The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.

[TKCR]

Your original bezel: I believe LDO started a thread, where he made his look new again. I'll look around, see if I can find it.

Here it is:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=732238

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by TKCR

It's coming along!! Hunter, you and your Dad, do great work.

Thanks! I still have some more updates to post. We're working on the seat right now and a solution to mounting it.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Time for a tiny little update. It's cold, so progress is slow. Next step we fiddled with wheels a bit. Figured out what wheel studs I'd need, lugs, and tire sizes. I ultimately decided on 255 60 15's for the front and 295 50 15's on the rear, cooper cobras of course. There was a deal going on with discounttire on ebay, I paid a little less than $500 shipped. They arrived at my doorstep in less than 24 hours.

I had to get a spacer from titan wheel accessories, which was a little hard to find. I was going to buy them on Amazon and in the 24 hr they were waiting in my cart they went unavailable so I had to buy them from their website. Turns out I bought the last set. They are .25" thick to clear the knuckle on my drop spindle.

Next, I had to measure and get wheel studs. This was way harder than it should have been. I also went through amazon, ended up buying dorman part number 610-475 for $17. This is the part number for 10 on dorman, but this seller on amazon sold me 1 stud for $17. I found them on summit for $18, accidentally bought two boxes but now I have 21 wheel studs.

Next, I needed lugs. We were pretty sure my wheels were supposed to come with studs but the whole debacle of even getting these wheels from the people they were purchased from was pretty painful and crazy. We didn't bother asking. I picked out a set of mcgards on amazon. They were pretty reasonably priced. $35 for part number 84562. Comes with 18 lugs and 5 locks so there's some extras.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

We recently did some more block work and actually got it shortblocked and ready to go. (Which is really freaking awesome!!!) Everything went together rather smoothly. While this block has been a pretty expensive and time consuming process, I think it was worth seeing how it's done! I saved lots by getting used eagle rods and a bunch of other bits second hand. There's not much else to say about this, so I'll flood you with some pictures.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Oh, and by the way. I got my windshield installed. $120 I think installed by a local company that came by the house. They were a little rough on the chrome mylar but it looks pretty good to me.

I'll show you that vinyl floor on the next post, and my dad was alone when he "redid" my steering column so I'll have to get photos of that. Converted it to floor shift by cutting off the knub from the 3 speed and using some filler.

[papsoldblue72]

Lookin good.....

[Country705]

Love this build. I've just read through the entire project... Keep the updates coming

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by papsoldblue72

Lookin good.....

Originally Posted by Country705

Love this build. I've just read through the entire project... Keep the updates coming

Thanks, guys! I'll have more to share soon.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Here's a some pictures of that black vinyl floor. Stuff is pretty thick, we installed it in December I think, so it wasn't the easiest to get in cause it was a wee bit COLD! I got it from stock interiors, it's actually the ACC brand which I hear is the best. I could have gotten a better deal from rockauto, ALWAYS CHECK ROCK AUTO!

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Not sure if anyone noticed but on that last one I used a little big larger photos, maybe a little bit too big? I couldn't decide so I'll be following up with my original size.

So, I don't know if anyone reading remembers but I have the 60/40 bench out of like a 90's model chevy truck to put in mine. The floors on those trucks are flat because theres not gas tank under the cab, so the brackets are massive. It took some talking with my dad and we are actually still working on this bracket today a little here and there to make it fit JUST RIGHT but here's the basics of it.

We bought some steel here locally and ended up with enough to make two of these things. I'm sure we'll find something to do with the extra bits later! We (my dad) drew up and created a bracket to bolt up to the original seat mounting locations and then we planned (and did so successfully) to cut the 60/40 seat rails to fit.

After looking at all of these, I think we need better lighting in the garage! Or, better yet.. IT NEEDS TO GET WARM! That way we can open the doors and let that sweet natural light in. I also think we need more rags. I apparently cleaned up the metal with a dirty rag so the paint did some funky stuff, but hey.. it's under the seat. whatever.

