The Neverending Longhorn 11/01-current

[Sinisterspeed]

OK I will try to make a long story as short as possible. I have no pictures of the progress until recently. That what has kept me from adding my build to this site. However, I figure I would add it anyway this would give me a place or even a reason to do a better job of documenting the progress from here on out. If those of you choose to read it, cool. If not that fine too. If I find my Dad has some pictures from in there anywhere I will scan them and add them to the appropriate place in the build.

Chapter 1

Back in early 2001 I was just finishing this one. When I got laid off work after 8 years on the job. I had to sell it; Since it was paid for, and I got 11,500 for it before it was even finished. So, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.


This one is a SWB with 3/4 ton axles and a BB 402 and AC. Full custom interior. I was nice but I had to let it go.

Once I decided I would sell it to pay house payments and pay some other things off I had told the "ex" wife that I would but I would have a nicer one next time.

So here it the replacement I bought in 11/01 for 4k (on payments)



This one was build about 20 years before this and My Dads girlfriend bought It to use for dump runs and winter driving when I was 12. I was 28 when she finally retired and sold it to me for the 4k I paid for it.

I knew this truck needed rockers, doors, and front fenders when I bought it. I located new doors and fenders. I Stripped the truck in 12/01 and contacted a buddy that had a paint shop to do the rockers and repaint the whole truck as a decent driver.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 2 Here is where the things go awry & Mistake #1


The "buddy deal" I had secured for my 72 GMC was 1800.00 to do the paint job and it would take about a month.

I brought the truck there as stripped as you can make it and still drive it under its own power. New doors and fenders in the bed.

Once we pulled the old fenders and doors off we saw why they were rotted out. Where the black one was sitting in the picture above it is sitting under fir trees. It sat there for 14 years and built up pine needle in the heater vents and bottom of the doors. It rotted out the doors as I knew and now found that the firewall was pretty bad off from the heater and vent locations on both sides under the fenders.

This 1 month deal turned into 3. Then 6. then 1 year later after what seemed like hundreds of trips 50 miles away, I got tired of seeing it sit and not get finished while other rigs were coming and going the whole time. Mistake no.1 : I paid him 1,000 up front so he didn't have to pull the materials out of his pocket. Needless to say. He didn't buy my materials and the 1k was long gone. Once he knew I was and the end of my patents we met for a "heart to heart" and this is when I found that he didn't even have the money to buy my paint. After this I asked him if that was the issue that was holding it up. He said it was so to fix this we met the next day and He and I went to Quality Paint Products and I bought all my material. I handed it to him in a box at the shop. No hard feelings just finish it so I can have it back.

3 mo. later still not done. My materials got used on other rigs and I lost it. My dad and I went down with a trailer and picked everything up.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 3 The Final Straw


After my Dad and I brought it home I was so discussed I put it in the 3rd bay of his shop and went home. I pulled it out about a month later and decided I couldn't count on anyone and I would just do it myself. I would at least get it to primer and see where I was at. While it was at the last guys shop they ground everything off the bed. The bed was straight but now is not. There were no issues with body work or rust on the bed but now its in pretty bad shape needing some serious TLC.

So I go to pull it out and find there is surface rust all over everything. The body work that had been finished under over all over the place. Subsequently I lost it.. I grabbed the 1/2 impact and unbolted the body. Rolled it off the frame onto the ground and called the scrap guy.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 4 The Restart

So after the scrap guy left with the battered and rusted body that was in worse shape the when I started. I looked at what I had to work with. a 72 LWB 4x4 frame, Some good doors and fenders off a parts truck ( I had since gotten rid of ). So we looked through the paper for a couple weeks looking for a decent body that didn't need much body work.

