'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Hello Everyone,

My name is Russ and I've been a long time lurker here. I've been driving these trucks for a while now, but I am just getting into my first build now. This site has been a wealth of knowledge for me in getting prepared for this so it only makes sense to share it with everyone here.

First let me on the trucks (67-72) I've owned to date.

First there was this 1970 GMC:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F...2/P8280008.JPG

Payed $2700 on ebay. It had a 283 and 2spd powerglide (not a numbers matching truck by any means). It ran and drove beautifully. I picked it up in Edmonton, AB not having ever seen it up close or even running. Ended up driving it 1300kms back to BC over winding mountain passes that very day. It performed wonderfully. It even looked pretty good (as you can see from the picture), but only from a distance. once you got up close you could see the signs of shoddy body work and obvious bondo rust repair. It had a solid frame though and really nice box. I ended up selling it recently for $1400 complete with a 68 chevy front clip.

The next one was a 1969 GMC:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f...0/P1010217.JPG

It was a great truck. It had a souped up (bigger cam/carb/intake) 250 I6 mated to a T5 5spd from an 80's camaro. It made it pretty fun to drive for an I6. It also had a solid frame and a good box (there is a pattern here). I used it as my daily driver/(house)work truck for a while then regretfully sold it for about what I paid for it. Still not sure why I sold it. I have vehicular ADD I think. If we had to go through all the different vehicles I've owned... well lets just say it could be a thread all in itself.

'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Unfortunately, I don't really have a before picture of my project. I bought it as an unfinished project from somebody else.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z...0/P1010089.JPG

The guy said he was sick and unable to finish. It seemed like a good deal for me. He said the body work was pretty much done, and it was all done professionally. The only thing it need was a box (at this point I still had my 2 other trucks so I figured I'd have a box). There was also lots of new parts. I had a QUICK look at the cab and it had lots of new sheetmetal welded in, so thats good. I took a QUICK look at the frame, it had been painted recently, not great paint, but I could redo. Since I'm always in a hurry I had a quick look through everything else, made a deal, and took it all off his hands.

And the build begins...

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Very nice, We are gonna need some more pics of your truck and your plans for it!!! You have had a few nice ones thou, glad to see that, and at lest where you live the roads are pretty nice, well at least the last time I dorve through there, about 5 years ago.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Thanks nuke1, more pics to come tonight!

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

I started by digging into the cab. I wanted to make sure it was solid like the PO said. So after some exploratory wire wheeling, I found out it wasn't...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/P1010082.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/P1010081.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9...0/P1010080.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/P1010075.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o...0/P1010074.JPG

So off to the sand blasters it went, then straight to metal/body work from there. It should hopefully be done and back into my garage this week.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

So while thats happening I might as well dig into the rest of it. How about that good running, recently rebuilt 283...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L...0/P1010083.JPG

Yeah it ended up having rust in 2 of the cylinders, needed to be bored out... guess thats my bad, should've tried to give it turn before I bought it...

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

So how about that frame maybe it'll be the diamond in the rough...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...0/P1010005.JPG



Nope no such luck...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMG_8153.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...0/IMG_8156.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...2/IMG_8161.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N...2/IMG_8162.JPG


Again, my bad should've taken a better look at the frame...

So I went back and forth a bit, but eventually decided to look for a new frame.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

So I found a decent frame for $100 then got it blasted for $150. Probably less than what it would have cost to fix the old one. Only catch was that it was a leaf spring frame so I'd have to grab a few parts off the old one and drill a few holes. Here it is in my garage after stripping the unnecessary parts off of it.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...2/IMG_9073.JPG

Now this truly is a build, rather than a rebuild/restore, pretty much starting from scratch.

So I might as well reveal my plans then. I guess I should explain the name Wintergreen. Not really much to it, mostly just comes from the colours I'm planning to paint it. I'm going to go with a green and white 2 tone in the Sierra Grande style with wood grain trim. Then I wanted to name it so I came up with Wintergreen. I do have some planse to give it a bit of a signature but those you'll have to wait and see.

The plan is for this truck to be my daily driver in the non-winter months, so it has to be able to do everything a truck is meant to do. It will stand about the same height as stock but will have air bags in the back to replace the coils for adjust-ability and improved ride. The only other suspension upgrades will be addco front and rear sway bars. I plan to add A/C somehow, decent sound system, and whatever else I want to have in my dd.

Drivetrain will be as follows (already bought and built):

1995 LT1 5.7L
0.030 over balanced and blueprinted shortblock, stock aside from the FP pistons
Ported LT1 Aluminum Heads w/ 2.00/1.56 stainless valves and dual springs
LT4 Hotcam kit w/ 1.6RR (minus the crappy springs the kit comes with)
ported intake (gasket matched same as heads)
30lb injectors
52mm Throttle Body
electric waterpump

1995 4L60E 4spd auto transmission
stage II build for 500+hp
2300 Stall w/lock up spec'd for towability

Auburn pro series limited slip rear diff
3:73 Gears

Their are a few more plans to iron out, but this is the way it headed for now.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

well i am surprizewd there were no tears in the pics. Seems th PO was not exactly forthcomming about the condition. You at least went to the source and now know whats what.. Good luck on the build.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

great start, keep us posted !

