My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[padresag]

Jon; I know that this is kind of late but I was looking at a pic of Dino's yesterday but there are 2 different style hinge mounting for the rear doors; external and internal one. the ones from my ambulance that I parted out years back had a set of internal hinges. I took them off and kept them as looking at the side doors wouldn't have gotten all that much use and kept them for later. ' I just went and had a look at my front doors. actually they look the same' here is how they were mounted.
I saw a picture of Dino's new one yesterday and saw the hinges sticking out, which reminded me of this.

this was that truck when new

ron

[jonzcustomshop]

interesting , it also looks as if they used part of a front hinge pillar in the build as well.

[padresag]

that is what it looks like. I didn't really notice that until I did see that picture of Dino's in bare metal and they looked like a set of ears seem to stick out on some people; not that there is anything wrong about that. it just jogged my mind. those doors, frame and part of the roof went to a fellow who used to be on this board called "Sailed to Japan" in Texas. doubt he ever did anything with them
ronn

[jonzcustomshop]

yeah, when I was showing my dad pics of various crewcabs, he hated those hinges that stick out.. they do interfere with the body line, but I am used to them now...

I am not sure yet if I want to try to build my own out of a couple trucks that I have ( I wouldn't mind having a 64-66 4x4 ), but if I ever do I will probably just suicide the rear doors and be done with it....

in reality I have 2 suburbans and my 65 to finish up before I start any other new projects!

[padresag]

but it is amazing how many things keep popping up, forgotten little things until something jogs your memory or boots you in the backside to remember. then it is not really that good unless someone is told and or written down and then it gets forgotten about then. yjere are so many little subtle differences among these truck
It is like I have a factory green small back window out of a a/c GMC. I am never going to use it. how long do I pack it around before it gets turfed. I packed a full suburbab rear seat around for 20 years which I couldn't get rid of .it got cut up and turfed except for the back panel and frame, because it has a nice ribbed section and that doesn't take up much room. someone is coming to pick that up tomorrow. 25 tears I have hadas I got it with my panel when I got it.
ron

[Dinos63]

aton nice kat

[jonzcustomshop]

got the seat mounts sorted out:
I cut the block/nuts out of the unused portion of the orange cab, the inner bolts had to fight me since they dropped through right in the middle of the brace... I got the dremel and a drill and carved a hole for them.

the original crew I have had a thick "C" channel welded to the bottom of the floor along the brace, after placing the rear seat I decided that I would use one too for strength. I went with a 3 inch wide piece instead of a 2 so I could get to the backside of the bolt easier. this definitely strengthened the floor. It felt a little soft before and now it is very solid.

[jonzcustomshop]

finally got to the rust in the cab corners that I showed in post #263

I cut a portion off the back of what was left of the orange cab to use as a patch panel, there was just enough of the orange RH cab corner not rusted to make a patch for the right side.

I started to patch the core support, and it ended up having more rust than it looked like initially, so I went out to the yard and looked around... turns out the best/easiest one to pull was on the original front clip for this crew cab.

so, it is a 61-(60-62) and there are a few minor differences that I thought I would show.

first off they are pretty much exactly the same and would work on any 60-66 10-40 series truck, but in 63-66 they added some new holes.

first were 4 holes across the top for the radiator seal.

1)then there are 2 holes next to the horn location for the washer wiper bottle (60-62 it was on the fire wall)

2)next there are two holes right under the horn mount for the horn relay.**** I think this is supposed to be one hole*****

3)finally there are 3 holes next to the headlight plug where the voltage regulator bolt on

[jonzcustomshop]

the left bed step had some rust, and I thought I would fix it. then after running the wire cup brush over it , I decided it was in worse shape than it looked... the surface rust all over it had pitted it pretty bad.

I have been needing to get out to the local wrecking yard to pick up a brake booster, so I looked at my pics and it looked like he had 2 shot steps out there.

one of them was good and it turned out that he had pulled the fender recently, so there was even less to take apart!

I also grabbed a complete "cheap" heater and the block off plates out of a 63 while I was out there. I think I will just run the cheap heater so I can have defrost if I need it, I don't plan on driving the truck in the cold or snow...

..and I grabbed a booster off a '90 to work with one of capt. fabs brackets.

[jonzcustomshop]

I made an e- brake system out of various year parts:
the rear has 65 cables, and previously they were bolted to the trailing arms. I made some little brackets to bolt them to the frame. Then I got some cable guides off an 83 blazer to guide the cable up to the center brace.
the center brace and hard ware is out of a 65. next I sourced a front cable out of a 62 (this kind is longer and goes through the frame and bolts on as opposed to the 63-65 kind that is shorter and clipped to the frame rail. I had to lengthen the pulling bracket 7 inches, and make a mount that bolts to the side of the frame. I used an existing hole and used a hole saw and cutoff wheel to make it similar to how the 62 goes through.
finally I was able to drill a hole in the driveshaft cross member and mount the tension spring from the 65 there.

[jonzcustomshop]

the left rear seal was bad, so I took this opportunity to do the rear brakes and clean up the center section.
the seal was quite a challenge to get out, and I finally ended up chopping it up with a chisel to get it out.
I almost left the rear wheel cylinders , but am glad I changed them , they were only $7 each new.
there was quite a bit of shrapnel laying in the sludge at the bottom, and I was worried that the rear was all chewed up.
I pulled it apart and it all checked out fine, the rear cover has some major battle scars though, even a spot where a hole was brazed up! It must have blown up I the past, probably when it was still cost effective to repair it, and the pieces I found must have been stuff they missed.
I got everything all cleaned up and put back together.
it is a 1965 HG code posi unit.

