70 Power Wagon Build
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:30 pm
Hey Everyone,
Picked up a '70 reg cab shorty a year ago and tucked it away in the barn. Had 11 inches of lift on it and sat way nose high. 440 automatic equipped. Data plate says 318 4 speed D200. I planned the build pretty well with a good friend. We were going to make a long bed out of it and reframe it on a '72-80 long bed frame. So, work started... (I will post pics assuming I can figure out how :-) Using the later frame would allow for better steering geometry, easier parts availability. As we tore into things, we found A LOT of rust. Drivers floor totally womped, passenger side floor killed back to the front of the seat. Cowl by the fender killed, fixed once already, but obviously not so well... Rockers, made of bondo. What an amazing job. Even made the three ribs out of bondo. I give the guy credit. Spent a lot of time making it look good. Cab Mounts gone, etc. I stumbled onto Kenny Exline. I picked up ALL the panels from him. His work is AMAZING!. I also located a long bed in Virginia. Although pretty rust free, just ABUSED! Probably 50 holes drilled in it. Tailgate ROUGH. Found a CHERRY one In California. So, we got the cab off the original frame and mocked up on the new frame. Which was totally stripped down to two rails and crossmembers. Wire wheeled, bolted back together with all grade 8 fasteners and squared to within 1/16". Painted Gloss black. Mounted the rears to make it a roller. Measured wheel opening centerline and we are mounting the cab on the frame to center the front tire. Just need to make a front cab mount for the frame next. Then its cab sheet metal time. :-( not gonna be fun, but it has to be done.
I have another friend working on the bed at this point while we are doing the cab. The holes are slowly getting welded up and Kenny Exline to the rescue again. He made me two lower rear end caps for under the back up lights. He also made two lower bed pieces from the wheel lip back to the end cap as mine were rusted and just destroyed from mishandling prior to my ownership. Again, the stuff is AWESOME! Sorry for the long post, just have not seen really anything on reframing to the later frame and thought someone might be interested. Pics to come when I get a little more time!
Jamie
Picked up a '70 reg cab shorty a year ago and tucked it away in the barn. Had 11 inches of lift on it and sat way nose high. 440 automatic equipped. Data plate says 318 4 speed D200. I planned the build pretty well with a good friend. We were going to make a long bed out of it and reframe it on a '72-80 long bed frame. So, work started... (I will post pics assuming I can figure out how :-) Using the later frame would allow for better steering geometry, easier parts availability. As we tore into things, we found A LOT of rust. Drivers floor totally womped, passenger side floor killed back to the front of the seat. Cowl by the fender killed, fixed once already, but obviously not so well... Rockers, made of bondo. What an amazing job. Even made the three ribs out of bondo. I give the guy credit. Spent a lot of time making it look good. Cab Mounts gone, etc. I stumbled onto Kenny Exline. I picked up ALL the panels from him. His work is AMAZING!. I also located a long bed in Virginia. Although pretty rust free, just ABUSED! Probably 50 holes drilled in it. Tailgate ROUGH. Found a CHERRY one In California. So, we got the cab off the original frame and mocked up on the new frame. Which was totally stripped down to two rails and crossmembers. Wire wheeled, bolted back together with all grade 8 fasteners and squared to within 1/16". Painted Gloss black. Mounted the rears to make it a roller. Measured wheel opening centerline and we are mounting the cab on the frame to center the front tire. Just need to make a front cab mount for the frame next. Then its cab sheet metal time. :-( not gonna be fun, but it has to be done.
I have another friend working on the bed at this point while we are doing the cab. The holes are slowly getting welded up and Kenny Exline to the rescue again. He made me two lower rear end caps for under the back up lights. He also made two lower bed pieces from the wheel lip back to the end cap as mine were rusted and just destroyed from mishandling prior to my ownership. Again, the stuff is AWESOME! Sorry for the long post, just have not seen really anything on reframing to the later frame and thought someone might be interested. Pics to come when I get a little more time!
Jamie