55 gmc longbed stepside project

[spousta]

I am new to these boards, but i found forums help motivate me and help me keep track of my progress for later use. so here is my project, its a 55 gmc longbed. i picked this truck up for 500.00 off a widower, (pink slip came with death cert). i will be second owner. its all origanal and all there. i will be the first to ever modify or fix. so lets get started with photos

[longbike]

Looks great and solid too! Nice truck to start with!

[spousta]

end of day will be striped

[spousta]

trucks completey striped now. didnt take long. i just cut all the bolts off instead of saving them. they were to rusty. stuburn bolts got my nice left hand drill bit with a built in easy out. good tools save so much time! 2 brothers help too, lol.





sitting down and thinking bout it i decided to go with some parts off another project of mine (47 ford super deluxe). i had a 94 lincoln mark 8 to dispose of and kept some odd ball parts laying around. (32valve motor going to ford) ive decided to take the independed rear end and adapt it to the frame. ive done all the measurements and have everything put down on graph paper. measurements all work out on paper so here we go for the real thing.





ive aligned the suspension with the factory axle stop i had the truck bed on earlier and it all looked great. i also had to use a set of air bag mounts to make sure i had enough room for the airbag and frame. since of my modification to the rear subframe.



ive modified the rear subframe minorly to make it fit correctly but its just tac'd in so well see how it adds up off paper.





also i cut some of the origanal frame supports out and moved it around to make a 20 gallon fuel cell i had laying around fit right in.

just need to pop the motor out and then ill send the frame down to blasting so i can start to box the frame. but that will have to wait when i have another day off work which probally wont be till sunday. already have a guy to do the blasting of the frame for $125.00 at the blast house in elsinore. ill will probally create a craddle for the frame with my 2 of my engine stands that are not in use. it will also make it easy for me to box the frame when it comes back if its easy to spin.

[Kim57]

Welcome to the board.
Sounds like a nice project. Do keep the pics coming.
Kim

[Kabwe]

Hello and welcome to the site. I love those GMC grilles. Good luck with your project and keep posting pics.

[spousta]

Not many people like GMC fronts or the long bed. I love them both. Its staying long bed and I'm keeping the GMC grill and badges. But I am thinking of being different. Keep that hot rod look going. Soo, I was thinking of instead of chrome doing everything brass plated with a nice black paint to off set the copper,zinc. Badges will go copper with the inside logo black and want to expose the GMC logo on the tailgate so I'll brass etch that in as well

[drivea55]

Welcome!

Cannot wait to see this one come together for sure!

Brian

[Russell Ashley]

Your plan sounds interesting, keep the pics coming. Can you register it and keep the Cali black plates on it? From what I read in magazines that's a plus to have them.

[spousta]

ill get new plates, the plates on it are 1963. ill modify a 1951 plate with the 55 tab, and fill out the form at dmv to change plates to year specific. had to do the same thing on my 47 ford, which now runs a 1947 plate

[spousta]

Somehow i got this wednesday off, but neighbor wasnt home so i could not get my engine hoist back to pull out motor and send frame to blasting. but good day for thinking, want to see what others think. i have yet to do the motor swap on my ford which has a 455 olds motor in it. (32v ford going in)



i have a friend with a 454 chevy truck motor who wants to trade. i prefer the slender style vrs the olds wide style. but then again the 455 in the ford runs like a champ and never gives me the slightest trouble. What do you guys think 455 vr 454. just go off your feeeling not that fact that my 455 runs great. cause in the end when a judge looks down at the car he also goes off of what he would of prefered to be done.


next order of business is wheels. now back to the 47 lol. i bought some centerline drag style wheels for it. (going for the 50's rod look) and was going to take off the centerline eagles that are on it. heres a pic



my worry is that it would not match my truck correctly. so again what do you guys think? remember trying to keep a astalgic look going. thanks for looking and your responses!

[Kim57]

spousta
As far as the engine goes I would run the 454. That's what I plan on running in my 57.
For the wheels if your looking for nostalgia I would run some Cragars.
Kim

[spousta]

thanks kim57 for the reply ill take a look at some cragars see if i find anything i like.

got my neighbor to swing by with the my lift. so i stripped the rest of the vehicle and removed transmission brace. along with whatever else thats was on the frame that was unneeded.




that was probably the heaviest motor i have ever moved around

going to start making a frame jig from my engine stands hopefully i can finish today and i will have a very productive wednesday.

[Kim57]

These are the wheels I was talking about.
Kim

[dicer]

You maybe the 2nd to modify it, as it looks like the dash and interior were painted, steering wheel too.

[spousta]

all they did was rattle can the interior with tan. was a really bad job. but it seamed to help keep the interior from rusting out from sitting outside, so I'm happy they did. as for everything else its all there not molested... yet!

[spousta]

hey kim i looked around for what i had laying around and found a set of cragers wanted to see what you thought. only problem is there 5x4.75-5.00 so i would have to run a adapter




and for today i sorta went simple on my frame jig. not the best way to do it but i didnt have to drill any holes in existing frame and only made one bracket.







i had to put my stand on the inside of the frame cause my garage would not shut the other way. but whenever i need to i can just flip it around.

next step its off to the blasters! hopefully get it there sometime next week and have pictures posted then.

[Kim57]

I like that wheel. I had a set like that on a 74 van.
Kim

[Green 1959]

Looks cool. What are you going to do with the 6 cyl?

[spousta]

Going to scrap it for 100$

[spousta]

spend a hour on the frame today, and mapped out my air tank. had a 10 gallon laying around and one thing i hate most about badly set up air ride is tank noise. So this is what i came up with.

my 10 gallon tank


cobra end links *energy*


measured holes and drilled


rear sub frame bottoms out at about 12 inches.


installed my end link + tank i accidentally mounted tank backwards but clearance is still good.


check height (also in adjustable if i trim the end link spacer in the middle)


it sits bout 9 inches down. but i can easily adjust this to sit 8 inches below the frame rail, which is plenty of clearance for truck. even the body sits 10 inches under frame. nice thing is i will have no tank vibrations!!!

[spousta]

Saturday got off work around 6pm and as always i try work a little bit on my truck. ive been working on a subframe threw the days, and sorta just finished it so thought i would so some pics. going to make some control arms the next couple days. i already have a new power mustang rack with 4" extensions. just need to mod the subframe to accept rack. calculate my ackerman angle and weld on some upper arm mounts. that will probally wait till i blast my frame clean and box it in.







my lower control arms are going to be 4 inches longer then a factory mustang II. i made it that way so i can compensate my camber with the air bag better and receive better travel. i can run a stiffer shock and valve it right to get a smooth ride.

[spousta]

parts update

ordered smoe parts and they just came in.

fuel cell straps



2 battery boxes, yes i am going to run 2 batterys because of the air bag system and audio i plan on installing, and would rather be safe then sorry.

[spousta]

got off work early today called my buddy up and he told me bring it down for blasting. got it back 2 hours later and did some work.





the previous owner welded the rear bumper on and so i grounded it down. its halfway finished i need to get my welder out and fix some of the parts he overcooked.

[spousta]

hanging out with a buddy and a couple beers later at PM we started cutting some 1/8th inch plate to box the frame. then my father in law came over and got more expertise. then my welder ran out of wire had to call it quites. so heres what i got going.





i know not much for pictures, but it really wasn't much boxing that got done.