Then I found it. This is how it read:

1971 GMC truck. No running gear, No rust, No title. 1000.00 OBO.

We called, It was still there so I had a single axle trailer that I used to haul quads on (Thats another story, The ex and her 2 kids split 3 months after the lay off) So I had this huge 20 ft' flat bed single axle to haul it on. When we got there it was a 1971 GMC longhorn. Someone had cut the front of the frame and started to make it into a 4x4. I didn't know it never came as a 4x4 at this time and didn't really matter to me. The body looked pretty decent and I talked him down to 650.oo bucks. He loaded it on my trailer with a fork lift and we had a new start to the project. from what I was told, This truck was being worked on in one of the building on this farm and the guy that was working on it had left 5 years ago. The owner of the farm just wanted it out of there so he sold it without a title.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 5 Ok now what?

Well we brought home with this funky bed I had never seen and started looking it up. Why was it like this? Lots of parts laying in the back of it so we began looking through it. Most of the AC parts, extra glass, extra wings, new body bushings and a few other interesting things.

Checking the job the guys was doing on this frame I would never drive it even if it was done. So we pulled the body off the frame while its still on the trailer and began setting it out in the yard.

Cab: Looks pretty good
fenders: look perfect (but I have good ones with body work done)
Hood: good
Bed: looks pretty good.

So after some research I came to the conclusion I have to use the longhorn frame for the longhorn bed. I never actually measured it but seemed like the thing to do at the time cause no matter what I was cutting the frame on either of them.

So using the existing longhorn frame I cut back off the shoddy work that the other guy had started. Only cross-member that was left was the one that held the carrier bearing. I started with the trusty tape measure and the existing frame and cut the pieces off that I needed to make it a true 4x4. All the 4x4 cross-members as well as the front frame horns (from about the front cab mounts fwd) we added to the longhorn frame. 1/2 plate on the insides on all 3 flat surfaces. Welded the outsides and ground them smooth. It turned out pretty good, you can't even see where they were joined unless you know it's there. We added the front cross-member that I always do the kept the front frame horn from breaking at the power steering box as well as some for the 84 blazer tank I got at the wrecking yard.

After mocking up everything that I could think of that goes on the frame I had a buddy of mine thats a real welder go through everything I had done re-welding while I was grinding. We smoothed all the holes that were unused. The rear spring mounts had to be relocated as well since it had longer springs on the rear of the longhorn we moved the rear spring mounts to make sure I could mount the normal lifted springs to this frame.

Another one of my buddies owed me some money for a hot tub I sold him from the house I lost between chapter 1 and 2. He did allot of powder coating through Portland powder, They are the only place local that I knew of that could do things this big. So I worked out a deal with him to call it even if he waned to get my frame done for me.

Wallah! a candy red longhorn 4x4 frame. and its only about 2 years after I started.. LOL

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 6 Mistake No.2

After getting to the point where I am begging to assemble my longhorn 4x4. I get a call from the first guy that was supposed to paint the first truck. He apologizes for everything and says he wants to make it right. I told him what had happened with the body and he seemed a bit shocked. He then talked me into bring him the cab and doors to be painted. Well I did, took 3 months allot of calls and getting pissed again. He did throw some color on it. He obviously just painted over all the old body work (which was terrible) he ran the clear on the doors, ran the color on the firewall, and the inside... well its the worst. He did paint the fenders and bedsides after allot of yelling and *****ing. The work was so bad I called another friend of mine from the old car club I was in that also had a paint shop.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 7 Mistake No. 3

Here the truck is being moved to the new paint shop after a couple weeks of talking about what had been going on over the past 1 1/2 years with the paint. The buddy of mine says he will take care of it and wants me to bring it to him Canby, OR. While on my way out there with the bed sides one of the tie down straps flys out of the trailer and gets jerked under the trailer tire buckling the bed side. OMG! doesn't it figure!

So I show up to the new body shop with the bed sides, New triplus steel cowl hood (still in the box) and the GMC stamped tail gate.

I try not to bug people ( I hate that) so I let it ride there for about a month, After a call he said he had been slammed and that he would be getting to the parts as soon as he gets this other car out. I was OK with that so I let it ride another month then two.

Whats the deal with Painters???

