"1950 GMC" -Charlotte

[iowaboynca]

It's time to jump into the pool.

Almost 3 years ago i bought "her". She was a local sale, the PO needing some money. In my excitement maybe i should have attention a little better. PO did state that the truck was 'put together from 4 other trucks...' Yeah yeah sure sure. PO said it was a driver and she did start up right then and there. $3k later and she was mine and i drove her home that afternoon.

[iowaboynca]

Now the fun...Like I mentioned above, she was originally 4 trucks, or at least a '50 front clip AND a '51 chevy cab. The engine tag says its a 235 out of a 1954. I found all this out after the research i had to go through after my initial visit to DMV & CHP. The last registration and plates went back to the 1950 GMC. For what ever reason the PO popped the serial plate, but he gave it back to me when i asked for it. That's how i figured out it was a 1951 cab.

Long story short, here in CA we have licensed inspectors that will come out and inspect your vehicle as an agent of the state. I went this route because my local CHP office wouldn't return my calls. All of this happened last summer, so it took me a while. So I go to the DMV with my fresh inspection sheet and then they tell me i have to get it weighed. Ugh...how the heck am I going to do that? Because in the meantime I realize all the fun the PO did to get the truck back together, lets just say corners where cut.

[iowaboynca]

So when I said she was a driver i mean just barely. Oh well, its not like we drive them out of the fields, driveways, barns, etc. we find them in. So while i'm trying to figure out how i'm going to register her, i'm doing my research and buying parts that I think i will want &/or need. (Rear end, Seat, engine but more on that later.)

So I have a truck, I have it certified, I'm buying stuff that I think I need from my local P-n-P...I think i'm working on my truck Until my friend points out that, "no you're not, you're just buying stuff. Is it registered yet?" Damn, I hate it when he's right...

So the days before New Years, i took off with the sole intent to drag her out of my garage get her weighed and then get her registered. Jan 2nd...Success!!!

Got her registered!

[iowaboynca]

So now I have a registered truck. but what's next? Gotta have a plan...
After the almost 2.5 years on this site I've had a long time to research...without a lot of details, and based upon the research from many sources but mostly this site, here is the scope for this build.

Directional choice
a. Suspension/Chassis
i. Original frame
ii. Mustang II w/ IFS
iii. Triangulated 4 link or Leaf upgrade
iv. Ford 8.8 3.73 gears Limited slip (4x4 blazers and S10s are rare around here)

b. Drivetrain
i. 5.3L LM7 - "old school"
ii. Manual transmission
iii. Mustang fuel tank in bed

c. Body/Paint
i. Simple
ii. Fix problem areas
1) Inner cab corner
2) Toe board
iii. Patch holes in firewall
iv. Paint interior
v. New side windows and vent windows
1) Window felt
vi. Homemade bed kit
vii. Move gas filler neck
1) Fender?
viii. Polish brite work
ix. Push button door handles

d. Interior- Gray tones
i. Astro bench seat
ii. Functional Heater, maybe A/C
iii. New wiper motor
iv. New gauges
v. Wiring and fuse panel

This is just a list and there are more details that i've captured, but not called out for the sake of space.

[iowaboynca]

So I've been tinkering on her now and then but this weekend is when i finally dug in. I did this because i just did my taxes and this told me what this years budget would be.

So at the end of this weekend i got most of the front end off and built a little engine dolly from plans i found on stovebolt.com.

This was all done in between watching Iowa State win their 2nd consecutive Big 12 men BBall championship! (GO STATE!) that coupled by the ever mounting honey-do list. (I had to remind my wife yet again that we're different than the home improvement shows that she likes to watch as there are only so many hours in the day and we don't have a dedicated crew to get stuff done!)

So why Charlotte? So i'm mulling what to name the truck the other night and my 8 yr old daughter walks up to me and I ask her "What's a good name for the truck?" She looks at me with that matter-of-fact way that 8 yr olds can look at you and says, "Charlotte." I ask, "Why Charlotte?" And with that same matter-of-fact look, "because that's her name." After thinking it over for a second, i come to the realization that is indeed her name, "Charlotte"

So here she is...."Charlotte". but i will warn in advance. She is going to be a slow build, and as you can see by the scope, somewhat 'vanilla'. But she'll be mine and I couldn't be happier!!!

[Advanced Design]

Congratulations on the start of the build! I am tagging along. Have fun!

[oldman3]

I'll hang around and see how you do ...Jim

[Sim6]

Looks like a good start.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

Got her registered!

As a fellow Kalifornian I feel your pain and CONGRATULATE you on getting her registered, those outside the Republic have no idea how difficult that can be here in the Golden state.

You have the great weather on your side there so just do a little bit at a time and don't waste your time on deadlines, just enjoy the process.

[oossuuu754]

I am on board. Should be a nice build.

[iowaboynca]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Congratulations on the start of the build! I am tagging along. Have fun!

