'69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Ok, so I haven't had a wrench in my hand in quite some time. Moved out of state, had a wife, who then had kids. Moved around a bit, etc, etc... and now i'm back in my home state. Ever since moving back, I've wanted to find a project car/truck to play with. Partly because I want to relearn what I knew 10 years ago, but also because I want something that I can do with my kids outside of video games. In the process I hope to learn a lot myself.

In Iowa, it's easy to find sweet rides out behind a barn. But 90% of them are rotted out and not worth the troubles unless you are a premo body guy.

Anyways, by pure luck (I was actually going to look at a different truck) I found what I was looking for. This was one of those situations where you see the truck sitting next to a house, no for sale sign, but you knock on the door and ask if the owner if they want to part with it. Long story short, I'm now the prowd owner of a 69 Longbed.

10 years ago it had a frame off rebuild. At that time it was a 3/4 ton, but they converted it to a 1/2. New body mounts, undercoating, replaced all rust and painted everything.

It's pretty solid. I have found only 3 places where there is any rust. P-side inner wheel well, P-side cab corner, and a decent sized spot in the D-side bed wheel well, at the bottom. Other than that rust, i have not found a single ding or dent in any of the sheet metal. There is one in the grill though. It runs great (30k on a rebuilt 283), brakes are awesome (disk/drum), tires, etc. The one bad thing is that to lower it, they cut the coils. So now everytime the truck leans to one side or the other, the front coils pop pretty loudly.

I will use this thread to post updates on the truck. It will probably start a bit slow, but once the holidays pass, it should pick up to a good pace. Goodguys is here in Des Moines on the 4th of July weekend, so I'd like to have something half way decent to enter by then.

Here are the pics i snapped when I got it to my parents house where it will be for the winter (they have plenty of buildings to work in [like the 40x60 that it is parked in], i have have a 1 stall garage :whine: )

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...ct_06/side.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...6/d_corner.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa.../d_corner2.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...6/p_corner.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...t_06/front.jpg

Oh, I did pull the points dist out this weekend and dropped in a HEI dist from an 87? truck that my brother was junking. Now it runs like a top!

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Looks like a good place to start !

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Looks good to me. Good luck with your project.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Great looking truck - nice not to be starting the project without lots of rust.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

You have a really nice start there.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Great truck to start with! If the body work was done 10 years ago and only 3 spots have surfaced since then.... they did a good job on it! Don't feel too bad about the garage thing. I've spent the past 9 months driving to Lexington sc (about a 2 hour drive) to go to my Uncle's house to work on my 67. Kinda hard to work on your truck in the parking lot of an apartment complex :banghead:

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

I feel you pain. My parents live about 2 hours from here, so this will be a weekend project for now. But, the one thing nice about having it 2 hours away is, when you make plans to do something, you generally plan it out better knowing that you have to get what you started done before the weekend is over.

That and the fact that my dad already has all of the tools needed (including a welder and a big air compressor) makes it much easier to leave it up there. Saves me from having to buy those things all at once :)

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

it looks really good to start, do u have a pic of the rear? like the tailgate and rear bumper? also what happened to the grille?

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Looks to me like a trailer hitch? Maybe they weren't paying attention one day and lightly tapped the truck in front of them?

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

I don't have pics of the back, but i'll get some next time i'm up there.

The guy i bought it from said that he was backed into by an SUV with a hitch. I haven't decided what kind of grill is going to replace it. I may stay stock, or i might go with a billet grille :bling:

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

What part of Iowa? My folks and 1 bro are up in George, Ia. My wifes are in Storm Lake. We used to live in Sioux City and Cedar Rapids..moved all over the country, up by Phili now but would love to try and get back someday. Clean find for Iowa. I feel your pain! Cedar Rapids has a huge swap meet both spring and fall. Usually you can score some cool stuff there. Good Luck!

Wild

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

I'm in des moines, my parents, and the truck are just outside of cedar falls.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Man, that looks great!

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

What a great truck to start with!

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

look what i got done in an evening!!!


http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...6/low_side.jpg

in photoshop :hm:

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Nice. No tank and lowered the rear.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Cedar Rapids swapmeet this weekend, Oct. 14-15. I'll have a booth there, pretty good size meet. Look for an English wheel, I may be doing some metal fabrication demonstration. That truck is a "needle in a haystack" find for Iowa. :c2:
Aaron

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

rear bags, notch and panhard bar are all on their way. Bed is comin' off this weekend.

i can't wait.

:metal: :metal: :metal: :metal:

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Sweet Truck! are you going to keep the smoothies ?