After I talked to him 3-4 months after I brought my stuff to him. He assured me that he understood but he would make it up later when he got a chance to get to the parts I would be happy I waited.

Couple more months go by. I cant get ahold of him. I figure he is avoiding me. After another month I try to find the shop again that I only went to once. I couldn't find it. So I waited again for awhile hoping to hear from him or get ahold of him. I finally found his card in a box of stuff I was looking through. I tried to call, Disconnected!

I set out over the weekend to find this shop once and for all. I did finally find it. I went up to the door and talked to the guy inside. He tells me that the He and the guy I knew had parted ways and he had moved to Texas. WHAT? I asked him if he had any parts like mine still laying around. He said yeah, there was some parts he left behind along with a bunch of other unfinished work. They were out back. I went out back and found my parts untouched leaning against the back of the shop.

I went and got a trailer and came back to pick them up.

Finally, I had saved alittle money while thinking my truck was getting painted so I dropped them off at Sweere's auto body in Banks,OR 5 min from my house and let then fix the bed sides and jamb the hood and cowl.

Work was awesome! done in 2 weeks, 1600 bucks.

After waiting 8 months for the longhorn bed wood through Dan's classics in Portland to arrive and getting the bed supports powder coated bright silver along with the new bed strips and stainless bolt kit. I had all the parts to assemble the bed. We are into Early 2005 by this time. My Girlfriend and I had just bought a house in Aug 2004. So the truck will have to wait until we get this POS house fixed up a bit. After loosing the house and out of a good paying job for a couple years all we could afford was a crappy house (that had a nice shop) so we spent the next year or two fixing it up while the longhorn sat in the shop.

Here is when we were moving the truck to my own shop, (no bed because of what's going on above)






Here is the Bed wood while staining it in the Shop. The bed is most of the way together by this time, And its time to add the wood to the floor.



Here is the bed on the frame after it's assembled.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 8 Break from the truck. Working on the house.

2+ years go by while the truck has no way to steer, or stop. The body is sitting on the frame but that about it. The body work is done on the front fenders, Hood, and Bed. The cab still needs alot of TLC to be up to my standards on the rest of the truck so its going to have to wait.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 9 Whats it going to be? Finish it or Part it out?

Well during the times that all the other things were going on. I had gotten the NP205 rebuilt, The TH350 gone through. Tore the motor down, re-gasketed it and added all the Aluminum. ( worked at Zig's street rods for awhile and got some great ideas plus a few good deals on some motor parts I used on the 383 that came in the original black 72. I acquired a freshly rebuilt Dana 60 front strange axle shafts and track lock in it, and a Rear 14 bolt with Detroit locker and rear disk brakes already installed, Came with the crossover steering already on it. All running gear only had like 500 miles on it since rebuild, another buddy wrecked his truck 3 months after finishing it while drinking and driving. I bought all the running 1 ton gear out of it for my truck.

The truck sat in this condition for quite some time. Waiting for the tile column and a master cyl/booster set up that would be equal to the work already done on the truck to this point.

These were both pretty large purchases so I just didn't have the extra money to spend on them. Since the truck had been on the back burner for so long and the build up to this point had not been to fun. I was at the point that I knew to finish it the way I wanted I was looking at 7-10k.

My wife knew I had just let it sit while we were working on the house. I had saved the money a couple times but then we used it for the down on the house, then used it to pay cash for our quad hauler enclosed trailer, then this, then that.... well it never ends. I looked at the truck one day while I had some money in the bank again. I asked her then... what should I do.. I need to either buck up and spend the money or part it out and get some back. But just looking at it is just getting to me.

She then said the magic words.. well what do you need to finish it up? I told her. she said get the column and brakes done for now.

I looked for the best price I could on these items.

Polished stainless tilt from Flaming river was 720.00
the Polished stainless steering shaft and joints another 300.00
the Billet Master Cyl, and Polished stainless 8" dual booster another 485.00.

After having to send the joint back once and get a different pedal rod (which still didn't fit) I fabbed one up and installed it all.

