Dan's 1956 GMC

[Goldengophersax56]

Hey everyone! So I finally decided to start a build thread on my 56 GMC project.

This project is my first project. I spent my childhood out in the shop helping my dad rebuild our 1948 Plymouth. We also have a 57 Cadillac Sedan DeVille that is my dad's retirement project.

A little background on the GMC. I bought the truck at the Back to the 50s swap meet back in June of 2011. That winter, I started tearing it down to begin the rebuild.

76 Chevy 2wd Blazer Front End
76 Chevy 2wd Blazer Rear Axle with 373 Gears
350 Engine with 700R4 Transmission

(I think the engine, tranny and rear gear combination will work, but any input would be greatly appreciated. The main use will be for shows/cruising.)

So far the sub-frame work is completed, the entire frame has been cleaned up and re-painted as well as the rear axle. We have done some mocking up to make sure all the mounts and body pieces line up properly and now I am starting on the body work.

Up until this past summer the project has been slow going. I went to school to be a teacher and spent two years subbing. Now that I finally got in to a full time teaching job, I have the income to get some work done.

[Goldengophersax56]

The first thing I started with on the truck was the sub-frame work. My uncle lives a mile away from us, so one January afternoon (when it was about 10 degrees) I drove the tractor over to my uncle's house. We drug it out of the woods with his tractor and I towed it home. (Holy crap it was cold.)

[Goldengophersax56]

Disassemble took about a day. My dad, brother and a friend from college gave me a hand. The truck originally had the Pontiac V8 in it and it ran when I got it home. I drove it around the neighborhood a bit that summer, but a friend of ours had a 350 for sale at a really good price. I decided that would be cheaper and easier to maintain and it would fit in the new front end. Luckily someone was interested and bought the motor.

[Goldengophersax56]

Over a weekend, we were able to do the measuring, cutting and welding for the front end. Everything went really smooth and turned out really well. Over the next few weeks, work was done lowering the rear end (flipping the axle, making blocks, mocking up, tearing down and so on. After all was said and done, the stance was pretty good. Eventually, the seam had a plate welded to it after we were sure it was what we wanted. (I finally ended up in one of the pictures too!)

[Goldengophersax56]

During the mock-up process, I did some work with the various styles of engine mounts that Chevy used. The large truck ones had the motor up so high that I would have had to cut a tunnel in the cab. I messed around with some parts that my uncle had and eventually made some hybrid ones. I used the car style mounts, and welded the metal cups that would typically be mounted to the cross member to the diagonal plates that the pickups used. It lowered the motor just enough so the tranny would fit under the cab. (Initially I was going to use a TH350 until recently when I found a 700R4 for a good price.) Also, my brother and I couldn't have gotten any luckier on my junk yard visit.

[Goldengophersax56]

The engine fit in nicely. I was able to take the original tranny mount from the '56, flip the brackets around, drill 2 new holes and trim the tops off for a perfect mount for the new tranny (still haven't switched to the 700 at this point). This was one of those things that started out as an experiment and ended up working perfectly. I love it when that happens!

[Goldengophersax56]

The most complicated part of the project by this point was figuring out how the radiator shell and front bumper would mount with the new frame (since the hood and fenders mount to the shell). Several steps back (and I don't have good pictures unfortunately) I ended up taking the 76 tranny mount and welding it between the sway bar brackets with a plate on each end. This sat between the front frame rails and gave me a good solid plate to bolt the radiator shell to. I then cut the extra "V" shape out of the bottom of the radiator shell and welded a steel plate across it. This got the shell down to the right height (while still letting me fit the stock radiator in the shell.

Because the front of the frame narrows on the '76, I had to widen it so that my front bumper could bolt back on. I took a chunk of leftover '56 frame, narrowed it and welded it back together. Then, I welded those chunks of frame to the outside of the '76 frame. After that, I test fitted the bumper, cut out the extra pieces, welded it up, smoothed it out and called it good. Front bumper is now able to bolt on.

[Goldengophersax56]

More bumper mount work. I need to do some cleaning up on those inside pieces I welded in still.

[Goldengophersax56]

The bumper was the last major fabrication project that I needed to do on the frame. By November of 2012, I was able to tear the frame apart, hit it with a wire wheel and paint it. Because the frame was so pitted and there would undoubtedly be more work that needed to be done to it, I decided to paint it with Black Rustoleum Hammered On.

Back in '91 when my dad and I painted the frame for our '48 Plymouth (I was 5 years old) we used just plain black Rustoleum and brushed it on. To this day, when I go under the car each spring to check it out, the paint is still holding up. (It's also incredibly thick in some spots. Guess that's what happens when a 5 year old paints...)

At any rate, the hammered on texture looks great and it will allow me to touch it up easily as I need black. Also, you can see the front radiator cross member in one of the pictures.

