72 GMC 4x4 rebuild

[Crumley]

I went ahead and buffed and polished the truck today.....other then the burning thru the paint in some areas (leading edges) it came out looking great. I also installed the windshield wiper and rear view mirrors.

Notice the wet area under the truck. I installed a chrome plated pan on the turbo 350 trans..its is looking like the gasket isn't sealing to the chrome pan. Can the chrome on the flange be scuffed in order to get a better seal between the gasket and the pan? If it continues to be a problem I will install a plug in the factory pan and reuse it..

Pictures:

[Crumley]

Speaking of rear view mirrors...the factory mirrors are stainless steel except the brackets that hold the mirrors to the tri-pod. These brackets are carbon steel. The studs on one of brackets had broke off and some one had dobb welded the studs on.

While at work the outer day I found a piece of 1/2"OD sch 40 stainless steel tubing....a 3/8" tap will thread right into this tubing.....so I took my 1/2" EMT conduit bender and bent the 1/2" SS tubing into 90 deg ells....ran a 3/8" tap into each end. Now I have some nice stainless steel brackets to hold my stainless mirrors on.

Here are some pictures:

[ffp00ch214]

Wow ,great job!

[silver7]

Dude,

Your build is awesome and gives me motivation to complete mine. I love the old GMCs. If I had my druthers I would have gone with a 71 GMC. One question if you don't mind. How did you strip your frame and sheet metal?

Here is my build thread: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=376295

Thanks and please keep those updates coming!

[NEVERENOUGH]

If you haven't already you need to hit the trans pan surface with a wire wheel. This will help get rid of your leaking. We always do this to chrome water necks to get them to seal. I love this truck everytime I see it I go away motivated to work on my daughters 69 thanks.

[Crumley]

Thanks for the accolades. It has been quiet a learning experance.

Silver 67: The frame was wire brushed with a side grinder...any undercoating that was too thick for the brush was heated with a tourch and scrapped off with a putty knife.. After heating and scrapping it was then back to the wire brush. Get ready to use approx 6 to 8 flat wire brushes and 1 cup brush. Where I couldn't reach with the big wire brush I used a small one on a die grinder or a hand brush.

The paint on the body was stripped using approx 6 stripping disc's from the local hardware store, along with a wire brush and a whole bunch of stick on 80 grit sanding disc's on a dual action sander. All of the above work is very time consumming

Neverenough: Thanks for the input on the chrome...I haven't brushed the flanged on the chrome pan yet... but will do. I went ahead and drilled a 1/2" hole in the the stock trans pan and welded in a 1/4" pipe thread, half coupling, just incase the wire brushing doesn't work.

No updated picture's due to lack of funds...I am saving my pennies for the side trim mounting hardware...

My girlfried did get me a side feed Iwata air brush for Christmas so I will be expermenting with it on scrap metal to see if I can repair my painting mistakes without having to repaint whole panels.

Good to know some of you guy's out there have enjoyed the build thread..

Thanks

[silver7]

Thanks for the help. Hopefully I'll start stripping mine this week.

Almost forgot - I dig the custom mirror bracket. Well done.

[Crumley]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while ...Well I save up enough money to buy some side molding clips sets. A word to the wise, never throw away anything that is taken off durning the disassembly process. The replacemant clips where ok but thank goodness I had some of the old clips. I got the upper and lower side molding installed. The truck looks awsome. Unfortunantly I haven't gotten it out the last 6- 7 weeks due to rain or snow. I am now saving my pennies to get a new chrome front bumper and tailgate. So anyway for the picture hounds out there, here ya go:

[Crumley]

You konw I just noticed that the date on all my pictures is wrong....all this time I have been usuing this camera and never paid attention to the date on the pictures. I guess that will need to be fixed.

[sdailey]

The truck looks great. I hope my '69 K10 turns out that good.

[dieselarmy13]

Nice!

[88JRFAN]

Truck looks awesome!!!!

[Chevy1TonFun]

Beautiful truck! Great job

[CELA-69K10]

nice nice truck!

[Crumley]

Well the girlfriend and I spent the day crusing around in the truck. We only had one problem during our running around. The automatic shift linkage down at the trans came off (the u-bracket a little to close to the end). Rather fun working around a hot exhaust pipe trying to get it back on. Well any way, we got back to the shop and a few washers where used as spacers to get the u-bracket a little further on and we back in business. Otherwise the truck performed flawlessly. If I had to come up with somthing else wrong the steering wheel is too small 13-1/2" dia. It needs a larger dia steering wheel. To much see-sawing while driving.

[Crumley]

Thanks everyone for the support. This project is almost finished and I will be on to the next one. My girlfriend is wanting the 1980 corvette restored. I am not looking foward to working on a car with tight working quarters. I may just do a quicky engine and front and rear suspension rebuild, so she can drive it.

[Yukon Jack]

Stunning! Very stunning!

[silver7]

Love the truck with 35" AT BF Goodrichs. Well done Crumley.

[BurnoutNova]

Lookin good! I especially like the belt molding and upper trim. I wish I would have put trim on my 71 K10 when I redid it.

[Berndtc426]

Originally Posted by Crumley

More updates: Removing the under coating is a stinking filthy job but that is behind me now. I didn't re-under coat the outter portion of the cab due the the work that still nees to be done on the rocker panels and cab corners. Stripping paint off of the cab and re primering. Repaired CB antenna hole in roof, repaired small rust thru holes each side at lower back window, cleaned and primed and painted the radiator core support.

So what product did you end up using for the under coating? It looks really good!

[ERASER5]

Very nice truck. So, where did you get the rear bumper? I like it.

[Crumley]

Berndtc426: I used 3M rubberized undercoating. It can be picked up at most auto parts stores.

Erasers: The rear bumper is the one that came on the truck when it was bought. Most bumpers on the older model GM trucks where installed by the dealer. This truck was sold by Rush Buick/GMC out of Boulder Colorado. Other then that I don't know who made it.

[Berndtc426]

Perfect, thanks!

[68,69 K20]

Looks awesome, love the color

[Crumley]

Painted and installed the console this weekend.