The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.

[daddyjeep]

That looks pretty gross, but as long as it isn't cracked it can be brought back to life.

[LT7A]

I really enjoy following your process on this truck. It's going to be really nice and a lot of fun to drive. You guys are doing a great job of working your way through it. I thought that 454 was going to be a lost cause but I'm glad you had a way to save it. You turned it into a sculpture, nice work.

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Originally Posted by LT7A

I really enjoy following your process on this truck. It's going to be really nice and a lot of fun to drive. You guys are doing a great job of working your way through it. I thought that 454 was going to be a lost cause but I'm glad you had a way to save it. You turned it into a sculpture, nice work.

It was a little less than ideal, I bet it would have cost anyone else a fortune. Thanks for reading!

Well, since I have the big block on the way I decided that it would probably be a good idea to do dual tanks. This is something else we always just kind of joked around about (kind of like the big block) that ended up coming true. 16 gallons with a 468 doesn't sound like I can pass a gas station. Two saddle tanks means 32 gallons, sounds a lot better!!

I bought a patch from Krazy Ray here on the forums, the same guy I also bought my bed floor cutouts and also this really nice core support. There's not even battery tray rust on this one!!

We did some rough measuring of the center of the hole on the passenger side (where my original tank was) to line up where the new one on the driver side should go, it worked pretty good. I can't believe we cut a hole in the bedside after all that work!!

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

It had started to get busy around here and has absolutely stayed that way. We still find time to (routinely) visit the body shop once a week to see what the status is. It's taken a loooong but I get it, he's busy and this is just the deal I set up to save some money. Well, finally after some months.. SOME COLOR!!! I was excited. It looked great, little bit of peel but it hadn't been touched since it left the booth. Cab was still primer but it was looking good!

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Time for the next little installment, the continuation of dual tanks. As always, it took a bit of research on our part in order to get all of the correct parts. I am planning to use the new Holley Sniper EFI unit on the new engine and that complicated the whole thing a little more than expected.

I bought tanks and sending units off of Rock Auto. These are for 1987 trucks so they have the baffle in the tanks. (it looks like a disposable turkey pan) The point of the baffle is so that the electric fuel pumps will always have fuel around them. They were Spectre brand and really reasonably price, made in Canada.

Part # SQ GM11C for the tanks (Rockauto)
Part # SQ FG05M & SPE FG05N for the sending units (Rockauto)

I then did some research and decided that walbro 255 LPH pumps would work for me. (Part # GSS342 on Amazon.) I also got two little installation kits that were really useful.

Some other minor things I got from rock auto was passenger side tank straps since mine were a little rough. The driver side tank brackets and straps I got from KrazyRay blew my mind and were in great shape. I didn't even paint them.

The tanks went on pretty straight forward, holes were already on the frame. I used some anti squeak tape on the straps, but it really didn't want to stick due to the tanks wax coating.

There was some wiring to be done on the sending units. The '87 plugs were no where near the same as the ones on the pumps, as you can see in the follow pictures. So, we replaced all of the electrical in the sending unit with the wire that came with the installation kit from amazon.

One thing to note is that we had to "dimple" the bottom of the tanks so that the electric fuel pump wouldn't rattle against the tank and cause an annoying resonance.

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Here's something I found a little interesting, both of these filler necks are from 1978 trucks. The difference is one is East Coast and the other is from the West Coast. My truck has a little flapper in the filler neck and the one from the West Coast does not.

Filler necks are something that we haven't really come to a conclusion on. We're thinking about welding the ends off of later model filler necks or using 2 sizes of hose and an adapter from this website. The reason you have to do this is that the filler necks are fatter on the later trucks and these are '87 tanks. My bedside does not have doors.

[Zook75]

WOW you guys are doing this truck the right way.. nice.

[daddyjeep]

What is the plan for the 8 ball?

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by Zook75

WOW you guys are doing this truck the right way.. nice.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

What is the plan for the 8 ball?

Haha, I figured someone would point out the 8 ball when I made that post. I'm not sure how it made it's way into the pic. Those boxes are on the pool table. We have an old 8 ball that's been drilled to go on a shifter somewhere though..

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

A few days after those rods got in I "forced" a free morning open and steered my dad and I over to the machine shop for another round of machining. We got the block honed and we also go the rods numbered and magnafluxed during this visit.

We have one more trip to do still where we get the cam bearings in and the bottom end balanced. I am planning on using the flywheel I got for the small block on the big block, but SB is internal balance and the BB is external. I bought a external weight kit for it, found here. (Part # 560222 from McLeod)

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

The following weekend, I was ready to get the block off the ground and on the stand. I'm pretty cheap if you haven't noticed yet. I like my money and I like to hunt for the bottom dollar deals. We have an engine stand that really didn't like to roll and was really floppy with the small block, I convinced my dad to weld it up, add a brace, and attach some larger more heavy duty casters. I now have my "4x4" engine stand ready for service.

And of course immediately after that was done we picked up the bare block and put it on the stand. I wanted to paint it and I wasn't set on a color nor did I want to wait. GM blue isn't easy to come by and I have about 7 cans of Hawaiian/Medium Blue mixed up (from Sherwin Williams) in the garage.. soo body color it is. Kind of looks like ford blue but I'm ok with that. I finished up the can of high heat primer from when I previously painted the small block.

Kind of a big difference from what it was when I got my hands on it in the first place!

