1968 Gmc ground up restoration

[1malo68]

Another place to check out would be Vintage Chevy Trucks. They're in the San Francisco Bay area. Great prices and Bill is awesome to work with. I bought a '72 short bed 4X4 frame from him for $400.00 with no rust.

[tim's68gmc]

Originally Posted by Chucks72Longbed

Great looking truck! Has it spent its entire life in Washington? Quite a bit of rust eh. Just an hour or so north of you in Sedro Woolley. Those pick were definitely not taken in the last few weeks. Way too dry. Chuck

Yes the truck is a Washington truck. That's right these photo's taken end of last summer just trying to catch up to what i have gotten done.

[tim's68gmc]

Well the next thing we needed to do was remove the cab, so we built a cart to put the cab on and using the engine hoist we lifted up the cab. That was a job trying to get the center of the cab with the hoist so nothing comes crashing down. Rolled out the chassis and set the cab on the new wooed chassis.

[flashed]

While youre at it show and tell us about the nice little Nova hiding in the background .

[tim's68gmc]

Originally Posted by flashed

While youre at it show and tell us about the nice little Nova hiding in the background .

I purchased the 1972 nova from a 90 year old lady about 8 years ago with 104,000 miles on it. She purchased the car in 1973 and used it as her only car and parked it in her garage and used tons of turtle wax. The car has a straight 6 in it and has the stock tire and bumper jack still in the trunk. The things i have changed is swapped out the am radio, new tires and rims, up graded the carb to a 2 cylinder holly . The paint and interior are factory original.

[tim's68gmc]

Here are more pictures of the cab and frame separated.

[tim's68gmc]

Separated the front suspension from the frame and started sandblasting. This was done in the middle of November during our crazy warm weather.

[tim's68gmc]

November 22 and more sandblasting is done to the frame. We removed the rear end to make the chassis lighter to hang. Sandblasting the frame was a long process and i used about 600 lbs of sand which only set me back $60.00.

[tim's68gmc]

My son and I spent thanksgiving weekend building a paint booth and prepping the chassis for paint. Then we applied the primer. this is the start of the truck going back together.

[GASoline71]

Way cool!

Welcome aboard! I live up on Whidbey Island, but am originally from Orting. So I used to head in to T-town a lot back in the day!

Gary

[tim's68gmc]

Showing Bryce how to paint with the gravity feed gun. Bryce did a great job didn't get any runs. This was done thanksgiving weekend when the temp dropped down below 40 degrees outside, it took me about 3 hours to get the chassis up to painting temp.

[tim's68gmc]

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Bryce and i worked on sand blasting and cleaning small parts. Prepped the paint booth and during our Christmas break we primed and paint the small parts to the chassis.

[tim's68gmc]

Now starts the slow process of reassemble. put new bushings in the rear leaf springs, cleaned out the pumpkin the old gear oil was black and used a pudy knife to clean the build up of grease out.

[tim's68gmc]

The next thing we did was redo the rear brakes.

[tim's68gmc]

With some shopping around i finally got a disc brake conversion for the 8 lug truck. With new ball joints, tie rod ends, rotors, calipers, spindles. we reassembled the front end. We also got the parking brake reassembled with a few new pieces.

[cericd]

Chassis and brakes look great! I look forward to seeing this truck come together.

[tim's68gmc]

Originally Posted by cericd

Chassis and brakes look great! I look forward to seeing this truck come together.

Thanks trying to get a little work done every night after work but that does not always work out.

[tim's68gmc]

Started beginning of February working on the engine and transmission cleaning and then painting.

[tim's68gmc]

Painted engine and installed steering pump and the alternator. New water pump, steering pump and brackets all painted.

[tim's68gmc]

Installed motor mounts, Cleaned the transmission, changed filter and re-installed the pan.

[tim's68gmc]

Yesterday we re-installed the clean transmission back onto the engine. Installed new oil pump and pickup, purchased new oil pan due to the old one was all smashed on the bottom. Painted the transmission, oil pan and fly wheel cover bright orange. Installed the oil pan and fly wheel cover now the motor is about ready to set down on the chassis.

[swamp rat]

This is a 350, or is it a 327? I couldn't help but notice the alternator bracket is different than the one on my 72 with a 350, learn something new every day i guess.

Its been a nice built so far, are you caught up yet or do we have a ways to go yet?

[tim's68gmc]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

This is a 350, or is it a 327? I couldn't help but notice the alternator bracket is different than the one on my 72 with a 350, learn something new every day i guess.

Its been a nice built so far, are you caught up yet or do we have a ways to go yet?

per the build sheet and the numbers on the block it is a 327 and yes the brackets are different, my 72 jimmy has different brackets.

[steelhorse]

Looking good. Have you decided on a color yet?

[tim's68gmc]

Originally Posted by steelhorse

Looking good. Have you decided on a color yet?

looking at viper red with a reducer to make it a flat red.