'79 gmc swb story, build & intro

[big_b]

ive lurked for a while and decided to take this oppertunity to do my intro and post some pictures of one of my current projects. it will be a slow build, buying stuff when i can afford to. this will be more or less a restoration with some mild customizing but not much. just enough to make a cool reliable daily driver again.

2 years ago i was pulled over by one of our citys "finest" and she decided that it wasnt suitable for the road and did me the favour of giving the truck a notice of inspection, wich meant i could no longer drive it on the streets with out putting it through a vehicle inspection. i was lazy and had other projects so i parked it beside the house, sold the motor and seat and it rusted into the ground.
recently i bought a rusty '80 short box stepside and got the 73-87 chevy truck bug back. i sold the step side, bought a parts truck and started tearing down my ol truck.
heres some pictures:




80 stepside

parts truck

quick fix to a stripped ball joint

[nbpro]

to the Board nice story good looking Project to

[menace121978]

awesome story man! cant wait for updates

[N2TRUX]

Keep the pics and progress coming...

[79gmcclassic]

cant wait to see this one!

[big_b]

Thanks all,
Good thing my parts truck has a good floor because my '79 would be perfect for Freddie Flintstone! Not just the floors are gone but the cab mounts under the floor. Im supposeing thats how my windsheild kept cracking. Good thing the parts truck floors are mint!



Got the parts truck ready for the scrapper today, just gotta pull the lower control arms off.



Now that ive decided to use the parts truck cab ive noticed that there are differences between my '79 and the '83.
I plan on useing the '83 cab and the '79 front end. To do that i cut the hood support sheet metal from the cowl of the '79 cab as well as the wiper pivot mounts as a template for mounting the '79 wipers in the '83 cab. All that because the hoods are different! I wont be sending the parts truck off to the scrapper till i get the '83 cab mounted to the '79 chassis incase there are more unsuspecting differences.
Anybody know if the '83 cab is a direct bolt up to the '79 chassis?

[menace121978]

as far as i know they will bolt right up. check the lmc catalog and see if the mounts are a different part # because for some reason i remember that the mounts are different.

[87 chevy silverado]

looking good

[big_b]

Originally Posted by menace121978

as far as i know they will bolt right up. check the lmc catalog and see if the mounts are a different part # because for some reason i remember that the mounts are different.

thanks, the rubber mounts are noticeably different. What i shouldve done before i put the '79 cab on the '83 parts truck frame was measure the body mount spacing and compare. i think ill quickly through the '83 cab on my short box frame and see if everything lines up.

[menace121978]

it'll line up but you will need the 81-87 mounts though. IIRC... your making me think!

[big_b]

your right about the cab mounts. i put the '83 cab on the '79 frame with the '79 rubber mounts. they made the cab sit about a 1/2" higher compared to the body line on the box. later tonight ill switch out the '79 rubber mounts for the '83 and hopefully my body lines will line up!