Wamego: 1949 GMC 150

[joedoh]

hannah is fun to drive but I am bored again. originally I planned on a COE as the next project but I already have all the parts for this one. well donor parts anyway. wamego is a little town in northern kansas and I always liked the way it sounded.

got this 49 GMC from Wayne, 93 years young. same guy the last 1 1/2 projects came from (Hannah and half of Fenix). I caught an ad for a 41 and bought 5 cabs and 6 beds.

IMG_0176 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

it was shredder fodder for certain, but I liked it anyway. wayne thought I was crazy, he had nicer cabs (and I bought those too), but waste not want not.

I got an 03 longbed s10 donor this january, it languished on craigslist till I called, turns out it had a bad case of RLS (runs like sh...) and he tried to convince me it was the cat. which he had already removed, to no effect. I took the drive anyway.

IMG_8266 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

we put a booster pack on it and it started right up and idled perfectly. I thought I was lucky till he revved it and it broke into a coughing cacophony. I took a chance on a cap and rotor and only needed the rotor.

IMG_8264 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

he was happy it was simple, and I drove it home. all my S10 donors have to make the trip home without a trailer, its a good way to shake out any problem areas. this one drove and shifted fine, no overheats or problems.

today I started teardown on the S10, I had already pulled the cab and clip from the 49 when I cleaned off my trailer last year. did the first bit outside, but it was hot so I moved inside after that.

IMG_0154 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0155 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

here is a tip for the s10 swappers, if you disconnect the alternator connector and are careful you can unbolt the firewall air box and the compressor and pull the ac in one big chunk, fully charged.

IMG_0157 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0158 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0160 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


I tried once before to use the s10 AC setup, but its too wide under the hood. I have a method to fix that maybe, so stay tuned!

the 98+ S10s use T47 torx bolts to hold the inner seat bolts on the 60/40 and they were installed on the line by some guy named Moose who used a cheater bar to install them. they are really tight, but sometimes with some oil and some heat and a little luck, it only takes 4 or 5 minutes to break your T47 bit.

IMG_0166 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

so I cut them out, without my usual swearing and angry boogie wrench throwing fanfare. my reward for such patience was this, tucked under the console side of the seat bracket, previously inaccessible even by the very determined.

IMG_0167 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I got a great deal on the truck and the owner was a real sweetheart even though I replaced the rotor right in his driveway and turned his inert "drag it home" truck into something that made a 40 minute drive without a hiccup, so I called him and he was elated. he thought he had lost it forever.

after that I got everything off the firewall and marked some cuts, I want a bunch of this sheetmetal.

IMG_0168 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I bought a little yard wagon at a yard sale and it worked great when I needed to rescue my cherry picker that was stuck in the mud under a cab

IMG_0174 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

with my wifes help I had the easiest cab/front clip move ever from the back yard to the front. I bought a forklift recently but its a smooth tire and gets stuck if you even hint that you might driv near the grass. but this little yard wagon sheesh! I would do this again in a heartbeat, which is good!

IMG_0171 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0172 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0173 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


yes thats daylight, the kicks are GONE but the floor is solid. nice for me, just flat work and a good solid floor. I like the spiderweb crack in the passenger windshield too. I am thinking of keeping it. I have lots of spare GMC front clip parts too, a whole spare clip actually, but lets see if I can bang this metal around a little before I give up. I have a nice bed, I have some nice running boards I got at the same sale I got the yard cart. you can see I got the missing door, I even got the mounts cut already and maybe tomorrow I will weld them up and mock up the cab. everything is coming up joedoh!





so anyway, once more into the breach!