My high school 67 GMC build thread

[hpcgmc]

I started driving this truck when I was about 14 when my parents bought it. At age 16 I took my drivers test in it. At age 17 (1981) I bought it from my parents for $500 -I think it was 100 hours of work at $5.00 per hour. In about 1983 a mechanic friend and I pulled the stock 327 (burning lots of oil) and installed a rebuilt 283 out of a friends wrecked 66 Chevelle. Unfortunately the original 327 is long gone.

This was my cool truck in high school, my "get me to college" truck, my "can you help me move?" truck, my tow vehicle, my back up vehicle - you name it, this truck did it all. I had it on the road pretty regularly til about 1998. It went into storage for a few years, got driven one summer in 2003, then back in storage til October 2012.

I got it out of storage and got the old 283 running. With lots of help from this forum, I lowered it, rattle can primered it and got it running ok. The 283 was blowing lots of smoke, so I sold that motor this winter and am now diving into the restoration. This is my first project of this magnitude, and it's a bit overwhelming.

My goal for the next few months is to rebuild and paint the front suspension, upgrade to disc brakes and power steering, paint and re-wire the engine compartment and frame rails, put in a new clutch and install a crate or rebuilt 350. All this is being done in my 2 car garage, surrounded by my other toys and assorted junk. I would love to have it back on the road this summer!

I figure I'll drive it a few years, then work on replacing the stock 4 speed granny with an overdrive 4 speed. At some point I'll pull the cab and bed to repair the rust and get it painted.

Here are some pics:

[hpcgmc]

Heres how it looked 2 weeks ago, and here's how it looks now with the suspension removed:

[ho70]

good luck

[hpcgmc]

Last night a friend with access to a shop used the power/steam washer to blast 50 years of grease and grime off the suspension. Today I dropped the parts off at a front end shop to press all the suspension pieces apart. This week I'm scrubbing the frame and engine compartment and hitting it with the angle grinder to remove rust and prep for painting with POR 15 or something similar.

My buddy can bead blast the smaller suspension parts at work. I can't wait to see how they look!

Hopefully I'll make progress this weekend.

[trkfrk]

I love the history of the truck. You can't put a value to that.. Good luck on your build and have fun.

[Saclandman]

Good to see you've kept it for all these years. Good luck with the restore.

[nolimitssjca]

It's great that you kept the truck since high school. I regret I couldn't store my 66 Chevelle SS 396 from then.

Good luck with the restoration. Update the thread with pics as those parts get fixed.

[Daman]

What are them wheels off of? Size and backspacing too?


great start to your build

[nos487]

Awesome project!

[hpcgmc]

Thanks guys! Daman, the wheels are stock steel Toyota rims off a Toyota Tundra, about 2003 vintage. I had snow tires on them and when I sold my 4runner, I kept them as rollers for this project. I've got 6 lug rally's to install when the time is right.

[RenoKeene]

Sounds like a good plan. Don't let it become overwhelming, stick to the playbook and ask questions when you need to. Lots of good folks in here.

[hugger6933]

It is just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. stick to the script as close as you can keep your eyes on the prize[that would be a running and driving truck]. by the way I love those four eyes, out of the three I am restoring, my fav is a 68 GMC cst with Big Block ,buddies, air, speed warning ,tilt , tach /vac, wood floor and 5 lugs. when you get ready or need any help or advise in the body dept give me a shout. That is my thing and I spend a lot of time on here helping out. Jim

[2 Far Gone]

^Couldn't say it any better. Small jobs that all add up and one day, you drive it out. I swear mine has more miles on a flat bed than I ever drove in the 27 yrs of owning it.

[hpcgmc]

Been making some progress on the truck. Got the front suspension bead blasted and then used the angle grinder and wire wheels to clean stuff up. It came out really clean.

I bought mastercoat series paint after reading alot of stuff about it vs. por 15 and some other brands. One of the big reasons was that it was supposed to brush on well. I applied the silver primer, mostly with a foam brush, and it came out fantastic! Temp was about 70 degrees with 30-40% humidity.

