Big Red, my 68 3/4 ton GMC

[Jacfourteen]

So I decided to start a build thread for my project, my 68 3/4 ton GMC. The truck has been in my family since 1970, when my grandad bought the truck. He drove it on a daily basis up until about 1994 when he finally bought a newer truck. He maintained the truck very well and when he sold it to my brother it was all original and in very good shape. My brother had just turned 16 and drove the truck like a hot rod and spun a bearing in the 305 V6. My dad then took over the truck and me and him rebuilt and dropped in a 351 V6 (I was about 13 I think, and I did most of the work with my dad's direction). My dad is a contractor and used the truck for hauling drywall to jobs and then hualing the scrap to the dump, so the truck wasn't nearly as pampered as when my grandad owned it. That 351 wasn't fast by any means but that thing would pull anything, I remember I had the bed filled with 40 sheets of 1/2" by 12' sheets of drywall and went over donner pass on I-80 doing close to 70 mph the whole way (as fast as it would go with the 4.56 gears ) Well, back in 2000 the 351 started knocking so my dad gave up on it and gave it to me. I decided to go for a 350 sbc for parts availablity and so it would be a little more fun to drive. I yanked out the old motor and found a motor to drop in that the previous owner said ran great when pulled (at least it was free). I found a bellhousing for the motor and tried to drop it in, but work ground to a stop when I found out the bellhousing wouldn't fit the trans (it was for the smaller car trans). I was fresh out of high school and broke so the truck got put on the back burner for a while. Well for the next 7 years (I got married in 2001, had a son in 2001, had a daughter in 2006, and many smaller events along the way) the truck sat untouched. so in 2007 I decided to start working on it again, I quickly found out the motor had water in it from not being covered. I decided to start from scratch and get a fresh rebuilt motor from a local shop (good thing because the builder tore down the core I gave him and he said it was junk long before I let the water get into it). So the motor he built me was a 350 with 10:1 CR, a comp cams 268 cam, edelbrock intake from the old motor, and heads from old motor with a head job. He said the motor should put out between 285-300 HP with the 670 holley street avenger carb and the long tube headers I put on. I dropped the motor in and got it fired up, but then it sat again until just recently. I have the summer off from school so I decided I need to get this thing on the road by the end of summer. Sorry for the long intro but this truck has meant alot to me over the years and I wanted to let everyone know why I want to get it going so badly. I will try to get some pics up soon and start detailing my progress, anyway thanks for looking.

[Jacfourteen]

I think I figured out how to upload pictures so here it goes.






That gives you an idea what I'm working with, it's in pretty good shape. Biggest things to do are: put in a new bed floor and install bed, deal with rust spots on driver's side door sill and a little on the floor pan, also have to patch up some rust on the front lower corner of the passenger side fender. I'm gonna do some cleanup and then get some more pics to show the rust spots.

[Jacfourteen]

Today I did some cleanup on the truck. I scraped the sound dampening material off of the floor to get a better idea of how much rust is under there, overall it isn't too bad. I also pulled the cowl off because the truck has been parked under an oak tree for the last 10 years and the cowl was full of leaves. I cleaned that all up and reinstalled it, I was expecting rust under there but it all looked good. I'm going to see about getting the bed out and figuring out the floor situation tomarrow. Hopefully I'll get some more pics up tommarow.

[STOCKISH]

Great looking truck. Gonna be a cool project. Best of luck to ya! And : from NC

[Jacfourteen]

I've made some progress the last few days. After sitting under an oak tree for the last 10 years there were leaves every where. The cowl was full to the top so I pulled it off and cleaned all the leaves out, I was expecting to find rust but it cleaned up good. Next, I scraped and cleaned out the sound deadening material in the cab to see if there was any more rust damage, I was happy there wasn't anymore lurking under there. Then I wanted to get the bed out and cleaned up. first thing was to flip it over, after I did that I opened the tailgate to find a large wasp nest built between the gate and the bed, needless to say I got out of there quick. So I sprayed the 2 nests down with bee spray and let it sit over night. The next day I managed to get the bed on the truck with the help of my 7 year old son, pressure washed all the dirt and wasps out of it and figured out which cross sills go where. Then I measured for all the dimensions of the lumber and bolts needed to get a floor in it. The plan for now is to build a functional floor that will be used to hual my dirt bike in and still look decent and be cheap to build. I was considering building the bed out of 1/4" plate steel, but decided to wait on that because a future plan is to go to SWB. So for now I'm gonna build it out of 3/4" tongue and groove exterior plywood, then coat it with spray on bed liner. I hope to have the wood in the bed in the next few days so stay tuned! Here are some pics of what I've been up to.

