"Root Beer Float" 1976 Scottsdale

[LEEVON]

This is not a special build thread, its not going to SEMA and probably not getting nominated for truck of the month. If we're being honest I have too many projects and most of the time I complete the first half of the tasks on my list then lose interest so we'll be lucky if it doesn't get sold within a year. I'm documenting it mainly so I don't forget what I do and maybe for a little motivation. Now that that's out of the way. I picked up this 1976 Scottsdale from FB Marketplace. Squares have gotten so crazy I was the first message and by the time we talked on the phone he had 22 more messages. It's nothing special but very rust free compared to whats out there and the price was fair.

The seller's uncle owned the truck and I think he used it as a car hauler. It has an older repaint and interior re-do. The truck has an '87-91 TBI engine with serpentine drive and a 700r4 transmission. It has the F44 heavy duty suspension option. All of the suspension and steering is original and needs love. The brakes are ancient and will be next on the list. It was optioned with A/C, rally wheels, tilt wheel, two-tone Grecian Bronze paint and a few other things that you don't always see on a Scottsdale.

So far I have sorted out the fuel system. It is a real life mystery. It has dual tanks, but no fill hole on the driver's side. It has a factory 6 port valve, but an OEM tank switch was clearly retrofit into the dash. A third tank had been added to the bed and it was all connected with hardware store hoses, fittings and welded exhaust pipes...driven by two electric fuel pumps, and none of it worked. I deleted the driver's side tank, re-did all the lines, removed the valve from the equation, replaced the passenger sending unit and installed a mechanical fuel pump. The TBI engine is provisioned for a mechanical pump so it was a simple install I just needed the pump, pushrod and correct plate and hardware. Why this hadn't been done is a head-scratcher. There is a new Edelbrock 1406 on the truck, and it needed to be dialed in. I found timing around zero and the idle circuit was pig rich. After getting all the fuel issues squared away she drives pretty decent.

It had ancient tires on it with cheap flipper hubcaps. To my surprise I found the original 15x7 rally wheels underneath. They are currently at the powdercoater and when they're done I'll be mounting some Cooper Cobras, white letter out of course as per square body law. For now I'm running a set of torq thrusts and too small 255's that I've had forever.

[LEEVON]

A few more pics, you can see how rust free she is.

[LEEVON]

I swapped rear bumpers, because the one it came with had a hitch receiver quote "welded" on and was bent. I also couldn't get the driver's side seat belt to work, so I removed them all and sent them to TKCR for a little resto.

[lolife99]

Following.
Love the detail you put in these threads.

[LEEVON]

Thanks Keith!

[LT7A]

"white letter out of course as per square body law"

She's a beaut! Good grab and great progress so far. Maybe shackles and hangers in the rear to help tame that tail high heavy duty chassis? Regardless, that's a great looking rig and I'm jealous.

[69Tom]

That's definitely a clean one. Totally understand about too many projects, but hopefully you stick with this one. Looks to be a good truck for the long (ish) haul.

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by LT7A

"white letter out of course as per square body law"

She's a beaut! Good grab and great progress so far. Maybe shackles and hangers in the rear to help tame that tail high heavy duty chassis? Regardless, that's a great looking rig and I'm jealous.

Thanks! I am going to remove the overload spring and maybe a couple more small leafs? I'd slam 4/6 it but my 16 year old says he'd like to drive it some and doesn't like 'em low. We'll see on that. The white letter Gods came through today. I debated size forever. It came to 255/70 (too big) or 275/60 (too wide). I settled on 235/70 which should go with the 15x7's. If they were 8" wide I would have gone with the 275's.

Originally Posted by 69Tom

That's definitely a clean one. Totally understand about too many projects, but hopefully you stick with this one. Looks to be a good truck for the long (ish) haul.

Me too haha! Thanks

[Low Elco]

Great find!

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great find!

Thanks!

I put her to work this weekend. My wife was a little frowny that I brought home another stray truck and she had been looking at this old buffet for the basement bar so naturally I had to buy it. Man was it awkward and heavy. Longbed with HD springs on the job!

Funny story...I was going to get around to telling her about the truck but just didn't quite have my "reason" together yet and it had been up at my shop for a week or two. I came home one day and she was waving a state registration at me with "another freaking '76 are you serious I said no more trucks!". I was caught off guard and even though I hadn't registered it yet I panicked and took my lumps but I couldn't figure out how that happened. Later when I looked at the registration it was just a renewal for my k5. So I busted myself for no reason.

[wazzabie]

From the factory did your truck have a radio? I ask because I see you have the windshield antenna RPO but do not have a radio RPO on the SPID.

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by wazzabie

From the factory did your truck have a radio? I ask because I see you have the windshield antenna RPO but do not have a radio RPO on the SPID.

Yes, it did, the original is gone though. I didn't think about that, wouldn't it normally say "AM/FM Radio" or something? Funny thing today I stripped all of the wiring and dash and found the antenna unplugged which explains the poor reception.

