Project: GOOBER, 1971 GMC

[jgammill]

We went wheeling this past saturday but it was a little more of an adventure than we thought it would be. It had been raining the day before and all day saturday, but we thought we would give it a try anyways. I was leading the way in the tow rigs and made it all the way to the top of a hill before I slid off in the ditch. Had to unload the rig and use it to drag my dodge the rest of the 1.5 miles to get to where we were going wheeling. A normal pickup wouldn't even stay on the road even without a load on it.



After I got mine out we headed back because the other 3 tow rigs were all stuck too.





The 4th guy went a mile north to come around and got stuck but I never saw it to get a pic. Here I'm pulling the last guy out. What made it the worst was we had to get them and their trailers turned around so we didn't have to go up the hill and drag them for 2 miles.



After the tow rigs were out we just drove the rigs the 2 miles down the county road while the tow rigs went around a different way. 3 hours to go 2 miles and we were ready to go wheeling.



Didn't get any pics while wheeling but I did get some video I'll have to try to get put up tomorrow. Here's the only picture of my rig after we got back just before I washed it off.

[ERASER5]

Just found and read you thread. I like the truck and I like how you are building it.

Back on post #18, cute picture of your little girl! Although she does look tired. Back when mine was that size, I had her sitting on the engine unscrewing the brake lines to the MC. Brought back memories. thanks.

[jgammill]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

Just found and read you thread. I like the truck and I like how you are building it.

Back on post #18, cute picture of your little girl! Although she does look tired. Back when mine was that size, I had her sitting on the engine unscrewing the brake lines to the MC. Brought back memories. thanks.

Haha! Thanks man. She is a lot of fun and likes going to the shop with her daddy.

[jgammill]

Originally Posted by johnnyclack

I am a third generation welder, I taught welding to my fellow students all 4 years in high school metal shop, and I have worked as a fabricator over the past 4 ½ decades.

So I say this with some knowledge “Son you are one of the best I seen, & for a Framer you our un-real”.

Keep up the good work.

Just thought I would show you a picture of the smoker my brother built. I was pretty impressed with it.



Started designing my bumper last night with cardboard. Didn't get very far. Started over once. Not sure if I have a design figured out yet or not. I'll get pictrues once I have a plan.

[RatRod68]

That is bad ass.

[jgammill]

Didn't get to work on the bumper last night cause it was my anniversery but I went over for 45 minutes this morning and got a little done. Plan on working on it tonight for a couple of hours.

[RatRod68]

Are you building it to mimic the original, or going all bad ass plate happy?

[jgammill]

I'm going to build it to follow the grill lines and curve but thats about all that will be the same as factory. It will resemble the one I built for my dodge but a little different.

[RatRod68]

and i'm drooling again

[johnnyclack]

"Just thought I would show you a picture of the smoker my brother built. I was pretty impressed with it."

Your Father must be very proud of his Son's.

This fellow looks a pipefitter ?

Those are some nice tie-ins he has put togather, thay are B!@#$%%
to get right. No slop in thoes joints

[jgammill]

Originally Posted by johnnyclack

"Just thought I would show you a picture of the smoker my brother built. I was pretty impressed with it."

Your Father must be very proud of his Son's.

This fellow looks a pipefitter ?

Those are some nice tie-ins he has put togather, thay are B!@#$%%
to get right. No slop in thoes joints

Thanks. My brother has done just about everthing with welding including pipe fitter. He was doing a lot of on call stuff for the oil field but now he is building stuff from his house for the oil field. Mostly stuff with pipe though.

[jgammill]

Here's the video from wheeling last weekend. Of course I didn't get any video of my rig cause I was leading the way and stopping to video everyone else. But you can see what it was like where we were.

Wheeling in the mud - YouTube

[johnnyclack]

jgammill I love the greasy pictures, brings back memories.

Back-in-the day, up in here ORGun (pronounced as one word)
We would Elk hunt on the rims of Hells Canyon (yep same one Evil Ka’nevil played around with). Well Elk hunting gets good come the end of November when temp’s at 23deg or colder and snow is falling. Most of these roads are clay and freeze hard for a depth of ~6-8” deep. A funny thing happens when the sun hits the open spots where the hills don’t shade, the top inch or two of clay melts and the underside remains frozen thus creating one of the most slippery surfaces known to mankind. If you roll around a corner and on to this you cannot stop rolling, if you do stop your rig will side off the side of the road, if you are able to hook your pass side tires on the uphill edge of the ditch and do manage to stop and step out your going to fall flat on your can. This stuff sounds just like your grease ?

