70 Jimmy--Rusty Rebuild

[toomany]

Got started on cleaning up the barn, trying to find space to put all the big parts that are starting to pile up. Decided the best place for everything was on the truck.

Bolted down the front half with the correct body mounts/lift, took some measurements then broke out the Sawzall.




Did some touch up painting on the frame and gas tank where it got scratched when the body fell off.

Few shots of the bottom of the old one. Could it be fixed...yes, but that it way more work than I want to do.






Set the new bed on along with the step up panel. The two are bolted together tight, but loosely bolted to the frame. I want to get it squared up real well before I tighten it all the way. Had to add some shims to the second to last mount. There is actually a post over at 67-72 from someone else who had to add some in the same spot so I'm not too worried about it.






Finished pulling the packing off the cab floor and set that up on the bed. Being it's for a truck cab, I'll need to trim a few inches off the backside for it to fit correctly as well as open up the transmission tunnel.




Before pulling the bed off, I removed the tailgate/its hardware/lights/wiring/filler neck. Wheel tubs still need to be pull, same with the door latches and shims. Will also save the stands for the inner trim panels. Don't plan on getting rid of it untill I've got all the new parts on/fitted.

 

[toomany]

Dropped the old front floor out and started trial fitting the new one tonight.

Started by taking off the passenger side rocker. I'm going to assume it was factory to that part of the floor by the way it was spot welded. Found some more rust at the bottom of that a-pillar. Shouldn't be too hard to fix as that area is structural but hidden so it won't need to look 100%.




Started cutting out the floor. I wanted to keep it at the seem where the toe kick/firewall meets the flat part. For the most part I was able to. The drivers side that area was basically gone, will need a filler piece there.




After a few hours of cleaning up the flange. Once I get it to where I'm happy with the fit I'll go back and clean/prep everything for welding.




Bottom of the old floor. If the whole thing was as decent as the green side....I could probably work with it. But most of it looked like the top half. Mostly rust with some undercoating holding it together.




Still need to trim about 1/2" off the back side to get my body mount holes centered, trying to sneek up on that. I moved the firewall forward some so I'd have more room to work. Looks like both sides will hit the 4 holes at the bottom of the a-pillar pretty well.




Once I get it where I think it needs to be, some heavy tack welds will go on to hold it. Want to get the bedsides, doors, fenders and rockers in position before fully welding. So far the measurements line up, but the extrior sheetmetal might want the floor in another spot. In theory it can only go in one place (body mount to bed floor is fixed spacing, body mount to "4 hole" is fixed). With mostly all aftermarket parts anything is possible though.

 

[Tony Vickers]

Looking great!

 

[UpnAdam]

Awesome attention to detail as always! Man I gotta say most people would have parted out or scrapped this thing at first glance but you are making the rust repair look easy or at least doable.

 

[toomany]

Looking great!

Thanks!

Awesome attention to detail as always! Man I gotta say most people would have parted out or scrapped this thing at first glance but you are making the rust repair look easy or at least doable.

I agree that most would have scrapped it before spending any time/money on it. But I started this build with pretty much a free truck and a pocket full of cash (original deal was trade my 76 K5 for the 70 and $3k on his end). I've always wanted a full convertable and was planning on doing it to the 76 before I ran across this one.

The metal work isn't hard, this isn't my first time cutting a vehichle in half and rebuilding though. Once you figure out the order it was built, it's just a matter of pulling each layer off and starting from the begining. Remember these were designed in the mid 1960's so it's fairly low tech and generaly simple.

First gens are pretty rare around my area. Trucks are somewhat common, both 2wd and 4wd. But a first gen K5 is a rare site. When done I'll have something unique and hopefully it'll last being almost 100% new. Goal of this build isn't a show truck. Wanted a driver that has as equal to or better build quality than original as well as be presentable.

 

[toomany]

Finished fitting the floor this afternoon.

Took a little over 1/2" off the backside. Ended up with about 3/16" gap back at the step up plate. Should be able to bend the floor down where it kicks up in some spots to close that even more. The other areas (where the sides angle down) I'll put a filler/backer piece in probably.




