Ok so this will be my first DOW build other than the Farm All M but that one dont really count and it wasn’t mine. lol.
So I have pulled the cab off the chassis and built a cradle so that I can restore the floor pan. Once I got this on the cradle first task was restore the exterior metal so that it will have as much integrity as possible before I start cutting out the interior floor pan and floor supports.
So that is where I started I replaced both cab corners, rockers and the front lower pillars of the cab with new metal. I deleted the hole for the fuel filler neck and pulled out all the dents and restored the back side of the cab. Apparently this truck was rear ended at one point in its life and shoved the box into the back of the cab. So I have that restored along with new doors and front fenders installed for alignment and also to add integrity with the door closed and latched to keep things in alignment as I reconstruct the floor supports. So for now I am going finish some sanding work and primer it to this point. There will be lot more body that will come later but I want to get the new floor reconstructed first before doing the finishing body work.
I decided the change up the paint color I was going to go with an off white but since its the Doomsday Chevy Project now it sort has a theme now. So Im going to go with a semi gloss urethane black paint. Im planning to build a custom fab flat bed with a teamed gasifier system integrated directly into it. It will have integration for tools for wood processing on the fly along with a kiln. Planning a small 24 DC generator system with LifePo4 battery bank and 5 kW inverter for running this equipment (electric chainsaw and off grid power general use.
The primer coating on the fenders are pretty close the what the finished coating will look like. More to come stay tuned
The sad thing is that cab was still in better shape then my 71 C10 no floor pans, rockers, cab corners, lower post it was so bad. If you wanted to keep something keep it in your pocket, if you set anything down anywhere in that truck all it took was one bump and through some hole into Narnia it went! Miss that ol girl, best 500$ I ever spent
LOL yeah that much explains this truck. There is nothing left from the lower body line down. lol. Its all gone!! The passenger side rocker was replaced with two X four and even it was rotted!!! haha. This will be quite the challenge for me, Im doing it just to see if I can and to learn something. Ive restored quite a few square bodies but none of those were even close to this thing, They just needed cab corners and rockers.
Every Chevy I ever had was missing the rockers, round fenders, squarebodys, S10, blazer, even my 2001 Silverado, gone. I dearly love the style of Chevy trucks and respect there drivetrain but every manufacturer has there issues
Here are some better pics of whats left of the floor boards. Its hard to get the details especially now that there is bondo dust everywhere. I bought a gallon of it and probably 2/3 or more is now dust on the floor.
Well the plus is that every body panel on that truck is available including the floor pan if you didn’t want to have to fabricate it. Original power plant? I have to assume that on a doomsday truck it won’t be an LS swap.
It has a 283 with a two barrel that will stay. My experience with them is the two barrels actually worked better than the four barrels. Yeah I was thinking of converting it back to points. It currently has the HEI distro on it.
Yeah there is nothing you cant get for it and most parts are fairly cheap. The floor pan is $1000 shipped so way over my budget. I already have the sheet metal and it shouldnt be anything I cant handle I have a CAD system to model it and all the equipment to make it.
Are you going to hybrid it? I’d leave the electronic ignition in place and just keep an points distributor stashed in case of an EMP type event. Even a spare module in a metal box. I have an old gutted washing machine encased in concrete with a styrofoam liner that I keep a spare laptop and some other electronics in. I don’t care who thinks I’m nutz.
Yeah not sure how I would hybrid the carb though. Maybe get a twin two barrel carb intake manifold and put a dummy carb on it? Then run the chargas in the dummy carb, Yeah thats a great idea with the HEI Distributor and will be what Ill do.
I think I’d hybrid with propane. Simple on and off solenoid with a simple injector beneath the carb, like a NOS plate. In Doomsday gas will go fast but there will be a fair amount of propane tanks under BBQ grills. You can probably tell I’ve been thinking about this for a while.
LOL I love it. That is whole point of doing the theme thing. It makes it more fun. But at the same time this may just be needed. I could possibly make it try fuel? That would be pretty cool.
no floor pans, rockers, cab corners, lower post it was so bad. If you wanted to keep something keep it in your pocket, if you set anything down anywhere in that truck all it took was one bump and through some hole into Narnia it went! Miss that ol girl, best 500$ I ever spent