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

actually yeah, if i can find a wider rim, i'd really like to keep them. I'm going for the rat rod look, so the plan is to get some wider white walls too.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

man that was a good find...nice truck

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Looks pretty darn solid and straight. Nice find !!! There are a lot of trucks in Iowa yet, finding the good ones is the hard part, looks like you scored !!!

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

dude. its insane. i was ooking at your build pics... we have very similer ideas... p.s.... that kragen special fuel filter.... sucks ass... too restrictive.... replace it with a fram... omg. no more top end fade.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Im going to have to follow this, I just got my hands on a 69 CST/10 Longbed. :metal:

For never being restored, I got lucky on the amount of rust it does have. Just the rockers, and under the windshiels is all Ive found so far. Cant wait til its towed home.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

texanidiot25..thats a nice looking truck..and you stole it..lol..welcome from utah

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Gotta love Photoshop

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

indeed!

it looks like the snow this weekend is going to prevent me making any progress on the truck. But, i should be ordering all of the front end part next week, so it might work out to where i can get it call done at once.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

looks pretty damn clean to me

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Lol, my neighbor cut me a deal on it. Hes a cool guy, restoring a 68 Cougar. This was going to be his work truck, but its too long to fit in his garage, and too many cars in his drive way. So we was selling it, and offered it to me.

Yours is sick, I dig the rims a lot. Evetualy mine will be lowered on maybe a 3/4 drop. But 1st things, 1st. Gotta get it running.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

this weekend i got some clean up work done on the frame. The bed is off and upside down in another building so i can work on getting the rear left patch panel in when it's warmer.

For the frame, I was most concerned about getting the framerails looking decent. I have new T arms on the way, and will be installing a new parhard bar, bags, c-notch and shocks in soon. Getting it painted was more of a preparation thing than anything.

I went from this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...n_07/start.jpg

To this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...Jan_07/mid.jpg

To this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa..._07/finish.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...an_07/side.jpg


Also got to see some of the new parts that came in. I only snapped a pic of the bags though.

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...an_07/bags.jpg

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

finally an update. I've been doing a lot of small stuff to the truck over the past couple months, but now i'm making some good progress.

the whole rear end has been taken apart. I had a set of good trailing arms media blasted, then painted black. after pressing out the old bushings, i put new ones in.

Today the trailing arms got mounted and the carrier bearing mount was flipped. I also did a test fit of the home made lowering blocks and new u bolts. looks like everything is coming together well.

next on the plate is getting the exhaust cutouts done in the X member, and the c-notch installed.


oh, and i noticed that i had not posted an engine shot in this thread, so one is attached below. nothing special. just a 2bbl 283 with corvette heads/intake. at least that's what the PO claimed them to be.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

exactly. i flipped it to help compensate for a lower ride height. Hopefully this one change is the only mod i need to make.

I don't have the part number handy, but i did buy it from a board member as a new item.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

i used 2.5"x2.5"x.025" square tube. i was gonna use 2", but i had the 2.5" handy.

also, the U bolts started out as 26" rod. they cost me about $20 at the local driveline place and took them about 5 minutes to pull off the rack and bend.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Thanks!

R

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

good progress this weekend. buttoned up the carrier bearing mount. made a bracket for the air tank and got it mounted, welded and painted. did the same for the air compressor.

the big accomplishment of the weekend was getting one of the C-notches in. after getting that done, i just had to see how the axle fit. looked good, but i'm gonna have to do something about the brake line on the P side. the T is really close to the frame, and will bust the line if it were to bottom out. I'll probably try to move it over a couple inches and call it good.

I can't wait to get this on the road!!


http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5312.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5313.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5316.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5317.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5318.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5319.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5320.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5324.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5325.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5326.jpg

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

and some more:



http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5327.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5328.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5329.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5330.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5331.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5332.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...7/DSCF5333.jpg

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

anyone have any suggestions on where/how i should mount a water trap?

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

D side notch is now in and the panhard bar is in. also stopped by the frieghtliner place today (twice and will need to go again tomorrow) to get my air line fittings. they aren't gonna be setup as i had planned, but i still like the config i ended up with. pics will come at the end of the weekend. hopefully i'll have all plumbing and wiring for the rear done by then too.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

ok, so in addition to the D side notch and the panhard bar getting done, I was able to complete all of my wiring and most of my plumbing. the only lines i need to run are from each fill valve to each bag.

It was great getting the wiring done today. let the compressor run for a bit with no pressure, then let it fill the tank. then it came time to play with the switches. Now I just need to drill a couple huge holes in my frame for the bag mounts and we'll be ready for the front.

unfortunately, it'll be two weeks before I'll be able to get up there and continue working on it.


here are the pics: -- I just noticed that I didn't take any final pics of the wiring. It looks much better now than it does in the pics below.

Re: '69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project
 

Looking good!