My 74 swb build

[hotrodj54]

This is my first post in here, I figured I’d introduce myself. My name is john, I’ve been into squarebodys for years. This truck is the 12th one I’ve owned and decided I’m going to keep this one. The progress will be slow but hopefully I’ll finish this one. So here goes the back story
Let’s go back about ten years ago. My neighbor down the street had this ugly green swb 74 Chevy truck laying next to his garage. He was a car guy and I saw him at a lot of local cruise nights. I always asked him about the truck but he would never sell it, as it was his fathers truck and he had passed away years before. Every now and again I’d ask about it but was always the same awnser. Eventually I got to the point Where I had owned a bunch of these trucks and swore I’d never by another one so I stopped asking. Fast forward about ten years, I started to want another truck, so I started to look. Now the green truck was gone. I ran into him and asked about it, he said he gave it to his sister and she was going to restore it, so I figured that was the end of that. I found a 79 swb 2wd truck about a hour away from me in a price range I could afford so I went and looked at it and bought it. That’s the blue truck in the first set of pics. I started fooling around with it for a couple months when a Facebook marketplace add came up with the green 74 I had been trying to by for years. I called immediately, and was told she had someone already coming to look at it. Later on that night she called me back saying he had never showed up. So the next day I was in her driveway with cash and drove it home. This was April of last year. Now on to the pics.
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[hotrodj54]

Here are the pics of the 74. She’s a little ruff but it’s everything I wanted. 6cyl 3spd. No options whatsoever. Manual brake. Manual steering. Even had seat belt delete plugs for the shoulder belts. Just had lap belts. I’ve never seen that before.

[hotrodj54]

Now the plan was to fix a few things and start driving it as my semi daily for the summer. But it didn’t work out that way. I had already registered and insured it, and only needed to change the floor shifter, it was a old hurts Indy shifter that locked up between gears. Then I started to really look it over and found way more rust issues then I had expected. Now I forgot to mention that I run a bodyshop so it became clear that I needed to address this stuff before I started to drive it. That’s when it all spun out of control. Kinda. It’s not as crazy of a build as some of the stuff I’ve seen on here but still more then I originally wanted to do. My original plan was to clean it up, make it safe, and slam it to the ground. Just a fun driver. I have quite a few other project so I wasn’t really looking to do a full out project. But nevertheless I have wanted this truck for a very long time so I’m in it to win it now. So my search started for another cab. It was cheaper to buy a cab rather then buy all the patch panels this thing needed. Plus the entire cowl was rotten to the point there you could stick your hand threw the dash and touch the hood. I located a very clean cab with original and very solid floors and body mounts. Somebody had done the rockers and cab corners already so that was a plus. Here’s the pics of the replacement cab

[hotrodj54]

Here are some more pics of doing the body work on the cab.

[hotrodj54]

More of the cab getting done. When I got the cab, someone had started to shave the firewall by welding up the heater box. It was easier to just finish it then to cut it out and re drill all the holes. I welded up all of the extra screw holes on rest of the firewall too. The only holes that are left are whatever is needed. The drip rails are shaved in these pics but I’m planning on drilling them back out. I hate the shaved drip tail look. I’m planning on using all the trim on this truck.

[Matt Man]

Looking good so far. I will follow along.

[hotrodj54]

Now on to the fun part. Taking it all apart to change the cab. This was a semi quick process. I started on a Thursday stripping the nose and un hooking stuff. By Sunday the new cab was on.

[hotrodj54]

More pics.

[hotrodj54]

In the pictures the green cab doesn’t look that bad but the floors had been replaced. But not welded. Everything was pop rivits. Same with the cab corners and rockers. The firewall was rotted under the heater box and the whole cowl was gone too. Plus a tree had fallen on the roof and crushed part of it.

[hotrodj54]

The cab I bought was from a guy who parts 73-87 Chevy trucks as a business so it came completely bare. Not a single screw left in it. So I had to swap over absolutely everything from the old cab. I replaced the firewall insulation with one from usa1 supply( very nice reproduction). And started swapping parts.

[hotrodj54]

Now onto body work. I replaced both doors and fenders with goodmark parts. The fit pretty decent right out of the box but I still had to spend a good amount of time hammering and dollying to make them fit correct. But I’m happy with the results. I shaved the marker lights but I’m keeping the door handles. Eventually I want to run all the side trim too.

[hotrodj54]

More pics.

[hotrodj54]

Well that’s it for tonite. I have more pics to go. All of these pics were taken last year. I put the truck away for the winter in November and hope to get back on it during the summer. I’ll post the rest tomorrow and hope to update this as I go but progress will be slow.

[Palf70Step]

You've made some good progress on it. Looking forward to seeing the end results.