54 GMC 100: The Iron Ox

[Zoomin]

Iron Oxide, aka Fe2O3, more commonly known as rust is the first thing anyone will notice about this truck. It has it on every panel, and on the frame. It has rust outs in numerous places, but not in the main places. So far it seems worthy of putting back on the road, so I'll mainly be concentrating on doing exactly that.

No fancy frame swaps, clips, fancy paint or LS's are in the cards for Ox, just make it safe to drive, stop the rust, and a decent stance. It came with a 350/700R combo of questionable condition - it's in there but has never moved Ox an inch. It won't start and it has no brakes, a new wiring harness that has not been installed. It's a project someone smarter than me bailed out of.

[Zoomin]

[Katrina/10]

I like it. You may run into an issue with the driver's side exhaust manifold, too.

[iowaboynca]

Gotta love them !

Love the name! Sounds like a straight forward project!

Good luck.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by Katrina/10

I like it. You may run into an issue with the driver's side exhaust manifold, too.

Fortunately the PO found a set of OEM cast manifolds that clear the steering box and the frame, so I may have lucked out there.

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

Gotta love them !

Love the name! Sounds like a straight forward project!

Good luck.

Yeah, it should be straight forward but I rarely luck out that way, and my goal posts keep moving as I get into it.


Thanks for stopping by, guys!

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

Yeah, it should be straight forward but I rarely luck out that way, and my goal posts keep moving as I get into it.

haha been there! good luck!

[Zoomin]

Taking on a project like this has me a bit overwhelmed- so much to do, take stock of, decide on a plan of attack and come up with a vision of where I want to end up.

Those who fail, fail to plan - right?

So anyway, I'm still in the early stages of each of those things. First thing I had to do was replace those gawd awful rollers with a set of Boyd Coddington Timeless wheels I had squirreled away. The 17x9 wheels with 275's fit, but just barely. Luckily the front and rear bolt pattern is 5x4.75 so I've got lots of wheel options when the time comes to get the actual set to be used.

[ChuckDriver]

Nice Patina!

[rusty76]

I'm in.

[Zoomin]

I gotta admit something here. I mistakenly thought doing the ole patina thing would be a whole lot easier than it's turning out to be. I should buy PB Blaster by the drum. I have rounded off more bolt heads and stripped more threads than all my other builds combined.

And the grill. Cripe O Mighty. The peeling paint on it bothered me, so I thought I'd get it blasted, right? Can't get to the bolt heads because there's at least 4 layers of paint. So I get paint stripper. And I scrape, and scrape, add more stripper and scrape. More bolt heads round, threads strip and the sucker is still on.y

Thoughts of a plasma cutter enter my head briefly, but I decide to just strip the damn thing on the truck. So after hours of applying CLR and not getting anywhere fast, I use a wire brush, graduated to a wire wheel and then to an angle grinder dammit.









Another couple days and one of us will be whipped.

[joedoh]

sheeeeooot. I have a chrome gmc grille hanging in the shed I was almost giving away a couple months ago. I need it for my 49 GMC though, which has a beat up grille of its own.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by joedoh

sheeeeooot. I have a chrome gmc grille hanging in the shed I was almost giving away a couple months ago. I need it for my 49 GMC though, which has a beat up grille of its own.

Joe, just noticed the cab in your pic is sporting some of the same green that mine has. I wonder if that was a primer or ?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

Joe, just noticed the cab in your pic is sporting some of the same green that mine has. I wonder if that was a primer or ?

on my truck the green is the original color of the truck, the red is the primer. similar to Henry Fords famous quote, I can seem to find trucks in any color as long as they are green. this is my fifth green truck.

[iowaboynca]

Ho ho ho....GREEN GIANT!

[iowaboynca]

double type

[iowaboynca]

Wow...there some metal under there!

[Nut Case]

OX

I use 50% acetone with 50% any atf. Works better and less cost than the stuff in a can at 8 buck a pop, get a spray bottle like you use to spray windex. I spray once and wait 24 hrs use heat OxAc, then spray again and wait 24. If it is still not giving, then I get two long box end wrench's and bust it up, if that doesn't work get the fire wrench.

Project looks good, making head way on the grill.

Keep on keepin on

Nut Case



ps I have a 57 GMC disassembled down to the frame scattered between two states. I'm downsizing. No Joy

[STOCKISH]

Looks great man!

[knomadd]

Nice, I'm in. If you want the patina look still, just paint the grille and leave the body. Not something I like to suggest, but you cold always do a faux-tina on the grille if you don't like the painted look on a true patina body.

[Zoomin]

Hi Duane, thanks for dropping in. I won't have to do any faux-tina - all I need to do is leave it alone and it will rust up all by its lonesome. I could use steel wool to maintain it if I don't paint it I suppose. I would like to do something to stop the rust from being the surface type to graduating to scale or worse. It's amazing how the steel on the grille and surround has held up while the bolts have all given up.

[Zoomin]

UPS truck came by today. Got enough stuff to keep me busy over the weekend, including these Dolphin gauges




Replacing these:

[Advanced Design]

I'm in, tagging along.

[Zoomin]

I've got an Ox to grind - worked on the tailgate today





Turns out most of the crusty stuff is paint curling up. The top layer is a skim coat and white, below that is a dark brown, followed by a dark green and then finally a light blue. I'm using an angle grinder with a flapper disk with light pressure. When I hit the green I know it's time to ease up because the blue is underneath.

Not sure why I'm keeping the blue, I guess it's kinda cool the original paint has hung on so long and with all the others it's managed to keep the steel in surprisingly good shape.

[Zoomin]

Working on the wiring now, got a fuse box installed so that the main wiring harness is protected. Also setting up a common ground bar, a trick that proved useful installing LS's. The main power lead from the battery connects at the bottom, and I have the power lead from the alternator attached on the right. One advantage to hooking up the alternator this way is that the fuses take the hit before the diodes.





Ok, I have some work cut out for me here....

[joedoh]

looks like a pot of spaghetti blew up!