New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

Just dragged this one home today:


1950 GMC 100. I'm branching out from the 67-72 world a bit

Anyways, it's an original shortbed, 4 speed, the motor was rebuilt in '97 or so and actually runs pretty darn good. The brakes were gone over, but the fuel tank and lines are shot and there's no bed anymore. Also was "converted" to 12v at some point - the ignition won't shut the motor off, add on blinkers don't work, and the heater and wipers appear to be unhooked.

The body is in pretty good shape, aside from a few dents and a LOT of paint on it, so far it looks like I just need to do cab corners, the front lower pillar at the inner fender on the driver's side, and floor pan patches.

I'm calling it "Red Herring" because it's a secret build my Dad and I are doing for my Mom, which will be a surprise (hopefully) in the spring.

Most likely, plan is to do an S10 chassis swap with an LC9 5.3 / 4L60E combo, more modern leather seat, and otherwise leave it just the way it was. Mom loves the vintage look, just not turning wrenches on them.
Though I admit, I'm thinking about putting a bed on it and tooling around with it just the way it is for a bit!

Right now, it's tucked back in the corner of my garage, waiting for some space when I get my '63 Buick project in gear. Stay tuned!

[flashed]

Im in ,looks like a solid start .

[Advanced Design]

Nice find and will be a cool gift for your Mom. Great idea!

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

the ignition won't shut the motor off, add on blinkers don't work, and the heater and wipers appear to be unhooked.

other than a few minor details...
the body looks good, decent start to a project

[hydrojunkie]

Cool truck. Gonna watch your build. That's my next build.

[JJorgensen52]

Excited to get started, thanks guys!

Originally Posted by _Ogre

other than a few minor details...
the body looks good, decent start to a project

You're telling me! I was most concerned about finding a nice body, because in the long run most of the wiring and so forth is going to get replaced, anyway.

So I was going over all the paperwork getting ready to get a new title for the truck last night, and ran into a problem. The current title I have is assigned using the engine serial number instead of the cab serial??? No idea why they did that.

The story I got was that this truck got put up in a barn somewhere many many years ago, and the owner previous to the one I bought it from pulled it out of that barn and rebuilt the engine and drove it around (I have receipts for the motor in 1997) - it appears it didn't have a title at that point, and that it was issued to the engine serial.

That gentleman passed away in 2011, and the previous owner to me bought the truck from his estate - then never did anything with it, including getting a title. So I just bought it from them, with a signed title from the estate sale now filled out to me.

I'm now jumping through hoops with the DMV to try and get the title re-issued with the cab serial on it, since I want to change the engine

[iowaboynca]

Unless you already have a donor truck, why not just add a MII front? Your frame looks like it would be OK.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

Unless you already have a donor truck, why not just add a MII front? Your frame looks like it would be OK.

There are some issues with the rear of the frame:




I haven't gotten dug into it yet, but I suspect the front may be similar.

That said, for the intended purpose for this truck, I'd rather use a factory engineered frame, suspension and brake set-up and be less concerned about non-mechanically inclined drivers. Also, ease of service is a factor, and cheapness of good clean frame donors around here.

[iowaboynca]

I retract my previous question...

If you haven't found it yet, Skymangs has an excellent write-up of the S-10 swap. here's the link...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=632686

[JJorgensen52]

Haven't done much to this truck other than some research, but did grab some 1st gen S10 seats at the boneyard today:



These are some of my favorite GM bucket seats from over the years. I think I can leave the original seat riser in place, and build a support for these seats inside of it.

I also picked up the keyless entry setup from the same S10 ... tinkering and brainstorming!

[JJorgensen52]

Getting into some tear down for the cab finding what needs replacement, where I'm at right now:

Outer cowl panels on both sides
Inner-outer cowl joiner panel both sides
Kick panels, both sides
Front cab supports, both sides
Front floor pans, both sides
Lower firewall/toeboard, passenger's side
Cab corner, passenger's side
Windshield channel at the lower outer corner, both sides.

The glass I pulled last night was the original stuff in the original gaskets! There are 6 layers of paint on top of the original stuff, which is actually in surprisingly good shape under the hood (I found soap pencil marks on the firewall!)

I've also found several places where dents were filled with lead. How in the heck do I get this stuff off??

