1950 GMC build after 31 year slumber

So some of you might have seen my other thread where I drug our families 1950 GMC out of the woods where it has sat since 1984. Our family bought it in CA in 1977 and used it to move to NH. My dad used it for his MG restoration business and various other small jobs before parking it. The weather conditions up here have not been kind to it but then I have seen some of you guys start with way less. The plan is to drop the cab onto my shop truck chassis. It is a 1990 C1500 running an 04 5.3L silverado motor and trans. The motor has an 04 Z06 vette cam and custom tune. I started this sunday and will be thrashing on it this week as my wife gave me the week to work on my own stuff in the shop. I worked on it until hurricane Sandy drove me back inside.

de-construction

My buddy Jim hard at work. He owns the T bucket with the blown 454 I showed a while back.



here is what the truck looked like whole

So back at it today in the hurricane. As long as it doesn't blow out my torch flame like it was doing yesterday I should have the big guy stripped to the bare cab.[cl The chassis is down to the roller frame.

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I like where this is going!

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Later

nice.. its cool that the truck has a history with your family

Hate when the wind and rain screw up a good tear down....

Looks like you are doing a lot of work in the rain.......hope you have rubbers on.....LOL...[cl things look like you are moving quickly even with the storm...[P

Thanks for the replies fellas.

Here is what day 2 (or 2.5 if you count Sunday afternoon) brought. The Hurricane had blown itself out by 10 am so I actually got to work in the sun for a little bit. There is a bit more floor damage than I expected. Seems the mice and rats drug some cloth in there so it held the water that leaked in. Add that to 31 years of neglect and you get what you will see here.






Am I the only one who thinks the frame and front axle on this rig is sexy?

And here is some more shots of the cab floor and corners. It will need all 4 corners, inner rockers, kick panels, 1 sub rail, inner and outer lower doors etc. Good news is it is all easy panels to make. I might just call up LMC and place an order for some new metal. If I do that then I will quick patch a couple of spots and brace it to square so I can keep going with the frame mounts and such.

Liking the whole idea

Making good progress..Are you going to run the big truck fenders or find some 1/2 ton fenders to go on it?

TimOK I am going to run the big fenders because they will cover the wider track of the 90 C1500 chassis. I will be closing up the wheel arch later and will widen a pair of 1/2 T rear fenders for the bed.

Ok. Day 3 has come to a close. Got up late and had to break off early to set up for Halloween. If you are all wondering I did not get a day off from my day (Night?) job due to the Hurricane. So all of this is being done between the hours of 9am and 2pm.

I decided to forge ahead with the cab mounts instead of waiting for sheet metal repair panels. I am thinking of buying a few and making the rest as they are not that hard in these things.

I trimmed the rear of the cab so it would drop over the frame. I then dropped the cab and trimmed as needed until I had it to where I liked it. Had to open up the toe board a little to clear the trans. I then welded Angle to the firewall so the cab would sit at ride height. I did this due to the 2 sides where the front mounts are having different pieces missing due to rust. The rear I dropped on top of wood blocks on the frame.

whacked the C1500 cab mounts off

Trimmed with 1" clearance on each side

Toe board needing clearance

Angle iron temp body mounts

Always measure and write down important distances before you disassemble!

Day 3, Part 2:

So once I got everything roughly where I wanted it I built the drivers side front mount first. I did this due to the fact that it was whole and I was re-using the original mount holes. I trimmed the body mount out rigger from the 50 chassis to sit on top of the new frame. I will finish weld and brace it after the cab comes back off.

Once I got the mount height off of the frame I was able to make the other side to the same diamentions again using the 50 out rigger. I did it this way because the passengers side was rusted completely out and there wasn't anything to measure to or from.

Once both of those were tached on I moved to the rear mounts. I unbolted the rear shackle style mounts from the body. I found that the outer hole was in the perfect place for a new mount and there was a body brace under it. I will plate the brace on the under side so it will sit on a rubber isolator. I then used a piece of 6"X3"X1/4" angle iron and came up off the outside of the frame to right under the brace. Again I will gusset and finish weld when the cab is back off. And it seems I didn't take a pic of it but I can tomorrow. I am making everything here sit metal on metal at this point but i will put at least a 1/2" rubber isolator under all the mounts when I am finished.

Then after that I rolled it out for a look see. Set the nose on it to see how much had to be trimmed out to fit. Then it was rimming about 7" off of the center of the inner wheel wells so the nose would sit right.

