49 GMC Five Window

[e015475]

Well, my truck is finally out of paint/ac jail in Phoenix and back home. My wife selected the leather



Somehow between the upholsterer and the AC guy, they managed to dent the stainless on the glovebox door, so off to the stainless polisher again. I had an Old Air unit installed with the controls sticking out of the speaker cover, which is also the center vent. The side vents are just hanging underneath the dash - don't know yet how I'm going to conceal them



The door panel is pretty simple. Had the door jambs painted where I welded in the Altman bearclaw latches. They took the doors off for me and installed Steele Rubber seals - solved my door closure problems



The upholsterer carpeted the seat riser, but I have a good set of aprons I'm going to paint and install



The carpets are in and fastened with snaps so I can get under the floorboards to get to the battery and clutch reservoir. The upholsterer had enough leather to bind the carpets. I edge bound some coconut fiber mats from Home Depot to use as floormats



The Rod Doors headliner and the sun visors were covered in leather too



The AC guy hid the lines in the fender well and the upholsterer built a cover for them.



He made a cover for the throttle relay too



The truck would barely run when it arrived here in Show Low and I had to push it into the garage. It seemed the upholsterer pulled one of the wires out of the engine fuse block relays that fed the injector 12V while installing the carpet. It took a little detective work but I traced that down and got it firing on all eight. My factory temperature gauge doesn't work anymore either - I imagine the capillary tube is kinked or broken.

Two steps forward and one step back, I guess

[8man]

Looks great.

[57FleetsideC4]

Very Nice Interior. I am sure you are happy to have it back. Enjoy!! Steve

[Rickysnickers]

He did a very nice job!!

[lv2tri2]

Re: 49 GMC Five Window
Well, my truck is finally out of paint/ac jail in Phoenix and back home. My wife selected the leather



Somehow between the upholsterer and the AC guy, they managed to dent the stainless on the glovebox door, so off to the stainless polisher again. I had an Old Air unit installed with the controls sticking out of the speaker cover, which is also the center vent. The side vents are just hanging underneath the dash - don't know yet how I'm going to conceal them



The door panel is pretty simple. Had the door jambs painted where I welded in the Altman bearclaw latches. They took the doors off for me and installed Steele Rubber seals - solved my door closure problems



The upholsterer carpeted the seat riser, but I have a good set of aprons I'm going to paint and install



The carpets are in and fastened with snaps so I can get under the floorboards to get to the battery and clutch reservoir. The upholsterer had enough leather to bind the carpets. I edge bound some coconut fiber mats from Home Depot to use as floormats



The Rod Doors headliner and the sun visors were covered in leather too



The AC guy hid the lines in the fender well and the upholsterer built a cover for them.



He made a cover for the throttle relay too



The truck would barely run when it arrived here in Show Low and I had to push it into the garage. It seemed the upholsterer pulled one of the wires out of the engine fuse block relays that fed the injector 12V while installing the carpet. It took a little detective work but I traced that down and got it firing on all eight. My factory temperature gauge doesn't work anymore either - I imagine the capillary tube is kinked or broken.

Two steps forward and one step back, I guess

[lv2tri2]

Your build is more help than I can begin to thank you for. Beautiful work and hours of explanation that I will read and reread. Thank you.

[youngrodder]

Looks great. My buddy is using the same steering wheel in his 52 suburban. Looks nice.

Marc

[e015475]

Tired of working on my truck, so it must be time for a cautionary tale and an update………….

Last year, I started taking an interest in classic truck sales on Bring a Trailer with an eye on eventually selling my 49. It seemed like title issues were a frequent enough problem in the auctions so I decided to check mine. I tried to look up the VIN that’s on the title online but the format didn’t match anything there. Just for fun, I googled the number on the title and it said it matched the casting number for a GMC straight six used in these trucks. So the VIN/ID on my title isn’t unique to this truck – it is just a common engine casting number.

There’s no ID plate on the truck either, and it has been a long time since there was a GMC six in it with an ID number stamped on it (or even a GMC block with that raised casting number) So the truck has no ID, which is illegal and could be pretty problematic if it was stolen or in an accident (or if you wanted to sell it).

After evaluating the alternatives, it seemed like the best thing to do was to have the state issue a VIN for the truck, so I took it to the Arizona DOT and they verified there was no ID number on my truck. Now all I needed to do was get the DMV to issue a new title. But not so fast – how do they know you didn’t steal it or build it out of chop-shop parts? They don’t, so to get a new title the DMV wants you to post a bond for 150% of the value of the truck before they’ll issue a new title. So how do you get a value for a 1949 GMC? Believe it or not, the NADA publishes a value for the AD trucks and it is about $41,000! (and that’s for any 49 half ton GMC) So multiply that by 1.5 and the bond needs to be about $62000.

