Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Thanks! Yeah, it is for sure tricky. I welded the patch pieces on my core support, and it turned out pretty good, but that was after my dad taught me a few tricks. The main problem I had when I welded these nuts on, was my dad was gone, so I guessed on the settings for the welder, and had to hold the core support while I welded them on, so I wasn't able to use my other hand to help support the torch like I prefer to do. And I knew someone was going to think it, even if they didn't say something, so I just thought I would point it out so someone else didn't have too :lol:

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

I realized I forgot to post a picture of my condenser setup all mounted! Here she is...
Attachment 1643377
It's just a universal one we got off EBAY, mounted with some aluminum angle.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

That's pretty nice. I need to get one for my 72. It's already been 80* here so I guess working AC may not hurt. :lol:

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Yeah, it might not hurt, especially where you drive yours quite a bit! It would really make sense if you do it now while it is down from the steering problem you were having. But then again, who wants to have a truck down more than it absolutely has to be!

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

True. We'll have to see. I'm in the middle of rebuilding my 40 Ford, so the money is pretty limited. Trying to get both ready to take on power tour is going to be tight.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

This week my dad had more time that he was able to work on the truck at nights after work.
Most of his time was spent fixing the passenger side fender. To fix it we used an extra fender we had, that came off a friend of mine's truck that he wrecked, and buckled the fender right in the middle of the wheel well. The pieces are not quite all welded together, my dad needs probably one or two more night and they should be ready for body work.
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He also got the condenser painted black to blend in a little bit more, and then got it mounted
Attachment 1645153

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Now for this weekend's progress
Nothing really big was done, just a bunch of little odds and ends.
Driver side inner fender mounted and hopefully there for good. Reproduction inner fenders have the right shape, but they CANNOT figure out how to get the holes in the right spot, but thank goodness someone invented a die grinder.
Attachment 1645163
Then I got my computer bracket in. To mount it we drilled 2 holes in the inner fender, put a 1/4" bolt through the hole, using the right amount of washers and nuts we got the bracket spaced away from the fender enough so that it sits flat and doesn't bend with the contour of the inner fender. If you do this you need to be sure that you have enough washers that the computer mount is not bent at all, otherwise, the computer will not go in. Ask me how I know :lol:
Attachment 1645164
Then got the TAC module mounted. I just drilled 3 holes in the inner fender and bolted it down with 1/4" nuts and bolts. Instead of using washers to space it away from the inner fender like I did with the computer, I bent the tabs until they sat flat on the inner fender.
I also got the parking brake all set up, except for what needs to be done at the wheels.
Attachment 1645165
Then I got the fuse box, junction block, grounds, and battery tray mounted
Attachment 1645166
Then through the passenger inner fender in to see how it fits, and oval these holes so it can be bolted up. Yes, it will be coming back off so the passenger fender can be finished up. Oh and I also forgot to say that my dad was able to get the AC lines finished up. The only thing left to do on the AC before we charge it would be to crimp the hoses on, which we don't want to do until we get the engine bay all finished up, just to make sure that they don't interfere with anything.
Attachment 1645167

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then we flipped the truck around so we can start working on things on the back of the truck, like fuel tank and rear brakes. While we were flipping it around, I couldn't help but get a bunch of pictures.
When I first looked at this photo, I thought for a second that the AC compressor and bracket was a turbo :lol: Hopefully, that is showing what it will one day get
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I hadn't realized before now, but the alignment is a mile out, so it did not want to move AT ALL! So after getting sick of struggling to move it, we stopped and I grabbed a few more pictures, before rolling under it to adjust the alignment.
When the alignment started to come into the ballpark, the truck started to roll on its own towards me. I had a moment where I started yelled for someone to stop pushing it when I realized it was rolling on its own.
When I told this to a friend of mine who was over helping me for the day, he told me that she must not like me because she tried to run me over. But I said that is not true because she was obviously leaning in for a kiss ;)
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Then her all nestled back in
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then we spent the rest of the night working on the fuel pump. The module is from a 2005ish f@rd f150, that we shortened to fit in the tank. Then we used a chevy Vortec pump.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Need a little help from you all.
I can't decide what I should do for a fuel filler. I want something that does not affect the use of the bed, because it's a truck, and I plan to use it like one. I also want to have something that will not have the gas nozzle mess up my paint.
My dad was talking about putting something in the rear stake pocket, but I'm not sure about doing that because I would hate to lose the opportunity to use the stake pocket to tie something down in the future.
What are your ideas?

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Nice work on your truck. That little stuff eats up more time and money than the big stuff.

On a fuel filler... I'm in the same boat as you. I originally was going to do the behind the tail light filler. This might work good for you. More room for a nozzle, and it shouldn't get scratched up as bad as say a side marker filler. I was going to do the stake pocket too, but I really hate the idea of spilling fuel all the way down the side of the bed or taking the chance hitting the bed with the nozzle. i'm all but tired of filling the tank in my bed now so I've been trying to come up with options. I'm almost about ready to put a fill door from a square body in it, or find another original aluminum door and put in in the bed side in front of the marker light. I still might try the tail light fill, but if I ever put my in bed camper in this truck, I don't know if I could fill it then.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Yeah, if only there was a simple option to a fuel filler, but there is just not. From the pictures I have seen about tail light fillers, the gas nozzle will rub on the trim for the rear tail light, which seems better than the paint, but still not perfect. maybe I will just have to take what people have done and try to modify it to not rub.
If any of you have pictures of a tail light fill and the nozzle does not rub, or pictures of how to do a stake pocket fill, and keep the cab down enough that I can still have my stake pocket for a tie down point, please post them up!

