Taking apart the Truck

Removed the rear fender and the mounting bolts for the Utility Body. Only 2 bolts in back & 2 brackets toward front holding it on. I can remove it now whenever I want.

It’s mainly because of these Nasty Welds holding on the rear bumper that I’m sure that the Utility Body isn’t original. The bolt at the top is one of 2 that held the Body in place.

As I take everything apart, I’m able to see the real extent of all the rust damage. Sadly I’m afraid a large part of this is from the past 2 years that the truck was sitting idle in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Truck

Been having dreams about my truck lately, so I think that means I want to start the overhaul. So yesterday spent a few hours cleaning out the trash, pulling weeds that have grown around it, and began to look at what I’m facing. In short: a lot of rust.

Most finish panels on the front have rust spots – a few are way beyond repair (d/s quarterpanel I think). Bottom of doors need to be repaired, etc etc. Hopefully no major structural rust, but that remains to be seen.

I think I’m going to proceed with removing the “utility” back of the truck. It’s big, heavy, and none of the latches work anymore.

Anyway. here we go.

Wilsonbuilt’s 1964 GMC

After anguishing for so long over the fate of Big Orange which has been in “storage” for 3 years or so, I finally had it towed in January to a my friend Sergei Hasegawa’s lot in Williamsburg.  Was just there the other day to take some pix – its amazing how quickly rust will grow but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and with  some luck I hope to be able to get it rolling again sometime later this year. A big plus will be Sergei’s help – he rebuilt 5 or so vehicles back when he lived in San Francisco and it will be invaluable to get his input since I haven’t done much work on vehicles.

This weekend I’m planning on starting –  The first step will be to take off the Utility body in the back. Yes I love the back too (i can hear your gasps of surprise) but the locks don’t work very well anymore and the darn thing is HEAVY! Once that goes to the scrapyard then I can look at the body a bit closer. For sure the 2 front fenders will have to be replaced, the door bottoms repaired, and the driver’s side floor needs patching. I’ll either put a wood flatbed in the rear or I’ll install a vintage pickup body if I can find one in good shape.

Oh and the engine, too. Going to look for someone selling a rebuilt motor that would work. If you know anyone selling a 350 V8 engine from the early 1970s that is in pretty good shape let me know!

More later….