[JJorgensen52]

Making some progress:




I'm mechanically scraping the paint off using a gasket scraper, it seems to go more easily, doesn't cut into the metal, and added bonus doesn't release any toxic dust. There are 6 different coats of paint on this truck.

As is to be expected, it lived a truck life and so is full of dents. Not much rust, thankfully, but dents. The PO liked to fill them with bondo. LOTS of bondo. This gem here was filled completely:


But I am excited to have found factory markings on the firewall


and original paint intact on the front portion of the firewall and inside the cowl vent.



I liked the red that was on it, but I'm in love with this slightly darker shade! Not having a whole lot of luck locating a paint name or code - I've seen one reference to a "Permanent Red" ... I presume the names are not the same as Chevrolet, as they weren't in later years.

[ChuckDriver]

Cool project!

[JJorgensen52]

The truck is getting lighter!

Seriously I've removed about 10 pounds of paint and bondo so far. Mostly just filled in dents. I'm going to learn a LOT about hammer and dolly work, I'd say.



Also found typical rot in the cab corners.

[JJorgensen52]

Terrible cell phone shot, but grabbed a 4WD S10 rear axle with swaybar this past week, 3.42 gov-lock with discs

[JJorgensen52]

Making additions, finally!

2011 4.8L LR4, scored it for $700 with 63K


1965 Pontiac full-size tilt column, just doing a test fit, going to center between the gauges.




I'm going to be running the 2011 4L60E through the column shift. I have all the patch panels for the cab here now (Merry Christmas to me!) and I'm going to get right into metal repairs here in the next few weeks.

[Advanced Design]

Nice scores...love the LS and look forward to updates. Column looks to be the perfect length too.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice scores...love the LS and look forward to updates. Column looks to be the perfect length too.

Thanks! Yes, the column worked out even better than I had hoped. I happened to have a '63 Buick column here (for my other project) that I tried and it fit, and the Pontiac one was a close match to that (but cheaper )

Tonight, finished removing the seat riser:



Also, both sides, the floor pan is cracked right where the corner of the seat riser was. Is this common?

[oldman3]

I wouldn't say in was commom, but it depends on the area your in, and how bad they rust. Mine was solid in that area, but forward it was bad...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

More progress today.




The inside of the driver's roof pillar had been previously cut for reasons that are inexplicable to me - they didn't fix the dent on the other side? I'm nearly there


Melted out all the body lead in preparation for repairing the cowl - I was going to leave the pillar-roof seams, but it was cracked on both sides.




Pleased to find no rust under the lead.

[JJorgensen52]

Making some real ... progress??

Door braces installed:




My doors fit nicely (other than needing the strikers replaced) at this point so I didn't want to mess with any of the alignment

No turning back now


Passenger's side, getting ready to replace the rocker panel and support



Hopefully will get a few hours during the week to keep plugging away

[JJorgensen52]

Scored a 30k mile wrecking yard trans from a 2010 truck:


More progress on patching up the passenger's side.
Rocker and floor test fit:


Sectioning out the rot in hinge pillar:



New pieces made


Welded in


And all blended



Last thing I did tonight was start fitting my replacement kick panel. These repo ones are thicker than the originals, and I am happy for that. The curve at the bottom of the pillar leaves something to be desired, but there is enough metal to bend it into a better fit so I am reasonably satisfied

[Advanced Design]

Nice work! Cab will be looking new soon. Nice score on the low mile transmission.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice work! Cab will be looking new soon. Nice score on the low mile transmission.

Thanks!

Making more progress tonight.

Welded in a patch on the heater vent opening and rebuilt the lip



Then, I fit the passenger's floor patch



As you can see, there wasn't much left of the floor at all near the kick panel, so I need to fab up a patch for the upper 6" or so.

I'm not terribly happy with the way the floor fits right now - it wants to sit about 3/4" inboard of and about 5/8" lower than the edge of the hinge pillar it should mate to. I know I need to tweak the angle at the toeboard a bit, but I'm also suspicious that my cab is twisted a bit.

Likewise, after doing some poking around the rear cab mounts, I decided I would be well served to replace them and the rear floor as well. It's rusted and bent in multiple places.

[Advanced Design]

Good fitting on the patches. Great looking Wildcat you have there too. Did you get it painted yet?