My 1958 GMC 100 Stepside Budget Build

[ptc]

Great looking job going on here and I think you are cutting yourself short... Anything that is torn down this far and rebuilt from the ground up is no budget build!!! - Time and enjoyment of doing all this work yourself is priceless! - you just cant put a pricetag on that.

Keep up the good work!

[Techie79]

Thanks ptc. This is definitely not a budget build as in just patch it up and drive it but it is a build on a very tight budget. I have always been a true believer in doing everything that I possibly can myself whether I can afford to have someone else do it or not. As I said early on this is my first project of my own and as frustrating and time consuming as some of it can be I am loving every minute of it.

Over the long weekend I managed to finish sand blasting the front axle, springs, and all of the other small front end parts. After cleaning up all of the sand and the mess of dust in the garage I got the first coat of Chassis Saver put on Saturday evening. I was really surprised on how thin this stuff is. I chose to brush it on so it would be a little thicker but now I am wondering if that was a mistake. This stuff is so thin that even though I was being careful not to put it on too thick I found this morning that I have runs everywhere. It was too late at that point to do anything about it so I went ahead and put a second coat on the frame and depending on how it looks after it has finished drying I may have to sand out the runs and and carefully put on another coat. I also managed to get paint on the front axle and all of the other smaller suspension parts. I have new center bolts for the springs on the way so hopefully get some paint on them later this week.

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[SCHRUMGMC]

Loving the progress

[Techie79]

Thanks Kim and Schrumgmc

Not much progress the last few weeks with the holiday activities and a family vacation to Red River but any work done is still progress. New spring center bolts are installed, springs are painted, and reinstalled on the frame. Installed new grease zerks on the springs, spring shackles and pins, and kingpins. Managed to get in a couple hours on Saturday and got the frame off of the engine stands and on jack stands sitting on wheel dollies. I also got the cab set back on the frame and bolted down.

[Techie79]

Had a few hours that I could spend in the garage this weekend so I started cleaning up and going through the front hub assemblies to see what needed to be replaced and also to get everything media blasted and painted. What I found is that I need to replace the obvious things such as brake shoes and rebuild the wheel cylinders but I also found that I need to replace the outer wheel bearings and the inner and outer seals. The problem that I have and hopefully someone can help me with this is that at some point before the truck was parked in 1987 the front drums were changed from the original 6 lug to 5 x 4.5 car drums. I have not been able to find any markings to help identify the parts other than the numbers on the bearings and races. Is there any other good way to Identify these?

[hammerdog57]

Looks like early fifties chevy car hub and drums. Was a popular mod back in the day.

[Techie79]

Thanks for the info hammerdog57. Based on the info on another post I remeasured the lug pattern and it 5x4 3/4. It appears these were used on 48-54 chevy cars.

[Techie79]

Still been chipping away at the todo list as time permits. I finished reassembling the front drums minus brakes and got her sitting back on the front wheels. I have started cleaning up the differential and prepping it for new seals and paint. Up to this point I had not been able to find the axle stamp so I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I found that it was originally a positrac out of a 1968 chevelle. Judging by the dents and hole that had been repaired in the cover the diff had some type of catastrophic failure at some point in its life and someone had replaced the posi guts with standard open guts with 3:23 gears, so it should work pretty good with the 700r4. I got a real surprise when I pulled the cover. I found that there wasn't a single drop of oil left in the diff. It had all leaked out because of a broken cover bolt, but luckily there doesn't appear to be any significant damage. I have new seals and new thrust washers on the way and hope to be painting and reassembling it soon.






Next it was on to the passenger door. I have a fair amount of work to do to the doors such as fixing the speaker hole that someone put in them at some point and fixing some cancer on the bottom but for now I am just trying to fix the lower hinge pocket so I can test fit them along with the rest of the front end.

[Techie79]

Its been a while since the last update but I have been in the garage as much as possible. I managed to get the passenger door back on and roughly aligned, Reassembled the differential with new seals and thrust washers, and put it back in place with the new spring perches just sitting in place until I can set the pinion angle and weld them in.


Welded in the replacement lower hinge pocket reinforcement panels


Set the motor and trans back in place to check clearance with the front sheet metal and radiator and started to loosely assemble the front end until I can get the drivers door back on and everything aligned.








Yesterday the big brown truck delivered a new brake booster so I went ahead and reassembled the steering column and drilled the hole in the firewall for the booster to test fit everything.



