1972 GMC "the beast" c20

[292farmer]

id like to introduce my self my name is kyle smith i am 21yrs old im married as of this past august 22nd my wife's name is jessica shes 23 but don't look it and im a lucky guy as she is fully supportive of my hobby of collecting and working on cars and trucks,
now to what u all want i recently in october traded one of my trucks a 1986 chevy k20 for a 1972 GMC c20 with a 292i6 4spd manaul(sm465) dana 60 rearend with 5.13 gears its a long bed with about 87000miles
so far ive bought a battery replaced heater core rewired half the truck as the wiring caught fire(someone skipped the external regulator) replaced with 1 wire alt. installed exh. gasket installed tach and repaired front fender pretty rotted as u see in the pics. rebuilt carb, rebuilt dist.
i posted a pic of the 86' so u can see what i traded and thats my wife by the trailer.
i'll post more as soon as i can

[292farmer]

some more

[292farmer]

thought you'd like the spid

[292farmer]

last pics for now.
right now the truck is my daily driver, work and play truck.
im not sure what my final plans are yet, but i do know im keeping the 292i6 just modifying it ive decided on a offy 2x1bbl intake headers clifford cam with 272* adv 214* at .050 and lift is .524" and overall compression of 9.5 and a lump port kit and 1.94and1.6in valves
i want to put disc brakes in the rear but cant find any kits, so i was thinking of getting a dynatrac dana 60 prorock comp. axle that comes with disc brakes 4.56 and a locker improver ground clearance figured it would be a good upgrade.
keeping body stock but dont know what else im doing yet.

[292farmer]

does any one know how hard it should be to to replace the front two cab mounts under floorboards? do i have to unbolt the whole cab or can i support it with jacks unbolt just those two mounts and replace them? was looking under truck to find grinding noise and noticed those mounts are non exist.

[Wideopenracing15]

I THINK you can just support the cab, but i've never actually done it. I'll let someone else answer that. I need to do the same. Oh and I can't wait to see howthat motor turns out.

[Wideopenracing15]

Oh and my steering wheel is identicle to yours. It's cracked in the same exact places lol

[292farmer]

yeah the ones i see are all cracked around their i imagine its a molding mark or weak point when they were made. im thinking about buying a second inline motor and tearing it part this winter to get myself familiar with the inline motors and so i have a extra motor to throw in the vehicle to keep it running when i do the final build so it dont sit and collect mice and rust any more then it already is should do body and frame before motor but havent come up with a final vision i forgot to say also that dads buddy plugged the numbers into a computer dyno sim and he came up with a rough estimate of 295hp@ 4600rpm and 430t@ 3300rpm new redline of 5600rpm not 4000rpm and off idle i should start at 325+tq depending on exact comp. and carburetion

[Wideopenracing15]

That would be pretty sweet! I have a dyno sim on my laptop that doesn't really work. I loved that thing.

[gmc1971harwich]

Hey Kyle welcome to the forum, you will find this forum very valuable when your trying to track down parts and to diagnose stuff about your truck. nice to see another new englander. Im from Massachusetts on the Cape, and also was married on the same day as you last year, i own a 71 GMC 3/4 ton 2wd pickup that im fixing up. good luck with that 6 ive heard alot of good things about that motor being really reliable, im running a 327, 7004r in mine.

[292farmer]

thanks for the welcome, is yours a leaf or coil suspension in the rear? i love the coil suspension right now, needs a sway bar but goes down the road beautifully, im afraid to touch the suspension in case i lose how it handles lol
it definetily keeps the tires touching the ground no matter the terrain i've taken it off the road a couple times along trails following powerlines. that's actually one of the pictures,the one im standing next to in the woods

[Wideopenracing15]

Your lucky I hate my leaf springer.

[292farmer]

well i went and bought my beast a early christmas present i found for 75cents a gas can made in the 70's i figured it would be a good period accessory for the truck, needs a little paint but i thought it was a cool find that would fit with the truck better then a plastic one. tell me what u guys think! oh yeah i live in new hampshire and i thought it was cool that the can was approved by a Massachusetts fire marshall so kinda an local area and time correct piece!

