanks man, ready to get going on it. My gears are turning haha

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not really progress but I did finally resolve the electrical issue on my orange truck. I am waiting on a new printed circuit from brothers (should be here Friday), once that arrives it should only take me 10-15 minutes to have everything back together and then I can move her into winter storage and free up the parking in the garage to get started!

I am trying to decide where to start, my initial thought was to start on the bed floor raise and knock that out but the more I think about it the more I feel like I should start on the cab / front end since that is the majority of the work. I plan on leaving the cab on the frame so I will save a ton of room by taking the bed apart and storing it away.

I think my game plan is to roll truck in the garage (leave the bed outside) and pull the front end off and get it down to a cab, motor and trans. Then I can start on fixing the rust, blending the paint, and tapping out dents. Once that is done I will move onto the running gear, brakes, suspension, etc.

What would you guys do? Where would you start?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

8 months after bring this girl home she finally spent her first night in the garage last night. With my wife's help we were able to maneuver her into a space where I can start making some progress. Here she is getting acquainted