Francis the Tow Pig - 1949 GMC 250 Dually

[OutlawDrifter]

A little back story on this truck. It has been in my family since my Great Grandfather bought it new. He gave it to my grandpa and when the master cylinder went out in 1971 it was parked in the corner of the shed, where it would reside until March of 2017.

I never met my Great Grandfather, but have never heard an ill word spoke of him. He was a kind man, a great shot, quite a joker, and my dad thought the world of him. I lost both my dad and my grandpa in the last 6 months, so redoing this truck will be some much needed "therapy."

On to the plans. I'm going to try and keep as much of the original truck as possible, while upgrading the drivetrain and brakes to safely tow a car trailer at 68mph. It has what I believe to be an Omaha Standard flatbed, complete with grain sides and stock racks. I will be building a custom flatbed in its place to better serve my puposes. The truck will have all the modern conveniences like AC and cruise control. I'm undecided on a powerplant, but leaning towards a 6.0l/4L80E combo right now.

More to come, on to the pictures.

[mongocanfly]

Wow..great looking truck and a great back story...can't beat that with a stick..

[Flysocal]

Yep this one looks outstanding! I love the original patina.

[84blaze]

In for progress!

[focusedontheprize]

Looking forward to the build.

[Lokin4AReason]

ohhh ... i like that esp. along w/ the story behind it

cant wait to see the progress and update(s) ...

[OutlawDrifter]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, hopefully I'll have the truck hauled to KS in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm putting together a budget and parts searching. Originally I thought it was a 1.5t truck and had planned to move the cab and front sheet metal over to a P30 chassis to save some time, and was going to do a 12v Cummins with a baby RoadRanger 10 speed. Having learned of its 1t size, I had to punt, thought about doing a hot rod pickup on an S10 chassis, but I really wanted something heavier to pull trailers. When I ran across the Hollister Road disc brake setup for the front, I knew my plan was back on track.

I'm undecided if I will lower the truck any, and currently looking into sourcing a 14 bolt dually or C&C axle. Not sure if I should leave it on leaf suspension or 4-link it. Engine ideas are floating around, a 500ci Cadillac and a 4L80E would be pretty awesome too, nothing like 500 ft/lbs of torque at 2500rpm.

Need to do some research the different options for hydroboost setups.

Any and all advice is welcome! I'll be handling everything from the engine/tranny, body work/paint, to the fab work.

[OutlawDrifter]

Well engine and tranny situation is sorted out, haha.

Found a smoking deal on an LQ4 6.0L and a Reman'd 4L80E, complete with all front drive accessories, starter, harness, pedal/TM, fuse box, air box, and harness. 137K on the engine, 20K on the tranny. Should be here Monday or Tuesday...I guess I better get the truck moved from Western NE to Northeast KS.

I'll put in a new oil pump and timing chain and swap the cam out for the BTR Stage 1 Truck Cam.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

Well engine and tranny situation is sorted out, haha.

Found a smoking deal on an LQ4 6.0L and a Reman'd 4L80E, complete with all front drive accessories, starter, harness, pedal/TM, fuse box, air box, and harness. 137K on the engine, 20K on the tranny. Should be here Monday or Tuesday...I guess I better get the truck moved from Western NE to Northeast KS.

I'll put in a new oil pump and timing chain and swap the cam out for the BTR Stage 1 Truck Cam.

May I give a friendly suggestion? Do a compression test and depending on the results possibly a cylinder leakage test BEFORE you throw a cam in it? It's probably fine of course. I've heard nonig but good things about LS engines even with a couple hundred thousand miles on them, but you never know.

On my 81,000 LQ4 we gave it a light hone, new rings, cam, rod and main bearings, and yes I put a mildly warmed up cam in it. We'll see how all this turns out. Can't wait to see wht you do to yours. Best, Dan

[Advanced Design]

Your truck looks very solid and wow, what a family history with it.

Great choice for engine and transmission!

Tagging along for rest of the build. Have fun!