{(Memory = Equals story}

We came around the Southeast corner on the backside of a ridge about 10:00 in the morning and the (SunnY) road was tore to Shiite, there was not a sq foot of that road that had not been ripped open with mud everywhere, where there was no mud there were burms, remember all in about 2” of mud right? Well It looked like a greased-up cake pan.

About 100 yards, in the middle of this corner on the down hillside there was six feet of a 12” steel culvert sticking out into the middle of nowhere, on top of the outward side of this culvert was a tandem axle house trailer with the front axle on one side and the rear axle on the others side. I did not say camp trailer & I did not say travel trailer, I did say house trailer. This was a house trailer of the type they used back in the 50’ or 60’s, we have all seen these ol’ green /white relics about 27 to 30 feet long and rounded downward on both ends. It was hooked up to a mid seventies Chevy 4X4 flatbed, it had one chain on the driver’s side and it was buried to the pumpkins, must have spun those tires for 20 minutes to have dug those craters. No one was around and the best we could tell it was a couple of wranglers moving down out of the high country for the winter and had gotten stuck.

Elevation at this location is 6,300 feet, the canyon that this trailer was hanging out over, swear to God, no exaggeration had to be at least 2,500 deep and the walls were vertical, that rig may have contacted tiara firma once before finding the bottom.


It taws the days before phone cams or internet, I would give anything to have that photo today.


Oh’ yea the wranglers ? The best we could tell they headed out cross-country looking fresh water (unfrozen) to clean out their shorts:

Remember they tried (~20 min) to pull that trailer off of the culvert, and it was hanging in mid –air.

[jgammill]

That would be quit the sight to see. Wish you would of had a picture!

[johnnyclack]

Jgammill saw your last post..... do tell me the FJ40 made it over the rocks.

I had a new one in 76' surrounding a 350 cu, 4 bolt, 350hp : For the times it was a bad ass

[jgammill]

Originally Posted by johnnyclack

Jgammill saw your last post..... do tell me the FJ40 made it over the rocks.

I had a new one in 76' surrounding a 350 cu, 4 bolt, 350hp : For the times it was a bad ass

Nope, he didn't. He is running a TBI 350 but was having some major sensor issues with it running right. That was it's maiden voyage. He just gave up cause of the way it was running and I'm sure his wife was encouraging him not to try it anymore!

[jgammill]

Got some more done on the bumper.

[RatRod68]

Lookin good!

[jgammill]

Tow points installed.

[jgammill]

Got the main bumper all tacked together.



Brush guard tacked on.



Fully welded and ground down, ready for paint.



Bolted on and finished. Just have to go back and paint where the lights go. Forgot to burn the holes out before I painted it.

[johnnyclack]

Are ya gon'a paint the "G" ?

That is one powerful looking brush grill/ I have been looking around for Idea's on building a brush grill. Most of the ones I have seen look pretty wimpy (we have a saying round her'a, the metal it took to build some of these aftermarket bumper/grill would have better off left in the ladle at the foundry)

That’s a bad ass stump pusher ya made’

[jgammill]

Originally Posted by johnnyclack

Are ya gon'a paint the "G" ?

That is one powerful looking brush grill/ I have been looking around for Idea's on building a brush grill. Most of the ones I have seen look pretty wimpy (we have a saying round her'a, the metal it took to build some of these aftermarket bumper/grill would have better off left in the ladle at the foundry)

That’s a bad ass stump pusher ya made’

Haha, thanks man. I built it to make sure I could push through some trees when needed. It should hold up. We'll see how it fairs in the rocks over at Clayton this weekend though.

As for the G that is still inthe air. I've had one buddy say I need to paint it Blue and another thinks I should leave it white. What does everone else think. Maybe a different color?

[johnnyclack]

I say paint it blue

On the Dodge I say cut it out and back light it; LOL

[jgammill]

I think she's ready for the Clayton trip! Heading out after work tomorrow.



Got my running lights hooked up.

[johnnyclack]

Take plenty of photos, for those of us who live Vicariously