58 GMC Project

[pgf545]

Cal, Man that is a great looking color. I was going to paint my 69 Camaro the original Hugger Orange, but I am really liking that color better. It truely inspires me to get after mine Camaro and dads truck hot and heavy.

Bernie

[CAL 58 GMC]

Thanks Bernie! Hugger Orange looks really good on Camaros and 1967 to 1972 Chevy trucks. I had a 72 short bed that was Hugger Orange.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Originally Posted by C10-Driver

Great looking truck and good project thread.

I am thinking of bagging my 70 SWB with a leaf spring rear end. It looks like your setup is top-notch and was hoping you could provide me some more details and direction on which way I should go. The previous post said you took out 3 leaf's, flipped the rear and added 2 inch blocks to the rear. I would guess fully deflated, the rear drop is about 9 inches and fully inflated it would be around 4" ??? Also, are you using a drop spindle in the front. I couldn't find anything in the thread that specified.

More pics of your stance (inflated/deflated) and your air ride setup would be greatly appreciated. Again, great looking ride.

Hey C10-Diver, Sorry I didn’t get back with you sooner. Somehow I must have past up you post.?.? Anyway here's a few answer to your questions. When using the flip kit by it self lowers the rear 6 inches. When adding the two inch lowering blocks brings it to 8 inches and taking the leafs out added about 1 inch for a total of nine inches. As for the rear bags, here's what Air Ride site explains about the set up."The AIRoverLeaf™ system offers a great ride quality and extra load capacity without re-engineering your vehicle. Lowering is accomplished by removing 1 or 2 leafsprings. The airspring is then inflated to restore load capacity, ride height and spring rate.. Up front I used Air Rides Shockwave bags only with the stock spindles. The Shockwaves are a bit pricey, but they work really well and you don't have to do a lot of major modification to install them. Let me know if there’s anything else I could help you with.

[C10-Driver]

Thanks a lot for the info. I am fairly knowledgable but haven't built a lot of vehicles. There are so many factors to consider when customizing a vehicle and usually not a lot of answers until you try something.

I was thinking of 8 or 9 inches or static drop in the rear and using air to bring it back up and stiffen the ride. It sounds like that's pretty close to what you did so I'll keep telling myself I'm on the right track.

Your color choice is awesome. It's almost exactly what I was planning for my truck. The exact color I was thinking of was a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse (http://www.mitsubishicars.com/06eclipse)... Looks very close to yours.

Again, great looking truck. Can't wait to see more finished pics.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Thanks C10-Driver, Yes I would say thats very close to what I am doing in the rear, except I took out three leafs so when I do have air in the bags it won’t be so stiff.

I went to the body shop yesterday to check on the progress. He had the doors and front fenders completed. He said he would have the cab painted Friday so I hope to have some more pics to post on Saturday.

[Kabwe]

CAL58,

I can't wait to see the pics.

[texascowboy593]

Originally Posted by Kabwe

CAL58,

I can't wait to see the pics.

I second that...

[CAL 58 GMC]

Okay, after almost one year and two body shops since I fisrt took the cab in I finaly have paint on the cab. Next Saturday the cab doors and front clip all go back on. Heres some pic's I took.

[55ChevyPU]

yay! congratulations, your truck is really looking great.

[watahyahknow]

wow.....awesome great colour its allmost like copper orange , its going to be a real showpiece and definetely a pricewinner .
this painter should get a medal it looks like its made out of glass .
on the verge of sounding like some westcoast customguy from pimp my ride : you might even want to put some gilded stuff on there instead of chrome like on the badges and some of the bolts that are bolted on the paintwork like the hinges and a tiny gold pinstripe inside the grease of the wasteline .

[dwcsr]

I'd say it was worth the wait. Very nice.

[texascowboy593]

Its coming together nicely now...Way to go!!!

[CAL 58 GMC]

Originally Posted by 55ChevyPU

yay! congratulations, your truck is really looking great.

Thanks 55Chevy! Your truck is looking really sweet too! Since were both in California maybe some day soon we'll meet up at a show or two when were both finished with our rides.

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

wow.....awesome great colour its allmost like copper orange , its going to be a real showpiece and definetely a pricewinner .
this painter should get a medal it looks like its made out of glass .
on the verge of sounding like some westcoast customguy from pimp my ride : you might even want to put some gilded stuff on there instead of chrome like on the badges and some of the bolts that are bolted on the paintwork like the hinges and a tiny gold pinstripe inside the grease of the wasteline .

Thanks, watahyahknow for the coments. The painter really does to some nice work.

