Out of the Ditch = The Rebuild Begins ('72 GMC)

[GASoline71]

Quick update. Been a bit... We just sold our house and bought another one with a few acres. It's been a thrash-fest around here getting ready move. If you ever think you have too many car and truck parts... move across town... then you'll know you do!

Will be back into the rig sometime in late May early June after all this house stuff settles down.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Here we sit at the new place. Slow and steady wins the war... I guess. Poor old truck has been relegated to sitting under a tarp alongside the house until there is room in the garage from all of our junk that is still staged in there after the move.

But... we are getting closer to yarding out the engine and trans, and getting ready to swap to the new frame.

Also... I attached a couple pics of the hood taken from the rear near where it would mate up to the cowl. The drivers side is still in good shape. But the passenger side is the one that is tweaked from the wreck. It's pinched right along the crease line in the hood. You cats think this can be bent back into shape?

Gary

[GASoline71]

SPID says stock colors are Medium Green and White. The black top was there when I bought the truck. I do believe that there was a possible dealer option to have the top painted black, but I cannot confirm nor deny if mine was done in 1972.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Made some progress yesterday as my buddy Matt stopped by and we yarded out the 355 and the TH350. Which was one of the biggest obstacle for me to get moving on this. Feels good to get over a big hurdle.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Progress!

Working swing shifts this week so got some stuff done this morning.

Removed the heater box and core, Removed all the front SS brake lines I had installed about 3 years ago. Sucks that the fittings are a tad rusty , but the lines look fantastic. Finally removed the fuel tank as well. Looks like the cab will be moving to the 1969 frame next week!

Gary

[GASoline71]

Pulled the doors off today and will tear them down tomorrow. One needs a new lower door skin and they could probably both use lower sheet metal on the inside.

Got my Holley back from my carb guy today. Fresh R&R and decided to try something a little different this time. I've always built my SBC's for top end performance... but in this truck, I need some grunt down a little lower. So I changed out the 750cfm main body for a 600cfm main body. We'll see how this experiment goes. I can switch back to the 750 main body if I really don't like it all that much.

I think the smaller CFM will make a lot snappier and I'll still get the revs out of it I want.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Door day.

Taking the drivers side door apart. Looks like the inside door bottom needs to be cut out and replaced. I'm hoping that the original outer door skin can be reused. There are 2 small rust spots where it's bubbling a tad in each lower corner of the outer skin. So keeping fingers crossed that just a couple small patches and the rest can be reused.

The upper hinge pocket is toast. Don't know how I'm going to repair that. Will have to get creative I guess.

A shot trough the PO cut speaker hole shows A THICK undercoating from the factory.

Now I gotta get the wing assembly out and the regulator and latch mechanism.

Baby steps...

Gary

[GASoline71]

Getting that wing window out was a BEEOTCH!

Glass and regulator wasn't much fun either.

I'm sure it will be even more fun going back in!

Gary

[GASoline71]

Jumped over a big hurdle on Monday.

Finally amassed 6 of my buds to help life the 1972 cab onto the 1969 frame. Then we stuffed it into the garage.

Creeping Death will roll again!

Gary

[GASoline71]

Update...

With the silly season over and some free time coming up... I was able to secure a parts truck a couple weeks ago. Bought it from a board member and drove it the 2 hours from his place to mine.

It's a 1972 GMC C2500. The grille is in way better shape than mine and a lot of parts are going to be scavenged off of it for my build. Once I'm done pilfering parts from it I will part it out.

When I was driving it home I stopped for gas, and a young boy in the back seat of the car next to me rolls down the window and asks me... "Is that The Farmtruck?" I got a good chuckle out of that.

Can't wait to get some stuff done...

Gary

[GASoline71]

Today is one month from the day I ordered this kit. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday evening.

I guess all the talk of CPP having lousy shipping and customer service is correct. Even though I ordered through Summit Racing, I had to have Summit contact CPP 3 times to get any details about my order. Taking a month to ship in stock parts is a joke.

But, I have them and will install them this weekend. CPP will not ever get another dime from me.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Pulled the springs out of the 1969 front end yesterday. Now I know why there were a crap load of adjustment shims in the upper control arm and hard rubber spacers in the spring on the passenger side. The spring was broken.

Here is a shot of the drivers side stock spring next to the CPP lowering spring.

Gonna do ball joints today and paint some stuff like the 1972 spindles. Pic is the 1969 drums and spindles sitting next to the 1972 disc brake spindles.

Gary

[GASoline71]

More progress over the weekend. Plus today is my day off so still screwing around while the sun is out. Which has been a rarity lately.

The front end has been a nightmare. Taking apart 40 year old stuff always has bad things rear their ugly head. One of the lower control arms on the '69 frame is cracked from eons of rust where the shaft goes through it. The upper control arms were rust welded to the point they don't even move.

When I removed them the studs that hold the upper arms to the frame pretty much stripped all the threads away. So I'm sure it's just a matter of beating them out and beating new ones in. Fun times.

The arms from the '69 are all not in that great of shape, whereas the stuff from the '72 are in really good shape. So the '72 arms will get a cleaning and be used for this build.

Also the lower control arm cross shaft saddles came off the crossmember and the rivet that centers the shaft fell apart from rust. I'm sure there is an easy fix for this, but maybe I'm just over thinking things. So I have to address that too.

