Mostly stock vs. significant mods; Daily Driver

[special-K]

I have thousands of pictures and none of solid 505 with upper & loer trim. I know it would look fantastic,though,and the best part is you can be pretty sure you won't see another. In my book that is the goal...looks great,everyone will loves it,yet no one else has it.

Woodland Green had been a mainstay color from day-1. It was actually in the selections for the general public still in this era. I had a Woodland Green '71 Blazer and s far as I know fleet paint is only available as solid color...no two-tones. It wasn't till some point in the '80s,possibly when the '88s came out,that it became a fleet-only color. It's like Tangiers Orange,but in '01 Chevy brought it back to the selections for a while. As a rule,a fleet truck will not be the trimmed out model...pretty base for economic reasons. So,when you see a fleet color on a high end truck it really stands out. I love your choice in keeping it. I actually ordered my '92 in that exact same color. I got GMC to make an exception and I now have the only truck of it's kind between the color,high end loaded with options,and the late year first offering of the 6.5TD coupled with a manual 5spd. I had GMC build me a custom truck! I got more comments on that thing everywhere I went. It stood out,yet it didn't register with most just what it was. But,I did get a heap pf,"That's a beautiful color",and mostly from women. What I like,and was my intention,is it took a new truck and pronounced it's connection with GMC's long lineage.

[dan42]

You have a beautiful starting point! I love that color combo. I think your budget is reasonable but be prepared to spend more for things you didn't anticipate, or upgrades you might feel like doing, since you are doing them anyways. I am in a very similar situation as you, in terms of lack of time and desire to beat up my 57 year old body on doing something that I would do poorly. It's not what I do for a living, so to have a reputable professional do it makes sense. Realize that paint will take a big part of that budget, and a ton of time as well. Paint/body work varies greatly but you should be able to get a good paint job in Sacramento for 7-10 grand I would think. My personal opinion, and the way I built mine, is to put as many modern comfort/safety/reliability features in it as possible at the same time as retaining it's originality and charm, what attracted you to it in the first place. For example, the disc brakes (I went all four wheels but didn't need to), hei, formed foam on the original seat, overdrive whether auto or 5 speed, etc. I am fairly far north of your budget with a so-so paint job, but virtually everything on the truck is brand new - from suspension to gauges to radiator to engine to tranny etc. I still have a little interior work to do but it was worth every penny I put into it, and I know yours will be as well. There are decisions to be made along the line even if you have planned it out (i.e, what size exhaust? Headers or stock manifolds? Where to put the gas tank? What kind of radiator?) and that's where you can lean on your mechanic to help you. Hopefully he has experience building vehicles and can make decisions on stuff that are best for the build. Good luck and don't stress too much about it, it's almost like building a house, just remember how cool it will be when it's done.

[SS Tim]

Just in case I was not clear enough before. I cannot agree more with Tim (Special-K) about the 505 green especially in combination with a full factory chrome like you have.

Yet another search has not revealed a similar truck in my collection of thousands.

However there was a picture I have, posted by Special-K, that explifies its period use on a 69-70 truck very well.

[voxnor]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

Just in case I was not clear enough before. I cannot agree more with Tim (Special-K) about the 505 green especially in combination with a full factory chrome like you have.

Yet another search has not revealed a similar truck in my collection of thousands.

However there was a picture I have, posted by Special-K, that explifies its period use on a 69-70 truck very well.

I want so badly to keep the 505 when I redo it, but I really worry the 'teal-ness' of it will grow sour on me.

By the way - after a combined personal searching time (over several days) of at least 10 hours on the internet .. I may have found one:

[SS Tim]

Looks more like the 70 512 blue green poly to me.
While the color is a blue green/evergreen color I don't think teal is really a factor. It is also possible that during the repaint they may have used a close vs and exact match for the original color. The floor back behind the seat should give you a good indication. Remember clear coat colors tend to push the original shades/tones around too if you are thinking that way.
Keep it solid 505 or if you must add a white roof or and rockers.
On the dog, center seat belts were an option in 69 and you should have no problem finding a used set to add the AM3 option to your truck. Or you could buy a couple of bolted ends from a yard and have a proper dog restraint sewn up.

Fun links to links to explore, just be warned your perception of time might be altered as you "just one more" click through.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/chipcrea...Truck&ret=code 512 sample

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcod...=50&size=large 69 truck colors

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcod...ame=Dark Green Ditzler code 42850 search

[mud.man.rj]

A lot of good help and idea's on here, sounds like your figuring it out, a bit of a drop, fairly stock body with green of choice and around a 350hp 5.7 with overdrive and a 3.42 to 3.73 ratio, would like a 3.73 with the overdrive and lower 1st gear myself as my 2wd has. Think your in the right ball park around 35k, very realistic. Body and paint is not cheap and neither is a powertrain with brake work and suspension added in also. Sounds like a very good vision on this build and special part is a family truck, keep us posted, sneak a few pics of it in progress if you can.on the build and joining our truck family.

[SS Tim]

Original paint 67 505 truck except hood and right fender.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...31#post6576931

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-C-...-/291102932109

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=592368

[special-K]

It's pure green. I don't think teal at all. Think forest or hunter green. It's the green on a Mayflower Moving Van,if you can recall that scheme. Here is the Blazer I had. I threw in a shot of my '92 when new and in '07 for a color sample. The Blazer pictures are scans of 30 year old photos,so may look a bit off

[mud.man.rj]

Like the darker green on the Blazer, not so light and newer looking.

[voxnor]

Awesome thread guys - i'll tell you (and as I said before), I was hesitant to post this. But this has become super helpful. Over the course of these reply's and reading info/links posted I have really solidified the build in my head. Helped me make a lot of the decisions.

Thanks all!!!

I'll get a build thread going in just about a week or two once we get rolling. Should be able to get lots of in progress shots as i'll be visiting the shop quite a bit to take pictures.

[slikside]

Originally Posted by Bucks68

I think that due to your lack of mechanical knowledge you would do yourself a great service to keep the truck very near to stock. With that said, what is very near to stock? In my opinion it is anything that can be easily unbolted and returned to the factory configuration. A 350 "crate" engine with an Edelbrock carb and MSD ignition mated to a 700r4 transmission (overdrive) sending power to a 3.42 posi rear end would be a mild/dependable configuration that would be fun to drive. I too like a dropped truck but if you really want to drive it with out creating issues or cutting on your frame I'd stick with a 2/4 or 3/5 drop at most. Good quality shocks are a BIG must too, Ride Tech Q-Series shocks are killer and offer a option to the "bouncy" KYBs that most drop kits come with. I would keep the body and interior as close to factory as possible, sort of pay homage to your Pop and Grand-Pop. Oh, and don't forget BRAKES, don't give it more GO without giving it more WHOA! You've got a great truck with family history to start with, I hope you start a build thread so we can watch as you progress! HAVE FUN!!

After having read only the first page, I totally agree with Buck here.

Then, if you find you wished you had built a custom, just get ANOTHER truck and do it! Budget aside, of course!

[Z10]

I just finished mine up. My goal was to retro mod the truck. Old on the outside new everywhere else. I'm really loving the fuel injection, A/C, Cruise, etc.

You can see the whole story on my build thread.