[LEEVON]

Darn it all. I am trying to keep this thing as low-budget as possible so if I get bored with it and sell I won't be upside-down. Little things add up, and no matter how much you spend on the little things, a long bed in okay-ish shape is still worth what it's worth. Anyhow, I went to remove the hideous gauges that were haphazardly stuck in a three-gauge pillar pod right in my face. It had a tach, vac, and trans temp gauge. All handy...but poorly done, and they lost power every time the lights go on. Thinking it would be easy to delete them, I went down a rabbit hole and found the most awful rats nest of wiring I have EVER seen. The starting point was a bolt in the plastic pod that was a distribution point of sorts...with NINE, YES NINE hot wires leaving it and going to and from the dash. And that was just the start. There was more "creative" wiring removed from the dash than the entire dash harness. Not including what I already removed under the truck when I did the fuel system. WHAT THE HECK MAN!? Well now the entire dash is stripped, and I'm on the hunt for a dash harness. It looks like this will lead to a light interior re-fresh of some sort. I'm not replacing the dash pad or bezels, but maybe the door panels, and some cleaning and freshening up here and there.

I ordered a new bluetooth stereo, speakers and brakets for the cab corners. Surprisingly I found the dash cut for a DIN stereo to be clean. There were cube speakers bolted into the dash pad sitting up in the windshield, they sounded terrible. I ordered a dual voice coil 4x10 for the center and two 6x9's for the rear. I didn't want to do kick panels, that opens up some more cans-o-worms and expense. I also removed the old brake controller, it's cool but I'll never use it and it was just contributing to the wiring mess. I'm debating if I should keep the cruise control intact. It looks to be a dealer add-on because it's 1) ancient and 2) very well done, unlike all of the other "extras".

Here's to scope creep!

[wazzabie]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

Darn it all. I am trying to keep this thing as low-budget as possible so if I get bored with it and sell I won't be upside-down. Little things add up, and no matter how much you spend on the little things, a long bed in okay-ish shape is still worth what it's worth. Anyhow, I went to remove the hideous gauges that were haphazardly stuck in a three-gauge pillar pod right in my face. It had a tach, vac, and trans temp gauge. All handy...but poorly done, and they lost power every time the lights go on. Thinking it would be easy to delete them, I went down a rabbit hole and found the most awful rats nest of wiring I have EVER seen. The starting point was a bolt in the plastic pod that was a distribution point of sorts...with NINE, YES NINE hot wires leaving it and going to and from the dash. And that was just the start. There was more "creative" wiring removed from the dash than the entire dash harness. Not including what I already removed under the truck when I did the fuel system. WHAT THE HECK MAN!? Well now the entire dash is stripped, and I'm on the hunt for a dash harness. It looks like this will lead to a light interior re-fresh of some sort. I'm not replacing the dash pad or bezels, but maybe the door panels, and some cleaning and freshening up here and there.

I ordered a new bluetooth stereo, speakers and brakets for the cab corners. Surprisingly I found the dash cut for a DIN stereo to be clean. There were cube speakers bolted into the dash pad sitting up in the windshield, they sounded terrible. I ordered a dual voice coil 4x10 for the center and two 6x9's for the rear. I didn't want to do kick panels, that opens up some more cans-o-worms and expense. I also removed the old brake controller, it's cool but I'll never use it and it was just contributing to the wiring mess. I'm debating if I should keep the cruise control intact. It looks to be a dealer add-on because it's 1) ancient and 2) very well done, unlike all of the other "extras".

Here's to scope creep!

Looks like you have a mess. Are you going to get a new or used harness? The harnesses may be different depending upon what options were ordered.

[LEEVON]

I'm going with used. Got a lead on one here from a member, also lots of parts trucks around me. I think pretty much it's gauges or idiot light dash. A/C controls, courtesy lights, etc are separate. I could be wrong

[Corts60]

Sweet truck! Hopefully the wife didn't lash you too bad. Haha.

That's always disappointing to find hack work in your new truck. Looks like you're on the right track though!

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by Corts60

Sweet truck! Hopefully the wife didn't lash you too bad. Haha.

That's always disappointing to find hack work in your new truck. Looks like you're on the right track though!

Thanks, love that Suburban you snagged man that's clean! She's getting more mileage out of that buffet I got her than the truck has so I'd say we're good!

[LEEVON]

The rally wheels came back from powder coating and they might be too nice for an old forgotten long bed. They are probably original to the truck or at least correct based on date codes so that's not bad. I'm not even sure why I did this other than being lazy, usually I would just scuff and shoot them. I did have something else to powder coat so I guess that was my excuse. It will be a shame to scratch them up with rally rings though.

[evan]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

The rally wheels came back from powder coating and they might be too nice for an old forgotten long bed. They are probably original to the truck or at least correct based on date codes so that's not bad. I'm not even sure why I did this other than being lazy, usually I would just scuff and shoot them. I did have something else to powder coat so I guess that was my excuse. It will be a shame to scratch them up with rally rings though.

I like the look of rally wheels without the trim ring. You can always throw them on later!

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by evan

I like the look of rally wheels without the trim ring. You can always throw them on later!

I agree, going to try that first. There is a long bed 73 or 74 here in my town, same colors, lowered on rallies without rings and white letter tires...hope the guy gets a kick out of it when he sees his twin lol!

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

I also couldn't get the driver's side seat belt to work, so I removed them all and sent them to TKCR for a little resto.

I’ve been working on your belts, here’s a little teaser.

[LEEVON]

Haha you beat me to it! I kind of thought these might be a lost cause but I guess they weren't too bad. TKCR to the rescue. I can't say thank you enough, outstanding work!

[TKCR]

What I posted was just a teaser. I was leaving the entire completed set for you to post. I was happy to help!!

[Greenlee]

Cool truck! Seatbelts look great.

[LT7A]

I'm all on board with this one. I like what you're doing. It's going to be a nice driver.