One of the guys I work for was looking for some body parts for another project. He came across these two Patrols, both 66's, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on craigslist. I had seen the Patrols before on Ebay or craigslist and they had been for sale for at least a few months on and off. Maybe you folks recognize them? The owner of these two Patrols and the seller struck a deal and I was asked to go on down to Colorado and pick them up. A buddy has a big HUGE car hauling trailer and a Chevy Duramax truck to haul it with so we went on down to pick them up. Two Patrols just barely fit in his trailer but they do fit! This was last April.
We get to Colorado and find the two Patrols, one is a hard top and one is a soft top. The hard top is rough, head off the engine and the body is pretty shot. It is just a parts truck. The 66 s/t however, shows promise. It is totally untouched, it does show 49yrs though of living life in Colorado. We are told the soft top is showing original miles at just over 15,000. It runs and I take it for a drive around the block but man it runs real rough. We load them up and bring them home.
Once home I start checking out what we have and the 66 s/t more. The oil in the motor is not good and smells really bad like gas. Plugs are fouled badly and the more I run it the more oil it has in it! I decide this is gas going right past the pistons and adding to the oil. I do a compression test and it is low, all cylinders are about 100. It is a little beat up with some dents and has some rot in the typical places but it is very original and pretty complete. We decide it is worthy of a restoration especially if we get a few body pieces to replace the damaged stuff. The owner wants to do as light of a resto as possible, still have a really nice truck though that is all original that he can drive around and use. Take up into the mountains and not worry to much about it. So that is what we are aiming for with this one.
The engine was taken to the machine shop last winter. It just got finished up and I am picking it up next week. It got a full rebuild, top and bottom, all new parts using P40 & PPU stuff from MotorPower. By wear on the engine, we are not thinking that 15,000 miles is original, rather 115,000. I took the Patrol to our upholstery shop last fall since it has a complete soft top frame on it and will be used to build the canvas off of. So this truck has not been at my shop since last fall and won't be coming back until canvas is done. They are doing seats, door panels and shifter/e-brake boots at the same time. In the meantime I have torn down the 66 hard top to use for parts. The story goes the soft top sat out in a field for many years outside Gelnwood Springs. When I pulled the covers on the trans & t-case I found rust. That, I believe, is due to sitting in a filed unprotected, rain and snow melt went right down the trans shifter. However, when I pulled the covers on the spare gear boxes from the hard top I found them to look really nice. No visible chips or scars in any gears, synchro rings actually look decent too and zero rust. So we are happy about this and having a set of good gear boxes.
Not to much else to tell right now. The Patrol is going to stay red and it is looking like the canvas will be tan, that is still up in the air though. Once I have the engine and all the parts needed to rebuild the trans + t-case I can get the drivetrain all assembled and painted. Not a lot of detailing planned on this truck and probably just spray the whole drive train as an assembly.
Here we go with pictures....
this is straight and not all lumpy which is nice
pulling the engine before the truck went to the upholstery shop
motor out and Patrol ready to go
cleaned up the drivetrain with a hot water pressure washer
Any comments on the "L6027" on this side of the block? The engine # is P 45407 so I don't see any connection there.
tear down of the 66 hard top
Didn't hit the 66 hard top with the Hotsy but gave it a good scrub anyways
then yanked it form the truck
That is about where it is now. Like I say once I have all the bearings and seals needed for the trans + t-case in hand I will rebuild them and mate them to the motor. Get it all painted up and ready to go into the Patrol. I also have seals and bearings in route for the axles so I can rebuild those too. Once the soft top is made we can pull the body off the chassis and I can get the chassis all done while the body is being restored. Not sure this truck will be 100% done this year or not but I should have the rolling chassis done sometime this summer.
I hope you enjoy this restoration and follow along!
Cheers
