My 1st 68 panel

[richard2717]

Well have not posted on the panel in a while but not much has been going on with it. I have been scouring the parts boards and craigs list collecting parts. I was able to score some rear tail light sections From Tom K. and I have bought several parts trucks that have had some decent metal in them for patches as well. Last week I scored some real nice polished slots on Craigs for cheap including the center caps and nuts. Fronts are 15x7 and rear are 15x8



Today I went over to California MD and picked up a 69' lwb parts truck that has brand new dropped spindles, 6 lug front disk brake conversion , front and rear lowering coils and heavy sway bar.










I am thinking I may put all these items on the panel and go ahead and drive it for now. I am in the middle of doing all the metal work on my 72' Blazer and don't really want to tear into this one "body wise" until I get all the needed parts.

Richard

[VA72C10]

Nice! Like the slots and sounds like a good plan to get it driving and enjoy it since you have the other project.

[CG]

Love the slots, should look great on there. I picked a set up for my panel in case I ever want to change things up down the road...Um, when I get it on the road =)

[olblue60@aol.com]

Hey Richard,
Cant wait to see progress on the panel. You may find that the repo patch panels from a blazer for repairing infront of the rear wheels might work best for you , as they have the squared corners in front of the wheel wells and the pickup panels are rounded and different from what you need. When cut in half, there is a perfect patch for infront of the rear tires and a panel to patch left to patch right behind the passenger doors if needed. Behind the wheels is avail. for panels as well as around the taillight. Inners behind the wheels are available as well. Hope to get together with you again sometime !

John

[richard2717]

Good info to know. Thanks John.

We have two smaller car shows coming up on June2nd & June 9th at the Redmen Lodge in Fruitland I may go ahead and put some tags on her and drive it over for the day.

Definately would be great to get together again.

[chris mc bride]

Great post John I also had to go thru the whole thread on restoration. Amazed at few items being exactly same as my panel looked to be patched to same 1/16". Loved the found a dead rat part. Funny was removing the 396 rat and found a dead rat. Myabe just funny to me.

Lots of good info.

Richard looks like good start,hopefully your will go faster than mine is. The man who said money doesn't fix everything never had one of these projects,racecar, a gun habbit or like flyfishing. Gee wonder why I keep running out of money can't understand it.

[richard2717]

Well... a little update.... I went to NJ and met Harry (6t727t2) and picked up a real sweet set of barn doors. All original and dent/rust free. Even the rubber gaskets are still soft. So... I put them where they will be the safest for now.










We have the local truck show coming up on Oct. 13th and even though I have not done much to the panel I think I am going to take it to the show so that I know at least one truck will be different this year. I might just fill her up with some spare parts and try to sell some while there.

[richard2717]

I have now collected all NOS emblems and lenses except for the front turn signals. I will be looking for them next then I can move on to the last few pcs of sheet metal needs.

[olblue60@aol.com]

Lookin Good!!
I had seen those doors for sale awhile back. I wish I could have afforded them. I like the wheels too.

John

[richard2717]

Does anyone know right off hand if the entire front cross member from a 69 1/2 ton pickup is the exact same bolt up as my 68 panel? I just removed the whole setup that I have pictured above from the 69 frame and thought about going ahead and putting it in the panel. I think the disc brakes will make a nice improvement.

Will the master cylinder and or porportioning valve will need to be changed.

The spindles look like they might be aftermarket dropped versions. I dont see any markings on them to know what or how much, is there any way to tell?

Thanks

[olblue60@aol.com]

Hey Richard
Havn't heard from you in a long time. Good to see that you still are finding time to get a few hours in on the panel. To answer your question, it is a direct bolt on. You will only need to change the proportioning valve on the brakes to one from a truck that had the disk/drum brake set up. Hope all is good in your life!

John

[richard2717]

hey John,
good to hear from ya. thanks for confirming on the front member. i figured it was but i know what assuming will get ya some times. i think i have a couple extra proportioning valves so that is good as well. i want to take the panel to the truck show again that we are having 2nd saturday in october. if you get time cruise on over that weekend.
i have been steady collecting parts for the last year or so and said i was not going to do anything to it until i had everything but i should be able to knock this out in a saturday now that i have the 2 post lift.

Richard
Posted via Mobile Device

[olblue60@aol.com]

Darn it! I'll be on vacation the middle two weeks of Oct. I would love to get together and check out your panel. Mine isnt real pretty, but it is running good enough to make the trip.

John

[richard2717]

Can't believe I have had this truck this long and just let it sit in storage. Got the bug yesterday and pulled it out and gave it a quick wash job. Let it dry then pulled it into the shop. Since I don't have the money to go 100% Plan is as follows (in no particular order) I am sure there will be more but just trying to write it down as I think of it because the old noggin don't remember like it used to.

1) get on lift and do overall inspection
2) I know the gas tank will need some love or replacement
3) drain fluids in all of the drive train and replace.
4) get engine back running, probably has stuck points by now
5) swap out front cross member with a 6 lug disc brake one I have here
6) since front cross member appears to have drop spindles I may have to drop rear some. I have a set of new drop springs but unsure if for truck or burb.
7) check rear brakes and repair as needed
8) fix any leaks in the drive train
9) Check u joints and carrier bearing and replace as needed
10) get new body bushing kit from Wes and install
11) replace fenders, hood and front door with rust free oem I have acquired
12) finish adjusting rust free barn doors I have already installed.
13) remove junk front seats and carpet on the floor and get rid of
14) check and repair any floor rust
15) repair dash cut by installing radio delete plate
16) install radio delete cowl
17) Get new covers for my buddy buckets ( already have new foams)
18) clean up seat frame and paint.
19) take seats apart, clean up, repair if needed.
20) reassemble seats with new foams and covers
21) install new NOS rubber front floor mat
22) Install buddy buckets
23) replace rockers & floor supports as needed
24) clean up frame & paint
25) Put quick single stage paint job on to put back all one color.
26) swap out 3 spd steering column for 4 speed column
27) will probably swap out 3 hole cluster for 7 hole and change harness
28) new tires. Still cant decide if I am leaving the rallies or gonna switch to
the slots. Either way they will be old school 15's and I lean more toward
the slots.
29) Install power brake booster and Master Cylinder with correct PP valve for the front discs
30) possibly swap in power steering

I need to replace both quarter panels since the entire bottom of the truck is plastic and I have oem full suburban skins that I bought from a member of the board just not sure if I want to jump in to that at the moment. I have been staring at this thing for 7 years and am itching to get behind the wheel.

