Omodified's 1970 SWB Custom/10

[omodified]

Received and installed the matching LED light for the heater control. If only I could upgrade the Kenwood with mathcing LEDs...

[dmxxpert]

Nice Truck, Awesome pics.
We are down in Mooresville. I had a 72 9 years ago. And being a hot rod guy, the bug bit me again. We are picking up our 71 LB on Wednesday. Have you looked into Dave's Truck Parts, I think they are in Clarmont. Dont have a number handy but saw them at shades of the past. Oh well, good luck with the build!!

Jeremy

[VA72C10]

Nice truck! Good build thread going on!!!

[gcburdic]

Small accomplishments make it all worth while!!!....Might want to go through all of the grounds on the truck to make sure they are making good contact....IIRC I think there are 5 areas....bed to frame, cab to frame, valve cover to cab (actually seen both L and R grounded to cab), and inner passenger fender to frame

[omodified]

dmxxpert - I haven't heard of Dave's but I will be sure to look him up. Honored to be your first post here...:welcome:

VA72C10 - thanks Bud!

Geoff - Thanks for the suggestion. That is something I need to do for sure. I think I remember noticing the valve cover to cab grounds straps missing.

[omodified]

Started working on polishing up the wheel trim rings and caps. Once the dirt was removed from the trim rings, it became apparent that I had two chrome and two stainless. They look much better, but they are a bit scratched and dented. I suppose new ones will be in my not so distant future. The caps however, looked much worse. It took lots of time to get them to shine up and I removed the silver paint on the bases. I think they turned out pretty good. Also, this truck had a hodge podge of different lugnuts. So, I bought new ones from O'Reillys. I also got some new screws from member PT's 70 CST. Thanks Dude!



Even though the chrome is shining now, I am still not happy with how it looks. I've seen a few rides around here that had color matched rally wheels. I really like the looks of that, so I am thinking of going that route. Also, I changed my mind on the caps. I have been looking at some 2007 Chevy truck caps on Ebay. I found a brand new set at the swap meet and the vendor was asking half the price of Ebay. So, I went ahead and bought them. Also, found specialty 7/16 thread out oem lugs on Ebay that will make these new caps work with my truck. Can't wait to get them on.

[omodified]

Well, this is a follow up to the headlight flashing problem. The alternator didn't seem to fix the issue. So, I have decided to replace the headlights next. After some research, I decided to go with Silverstars. Once I got the old headlights out, I realized the headlight buckets needed some attention. They only had some surface rust, but since they were easy to take out, I decided to go ahead and restore them. Took them to work and media blasted them. Then repainted them gloss black. I forgot to get pictures of them while they were out, but they look real nice. Also, went ahead and polished the headlight trim rings. BTW, that was a pain in the butt. I knocked two tabs off both rings while polishing them. Fortunately, I was able to TIG weld the tabs back on with some stainless filler. Last, I polished up the headlight bezels and they look much better. I put it all back together and now I just need to line them up correctly. Time to see of the flashing gets any better.

Here are the buckets installed, it's the shiny part lol.



Finished product

[omodified]

Got another rainy day part to add to the pile...

[omodified]

So, I am pretty sure I figured out the headlight flashing problem. I took the truck for a drive after installing the new headlights and it was still flashing. I brought it back home and popped the hood. I noticed that the left headlight was flashing just sitting in the garage. I went to disconnect the harness and the light went out. A stupid short in the harness appears to be the culprit. Looks like a broken wire too. So, I went and bought two new headlight harnesses from Advance. This was a good opportunity to teach my daughter about simple electrical work. She got to cut the old harness out and strip the new wire. We made sure to use butt connectors, shrink tubing and finished the wiring off with black conduit and small zip ties for that clean look. Added dielectric grease at the connection to the headlight and... THERE WAS LIGHT! No flashing either. Looks like it's finally good.

