Ol blue has died

[wklink]

She had been suffering from a bad heart (engine) for a while but I kept puttering on with her while deciding what to do with her. She is a 79 Royal Sierra, fairly well equipped but with that darned blue paint that decides to flake off like confetti on the interstate. In addition the old man that had the truck before me slammed into his garage and boogered up the right front bad enough to throw the bed out of alignment and create a need for a whole new front clip and door.

Well, my son wrecked his car up in Seattle (and Acura) and I went up there with the truck to drag it back. Pulling it back was just about enough for the old girl, the 350 is blowing oil like it is going out of style and the engine has the power of an old 4 banger.

I thought about rebuilding and stripping and painting here but it just isn't worth it. Longbed 79 GMCs, even rust free ones, aren't wort that much so she is going out to pasture, probably for good.

I picked up a very solid 77 GMC High Sierra that has no rust, about 75K miles and a very strong 350/350. Her paint is even presentable and the three or four dings should fix up nicely and then a good repaint should make her look as good as new.

I was wondering how hard it is to switch the entire A/C setup from the 79 to the 77 would be? I am already going to pull the tilt column from the 79 as well as the intermittent wiper setup but the AC is something I am really consideriing. Should I even bother?

[GMC Guy]

IMHO...junk the A/C stuff. just too much clutter under the hood for my taste. if it's hot, i roll both windows down and open the vent windows; then if you've got a rear sliding window, open that and you've almost got a convertable! haha

[Benelli]

You have to convert something with the cab vents.

Not sure what or how though

[wfomkivdrvr]

R.I.P. Ol Blue

[wklink]

I figured that. A/C isn't that big a deal here anyway.

I'm going to switch out the tilt column and the intermittent wipers because I really like both of those features.
I replaced her with a similar truck, just one that is more of an orange brown.

[old Rusty C10]

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[old Rusty C10]

Wink Switching the AC is not that big of a deal. You will have to switch over the heater boxes and the vents under the dash. You will have to switch over wiring and all the engine bay stuff. The worst problem is that you will have to make a template of the firewall of the AC truck ( out of cardboard or something) as you will need to make an additional hole in the firewall to accomodate the AC Stuff.
There is no reason you cant do this all over a weekend or one very long day. I did it from a 76 truck to an 81 cab years back

[MrBeast]

I would say switch it over and you will be glad you did. What it requires is taking pretty much everything behind the dash and moving it over to the new truck. It is a little time consuming, but you should be able to do it in a weekend, and while you have it all apart, spend the money and put a new heater core in it because it will be way easier to do now than if it goes bad in a couple of months.

Also when you do put in a new orafice tube and dryer, and have the system sucked down with a vaccum pump, and make it hold it there for 45 minutes to get any of the contaminants out of the system. When you charge it back up you will be amazed at how well the AC works. Well as long as your pump is good.

[johndawelder]

Old rusty c10,What does buy,sell,trade ect. have to do with this post????
I did'nt read anything about buying or selling,did I misread somthing??

[wklink]

Not sure either. I'm planning on putting her up on Craigslist, not selling her here.

I'm just lamenting the loss of old blue. I loved that truck, she had personality. I also wanted to know if pulling the AC system was worth the while. I have a free weekend coming up. I might as well go ahead and do it.

Heater core is a good idea. I might as well change it while I am at it.

[79gmcc15]

Well it "might" have something to do with my post that was deleted. I had made a joke about getting first dibs on parts, then said jk at the end. Then I said something like "sounds like she gave her all at the end". And i wake up and the post is deleted. But maybe not......

[old Rusty C10]

Originally Posted by 79gmcc15

Well it "might" have something to do with my post that was deleted. I had made a joke about getting first dibs on parts, then said jk at the end. Then I said something like "sounds like she gave her all at the end". And i wake up and the post is deleted. But maybe not......

