68 chevy panel restoration

[vytamenc]

hi my name is chad and this is my 1968 Chevy panels' story.
back in 1978 this panel was purchased for $500 at a government auction by my father. from what him and i removed from inside of the panel it looked like it was used to transfer prisoners around in. we removed all of the steel expanded metal from the back of the cab area separating the front from the back and turned it into a work truck. my father used this work truck to install linoleum for 30 years. in my teenage years a remember doing numerous clutches, oil changes brake jobs and moving the shifter from the column to the floor to better accommodate my fathers handicap (partially lost a hand). growing up i always wanted to be a lawyer although i really enjoyed working on cars. when i graduated high school i went to work for Mercedes Benz as a mechanic and my father still had this panel. well my parents left for Nevada and continued using the panel as a work truck till they moved to new Mexico and sold this panel to a friend of the family. the friend of the family installed a new motor and muncie transmission along with rebuilding the rear differential. i soon found out my father sold the panel and was very disappointed. the friend of the family owned this panel for about 2 years. i then found out that he was going to sell it and i jumped on the opportunity to purchase back this panel. i flew to new Mexico to pick it up in July of 06 drove it all the way home through arizona with no a/c.parked it in my driveway for over a year and started the restoration feb 16th 08.


i have removed the engine and trans removed all wire harnesses and I'm going to completely strip the body. I'm going to replace the plywood flooring. remove the frame to remove all the rust and paint the frame along with power coating a lot of the suspension i plan on dropping it 2" installing disc brakes all the way around. the power plant i want to install is a 5.5l Mercedes supercharged v8 out of a amg sl. if i cannot acquire one of these motors i will be installing a Chevy LS1 motor.

well here is a few pictures of the panel and i will be updating my progress weekly as i can only work on this project on the weekends.

please any info you have would be greatly appreciated this is my first restoration

[vytamenc]

the panel pictures here.
Kodakgallery.com*Album Not Found

[bluestang67]

Vyt congrats on such a family heirloom. You can download pics in the album here also may be easier then the Kodak share . We do all enjoy pics of all stages so post em up .