[omodified]

Up next...safety! So, when I bought the truck the PO told me it didn't come with seat belts. As in, they were never installed. I did some research and initially what I found said they were made mandatory in 1973. So, we all thought it was pretty cool that we could drive around in this truck and not have to wear seat belts. Then I started to feel conscious about how dangerous this is. I began looking around for some original belts that we could restore. While shopping, I found out that seat belts were actually mandated in 1966. So, it was definitely time to buy some belts before we get a ticket or die trying. I bought a set here from member Trymy71. They weren't in great shape even though he rated them a 7 out of 10. All things considered, I guess they weren't all that bad for being 40+ years old. Thanks Trymy71!

[omodified]

Seatbelt Restoration

So, my daughter wanted to head this one up. She thought it was the coolest thing to work with dye. First, we took the belts all apart. We polished every bit a chrome with the dremel. The rust is now gone but there is some slight pitting on the center belt. No biggie there. Next, we scrubbed the webbing really good in order to get that 40 year old dirt out of there. Once they were clean Michaela got familiar with the black Rit dye. Unfortunately, so did the kitchen counter lol. Oxyclean helped with that one. On the next day, everything was good and dry and it was time to reassemble. The original GM logos were faded and scratched up, so we bought some new ones from Ebay and installed them. Also, one of the original plastic covers was cracked real bad, so we replaced it with a new one also from Ebay. Only thing left to do was install them. Had to tap the holes in the floorboard for new bolts. Otherwise, the installation was simple. Not show quality, but another successful restoration!

[omodified]

I wish I had tilt steering...

So, I kind of thought since the day I brought this truck home that the steering wheel was just incorrect. It looks like something I remember from years ago out of a Vega or Camaro. Plus it's kind of small in diameter. On top of all that, I just don't like the style. Of course I researched the original wheel to find that it is WAYYY different. Now, I just need to find an original. Wow they are expensive even repops. I have been shopping awhile for an original wheel in decent shape for a decent price. I finally found one on Ebay. Received it and installed it right away. It has a small crack at 3 and 9 o'clock, but hardly noticeable. This thing is huge! The bottom is like one inch above my legs. It sure does look cool though. A lot easier to turn now too.

[omodified]

At this time, we went to visit the people at Tommy's Pickup Parts. We met them a few weeks ago at the car show in Asheville, NC. I wanted to see what kind of inventory they had. Maybe we can use them as a source for large items that I don't want to pay big shipping on (inner fenders). They pretty much have everything in stock that LMC would have. Very impressive, and they are only 1.5 hours away. Super nice people too. I kept them from going to lunch by asking a bunch of noob questions lol. So, I felt obligated to make it worth their while. Here's what they sold me...

Gravel Shields. This has been and ongoing project for me. There was an awful rattle coming from the back of the truck. Traced it back to the RR gravel shield. It was so rusted that the shield broke away from the bolt and was just laying on top of the bumper bracket, rattling. So, I took both shields off and took them to work for media blasting and metal repair. At first I was confused because they were full of bondo. Once I blasted through the bondo there was more evidence of rust. So, I am thinking that once upon a time, these weren't as readily available for replacement. So, the only choice was to do a crappy repair? I refused to do another repair on these. Bought new ones and stainless hardware to install them.



The original hood bumpers were very rusty and what rubber was left, was dry and hard. So, those are out of here and replaced with new ones.



The gas cap had no vacuum due to the seal being extremely worn out. That cap was not original and and was very scratched up. So it got replaced with a new stainless one.



The original rubber pedal pads were pretty worn out. Knowing that you could order these trucks with whatever options you wanted, there was no shame in replacing all three with ones from a CST.



The other part to my rear end rattles was the bumper. It's going to need replaced eventually. Until then, two bolts is not holding this on very well. So I got four new ones.

[omodified]

I was told that the reverse lights weren't working. So, I ripped into those. Everything looked to be in order except the bulbs were blown. I went ahead and replaced both reverse and both tail lights. Also noticed some spider cracking in the reverse lenses and an actual crack in the RR tail lens. So thanks to member BBrendal we installed some nice driver condition original lenses. Also, tried my best to polish those taillight bezels. The oxidation and rust marks from the hardware was out of control. Rust gone and oxidation not as bad now. New stainless hardware.