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

coming along pretty good man. looks nice, im jealous haha

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Been a little while since I last updated this, so I got quite a bit to add.
My dad got the passenger front fender repair all done and put the fender on the truck.
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Then he put new rear brakes on and got the brakes most of the way bled.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then my dad got the fuel pump wired
Attachment 1652005
Fuel filter mounted
Attachment 1652006
And then got the fuel tank mounted
Attachment 1652007
Then I adjusted the fuel gauge needle to be as accurate as Possible. It took a few tries, but I got It really close, or so I thought. When I came back a few days later to take this picture, the needle had come up a little bit from where it was before. It's close enough for me though. I will just make it a point to not go below a 1/4 of a tank, and that a 1/8 is "empty". That way I will never have a problem.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

We also got the grille all cleaned up and on the truck.
Starting by drilling and cutting all of the rivets that hold the top bar to the main part of the grille. Mainly because the chrome on that top bar was flaking REALLY bad!
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Then we pulled the top bar off of the grille I got about a month ago, my dad cleaned them up, painted them, and he assembled it all back together and put it on the truck. We will most likely have to do something to dull the black back so it matches the rest of the truck better, but we will decide that when we have the hood on.
Attachment 1652011
He also got the eyebrow moldings cleaned up and painted.
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Later I got the headlight buckets cleaned up and ready to go on the truck.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then we got the radiator, new water pump, radiator and heater hoses, fan and fan shroud all in.
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Here my dad tapped the new water pump for the temperature sender. The bolt is where he first tried to tap it, but after he drilled the first hole he realized that there was not going to be enough room for the temperature sender. So he drilled a new hole for it to go where it is now, and tapped the hole for the bolt.
Attachment 1652018
We also got all the trim on the truck, excluding the bed.
Attachment 1652019
This is the wheel spacers we got that have the right hub centric size for the wheels, but the hole was to small to sit around the hubs on the truck. So my dad put them in his lathe and machined them to fit. I now just need to pull the wheel off and make sure that they do fit, and if they do I can hopefully put them on to stay.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

The next project that was up was to work on the bed. So I grabbed my dad's Blazer and hauled up the trailer that my bed was sitting on.
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This truck appears to of had in bed saddle tanks at one point in time, and the one on the passenger side rusted the bed pretty bad.
Attachment 1652049
But the exterior of the bed is pretty darn good! There are only a few dings and dents on each side!
Attachment 1652050
After I got all of the carriage bolts that hold the bedsides to the bed floor unbolted (surprisingly all but about 5 came right out, the other 5 I had to drill out) We got our tractor and moved the bed off of the trailer and onto some drums so my dad can straighten out the bottom of the bedsides.
Attachment 1652051

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then we pulled the truck into the shop and lifted it up so we could start working on the exhaust and put the drive line in.
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A few pictures of the Y-pipe
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Then some of the next section and a snip of the driveline installed.
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The muffler has begun to be welded in, but really hard to get pictures with the truck where it is at, hopefully, I will have some later this week.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Because the bed floor on my bed was so bad, we decided to pull the bed apart that came with the truck we bought and used for the frame on my truck. We will also use the wheel wells (my truck did not come with any).
Attachment 1652065
Beginning teardown. The carriage bolts on this bed were a LOT worse than the one on the other bed. I did not have a single bolt come loose on the driver's side but had an amazing 3 come loose on the passenger side! So I cut as many bolts with the cut-off wheel as I could, while my brother drilled out the others.
Attachment 1652066
Luckily enough when we got to the front panel on the bed, all of those bolts just came right out, which we were really excited about, because we were so sick of drilling and cutting bolts.
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Then 4 hours later (really good I think since it was just me and my 15-year-old brother) it was all torn down and ready to go get sand blasted
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It was a lot of work, but well worth it, this is the only rust spot we can find on the whole bed! We'll see what the sand blaster has to say though.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Then just for fun, here are some pictures I took when I had the truck sitting out by the bed.
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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Thanks! Your truck is coming along excellent also!

I thought you guys would be interested in knowing that my dad and I decided that we are going to do a tail light filler for the fuel fill. After looking deeper into that, it is the best option for the criteria that we have, and what we are going to be doing with this truck.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Thanks man! I always loved the hidden fillers. I did a side marker one but in California it was a struggle with the boot that they put on the gas pumps. Does Utah have those?

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

No, luckily enough they do not! For some weird reason, I thought they did, and that is why I was so hesitant in deciding on the fuel filler, but then my dad reminded me that they don't. It was one of those moments that you feel as bright as a 2-watt lightbulb LOL.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

Haha. well good, if you dont have those it should work out good