Before:


After:


Me loading the bed with my son's help:




First time with a bed in about 3 years:


Floor Cleanup: The bad side




The good side:


Thanks for looking, I hope to have a bedfloor in this week.

[Shyguy]

I enjoyed the story with the background of the truck. It is always good to see a truck that was kept in the family.

Good looking truck, I like the 67 and 68s, GMC or Chevys.

We lived down the road from you for about 25 years, Vallejo, before moving here to Southeast Missouri in '96.

Have a great summer with the project.

Danny

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by Shyguy

I enjoyed the story with the background of the truck. It is always good to see a truck that was kept in the family.

Good looking truck, I like the 67 and 68s, GMC or Chevys.

We lived down the road from you for about 25 years, Vallejo, before moving here to Southeast Missouri in '96.

Have a great summer with the project.

Danny

Thanks for the compliment! I have some great memories in this truck from when I was a kid cruining with my granddad. The funny thing is when I was born my parents brought me home from the hospital in this truck, Not many people can say they own the first vehicle they ever rode in!

[Jacfourteen]

well over the last few weeks I've made some progress, I just haven't had time to post any pics or updates. I got some motor towers from a member on here, and mounted them up. I also bought all new wheel cylenders and installed them. I bought some flowmaster 40's and hope to get them on this weekend. I also paid up the registration ($436 because the last time it was registered was in 99). It is insured now too! So all I need to do to get it on the road is to get the mufflers on and a few other small things. I hope to take it for a drive this weekend. I'll be sure to get some video of straight headers and then with mufflers and some vid of the first drive. I have all the pictures of the recent work but I've been working 50+ hours per week 150 miles from home so I haven't had time to post anything. Stay tuned for more posts on the work done.

[culp7]

any progress?

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by culp7

any progress?

I've had a little bit here and there but I've barely had time to work on it much less post on my build thread! I've been meaning to do some updates, I have pictures of most the work that I've done so I can put it on here when I have some time. The biggest thing is that I had to pull the motor out because while sitting it got water in it, I flushed it out good but it was too late. I had only driven it about 400 miles and then it started knocking. It turned out that some junk had pluged the oil screen and wiped out the bearings. So I dropped in a new crank and bearings and everything else got a good cleaning then it went back in. I've also put a 3/4" plywood bed floor in, redid the gauges with white faces, installed a 5" tach, got the exhaust on, along with a few other things. Since then I've put her to work hauling some trash to the dump and hauling two 3500 pound loads of gravel. I have some video clips I posted up in some other posts but I'll put em up here too. The first vid is just a sound clip with a 4000 rpm rev, shut down and startup. The second vid is a couple easy starts from stop signs (you can see my gauges, and since then I fixed the speedo). The third vid is a more agressive take off, I start off in 2nd and short shift it because I'm just spinning, then you can hear the tires spinning in 3rd but I let off because I start to get sideways (Its hard to steer shift and hold a camera at the same time while buring out). The picture is of a 3520 pound load of gravel I hauled last week. Hope you enjoy, and I'll try to get some of the progress pics up.

[IMG]http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh171/jact...

[IMG]http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh171/jact...

[IMG]http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh171/jact...

[culp7]

hey thanks! gotta love them 3/4 tons

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice truck and nice progress on it!

[Jacfourteen]

Well time flies when your having fun (or really busy), I guess its been about a year since my last update. So I guess I should show some progress that I've had. I've mostly just been driving it as much as I can, but I've made some small progress here and there. Last year I entered the Gold Rush Car Show here in oroville in the "under construction". So I did some cleanup work on it to get in shape. First I lined the bed with some roll on herculiner, it has held up pretty well to the tough use I put it through.