It sure is nice to see this thing start to look like a truck again instead of a pile of parts.

[MBrown]

Got it going together again! Good ingenuity on the cab lifter for the cherry picker and good idea on using the engine stands as a poor man's rotisserie! I might have to steal those 2 ideas if you haven't filed a patent on them.

[Techie79]

Thanks MBrown but I cant take credit for the lift or rotisserie. I borrowed the Ideas from other builds. That is the great thing about everyone sharing their ideas and experiences. It saves others from having to re-invent the wheel.

[Foot Stomper]

Nice work!
What did you do to get your tank to fit closer to the suspension?

[Techie79]

Thanks Foot Stomper.

I'm not sure I understand the question but if you are asking how I got the tank closer to the crossmember at the rear of the differential, I had to trim the lower frame rail from where it narrows in up to the crossmember. If memory serves me I had to trim about 1/4 inch per side.

[Foot Stomper]

Originally Posted by Techie79

Thanks Foot Stomper.

I'm not sure I understand the question but if you are asking how I got the tank closer to the crossmember at the rear of the differential, I had to trim the lower frame rail from where it narrows in up to the crossmember. If memory serves me I had to trim about 1/4 inch per side.

Thanks! That's exactly what I was talking about. Sorry for not explaining better. You're doing a great job. Thanks for the info.

[Techie79]

Just a quick update. Repaired the lower hinge pocket on drivers door and still working on aligning the front sheet metal and doors. The drivers side lined up pretty well with only a couple of shims but the passenger side is being a little more difficult. Had to adjust the rear of the passenger step down a little with a piece of wood and a hammer. Still needs a little adjusting but looking better.

When I pulled out the hinge pocket for repair it was totally shot so thank goodness for old parts doors.





Found a really good deal so the wife bought me an early birthday gift.



Both doors and hood installed. Really starting to look like a truck now.



Found a really good deal on a complete front disk brake conversion kit from speedway for $259. Other than very poorly written directions it went together easily and fit perfectly. Nice to find a complete kit including everything right down to the rubber brake lines for about the same price I would have spent to put in new bearings in the old hubs and installing new brake components.

[RockinKees]

Looks good!!
Nice repairs! Brings back memories, I think we all did these repairs when working on the truck!

[Techie79]

Been working on the truck as much as I could the last few weeks. Finished roughly aligning the front sheet metal. Not perfect but close enough for me. Wanted to try out the new harbor freight stud gun and dent puller so I started working on a dent on the front passenger fender between the hood and light. Looks like someone threw a tempter tantrum at some point and took it out on the truck. Still have some work to do on the repair but it pulled out pretty good.






Went to the local car show and cruise the first weekend in may and saw a car that I thought everyone might get a kick out of. According to the sign on the car it was built on an early 70s porche chassis. Just imagine all of the weird looks you would get driving around in a coffin that handles like a sports car.





Since everything fit pretty good next in was on to tearing it back apart so I could get all of the final welding done on the cab.



Used a template I found that OrrieG had posted some time ago and made up some cab corner fillers out of 16 guage sheet metal.




Finally got the cowl vent replacement panel in place that I ordered almost a year ago. Sure was a lot of welding and grinding but I think it will turn out nice in the end and hopefull no more rust and rot in the future.

[Kim57]

Repairs look real good.
Kim

[Techie79]

Removed the cab again and flipped it up on the back for hopefully the last time. Welded in some supports for the bench seat that I plan on using and brushed on some bed liner.






I didn't get any pictures but I got the cab flipped back upright and did a little welding to fill in a few temporary screw holes and removed a couple of broken screws for the door latch mounts. I think the cab is finally ready for a little primer touch up and body work so I started looking at the passenger door. I knew from the flaked off body filler and rusty spot on the bottom of the door that it had some body work in the past but it was much worse than I thought. The entire bottom half of the door had a layer of body filler that was a good 1/8th inch thick in places and several holes where it looks like they had used a slide hammper to pull out the damage. I'm gonna try to save it but this may call for a new lower door skin.




I stumbled across these on facebook last week for $25. They need some cleanup and a fresh layer of paint but I loved the look of the old school finned Edelbrocks.

[RockinKees]

Nice sheetmetal work!
Your cab underside looks real good, nice and clean.

Good score on the valve covers, I like them!