The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by Bluestep

It is good to see your pickup going back together! It looks great.
Your belt is routed slightly incorrectly. Right below the a/c compressor the belt should be on the other side of the idler pulley, in other words the back of the belt should ride on the pulley.
Keep crankin'!

It looked funny to me too, but if I do it the other way it wanted to touch the lower radiator hose. Not sure what's up with that, seen a diagram for both ways on trucks online. Mine's an earlier serpentine bracket so it should be the way as you mentioned, with the later ones being the way mine is set up. I will say that I have the MOST annoying squeak from that pulley.....

http://www.kwikperf.com/bbc_serp_kit.html

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

So, at some point along the line my dad and I decided to go with a clutch fan. Electric fans were too pricey for me to swallow and we figured a clutch fan has worked in stock trucks for years, it should be fine for us.

We were very wrong about one thing, at least. Installing a darn clutch fan was no easier than electric fans, and was actually probably a little more difficult. I had to find a shroud somewhere. For awhile I really struggled to track one down until I decided to check rock auto. They had one and it was CHEAP! (LESS THAN $20 SHIPPED!!!!) GM3110122 is the part number.

Now I had to get a fan and clutch. We checked locally, people wanted like $50 for the fan and $90 for the clutch. Uhhhh.. no thanks, guy! I know it's important to keep your local businesses in business, but I ended up finding a friggen 9 blade fan 3x bigger than my head with the massive clutch on it that was reverse rotation(88-00 serpentine) for $75.00 shipped.

Seem's like a pretty straightforward process thus far, right? Well. Like all things on this truck, I needed a spacer. This time it was the water pump so I could get enough room to mount the fan to it. It took me a little while to track down just what I needed, I ended up ordering from a company out of Vermont called Island Racing VT that machines some about the right thickness I was looking for. https://www.islandracingvt.com/store...r-pump-spacers

I don't have a picture of the ones that arrived, but they do in fact come with O-Rings. The pictures don't show it on their site.

[Country705]

Thanks for the updates unfortunately like any good addict i want more please lol... good job my friend I'm excited to see the end result

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by Country705

Thanks for the updates unfortunately like any good addict i want more please lol... good job my friend I'm excited to see the end result

Appreciate it, I'll have an update here soon. Slow progress being made at the moment and a lot of back paddling to progress.

[lowbrow454]

I'm really digging that color. Nice work!

[HunterRotten]

[CENTER]Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

So, one of the things we were really wanting to do is get the doors together. Mom's basement has been looking scary for near two years and we are getting down to the nitty gritty of my truck. It's been cleaning up fast all year, but those doors and their inside bits are more than half of what's left at this point. We had a LOOOOT of fun with these things. We struggled to get the door lined up but that wasn't even the hard part. It was those dang chinese door handles. They bound up the latch entirely to the point where nothing would get the door open. I ended up swapping all of the hardware off of my original handle on the driverside. The passenger side the spring broke, and we found out that the plastic button is what causes the latch to bind. There's too much material on it and it just gets stuck. I can't explain it, I don't even understand it. It shouldn't have been a problem but when I tell you we spent WEEKS scratching our heads, I'm not lying!!!

Unfortunately, pulling the door locks out with these bound up latches destroyed some of the paint, so it will have to come apart again sometime and be resprayed.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

I have been really itching for some woodgrain to tie in the bedrails with the rest of my truck. I dig my bedrails, I think they're AWESOME.. but some woodgrain in the truck would really tie it together.

Well, just so happened I knew where some were, but Spring had come and gone and the 'yard' was more like 'rain forest' so we had to dress up covering all the skin and go on a hike in 80% humidity for it. They're a bit beat, but they're perfect for me. Nothing to cry over if they got damaged. The metal trim that goes around the woodgrain had screws shot through it, so dad filled them with JB Weld. I'm impressed at how hard it is to notice, he did a really good job.

Not only that, but he cut off the studs on the back of it and mounted it with stainless button heads. We turned junk into show pieces.

I forgot that I never got around to showing everyone the OEM door panels I found, well.. here they are. I love them.

[HunterRotten]

I don't normally take pictures at the private yard we go to, but I had him take us a tour to all his Volkswagen. I've always been fascinated with them and I wanted to see what kind of shape his were in. I think this photo pretty much sums up the whole experience of picking parts there. Keep in mind this volkswagen is actually surrounded by cars.. if you look closely you might even be able to name them.

[Bluestep]

That is very unfortunate about the door latches. Are they aftermarket pieces? Can you show a picture of them to make it clear what the problem is.
Your junkyard in the jungle is really something!

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by Bluestep

That is very unfortunate about the door latches. Are they aftermarket pieces? Can you show a picture of them to make it clear what the problem is.
Your junkyard in the jungle is really something!

I will look to see if I have a photo now, but I am not sure if I do. I was frustrated and just trying to figure out what was wrong. The latch I have and all of the rods are original to my truck and these doors. The exterior door handles and locks are brand new. I have no complaints about the locks, the clip is new but the rod on the back of it is OEM.