-Thanks! I love the work you're doing on your burb.

Sim6, Oossuuu & Oldman3 -Thanks, appreciate it!

Gregski -You know, once you figure out the steps you need to take, it really wasn't that bad. Just time and effort... The only negative aspect was my local CHP inspector not returning my calls to set up my re-inspection. That's why i went the private route...

Thanks again everyone, its been a long time coming. Hope the build doesn't disappoint.

[RockinKees]

That's a nice story!
Finally you can make start, doesn't matter if it's going slow, as long as you have fun doing it!!
Be sure to add a lot of pics!!
Succes!

[iowaboynca]

Real quick update. Not a lot to post, spent most of the weekend getting the motor ready to pull. Thought i had everything unhooked and began to yank the motor and lifted to truck off its stands! Went back to look at the front mounts and noticed the plate you see in the pic that was welded to the front x-member. The fun thing is one the nuts is behind the balancer so looks like that will be ground down. I do like the extra access space i'll have when its time to put everything back together. Actually not too miffed about the firewall being butchered up a bit. As you can see by the holes in the second pic i already knew the toeboard and firewall would need to be addressed.
well that's it for now.

[iowaboynca]

To update from yesterday, ended up taking the day off because its my birthday! Yeah I can now go rent a car! (Just kidding, been able to do that for 17 years now ) Anyway, what better way to play hookie from work, than work on your project and ended up getting the motor and transmission out! I'm also liking that little engine dolly i made off the plans i found over on stovebolt.com! Whoa, i'm getting serious about this and as frustrating as it can be its still pretty fun.

[RockinKees]

Congratulations on your birthday (little late..)!!

Going nice and steady!

[Hawkerdriver]

A lot of similarities here! I will follow..

[iowaboynca]

Ok, I was a little hesitant posting this week because I didn't do a lot to the truck directly but I did get some stuff done that will work out in the long run.

1.) I ended up ordering a new welder from Northern Tool. I figured i might need that going forward with the plans that i have. I ended up getting a Hobart 140. I could have went with a welder a little cheaper but man Hobart has a great warranty right now and it USA built. If my extra Benjamin means somebody has a job, so be it. Plus it was cheaper to order from Northern Tool and ship it to me direct than it was to buy from Tractor Supply and ship to a local store. Well it is still shipping ground so i guess I have to wait.

2.) I also ended up ordering my Mustang II x-member from Paul Horton's Welder Series. I just like the way his stuff 'looks', plus you can't beat the benefit of the current exchange rate w/ the Canadian dollar. It hasn't cleared the credit card yet but i bet I got 15-20% discount on his posted prices. (since he's in Canada, all his prices are Canadian dollars) I'm looking at a Fatman IFS, so i'll be calling them in a couple of weeks.

3.) Good-guys had their first show of the 4 they have here in Northern CA, the Spring Get-together, I was actually on the fence about going to this show this year. in previous years, the participation has been down, plus they don't attract that many vendors to the Get-togethers. (They usually show up to the West Coast Nationals at the end of the summer). Well I ended up going and i'm glad I did, even though there weren't a lot of ADs!

Now story time. I am happily married w/6 kids, 3 boys & 3 girls w/the youngest boy and all 3 girls still at home. (3 boys came pre-packaged w/ the marriage ). So why do i bring this up? I've been going to Good Guy shows for a while now, one of the boys and their girlfriend, the wife and 1 boy and all girls, Brother-in-law alone, (he's re-building a 69 GMC that my wife sold to him years back), Wife, with all the girls, etc...needless to say its usually an adventure.

So Saturday morning I had made the decision to head out (encouraged by the BinL as he rode out early to check it out.) I did the expected roll call to the family to see who wanted to go and the only one (surprisingly) who said she wanted to go was my youngest daughter at 7. I was a little apprehensive about this, since she's the one i have the most problems with, but hey how can i say no to my little girl. So after making sure she was dressed comfortably and still wanted to go we took off.

As we were on our way there i realized that it was a bit of a larger show as CalTrans was warning about delays at the exit for the show on the freeway. As we pulled up I noticed there were a lot more people! in fact the swap meet area spilled outside of the fairgrounds into the first section of parking. Plus the 4-Sale corral also spilled out in to a quadrant of parking...wow there's a lot of folks here!

So after i 'con' the ticket guy that my daughter is 6 and thus free and in fact didn't just turn 7 as she vehemently was arguing with me, he just shrugged and let us in. Hey that's $6! Anyway i soon realize this show is huge! There are a lot more cars and the auto-cross is hopping and there are people everywhere!

Needless to say my daughter did ok. There were a lot of cars and trucks that we did want to look at (she loves those old VW Bugs and Buses!) and I did get to check out some vendors. Briefly talked to the Sanderson Headers rep...

