My '66 LWB Restoration

[andgott]

Now that i've got my new shop built, It's time to start restoring my truck. This is going to be a LONG one- Time / budget are limited- But now that I have a dedicated area to work on it, that will no longer be a problem, I'll be able to work on it as slowly as I need to!

I've restored a lot of boats- But never a truck- So I'm sure I'll have tons of questions as I go. I'm going to document it well with photos as I'm working, mainly so I can remember how it all came apart so I can get it back together again, and hopefully so people can spot my mistakes.

I bought this truck a few years back, originally I had no intention of doing this much work, but as I started to dig in to it found that it needed far more than I had originally thought. The plan is to restore it as a nice driver, fairly close to original. I'm not worried about it being a show quality truck, I plan to USE it.

My truck has been in storage, under one of those Harbor Freight 'garages', for a few months while the new shop was being built. First order of business was to back her in the shop, and unload all the parts that I had been storing in the bed, cab, and elsewhere-



The A-Frame came in handy. A $50 find on craigslist, one of the best purchases I've ever made!



Once I got everything unloaded, I started working on disassembly. I plan to go down to the bare frame, since I'm replacing the cab anyways... I hope to remove the front clip as one piece.

After a few hours, I had managed to remove the doors, seat, some of the trim and lights, radiator, and a few other bits. I've been soaking everything in PB Blaster, which has really helped, and so far I've been lucky. I've got a lot more 'soaking' now with PB blaster, but I'm pretty happy with the progress so far.





I can see that I'll be going through a lot of PB blaster

-Andrew

[andgott]

Another day...

Whoever put this truck together did an, um, interesting job of it... There are fasteners of all sorts- One fender required a 1/2", 7/16", 10mm, and 12mm sockets to remove. I doubt it came from the factory that way. There were also a few drywall screws here and there, too. Luckily for me, they 'forgot' to install quite a few bolts, which has saved me some time.

It was my intention to pull the front clip as one piece, as it seems from other posts that this was the fastest and easiest way to do so. But, things didn't work out that way.

I am having a )@#@ of a time getting the bolts that hold the core support to the frame off. They've been soaking in PB Blaster for a few days, and I keep reapplying it, but they don't want to budge. On top of that, I snapped the nut holding the 'hidden' bolt holding the passenger side fender on... Grrr.

So, in the mean time, as I waited for the PB blaster to do it's thing, I just started pulling whatever I could get off, and made some decent progress-



The only thing that's still hanging me up, other than the core support, is the inner fender on the passenger side. I've got one bolt going in the firewall that's just spinning, and another at the core support that's stuck. Looks like I'll probably have to cut both of them.

But, the parts pile is growing-



EVERYTHING is getting tagged & bagged as it comes off the truck, so hopefully when I go to put it all back together again I'll be able to find most of it.

At least at the end of the day, It looked a little more bare-

[bruceandersson]

Looks like a great start. I've had problems with the core support bolts and have had to cut them to get the support off. Sometimes the old sawzall really comes in handy.

[ThinLizzy13]

Looks like you've made a good start. One of those boats will look pretty good behind that slick

[Rusty 63]

When i pulled mine apart i had better luck putting a wrech on one end & a breaker bar on the other & intentionally breaking the bolts.

It was quicker than cutting.

[andgott]

Looks like you've made a good start. One of those boats will look pretty good behind that slick

Thanks... I've already pulled one with it- The red one, which is a 1960 Glasspar Citation that I restored-


As for the bolts, I'm going to try an impact on them, if that fails, I'll cut them...

-Andrew

[Rusty 63]

Two bars. Right, left, right, snap!

[andgott]

Two bars. Right, left, right, snap!

That's the plan... I was a little too busy to get out to the shop today, and besides that, it was a little on the cold side out there, But I'm going to go at it with the breaker bars next...

If that doesn't work, I'll try the sawzall...

[andgott]

Painfully slow progress here... But I did get out to the shop for a little while. The core support is still not off, so it's time for the saw. I DID get the passenger side inner fender off at last, I had to cut one bolt. Gas tank is out, windshield off, and dash off.





I am supposed to be taking it easy this week, Doctors orders... Grrr.

[andgott]

I'm not sure what it is about this project... But every time I get started, something comes along that makes me stop! First it was the new baby... Then the move/new job, now I'm going to have surgery next week and will be 'out of commission' for several months. Grrr.

[1965fordf100]

Sorry to hear! I hope everything goes as planned with surgery and you can get started on the project again soon!