After a long break, I finally have some progress.
Financially, I survived the wedding of my only daughter:
She grew up being driven and later driving my white 71 GMC around town with her Dad or her friends, so she asked if my new son in-law could drive them off in it. So cool, and now I'll never get rid of that truck. I had to resolve an overheating issue, but thankfully, it only took a new distributor to fix it. The truck cleaned up nicely and drove perfectly. Everything went off without a hitch.
Fast forward 4 months and lots more use of the GMC than the previous 8 years, the truck would start up fine but developed a knock after warming up. So I justified to my wife that it was time to rebuild it, and it just so happens that this might help me solidify the shop for the drivetrain on the blue 72.
I did some research on Robinson Restoration Services in Denton to do the work. Thank you @lil hoodlum for the recommendation. I went and found a tow dolly on fakebook marketplace (always wanted one), and you know I had to refresh it with new paint, lights, wiring, added a storage locker and rewelding a mangled fender. Here is the before and after.
Dropped the GMC off this morning and talked with Keith about all I wanted them to do while the motor was out. Other than what they recommend for the motor after inspection, I'm thinking of adding overdrive to the 3 speed, ceramic coat the headers, fix the wiring for one of the 2 electric fans and price out an EFI system.
Here is where the blue update comes in. I made sure to drop that I have a beautiful 72 with no rust that needs a motor and transmission. He quickly pointed out that he had a customer who might be selling an incredible new SBC he had planned to drop into a Buick Grand National. Obviously, they discouraged the guy from the swap as that would significantly drop the value over restoring the original v6 Turbo. The guy had some family issue come up and also heard their wisdom. Keith said he might sell the motor for what he has in it. From what he says, it is a Dart Motor (
https://dartheads.com/) and puts out over 500hp. That's a lot more than what I planned, but if the deal is right, I can't turn it down. I'll send the spec sheet when I get it.
So you'll get a mini 71 update stream until we get back over to the 72.
Thanks for all the great feedback up to this point!