[LockDoc]

-
Glad to see that the Panel Truck is back on the to do list. You will love driving it. I drive mine every chance I get.

LockDoc

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

-
Glad to see that the Panel Truck is back on the to do list. You will love driving it. I drive mine every chance I get.

LockDoc

Thanks Leon

I got it up on the lift yesterday and gave it a good look over. I guess sitting in storage the moisture has started pulling the filler away along the bottom and it is cracked all to pcs. Some of that mess is 1/2" thick. I grabbed it at hte bottom and it came off in a big sheet. I knew it was bad with lower filler when I bought it so it was no surprise. What was a surprise was they used stainless steel sheeting to do all of the patchwork. All of it is going to get removed now.
The gas tank will have to be replaced. It had a lot of scale rust on the bottom and old gas was seeping thru. I have an extra original one here so should still be good with that. Amazingly all the straps and j bolts are in good shape and came off without damage so they can be reused.

Looking underneath, other than surface rust there is very little damage in need of repair. Both front cab supports will need replacing as well as the body cushions and very outer floor edge. I figured with the lower body as bad as it was that there would be other major damage but that is not the case.

Some of the brake lines have already been replaced but I am going to go ahead and pull all of them along with the metal gas lines and the drive shaft. Will take them all to Napa this week and have them all redone. The front u joint looks newer but the rear joint as well as carrier need replaced.

I wire wheeled all the bolt threads I could get to and sprayed everything with PB Blaster and will spray it all again this evening. Just trying to make it all maybe a little easier to get apart.

There is a very small soft spot on both trailing arms so I am going to swap them out with a real nice pair I have here. Will put new bushing in while apart.

Transmission and engine have a few leaks that I am hoping to be able to patch up while on the lift. I think while I have the front cross member out for the swap I will put a new base pan gasket on the engine. That will give me a chance to look at the bottom end. Might even go ahead and put new oil pump in.

..

[richard2717]

Ok so if I "read'' this right the rear is 3:73 ratio. The ring gear 11-41 stamped on it. Everything looks good to my limited eyes so I will just clean up, reseal and refill.






Rear brakes look like they have been redone at some point and all looks good other than the shoes have some fractures in the linings. I will go ahead and replace them. Even though the wheel cylinders ''look'' good I may go ahead and replace them as well since i will be replacing the brake lines and shoes anyway. They are not expensive and would hate to have to break it right back apart for a leak.

[richard2717]

The speedometer cable connection is leaking on the transmission. Other than that the transmission is dry. How do I go about getting that to stop leaking?

.

[richard2717]

Got the cross member cleaned up earlier today. Gonna let it dry a day or two and hit it with POR 15. Verified the spindles are 2" dropped but have no idea how to tell if it has drop springs as well. Will wait until I get it on the truck and put some wheels on it to see if I can tell.

Also verified the spindles take 71/72 tie rods so I can go get them along with rear brake shoes and 12 bolt pan gasket tomorrow.

slow but steady. Gonna try to get a couple hours a day

.

[richard2717]

I also talked with a man this afternoon that does restorations for a living. He has his own shop about 8 houses down from me. I have been out of the heavy body work so long I think I am going to let him put the quarters on for me. He gave me what I thought was a very fair price and I know he does very good work. that is still most likely several months out though.

[bill3rail]

Good hearing the story of the truck coming back to life!
Keep us updated.

Bill

[richard2717]

Decent progress for today so far. Had slow day in the sign shop so decided to get my helper to give me a hand getting the old cross member out of the truck. Wend real easy with no busted knuckles or even a curse word. Hope the replacement goes back in as easy. While it is out gonna clean up and paint what won't be accessible once the cross member is installed.

Ordered up my brake shoes, rear brake hose, tie rods & sleeves and some gaskets from Rock auto so hopefully that stuff will be here soon. Only thing that kinda pissed me off with them is they hit me with shipping from 3 warehouses. I almost cancelled the order but Napa was still more expensive by a good bit. Oh well.


.

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by bill3rail

Good hearing the story of the truck coming back to life!
Keep us updated.

Bill

Thanks Bill. Hoping the mechanical part goes pretty quick but I know everything else is gonna take a while.

[richard2717]

A few weeks ago I got sick of having to work on my $400 Honda power washer every time I wanted to use it. Ever since I messed up and used that damn corn gas in it it has not run right since. not spending the bucks for new carb or whatever is wrong so I went to lowes and bought a cheepy electric one. It is 1600 psi but i gotta tell ya, it has done the job cleaning up this rig. For $79 it was money well spent. I was dreading cleaning up the front frame section area because the truck was on the lift in the shop and no way to get it outside to power wash. I went outside to get something earlier this afternoon and happened to notice this old sign face that had not been cut up yet for disposal. It worked real well for a drip pan under the lift while I power washed. A little water got on the floor but nothing the broom couldn't handle. Once everything dries I can move on to getting it painted.


.

[CG]

I see what the ground looks, but what did you look like after that power wash job haha!