1970 Burn Victim
 

I bought this truck on 10/30/12 from an insurance company. The truck had a fire under the hood that damaged the cowl, hood, dash, all of the wiring on both sides, a/c, ect. The fire department in an attempt to put out the fire damaged the fenders (left and right fronts), glove box, and finished off the hood. I paid a pretty penny for it though. It had a powder coated frame and a flawless step-side bed with oak in it.

The second day I owned the truck I began to tear it down. I first stripped away the interior and vacuumed out the dry Chem. BTW this thing had a pile of dry Chem throughout the truck... They did what they had to in order to save the rest of the truck but it was a mess!!!

Then my dad (who grew up with these trucks) helped me take the front clip off. I was then able to see the full extent of the damage. The cowl had been burned severely (this is where I discovered the fire was started on the firewall...some sort of electrical fire). I then decided to bring this truck back to the beauty it use to be i would have to give this truck a frame-off. This truck had received a frame-off restoration within the last four-five years.

Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

Here are some pictures from the first and second day.

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more burn pictures

Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

The Tear down begins!!!! And I received lots of new parts. Since the old wiring harness caused the fire and was damaged during the fire, I decided to bite the bullet and order a new one. I rewired the truck bumper to bumper. (this was a long week!!!!) I have never wired an entire truck so I actually had to read (a lot) to figure everything out.

Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

I do not do paint/body work, so I will not take any credit for the following pictures...

The hood was too damaged to save so I bought an original hood, unfortunately it needed a lot of work. (sorry Mario! (the body guy))

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and more expensive parts. I ended up really liking the way this a/c unit installed.

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At this stage I got the cab back on and began to wire...oh the fun. I also began to install the new A/C system. (as you can see the cab has been painted so I am trying to be careful and not scratch it...)

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The hood gets some work and the seat, doors go back on/in.

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And time for the A/C...

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more A/C

I scratched the dash :whine: Right dash vent...the drill got away from me when I was cutting the passenger side vent hole. It is scary cutting a freshly painted dash and I failed. I redeemed myself with the driver's side though. Still upset about having to put it back in the paint shop...

I guess it is a good thing that they still have to paint the hood...I'm still a little upset about it!

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I forgot about this picture of the hood...Check out the 7 sec car behind the hood!!!!

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This has me all caught up for posting... I hope to have the front clip back on and wired by Friday and driving by the next Friday!!!

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Well I didn't get finished with the wiring but I did get the rest of the A/C hooked up and the front clip back on and lined up. I took it for a real short ride. It was the sweetest mile I have ever driven.
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

cool story!

any idea what caused the fire? i know you said wiring, but that was a lot of fire.. fuel involved?

Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

No fuel still have the original carb. I replaced the fuel lines/filter under the hood to be safe. The only other thing I can think it may have been was tranny fluid, but there was not any real signs other than it was close to the dipstick. I could tell (and my father who is a retired firefighter agreed) the hottest part was on the cowl. Everything was so melted I couldn't pinpoint the original cause/wire.
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

nice job saving this it is a great looking step side

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Whoa son! You bought it 10/30/12 and 27 days later have already rebuilt it, cab off and everything. Have you even bothered with sleep this month?
It is a beautiful truck.

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Ha ha not really. I work 2 pm to midnight and last month I worked thursday to sunday. So Monday through Wednesday I would work on it 8-5 (the hours that the body shop is open). Thursday and Friday I would work 8-1230 ish run home shower and hurry to work eating on the way there. I have been looking for a nice truck for over two years so now that I finally have it, I'm working as fast as I can to get it done. I would probably be completely done but I am a bit of a perfectionist and I don't know how to do everything so I have to read a lot and call my dad for questions. I am just lucky that he is around to give me a hand every once in a while.
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

Also thanks for all the kind words about the truck. I was truly blessed to find this one.
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

Nice truck ! Glad you saved it.

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I am not done yet but I took it out for the weekend for a few shakedown miles. It ran like a champ! I am so glad to have it running and license/inspected. Once I get it color sanded and buffed ill take some better pictures...I didn't even wash it for these.
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

Looks great man! Glad to see your wife likes it too, it makes all the difference in the world. Subscribed to follow.

Do you have other plans for it, or drive it ? :D

Welcome to the forum by the way.

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She is just a girlfriend right now, but she supported me with this build, so her stock just went up! I am going to change the interior. I have plans for all black. I am hoping to find a buddy bucket seat at a reasonable price. I am going to dynamat the floor firewall and doors. I will probably just drive it for a while after that. Eventually a 383 or a fuelinjected motor will find it's home in this truck. The 350 that is in there right now runs like a champ so I am not going to mess with it for now...
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Re: 1970 Burn Victim
 

Sounds good man. It looks like a really solid cab too. The floors look great.

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I never could understand why someone would spend all that money on restoring their truck/car and leave 40 plus year old wiring in it.