Then I bolted the upper radiator support back in, added a brace to the lower section as I had to trim it off more. Another fir and it is closer.

I am thinking at this point to open up the front part of the inner wells and rad support area. I will use the 90 radiator and fab the inner wells and a new support to run it. I think it will work better that way. As it sits I wouldn't be able to use a stock radiator with the steering box in there.

And I know it doesn't look like it here Don, but I did clean the metal down until it was shiney!

Is it too late to slide everything back about six inches?

I've thought that big truck fenders would look cool if you installed 1/2 ton openings at the leading edge of the fender (like on a 1/2 ton) and filled in behind.

...make them look like stretched 1/2 ton fenders. kinda like a Hudson pickup

Flipper_1938 said:

Is it too late to slide everything back about six inches?

Click to expand...

I agree, would look real good moved back a touch...

The fenders still have to come back about 2.5"-3" from the last pic. also the short 15" tires are going away (they were free so I ran them!) and a set of 17X9.5 Impala SS wheels with 235/55r17's are going in there. They will be modified as well so you wight not recognize them as SS wheels. I cheated the whole sheet metal back about 1.5" from stock. If I were to move it back any more I would have to A: move the engine and trans back as it is almost into the stock radiator area, B: ditch the mid mounted fuel tank as it bumps up behind the cab, C: cut out the rear edge of the cab floor to clear the frame, and D: lengthen the chassis by how ever much I moved it back so a 6' bed would still look right. Not saying I am opposed to the idea in fact my buddy and I had that conversation yesterday. But then we came to the conclusion that if we did all that then we would need to take 3" out of the roof and flatten the crown, pie and pinch the hood, modify the rear fenders, etc, etc....[

There are times when aesthetics must take a back seat to practicality so I am enjoying the build thus far and intend to watch it through fruition. [P[P[P

Day 4 is done:

As I left off yesterday7 I was thinking of using the stock C1500 radiator and had been judiciously trimming the bottom of the inner fenser wells and radiator support off to fit the chassis. Weelll... now that I have got up with a frsh out look (read coffee!) I did some measuring and found that the C1500 radiator wouldn't fit without 1/2 of it being under the fenders. Even then it would have been too tall to fit as the sheet metal is lowered over the chassis a bunch. [S

Sooo....I commenced to taking my 2 steps back and putting all the pieces of the radiator support back together. Once that was done I slid it back into the clip to see if it would work. As the pics showed I was able to lean the bottom of the radiator support forward and just modified the upper brackets to work with the new angle. These trucks use the support to mount the fenders, fender braces, inner fenders etc. so what I did is re-use part of the old 1950 cab mount to pick up the fender brace lower hole. A little angle at the top and everything is solid again.[cl

As a bonus I can now use the single lower mount for the radiator support by simply making a 1" X 1" square bar mount under the C1500 frame horns. All of this took about an hour and was simpler. Add to theat the 1 1/2 hours of rebuilding the radiator support and you get back to where I was yesterday.[ [S


end of day 3

the pieces

getting it back together

a little metal finishing. How many weld seams are here?

Here is the shots of the new radiator support. I will need to extend the filler panel to meet the new support top.


The bottom clears everything easily. I will make new gravel pans to fit the new shape. The old ones were toast anyways.

The new / old tab mount for the fender brace.

the top of the radiator support. I might mod the top to sit level. I will have to see with the radiator in there.


I am also toying with the idea of using the C1500 front bumper. It has the right curve and width but the sides are too long. I would bob it so it fits flush to the outside of the fenders. Kinda looks like an air dam on the front. I will have to shorten the grille anyways so that would be modified to fit as well. Thoughts? Feel free to post ideas fellas!

Bumper looks great on there, you could even get a smoothy bumper for a newer truck (paintable or rustable) and cut some out of the middle to shorten it. That stock frame could prob. be diced up and welded back with proper kick-ups for layin rockers. It is easier to start with new 2x4 tubing for the frame but the old one has a nice look to it. I need to build a frame soon also, not sure if I'm lookin forward to it or not. Have you gotten any more done to it?

RAVENS29 said:

Bumper looks great on there, That stock frame could prob. be diced up and welded back with proper kick-ups for layin rockers. Have you gotten any more done to it?

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Thanks Ravens29. I was thinking of doing air ride maybe next winter after I get it all up and running. I think it would look cool parked with the bumper and running boards on or near the ground.

Have I gotten any more done? Sheesh, even I have to go to work once in a while! You are more of a slave driver than my wife![cl