I finished up the rear portion of the fuel line. I was able to use another front fuel line and with some creative bending, get it to follow the frame around by the back of the cab and come out by the original location for the in cab tank. the splice is right where the center cross member is.
I also re-bent the front line to clear the front cross member bolts, and come out for a V8 instead of the 292 it came with.

this should about cover this portion of the frame, so when I get the cab on, I wont have to take it off.
there are still a few things to fix up under the box and front sheet metal.

I got the bumper and grille support painted.

[Captainfab]

Looking good Jon

Glad to hear you got that seal out.

I see your 12 bolt has the good Dana posi unit.

[piratexpress1369a]

Is that a teaser for the color to come. .orange and white

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

Is that a teaser for the color to come. .orange and white

yep. the family voted between highway dept. orange, or army green , and orange won out.

this means, of course, that I am going to have to build another one, because I kinda wanted the green..... !!!

getting closer to putting the body on, there are a few underneath things that I have to wrap up, but I got the frame moved over to my house yesterday, and the box today.

I am trying to do at least something to it for at least an hour each day, and my 2 off days keep getting eaten up with winterization stuff out at the yard.

[CHIZZLER]

Looking good. Coming together nice. Im glad your going with orange because i am also thinking about army green for my crew.

[jonzcustomshop]

It has been a year!
not as far along as I hoped, but moving along nicely.

I have been trying to get a good non spare tire LH stepside fender put together. the one on the green box is smashed in the rear, and rusted in the bottom front, and along the top. about the only good thing about it is the part where the spare tire cut out would be is good.
I got another one with the green truck, it is straight, but rusted along the top and in the bottom front, it also showed some bondo that was cracking out....so I started blowing the bondo off.... pretty much 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick across the whole thing, and pretty tough underneath.
so I went out to the local yard and picked up a spare tire fender, this still has a little rust in the bottom front, but the top is good, but I will have to cut the panel out of the green fender and weld it in to make this one a non spare tire...
Which brings me to this:

Sometimes you meet the nicest people. A couple years back a guy stopped by looking for some stepside fenders for a build. I had some , but they were pretty tough, and I got him the # for the local wrecking yard so he could check out the ones there.
about a month ago, on a whim I stopped by his place to see if he had found any others on the search for his build. he hadn't , but said he would keep an eye out for me.

2 weeks later , he calls , he is over in Washington state, and found some at a wrecking yard, wonders if he should pick one up for me? He is over there while his wife is having surgery, and said he would be back at the end of October.
He got ahold of me a couple nights ago, and I went and picked up the fender, it is better and requires less work than the others I have. hopefully someday I can repay the favor!

[jonzcustomshop]

got most of the rust/paint stripped off the fenders, and hammered out the dents.
welded up a little 2X3 hole in the LH bed step.
got the yellow RH fender patched up: made my own patch out of some sheet metal and a hammer, and the used a couple rusty rear fender brace pieces, and frankensteined the lower portion with some sheet metal.
got the grille all welded up.

[jonzcustomshop]

I bolted a piece of cab to the rear mounts, and put the box up on the frame. I was happy to see that my measurements came out and that the rear tire is centered nicely in the wheel well.
I will have quite the chore with mounting the box though, it is a 60-62 box, and the frame is 63-66, so on top of making all new brackets for the frame, I have to narrow the mounting points as well.
my biggest concern was that the box ended up in the right spot, so now I can go ahead and finalize most of the rear end stuff and get the cab mounted.

I seam sealed all the welds and gaps on the cab floor.

I worked on the front cab mounts: I had some that I had cut off a 65, so I drilled the spots, only to find out that it is exactly the same underneath. under the cab floor sheet metal there is a metal tube between the floor and the brace, I assume to keep from pulling the bolt through the tin.
on the bottom you can see that the 65 mounts still have the hole for the 60-62 (some 2 ton and up trucks still used the outer mount) the measurement from hole to hole is 5 1/2, then I measured front to back on the frame and got 71 3/4, so I did those measurements on the cab floor and got the spot to punch the hole.
once I get the hole in there I plan on using the upper washer from the 65, and a metal tube like the factory did.

[jonzcustomshop]

I got the floor primered, and sand blasted and painted the rear wheels- a friend let me use his blast cabinet, but what a chore, that stock paint was really on there!

[65sub]

Nice progress on the truck Jon. I really like the orange paint

[piratexpress1369a]

For sure the Orange is going to make it stand out

[cooperhw]

Looking good. Keep at it.

[66-PMD-GMC]

That's a nice looking orange. Gotta paint code on that?

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by 66-PMD-GMC

That's a nice looking orange. Gotta paint code on that?

I would love to say that I do, but it is just rustoleum real orange... I sprayed some on the orange part of the cab and when dry you couldn't tell the difference!
hopefully at some point in this build I can get air and figure out real paint!

I bit the bullet today and got my self all sealed up and went after the underside of the floor I ground off all the dirt and most of the tar with a wire wheel brush, the undercoating on the back 1/2 is very thick, so I am just leaving that.

interesting that the back 1/2 under the tar shows some pretty thick stock green paint, the front 1/2 has a color that is not quite black, a little green when you grind through it, and kind of a green tint to it , also quite a bit of orange overspray all over.

a good thing was that I found a little rust that needs to be repaired on the pass floor board. there are also a few extra holes in the front floor braces that I might as well weld up while I can get to them.

[slammed427]

I can see why you haven't been working on the sectioned 60 project. This thing is sweet!