danheit's '55 on a '90

[danheit]

Well, I finally got some major headway done on my newest project, and have gotten to the point where I'm gonna throw up some pics for posterity. I picked up a 55 truck in pieces sans drivetrain, to use as a donor for my other 55 that was in pretty rough shape. Fast forward a few months, and I sold it (the truck I was buying parts for) to a guy in Canada, which ended up being a miserable situation that I won't go into here. I also ended up selling the 55 frame that I had from my parts truck, as it was fairly tweaked and it was very much so in the way. Fast forward AGAIN a few more months, and I picked up a 1990 GMC Sierra 1500 Sport with an interesting history. This truck came already lowered, and has a built 700R4 tranny and a 454 (i recently found out) TBI built race motor. The truck was built for one purpose, and that was to evade the police in the bank robberies (yes plural) that the PO used it for. He finally got caught, truck went to auction, and it now sits in my garage with no title. Today I got the last of the body off, which is a feat for me to say the least, as I am always incredibly busy between work, family, my house, my other projects and training/gym time. My wife decided to take the girls for a trip to Chicago this past week for my oldest girl's 7th birthday and go to the American Girl Doll Museum. I got a whole week to myself (minus working)! Got to finish part of one of my Jeep projects, and now I spent all of today getting the cab off of my 1990 to prep for the 55 body to go on. Before you guys ask, the width of the 90 works great, as does the wheel base. I believe it is about 2 inches longer, which will be made up in the bed to cab area and the wheel wells. I am going to offset the wheels in the wheel wells by 1/2 on each end, and throw an extra inch between the cab and bed and call it good. I have no intentions of building a show truck, just a fast fun around town driver on a budget. So far I have about 1000 in everything. Now, on to the pictures!

Coming home with the new pieces:




Waiting to go on the frame:



More to come as my photos finish uploading from my phone to photobucket. Sorry guys, wife took the camera.

[Kim57]

Sounds like a nice project.
Waiting on more pics.
Kim

[danheit]

So I started today with a 90 Sierra, and started removing the cab and all the associated accessories. Here's where I got to:





Got a little sidetracked by the rain, but it only lasted a few hours. Finally got the cab off after several hours of disconnecting cables, wires, etc.

55 Cab on:

[danheit]

I was so excited to see that happen I couldn't hardly stand it. Now I just need to strip the 90 cab of everything I am going to use, such as the steering column, seat and seatbelts, HVAC and wiring, and off it will go to the highest bidder or the scrapper. Right now it is taking up a parking space in my driveway, which is unacceptable. It is definately going to take a little fab work on my part to get the 55 mated up all the way, but everything looks great so far. Wheels sit perfectly in the wells, track width is good, stance is good, just need to throw some good body mounts on there and we are good to go. I can't decide though, whether I want to raise the body up a little on the frame, or lower the bed into the frame, kind of a tough one for me, but right now they don't quite line up.

[danheit]

Well, lots of time has passed, and little has been done. HOWEVER, I finally got around to building all of my body mounts this past week. Hoping to have the fronts finished today. Lots of measuring, little cutting, little welding. I decided to leave the stock 90 fuel tank and the exhaust in place, and just build around it. Turns out it only raises the truck 4.5" higher than it sits in the above pics, so not too bad, and I can always drop it in the future if I change my mind. Being that $$ is non existent right now, I didn't want to get into buying a fuel cell for TBI/EFI, new high pressure lines, cut and move the exhaust, and channel the cab floor for the tranny and driveshaft (which both sit higher in the 90 than the frame rails). This was the lesser of two evils in my opinion. I'm gonna snap some pics later today for posterity's sake. I really feel like this thing is starting to move along finally! Hoping to have it driving by x-mas (we shall see about that).

[pinecrest]

Very interesting! Looking great so far. Hope everything goes smoothly for you!!!

[danheit]

So I'm down in Disney World this week, staying at the new Cars resort, in Radiator Springs with Mater. It may not be as good as working on my truck at home, but it's pretty darn close, and I still have a Task Force right outside my window!

[danheit]

Well, got some more time to play today. Went ahead and started building the front body mounts, and set the body on the frame to get an idea of how it will all look once put together. Here's some pics.......





And here's the wheel fitment in the wheel well. Think I'm gonna slide things forward a bit, maybe an inch or two....





Sorry for the poor quality pics, but all I have is the Iphone until Amazon comes through with a new camera battery!

[Kim57]

Looks like you're making good progress.
Pics look just fine.
Kim

[danheit]

Well, scored some great parts today at the junkyard for the low, low price of FREE! Picked up a good glass back window, and also grabbed a brake pedal assembly from a 70 C10 pickup that will get chopped and fabbed to fit my firewall mount booster from the 90, which will give me good disk brakes and ABS.

[danheit]

Little update, Some things have changed around. I initially just reused the old factory body mounts from the '90, cut and rewelded them. Wasn't super happy with them, but they worked, and you couldn't really see them. Well, thanks to skymangs and his sickening build, I had to steal one of his mount ideas and ripped off the old ones ( I am a surprisingly better welder than I thought - took 35 minutes and two cutoff wheels and a grinding disk to get the old ones back off!), built some new ones out of 1/4" plate, and once I pick up some new welding magnets tomorrow, I will begin construction of them. I am really looking forward to getting this part done. Skymangs, thanks for the push, had I not have seen yours, I wouldn't have done mine the right way. Maybe now I will actually clean the frame up once I have the mounts on there properly. I know it needs wirebrushed, cleaned and painted, but a big part of me just wants to weld the new mounts on and go. I am REALLY wanting to get this thing back on the road!

