Building my INDY HAULER ....

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...... With a twist!

Pics & details soon to come.

[80streetcoupe]

Well I'm interested. I haven't seen one in 30yrs.

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Im in.

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First off I'd like to give a BIG THANK YOU to those that have helped me through my build. They include my older brother COS399(username here), and a few others(that aren't members of this forum), y'all have been a big help!

My love for the crew cab square body began when my older brother(COS399) purchased a '78 model that he fixed up and restored nicely. I fell in love with that truck and vowed to someday build a special one of my own. I have always looked up to my older brother as he is one of those guys that gets along with just about anybody he meets and helps just about every chance he can. A very smart and likeable guy he is.

Anyhow, those that know me in the Trans Am community are well aware of the fact that I eat, sleep and breathe Trans Am's so it was only natural that I would eventually combine my love for square bodies with my love for Trans Am's! I've always been a fan of the cannonball run movie and have always loved the Indy Hauler dually that they beat the hell out of throughout the entire movie. I've been talking about building one for roughly 5 years or so but since I'm not a big fan of the crew cab dually's and not a big fan of the single cab trucks(that GMC actually built) I decided I was going to make my own crew cab fleet side "Hauler" and call it my own and that is where the thread begins ........

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I had been seriously talking about building the truck since about November of 2010 when I found a very nice '88 1-ton crew cab truck but ...... life happens and with a ton of other projects going I never found the time to get it started.

I eventually purchased another crew cab(this one a 3/4 ton) and even purchased a '93 dodge dually with 12 valve and getrag so I could rob the drivetrain out of and install it in my Hauler..... Once again, the 12 valve idea was my older brothers influence cause he did a swap in his '88 crew cab back before anybody was really doing it and I thought it was the coolest thing.

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Here is a pic of both crew cabs mentioned above parked nose to nose.



And here is a pic of the '93 dodge that would be the donor for the powerplant.



And finally, the '88 Crew cab my brother built like 15 years ago.

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In March of 2014 I had decided that I was going to use the brown 3/4 ton(pictured above) and drop the 12 valve cummins drivetrain from the '93 doge in it and was about 2 weeks from getting started on it when I "happened" to come across an ad in CL in a city only 180 miles away from me! It was basically a 1 owner 45k mile 1981 Crew Cab GMC ...... And the original owner had already dropped a 12 valve drivetrain under the hood!

I called the guy and struck a deal over the phone and the next day I was bringing it back home! Never did I imagine exactly how clean the truck would be until I seen it in person and I was happy I had made the deal!



Look carefully and you can see the plug for the diesel sticking out from under the bumper on the passenger side.

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There was still issues that needed to be "buttoned" up on the truck after I got it in order to get it where I could drive it comfortably and use it for highway trailer towing and thankfully my older brother was there to help me when I needed advice.

First on my list(espcially after having hit a deer in march of 2013) was some proper protection for the front of my tow rig.

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Throughout the rest of 2014 I worked on various things on the truck from having the windows tinted to having the bed Rhino lined, etc...

Then I started to lay out a plan as to what exactly I envisioned for the truck since I was originally wanting to duplicate an Indy Hauler but knew I couldn't cause my truck wasn't a dually and wasn't the exact year model(GM had changed the hood, fenders and grill in '81) nor did it have the correct interior color etc.... So after I had a plan layed out it was time to find a body shop that I felt comfortable with to make my vision a reality.

Then, in March of this year, I found a local body shop that was willing to tackle the transformation of this truck from unrestored original to my custom 1 off tow rig. I was excited

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2 weeks after the drop off the build begins ......

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And tear it down they did.

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Look at that bright red interior!

At this point I was ordering plenty of parts from LMC and making arrangements for a buddy of mine that is a graphics designer to design the decal kit for me.

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It didn't go without it's fair share of "hiccups" though.

A buddy had brought me a pair of fenders that he had purchased from a swap meet about 2 years earlier cause he had heard me say that I always wanted to install some 2nd gen Trans Am fender vents in my square body fenders when I built it. They looked clean so we were going to use them ..... Here they are "cut in" and ready to be installed on the truck.

I'll get back to this 1st "hiccup" in a few more posts as my pics were uploaded in the order in which I took them so I can keep on track with my story.

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In the meantime I was able to change the rear shocks out while the bed of the truck was off.



I also wanted to change out the sending units on both tanks while the bed was off but I noticed they were partially under the cab of the truck and I didn't want to risk running in to a problem while doing it that would cause the truck to not run right cause they were literally moving it in and out of the shop on a daily basis and I didn't want them to be pissed at me should a problem arise so I saved that for a later date.

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Here are the door jambs after being cut in ....



..... while the doors were being prepped for the inside of them to be cut in too.

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Enter hiccup #2

About 2 weeks before I dropped the truck off at the body shop I had called Phoenix Graphics up to ask if they sold the hood bird for the Indy Hauler .... the guy on the phone said no but the regular '79 silver,red, black hood bird would work .... I asked if he was sure and he said "yes" so I ordered it.

Just to make sure, and without thinking about it, I laid the blue/black hood bird for my cameo white '73 T/A on the hood of the GMC and it fit great so I never gave it another thought until ..... The body guy asked me if I could drop off the hood bird cause he was almost ready to start mocking up my 2nd improvement over the Indy Hauler truck .... A shaker hood scoop! He asked if I was sure it was going to fit and I said "Yes, cause a couple of weeks before I had dropped the GMC off with them I laid the hood bird from my '73 on it and" .... In that instant I had realized .... The earlier gen hood birds were SMALLER than the later ones!!!!! D'oh!!!

I had made a mistake that I needed to remedy quick!!

So I call Year One(At this point I'm pissed at Phoenix Graphics ... though I'm sure YO probably gets thiers from PG) and I order the earlier style hood bird in the same color scheme(which I happen to prefer the looks of anyway) and I had it at my front door PDQ!

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D'oh!!



This pic was taken(for illustration purposes) a day or two after I had already ordered the new bird.

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Now, back to hiccup #1 .... After the body guy had put the freshly cut in fenders and doors on I stopped by the shop in order to take a few pics of the progress. After talking to him for a little while I could tell that he wasn't happy with the way the fender vents were put in by whomever had previously owned these fenders. There was a lot of bondo around them too.

I had a talk with them and made arrangements to drop the original truck fenders off and a fresh pair of 2nd gen T/A fender vents so that he could mount them in the correct way and make it where the fender vents were actually removeable just like they are on the T/A's.

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And we're off to fix hiccup #1

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Now back to my 2nd improvement over the Indy Hauler(which happens to also be hiccup #3) .... The shaker hood scoop. I had planned to make it a functional scoop but unfortunately all the underhood bracing intersects right there and in order for the guy to make it where the hood wasn't bouncing furiously(from removing the intersecting bracing underneath) would mean more time in fabrication and expense added to the bill. I wasn't afraid of paying more for his time but I didn't want to miss the deadline for the event I had planned to reveal it at so we came up with a compromise .... It wouldn't be quite as nice but still an improvement over no shaker and they did it similar on the Bandit II cars so ...

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Nothing but factory GM metal right there. I'm loving it!

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I also had them shave off the factory molding that goes underneath the rear window and the 3+3 callout that is behind the rear doors.

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Exciting to see primer going on the panels ..... it means paint is coming up soon!!

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Original(to the truck) improved fenders cut in and ready to be put back on.

The purple fenders were both junked.

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Shaker scoop "panel bonded" to the hood. He nailed that profile in my opinion!