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Here we go.....
To start out if you haven't been following my other thread here's a link to it......
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=37445
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So like I said in the other thread my wife wanted a slick, yes this is going to be another complete CV frame swap just like the unibody , we have been looking for another uni or SWB truck for a couple months, and they are getting harder and harder to find something that isn't just a pile of crap that the seller wants $3k and up for. Like the uni build we will be setting a budget and a loose time frame to finish this truck, looking around we finally found a '65 SWB style side truck that was a couple hours away, the truck looked good enough in the pictures but we had the seller send more of a couple areas we wanted more than a general view of.
An interesting side note is that the seller was a young guy I'd say in his 30's that travels all over the country buying trucks then brings them back home and parts them out selling the parts on the internet or locally, the truck we bought came from the east coast and doesn't appear to have seen a lot of road salt in its life, not that there are not issues but compared to the '62 uni this truck is in very good shape for its age. He listed it as a whole truck for that reason.....too good to part out.
Of course we paid more for this truck but if you look at it from a cost to build point of view and start adding up the sheet metal we had to replace in the uni that is still good on this truck like the inner fenders, core support (will need some repair I think), rockers, door sills (area where the '62 has a step up inside), door hinge pockets, etc , it becomes a wash price-wise bringing the cost down close to what we had invested in the uni when the sheet metal was completed on it.
It's not that the truck doesn't have issues, it will at the least need a drivers floor pan, the rear of the cab behind the bed around the corner from the cab corner is rotted (will get cut and reshaped to fit the CV frame), the floor bracing mid cab is rotted (gets cut out for the CV frame swap), but both of the front cab mounts are intact and probably usable if they fall close to the right location. There are other issues that I'm sure will be uncovered as we tear the truck down and I'll probably replace the passenger cab floor pan since it's pitted pretty good, the lower hinge pocket on the passenger side has to be repaired, but the rest of the truck is really solid making it a good find IMHO.
The '65 will need a windshield it's cracked, but the rest of the glass is in good shape, I will have to remove the rear glass and replace the gasket while doing the body work, of course all the door stuff will have to be done because it's all original and shot, the truck was originally green and someone spray bombed the interior black, it's a real bad job so the dash will have to be sanded and repainted.
Someone who didn't really have full function of their brain cut holes in the doors for speakers, but I guess decided the removable door panel would be too easy and cut the actual door including the interior bracing so it'll get speakers back in that hole, I guess the upside to that is it will provide access to install the power window switch in the door in a good location...lol
The VIN for the truck shows it's a 1965 but I was told the grill is a '66, the dog house on the truck along with the tail gate are white under the gray primer but cab and bed are the factory green....this is going to cause us to give a lot of thought to the exterior since we again want a patina truck that doesn't have a 10k paint job on it, but it also at the same time opens up a lot of options we didn't easily have on the uni by keeping the blue paint on it. (you'll see later)
The '65 appears to have been someone's project that was abandoned, it does have a running 302 in it that I know nothing about, but a shot of carb cleaner and it fired right off, newer wheels (tires are shot), and working brakes, 3 speed floor shifter, all of which will be for sale or trade shortly along with the chassis either complete or parted out. Because it was a project there are things missing off the truck, no interior rear view mirror, no sun visors, no external mirrors, fender emblems, radiator, antenna, are also missing....but still a good solid body to start off with.
We also have a lot of the materials left over from the uni to fabricate the mounts so that will help the cost too, it is going to give me a opportunity to switch out the seat in the uni for something else, along with the steering wheel in my truck, since she like both of them and I can do the proper mock up on her truck to see what length column to use in it with the parts we have, like I said before she's 4'11" so we need to consider a lot of things we didn't in my truck.
It will wind up being a similar build to the uni but we haven't located another CV yet so hopefully we can find another one around the same age '98-'02 that doesn't have 200k on the clock and is worth the effort of doing the body swap....we'll see how that goes people are getting wise to the usefulness of the panther chassis and that is driving the price up quickly. We do still own the '94 CV we originally bought for the uni but I really don't want to use it, it needs some work and while a dependable car I'd much rather have another P71 since I'll be reusing the CV electrical harness again and pretty well have that figured out what to do and not to do, and there are other advantages of the newer chassis that the older ones don't have.
So there you go hope you'all enjoy the build.
Jon