61 GMC Project

[factorystock]

Because of the camping boom in the 60's and early 70's, a few 3/4 tons can still be found in great shape.Too bad color film was rarely used back then.

[Surfdaddy]

The guy who gave me the truck also gave me all the papaerwork he had. I have sales brochures and quotes form most of the southern Cal manufactures of campers. The same goes with the trucks of the time (60-61) this guy really did a lot of research into what he wanted. Too bad I can't save the camper. The interior is all Ash and hte cabinets are soild ash. Very pretty camper. When I used the lifts to take it off the truck the sides were so rotted they crumpled and bent the siding. All the windows and vents leaked. I guess I could rebuild it but it would cost more than a few thousand to do it and I really would rather put that money in to the truck.

[Bugeyev8]

Originally Posted by Surfdaddy

One step closer to bringing it home. Got the brakes bled and stripped out the camper, removed the stove / oven Fridge and fixtures. Going to sell them on e-bay to ofset the cost of storage. The wuestion is how can I get rid of the 20+ year old gas in the saddle tank. It's rusted and really bad. I can't seem to get any of the shops to dump it in their haz-wates cans. I've got about 6 gallons of it in one gal containers sitting on the side of my house.

Mix it with your waste oil a little at a time...thats what I did

[Surfdaddy]

Good idea. I've asked a few of the shops in the are if I could dump some gas in there oil tanks and only one shop said ok. One gal of gas to 55gal oil drum. This will thake a while to get rid of. We don't seem to have the city Haz-waste clean up any more, that's how I planned to get rid of it in the beginning. Now once I get it home (next week if work schedule allows) I'll have to figure out how to get rid of the propane tank which is in good shape and the saddle tank which the inside looks like it been at the bottom of the ocean for 50 years. Maybe a radiator shop can help with that.

[jbgroby]

Surf.

If at all possible, can you store the camper, it's not all that hard to restore and You'll always have it, cover her up, ventilate and hold onto her. IF not see if one of the other members will take her of your hands , hate to see history put away. If I was closer I'd ty to get her from you (for a a price of course)

[Surfdaddy]

Yesterday I started cleaning the little stuff I could bring home. Got the hub caps to take a good look at them cleaned and polished a little. I need to find the Ford polish in another thread to see if these can come out better. I'll work on getting the truck drivable then get the chrome done. I've done a few travel trailers and a class C motorhome before and they really are fun to do. As you may have noticed in the backround I really love to do wood working and car stuff. I built all the cabinets and work bench in the garage and some stuff in the house. Campers and travel trailer mix the best of both worlds for me. I'll go over it again with my wife to see if she can tolerate two projects (among the house projects) at once. It's just that at 65 a month for storage it's another expense. I told her I was thinking about keeping the storage space anyway so I have place to put stuff. Out of sight out of mind, right?

[factorystock]

Originally Posted by Surfdaddy

As far as I can tel from the orig owners son the camper was only removed once to repaint the truck.

This is the problem with repaints. Original paint schemes usually gets altered. The top and back of cab should be blue on 60 and 61's.

[Surfdaddy]

Yeah, this truck was that pale yellow. I noticed it onthe firewall but when I put the tailgate on the hinge hardware had the goss paint on it and it looked pretty nice. I'm going to repaint with the yellow and white 2 tone. But I'm going to try it in two tone primer while I'm working on it. I have to keep it running and driving unless I remodel my garage. I did that with my caprice and it took 3 years to get it back togeter. My wife was not happy about that so fromnow on I'll do things piece meal and keep it drivable. With my garage set up this way it is set up for doing house project and furniture but I've done a boat, VW squareback and now going to start on the GMC. Just have to be creative on how to do things.

[factorystock]

Originally Posted by Surfdaddy

Yeah, this truck was that pale yellow.

Never would have guessed it. Ok, original factory colors would be Lunar Yellow and Olympic White. Will be a nice contrast with all that chrome.

[Surfdaddy]

I got the color code so I'll get the correct paint when I order it. For now it's repairing the rust and primering. Getting the split rims converted to standard wheels next month. One thing a month and I should be done before I know it.