Herb... The 69 Chevy C30

[Sicksty8]

Couple of weeks ago I came across a deal too good to pass up on. Found this truck on Kijiji and as soon as I read the ad I knew the guy was clueless to what he had. I had to go take a look. The truck needs a bi of work but it's not too bad. The trucks got a 350 and I believe a turbo 400. The electrical needed a full redo, the guy started it by hotwiring it so everything was hot when the battery was plugged in and the guy killed it either by choking it out or unplugging the distributor. It's got some van or something steering column to round out the redneck auto trans mod. We'll see where this project goes as there are a few things that need to be done to make it reliable but as for now the plan is to keep it as a driver with a flatbed.

[Sicksty8]

More pictures. The camper was pretty much just a shell. It was pretty gross and looked pretty rotted out as if rain got in it at some point.

[Sicksty8]

This is how the truck sits right now in my driveway. I put a new to me hood on it and fixed the busted door handle. Got some of the electrical dealt with and now I've actually got an ignition key. I got the alternator rebuilt but I think my underhood harness is screwed up. One of the PO's swapped a new motor in and with that an internally regulated alternator but I'm pretty sure the guy screwed up the wiring job that's needed for the swap so I'm going to need a whole new underhood harness to do it myself.

[swamp rat]

Whats in the works? flat bed? car hualer? dually pickup truck?

[cooperhw]

Hey, that's Homer's long lost younger brother. My 68 C30 started life as a motorhome with a bigger hole in the back of the cab than yours. Very cool. I love it. I'm in. Will tag along to see what you do with it.
Look at Homer on the projects and builds to see what I did with mine.

[Sicksty8]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Whats in the works? flat bed? car hualer? dually pickup truck?

The plan right now is to replicate a flatbed that I've been envying for about a year now but the guy doesn't want to sell. It'll be an 8×12 wood decked flatdeck built good and strong.

Originally Posted by cooperhw

Hey, that's Homer's long lost younger brother. My 68 C30 started life as a motorhome with a bigger hole in the back of the cab than yours. Very cool. I love it. I'm in. Will tag along to see what you do with it.
Look at Homer on the projects and builds to see what I did with mine.

Sure looks like ithe! Believe it or not, your thread is what inspired me to buy this truck in the first place. That and the fact that I got such a great deal. I'm so glad I won't have to do such a severe surgery to the cab to fix the hole. I think the motorhomes are the hidden C30 gems that few people really pay attention to.
By the way I love what you've done with homer. He's come a long way and it looks sweet.

[cooperhw]

Originally Posted by Sicksty8

The plan right now is to replicate a flatbed that I've been envying for about a year now but the guy doesn't want to sell. It'll be an 8×12 wood decked flatdeck built good and strong.


Sure looks like ithe! Believe it or not, your thread is what inspired me to buy this truck in the first place. That and the fact that I got such a great deal. I'm so glad I won't have to do such a severe surgery to the cab to fix the hole. I think the motorhomes are the hidden C30 gems that few people really pay attention to.
By the way I love what you've done with homer. He's come a long way and it looks sweet.

thanks a lot brother. I agree. these c30 diamonds are hidden treasure if you can look past the huge tick on their back. I will be following along on your journey.

[swamp rat]

Heres another thread where a pass thru was reversed back to a regular cab if your interested in another approach starting on post 85.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=645614&page=4

[Sicksty8]

Finally fixed the under hood wiring mess. Unfortunatly I didn't take any pics but I think it looks alright. Finally posted some pics of the underdash wiring fix. Everything works now and I got my starter rebuilt by a local guy. He does a really bang up job and it looks as good as it works. I also mounted some stepside taillights to the back end. Got some good parts to fix the cab pass thru and I'm trying to decide which seats to put in the cab. Option one is a pair of suburban seats I got with the purchase of the camper or to put the bench out of my parts truck c10 I bought. I test sat both and I'm leaning more toward the burb seats but I'd like to still have 3 seats in the truck. Decisions, Decisions

[Sicksty8]

From the parts truck I bought I got a bed for my other truck and part of my plan was to put it on the back of Herb for the ease of transportation and it looks damn good on there. I may have come across a very viable second option for this truck. Me and my dad think it looks pretty badass. We'll see what happens. I might need to find a second bed

[unbrokenchain]

Looks a lot like mine! I also had to rewire everything. Both the hood-to-cab harness and the steering column harness were melted from a short at some point. It was a mystery as to how it ran when I bought it and drove it to my house, because the + wire to the ignition coil didn't go anywhere! I could see the end of it unattached to anything. I bet the seller a dollar it wouldn't start without that wire hooked up but it did. Must have been fused to another hot wire somewhere...

I ended up removing every wire on the truck besides taillight harness and wires from wiper motor and installing a new fuse panel and ran all new wires. Took me two afternoons, have to love the simplicity of these vehicles.

[flashed]

Im in to see more of this one .

[cooperhw]

Looking good. Your cab back will be much easier to patch than mine that had the cab back and 3/4 of the roof opened up.
You thinking about shortening the frame to match the bed? Not that hard to do.