Also, BIG thanks to Ogre for the sale of his parts! I am happy as could be to have picked up some major pieces I was missing, like the ebrake handle and all of the door hardware. I haven't opened the box yet, but am looking forward to being able to put them on!

Here's what I did today:





And sadly, the current state of my poor garage.......



It was a beautiful day today for working on the truck too! It is significantly cooler outside, so up went the garage door for some more light, and a cool breeze. Little rain and all was good. I was actually comfortable working in my garage for the first time since starting this build!

[skymangs]

Looking good brother! Thanks for the credit, but I screw up way more than I get right! If it wasn't for this board I'd still be scratching my head and wondering what frame to use under the truck!

If you do decide to clean up the frame, pick up 3 or 4 40 grit flap disks for your 4.5" angle grinder from harbor freight. They won't get in the tight corners, but 90% of the frame can be cleaned up in a couple hours. Use your wire wheel for the tight areas. I discovered flap disks and composite wheels about 5 or 6 years ago... changed my life!

When it's all done, you'll feel better having fresh paint underneith. All that work should look nice!

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[danheit]

Well, picked myself up a nice parts truck yesterday for $150 smackers with a clear title, and all the hinges and glass I need for my truck! Big problem now is that even though the body on the parts truck is rotted all to crap, it doesn't appear THAT bad now that I got it home. Kinda thinking about fixing it too...... what to do, what to do. I'm pretty sure I will need to have a second truck so that when my wife divorces me and gets half my stuff, I will still have at least one to work on!

Pics, and see HERE for the "look what I bought" thread.

[mknittle]

Is that your CJ?

[danheit]

yup! 1979 CJ7, 258 stroker motor, T-176, D300 Tera Low 4:1, Currie 9" and Dana 30 Locked front and rear, rust free, built for rocks, build date is the day I was born! It's definately a keeper!

Sadly, after pushing the truck into the driveway with the front of the CJ, the front license plate no longer looks like that!

[Caddieup]

Originally Posted by danheit

Sadly, after pushing the truck into the driveway with the front of the CJ, the front license plate no longer looks like that!

License plate = $$$$$ well sprent!!

[danheit]

So today saw a little bit of headway on the body mounts. I finished up the welding on building the mounts, got them all cleaned up after my master welding job, and only burned through one flapper disc! I think I might be getting the hang of this welding thing. Got everything measured out, thankfully I had the '57 to pull some measurements off of. It appears that the point from the frond cab mount to the center of the front wheel (and opening) is 28.5 inches. I had to slide it back about 2 inches due to the way the 90 frame is built, but I don't believe 2" will make a difference in the wheel opening. I just really wish I would have done the fronts first, and THEN the rears, as it looks like I may have to pull the rear mounts and move them forward a bit. No biggie, and we shall see...
I had to cut things short tonight though, as I was out in the garage trying to weld the mounts to the truck frame, and my welder kept blowing the breaker. After 2 years in this house, I finally find out that my garage and my kitchen and dining room lights are all wired off the same breaker. My wife said she was trying to feed the kids dinner and the lights kept going on and off! Time to run a dedicated line for the welder.

[skymangs]

Dan, glad to see you're back at it. We are on pause now, due to slipping grades.

On the breaker... just wire it into the basement breaker, the wife'll never know... LOL

[danheit]

Ha! As much as I would love to, if I were to dig a basement, it would be nothing more than a swimming pool! We don't have basements here in Horry County (pronounced Or-EE) due to the water table being so high. I can dig a 2 foot deep hole in my back yard and hit water. Sorry to hear about the grades, but I am also glad that as a parent you are sticking to your guns and making him keep the grades up for his truck. It's got to take a good bit of self control on your part too, as I am sure you want to get back out there and get the truck done!

I took some time off from this one and was working on the "parts truck" which has become Sloth's build. Sadly, I think I will have that one done before I finish this one just due to availability of parts and extra $$ here around xmas.

Thankfully I have some extra parts and pieces left from when they built my house, so I am going to dig through and see what I can save from having to purchase to make my dedicated welding outlet. Also probably going to do a 220 for the ESAB welder, and do a 220 for the brand new air compressor sitting in the corner of my garage which has been through 4 moves now, and traveled all across my state without ever being hooked up! Maybe one day I will get my projects finished.

[Low Elco]

Cool build! I gotta see how this comes out!

[skymangs]

Yeah Dan, back at my house (the one I own in Colorado) the first thing I did was install a 50 amp sub panel... and 220 outlets in the back and the front of the garage, (ok, it's a little red neck, i only have the amperage to use 1 at a time, but at least I have a choice!). I have a 220 Craftsman pro compressor, Plasma, and 200 amp welder there. I miss my shop!

[danheit]

Weeeeellll, it looks like I may be getting rid of one or possibly both of my trucks on Wed. We shall see how this turns out. Somebody wants my 55 and 57 more than I do, and I will retain the 90 GMC drivetrain and frame. Going to most likely purchase a C10 after this for a little while until I find another SLOTH type of deal. I will keep you guys posted.

[waybad]

looks killer!! keep plugging away!! and taking picts!!