Ol' Green '70 GMC C2500 Father/Son

[connorm]

Next up, I did use the truck this weekend. I put about 200 miles on it, everything from highway at 65-75, to in town driving, and back roads 45-60. It took everything in stride. Although it did need topped off on some fluids and a new battery. Just old truck stuff.

I went to Ducktail Run but and all but got rained out. Ended up spending one night there but left to go to homecoming early. The truck handled everything well, can't complain about that with it coming out of storage.

What is coming next for the truck? I got a set of Ridetech shocks for the truck. They are actually old coilovers that I won't be running coils on, but oh well they were the right price. I want to focus on driveability mods for the most part. I got a factory filler for an auxiliary tank, and have been considering adding a Blazer/Suburban tank behind the axle. I also probably ought to get a new radiator in it. I'll probably go with a 4 core radiator that I'll get rebuilt.

Beyond that I would like an overdrive, but it kills me abandoning the SM465. I learned to drive manual with this truck with my old dog Spots, and those are memories that can't be replaced. I would like to add an overdrive unit like the Advanced Adapters Ranger box, but they quit making those in 2019. Those go in between the bellhousing and the transmission, which presents it's own set of problems. Something like a Brownie Box 5831-E is also an option. It's an auxilary 3 speed that would go between the transmission and carrier bearing. The E version has a 1.27:1 under drive, direct driver, and 0.73:1 overdrive. These should be easier to find as I believe they made more, but parts are getting somewhat scare. These are also larger and heavier. But I'm not necessarily going for the least amount of parasitic loss with an SM465 and Dana 60. I am already planning on replacing the Dana 60 with a 71-72 wider version, so when I do this I could go to 4.56 rear gears which would help with that deeper overdrive. That an swapping to a warmed over 400 sbc. would help.

You might say why not go with a Gear Vendors, and I probably should. I believe that if I could find either of the other option I should be able to do it cheaper, and possibly much cheaper. Also, having the twin sticks in a pick up would be really cool, and it's something different. I should probably just do a Gear Vendors and be done with it but oh well, I'll follow this rabbit hole.

Pic 1. My buddies 47 Hudson and my 70 GMC at Ducktail Run. Most of the Cars had left at this point.

Pic 2. Me and my buddy sleeping under my 70 GMC after the guys that had the tents that we were gonna use whimped out and took their tents with them. As you can see Banquet was involved, that along with Carhartts, insulated gloves, and moving your legs under the truck a 4 AM to get out of the rain worked pretty well.

Pic 3. My 70 at the tailgate. I was in a fraternity in college and tailgated with them. It turns out one of the alumni bought a 71 GMC new and used it to haul ~5-10 kegs to the house a week to sell. I'm in the process of tacking down pics now. I'll share them when I get in touch.

Pic 4. And finally visiting a local state park with my girlfriend before I left. This was at Pokagon in Angola, IN.