1968 GMC - Ol' Blue

[Jason Banks]

Congratulations, It has been great and inspirational following along.

[1971Stepside]

Congratulations! I have loved watching your build and I am happy your better half understands...although, I thought you might post a pic of her driving and not the dog

Interested to see what kind of bugs you find. I'm second guessing every bolt on mine now that I am getting close to driving it. Time for triple check and check again because that is how I am.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Dude the truck is sick

Happy for you man. It WAS worth the time and effort. Sheet metal is back off my truck again, but when I had it all on there I was taking it around the block and down a back road. It's so roudy it chirps second gear everytime. I love it.

So. I am curious. What do you think your truck is worth on the market now? I've been having this conversation quite a bit lately and I have been seeing trucks of our caliber going to for very high numbers.

.

Thanks! I guess I've always thought somewhere around $35k for my truck. If it were a coil rear end and with a newer/higher HP drivetrain and nicer interior, then I would think over $40k.

Originally Posted by Jason Banks

Congratulations, It has been great and inspirational following along.

Thanks for following along, hope it was helpful.

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Congratulations! I have loved watching your build and I am happy your better half understands...although, I thought you might post a pic of her driving and not the dog

Interested to see what kind of bugs you find. I'm second guessing every bolt on mine now that I am getting close to driving it. Time for triple check and check again because that is how I am.

Haha she hates getting her picture taken for some reason. She's better looking than me, but thinks I'm lying when I say that.

There are a few things I've noticed:
-I overfilled the tank and it puked a little on the floor. I guess I need to fill it to like 3/4 or something because I haven't had that happen all the other times I've driven it and it's never been over 1/2 tank until I filled it last night to the top.
-There are vibrations at certain RPM's that reverberate through the truck and manifest into different noises. One is the brake cable touching the muffler, the other is somewhere in the rear half of the bed/tailgate, but the third is one I can't identify.
-The primary fan is always running, even at speed. The tuner lowered the fan activation temps which I'm fine with, but I'm thinking about changing it so that they don't run when I'm over 45 MPH or so as I would think it would impede the cooling capabilities at that point.

I did a lot of checking before I drove it home-lug nuts, engine oil, trans fluid, coolant, brake fluid, differential oil, leaf spring u-bolts, leaks in lines, engine mounts, etc. and so far no real issues.

[clay68c10]

Man, that looks good! The blue is perfect.
I bet you want to drive it everywhere you go.

You can play with your HP tuners now too. That should be fun.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Thats a nice looking truck you've built! Man I can't wait till I'm where you are with mine.

[Snake72]

Congrats bud, that is a great looking truck, job well done.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Man, that looks good! The blue is perfect.
I bet you want to drive it everywhere you go.

You can play with your HP tuners now too. That should be fun.

Thanks. It's pretty loud, so I feel like I have to keep my foot out of it most of the time since I'm driving by houses most of the time. I love the truck, but it's nice to have a 2016 that is quiet and comfortable so I can switch back and forth between trucks.

I plugged in HPTuners the other day and fuel trims all looked pretty good but I could probably calibrate the MAF.

Originally Posted by Kronald_70GMC

Thats a nice looking truck you've built! Man I can't wait till I'm where you are with mine.

Thanks. You'll be there soon enough. One day at a time is all I can say. The details you're doing with your cab are going to look great.

Originally Posted by Snake72

Congrats bud, that is a great looking truck, job well done.

Thanks!

[MDPotter]

Lessons Learned

I've learned a few things on this truck that I wanted to let everyone know about so that maybe you guys can avoid some of the hassle I've dealt with:

-Install fender emblems before mounting the fenders, because it is almost impossible after the fact. I actually threaded the studs on the emblems and used a rubber washer to keep the emblem from contacting and scratching the paint and use a nyloc nut on the backside with a washer.

-Install plugs in the front end of the outer rockers before installing fenders. Same struggle as the fender emblems, very hard to do after the fact.

-Go with the Boyd tank. Don't mess around with anything less.

-If you're using rubber fuel hose, use Earl's Vapor Guard and their fittings. Easy to assemble and no fumes in your garage. On the same token, go for the WIX fuel filter/regulator if you're doing an LS swap. The cheaper units like to leak.

-If you end up with a leaf spring truck, just know that everything is going to be harder. Leaf spring trucks are an oddity and the aftermarket support is not as great as a coil truck and leaf spring trucks are harder and more expensive to lower. If I could have gotten a good deal on the back half of a coil truck, I would have swapped it. I saw a complete chassis on FB marketplace for $100 but it was sold in an hour.

-Hydroboost is awesome. Do it.

-You get what you pay for when it comes to electric fans. If they seem too good to be true, they probably are. There is a lot of false advertisement out there on CFM ratings.

-Make sure you get the wiper linkage put on correctly before closing up the cowl and installing wipers. It can be put on wrong and your wipers will be all messed up and you end up struggling to get the wiper arms back off after you've scratched the paint.