Both sides line up spot on with the body mount brackets.




Super happy with the fit at the front seem. Once I got the A-pillars bolted on the gap is almost non-exsitant on the passenger side. Drivers side is closer than I thought it'd be. Not sure how far I'll have to go to hit good metal on that floor board yet. Might have to open up the insides of the A-pillars so the pan will sit flush all the way across. Other option is trim the pan some. Right now it fits real tight. So tight that I'm a little worried about how I'm going to get it out to final prep everything. Had to use a ratchet strap to pull the firewall over the corners.




With the "high hump" sitting in place. The middle of the firewall needs to come up a hair to be perfect. Probably going to get the holes drilled for the hump in the pan and use that to help locate it.




With everything sitting on its own weight, dash looks to be about as level as I could hope for. At this point, it could still be twisted though. Didn't care to measure yet as it's all coming apart again before it gets welded.




Shot from underneith. Think it'll be a safe bet that I'll have one of the cleanest first gens around.



Overall I'm very pleased with the fit. For being an aftermarket pannel (and for a truck), all the holes are lining up without much issue. Did notice when trimming the back off that the driver side and passneger side weren't the same. The passenger side angled down at a different spot and was further forward.

Up next? Probably should get some bedsides ordered. I'll need them so I can set the correct height of the floor/rockers before welding. Doors will go on at that time too. I predict the most trouble right there. The gap at the B-pillar shouldn't be too hard (bedside is pretty much a fixed angle). Getting the floor/rocker in the correct spot with everything else "loose" will be the chanllenge.

 

[toomany]

Dug through my stash of door hinges. Somehow I ended up with 1 set of drivers side and 3.5 sets of passneger side. Will order up some bushings/pins and replace the friction material when I go to clean them up.

Stuck a rocker on the drivers side. Looks like it's lining up alright. @bp71k5 , is this what you meant about the fit? Where the weather striping would sit needs to move in a little.




Had to order some weld through primer, local Napa didn't have in stock. If I make it to the bank this week I'll get the bedsides ordered too.

 

[bp71k5]

Stuck a rocker on the drivers side. Looks like it's lining up alright. @bp71k5 , is this what you meant about the fit? Where the weather striping would sit needs to move in a little?

No, you need to have the door on to see it. The bottom of the door tends to not line up with the rocker when you look at it from the front of the truck. The rocker tends to be too far in.

 

[toomany]

Ordered the bedsides Friday morning. I expect them to be here first week of October juding by their previous shipping times.


Primer came in mid week. No one local had any....actually Airgas probably did. But I didn't want to spend $30/can. So what did I do....get on Amazon and spend $32/can after shipping, atleast I didn't have to leave the house. Went 3M, I'm sure the other out there work just as well, but I've always had great results with any 3M product.




Wanting to clean up floor space in the barn I had to find a place for the hard top to live. I don't plan on ever using it, but don't want to get rid of it quite yet (might use it to help square up the truck). Thought about sticking it outside, the invites critters to live in/under it though, plus my huskies would probably try getting on it/eating it. Best place I could think of was above on of the overhead doors. Idealy I would have put it over the right door as there will be a hoist going in the left bay eventually. But with the truck holding down the right bay I had to settle for the other side for now. Picked up a pair of kayak hoists. Each one is rated at 150lbs so I'm probably at their limit.






Progress will slow for a little bit, have two motor jobs lined up (one on the blue Jeep in that last pic, another on an 04 F150).

 

[toomany]

Much to my surprise, the bedsides showed up today. 5 days from order to delivery, very happy with that. Since I'm still waiting for parts on the other jobs I got working on this.

Packaging was good, about same as the cab floor. For the cost of shipping ($239) I guess I was expecting more though. But...they arived fast and dent/ding free.




Looks like I forgot to take pictures of them unboxed so use your imagination here.

