Dave's 1970 GMC 402 Longhorn

[davepl]

Well, I'm far enough into it now that I figured I'd start a build thread. Here's a couple of photos of the truck I'm starting with.

[68Gold/white]

Very Nice!!! I had a chence to buy one of those consoles in a salvage yard, years back...duh....

Gives me inspiration to work on mine, I have a 67 and a 68...67 will be first, I'm getting there.....

That "400" decal on RH valve cover, does it look to be factory??? Never seen one, but 396/402 pickups are pretty rare...

If you plan to keep a Q-Jet carb, later Q-Jet models are better. www.cliffshighperformance.com is the Q-Jet answer man, only way to go, my opinion.

[davepl]

Yep, I believe the 400 decal is stock, and unfortunately, not reproduce by anyone.

Here's where I left off today:

[no moa]

Very nice, love the color.
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[davepl]

Well, here's where I'm at as of this morning. The first batch of parts are ready at the powder coater, so I'll be picking those up and dropping off the inner fenders and rad support!

Doesn't look like much, but man, that's a lot of parts had to come off to get here. I've got 200 photos already of stuff I was worried wasn't obvious, tons of notes, and a garage that looks like a truck exploded...

Trying to keep the work area clean, I've already been through a bag of oil absorber, and that's without draining the oil yet. Mostly fuel, coolant, transmission lines, and power steering that I wasn't able to keep off the floor as I took it all apart.

Hey Jesse, what's up with the candy-apple-red water pump? :-)

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by davepl

Yep, I believe the 400 decal is stock, and unfortunately, not reproduce by anyone.

Here's where I left off today:

Take some good pictures and measurements, and a sign guy could probably make you some....I'd like to see a better picture of the letters.

My 68 is a C-10, and it had chrome valve covers, no 400 or 396 letters..

Looking forward to working on mine...

Do you plan to keep it a 3/4 ton???

[davepl]

Yanked the engine and transmission today. Big block plus TH400 is probably a good load for my old Harbor Freight hoist, but with the front clip off you can keep the boom less retracted.

After nicely setting it on the floor I realized I'd forgotten the flexplate-to-converter bolts (there's always something!) but after remedying that got it up on the stand nicely.

I may replace the TH400 with a built 200-4R that I have on hand, but the original motor I hope to rebuild and put back in as original.

Photo is a little blurry... stupid iPhone.

[Dieselwrencher]

Man, that's a great truck to start with! Do you have big plans for it, or just a freshen up?

[davepl]

The plan is a complete nut-and-bolt frame-off... plans change but pretty soon it will be too far to turn back anyway!

[davepl]

Haven't posted any photos in a while, but making some decent progress. Pulled the doors this week, and the interior today. Doors are complicated, but the shop manual actually had the important steps. Hope it goes back together as well, the regulators and tracks are all a little bit of voodoo.

[Vintage Windmills]

Nice! Glad to see its getting saved!

[Dieselwrencher]

Man that baby is clean!

[C@rnut001]

Excellent truck that you have there, seems to have very little if any rust. Good luck with your build and thanks for sharing with us.

[70LonghornCST]

I'm tuned in

[davepl]

It's been a while, I've been working on restoring subassemblies to introduce a little variety to the teardown.

Here's the console. To polish out the metalwork I removed all the guards from a bench grinder (do not attempt, read your manual, etc) to install buffing wheels and then got grey and white rouge sticks from Home Depot. Worked well.

For the body of the console I super-cleaned it, then used a PPG "etch sponge" and then a PPG "platic prep wipe", then spayed it with plastic bond. Followed that with a coat of PPG DBC color coat and PPG DBU2060 'Fixed'n'Flat' clear.

[Vintage Windmills]

Wowww that looks super nice and it sound like you did it right! Do you have to buy quart containers of the ppg products or are these spray cans? I hear you on the subassemblies, its like taking smaller bites that result in more encouragement since you can see results faster

[davepl]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

Wowww that looks super nice and it sound like you did it right! Do you have to buy quart containers of the ppg products or are these spray cans? I hear you on the subassemblies, its like taking smaller bites that result in more encouragement since you can see results faster

I think pints are the smallest, but they're still $44.00. Then you need the reducer and hardener and a clearcoat. Basically about $325 to shoot your first color, I found. Plus a gun... and compressor. So it's not cheap, but the results really do seem to be better than a rattle can, and it's not like I even know what I'm doing with a gun. If you did I suppose it'd be even better!

[jessemasterblaster]

Dave just bumped into the thread. Couldn't have turned her over to a better a person to save her soul. Glad to see your doing all the things and details this truck deserves. Saved it from the shortbox conversion.
As for the water pump, I had a funky 454 candy apple red laying around when the water pump went out. I was in a hurry so i just put it on without painting it.
My 1971 swb project is coming along.
Looks like you are doing a great job.

[davepl]

Got the cab off today. Did it all by myself, using the cab/bed lift plans from the forums and my engine hoist. Other than finding the center of gravity, it was pretty easy.

Unfortunately I have a low-rise lift that the truck is on, and it precludes sliding a hoist in sideways. I managed to use a floor jack to (not gracefully) move the truck around the shop enough to get the hoist under it, but I'm going to face the same problem when it comes time to remove the bed.

[Tinkermc]

I really like the shape of your starter truck, I haven't seen any rust anywhere

[davepl]

Pressure-washing this was an -ugly- job. But hopefully I got dirty "all at once" instead of each time I work on it now... So far I've managed to do it all entirely by myself, including removing the engine and bed and body, which was tricky!

It's not immediately evident, but this is the "after" photo.

[davepl]

Here's a picture of the dash cluster restoration I did. Started with a reproduction "black" bezel and masked/painted it with the body color (PPG DBC 2169) followed by PPG DCU 2060 'low gloss' clear.

Added the obligatory tach and vacuum gauges, and replaced the fuel gauge because the silkscreening was worn in places. I also upgraded it to LED lighting for the heck of it.

I found the stock gauges (like my speedo) are painted green on the back and the reproductions are bare tin, which makes the lighting brighter. I wound up putting aluminum foil tape on the back of the green-backed gauge in order to make the lighting more uniform. When you first look at the repro and see its different, you think "Who cares, no one will see the back", but it turns out to matter in the end!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work! Your painting is looking awesome also!

[y5mgisi]

Looks good so far!

[Dustydog]

Nice truck! Nice work!!