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Haha, no tears, a few curse words though. There are still lots of other good/new parts that will hopefully make up for it. Tach dash, recovered/restuffed seat, stainless bed strips with welded on studs (for smooth finish), new sport mirrors (square ones), new front and rear sport bumpers, etc. It all adds up.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Thanks Cheby, will do, more to come tonight!

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

The new frame didn't come without issue either. One of the frame horns was bent, but that's not to big of a fix. just grabbed one of the horns off the old frame and grafted it on.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-x...2/IMG_9075.JPG

After it was welded up i gave the frame a coat of hempel. I was tipped off about this product from another board member. It sprays pretty nice and is marine grade so should last some time.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-s...2/IMG_9170.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4...2/IMG_9173.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...2/IMG_9174.JPG

Front crossmember, a-arms, and front springs were all blasted and painted seperately. I should probably take more pictures. I'm just not that much of a photographer.

As you can see the frame is already dusty. Its only been painted a week but I've been working on redoing the soffits on my house (T&G pine) so the saw dust has been flying.

So we're pretty much caught up now, I am going to try and work on it at least a little bit everyday. You can see all the boxes in the background, there is no shortage of parts in my garage, just need time...

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Man you have a good size job ahead of you, I know all about set backs, it happens to the best of us. But it all depends on how we tackle it and the outcome in the end. You my friend have a good spirit, my gypsy cards say so!! lol. keep it up and before long that thing will be purring, great choice for an engine btw, will sound very healthy.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

I took my 68 down to the frame. I took the bed mounts off and I couldn't remember where they were. I see your and now I know. thanks and keep up the good work. From Florida

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Haha, well if your gypsy cards say so it must be true! I read through your 68 build, what a story. You my friend have a good spirit and I don't need any cards to tell me that. Congrats on the new job, I spent a couple months at a potash mine just outside of Esterhazy. Didn't get to go inside unfortunately, we were assembling a calcium storage tank at the site. Always makes me laugh when I drive by a potash mine, if you want a hill in sask, you gotta build it!

Thanks for the good words.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Haha, glad I could help! I got tired of grinding rivets so I decided to leave those guys on. Thanks

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Welcome to the forum. Nice truck and yes finding a rust free truck in Canada is about as hard as it gets. It doesn't look too serious. You want to see rust come to Manitoba or Ontario. I've seen trucks where there's not 5x5 inch square rust free metal.
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Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Thanks Trac,

Yeah, I don't think I'd ever buy a car from out east, kinda scary. You'd think it wouldn't be as hard in the Okanagan here, being a desert and all (although it's raining as I type this). Oh well, the nice thing about a project like this is it teaches you what to look for next time.

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Well So much for working a little bit everyday. I've been stupidly busy :waah:, work sent me to Sweden for the better part of November, and I've been continuing the reno's on the house, so the truck is always the first thing to get sidelined.

I managed to put some time in over the Christmas break though. So let the update begin!

I got the cab back from bodywork back in November. For something that looked fairly decent upon initial inspection, it ended being a bit of a sore spot. The PO had 'patched it up', but instead of cutting out the old rusty parts, he just grafted the new ones right over top. I'm no expert on bodywork, but that seems just plain lazy (not to mention stupid) to me. So it ended up costing more than I had hoped, but its solid now and back in my hands.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2...2007.52.32.jpg

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

When I had the engine rebuilt, I asked them to paint it dark green (to go along with the colour scheme on the exteriour of the truck. Well lets just say it looked like it came of the John Deere assembly line. Not that that is a bad colour, just wasn't going to work with this project. So I went ahead and re painted it. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...2012.00.56.jpg

After that it need somewhere to sit. So I went to work on putting the motor mounts together. The truck that I bought had motor stands from a 73-87 on it, so I decided to reuse them as the bushing inside were brand new poly ones from energy suspension. You can see the spacers on top of frame to make these stand work on the older frame.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...2012.01.10.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...2012.01.22.jpg

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

After I dropping it in I of course had to test fit the headers.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P...2014.08.11.jpg

Everything is fitting well so far.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-u...2014.08.27.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...2014.21.52.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k...2014.22.06.jpg

I'm liking the way it looks

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Wow !

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Lastnight I bolted the new Optispark on.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...2016.15.12.jpg

I have new SS alan head bolts for the timing cover (which can be seen where the opti bolts up) but unfortunately the head doesn't cover as much as the flange bolt did so it looks funny as I painted the timing cover with the bolts on. I'm going to see if I can find some SS washer to clean that up.

Next up, the tranny (hopefully start prepping it for paint tonight).

Re: 'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build
 

Thanks, and Congrats on winning Truck of the year. You deserve it; your truck is beautiful.