1951 GMC 350 5 Window

[jrdecat]

Yesterday I went and looked at a 1951 GMC 350 5 window big bolt. After giving it a good once over I shook hands with the seller and it was mine.





About 5 years ago I had purchased a 1948 Chevy Loadmaster 4400 and ended up selling it due to lack of time for a project. It was an amazingly solid truck and I never should have let her go.





Just look at those cab corners!!!

I've always wanted an AD truck, but also wanted to be able to roll down the freeway or drive it in the CO snow when needed. My plans are to remove all the sheet metal and part out the rest of the dumper. The bed wood is beautifully weathered and it will be repurposed into furniture. I just happen to make steel furniture for a living and I will be able to recoup my costs from purchasing the truck about four fold.

The sheet metal will get the CLR treatment and clear coated. The backsides of all the panels will get por-15 or chassis saver. I'm going to leave all the dents and dings. I don't have any cancer to worry about, just surface rust. I'm sure I will find some extensive rust when I start teardown, but for now it's all fairy dust and unicorn farts (they smell like rainbows). I will need to fill in the hole where the original mirror was torn off and a hole in the roof where somebody most likely had a spotlight mounted, but that is the only body work I will do.

I plan on stripping out the interior and giving all of it a good coat of por-15 or chassis saver. I haven't decided on a color scheme for the interior yet.

For the donor frame and drive train I'm looking for a mid to late 80's K20 with a 700r4. I figure the swap will be easier if the motor, tranny, transfer case, and all associated things to "make it go" are already attached to the frame. After that all I will need to do is align the fenders and radiator to clear the motor and tires, then align the cab to the fenders and just like that I'll be done . I went with the big bolt because of the bigger fenders for tire clearance and longer hood for motor clearance. Since I'm going 4x4, it is preferable that the body will be sitting up a little higher. The track width of the big bolt is very similar to that of the K20, so I shouldn't have the ugly tire stick out that people usually run into with full size frame swaps. I will just build a flat bed to finish it off.

I'm sure that there is a lot of head scratching and laughter going on about this project, but it's what I've always wanted to do, so I'm going to do it.

[jrdecat]

So the theme of the day was Wile E Coyote vs Rocket, as we felt that this was a catastrophe waiting to happen.



Had to back the trailer around a corner up a hill to get to the truck. The ground was sloping to the driver side as well so the whole thing was leaning and just scary in general.

[Advanced Design]

Really solid looking truck. Nice find! Have fun with the build!

[Lokin4AReason]

sharp looking truck and I would've done the same ( in bringing it home )

nice score =0)

[eagleuh1]

Nice find. Good solid beginning for your project. Jim

[jrdecat]

Here's the previous owner saying good bye to "Big Jim"



And here's me saying hello!

[jrdecat]

It was a little scary but we got it loaded (no Ford jokes please!):



Hauled:



And unloaded:



Now it's time to start looking for takers on everything but the cab, fenders, and most of the interior. I won't be keeping the seat...gonna go buckets!! Over to the classifieds...

[jrdecat]

I got home from work today and to my surprise I was greeted by baby ducks!





The ducklings aren't truck related, they're just kind of cool.

I thought I'd give the ol' CLR and Scotch Brite a go. It worked really well. I think it would have done almost as well with plain dish soap or car was soap as the majority of what I removed was not rust. There was; however, a portion on the hood that had a lot of surface rust and I think the CLR was probably a great help there. I was in the direct sun, so I really couldn't let the CLR sit and do it's thing. If you let it dry on the paint then it leaves bad streaks so I was scrubbing and rinsing right away. If you choose to do this I recommend washing the vehicle first with whatever soap you prefer to get the nasty film off, and then use the CLR. The water gets nasty in a hurry so you'd go through a ton of it to clean the whole vehicle. I'll let you be the judge of how well it works. I mixed about 1:4 CLR to water and then a dash of dish soap for lube.

Before and after of the fenders:









I scrubbed the front of the hood (to the left in the photo) and left the back as it was:



Hood emblem:

[jrdecat]

Found a little history on the dump bed so I thought I'd share.

[Advanced Design]

Amazing difference with the CLR. Love the baby ducks too. We have several families of geese raising little ones in our pond.

[84blaze]

Ill have to try that CLR trick on my 49 5 window project.

[jrdecat]

It works really well. I'm going to do some more this weekend. I think that the process will work better if you:

1) work in the shade
2) wash with soap and water first
3) let the CLR soak for a while (without drying, keep it damp)
4) use 0000 steel wool
5) rinse abrasive pad more frequently
6) don't have a paper cut under your fingernail. CLR burns in an open wound.

The maroon scotch brite pad I used was a little too aggressive for my taste. I know that the truck has surface rust and dents, but there's no need to put any more scratches in the paint.

Any recommendations on what to use to protect the bare metal from now until I get around to the clear coat?

[jrdecat]

I tried washing with regular dish soap last night. It definitely got a lot of the surface residue off, but still didn't do near the job that CLR does. Now I know!

Before:



After:





So the new procedure will be to wash first with soap and water, then use CLR and have a separate bucket for rinsing the crap out of the pad so it doesn't contaminate the wash solution.