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Back to fuel lines! I bought fuel lines from inline tube because I thought it would be easier but some thought was still required. This picture sums up what we decided we needed to do.

The fuel line installation was pretty straight forward, just used adele clamps to mount them up to the truck the same way we did the stainless brake lines in the past. They are rubbing against the engine mount but we pushed them in as much as we could and added some of that felt backed tape. The crossmember behind the rear cab mounts is something I quickly bought from off the forums and once again it was a California part that really didn't need any paint. After installation we were waiting on the arrival of the rubber lines, gmachinz's dual tank wiring harness, and the oetiker clamps.

[TKCR]

That is awesome work your doing on that truck. Great find and repair on the grille. Now you just to get it cleaned and painted, and it will look great.
The paint job, WOW!! I bet your getting pretty excited about it, no doubt. Keep them pictures coming.

BTW, remember your tan seat? I'm sure you do, LOL. Well here it is all restored and recovered. I recovered it with Silver Velour Deluxe & Black Vinyl.

[TKCR]

Speaking of seats, I know you found some 90's style seats for your build. I would really like to see an original seat in your GMC. But that's just my opinion, lol.
Here's what a GMC seat would look like. But of course it can be covered in blue, so it would match.
GMC seats are just a tad different than the Chevy, because of the stainless steel hinge plate.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by TKCR

Speaking of seats, I know you found some 90's style seats for your build. I would really like to see an original seat in your GMC. But that's just my opinion, lol.
Here's what a GMC seat would look like. But of course it can be covered in blue, so it would match.
GMC seats are just a tad different than the Chevy, because of the stainless steel hinge plate.

Sorry TK, I know you do a pretty good job on the seats but I'm sold and keeping my 60/40 bench. I like it a lot better than the solid bench seats. They will be mounted on a solid rail and will slide like a solid bench, though. I do think I am going to have it reupholstered with a matching medium blue vinyl and Highlander blue plaid from older 67-72 trucks on the inserts.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by HunterRotten

Sorry TK, I know you do a pretty good job on the seats but I'm sold and keeping my 60/40 bench. I like it a lot better than the solid bench seats. They will be mounted on a solid rail and will slide like a solid bench, though. I do think I am going to have it reupholstered with a matching medium blue vinyl and Highlander blue plaid from older 67-72 trucks on the inserts.

That's fine, I didn't mean it that way, about you getting a seat from me. I was just showing you what the GMC bench seat looked like. You are going a great job on the truck. This is just my opinion of course, but I like seeing the original seats in the truck. Even your tan bench seat wasn't truely original, because it was more for the 80's.
But what ever you do, it will look great!!! Keep up the great work.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by TKCR

That's fine, I didn't mean it that way, about you getting a seat from me. I was just showing you what the GMC bench seat looked like. You are going a great job on the truck. This is just my opinion of course, but I like seeing the original seats in the truck. Even your tan bench seat wasn't truely original, because it was more for the 80's.
But what ever you do, it will look great!!! Keep up the great work.

While my truck wasn't perfect, it was in very good shape for something that was still being used. Very straight. I believe somewhere along the line, and more than likely the man I bought it from, decided he had to sell it so he took things for his other truck such as my original hood, chrome front bumper, and my seat.

I did get a very nice carburetor because we viewed the truck early and he hadn't changed it out yet.

[HunterRotten]

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Time for that promised update on the cab!! We scheduled a date to "drop off" the frame and have the cab set on. There was some confusion and we ended up taking it home, which was exciting and really confusing as not everthing has been fit yet - but I'll talk about that in the next update.

We woke up early and borrowed a trailer on a rainy Friday morning. We had the cab on the frame in our garage and the bed at the body shop and everything figured out by around noon. The bodyshop isn't far but it's not real close either.

THIS IS THE FUN PART!!! I am VERY MUCH done with the cleaning and painting of absolutely everything. It's time to get this thing back together one piece at a time! Once we have our ducks in a row we should be able to knock it out quick!

[tinydb84]

Great work replacing all that sheet metal. Everything looks really clean. Gorgeous truck really.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

Great work replacing all that sheet metal. Everything looks really clean. Gorgeous truck really.

Thanks! Been a long time coming, or that's how it seems to me anyway..

[LT7A]

Paint is looking spectacular.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Paint is looking spectacular.

Thanks! Picking up some painted pieces today and hopefully I'll get around to updating the thread.

[TKCR]

Your right , this is the fun part!! Can't wait to see the progress as it unfolds.

[HunterRotten]

It's been a little while, I plan on updating this later tonight. Happy thanksgiving!!

edit: I had trouble organizing my photos after transferring and organizing, I'm sorry guys. I'll get it together tomorrow.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Sooooo.. onto that "fun part" I was so excited about. The very first thing we did was jack the truck up in the air on some ramps and test fit some doors. We masked off the areas around the doors and where the fenders bolt up to protect the paint.

At this point, you might be wondering where those fenders came from. For one, those chinese ones in the box are GARBAGE. They needed to be slotted in every direction and the sharp edges nicked the paint and then me - so NOPE to those! A few months past I was browsing craigslist for parts and I found this truck that said it had fiberglass fenders. They were rough but they were cheap and repairable. I picked them up in a heartbeat - AND WOW DO THEY FIT GOOD! I'll look up the pictures I have of that truck and share them here.