[292farmer]

so i got an idea ive got an electric fuel pump off a go kart and alot of 1/8in diamond plate was thinking of building two tanks to go between bed rail against cab to couple inches up fender well of rear wheel plus if its 6in wide and goes from bed floor to bottom of rail i figure between 8-12gal capacity each (havent found gallon to volume conversion yet) i figure i would use a manually operated switch and when gas tank in cab hits 1/4 turn on pump till 3/4 then stop pump all i need is two gas caps and some more fuel line and at least one fuel filter im thinking two. yes i did check to make sure pump is 12v all i need too know is do i need a vapor or vent line? or as long as all three gas caps are self venting should i be good? i was thinking just one line in each bed tank that are then joined right before the pump then after pump running a flexible braided steel line (for flex) into cab tank. does anyone see anything i missed? or an improvement? i have 80-90% of this so it appears as a cheap upgrade with out taking up a huge amount of bed space, i figure they will tuck under the bed rail at least 1-2inches so only 4-5in sticking out depending on final size def. plan on double thick sides facing into bed to protect,hardest part i see is making sure bed to cab line is flexible enough for any chassis movement i drew a diagram in paint to help understand it better hope it loads a decent size

[292farmer]

my dads got a 1973 chevrolet c60 its green with a silver stripe was thinking of maybe painting my gmc c20 to match so drew a pic with color pencils, just a rough draft, want some opinions what do u guys think? i included the only real pic i got on a digital camera for added food for thought its poor angle though was actually shooting at the mack. i thought it would be cool to show up at car shows witha c60 towing a c20 that looked just like it (color wise) plus both 6 cyl ones a 292 and the others a 401(401 gmc the original chevy 351v6 was replaced with it) and both manuals 4spd and 6 spd

[292farmer]

pulled my tailgate off started on in side of tailgate, used my new angle grinder got it down to plain steel then pulled out some dents and filled in some small dents, then started priming it, im going to be coating the inside of tailgate, then on out side experiment with some colors i have for my final color ideas. hope to get some pics up soon, but camera froze while i was working, its been 18-22degrees all day these past few days, makes work slow being so cold but iv managed

[Wideopenracing15]

I can't wait too see some pics. I'm going to some body work but it probably won't happen till after winter.

[gmc1971harwich]

hey i meant to respond earlier but couldnt find this thread. my truck is a leaf spring rear. i think most of the 3/4 ton p-ups were leaf spring. i havent had this truck out in the snow yet, im driving my jeep wrangler while its being fixed up. hopefully by tax time il have it done. Next thing i have to tackle is the bed. it seems to look good not alot of rust but theres bondo covering up a bit of dents. probably going to just take the bed apart and do the pieces over individually. good luck with ur truck. im goin to paint the bed the same blue as the cab, the cabs paint is still in good shape.

[292farmer]

yeah, most of my body work might take a while my wifes car needs a new steering column, and wheel bearings total going to be over 1000$ so my trucks going to be taking a back seat, at least it runs i'll get some pics tomm. was hoping to get a spare 292 but my paycheck was too small and wifes car needing parts meant i wont be able too.

[gmc1971harwich]

il be putting it on the road wednesday snow should be almost gone here by then. I have to do some dump runs before i take the bed apart to make some room in the garage for the bed. il try and take some better pics of my truck.

[292farmer]

love to see some pics! ive noticed so many 3/4 are leafs im surprised that mines a coil spring, i was told coils with dana 60s is rare but idk. let me know what u find works best for removing paint and rust on your bed so when i get their i dont have so much trail and error i found wire brush worked good on tailgate but that wasnt a 8ft bed...

[Wideopenracing15]

think a wire wheel on a die grinder or whatever you have would work decent. Sand or media blasting would be the easiest.

[292farmer]

got some pics got bored so tried painting tailgate fancy what u guys think of the wheel? im thinking some racing strips black up hood and cab like camaro

[gmc1971harwich]

wheel looks good what would look good with that is some old school GMC center caps but even without them it still looks good.

[292farmer]

here is the truck with the black wheels i call them "bomber" wheels lol i was looking for some GMC caps, the only one i've found cheap was at my dads..got run over by bulldozer
btw did anyone else webpage format change? mines blue lol jw