[omodified]

Got this in the mail. Should be well worth the money. Thanks Ebay.

[omodified]

Finished painting the left side wheels and got the new caps installed. I really like how it turned out. However, I don't like the profile of the tires. I am thinking 275/60/15's all they way around would be much better? That would be the same overall height as these. They just won't look like balloons. Also, I don't like the wood grain trim. I will most definitely be switching it over to black when the time comes.

[omodified]

Kind of went through the brakes today. Not that anything was wrong with them (other than they are drum brakes and stop abruptly). The previous owner said that the emergency brake didn't work and that it probably wasn't hooked up or maybe even missing. So I started to trace cables. Well, it was all there and hooked up. I can push the pedal to the floor but it wouldn't stay there. I did some research here and found that the return spring for the handle was missing. This allows the teeth on the arm to grab the release lever and keep the brake engaged. Without it, the pedal will not engage the brake just comes right back up. So I went to Lowes and bought a few springs. Brought them home and cut the best one to proper length. We now have a parking brake that works properly!





Also, while inspecting the brakes I decided to use some paint stripper and remove the black paint that the PO sprayed on the master cylinder cover.

[omodified]

The Day The Engine Bay Theme Became Black

When I brought this truck home, I was excited that the windshield wipers worked. I was not excited that the wiper bottle was missing and the lines had been cut at the fire wall. The bracket was still hanging and the driver's fender, so I did have some direction in making it right. I started looking here for replacement bottles. Most of the used stuff for sale was really yellow, almost brown from age. I saw that LMC and the like sold repop versions, but I figured the white would just turn yellow over time. I wanted something different. I read here that a guy found a black one that was in a 70's van at the junkyard and it looked just like ours. I had to find one myself. So I set out. Ebay hasn't let me down yet. Apparently, the black ones also came stock on the very late 60's Corvette. They made it black so it wouldn't stand out. Corvette Central sells them and they are brand new "GM Restoration Parts". I got one of those and the correct washer cap. Also, got enough line to hook it all up. I just have to figure why the pump isn't working. Change the bracket hardware to stainless and placed the bottle inside.

[omodified]

The Kenwood is out of here!!!

As you may already know, I was itching to get rid of the ole Kenwood tape deck. I really wanted to get an AM/FM original, but those things are HIGH DOLLAR. Then, I thought I could settle for an original AM radio that I could use a wireless AM transmitter to play MP3s. Apparently they only make wireless transmitters for FM radios. Then I found a thread on here where a guy took an AM radio, went to Radio Shack and bought a bunch of switches and diodes and other wizzbangs, and installed an auxiliary jack to be able to play MP3s. I probably could've accomplished it with his instructions, but I didn't want to waste any money on unsuccessful attempts. So I waited. Good thing I did. I found a guy on Ebay that installs these auxiliary jacks into good radios and sells them. He has done a ton of them for all different kinds of vintage vehicles. Got a great deal on it and it's in awesome shape. He even serviced the dials and knobs. Then I got a brand new speaker from Turnswitch.com. I bought a new speaker harness and power wire from Classic Chevy Truck Parts of America. Last I bought all the original mounting brackets from member teeitup. Thanks Randy! This is awesome!!!!!!!







The jack is long enough for me to access easily but still short enough to stay out of the way.



And you know I changed out the bulb for an LED. Interior is fully lit in LEDs!!!



With my phone the possibilities are endless. There is an app that lets me listen to what ever kind of radio I want for free. My data plan is unlimited. So, classic rock from Boston, MA...Browns game from Cleveland, OH...NASCAR race from Anywhere, USA...or just some music I downloaded to the phone.



It does "Feel Good"...

[67cheby]

nice truck and nice clean up !!

[VA72C10]

Nice work! Love the writeups!!! Really a big improvement with all these projects!!!

[Palf70Step]

Your truck is really nice. I love the attention to details you are doing and great write-ups!

[gcburdic]

doing a nice job omodified!!!

[72SWBChevy]

Welcome to the board! Looking sweet!

[ChuckDriver]

You are doing some awesome work! Love the detailed write-ups!