I'm this far in now....

[GMC Canuck]

I have a '68 GMC 910. Bought it about fifteen years ago and has been a rolling project. I've done a few upgrades but for the most part it has been a good running and driving truck. Last year I got it into my head that I was going to sell it and focus on another project. But first it needed a little help. This is how it was:


Not a bad looking truck, from a distance. 383, 700r4, 4/3 static drop, rack and pinion steering. Done a lot of work over the years but a close eye on the picture you can see the body line between the cab and the box don't quite line up. The cab mounts had completely collapsed on the passanger side. No way I would sell it like that. On investigation the floor had been patched and repatched a few times. So the cab came off.



It needed a floor and a few other spots cleaned up around the blower housing and same on the drivers side. I cut the cab corners and rockers out and started on the floor. I quickly realized I was in over my head (stupid tv makes it look so easy) If I had infinite time I probably could have muddled my way through but with three kids and working 60 hours a week just wan't happening. So I decided it should go to a professional before I get too far in and no one will touch the mess I'm making. This is where things started to get out of hand. If I was getting all this work done to the cab, now is the time to smooth the firewall and add a/c as well as fill the fuel filler hole and put the tank out back.




The last picture does not do it justice of just how much filler was holding the cab corners in.

[GMC Canuck]

Since the engine was on the stand it got some love too. Checked everything over, pulled the heads, rolled in new mains and rod bearings, a bit of paint and since I had the tank for it now was the time for fuel injection.

[brian1971]

Are you going to use Gm ecu for injection or going with Holley ecu,Looking good.

Brian

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by GMC Canuck

This is where things started to get out of hand.

Yeah you just bought it again, good luck selling it now because it will be so nice after all the work is done there is no way you will want to sell it.

[GMC Canuck]

Are you going to use Gm ecu for injection or going with Holley ecu

haven't decided on which electronics I'm going to use. Have not heard good things about the GM version. Leaning towards either FAST or Holley. I want something with timing control, sequential firing and self learning self tuning. It will be one of the last things I buy as there is new stuff coming out all the time.

Yeah you just bought it again, good luck selling it now because it will be so nice after all the work is done there is no way you will want to sell it.

And with what I've got into it, there is no way to sell it and brake even. Unless I slapped a gas monkey sticker on it (that should triple the price)
I can't wait to drive it again but I'm trying to take my time and do everything right.

[GMC Canuck]

a couple more pics of the starting point (ie cab rust)




I'm letting the body shop deal with all that while I work on the frame. I've stripped the frame down and started to clean it up.

[GMC Canuck]

Progress to this point has taken some time and while I have parts of the truck scattered, some in storage, some in the shop and the box was sitting on stands behind the shop until someone backed a trailer into the box. Pushed the box off the stands and into my car trailer, mangling both bed sides.

This was a setback as the box only needed minimal work where the toolbox had been filled in by the previous owner, otherwise it was mint. Not a complete loss, after reading on here I had the idea to shorten to a shortbox. I need new sides and I wanted a wood floor anyways and someone else is paying for the sides so I got the frame on stands, leveled and measured. Ready to cut. With some research and a how to by glock35ipsc comlete with pictures it looked easy.

[GMC Canuck]

turned out not too bad, had to borrow a larger welder as my 110v miller 140 wasn't up to the job


while i was hacking the frame I put in porterbuilt's c-notch kit


The notch kit interfered with the nolimit panhard bar mount, but others have had this problem and Rob's suggestion was to modify the panhard bar bracket as the notch's structure is more important. I went a little further and grafted the two together.

[GMC Canuck]

Frame is back from blast and paint. The front suspension cradle is bolted back in. Time to start reassembling. I think I may have jumped the gun on paint, I wish I had welded on some mounts for brake lines. I have no idea how the exhaust is going to mount and now that the frame is shortened and I've changed the crossmembers to porterbuilt tubular I may some interference with the fuel tank mounted in the rear.



