1950 gmc in alabama

[53GMC]

Like i said before ..i dont know whether to be happy for you or extremely jealous! haha but that truck is looking real real smooth britnjc! maybe youll have to drive on over to Georgia and let me drive it! haha

[GRIMSS]

Truck is looking great.

[britnjc]

thanks everybody. by the way 53 I would love to drive on over when i get her on the road to see your progress. I am looking at about three more months to get everything buttoned up and tested and the bed painted and put on. I hope it wont be that long but we all know it takes longer than expected

[Hart_Rod]

Nice job on your truck.

[c10addict]

Looks awesome!! Can't wait to get my 54 swapped!!!

[britnjc]

Well Well, Today I thought I would let the motor get up to temp and see how good my electric fan would cool everything down. It all started out well but then went down hill fast. I thought I would hit the go pedal and help it get up to temp a little faster. Keeping my eyes on the gauges I noticed they started jumping around and volt meter started jumping up and down, then it died. I was scratching my head then I got my answer. Smoke started coming out from under the hood then the cab filed with smoke. I then realized my battery cables were melting and so I went into a frenzy to stop the meltdown. I tried to raise the hood but karma must not have been on my side because it was the first time I had trouble opening it. I realized I must have had a short at my firewall studs that in turn melted my power wire from the battery in the cab that melted my carpet. I suppose I was lucky the fire didn't damage the paint. I will now move the battery to the firewall and keep it out of the cab. So hopefully new carpet and new battery cables and I will be back to were I was yesterday. I new I had a problem when I was starting it and getting a weak starter turn but did nothing about it. Word of advice don't ignore weak starter turns. after pulling old carpet and underlayment out and cleaning everything up I called it a night to let my frustration rest. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

[OrrieG]

Yikes! Glad you didn't burn it to the ground. I've had a similar situation once it's amazing how much smoke a little wiring can make.

[nickp51chevy]

Ya what OrrieG said, it could have been a lot worse, I think that you lucked out.

[tobins 52 gmc]

Well glad it was just a little fire ,especially with all that work done.Wounderning if you could help me .I have a 52 GMC and noticed that you are using a stering colum fron a s-10 .How is it mounted ands if you could show a picture of inside and outside .Please Thankyou Robert.I will post my build soon ,just need to learn a little more about the computer.

[47owner]

Nice GMC project. I have a 47 Chevy 3/4T On was thinking of doing a swap. Most of the threads I read have replaced the engine and rear end. I prefer to keep the engine and drive train in place. Do you know what the wheel base is on the LWB S10 4.3 ltr auto? Where did you get the swap kit from. Did you have to modify the frame to get the front wheels centered? thanks for all the great informaton.

[britnjc]

Thanks, The wheel base is 116" i believe. it perfectly centers the front and rear wheels in the wheel well with no modification. I used the ad-engineering kit for my swap.

[britnjc]

Well work has been going slow the past few weeks. I have since got my glass installed. A local shop donated their time and installed it for the nice price of free. I even tried to give them some cash for their work, but they wouldnt take it. Merry Christmas to me. It is so nice to make friends and contacts in the hot rod world. I also dropped it off at the alignment shop yesterday and the front was 6" out and oops I installed a rear leaf spring backwards. That explains the rear being out so bad. I will need to flip it before aligning the rear. I still have to remove LMC weather striping on drivers door and install the classic parts rubber so my door will shut right. I also am close to installing the bed. It is painted just lack painting rear fenders and repainting a running board due to a trailler loading accident. I will try and update some pictures soon

[53GMC]

britnjc......i had the same smoking problem and i need your advice....i hooked up my battery, cranked it up, and all was fine....no problems at all...then i shut the hood and the truck would cut off....so i opened the hood cranked it up, shut it again, and it cut off.....so, in my stupidity, i decided to shut the hood then crank it...i got lots of smoke so i cut it off raised the hood and it was smoking from the positive cable on the battery....i let it cool then cranked it again with the hood up...no problems.....any idea what this is all about?

[bjcaldwe]

The truck is looking fantastic.

[britnjc]

Thats strange. Mine ended up being the posive battery cable was resting against the exhaust manifold and when it got hot it melted the sheilding on the cable and caused a dead ground and melted the positive battery cable. so I just reran the battery cable and put sparkplug wire insulators on the positive cable where it was close to the manifold to shield any heat. But yours sounds like a different problem.I would check with a groud tester with it attached to the negative post and take the other end and touch you hood to see if your hood has a positive charge on it somehow. do you have any pictures of the engine bay that I may be able to look at. It may help diagnose

[britnjc]

Well it has been a while since I posted an update with pictures that is. I have mostly been finishing up a few of the things that dont show a whole lot but are things that make a more enjoyable ride. I got the front end aligned and fixed the rear end that was about 6 inches out of line. I had a spring on backwars and my drop block were backwards and I flipped them. Now my pinion angle looks alot better. Like I said I am not an expert I am a beginer and make alot of dumb mistakes but boy am I learning. I also removed my s10 wiring harnes and stripped all the tape off it and began thinning wires I didnt need. I sure hope it fires back up. But the under dash looks alot better without all those wires. Now some feedback is needed. The seats I am not in love with. I would rather have a bench but havent been able to locate the perfect one yet. any opinions would be appreciated or should i keep the ones I have and build a console to mount a child seat on. Anyways what you all are looking for is the pics wo here they are. Oh yeah the running board was a trailer loading accident. My budy wasnt watching and I got to close. The door panels I covered with vinyl. They were factory replacements from LMC.

[britnjc]

some more

[britnjc]

And a few more. The last two are pictures of weather stripping. The one on left is LMC and on right the CLASSIC PARTS. believe me CLASSIC PARTS is the bomb. The LMC one would not even let my doors shut with out putting super human strength behind slamming the doors. Cleaning old glue off is a pain that we dont have to do if we get quality parts. DO NOT GET LMC weather stripping

[nickp51chevy]

You did a great job. If you want to different seat look at a 60's (i think) F@&d truck seat. I have one in mine and it fits nicely plus it folds forward for easier storage access. It just needs to get re upholstered so it doesn't say the "F" word anymore, but it is actually a nice seat. If you want I'll take some pix for ya.

That sucks about your running board. Hope it buffs out.

[bjcaldwe]

The truck looks fantastic. Do you happen to have any pics of your core support without the grill installed?

[britnjc]

yeah nick let me see some pics. I will also look for some pics of the core support

[bjcaldwe]

Thanks. I was mocking up my front sheet metal yesterday and realize my core support had been previously modified.

[franky69c10]

man your truck is look'n GOOD, me and my dad are planning a s10 swap on his 52 cant wait ......

[britnjc]

well all my pictures are not on my pc. I had to remove them all when I had my pc repaired. They are on an external hard drive somewhere. I will try to get them soon. What problems are you having with your core support. any pics would be great maybe I can help you bjcaldwe

[nickp51chevy]

I'll PM you the links to the pix I just took I don't want to clutter up your thread.