As far as the new door handles go, you have to trim the black button down to the same profile as the original. The original ones do not fit (They fall out the front of the handle, too small for the new casting.), so you have to trim the new ones down. I guess with the extra material it puts too much tension on the spring and it sucks the button in and keeps everything locked up. The door locks don't function, the inside door handle won't operate, the button on the outside door handle will be sucked in, and the outside key cylinder will not function. Everything will be in a bind and it's not fun. I got the handles from GMCPauls, but I'm sure it'll be the same handle as everywhere else.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

I couldn't hold onto this much longer, I decided I might as well share it tonight. I picked up the bed from my body shop and delivered it to linex for a color matched liner. It turned out absolutely fantastic, and I got a chance to use my cool chain fall again when I got it back home.

[cruizin01]

Bed looks great.

I bought some black door handles off eBay and they fit great. Just like factory. Sucks when stuff doesn't fit right and you ruin new parts.

[ninety6]

Originally Posted by HunterRotten

What do you know about bed rails? My 86 has those exact same ones. Factory/dealer option? popular aftermarket part? I've been trying to decide if i should put them back on...

[rollin thunder]

Beautiful color! This truck is looking good! keep up the the excellent work.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by ninety6

What do you know about bed rails? My 86 has those exact same ones. Factory/dealer option? popular aftermarket part? I've been trying to decide if i should put them back on...

They are a factory option and a dealer add on, if I remember correctly. My dad had some on his mid 80's truck back in the day and he recalls the holes for the bedrail holes being stamped into the body. They also share a design with the suburban roof racks.

[LT7A]

HR, your truck is really coming together well! The color is beautiful. Also, you can touch up your paint chips around the locks. With a non-metallic color like you have, it's really just a matter of building it up to above the level of the surrounding paint and then sanding it flat and buffing it out. Can even use clear coat for the last couple of layers if you need to.

Let me know if you are interested in more detail. I just picked up a great tip from a guitar repair expert.

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by LT7A

HR, your truck is really coming together well! The color is beautiful. Also, you can touch up your paint chips around the locks. With a non-metallic color like you have, it's really just a matter of building it up to above the level of the surrounding paint and then sanding it flat and buffing it out. Can even use clear coat for the last couple of layers if you need to.

Let me know if you are interested in more detail. I just picked up a great tip from a guitar repair expert.

I would love to hear more, but I don't think it is applicable to my situation.. the locks actually pulled some filler out with them and exposed bare metal.

[Bluestep]

The color matched bed liner looks very good.
I think that the bed rails must have been more popular in different areas of the country. I don't remember them on any pickups around here, but on the forums I see a lot of pickups that have them, many presumably since new. They do add a little sparkle.

[rollin thunder]

Originally Posted by Bluestep

The color matched bed liner looks very good.
I think that the bed rails must have been more popular in different areas of the country. I don't remember them on any pickups around here, but on the forums I see a lot of pickups that have them, many presumably since new. They do add a little sparkle.

Maybe further down south they are fairly common. Most of the trucks down here Have the rails. My uncle had an 88 or 89 Cheyenne that had a similar type rail.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

So, we're way beyond another update. Last time I updated this thread we had just gotten the bed back and mounted onto the frame. My truck came together looking like a truck pretty darn quick, so I put the pressure on dad to help me get it running. I had ordered a mishimoto 4-core aluminum radiator made for the squarebody trucks from Summit last year on Black Friday and it has since been in a box. Mishimoto has a lifetime warranty, and if your griffin or whatever else ever craps out you will be money ahead with the mishimoto.

Like always, something doesn't fit right and once again we needed spacers. The radiator was sitting too low in the stock radiator mount and we ended up spacing it. If anyone needs the true measurement, I will get under there with some dial calipers.

[HunterRotten]

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

At this point, it was pretty much as simple as telling the sniper EFI's handheld information about my truck and turning the key. I was pretty excited, and I was hoping that with some luck we could drive the truck.

Here's what my truck sounded like on it's first time idling.

While it was awesome that my truck after 2 (or more) long years had rumbled to life, we were not able to get it into to gear. After some head scratching, dad figured out that the slave cylinder may have been too big. We did a free exchange to NOVAK(except for shipping....) for the smaller slave. The smaller slave greatly improved what we thought was the issue, which was that the measurement between the slave and the pedal were too great but.. it still wouldn't engage. Solution? Spacers on the external slave. It works now.

The OTHER problem discovered with the truck idling is that those gold crane rockers where touching the valve covers, which is not ideal. Can you guess the solution? SPACERS! Why? I really like the look of the stock valve covers. It ends up being gasket, spacer, gasket, valve cover. Not ideal, but it worked and it looks great. (..Yes, I'm leaking now and I will have to address that.)

[HunterRotten]

Here's a picture of the trucks first outing, and of the boy ready to ride! I edited my house out for personal reasons, sorry I had to go and ruin such a great photo for everyone!

I should mention I pulled the truck up front the house and then it died, no juice. Didn't think too much of it right then...

[Rickysnickers]

Wow, that's great!

[rollin thunder]

Music to my ears! That sounds sick!