They fit very well (so far). Had to open up the flange on the back where it goes around the rear crossmemeber on both sides. Also had to bend a piece of the bed floor about 1/2" down near the b-pillar, again on both sides. All the holes line up (so far...). Plan is to try cleaning up my wheel tubs becuse they are in decent shape actually. So we'll see when I start using OEM parts with them.




Currently, they are held on with 3 bolts along the edge and two in the rocker area. They'll be coming back off again so I wasn't going to go crazy attatching them. I also didn't bother squaring them up very much yet either. When I hang doors I'll move them around as needed, may even put the tailgate back on to "fix" that end of the truck.


Not sure if it was luck or proper planing/measuring. My door openings are spot on for the passenger side. Drivers side is 1/16" off (too far open). Which I'm sure I can take out with shims if needed....or adjust firewall when I do doors. There are two bolts on the lower b-pillar/inner rocker I didn't even know about. They didn't get cut off when trimming the floor, thought I might have to fill them in. Turns out they lined up almost perfect with eachother...I'll call this one dumb luck. Having those bolts in makes me feel better about getting the floor height correct, same with the outer rocker.




Waiting on parts to rebuild my door hinges before I hang them. Should be in next week. After that I get to take it all apart to prep the edges for welding.

 

[toomany]

Door bushings came in Friday. Started on those today. Need to track down a drill bit for the new, oversize ones. Couldn't get the roll pin to budge on the upper hinge so it got cleaned/painted only half disassembled.

 

[toomany]

Picked up my drill bit and ran it through the hinge. Come to find out it was just full off rust/dirt and didn't need to be taken any larger. Pressed the bushings in, then the pin. Friction pads were in decent shape on this side so I didn't bother messing with them. Once I dissasemble everything I'll trim the pins to length.




Pulled the door out from the corner and dusted off a years worth of grime. Someone before me started body work on it. I want to say this is a truck door that has been cut down (not a factory job), it's missing the K5 specific parts. It seems to be in decent shape. Also missing door handle and I think some window part...actually I never checked to see if it has glass in it.




If you recall back to the begining of this, this truck had never had a passenger side door on it since I've had it. Add in the fact that I grafted in a 1/4 of truck cab, cut the tub in half then reassembled....this was kind of a big moment seeing if it would fit.



And....it fits! Pretty well on top of that too. This is with absolutly zero adjustment after hanging it. No shims in the hinges or body mounts either.

Once I get to final assembly (or more likely before I pull apart for paint), I'm confident that I can get it to my satisfaction. When the wheel tubs go in, that will set the angle of the bedsides. Right not I have them ratchet strapped to where I think they need to be. Gaps look fairly good around windshield and fender. Of course those will change some as I adjust the door to the fender.




Going to try working on getting the drivers side together next. Might also try picking up a set of wheel tubs for the back, decided against trying to clean mine up. NPD is about 45min away from me so I can drive down to pick them up and save the shipping cost.

 

[CK5]

Wow! That is some major restoration there, good job.

 

[toomany]

Picked up some rear wheel tubs yesterday. Took a road trip do to NPD. They don't carry any K5 specific parts, but these are they same across the line so I lucked out. Almost everywhere lists these as needing oversize shipping, which I don't understand because they aren't that big or heavy.



Hope to be able to get out tonight and bolt them in. Note the ratchet strap holding the bedside where I think it needs to be. Maybe sart on the drivers side door as well.

 

[toomany]

Wow! That is some major restoration there, good job.

Thanks!

It's a project for sure. I knew going into it I'd have to replace pretty much everything. Which is the case with most any 1st gen you find in my area, so it doesn't really bother me to much to do the work.

 

[toomany]

Found some time to work on this again. Put new bushings/pins in the drivers side hinges. Installed the wheel tubs and hung the door.

Both the upper and lower hinge had lots of play in them. Stands to reason as this door gets pretty much all the use. I'm going to try picking up a decent set of used ones to replace mine. The upper has a crack starting and on both, the bushings don't fit as tight as I'd like. They will do for now though.