Also, that dash in the last two pics is AN ORIGINAL DASH! It's pretty cool! It was in a camper conversion that had curtains pulled all around the glass. I got the door panels, kicks, and seatbelts too. It's all mint! I'll share pics of that next, I think. My dad got me the steering wheel for christmas.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

I thought about it for a minute.. I think I'll tease you all with the door panels and belts until I get my doors on! Here's a little sneak at the panels wrapped up from shipment and my dash.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

So, one of the small things that I wanted to address was the situation on the back wall inside of the cab. It had the foiled backed GT mat sound deadening exposed back there. I thought of an idea to cover it. I know they sell cardboard tool trays that go back there but a replacement is kind of pricey for a big piece of cardboard. I got some acoustic carpet that matched the seats current color almost dead-on (harsh camera flash begs to differ, but take my word for it. They're close!) and a cheap sheet of subflooring material from lowes. I cut a rectangle out in the wood sheet and the carpet and glued them together with some 3M adhesive. I'm not a real big fan of drilling holes in my truck, so I made it just wide enough to be secured with the 6x9 speaker brackets I got here off the forums.

[rgunlock]

You and your dad are doing a killer job on your truck! Reading your thread is like deja vu all over again for me. Weird though how your truck had so much more rust in some places, and none (that you mentioned) in other spots where I had a lot of it to deal with. Keep up the good work!

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

You and your dad are doing a killer job on your truck! Reading your thread is like deja vu all over again for me. Weird though how your truck had so much more rust in some places, and none (that you mentioned) in other spots where I had a lot of it to deal with. Keep up the good work!

Yeah, we think it was a north Florida truck. There was a hamilton county inspection sticker on the front windshield corner that had been on there for a very long time. Most of the rust seem to have been caused from the debris or something being picked up on the center of the road as it was all only on the drivers side. Old tan bench seat was full of sand, too. I wish I knew more about it, someone cared for it at one time. It came with welds aluminum draglites on it, previous respray, and someone pulled the inline 6 and built a 350 for it.

Thanks for checking it out!

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by HunterRotten

Yeah, we think it was a north Florida truck. There was a hamilton county inspection sticker on the front windshield corner that had been on there for a very long time. Most of the rust seem to have been caused from the debris or something being picked up on the center of the road as it was all only on the drivers side. Old tan bench seat was full of sand, too. I wish I knew more about it, someone cared for it at one time. It came with welds aluminum draglites on it, previous respray, and someone pulled the inline 6 and built a 350 for it.

Thanks for checking it out!

You are correct about the sand. I wondered where all that came from, lol.

[HunterRotten]

couldnt wear anything half decent when driving around with that seat, I had actually forgotten about the sand when I sold it to you! It's been apart too long.. about to be at the two year anniversary of the engine pull.

[Palf70Step]

The truck is looking real good.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

The truck is looking real good.

Thanks!

Here's a little update on the bed.

[HunterRotten]

White letters in or out...

I never gave it much thought and I'm on my way out the door to get them mounted.

[rgunlock]

If I recall you are going for retro look, so white letters out.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

If I recall you are going for retro look, so white letters out.

Yuuuup. That's what I ended up doing. Had a bit of a problem with some weight clearance on one of the four but everything's good now, I think!

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

No idea how glad I am to have these cragars out of the box, they've been taking up space in my room for a good while! They look awesome.

[Palf70Step]

Very, Very NICE!!!

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

So over the last couple of weeks I sucked it up and finally got around to getting my cylinder heads. The thought of spending so much in one purchase kinda made my stomach churn. Anyways.. just about one year after we got the big block it's pretty much done! What I saved on used eagle rods, used crane rockers, and the 88-98 serpentine was ate up with a roller cam and aluminum heads but dang, my block has come some ways since day one! Here's some pics from day one and after some time being tumbled.

And here's what we got done the last few weekends.. I got the serpentine brackets off of my dads old v6. He used to have a pretty cool 1990 chevy he dug into and swapped the engine out. I got some brackets from a company called kwik performance. ( http://www.kwikperf.com/bbc_serp_kit.html ) They make everything you need, including an adapter so that you can use a sbc crank pulley. (big block ones are hard to find and are expensive, apparently.)

Seems like I bought my distributor ages ago. It was my first purchase and the outcome after I had my first break down.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

He's going to wonder where I found this photo at, but here's his old truck since I brought it up in the last post.

I was kinda salty when he sold it but I was like 7.