Here is a pic of what it looks like after about a year of use.


I also did some buffing on the paint to make it a little shiny, and sprayed the bare metal floor with some bed liner as well as the gas tank and other bare metal in the cab. It looks a little better and quieted it down a bit too.

Here is a pic of my truck next to my wife's 41:


I also installed a 16" electric fan and got rid of the flexalite flex fan, but I don't have pics of that right now.

Lately I've been gathering parts to swap the rear end over to a 1/2 ton coil rear. I Picked up a 6 lug 3.73 posi from a local yard a few months back, and just the other day I picked up the trailing arms and mounts. I also pulled my bed so I can start disassembling and cleaning and painting the frame. Then I need to paint up the new parts and start bolting it together.

Here is a pic of the parts I've gathered so far:


Here is a pic of the bed hanging as I pulled out from underneath it:


I'm also gonna need to have some exhaust work done when I start swapping out the rear, here is a shot of where the trailing arms will be, to bad the mufflers are right in the way:


So now I need to start looking for some wheels, I'm thinking about finding some 20's or 22's off of a late model to throw on (I know they require some work to make them fit, but you can get them for cheap off CL). Then I need to pick up a kit from ECE for the front. I talked to one of their sales reps and he said I could get the complete 6 lug kit with 2.5" drop spindles that will bolt up to the 3/4 ton tierod ends and ball joints for $999.00. I had thought about piecing a disk conversion together but it was gonna run about $750 for all new brake parts and the drop spindles so I figure I might as well drop the extra $$ and save myself some head ache.

I'll try to keep this thread more current as I make progress, thanks for looking!

[Jacfourteen]

Well I started the disassembly of the rear today. I got most of it done and took pictures along the way. I started by jacking up the rear and put some jackstands under the frame. this got the tires just off the ground to take the tension off the leaves. I decided to start in on the spring hangers first. So I center punched all the rivets, then worked my way from a 1/8" bit to a 1/2" bit and drilled just deep enough to pop the head of the rivet. Heres what it looked like in phases:













This was the first hanger, so then I just had to do the other 3! So after I got all the others drilled I disconnected the brake line, e-brake cables and shocks.
Next I took the u-bolts off and got the springs out of the way, here's how it looked:





Then I had to lift the frame high enough to roll the axle out from under the truck. To do this I jacked under the carrier bearing crossmember, and rolled it out.





This is as far as I got today. If the weather cooperates tomorrow I plan on pulling the bumper off (Its welded to the frame in about 10-12 places so I get to grind it off) and start removing rust/undercoating so I can start painting and reassembling.

[Jacfourteen]

I forgot to mention above that when I was prepping for last years carshow I also did a little bit of a drop on the truck. It was a low buck (I think I spent less than $20!) drop and got me down about 3" in the front and 4" in the rear. I did a write up back when I did it and you can read about it in the link below.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=403279

[Hardesty454]

Hey hey from Chico/ Red Bluff! lookin good there buddy!

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by Hardesty454

Hey hey from Chico/ Red Bluff! lookin good there buddy!

Thanks! Now if it ever stops raining I can get back to work on it.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Jacfourteen]

Well it's still raining here but I got sick of waiting and did some work on my truck today. I removed the bumpstops first, and let me say for 4 little rivets they were a lot of work! the rivets were on the bottom of the frame so beating them out was a real pain. after I got those out I unbolted the exhaust to get it out of the way. I figured that before I started cleaning and painting that I should mock everything up so that I could avoid surprises later. So I hauled the old stuff to the side yard and hauled the new (used) parts over to bolt them on for mock-up. Well after I bolted everything on I found out that my existing shock mounts won't work so I'll have to go get the coil spring shock mounts from the truck that I got the rest of the stuff off of. I also still need to go get the upper spring mounts and some 6 lug wheels. So tomorrow I will hit the junk yard again, and the hardware store for some grade 8 bolts. Here are some pictures that I took tonight, sorry about the quality my cell phone takes crappy pics at night.