Passenger side wheelhouse went in without much trouble. Drivers side, some of the holes were a little off at first. Was able to pull it into place with the bolts though. This was really the first time some of the holes haven't been spot on, pretty good for all aftermarket parts.




Hanging the door is where I started to run into issues, and is the exact reason I'm assembling this far before welding the floor in. If you look in the above picture, you can see how much higher the drivers side is. The door physically fits the opening, but it's about 3/8" too far back and is hitting where the latch would bolt on and riding up it.

Note the body line. From the inside, the gap at the bottom is way off/uneven. A-pillar at the windshield is also wrong.






Playing around with body mount shims and a ratchet strap pulling firewall forward some I was able to get the B-pillar gap decent. Still a little close, but opens/shuts without any bind. The body line is actually perfect in this pic, the light reglections make it look off.






After clearing that up, another problem showed up. This one I think is 100% to blame on aftermarket parts. The profile of the bedside doesn't match the door completly. The top couple inches is off. Not sure what I'll do about that. The rest of the door is fine, passenger side isn't bad either (or the gap isn't close enough that I noticed it yet).




I might have to open the slots on the hinges to get a little more rotation out of them. The spacing of the two sets of holes measures the same as the passenger side, but with the door in place, both sets are close to their ends of travel (opposite ends at that). Next time out I'll take a day and really try getting things shimmed correctly. Have to dig out my assembly manual for hints on which mounts to shim to spread the opening some. Have an idea, but I'll consult the book first. Once that is taken care of I'll try poping the cab floor out to prep for welding. Hopefully with most of the body still on the truck. Don't think that will happen as it took some work to get it in with everything off.

 

[stockk5]

man that is some dedication, i love the rebuild.

 

[toomany]

Spent some time tonight messing with the drivers door. By taking out the bolts at the lower B-pillar/rocker area, I was able to get the firewall to move forward enough that I have matching gaps along the backsides of both doors.

After that I pulled the drivers fender to get at the hinge bolts. Loosened those then lifted the door so the gap at the windshield looked good.

This left my body line on the door about 1/8" high. Was able to shim this out. Might have been able to play with shims at the door side of the hinge as well to get it close.

Also put both door catches on. Each door closes nice and lines up well. No scraping or binding.

Some other random things... It's amazing how much flex there is across the firewall. I'm sure that will go away once that gets welded to the floor. As it is now, you can grab a door and put a pretty good twist into it. Measuring from the dash back to the edge of the bedside where the tailgate mounts, the passenger side was close 3/4" longer than the drivers. After I got the door where I was happy, that went down to 1/8". I don't know the factory tollerances on that, but it seems close enough for me to move forward.

Up next I think it's time for me to pull the cab floor and get that ready to weld in for good. Probably going to end up re-hanging doors/bedsides and set gaps again before I actually weld anything. Get it to where it's square and everything is acceptable then "lock it down".

 

[toomany]

"Popped" the floor out today...and not much else. Came out easier than I though it would. Going in might be a little bit of a challenge.




Door gap seems to have opened up some too....

 

[toomany]

So, a 4 month bump.

Not much has happend with this recently. Been through some big life changes (divorce, running everything at work now). Good thing to come out of it was a nice raise at work and a new girl who is more than supportive of me working on this and is wanting to help.

What has happend was me getting the cab floor out, edges prepped, back in and started to weld into place. Not very much of it, but it's attatched now. Door/A-pillar gaps are still decent and close enough that shims should get me close.



Will need to cut filler strips on the edges. The "hump" area should be able to be bent down to meet up with the step up pannel.


Bought one rim to test fit over the brakes. 17x9 MT Classic III's. Going to order the other 3 (probably 4) later this week. New lug nuts as well too. Have a set of roller tires to go on once the rims all show up.




Worked a deal to get some Vortec heads and matching intake. Those will be going onto a bottom end I throw together. Eventually I'll put together a nice solid rotating assembly. For the time being I just want something to get the truck moving/useable. Work the bugs out of it and the EFI.