GMC '64 build brought back from the dead? Big booboo

[Bradydz]

Well, I'm a little past the start of the rebuild, but I figure starting late is better than not starting at all? Bomp asked if I was going to set up a build, I figured it'd be a good idea to record what I can. I have taken a few pictures a long the way, I'm just not usually one to bust out the camera until after what I'm doing is complete.

I guess explaining what happened with my truck would be a good place to start. When I first bought my pickup, it had the straight six in it, which was on its last leg.
Seriously, it didn't even have the umph to go up the ramps on my dad's trailer. So we had to push it up. Ripped that out not too soon after, and tossed in a motor my dad had built some time ago, a 355.

Still mated to stock tranny, it became my daily driver. I ended up doing a couple modificatons as time went; a nicer stereo (seeing as it didn't have one when I bought it), LED 3rd brake light I had found on this forum, adding door jam switches, etc. I was very inexperienced, that motor swap was 95% my dad, attempting to show me what to do but I was so lost. Anyways, one of the last few modifications I did was brake drum rebuilds. I did take a couple auto classes in high school so I did know some of the basics, including brake drums. I was having issues with locking up on hard braking, go figure.
Few months later, still running great and kinda stopping okay.
I had been working at a gas station so my income wasn't too much, but I was offered a job getting into heating and A/C install, which I honestly didn't have a clue what it was about. But i heard the hourly wage and said I'm in. 2nd day of heading to my new job, and I come around a blind corner (just rained the night before as well) to find a bus stopped picking up children, as well as a car directly in front of me (about 300-500 feet); i.e. needed to stop quick. Truck said no way. Locked up just like before and I was sliding toward a 10 foot drop on my left. I quickly readjusted my direction as I did not think that would go "over" well, and aimed toward an embankment and hit it dead on at about 50 miles an hour. Hit so hard I came back out onto the road, dead middle. My face hurt and I was bleeding profusely, but all I cared about was how my truck looked.

(once bleeding stopped. popped a blood vessel in my nose which finally clotted)


(after 6 stiches)

I remember getting irritated all of a sudden, as my horn was just blaring constant. popped the hood to find that my alternator had chewed through all the wiring and must've completed the circuit for the horn.

Ripped the wire off the horn and started assessing the damage. My dad showed up not too soon after and we got the truck out of the road (rag joint held up long enough for one more turn off a sideroad before breaking!)

Wasn't in a place to afford to fix it and needed a vehicle fast, ended up selling it to my dad to fix and bought my self a V6 Mustang. The Mustang did good for what I needed it for, but something on it was missing. A spoiler! (There's a point to this story) searched CL for a while, found a guy selling Mustang parts. Gave him a call, he had one! wrong color, came back 2 days after buying it to find out he had recently gotten one that matched. Ended up never leaving as he says. Made a good friend, and got me into the automotive world, I've been learning a lot from being around him and helping him with misc. projects and tare-aparts.
Got rid of the V6, bought myself a 5.0 supercharged Cobra, been another fun project but I do love my car.

Enough about the F@!d, sorry I had to share it!

About 2 months ago I was thinking it over and decided I wanted to tackle getting my truck back on the road! As after 2 years, my dad hadn't gotten far with the truck itself, did find a rolling '63-66 frame (have yet to check the vin for the year)!

My head on with the embankment ended up shifting the front of the frame over quite a bit. He figured a new frame would be a better task, and easier to start at the bottom. I agreed and picked up the frame as well.

While delivering it to my house he reminded me about the crossmember swap so many have done before and I figured that would be a great project for me to tackle!

[Bradydz]

After getting it all home; I did a lot of research on that power/disc brake and power steering swap, reading, reading reading. Started searching Craigslist for a donor! FOUND ONE! '75 Chevy shortbed frame!

Tore into it that weekend. Got all brake lines and fuel line out to give me a rough guide, as my frame will have some differences. But since I'm going to run my own, a templete wouldn't hurt!
Got the crossmember off and swapped over in a night, was pretty proud of myself since I've never tackled anything close to this before and I was working alone with no cherry picker :P Just a little jack and a couple stands


it's off!

Anyone need an old one of these?

rollin' in, almost there!

It's on!


Ordered some parts! Ball joints, bushings, cab mounts comin', shocks, power steering box adapter bracket!

Ended up swapping the axles out of the 12 bolt on the '75 frame into the 12 bolt on the 60's frame. Was very happy to see they were the same spline and they fit! They're 3/4" longer but I don't mind the wheels sticking out a little more, will look more stanced! Swapped all the brakes off '75 rear as well, though there didn't seem much difference other than where the brake line lands on the cylinder, and the shoes looked like they had more surface area.. and of course the drums are plenty beefier!

Spent some time last night getting most of the undercoating off the frame, going to put some POR 15 on once I get that ordered... some spendy stuff! Also got my gearbox mounted last night, just need to drill the holes for the idler arm. How vital is it on EXACT location? I know you want the drag link parallel.. anything else to watch?

[Grizz1963]

Cool write up.

CHICKS DIG SCARS !!

