The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Around the time I was graduating in 2015 I was looking for a project vehicle so that I could learn the general basics of vehicle maintenance and have a car to play with and repair that was simple. I decided that a volkswagen beetle was my best route and I searched for a pre-1966 VW beetle.

That didn't work out too well and a few days after looking at two beetles about two hours away.. I found an ad for this blue truck for $3,500. Here is the only picture that was in the ad.

A day or so later we (my Dad and I) met the guy selling it down in Berea, KY and bought the truck a few days later. It was originally a base model 1978 GMC with the inline 6 and 3 on the tree. The only real options on the spid was the paint which was Hawaiian Blue(I've discovered it's also called Medium Blue but my SPID says Hawaiian), and then a 3.42 rear end.

Lot's of home remedies and repairs, some were questionable. New gas tank, sending unit and a 660 street avenger carb. Here's some of the few photos I took that day.

Gas was still expensive!











Yes that is the missing lug nut on the 3 spd.

$3,000 later it was mine!

Before the sale we had him swap grilles with his same model year Chevy as it had a GMC grille in it. After looking at prices of the grilles and the condition of my GMC grille.. it was a good thing my dad said something.

My dad and I are waaaaaaaaaaaay deep in this project now. I have a lot of catching up to do on this thread. I will do it one step at a time and try to give good quality posts.. there's about a year and a half of progression to catch up on.

Here he (Blue) is, home and in my possession. I was really excited! My sister came over to visit my dad and I (my mom was away and hadn't seen it yet.. uh-oh.) and questioned about the ugly truck at the bottom of the driveway and then proceeded to say the hood scoop had to go.

Annnd thus begun the first order of business.. but first I had to polish out the chalky paint. While it wasn't a mirror finish it did look 110% improved.

It was just a fiberglass scoop riveted onto a primed metal hood. (Hood was not original.. we suspect my "original" hood was deemed too nice for my truck, same for the seat.)

I wish I had took pictures of the whole process but essentially.. I broke a couple of bits and fought the scoop for a few hours. I had never really used a drill before but it came off eventually. I discovered then discovered that the scoop was in place to hide his (the trucks) broken nose!

I learned how to use bondo and used a stupid amount to fix the peak, and quite well I might add as this dent was massive. I guess whatever green truck this hood came off of it had unlatched and smacked itself in the face.

So I went from lame hood scoop to crooked nose and flat black tiger stripes. I like the black.