Front suspension is together




and steering



hard to see in the pic, but the nolimit rack does fit with the ridetech arms.
It's tight between the LCA and the rack

[mooseknuckles]

cool build!

[flashed]

WOW ,this is going to be nice .

[GMC Canuck]

I got my porterbuilt rear trailing arms. The arms as is will not work with either the nolimit panhard bar or the nolimit shock kit. The panhard bar mount interferes with pb bar mount welding on the arms. Easy fix with a torch and a grinder. The shock mounts took a little more. The nolimt mount was designed to bolt to the bottom of the trailing arm via the ubolts. Doesn't work with PB arms. So the shock mounts on the arms came off, butchered the nolimit shock mount bracket and welded it to the arm.







The arms need to come back out and get painted or powder coated or something but everything fits.
Dropped the engine in and started to fit the fuel tank.

Still have the very rear crossmember to install but wanted to get an idea of how the fuel tank was going to fit in. I also need to figure out where the box mount bolts are going. As I'm switched from long to short I have no idea where the rear mount holes should be and don't want the rear crossmember in the way.

[70LonghornCST]

Very nice progress. I can't wait to see more.

[GMC Canuck]

Almost at the point now where I'm waiting for the body shop to finish.
Front and rear sway bars are in. The front sway bar interferes with the rack and pinion. Once I have all the weight on it and sitting at normal ride height I'll try and either modify the end links or find longer ones.











Fuel lines, brake lines and battery cables are run.
The exhaust I'm going to wait for the box to be on before I make up the tail pipes.
I'm sure I'll be cursing the battery location later in life but I plan on mounting booster studs under the hood somewhere.
Wiring harness' are coming soon but there is only so much I can do until I get the cab and body back together.

[WarMonger]

Looks really good.

[slowcpe]

Nice progress. I'm thinking about running that rear sway bar as well.

[swamp rat]

for my own info, i never had one and never seen one in person, but i was under the assumption the rear sway bar went in the frame behind the rear axle, did you mount it in the stock location? Nice work btw! Thanks!

[toolboxchev]

Diggin the way you have run your pipes, Who's Headers did you go with?

[GMC Canuck]

for my own info, i never had one and never seen one in person, but i was under the assumption the rear sway bar went in the frame behind the rear axle, did you mount it in the stock location?

The rear sway bar is from No Limit, There isn't much left of 'stock'

Diggin the way you have run your pipes, Who's Headers did you go with?

Headman, I liked the idea of the ball and socket collector connection.

[GMC Canuck]

I received several large boxes of electrical, complete wiring harness and the fuel injection wiring. Fast ez-efi 2.0. Started to loosely wire the engine, Ran the drill on the dummy distributor to make sure I still have oil through the entire engine before dropping the proper distributor in. Discovered the injector connectors are different and required adapters, I still need to mount an air intake temperature sensor somewhere and some minor plumbing was needed for the fuel pressure sensor.

[GMC Canuck]

Body shop has the cab close to primer.





Soon I'll have a rad cradle so I can mount the rad and start to bend up some transmission cooler lines.

[GMC Canuck]

Cab is painted and back on the frame.

[flashed]

Looks great ,going to be one nice truck.

[GMC Canuck]

Starting to get things bolted in, steering and brakes. Starting to untangle and sort out the AAW wiring harness. Figuring out how to wire the aftermarket gauge set and vintage air. Thankfully the AAW has provision for an electric speedometer. It's all pretty straight forward. Just time consuming to have it clean.


I got tired of tripping over the box crossmembers so I laid them out on the frame and quickly realized my rear sway bar was too high. But it's a simple fix of shortening the end links. I have the spacer tubes removed in the picture. I'll wait till I have all the weight on the suspension and it sitting at ride height before I make any adjustments. Last thing I want is the first speed bump I hit to have the sway bar comes up and smashes the wood floor.

[mooseknuckles]

lookin' good! love the colours...