"Geronimo" 54' 3100 LS built in PA

[99 to Life]

7-4-18 Lots of thins getting wrapped up on Geronimo. I would like to announce I finally drove it out of the garage and up the street on June 30th!! Trans shifted right away so its working, but will prolly have to set it to shift at a higher RPM. I took .75" out of the rear blocks and it made a big difference, these photos have with and without the cut blocks. hood fits like crap but man I'm glad I even got it to latch so far. It was seriously out of wack. Had to make those hood braces for the front out of scratch, things like that you just don't always foresee in a build.

Redid the stock gauges, will do speedo conversion later. need to hook up heater/AC and wire up the interior lights and all the wiring is done. Hooked horn up also. Put new lock cylinders in doors. Stupid me didn't make sure I could get the handles off, bf I already set the doors. So i had to take doors off, weld nuts onto the clutch heads so I could remove the door handles.

Nice to finally drive it over to my lift bay, put it on there and aligned it the best I could, tightened everything up and put the sway bar on.

Biggest issue I have right now is the Efan, i realized I have it pushing instead of pulling, but.... the fan is still not kicking off even at like 180, so I dunno if I have the relay wired wrong or what the deal is. Never had that happen. but when you shut truck off, the fan will run and run and run. This is one example of why I LOVE a kill switch in the cab, I just shut the main pwr off. Its great safety, convenience, theft protective.

I will hopefully get some driving footage soon. He has to register the truck and we will then get it inspected. Tires on it now are mine and won't pass, so he is just gonna try some port o walls. I gotta see if the wipers work too. and do ebrake, and do the door panels and headliner!

[99 to Life]

Funny side note, when I drive it I still want to use my left foot for the brake as I'm so used to these trucks being a stick. I have to get use to that. My daily is an auto and I don't do that, so it must be a hotrod thing. I need 3 pedals!

[lower50's]

Nice job that will look killer driving down the road.

[oldman3]

Looks great, nice work...Jim

[MIKESAD50]

Very nice!

[99 to Life]

Took Geronimo out for about a 12 mile drive the other day. Went really good, drove real nice. We got some new tires put on, radials with ports on them. I'm a bias fan, but these look really good. Got a vacuum wiper to work, so we are just gonna run them. Buttoning up a few interior things. Made some door panels, I'll post some better interior pics soon. Filmed a little vid, but have to get it off someones phone so I can upload.

1.Few issues right now, waiting on classic plate to come. Hoping it doesn't take the 6 weeks they say it could take.
2.Have a buzzing noise from transmission, seems to have gotten worse. was only doing in it in drive, now in all gears. Its nothing you can notice driving, but at idle you can hear it if you try. So any ideas? The controller is directly grounded to battery and powered by ignition.
3. rear brakes seemed a tad hot, calipers didn't seam to be sticking, so maybe its just the new pads. but fronts didn't seam hot.

Be taking it on some longer runs soon. I'm taking some time off building so I can work on garages, and I'm building a coffee roaster. So my next projects are going to have to wait till Fall. Been doing little here and there on my 51'. I also have a cnc plasma coming this month so I'll be setting that up.

[oldman3]

Henry, sounds like your going to be real busy, driving them is always fun...Jim

[lower50's]

Great job on driving it. I'm looking forward to hanging out with you again this fall. Oh and more coffee.

[99 to Life]

8-17 Took Geronimo out to our hometown show last weekend. Took 1st place in trucks. Only have put 30-40 miles on it so far. Has a AN fitting go bad and leaked trans fluid. not sure what really all happened, if it was too low on fluid or what, but trans was getting hot and making noise. I fixed the fitting and put fluid in it. really haven't drove it hard since. noise seemed to have gone away. So hopefully I don't have to yank this trans. I gotta hook up heat and AC and do the speedo conversion at some point.

Finally finished interior, did floor, headliner, visors etc. owner is very happy with it and since my 51' is still tore down, I'm fortunate to be able to drive this truck pretty much whenever!

[OutlawDrifter]

Interior and steering wheel look great!

[lower50's]

Well deserved!!!

[oldman3]

Congrats...Jim

[99 to Life]

thanks guys,

here are some more pics from the other day. Trans is getting a bit hot so I'm adding a cooler asap and gonna start taking her on some longer trips. I'm really glad I went with the TCI ez tcu bc the handheld lets you see live data, tells you how fast your going, rpm and trans temp etc. Nice feature for sure.

I'll prolly post up some professional photos when I get my buddy to take them. but really the truck is considered done in my book. Just need to finish heat/ac really and put as many miles as we can on her bf winter.

Owner is in the last pic, his name is Jim and is one of my good friends dad. He nearly died in work fire about 4 years ago, still recovering. This truck and our garage have really helped his moral and I think healing.

[oldman3]

Good for you, helping people that deserve it, truck looks great...Jim

[Advanced Design]

Truck looks great! No doubt being involved is helping your friends Dad. Good stuff...

[99 to Life]

Yah I truly care about these trucks and him just wanting it done. I'v put over 150 hrs in it for free and trust me, I got no time to spare so its been tuff to balance all that and waiting and wondering if the thing will ever see the road! but as they always do, they get done and you move on. The other cool thing is I get to be around the truck as much as if it were mine, so thats a big bonus (but....I'll have to fix everything on it whenever that time comes!).

[AD_Dave]

Awesome build! I just joined this site to get as much information as possible before starting the 54 3100 I just picked up a few weeks ago. I believe we were texting each other sometime last year about these trucks. I had a 51 GMC that I started, but bailed on and also bought a 49 3100 that I decided to just resell.. Now its time to build! haha.

[99 to Life]

vaguely remember. hit me up if you need though. welcome to the site. You can learn more about these trucks on here than just about anywhere on the web. Its a blessing having a community like this on here.

[lower50's]

Good job Henry

[99 to Life]

Thanks, took the truck out for about a 40 mile drive. Went pretty well. But... even with additional trans cooler we are still as high as 215* I'm gonna drain fluid, change filter and put a different style cooler on. I don't know what else to do, unless the trans controller is reading the temp wrong but I doubt it. I'm using bottom of rad cooler also installed a finned aluminum cooler in junction with it.

[lower50's]

Make sure you are not running to much line pressure? excessive line pressure causes extra heat. Also is the torque converter locking properly? My trans controller reads 10* above, use a inferred temp gauge to double check.

[99 to Life]

I'll have to get a reading on the pressure. But yeah I got a little more work with the lines and coolers and hopefully I can get it figured out.