Originally Posted by texascowboy593

Its coming together nicely now...Way to go!!!

Thanks, texascowboy593! It's been a long wait, so I am all smiles right now!

Originally Posted by dwcsr

I'd say it was worth the wait. Very nice.

Thanks, dwcsr! Now I can say it was worth the wait, but ask me that last month and I would have said I sould have taken it to Maaco.......Will maybe not

[MrDanB]

MAN! That took me a long time to read all those pages! What an amazing amount of work done in such a short amount of time!!! Very impressive job Cal 58! I just got my rear fenders off my '57 yesterday and was happy that I was able to get all the rusted bolts off without injuring myself. lol Threads like this give hope and help to guys who are just starting out on their projects! thanks for all of the time you took to post all of the work you've done! Cool is an understatement Looking forward to seeing the body all bolted back on and driving down the road
Dano

[PBFAB.COM]

Cal58- Nice color selection! Only one year... not too shabby! Seems like sometimes these rides do much harder time in "paint prison"! It definitely looks like it came out nice! Can't wait to see the whole thing together!

[CAL 58 GMC]

Originally Posted by MrDanB

MAN! That took me a long time to read all those pages! What an amazing amount of work done in such a short amount of time!!! Very impressive job Cal 58! I just got my rear fenders off my '57 yesterday and was happy that I was able to get all the rusted bolts off without injuring myself. lol Threads like this give hope and help to guys who are just starting out on their projects! thanks for all of the time you took to post all of the work you've done! Cool is an understatement Looking forward to seeing the body all bolted back on and driving down the road
Dano

Thanks for checking it out and the complements! It's been a lot of work and I still have along way to go yet. I'm glade to be a help. I have found this site to be very helpful to me also and so when I ever learned something from here or just my own experience I'm always willing to shear it.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Originally Posted by porterbuilt

Cal58- Nice color selection! Only one year... not too shabby! Seems like sometimes these rides do much harder time in "paint prison"! It definitely looks like it came out nice! Can't wait to see the whole thing together!

Thanks porterbuilt for complements on the paint! So you think a year wasn’t to bad? That year seemed like a 10 year sentence to the "paint prison"!

[CAL 58 GMC]

After firing up the motor last weekend I found oil dripping between the motor and transmission. I found the cam freeze plug on the back side was leaking, so I replaced it with a new one and put some gasket silicon around it. As I started to pull the transmission out I noticed transmission fluid coming from the front seal. When I first started up the motor a few weeks back, the servo cover blew off the side because the clip that hold the cover on was missing. When looking inside at the servo we noticed a lot of black grime. Since finding those problems I thought I had better give this transmission a close inspection. Well, it looks like I got ripped off on this so called rebuilt transmission. It looks like all the guy did was paint the outside and put a new torque converter on. So, since I have the transmission out, I had to do some serous thinking on what the best thing to do. My fear is, I put this transmission in my newly freshly paint truck and try and drive down the road and find out my truck can't get out of first gear or starts slipping. Then I would have to try and pull it out with out scratching the paint. So I decided to get a new TCI Street Fighter Transmission from Summitt racing. I should have it by Friday and will need to get it installed before Saturday when I take the chassis in to put the cab back on.

[watahyahknow]

ohw man!......... whell that should thell me not to buy anywhere else then from a known transbuilder like TCI .
youre still lucky youre in the states itself and you can trow it in the trunk and drive it back if you have too , if it would happen to me i have to take it on my back and swim a loooooooong way from europe (whell i need to ship it for a lot of money at least)

[texascowboy593]

Sux about the tranny man... At least you'll get a sure thing out of the TCI...

[pgf545]

Good choice Cal, I have used several of their products and have always had good luck.

Bernie

[CAL 58 GMC]

I have heard the same about TCI, how well built they are. You always hear about the other guy who got burned on some strange deal and you always think, I'm smarter then that, no ones going to pull a fast one on me. And then it happens, you’re the guy that got burned. Well I learned a hard lesson about trusting what ever anyone says when you’re making a purchase from a private party. Let face it there are some very dishonest people out there that will rob you blind!

[Jebb1978]

Man Cali, I feel your pain. I'm sorry! I guess we only have control over the way we treat others in the end.

On the up side that cab is breathtaking!

[CAL 58 GMC]

Yep Jebb your right. We only have control how we treat others and hopefuly others will treat you the same way. Thanks for the complements on the paint!

[watahyahknow]

69CvyPickup4x might have a good t 400 left from wat i understood in one of the other threads , he took it out of a partscar with a bigblock in it think it was a TCI