Did i get to pick over the vendors that showed up, nope. But i will say Scott's did make the trip up north for the show and their stuff in amazing. If i was building an auto-cross rig i'd definitely go with their suspension package. It looks amazing in real life! Did i get to walk through the swap meet...didn't even try due to an episode last year with the daughter in tow and i wasn't really looking for anything that might be there.

Like I said my daughter did great. At the end of the day, as long as i kept her fed and hydrated (as you can see by the large cup of lemonade and bag of kettle corn) she enjoyed herself. So did I. So I did find an AD for her to take her picture with because that's her favorite color! But like i said there just weren't that many there

As for today, i spent the afternoon replacing the shocks in the 90 3/4 ton Chevy beast that is our work truck cuz the youngest son "heard" something, (No he wasn't out joy-riding... ). So not a lot of time to work on Charlotte, but i got some good ideas, reaffirmed some directions i want to go in and spent some time w/my daughter. So in the end, it was a good weekend!

[Advanced Design]

Yep, father daughter time is a great week end! Sounds like a good show.

[iowaboynca]

Just a brief update on Charlotte.
The Hobart showed up earlier this week so what am going to do with this? Weld of course, but how am I going to move it around and what not? I need a welder cart. So I'm at a big box store buying landscaping bricks with the wife, about to buy some angle iron, when the wife says, "why don't you use that old bed frame that's under the shelves in the garage?" Say that's a good idea...

So I spent the large part of the weekend cutting up the frame, putting it together with my new welder and putting on the finishing touches, like hooks for cords and hoses and some wood and paint. I did realize a couple of things while i was putting it together.

1. Its been a while since i've welded! In the end it started coming back to me but i'm going to need some practice but I already knew that. I was planning to reach out to the local steel company to see if i can buy some cut-offs and scrap to practice with, so no big surprise.

2. It was as fun as i remembered! I couple of times, i had to catch myself from saying, "I'm sure there's other stuff around here that needs welding..."

So at the end of the weekend i have one assembled welder cart from an old bed frame. I painted it red, because growing up we were an IH family and i thought it would look good. I stained the wood, because well i could. It only took me about 30 minutes in between coats on the cart. I even thought ahead and left room for the future bottle that i will need. Just using flux core for now.

That and I got a chance to dig out the rats nest of a wiring harness and all the old gauges. The only thing left in the cab are all the odds and ends, nuts and bolts.

Last but not least, my mustang x-member came in from Paul Hortons and it looks good. I'll provide pictures when its ready to get worked on.

[lower50's]

It sounds like Charlotte will be a lot of fun, Good luck. Nice cart!!!

[Advanced Design]

While I personally prefer JD green...I appreciate IH red too. Nice job on the cart!

[iowaboynca]

lower50- Thanks. i love your build!

Advanced- yeah farm implement brand loyalty is as bad if not worse than the whole chevy/ford debate

we were a Case IH/Farmall family so the red. but we did have an old JD "M" that we used to run PTOs and clear the driveways when it snowed.

I need to finalize who i'm going to get my suspension from and start putting the engine together. The challenge/goal with that will be a modern engine that honors the old GMC v-6 engines...back to the research!

[Advanced Design]

I learned how to disc on a John Deere A. Neighbors have it now and it still used.
We were mostly Minneapolis Moline back in the day.

Interesting thoughts on the engine. For something different that honors the GMC V6 how about a Buick turbo V6?

[iowaboynca]

a turbo buick v-6 would be cool...

Some good news and some bad news...

Good news: I got both my front and rear suspensions ordered!

Bad news: They're back-ordered...

Stay tuned...

[iowaboynca]

Nothing really new to report, because i'm still waiting on suspension parts and real life stuff. (Gotta love working in Quality Assurance during audit season).

So as i'm driving to and from work or sitting on an airplane going to the next audit site, you've got that free time to think about the build because i want to keep going and don't want it to stall too much. I've had 2 thought running through my head on directions to go while i'm waiting for my parts:

1. Start putting the engine together... or

2. Get the rear axle into shape...

I'm starting to like #2. the axle is a f*&d 8.8 out of a wrecked 03 explorer w/ 113k mi on it. I'd still like to pop open the diff and see what condition the gears are in, and of course start taking the OE brackets off and begin to update the brake system.

Now if i do this, I'm going to need to find some space in the garage. This has become a bit of a sore spot with the lil' woman. We've been going back and forth on the direction as she wan't to have the ability to park her car. I reply then she shouldn't want all the wood projects and now the truck project too (that she found and picked out I might add). Plus the garage serves as a giant doghouse that she enjoys as well.

So I finally said, "Listen here woman, you get all the rooms in the house and this is my room and I will do as sees fit!"

Well ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you I made a good decision when I bought our current couches for my wife last mother's day. They are very comfy and cozy to sleep on...

Depending on either direction i go above, I'll post pics. Stay tuned...