[Sicksty8]

Originally Posted by unbrokenchain

Looks a lot like mine! I also had to rewire everything. Both the hood-to-cab harness and the steering column harness were melted from a short at some point. It was a mystery as to how it ran when I bought it and drove it to my house, because the + wire to the ignition coil didn't go anywhere! I could see the end of it unattached to anything. I bet the seller a dollar it wouldn't start without that wire hooked up but it did. Must have been fused to another hot wire somewhere...

I ended up removing every wire on the truck besides taillight harness and wires from wiper motor and installing a new fuse panel and ran all new wires. Took me two afternoons, have to love the simplicity of these vehicles.

Yeah I love how simple everything is. Just a bit of electrical knowledge can get you quite far with these trucks. Unfortunately I test drove my truck the other day and noticed I've got a problem with my "fix". When I press the breaks my brake lights go along with my park lights and marker lights. Gonna have to figure this one out

Originally Posted by cooperhw

Looking good. Your cab back will be much easier to patch than mine that had the cab back and 3/4 of the roof opened up.
You thinking about shortening the frame to match the bed? Not that hard to do.

Oh yeah. To be honest with you I probably wouldn't have bought the truck if it had a hole as big as yours. I don't quite have the skills yet to pull off a surgery like what you had to do. I know the frame shortening isn't that hard to do but I'm not sure if my welding skills are good enough yet to tackle welding a 1/4" frame rail. We'll see I'm going to have a long Winnipeg winter to better my fab skills.

[cooperhw]

Originally Posted by Sicksty8

Yeah I love how simple everything is. Just a bit of electrical knowledge can get you quite far with these trucks. Unfortunately I test drove my truck the other day and noticed I've got a problem with my "fix". When I press the breaks my brake lights go along with my park lights and marker lights. Gonna have to figure this one out


Oh yeah. To be honest with you I probably wouldn't have bought the truck if it had a hole as big as yours. I don't quite have the skills yet to pull off a surgery like what you had to do. I know the frame shortening isn't that hard to do but I'm not sure if my welding skills are good enough yet to tackle welding a 1/4" frame rail. We'll see I'm going to have a long Winnipeg winter to better my fab skills.

As to welding skills you could just fab it up, tack it in place with heavy tacks, and have a mobile welder come weld the snot out of it. I have done that on a couple jobs I didn't feel comfortable with. My guy charges $100 an hour with a 2.5 hour minimum. $250 for a superior welding job was cheap in my opinion.

[Sicksty8]

Yesterday I ended up getting a 6.0L and 4l80 2wd combo with all the swap goodies for a whopping $350 from my local pick and pull. I'm totally unsure of the condition of either or the milage but for that price I'd be stupid not to take the gamble. Fluids looked good and under the valve cover looked pretty good so we'll see. Anyway this is about as far as the truck will go this year yet. Unless I find a decent shop to work in in the winter it will be put in storage till March :'(

[Squareforceone]

that's a hell of a deal how'd you manage?

[Sicksty8]

Originally Posted by Squareforceone

that's a hell of a deal how'd you manage?

My local junkyard has super good prices on everything. Engine was $230 and the tranny was $120 harness and ECM $50 so I'm in around $400. The whole deal with these guys is that I am taking a gamble on whether it's a good one. I've never run it nor do I know the mileage. The truck comes to the yard, goes through processing then is just layed in the yard for people to pick parts off of. It's also pretty rare that an 03 GM truck even makes it into this yard. I had to do all the work but the forklift guy helped put it in my trailer. Altogether I had about 3 hours into the careful removal so all was worth it to me. Anyway, that's how I managed it.

[Sicksty8]

Last post for a while. Picked up a tank today came out of a cab chassis F**D. Pretty big I think it's like 40 gallons but not sure. I did measure and it should fit in place of the current tank but it's only going in in the spring.

[71blksuper4x4]

Looking good. Make note that those frames are taller in the rear than the front. You either need to drop the bed or raise the body to line it up. If you just drop the bed, you would pretty much drop the bed floor directly on the frame. I just got done dropping my bed on my chassis on my crew. Trevor

[AKC]

I can see we'll be checking each other out for tips, tricks and ideas. Great start to yours...

[Sicksty8]

Finally started and mostly finished this project over the christmas break this year.
Swapped an LS 6.0 with a 4L80e in and running dakota digital VHX gauges. The flat deck and fuel tank are both custom fabbed by me out of aluminum and in my opinion turned out absolutely awesome. The deck is 100" X 144" with a wood deck. Started out with a drawing in AutoCAD and ended up with what you see there. It sure makes fab work go so much smoother. I drew up some different motor mount plates that let me use the stock driveshaft and allowed me to use the clutch fan with less work. No interior pics but the seats I put in were the front row out of a 99-06 silverado. The truck weighs 5100# and I'm running the new bfg ko2 tires and love them so far. I love having the power to smoke 4 tires at 45 MPH with a load on the deck.

The truck turned out awesome and it drives like a beauty.