'Wintergreen' 1969 GMC Build

[rusty_67]

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:



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:



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.

[rusty_67]

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



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...

[nuke1]

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.

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by nuke1

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.

Thanks nuke1, more pics to come tonight!

[rusty_67]

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...











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.

[rusty_67]

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



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...

[rusty_67]

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





Nope no such luck...










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.

[Tinkermc]

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.

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by Tinkermc

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.

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.

[67cheby]

great start, keep us posted !

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

great start, keep us posted !

Thanks Cheby, will do, more to come tonight!

[rusty_67]

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.



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.







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...

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by rusty_67

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.



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.







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...

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

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by gdavis

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

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

[nuke1]

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.

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by nuke1

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.

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.

[trac209]

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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[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by trac209

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.
Posted via Mobile Device

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.

[rusty_67]

Well So much for working a little bit everyday. I've been stupidly busy , 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.

[rusty_67]

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.



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://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...2012.01.22.jpg

[rusty_67]

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



Everything is fitting well so far.







I'm liking the way it looks

[67cheby]

Wow !

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

Wow !

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

[Xeen]

From my experience body work is hardly ever done right.
Most of these pickups are D.I.Y. for the main reason that they dont want to spend the money to pay someone to do it right and if it was done by a so called pro they usually bond the replacement panels on and then slather the bondo on.
These days to get good metal work you have to find a real metal fabricator who refuses to do it any way except the right way and those guys are hard to find.
Then on top of that it is hard to find someone who wont cheat you out of a ton of money by over charging for their services, I know I sound pessimistic and jaded but it is the cold hard reality of this world today.
I am looking forward to this build and cant wait to see what happens next.

[rusty_67]

Originally Posted by Xeen

From my experience body work is hardly ever done right.
Most of these pickups are D.I.Y. for the main reason that they dont want to spend the money to pay someone to do it right and if it was done by a so called pro they usually bond the replacement panels on and then slather the bondo on.
These days to get good metal work you have to find a real metal fabricator who refuses to do it any way except the right way and those guys are hard to find.
Then on top of that it is hard to find someone who wont cheat you out of a ton of money by over charging for their services, I know I sound pessimistic and jaded but it is the cold hard reality of this world today.
I am looking forward to this build and cant wait to see what happens next.

I hear ya, there are always guys around that will do it right, and for a fair price, but the problem is you typically have to get in line for them. Either that or start making friends.

Thanks, more to come...