actually yes it did! The rules of this board state that a non supporting member may not make sales . Wklink was not a supporting member as of the time I had deleted your post and had not made any suggestions that he was going to sell parts.
(Let me take a moment at this time to personally thank WKlink for supporting the board an for following the site rules)
In an effort to stop a whole bunch of people for stampeding over each other and putting WKlink or non subscribing members into hot water with the board I deleted the part about parts. This is done with the blessing of site staff and trying to keep the boards here in keeping with the site rules.
I would have been happy to keep this in the PM that you sent me , but being it was reposted with what appears to be a complaint, I decided to take the step of replying here as well as PM .
I am also forwarding this to my supervising staff member so that he can be brought up to speed.
As always should you ( or any other member) have a question as to what I do here or how something was handled by myself or any other moderator or staff member, you can either go to any locked post and click on the link to the administration or you can PM Liz , Josh, or N2Trux (Ken)

Finally I would like to say to WKlink that being you are now an official site supporter, IF you would like to sell parts from the truck you are pensioning off, Please make a post in the 73-87 parts section, and best of luck with your sale

[wklink]

I might sell some parts later. A lot depends on whether someone tries to buy the old girl complete once I take what I need from her. I do have an almost complete front clip that I was going to put on her to replace the crumpled fender and I don't know if I will sell the parts off of that or not. At this point I really don't know what I am going to do with her.

My son is more broken up about me getting rid of her than I am, he really wanted that old blue mess of a truck.

[79gmcc15]

Are you sure its not worth it to save? I mean most of the people here know our trucks aren't worth the thousand spent on them but they do it for the enjoyment and experience and I am sure, the love of that particular truck. It seams like it you really should think about it again. Maybe take the other truck apart and swap parts.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by wklink

I might sell some parts later. A lot depends on whether someone tries to buy the old girl complete once I take what I need from her. I do have an almost complete front clip that I was going to put on her to replace the crumpled fender and I don't know if I will sell the parts off of that or not. At this point I really don't know what I am going to do with her.

My son is more broken up about me getting rid of her than I am, he really wanted that old blue mess of a truck.

If I was you, I'd go to cyber weld and get your kid a Millematic 180 and a bottle of 75/25, and get him a copy of "how to fabricate damn near anything" and some box tubing for said welder so he can build a cart to roll it around on, then throw a couple of patch pannels at him to give him a taste then turn him loose on it, thus bringing him over to the dark side making another truck head out of him!

That is kind of how I got started, only the book was how to hotrod small block chevy. Which is also a great read for an aspiring gear head. And from the sounds of things, ole blue could use a little hot rodding.

[old Rusty C10]

well Im not familiar with Olympia Washington but if its not too urban, why not kee the old one and uild it back up as a father son priject. Its a great way to bond, teaches the boy about cars or mechanics, teaches him about the value of fixing things yourself and the appreciation of a job well done, and you have a vehicle for him to beat up on when he starts driving.. I did it with my son and the 76

[Mr.Scary]

X2 why not?

[wklink]

Big reason is space. The second reason is the wife. I have a 1962 Ford Thunderbird, a 1963 Ford Thunderbird Convertible (it's called a Sports Roadster-a rare limited version of the car), a 1965 Ford Fairlane and my wife's Saturn. All that in addition to both 1/2 ton GMCs. I know it is sacralege among my Ford bretheren but I prefer GM trucks over Ford ones. As a general rule though I am a Ford guy.

If you see this pic you can understand the space issue. Both the birds are in the garage, normally the fairlane is in a side portable garage that I have until I eventually get one built on.



The 63 Sports Roadster is the father son project.



It took a fair amount of arguing to convince my wife that I even needed to replace the truck that died. I thought about turning her into a project but I simply don't have the time to devote to it. Keeping up with three vintage cars is bad enough, a truck to go with it is even worse.

I am going to pull some parts that I want off of her. The tilt column, the cruise control, maybe the speedo cluster (clock setup), and I'm considering the A/C although that isn't a big deal out here.

[old Rusty C10]

lol i cant blame you for having fords like that!! lolthose are nice!

[RuralRoute C-30]

Nice 'bird! Always loved the older T-Birds. First car was a '66' and have memories when I was younger than my 6 yr old son of playing under my brother's 55 T-Bird porthole hard top when he would drop it in the yard.

Nice!

[79gmcc15]

drool.......drool.........drool.








Board meet at wklink!

[wklink]

Thanks. My dad owned several Thunderbirds when I was a kid so I grew up riding the back seat of one. Funny, they seemed bigger back then.

[MrBeast]

Those cars remind me of highlander from when the series was in Washington State.