Now it will steer and stop so I worked on getting the brakes working, and getting the engine fired after sitting since 2003.

The brakes gave me some trouble but I finally got them working and pulled the truck outside for the first time ever, to clean some dust of of the thing.

It's Alive!

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 10 Back into it! & Mistake #4

After joining this site and looking around I saw how people said you cannot use the Chevy fenders on a GMC front end. I talked to Andy and he couldn't remember exactly why but I knew I needed to check it out.

Well he was right I cannot use the fenders. I had been talking with Sweere's Auto body about finishing the paint work so I wanted to get it in about a month from now so I could finish up some final assembly and begin actually changing out the old hardware that was used to mock it up and install a bunch of new parts I have waiting for it to be finished.

Here is the fender problem.




Not going to fly so, I still have some fenders up at my dads shop so headed out to go pick them up.

They are not in as good of shape as I remembered. Look at this.


After stopping by the body shop with them, They hit them with some 36 grit. They are covered in bondo. The bottom corner is rusted out of one of them, And the other had the body line lip at the wheel arch completely filled in and missing.

After talking with them, It was cheaper for me to go get new ones then try to fix these ones.

Dan's classics had a pair in stock. 175 ea.

I was back at the body shop by 5pm. 3 days later they called me to pick up my jambed fenders (200.00)

to complete my 500.00 whoops.

A friend stopped by and we changed out the front fenders. It now has the correct front end on it and is ready to head to the paint shop.

[Sinisterspeed]

Thursday 7-10-08
Chapter 11 Off to the paint shop

I got a call today while at work. They told me they got the other big job out of the shop and were ready for me to bring mine in. I told 'em I would be home as soon as I could get there and get it loaded up on the trailer. I would be in before 5.

7-15-08
Stopped by the body shop today, Looks like the cab is worse then I & they thought.
We pulled the bed off today and set it on the bed dolly. It's ready for paint so no work to be done there.
We started picking at the cab. Rocker install from the PO was shoddy at best. They need to come out. The paint work by the last paint shop is again. Terrible. I want it all redone.

I was there about an hour looked at the progress so far.

7-18-08
Today I stopped by the body shop again, More bad news....

Doug the Shop owner says you want it done right don't you? Well of course but we were talking about 2500 to finish it up.... I think thats going out the window fast!

for an update on paint/body work so far.....
1600 with the first body shop. nothing came of that and no money back,
600 for parts truck I took doors and fenders off of
1600 w/Sweere's for the body work that actually got done on the bed (excellent work btw)
485 for new hood,
350 for new fenders
200 to jamb the fenders,
650 for replacement body (longhorn)
= 5485.00 and I am still waiting to get it painted.

2500 more would have already put me at 8000, for an 1800 paint job..

Looks like I better brace myself for more like 3500-5000 more which will put me at 9-12k for a paint job.. I could have got to school and done myself in this much time and this much money.....




He said the only way to do it right was pull the cab back off again. He said that if I wanted it done right I have waited this long we need to do it right from here by fixing all the issues others left behind. I should take my time and just get it done right.

Well, If you had taken the time to read the things from above this statement does worry me a bit. Take My Time? Exactly what does this mean?
I will have to get this part within agreement before anymore ripping back apart happens..... I'm am not impatient, If you tell me 1 month I expected it somewhere close to that. If you tell me 4 months fine I just want the goal to actually be 4 months not whenever we get to it. If your not going to work on it, Ill take it home. If that how long its going to take just tell me so. I am so tired of 1 month turning into 1 year and still not finished....

Correct me if I am wrong but if you were actually working on it, There is no way a cab should take more then a week or two? We are pulling it off to get it blasted so that show us exactly what work needs to be done and a good idea on how long to get it taken care of. We shall see i guess.....

So. Monday I am supposed to stop by right after work and pull the front clip, steering column, master/cyl booster, heater box. and take home the chassis.