[Trekster]

Your truck looks like it is in good shape. This will be a nice truck when it's done. (like they are ever finished)

[47 Fasttoys]

Great looking truck. The 6.0 / 4l80e are an excellent choice. My 2 cents worth: Sit back and wright down what you want in a finished tuck. Show truck, work truck, daily driver' week-end driver? All can be accomplished but all take a little different approach. If you want it ready to go at any time and do some medium duty work, look at upgrading everything with proven components. If you change your mind a 10 times you change your budget 10 times. A lot of folks have great intentions and motivation at the beginning but burn out when the results are slow in coming. My experiences show it takes about a year of time consuming work (say 20 hours a week) to get one of these things right. From what I see you have a very solid truck to begin with.. You may want to look into a modern chassis swap. I would not look at the S-10 route for a larger truck. If you want to do some work with it you need at least a 1500 chassis a 2500 or 3500 are not out of the question. The parts are available to lower the larger chassis to a mild extent and still be able to get some work out them. Be cautious on over doing your mods and you will end up with a cool ride to later pass down to your child and so on.
Good luck.
Rob

[OutlawDrifter]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm not a newcomer to modifying and building hot rods/cars/daily drivers/etc. The engine checks out good for leak down and compression, had these performed before money changed hands. The cam I have selected would be similar to an RV cam in a SBC. Lower lift and allows the use of stock LS6/LS2 springs and pushrods. It's about 1 step above a stock cam and idles without a lope. One issue with swapping to a heavier chassis is track width. If I were to go to a C30 chassis the front tires stick out of the fenders, not the look I'm going for. I have been planning this build for quite a long time, it has changed over the years from a wedgeback car hauler, to a hot rod, and back to a tow pig with a custom flatbed. The frame itself is beefy enough to handle what I intend to throw at it. This will not be a $100k show rig. It will be built with reliability and comfort in mind. My Z28 will run 11's in the 1/4 when I need to go fast and be obnoxious.

Hollister RD makes a bolt on front disc setup that works with the straight axle up front, and it uses GMT800 2500HD calipers. Independent suspension would be nice, but adds in more work than I really want to deal with. If I could find a chassis that had a close enough track width, that would be great. But I don't want to fabricate a bunch of mounts for the cab and front sheet metal, and then have to fab more to make the track width correct. I'd like to be able to pick up off the shelf (craigslist) wheels to run on this ole girl, and replace most of the steering with off the shelf parts for ease. 47Fasttoys, I followed your build on tech when you first started, and you've done an awesome job. You actually inspired me to build my own flatbed the way I want it.

[mongocanfly]

Sounds like you gotta a good plan...I have been hankering to build a hotrod dually flatbed "ton" truck with a ad cab for sometime...maybe someday

[OutlawDrifter]

This will be put on hold shortly as the tranny just went out on my DD. Gotta love those rainy days!

[OutlawDrifter]

Well, as with most things in life, you get thrown some curve balls. Tranny issue is being taken care of in my DD Thursday. In the meantime, I ran across a 2010 2500HD spec'd out exactly how I wanted...and it followed me home. So the DD has been replaced and will be sold shortly after receiving a rebuilt tranny.

Now that I have a new DD/Tow Pig, we'll be pointing the truck back in the direction of a hot rod. The 6.0L/4L80E combo is sticking around, but I'll be setting the cab on an S10 chassis, and finishing it with a custom built flatbed. I'd really like to keep the dually look, but don't want to run a heavy axle to obtain that, so I may just end up running a 12" wheel with some wide rubber on it for the "look". JC Whitney used to sell a dually kit made by a company called Ricka (from what I can remember), but I can't seem to come up with much info, and JCW no longer carries the parts. I'll step the cam up to a stage 2 or 3 BTR Truck Cam and finish it out that way. I have my two budgets on spreadsheets, side by side(including my 30% overage/didn't think of that stuff), and the S10/hot rod build is a few thousand cheaper.

Still not interested in building a max effort high HP pickup. I'm focusing on reliability and comfort, with a little added flare and style.

I'll hopefully be moving all my stuff from the garage to my new shop (75') this weekend. The GMC will be back in KS the weekend of May 6th. Then the real work can start.

[Black93GT]

Looks like you have a great truck to start with! Any thought about making the truck drivable as is?

If it was me, I'd spend a little bit of time to make it drivable and be able to enjoy it while doing all the work on the s10 frame. I think I'll stick with the original frame on my next one.