Look forward to this unfolding as often the great builds start out like this, with a hiccup.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Neat project..the daily cobra is up on my list too!

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Bradydz, too bad about your crash. Nice to see that you're back to rebuilding the GMC.

[Bradydz]

Originally Posted by Justin@EntropyRad

Neat project..the daily cobra is up on my list too!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Johnny_Lamebridge

Bradydz, too bad about your crash. Nice to see that you're back to rebuilding the GMC.

Thank you very much! Hope it turns out like I want it to!

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Cool write up.

CHICKS DIG SCARS !!

Look forward to this unfolding as often the great builds start out like this, with a hiccup.

Haha my girlfriend digs it!
Thank you very much!

Nothing much done the past few days, haven't had a chance to get out and work on it, and still waiting on a few bushings... Think I'll get the POR15 ordered online and save a few bucks, gotta pinch where I can!

[Bradydz]

Had some free time today, got all the bushings in the mail yesterday, so I went ahead and worked on the truck for a while. Got the panhard bushings swapped, not too bad, hardest part was getting it back on with its little bend it had!

My breaker bar helped quite a bit on these 50 year old bolts. No match for Rigid!

Went ahead and worked on changing out the trailing arm bushings as well. Don't know if there is an easier way, but they fought me quite a bit on getting the clearance to get the new bushing in and the old one out. Jacked up under the arm, just had to put some muscle into it to get far enough from the mount.. Left one went fine, right one on the other hand.... Broke a chunk off. Am hoping it still has enough meat. I guess we'll find out when the truck is done.
I'm amazed at watching what some of you guys can get accomplished on here and I struggle with just swapping a bushing. I don't know, seems sad to me. But I am learning as I go so maybe next time will go smoother? I imagine that right side will cause problems down the road... GAH.

[Bradydz]

Well, worked a 12 hour day yesterday, and got off today by noon! Took off and stopped and saw my mom (bought her lunch) for a couple hours, headed home, took a breather, then went out into the heat! Decided today was the day to get the control arms off for swapping the bushings. So I tore into it! Again, never gotten into things like this before, was a new and interesting experience. Everything went fine for the most part, except those awful lower ball joints! Had some trouble, even with a pickle fork. But I got it! Didn't take much for pictures, but here is what I have.

What a mess.

Passenger.

Driver.

Looks like I'm going backward in progress..

Taking the arms to my cousin's work and getting the bushings swapped out; ordered my POR15 today ($38 a quart!) and it should be here by the 1st.
I sure hope this rides smooth when I'm done!

[Palf70Step]

Good to see you are going to bring the old girl back to life.

[Bradydz]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Good to see you are going to bring the old girl back to life.

Thank you very much!


Well, I dropped off my control arms, bushings, and ball joints at my cousin's work. He works in a diesel mechanic shop so he has all the right tools to get the job done! I helped start one but he had to head back to work and told me he'd spend some time on them when he gets off. Got a picture of him steam washing the arms before we started. Man does that work great!



Hope to hear back from him today! He may get the ball joints in too, at least get the old ones out. Hoping he will press the lowers in as I don't have a press. I can handle the uppers if he cuts the rivets out. Cant wait to get the POR and paint and get this thing swapped, brake lines next after I get it painted!

[Captainfab]

Running those longer axles really isn't a good idea. The wheel bearings may or may not be riding on a sufficient area of the axle. Then your brake shoes will not be making full contact with the drums. You will also have dirt, gravel. etc. getting inside your rear drums. I would strongly suggest the correct length axles. You will have to either buy the conversion axles, or have the original ones plugged and drilled to 5 x 5". But only modify the original axles if the wheel/axle bearing surfaces are in excellent condition.

[Bradydz]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Running those longer axles really isn't a good idea. The wheel bearings may or may not be riding on a sufficient area of the axle. Then your brake shoes will not be making full contact with the drums. You will also have dirt, gravel. etc. getting inside your rear drums. I would strongly suggest the correct length axles. You will have to either buy the conversion axles, or have the original ones plugged and drilled to 5 x 5". But only modify the original axles if the wheel/axle bearing surfaces are in excellent condition.

Thank you for reading through and giving me some advice. I wasn't sure if it'd be okay to run them or not, I just couldn't find any posts about it other than one other person saying they had done the same thing. I'll have to check with him and see if he's ever had any issues?
It does appear that it has enough surface to ride on, but the shoes was also a concern of mine. as well as the dirt comment.
I'll find out from a local shop how much it will be to fill and drill my 6 lug axles. Thank you for watching out!

[Bomp]

Glad to see you're back at it.
Sub'd

[Bradydz]

Well that was a lot longer of a break than expected. LOL

I ended up locking myself out of this account more-or-less. Just finally figured out how to re-send a verification so I could start posting again.


Life happens, and needless to say the truck still isn't running.
BUT...
Quite a lot of time and thought have gone into what I really want to do with it! I can't believe it has already been over 10 years since the accident.

I am going to work on getting this thread up-to-date on my forward progress I've had, and will continue to do so until I have it going again.


It now has a LQ9 6.0, with a F@$) T56. Details to follow.