So if you bring a fresh-from-the-farm $1000 truck or a $250,000 Derelict AD Icon resto-mod to the DMV for a state assigned VIN, it needs a $60K+ bond (unless it is the first time being titled and you have receipts for all the parts/work). Fortunately, you don’t have to post the entire bond amount and you can purchase one from an insurance company for 1-1.5% of the $62K – but it is still a nice chunk of change.

So the lesson-learned here is – do your title and ID tag due-diligence before you buy your truck. All that rigamarole for this llittle sticker-



On to the next problem – power steering.

This truck has a hydroboost braking system and brakes and steering have always worked well – maybe too well, with the brake pedal being pretty sensitive and the power steering a little over-boosted. There was always a lot of groaning from the pump and bubbles in the reservoir. The orifice and pressure relief valve were stock so it should have been flowing about 3.5GPM and relieve at about 1250-1300 psi.

When I built the truck, I simply put a tee in the return line from the rack and dumped it into the reservoir. The reservoir I used had a return line that fouled the engine block, so I capped it and moved the return up a couple inches so the line would clear the block. I’d researched tee-ing the hydroboost line to the rack return line on 4x4 sites and it seemed everybody there said that’d work fine, but I wasn’t so sure.

We moved to Mesa for the winter, so no lift. Here’s the truck on some cribbing so I can replumb the lines going to the hydroboost on the chassis rail and the steering rack return line.



Cashed in some gift cards and bought some tools for the new place. Everything’s on a pegboard since there’s no room for a tool box here.



Just for fun, I put a description of my power steering/hydroboost along with the groaning/bubbling symptoms in ChatGPT. It said that the bulk of my problem was that I needed a dedicated return line to the reservoir for the hydroboost as it was very sensitive to back-pressure plus I was probably bleeding the power steering system incorrectly and not getting all the air out of the fluid. Here's the initial version of the reservoir



I was pretty skeptical, but I ordered a new reservoir from Borgeson with a dedicated hydroboost return and clearanced the engine block so the return from the rack would come in low on the reservoir. I used Swageloc fittings on the new reservoir so I could run -6 JIC/AN for the rack and hydroboost returns.


I tried to make the ruturns out of aluminum hardlines, but it was so tight in there I finally gave up and went to some push-lock hose rated for power steering fluid. The cheap 3/8" aluminum tube ovaled out quite a bit and I just couldn't get my hands in there to tighten the nuts.



Gave up and used push-lock hose for the returns (rated for PS fluid)



I had a hell of a time connecting the high-pressure discharge line from the pump, so I made this jumper line out of stainless to bring the connection to the hydroboost into the driver’s front wheel well. Now I have to jack the truck up and remove the front wheel to change the pump, but I’m not planning on doing this very often



I decided since I had it all apart anyway, I’d put the Borgeson pressure relief valve shim kit in and see if some of the twichyness would go away. Following the ‘go big or go home’ mantra, I reduced the pressure to 850 psi.

I followed the AI bleeding instructions to the letter and didn’t have any air bubbles when I finished – perfect.

When I drove it, the twitchyness did go away – to the extent that there was hardly and brake boost or power steering action.

Back to the drawing board. I’ve never heard this, but the Delphi in ChatGTP says that a hydroboost system needs a minimum of 1000 psi to work properly, so I re-shimmed the pressure relief valve to 1100 psi.

Drove the truck this morning – much better.

One of the grandkids was at the house and is in love with the old truck. He was in the cab for a couple of house moving the steering wheel, gearshift and anything else he could play with. Finally somebody who enjoys the truck as much as I do. This is going to be fun.

[Rickysnickers]

Nice write up! Regarding your title issue, this is exactly why I would never think of buying a vehicle that didn't have a title. I know some states don't have or require them for older cars, but if you live in a state that does require them and you buy a car w/o one, you are in for a rude awakening.

[e015475]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Nice write up! Regarding your title issue, this is exactly why I would never think of buying a vehicle that didn't have a title. I know some states don't have or require them for older cars, but if you live in a state that does require them and you buy a car w/o one, you are in for a rude awakening.

I wouldn't buy a vehicle without a title either, but I thought I had a valid title. My truck has been registered and insured for about five years now.

My lack of due-dillegence in investigating the VIN on the title when I bought it got me into this mess. My lack of due dillegence on having a ID tag on the door pilar or an engine block stamped with the same number on the title made it even worse.

Between the surety bond, DOT inspection and transportation costs to the DMV (about 180 miles) I'm north of $1000 into this.

Don't let this happen to you.

,

[Rickysnickers]

I am glad you got it all squared away. I certainly was not casting stones at you, and hope you did not take it that. I was just repeating essentially what you said. And, you summed it up correctly, "Don't let this happen to you."

[e015475]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

I certainly was not casting stones at you, and hope you did not take it that.

I certainly didn't take it that way. Just hoping I could help someone else and keep them from falling in the same hole.

[STAP54]

Awesome build, love the attention to detail! Even more awesome is your grandson playing in the AD, these will be great memories for both you and him!