Help Planning my build
 

Hello everyone,

I have a 68 sb/ss gmc that I want to put back to original. I am not going for points etc I just want to get the old girl back to nice and clean and reliable so me and my wife can go cruising. I do have some OCD when it comes to this stuff so I have to work really hard to keep from going to far. I wanted to out line a plan and see what you all think.

Current condition of the truck is
box is mostly good.
both cab corners shot
both outer rockers shot
inner floor/rocker most likely shot
both kick panels at the bottom are shot
doors good with some mid section dents
front fenders good with some minor rust at the usual spots.

The Plan. (in order)

1. Check frame for squareness and fix if needed

2. Fix the doors first, bushings and body work and set into door frame. Use the doors to help with the rocker panels. Lock the position of hinges never change the locations.

(struggling here, not sure what to use as reference points if I cut it all away)

3. remove cab corner, rocker(s) and front kick panel.

4. install inner rocker/floor lip / install the kick panel

5. replace cab corner

6. replace outer rocker

7. replace cab mounts bushings x 4

8. replace rad support mounts bushings x2

9. repair fenders. Fit fenders to the cab and rad support

10. repair hood. Fit hood to the fenders and cowl

11. Remove all the body panels, cab and box set a side on dolly

12. clean/paint underside of cab.

13. Remove all mechanical from the frame and clean, paint and replace as needed.

14. Mock up any modifications to frame (i.e. fuel tank relocation)

15. disassemble and paint frame

16. Assemble all mechanical including motor and tranny.

17. Mock up whole truck before doing any filler/primmer work on body panels. Now is the time for body mods (room for headers etc)

18. Remove each body panel and get them to a 500 grit surface ready for paint.

from there it is pretty straight forward. What do you all think? Any words of wisdom. What I do know it will cost twice as much and take twice as long. My goal is to try and repair and reuse everything I can only purchasing when i need to keep it reliable and safe.

thanks for any feed back.

Re: Help Planning my build
 

I'm the same way. Very easy for projects to snowball on me in persuit of perfection.

I have similar repairs that need to be made on my truck and I've never done one of these trucks before either. But with a little forethought it can't be too hard. I subscribe to the one thing at a time approach. Outer rocker seems first to come out from what I've seen and read. Pull it and get the new one fitted but use clamps and screws for attaching so it can be removed. Now you can use it as a guide for patching/replacing the floor, inner rocker and cab corners. Doesn't sound like you're going too far into structure but if you think you are remember a little bracing never hurt.