Also, for the sake of looking cool while I still worked on the project, I painted the old crappy front rotors and rear drums. This will come off when I buy all the new brake guts, but for a now, it just looks cool.

[Goldengophersax56]

In the summer of 2011, my brother built an engine stand that we were able to run many different styles of motors on. All you would need is a front mount that fit the motor you were going to run. Initially, he had it set up for a Ford Flathead.

In the fall of 2014, I made the mount for my SBC. The motor hadn't run since the spring of 2012. After collecting parts from swap meets and my uncle's spare parts stash, we were able to fire it up. Christmas of 2014 was good to me. I was able to pick up an Edelbrock intake manifold and Thunder Series carb along with some other parts.

My girlfriend and I stripped the motor down, pressure washed it (out in the MN January cold) and painted it. My brother and his wife dropped by too. His wife is a dental hygienist. She ended up using some cheap dental picks to help clean off the remaining paint. (Cars at our house are kind of a family project.)

I ended up using VHT Metallic Black. It matched the Rustoleum Hammered On frame really well. I highlighted the timing marks (for some reason there are 2 on this harmonic balancer) with some white paint so they were easy to see.

[Goldengophersax56]

The following weekend was engine reassembly. As the day progressed, the whole family (Dad, Mom, Brother, Sister-in-law, my girlfriend and I) were out in the shop working on it. By 7:00 that night we were able to fire it up. Once the line had enough gas in it, the motor fired up with no hesitation or anything. (Honestly, we were all somewhat shocked.) The motor currently is sitting on the stand. I still have work that I want to do to it and things that I want to dress up, but for a now, it runs and that is what is important.

Eventually it will have ceramic coated shorty (truck) headers from Summit, an Edelbrock Pro-Flo Red air cleaner, new valve covers, wire looms, and other goodies. I'm not a fan of everything chrome, but a few things here and there really does a lot. For a now though, I have bigger fish to fry...like the body work on the cab.

I have some good pics of the rebuild, but for some reason I am not unable to upload them.

[Goldengophersax56]

This brings me up to today. This weekend I plan on starting to do the body work on the cab. The patch panels arrived Tuesday from LMC.

I posted a while back wondering where to begin repairs from. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=656298

[Kim57]

Looks like a real nice start on a cool build.
Keep the pics coming.
Kim

[Advanced Design]

Nice start on the build. It is cool the family is involved!

[Goldengophersax56]

Slow day yesterday working on the truck. We spent part of the morning shifting cars and equipment around for spring and so we could get into replacing body parts. The box is stored back outside again and it's down to just the cab on the frame.

I focused on replacing some of the floor that was bad along with planning on where to go next while my brother worked on his Model A truck cab. He is stretching the doors 4" (and ultimately the cab). It's a really cool project. The cab looks like it is sorta chopped now without it actually being chopped. Also, the extra leg room will be nice.

We didn't get out there today because we had an event at church. Will be getting back to it tomorrow after work though.

[Kim57]

Nice.
Kim

[Gregski]

great project and write up, keep it coming

[RockinKees]

Looks good!
I'm in!

[Goldengophersax56]

Alright guys, it's been quite a while since I've posted so I thought I'd post an update of my progress. It's been a busy stretch with work, church stuff for Easter and switching the shop over to summer mode (digging out the boats and other cars and stuff).

At this point, most of the replacement pieces for the driver's side are in. Here is my progress over the last several weeks.

[Goldengophersax56]

More cab work.

[T_Raven]

Looks like a nice project man. I love the task force GMCs, can't wait to see some more progress.

[Kim57]

Cab repairs are looking good.
Kim

[BC Toy chest]

Like it plzzz keep the pics coming, not enough of us GMC folks on here. Thanks for sharing.

[Goldengophersax56]

Hey guys. It's been way too long since I've updated my thread. I'm not the greatest and staying up on regular things like that. Too much of that teaching from day to day.

Since last April I've finished replacing most of the cab panels and welded things up. The plan is to have the cab blasted in late April or early May, replace a couple more parts (the floor has a few bad pieces still) and shoot some epoxy primer on it and then start with the mud.

I also started doing the brakes and fuel line. Brakes are all stainless hard line with braided stainless hoses. The fuel line is aluminum with braided stainless hose between the tank and line and between the line and fuel pump. I ended up dropping in a '70 Mustang tank. I love the fact that I'll be able to get 22 gal. in there. My dad's 48 Plymouth only has a 10 gallon tank in it and we usually get about 120 miles out of it.

Any major work is going on hold for about a month while my dad and I work on building some cabinets for a project at our church. April 1, its back to the cars.

[Goldengophersax56]

So, jumping back in time, along with the intake manifold/engine work on our '48 Plymouth, we were also having carburetor issues on our '57 Cadillac. We made a couple adapter pieces and were able to get a Quadrajet to work on the car.