My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

THE ELECTRIC CONVERSION STARTS AROUND POST #176

"Hey man how much you want for that truck?" I asked Big Al

"You want it?" Al replied

"What year is it?"

"71"

[poker face on] "Sure what you want for it?"

"For you $1,500"

and that's how I added Dusty to the stable along with Rusty and later Busty

and then we moved to a new house and my computer crashed and I lost all these pictures till now, I just found them by accident four years later

so Dusty was a Poster Child for a Basket Case, no hood, no grill, no bed, no tailgate, no rear axle, no engine, no transmission, just a carcass (I didn't even know it was a GMC at the time, I thought it was a Chevy)

here are the first pics of it after I bolted up a rear end I found on Craigslist and Al told me about a bed he had in his back yard, so we put that on it, he also threw in a 350 SBC and a TH350 he had hiding in the garage, and then he gave me the hood, and maybe some more other parts

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

having two trucks already (and a wife) I had to hide Dusty somewhere, what better place than my mom's house, she was retired and bored out of her mind, and this would give me a chance to visit her on the weekends to work on the truck, plus her house was closer to Al's than mine

and that's how she became the "Project Supervisor"

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so mom and I went to work, yes she is not afraid to turn bolts, and is great at cleaning stuff

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

turns out that's a pretty good Mr. Goodwrench crate motor

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

after reluctantly learning about all the many front bumper bracketry variations GMC offers we found a matching pair and bolted on the front bumper and the hood, and Dusty began to look like a truck

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

and how will we keep those 95 galloping ponies at bay you ask?

well with Drum Brakes at all four corners of course!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I see a hole and I fill it

Re: My Dusty 71e Electruck
 

the bed had a few deep scratches on the rear passenger side :eek:

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

... but nothing that wouldn't buff right out

...

(I just noticed that headboard right next to the bed... get it, headboard)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

you just have to use a good abrasive in a circular motion

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

and here it is glued back on the truck

I figure 1/2 a gallon of bondo and some distance and from 50 feet away it will look as good as new

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

here's the other side for a stare and compare

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

with the engine in to make us go and the drum brakes to make us [ahem] slow down, we turned to the point and shoot stick (see what I did there, "turned" ha ha)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I recall mum getting me this OEM three spoke steering wheel for my birthday, and it wasn't cheap I think it cost 1/10th of the truck, but I absolutely love it, thank you mom, we know you are on a fixed income, ha ha (can you get us some gauges for Christmas - please and thank you)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMC a Mother & Son Project
 

Nice project and good score! Great work on the bed side. Will your mom drive it when you get it drivable?

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Hmmm, I don't thinks so she's too busy driving me crazy and she hardly drives her 2010 Honda Cervix (has only 30,000 miles on it)

by the way Ryan that's quite a line up you got there in your sig !

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

this was either an extra AC Heater Box or after we deleted it

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

and this is how we plan to control the fuel leak

looks like an Eddie Bauer edition

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I recall my Italian buddy Pontiac Mike really wanting to know the rear diff ratio, so we did this, boy what a DIFFerence

looks like 41 divided by 11 = 3.72727272727272...

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

... 72727272727272727272

Re: My Dusty 71 GMC a Mother & Son Project
 

Thanks. The carb looks like a nice unit and the 3:73s are always nice!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

here's a look at the passenger side door, and you can see how badly the rear of the bed was damaged in this angle

and those Eagle Eyed amongst you may spot the world's most hideous seats

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

as ugly as these seats are for some reason I skinned them, washed the covers and re upholstered them, why I do not know? ha ha

these will be hitting Craigslist soon!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

speaking of seats, let me take you inside

it used to look like that, and now it looks like this (progress not perfection)

I am going to clean and paint the inside of the cab, here I was just trying to sort out the Christmas lights

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

oh yeah, I know you all wanna see more messy wiring pics but let me share my seat huntin' and fishin' story

every year, maybe twice a year Pick N Pull has a seat sale, so I goes and I buy these all manual bucket seats for I kid you not $15 bucks each (then pay $600 each to have them covered in cow skin, ha ha), now they is getting harder to find but man do they make great seats

they come from early 90's GMC Sierras and they are the 40 of the 60/40 bench arrangements