The pain in the a$$ bumpstops and the center punch that got lots of use getting them off:


Where the mufflers used to be:


Where the mufflers are now:


Some pictures of how it looks bolted up (for now):

[Jacfourteen]

Well the rain let up a little a few days ago and today so I got some work done. A few days ago I was talking to my dad and telling him how since I had the rear down this much I would really like to bag it and chop it to a swb, but I'm gonna do that next year. Well we were looking at how well attached the bumper was and I was thinking how much easier it would be to clean up the rear of the frame with it chopped off and I decided to go for it. So first I popped about 40 more rivets loose to get unneeded stuff off and to take loose the carrier bearing crossmember. Then I hacked the rear 8" from the frame rails to get the bumper off.Next I started laying out my cut lines, most guys on here do a 12" step cut when they chop a frame down and they make the cut under the cab. I wanted to leave the cab in place so I moved the cut back as far as possible, and I felt that an 8" step would be adequate. Here it is ready to cut:



So then I made my first cut all the way through the frame to get it loose from the truck and out of the way:





Then I went back and got the crossmember out and finished the step cut under the cab:







Now I just need to get the step cut on the rear section of the frame and clean up and paint it (easier to paint if with it off the truck). then I can start weld it up and start assembly. Oh and for now I found some 6 lug wheels and tires off of CL for $150 to throw on for the time being. They are 16" star wheels off of a 98 suburban with 27" directional tread bridgestones on them. I know that the hub bore is too small, but I have a solution to that. sorry I didn't take pictures of them but I get some up when I modify them to fit. also I ordered some 2600 pound airbags to throw on here when I start assembly, I got the whole set of 4 for $140 shipped off of amazon. For now I will just run them with tire valves and fill them manually, but eventually I will run the rest of the air system.

[MrBeast]

Wow, neat truck, will be looking forward to seeing it get put back togeather.

[Jacfourteen]

Well I had a little progress today. First I took out another 8 rivets to get rid of the rest of the E-brake cable brackets that are no longer needed. Then I made the step cuts on the rear section of the frame:



Then I started wire brushing and fiber discing some of the rust and undercoating off of the frame, I still have more to do, but I made a good start on it.





I also picked up a bunch of grade 8 3/8" bolts, and nuts so that I am ready to start bolting it back together when the time comes. I am really considering pulling out the remaining 20 rivets left in the rear section so I can pull the rails and x-members apart and get all the rust out of the crevices. I figure I have already pulled about 80+ rivets so what's 20 more?

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Wow, neat truck, will be looking forward to seeing it get put back togeather.

Thanks! I hope to start getting it back together soon.

[Jacfourteen]

Well I planned on working on my truck for the better part of today and getting the frame painted, but instead I got to change the fuel pump in my Tahoe . I changed the fuel pump less than a year ago, but against better advice I cheaped out and got a store brand one to save a few $$. So I bought the delphi pump for $300 put it in today, the real pisser is that while changing the pump my touchscreen phone fell out of my pocket and I ran in over with my creeper and broke the screen . Well after that I only had about an hour to work on my truck, so I got the rest of the rivets out and did some more wirebrushing. Here is a pic of how the frame sits now:




And here are a few (bad) pictures of my dirty wheels and tires that I plan on throwing on here for temp use:





I hope to get some paint on the rails tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes...

[Jacfourteen]

Well I got some work done on the truck in the last few days, I decided to get the rails back welded on before painting to avoid weld spatter from getting on the fresh paint. So I got all the cuts squared up and then I clamped them into place and measured for square and level and adjusted them till I got it just right. Here are some pictures of prep for welding.









Then I tacked them up and remeasured, they looked good so I finished welding. Then I pulled out the crossmembers and got ready to start grinding the welds.







It felt good to have the frame rails back in one piece! I have more pics I will put up later.

[Jacfourteen]

So I got a little more done, first I did a bunch of grinding. Man I hate grinding, but I guess it's good practice for when I start the bed as I've never done any body work. I had to reweld a few spots where there was some low spots and touch up where I welded up some of the holes in the frame. So here's a few pics of the progress during the process:















I also got some paint done so I'll post up the pics of that soon!