My first project... 1968 GMC lwb fleetside

[Sicksty8]

This whole thing started last year when I was hunting the salvage yards for an LS motor for my dad's truck when I came across a beautiful 69 C10 just sitting in the bush. I instantly fell in love with that body style and so the obsession started. I would scour the farmyards of manitoba for the perfect project truck. Half a year went by and still no truck that was a, for sale and b, was a viable option for a beginner such as myself. On one trip out to the lake with my dad I ended up spotting the grille of what looked to be a 67-72 gmc truck. So we drover in and asked if it was for sale. The owner said yes and I immediately feel in love with this one. Blinded by the love, I didn't see just how much work would be needed to get this guy back on the road. After about a month of pondering, I made an executive decision to go and save this truck from its bitter demise. It was now march break and I hauled out to pick this truck out of the farm yard it has been in for nearly 10 years. As I was putting the truck on the trailer I began second guessing my decision but I was still very excited about having my first project truck.

From the first time seeing the truck to it actually being in my driveway, the plans had changed. Originally I just wanted to get the truck on the road but when I dove into the teardown, the plan changed to a frame offor or as much as my budget would allow. The plan was now to swap to discs in the front, 5.3 swap it and powder coat the frame and all surrounding parts. I wanted to leave the original paint on it until I could afford to redo it because I love the character that comes with it. I began to notice that the truck would need a lot and I mean a lot of bodywork. But I was and still am determined to at least attempt to most of it myself.

Each night after school I would head to the garage and put in another 8 hours of work tearing it down. After about two weeks I had it down to the frame. I managed everything in my own garage as most guys would do it although some of my ways were quite redneck and I wouldn't ever recommend them to anyone or even think about doing them again.

Now this is getting quite long and if I haven't lost you yet I'd like to say thanks for sticking with me on this. I know I should have made this thread a LONG time ago but I can't change that now. Ideally I'd like to keep this project as budget minded as possible but who knows, my mind and ideas change like gitch making it hard to stay on budget.

Ok so a bit more here before we're up to date, two weeks ago I ended up harvesting a 6.0L LS and to do with it out of an 2003 sierra 2500. The tranny out of it was a 4x4 so I brought it to the local tranny shop to have it converted to a 2wd. In the process they found it was a sh*t storm inside meaning I could either have my tranny rebuild or just buy one off of their shelf in the back. So naturally I splurged for a brand new one reason being, the boneyard wanted about the same for one and this one was a fresh rebuild with a 1 year warranty. Almost justifiable

I have done my fair share of LS swap research and I feel pretty confident I know what I'm doing with most of it but any more information would be very much appreciated. I'm hoping to drop the motor and tranny in this next week or so. Stay tuned for updates I'll pay a few of the progress pictures thus far