1937 GMC 1/2 ton rat pickup

[Dirtyrat]

All three are looking great!

 

[Oldrodder43]

Nice project. Sure hope you figure out how to resize those pictures, they fill two widths of my screen.

 

[some_stephen]

I apologize for the large photo size guys. I resized all of these so hopefully they aren't too big. This weekend I got to finishing up the front end and moved on to the rear end. I decided to go with a triangulated four bar rear w/ coil springs which was pretty cheap and very plug&play.

Working on building the front spring perch.

Spring in place and ready to build. Unfortunately I forgot to take shots of the finished product so I will get some up next week.

I used the triangular shock mount front speedway which worked incredibly well.

Motor centered up and pushed back where I wanted it. With the spring loaded the frame sits about 2 inches above the ground, the huge speed bumps around town will be a pain in my a**. Had to cut out a decent amount of the firewall, man the cab is going to have one huge tunnel

Time to kick up the back, there's abount 10 inches of it.

Mocking up the back. In the future I will shorten the frame up to match the shortened 4' bed.

 

[some_stephen]

Extended the frame rails a bit. Once that was done I cut out the inner section and sleeved the vertical pieces inside the top and bottom frame rail.

Four bar tacked in, I ran out of time so I'm going to check my measurements this weekend and make any necessary changes.

All in all it was a pretty damn productive weekend, here's to making the next one just as productive. [

 

[some_stephen]

Quick question, I want to run a 3 carb setup on the Olds 238 for the look, but I'm wondering how many I should actually run and plate off the others?

 

[christcrusader13]

That build is looking sweet! I like it!

 

[roddguy]

An excellent build so far, I will be watching this one for sure. [cl[cl[cl

 

[christcrusader13]

Not a lot of action this weekend. A lot of driving around and finding parts. It got up to 112 degrees in Northern California and moving this stuff around in that heat was brutal. Here are my finds.

35' ford front end, going to run a split wishbone.

36' ford pickup bed. I bought it without the tailgate so I'm on the hunt for a GMC one which seems hard to find so if you have one, PM me!

Some 35' ford wire wheels. The guy I bought them from had them sandblasted and painted, then realized he couldn't use them.

Picked up this cast iron air compressor that I'm going to use as a fuel tank. I'm pretty sure it's rusted inside, but I don't want to cut it open and have to weld it back together. Any ideas for getting rid of the rust? A few buddies mentioned electrolysis or acid.

That's all for this weekend! Next weekend I'm going to focus on getting the front and rear suspension sound so that I can start mocking up ride height.

If my memory serves me correct... I remember there was a thread about a guy that redid a VW tank with POR15?

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/FuelTankRestoration.html



Then there is the elctro-magnet approach.... I'm dying to try this, you will probably need a bigger/longer rod since you ahve a bigger tank

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=21623.0


And there is the tiddy bowl method! Mr.Clean..... Mr. Clean
http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=3709.0


Hope this helps.... I used the cleaner method on my 64 c-10, but turns out that is clean so good it started leaking where the prvious owner had repaird a tank crack, so I went with a poly tank...

keep at it CC-13

 

[Torchie]

Nice Truck and cool use for the Oldsmobubble stuff.
Hang onto the original GMC truck parts as it is rare and not always the same as Chevy for the same year.
There are a couple of good GMC sites were you might be able to peddle it if you want some project cash. Old GMC Trucks was one of them I think.
Torchie.

 

[earthman]

Great build. Really like how you are keeping the Olds motor and ancient hydro. Your friends drive some beautiful cars.

 

[some_stephen]

I'm running into some troubles. I have 35' ford spindles, wire wheels, and brake drums. I bought and installed So Cal Speedshops backing plates and brake shoes. Tried to pop the 35' mechanical brake drums back on and they don't fit. What drums can I use? New or old.

 

[Dirtyrat]

This should help link to Ford Garage

 

[some_stephen]

No idea how I overlooked this. Thanks for this! Also, while rummaging through all of the stuff that came with the truck I found the original 37' steering box and pitman arm which I'm pretty excited about running. Are these old boxes unreliable and difficult? I'm thinking if our grandparents used em', hell I can too
!

 

[Torchie]

Nothing wrong with using the original steering box and pitman. If you have concerns about the pitman get it magnefluxed to check for stress cracks.
The reason some people don't use the old boxes is the number of turns from lock to lock is usually more and most old boxes tend to get sloppy. They can be adjusted and rebuilt if nessecary. Go for it.
Torchie.

 

[some_stephen]

Thanks again Torchie. I'm on the hunt for 3 Holley 1904s so if anyone has one or if you know of anyone with one, please PM me.

 

[some_stephen]

I forgot to take pictures all weekend . I'll get some more detail shots the next time I work on it. Started to mount the steering box/play with different pitman arms and got the underfloor brake setup installed. Now I play the waiting game while the block gets baked, crank is ground, cam is ground and carbs are built. What can I do while I'm waiting for the damn engine? [

 

[Torchie]

Looks Killer.
Torchie.

 

[some_stephen]

Sorry for the lack of updates ya'll. Without the motor I feel like I have just been bumming around tinkering with random things, but I will definitely get some photos of the steering and gas tank setup as well. All of the parts for the engine rebuild should be in by the end of the week. If anyone knows Dema over at Elgin Cams in Santa Rosa, CA, I'm having him do a 3/4 race grind on the cam. Now that I picked up these guys, I can start modifying the offy intake so it will bolt up to that Olds flatty. [

 

[some_stephen]

Some photos of updated pieces and parts!

 

[some_stephen]