I will do a better job of documenting it from here on out, I have some pictures Monday night. (I think)

[Sinisterspeed]

Here are some things that are waiting for it to come home.

#1 Autometer guages

#2 No limit Billet Panel

#3 Matching No Limit Billet Glove Box


#4 99 silverado 60/40 split bench (silver-black)
#5 60's 396 short block
#6 71 LS6 454 heads with only 3300 miles on em
#7 750 Demon carb and aluminum BBC intake

The BBC swap will most likely wait until after the truck is on the road. I'm going to use the SB 383 thats in it for the 57 I picked up from my brother in-law about 4 months ago. It has a SBC 400 in it now.

[Sinisterspeed]

Well, There it is. Your up to date on the build so far.
Lots of bad luck as well as a few mistakes.
However, I am excited about how far it has come. I have never done anything from the point of being able to move it by carrying it with two guys to the point where you could actually drive it. So I am excited to get it on the road. Hopefully it wont be to much longer and I will be able to attend a meet with the local board members with it.
I set a goal of the august meet up in Washington to get it up and going. Doesn't look like that's going to happen but I'm going to try to make it up there never the less.
I have learn more and more all the time.
I have ambitions of building another 67-72 Chevy after this one is done. I think the next one will be a SWB fleet laying rocker. There are so many great trucks on here that get me going every time I see them. One of my fav's is in the TOTM contest this month. Keep up the great work everyone. Your inspiring me to get mine done too! Thanks to everyone on this site.

[Sinisterspeed]

Chapter 12: At the Paint Shop

7-20-08

Arrived at the paint shop around 5pm

By 6:35 I was pulling out and going home.
If we had enough people there we would have had the cab on the dolly.
Everything is off the firewall and the cab is unbolted and just sitting there waiting for more people to lift it off tomorrow. Here are the update pics.



Glass is all out now.



Firewall is stripped




Here is some of the issues that need to be attended to.

Found a rust bubble in the bottom of the door after we started chasing it this is what we found.


Here is what the PO did with the rockers.... well those are coming out, new ones on the way.







Cab corner is looking pretty bad too. Have to get this all blasted off and find out whats under there.

[Sinisterspeed]

The back window inside had dents all the way around it for some reason?




Heres another issue thats probably bigger then this.



Here it is with the cab ready to come back off.



Hard to belive I could have started it and drove it out, alittle over an hour ago...

[Sinisterspeed]

While I was looking for a picture of a phantom grill for a different thread I came accross a paint scheme I liked.

So here is a couple chops that I am trying to decide from.

All Silver or Silver/Black with a burgandy flame brake (i just made a stripe for the chop)




What do you guys think?

[67_C-30]

Good looking project. As far as the paint goes, I'm not digging the 2 tone on top personally. Solid silver will look much cleaner IMO. If you had trim, a factory style 2 tone with white would look good.

[Sinisterspeed]

Today is another wonderfull day building my dream truck. As you could see earlier in this thread I took the truck to the paint shop on 7-10 I got a call today they did some work on it on thursday and finially got the cab blasted. My sister was at a BBQ where one of the guys from the shop was at. He was talking about (*****ing really) about how much work the truck needed kinda ticked me off be I let it go.

Now for the update. I had stopped by once a week since 7-20 checking for any progress when I got a call thursday (9-11) that they got the cab blasted. Here are the pics.











Looks like it took what looked pretty bad to it looked even worse. He was spraying it with epoxy here.

After seeing my cab on friday. I decided to actually look for another cab. Prior to this He was asking me if I was sure I couldnt find a better one. Since I have already bought 4 trucks to make this one and they were all supposed to be solid to start with I was frusterated. I told him I was tired of buying more and more just to find out it needed as much or more work and I just wasted time, money, space, & hassle to get nowhere but the same place so what ever it needs just order it pieces and fix this one.

[Sinisterspeed]

So I went shopping today (Sat. 9-13) found a cab on CL. They guy was actually building a longhorn as well.