Then I applied the AG111 black topcoat and it didn't come out so well. Temp and humidity were about the same. I used a cheap foam brush and a cheap 3" brush and got lots of swirls, brushmarks and runs. I'm going to sand it down and try again this weekend, if it's a little warmer. About 2/3 through the painting, I thinned the paint out a bit and it worked a little better.

I assume alot of the problem is that I have very little experience painting. I'll try thinning it out a bit more and using a better quality brush next time. I don't have any way to spray it. If it comes out crappy a second time, I might just topcoat with a rattle can.

I plan to order a disc brake kit this week, then I can get the front end all together and reinstall it. Once that's done, I can roll it in and out of the garage, and onto a trailer. I think I've got a local guy that will weld in patches on the floor and firewall, and a local shop that will paint the engine compartment.

Here are some pics before paint:

[67chevy1series]

Good to see work continuing!

[hpcgmc]

Here are some pics with the primer, and a last pic with the crappy black topcoat.

[hpcgmc]

Another pic of primered frame rails and bellhousing.

[67ctener]

So much personal history with the truck, very cool

[trkfrk]

Looks great👍 Nice work on the frame rails. Good to see your still working on it. Keep the pics coming.

[hpcgmc]

I've been making progress on the truck, but slowly. I found a local guy that did welding to repair the rust. He came by last month and repaired the ugly holes punched in the radiator support and the firewall when my dad had a junkyard friend install a/c in the late 1970s. He also repaired the firewall rust above the floorboard seam on the right and left sides. Here are some pics:

[hpcgmc]

I also got the front suspension cleaned up and painted and back to the suspension shop with a box of Moog parts. They put it all together for me and loaded into the back of my pickup.

Unloading was a bit of a challenge. I broke my collarbone 2 weeks ago, so am still pretty limited. No friends were handy, so I enlisted my 105 lb wife and an engine hoist and went to work. It took alot longer then it should have, but I got it out of the truck and almost in place. More pics:

[hpcgmc]

Hopefully I'll get the suspension bolted in this week. The welder is coming back the week after next to start on the rusted floor and kick panels. Once the welding and suspension are complete, I'll tow it to a shop to paint the engine compartment. Then I've got to sort out the power steering, put in a wiring harness and get a motor. Things are moving slowly, but it's good to see some progress.

[hpcgmc]

Unfortunately, not much progress on the truck in awhile. The welder repaired the passenger side floor and inner and out rockers and it came out pretty nice. Then he got sick and I was stuck - I couldn't move forward with painting the engine compartment, installing the engine, etc. There's plenty of stuff I could have done, but never got around to it. I did find a used Vintage Air heater assembly, so am getting rid of all the holes in the firewall for heater, plus the big heater box under the dash.

I've now got two possible guys to finish the welding (repair rust in driver floor, kickpanel and inner/outer rockers). Hopefully one of them will work out and I can get that moving forward. Once the welding is done, my plan is to get a local shop to paint engine compartment, inside finders and wheel wells. If I can afford it, I might also have the cab interior painted, since everything is out of it already.

Then install a wiring harness and crate motor and get it back on the road. The only good thing to come of the downtime is that I've saved up enough cash for the welding, engine compartment paint and motor.

Sounds pretty easy - but I'm sure I'll run into LOTS of little challenges on the way. Here's how she sits now -first pic is engine compartment, then rt side rocker panels after repair, then left side footwell and kickpanel.

[hpcgmc]

Finally found a guy to finish repairing the rust in the rocker panels. He's also going to fill most of the holes to semi smooth the firewall, recut the hole in the roof to fit a new sunroof and then paint the interior and firewall the final body color (some sort of blue) and paint the rest of the engine compartment gloss black.

Went to Hot August Nights in Reno last night. On the drive up, I was telling my buddy that last year I saw a 71 C10 that had the firewall and engine compartment painted body color, and it looked really great. Seeing that truck is what prompted me to have my firewall body color and engine compartment professionally painted gloss black, instead of just doing a rattle can job. At Hot August Nights last night, I saw the same truck at Grand Sierra Resort and told the owner my story. Very cool guy who got his truck from his grandfather when he was about 15. I told him I'd track him down next year, hopefully with my truck back on the road.

Here's a pic of me towing it to the new shop. I'm hoping to have it back in a few months.