Getting the rear coils out was a bigger job than I wanted it to be. I had to grind off the bolt heads of the lower bolts as they were rust welded into the cups. They've been sitting for 4 days with PB Blaster soaking them. Still nada... so out came the grinder. I got the passenger side coil out and the upper cup off. But the drivers side upper bolt and nut is not budging. So the hot wrench and grinder will probably be used on that one too.

I keep telling myself how much fun this is.

But progress is being made!

Gary

[GASoline71]

More progress...

Gary

[GASoline71]

Thanks you'se guys! Yep... swapping all my old 1972 stuff over to the 1969 frame. I used the 1972 upper and lower control arms (installed new Moog ball joints) and put new cross shafts and bushings in them. I used the stock 1972 spindles and 2" CPP drop springs. I just bought new rotors, bearings, calipers and pads today.

I also picked up new Moog inner and outer tie rod ends today as well. I'm using all the 1972 steering linkage and the 1972 power steering box too.

I had bought new upper cross shaft mounting studs that go through the frame, but ended up just using a thread chaser on the old ones and bought new locking nuts for them.

It should be sitting on all 4 paws very soon.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Some more done today before swing shift. New rotors (and new bearings), new shocks, and calipers mocked up. I cleaned up and painted the disc brake backing shields as well.

The 1969 frame has the brake hose tabs on the rear of the crossmember, so I need to weld on new tabs in the front of the crossmember to run my disc brake hoses like they were on my 1972.



Gary

[GASoline71]

Lotsa stuff happened over the weekend. Ol' Creeping Death is sitting on its own paws bearing it's own weight. Been almost 2 years since those ET's were bolted to it.

Got some new bushings and grade 8 fasteners for the stock 1 1/16" sway bar too.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Working swings this week so got a little more progress done in the last couple of mornings.

I got pretty much everything I need off of the old bent frame with the exception of removing the bed, the front 2 saddles for the bed mounts, and the rear bumper. Everything else frame related is being cut up and going to scrap. The empty rear end housing, leaf springs and drop shackles might be spoken for, but I won't know if he's serious until I finally unbolt them from the frame.

I am going to use the driveline and original style carrier bearing and carrier bearing mount from my 1972. So I removed the rivets holding the 1969 carrier bearing mount and mocked up the bolt in one from the 1972. So far it looks like it will fit fine. But I won't know if I need to modify the length of my 1972 driveline from the leaf sprung truck to fit the 1969 coil sprung truck until I get the engine and transmission set into place. Luckily there is a driveline service shop just over an hour from my house that can do all the modification I might need. Or even build me a custom unit.

I have a couple more threads going in the main section only because I wanted help and opinions away from the build thread. But here they are if anyone might be interested.

Paint code thread: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=700867

Moving or not moving the fuel tank thread: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=703245

That's all for now...

Gary

[GASoline71]

The bed made it's way off the old frame over the weekend. Also the rest of the frame got hacked up to haul to the scrap heap.

I dig the spot on the front of the bed where the build sheet was taped from the factory as it rolled through the assembly line. I'm assuming the shot of white paint was to show that it was gonna have a white top. There is also a "painter's mark" on the passenger side. Cool what you find on these old rigs when you blow them apart.

Also had to break out the cheater bar for some "persuasion" on the front spring eye bolts. The rears were pretty easy since I had installed drop shackles in the past.

Gary

[GASoline71]

LOL...

Well poop again... Guess I'll get after it to see if some of the metal is bad beyond the frame rails. There is surface rust of course... but... it is an old GM truck... so I need to really check.

Rust never sleeps.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Cut the passenger side rocker panel off today. Was able to assess what a rusty hunk of junk I'm working with. LOL.

I only have one pic for now.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Thanks Oly! There are quite a few local PNW cats on here. It's pretty cool! I am planning on attending some shows and get togethers when she's runnin' again!

I have a few more pics of the rust from the passenger side rocker panel during and after removal.

Gary

[GASoline71]

The sheet metal fairy came!

I went over to Dreamers Rods & Pickups NW in Everett, WA and picked up a lot of tins to get the cab floor, kick panels, cab corners and rockers all fixed up.

Time to get after it!

Some of the metal in the floor is a tad pitted in some spots, but there is still good metal until about 2" from the edge of the inner rocker. I bought the front cab floorboards just in case it gets a little hairy in there and I need more metal. If I don't use them, they will be up for grabs here in the local WA North Puget Sound area.

Gary

[GASoline71]

Score! Finally found a drivers side front fender! Been looking all over hell and back for a GMC font fender in decent shape. I got more than I could ask for as this one has NO rust, just a couple small fixable dings. I had to make a 3 hour round trip for it, but it was worth it!

Gary

[GASoline71]

More metal carnage!

The inner rocker and the rest of the cab floor was cut out yesterday. Whoever was in charge of spot welding these cabs together needs to throat punched HA! Just when you think you gat them all, there will be 9 more in a 1" space to hold 2 panels together.

Anyhoo... I cut the rear cab corner off as well. The rear cab support was pretty much shot so I cut it off and fabbed up a new piece and welded it on. Hit the whole shebang with Rust-mort and let it dry overnight. Will shoot some primer over it all later today and see about fitting some new metal!

My stepson has been a big help (that's him in one of the pics using a cutoff wheel) as these almost 50 year old knees and back don't care for too much of working on the floor. Also I have Livrat on speed dial, and he has been of great help to walk me through this whole process! Thanks Mark!

And again, thanks to all of you who have posted up in this thread! I appreciate it all! Creeping Death will ride again!

Gary