He had bought this cab out of southern oregon a couple months ago it was dilivered to him in a longorn bed that was made into a trailer. He ended up buying it as well. This truck is a 1970 GMC longhorn. He wanted the 850.oo he paid for it since his neighbors had turned him into the city he had to put everything in his garage. The longhorn he was working on, this cab, the 2nd longhorn bed and 2 motorcycles. He didn't have room to work on it now with the new room situation and thus was selling them both on CL. I could have had the entire other truck for 600.00 or this cab for 850.00. I tried to talk him down for over an hour and wouldnt come down less then 750.00. He had someone trying to buy the doors from him earlier in the week so he sold me the cab without the doors for 500.00 so I brought it home. Here are some pics before I drop it off at the body shop on monday.












Tell me what you think.... 500 to much?

[72freak]

"Whats the deal with Painters???"


There are thousands of posts on here about painters.......unfortunatley yours is one of about 90% of every person who has ever had paint and body work during on a restoration.

A little something I learned over the past 25 years of dealing with them.

1) NEVER give them money up front
2) pay in stages AFTER that particular stage is done. Body work, primer,
color.
3) agree on a time frame and put it in writing
4) have a contract drawn up stating it can be removed from the shop
without a mechanics lien if it is not completed in the agreed time.

Most paint/body people wont do the above........NOW YOU NO WHY!!!

If they cant front the money for the materials......go somewhere else!
Scan the parking lot and shop.....see how many vehicles are in pieces scattered all over the place. If there are more cars than bays....go somewhere else.

[Sinisterspeed]

Thanks 72Freak, I did learn some of those things the first couple of painters. I did abide by your #1 (wich I didnt do with the first painter). I wish I would have done the others now to because now I am stuck with it. Either complain and either get poor quality or hurried work or wait until ?? and pay ?? to get it done. Next time I think I wll do exactly what you said.

Thanks.
C

[72BlckButy]

This is such a great looking build.... good luck with finishing up the rest of the truck!

[Sinisterspeed]

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

This is such a great looking build.... good luck with finishing up the rest of the truck!

Thanks 72BlckButy, I appreciate that. With the luck, well I think I may need it too. I am bound and determined to get it done one way or another though. By next summer I should be driving it around. With any of that L stuff you were referring to that is....... LOL

[Spray-Bomb]

Dude all I gotta say is, if you sell this truck & I will personally have you committed

I hope it doesnt take another 2 years to finish, but it looks like its coming together again

Here is some inspiration

[toomanytoyz]

Originally Posted by 72freak

"Whats the deal with Painters???"


There are thousands of posts on here about painters.......unfortunatley yours is one of about 90% of every person who has ever had paint and body work during on a restoration.

A little something I learned over the past 25 years of dealing with them.

1) NEVER give them money up front
2) pay in stages AFTER that particular stage is done. Body work, primer,
color.
3) agree on a time frame and put it in writing
4) have a contract drawn up stating it can be removed from the shop
without a mechanics lien if it is not completed in the agreed time.

Most paint/body people wont do the above........NOW YOU NO WHY!!!

If they cant front the money for the materials......go somewhere else!
Scan the parking lot and shop.....see how many vehicles are in pieces scattered all over the place. If there are more cars than bays....go somewhere else.

I Would like to add a 5th Item...........

Never Get Involved with a Friend on Such a Deal, Been My Experience that this will end a Friendship Quicker than Anything, I Will Give you Credit for Perseverance. Most would have just Given up by Now.

The # 1 is the Best Advise, I Got Involved witha Friend on Doing my Car & Paid Half up Front. He was Busting Butt on it & Came to me needing the Rest of Money , I Gladly Gave it to him & Shortly there after alll work has ground to a Halt & I'm not sure if i will ever see it completed. A Long time Friendship & Much $$$ down the Drain ...........

Thank's for Posting your Story, It Is a Relief too see that I'm not Alone in Such Deal's. You Have a Very Positive Attitude considering all you have endured & I'm sure once Done you will Truly Enjoy the Truck

Rick