-Rectorseal 5 seals up a myriad of fluid leaks. I used it on an NPT fuel fitting leak, an NPT oil bypass plug, and an NPT brake line fitting.

[MDPotter]

I was out on a tuning drive a couple weeks ago and stopped to take some pictures as a storm was rolling in. A few updates:

-I replaced the generic MAP sensor with AC Delco and it seemed to help but hasn't eliminated the problem. It still runs a little rough under light acceleration once warmed up, but only once in a while. Not done tuning yet though. Still have to get into timing, but it runs pretty good - 0-60 in 5.4. It's really slow off the line, but it really pulls once you get into the powerband. I have a 12-bolt with 4.11 gears to swap someday which will help with acceleration. My 3.54 rear end is a little high since I don't get on the interstate with it.

-I have a sway bar and new front coil springs to install one of these days. I regret chopping another 1/2 coil off my springs so I bought new 1" drop to get me back where it was.

-Someday I'll get Vintage Air. Been spending money on wedding stuff.

-The reverberations that I feel/hear are still there at certain RPM's. I might try replacing the rubber engine mounts with nice poly mounts and see if it makes a difference.

[1971Stepside]

I love the lessons learned idea. I was just thinking about those rocker plugs the other day and realized those need to go in before the fenders go back on. Agree on the Boyd tank for sure...in fact, whenever I tried to go cheap it usually ended up costing more in the long run. Great build and great advice.

[1971Stepside]

Gold accumulators are for front disc/rear drum applications and silver is for disc/disc.

So, the one I have from the Astro van is not going to work now that I have the Wilwood disc in the rear? Oh boy...

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

So, the one I have from the Astro van is not going to work now that I have the Wilwood disc in the rear? Oh boy...

I bet you'll be fine, they just don't put out as much pressure from what I understand. But it's not like these are heavy trucks and the rear brakes don't do near as much as the front. Here's a link, scroll down about halfway down the page: https://www.hotrodders.com/forum/hyd...20the%20spring.

[rodstored-72]

MD Potter,
VERY VERY NICE!!! CONGRATS!!.. it looks really good. glad to see it finished. when i finished my '72 a few years ago & took it on it's maddon voyage I was smilin' from ear to ear!. the best thing is the road recognition that comes with driving a "cool truck". please give us a few updates as driving is more normal for it...
again... congrats!!!

...

[rowdy11]

Congrats on finishing and thank you for posting the lessons learned!!! We should make that a tradition for every build that is nearing the (temporary) end.

[Putzer]

Congrats MD, truck looks killer! I never replied but thanks for the info on the sub box. I had to modify a little bit since my shallow mount required .8 cu ft of space but the design was perfect and my seat fits well now.

[rodstored-72]

MD Potter,
Hope you are well & having fun driving around a cool truck!!. I re-read the thread & didn't see how you hooked up the trans linkage? I am wondering how you connected the shift linkage on the trans to the truck column? I am tryin to figure out on my build now... LOL!!!

thanks!!

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

MD Potter,
Hope you are well & having fun driving around a cool truck!!. I re-read the thread & didn't see how you hooked up the trans linkage? I am wondering how you connected the shift linkage on the trans to the truck column? I am tryin to figure out on my build now... LOL!!!

thanks!!

I used the linkage kit by CPP. It's basically a rod with a clevis on each end. I didn't take any length out of it, but I did put a slight bend in the rod. It comes with the hardware you need to connect to the column and to the transmission gear selector shaft. It's part# CPTSL.

[rodstored-72]

mdpotter,
thanks!, the CPP kit appears to be very similar to lokar. I was hoping to use my original linkage and save the $80-90. it is looking more like I am going to have to make "the shift" and get a kit...

[TA_C10]

I used the lokar kit. And I did the exact same steps as Potter.

[MDPotter]

Just a quick update on the truck:

-Sway bar is on backorder, who knows when it will come in.
-Alignment is done but it's still got a shake at certain speeds so I'll have to get the wheels and tires checked for balance.
-The low-beam filament on one of my outside headlights went out, so that's kind of disappointing considering how little I've used the headlights. Probably just cheap bulbs that came with the headlights.
-It started running pretty rough under light acceleration the other day so I've been working on diagnosing the issue. I have been doing some tuning which has been fun but those steps haven't fixed it nor the other things I've checked. Other than that, it runs great.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Gotta love all that chrome on the front of the gmc's. Looks like you will be having a ton of fun in very short order with this truck. Great build

[Low Elco]

Fantastic work, and Great Lessons learned. i just finished my 3rd one. Not for nuthin', what'd you do with the old tailgate?

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Fantastic work, and Great Lessons learned. i just finished my 3rd one. Not for nuthin', what'd you do with the old tailgate?

I still have it, do you want it? It's the small GMC letters.

[Leonard1]

Check out the video in post #3

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=719912

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by Leonard1

Check out the video in post #3

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=719912

I do need to check my output shaft angle and pinion angles. I have a shake right around 40-50 MPH and it shouldn't be the alignment or wheels/tires.