[OutlawDrifter]

I'm sure I could get it running/driving on it's current chassis, but the amount of time and money spent on parts to make it drive again aren't worth it to me. If it was a 1/2t pickup, I would probably keep the frame and build from there. Just not enough aftermarket for the 1-ton's. Time is at a huge premium to me, and I'd like to have it running/driving by fall, then I can focus on the body work and paint over the winter months.

The nostalgia and memories are housed in the sheet metal for me, not the antiquated chassis and drivetrain.

[OutlawDrifter]

We'll I've got a line on a 2wd ECSB S10 frame. I would like to get the longest wheelbase possible to make the flatbed look "right". This weekend I've got a few projects to knock out in the new shop, first and foremost, wiring up the outlets.

Once that is taken care of, I think I'll start stripping the engine and trans down. I did notice when I was taking pictures, I've got one exhaust manifold bolt that is broken for sure. Since I don't have a body or frame to work with yet, gives me an excuse to get the mechanical stuff done and get it painted up nice. Since everyone loves pictures...

[OutlawDrifter]

Well, I ended up wiring 1 outlet in the shop for temporary use. I didn't feel like being on a ladder all day, so I sat on my backside all day Saturday and watched it pour rain outside.

I did get some motivation yesterday afternoon and pulled everything off the engine/trans combo that I had time to do. Ended up with 6 broken exhaust manifold bolts. Four came out easy, 1 took heat, and I had to completely drill 1 out. A left handed drill bit and an easy out wouldn't budge it. I still need to get the clutch fan pulled off, ran out of gas yesterday. Trying to decide on a paint color for the engine, and I keep going back to painting it in a Pontiac hue, since GMC utilized their V8's for a few years. I'm starting to back out on the cam change also. I want reliable and simple on this dude. Granted the cam choice I picked isn't exactly wild, I think I'll change the timing chain and oil pump, paint it, and call it a day.

[joedoh]

love love love the jimmys. I have a 150 in the back yard for later this year!

[OutlawDrifter]

joedoh, me too. I've always been a fan of anything GMC.

S10 frame is sourced. ECSB with the longer wheelbase like I wanted. I'll be getting a complete roller with driveshaft, brake pedal, and master/booster setup. Pick it up next week.

I leave for Western NE tomorrow with the trailer. Should have Francis home, if everything goes to plan, on Sunday.

[OutlawDrifter]

Well it was a long weekend, and an end to a long chapter in my life. My childhood home and family farm is officially no more. Auction went like any other, some stuff went better than expected, and some not so much. Buy of the day was grandpa's Buick LeSabre with 71k miles and every possible option at $4200.

Francis made the 600 mile trek back to KS without a hitch. We got home around 9pm last night, I unloaded the stuff that couldn't get wet and left everything else in the pickup or on the trailer. Water heater decided to give up the ghost in the middle of the night last night, so I may have to wait another day or two to unload the GMC.

Pictures to follow later today or tomorrow.

[OutlawDrifter]

Here is a pic of Francis loaded up on Thursday. He came home sans the bed and accessories. They were too heavy and the bed wasn't bolted or clamped to the frame. Apparently my Granddad had removed it at some point and didn't bolt it back down. I also pulled the outside duals to save some weight.

Honestly, with some gas and a 6v battery, I think the engine would roar to life.

[OutlawDrifter]

Failed on good pictures of the load carried home. Needed some shop therapy yesterday, so I straightened some things up and started working on the GMC. Pulled the seat and cleaned out 68 years of mouse. Under the seat of the truck it was just 1 solid mouse nest. The tank had some fuel left in it, good ol' leaded stuff from 1971, probably could have ran the truck on it. Wiped the gauges off. They look really good. 24k miles showing, probably most of it in a pasture fixing fence. My dad used to ride on the driver's front fender with a hammer and push on the posts as they went by, my uncle was the usual driver. They were probably both under 10 years old. I also took 5 minutes and pulled the clutch fan and AC compressor off the 6.0L.

Picked up a 1994 S10 ECSB frame last week. Once I get the cab and front sheet metal off of Francis, I'll turn my attention to getting the frame stripped down and front end rebuilt on the S10 frame. My father-in-law reminded me he has a V8 round body Explorer sitting in his "bone yard". He bought it for the 302 w/GT40 heads to go in one of his dirt track cars, but the rear end might just be what I'm looking for.