Project "Second Chance" - Hot Rod 66' GMC

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Hey all!

Thought I should start a thread to kick off my project. Just recently my truck that I sold nearly 8 years ago came back up for sale on Craigslist, from the guy I sold it to. It is a 1966 GMC C20. I had no idea what happened to it after I sold it, so I was pretty much freaking out when I saw it for sale on Craigslist at 10pm. Pretty much gave my girlfriend a heart attack. 4 days later it was in my garage.

This was my highschool/college driver, that I sold about 2 years into college. When I received it it had a Carbed 350, a TH350, no carpet, unpainted interior, etc. I did the best I could as a high-schooler, on a high-schooler budget. By the time I sold it I had put in a Tuned Port Injection system in it, taught myself to program/tune cars, lowered it, installed a 700R4, added some performance heads and cam, and added carpet and some paint to the interior.

That all sounds great, but I was still in my late teens/early 20's and really wasn't about quality.

Now is my chance to do it over, and do it right. So far I have gutted the wiring nearly completely (both engine and chassis), and am tearing down the interior. So far it looks about the same as when I sold it. There is some interior cancer around the weatherseals that I'll need to learn to address. Here are the high-level plans.

Phase I:

• Convert the computer to a MegaSquirt MS3 system for better fueling/power, the engine to a coil-pack setup, with one coil per cylinder and fueling to sequential fueling, which will mean retrofitting a crank sensor. Also allows me to go speed-density and drop the MAF.
• Rewire the engine and clean up the engine bay.
• Rewire the chassis - using a 20-circuit Rebel harness.
• Fix the interior cancer, and por-15 the interior
• Sound-deaden the interior (if the showdown guy will ever get back to me . . . )
• Find comfortable bucket seats with integrated shoulder belts (Gen1 CTS-V seats ideally), and upholster most of the interior.
• Tune the truck and get it running optimally. Aiming for about 375hp and 16-18mpg hwy.

Phase II:

• Replace the motor with an LS2. Here I'd be aiming for 450hp and about the same MPG.
• Install an underdrove-overdrive (thinking gear vendors unit)
• Convert to a 5-lug setup, go to disk brakes all the way around. Use drop spindles and go back to full-travel suspension.
• Fix the body, rust, and get it painted.
• Finish the interior with electric windows, doors, modern technology (tablet control center).
• Enjoy driving the heck out of it, possibly as my daily again.

Here is how it looked back in 2001 (I'm 28 now btw):


Here it is getting unloaded into the garage recently in 2013:


Here it is getting stripped:


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I have bought most of the stuff for Phase I. I just need to teach myself how to do some fabrication, and buy a welder, so I can start fixing the rust around the weather stripping channels, and patch up for floor from the holes I put in it over the years!

I'm open to advice throughout this project, and will try and do what I can to keep it updated. I did a motor build on a 2006 Saleen Mustang over on a Mustang forum that was really enjoyable, so I'll try and be helpful where possible.

Cheers all, and sorry for the wall of text!