Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

That's fine, I didn't mean it that way, about you getting a seat from me. I was just showing you what the GMC bench seat looked like. You are going a great job on the truck. This is just my opinion of course, but I like seeing the original seats in the truck. Even your tan bench seat wasn't truely original, because it was more for the 80's.
But what ever you do, it will look great!!! Keep up the great work.:metal:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

While my truck wasn't perfect, it was in very good shape for something that was still being used. Very straight. I believe somewhere along the line, and more than likely the man I bought it from, decided he had to sell it so he took things for his other truck such as my original hood, chrome front bumper, and my seat. :(

I did get a very nice carburetor because we viewed the truck early and he hadn't changed it out yet.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Great work replacing all that sheet metal. Everything looks really clean. Gorgeous truck really.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks! Been a long time coming, or that's how it seems to me anyway..

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Paint is looking spectacular.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks! Picking up some painted pieces today and hopefully I'll get around to updating the thread.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

HUNTER'S 1978 GMC C15 SIERRA BUILD THREAD

Time for that promised update on the cab!! We scheduled a date to "drop off" the frame and have the cab set on. There was some confusion and we ended up taking it home, which was exciting and really confusing as not everthing has been fit yet - but I'll talk about that in the next update.

We woke up early and borrowed a trailer on a rainy Friday morning. We had the cab on the frame in our garage and the bed at the body shop and everything figured out by around noon. The bodyshop isn't far but it's not real close either.


THIS IS THE FUN PART!!! I am VERY MUCH done with the cleaning and painting of absolutely everything. It's time to get this thing back together one piece at a time! Once we have our ducks in a row we should be able to knock it out quick!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Your right , this is the fun part!! Can't wait to see the progress as it unfolds.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

It's been a little while, I plan on updating this later tonight. Happy thanksgiving!!

edit: I had trouble organizing my photos after transferring and organizing, I'm sorry guys. I'll get it together tomorrow. :(

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Sooooo.. onto that "fun part" I was so excited about. The very first thing we did was jack the truck up in the air on some ramps and test fit some doors. We masked off the areas around the doors and where the fenders bolt up to protect the paint.


At this point, you might be wondering where those fenders came from. For one, those chinese ones in the box are GARBAGE. They needed to be slotted in every direction and the sharp edges nicked the paint and then me - so NOPE to those! A few months past I was browsing craigslist for parts and I found this truck that said it had fiberglass fenders. They were rough but they were cheap and repairable. I picked them up in a heartbeat - AND WOW DO THEY FIT GOOD! I'll look up the pictures I have of that truck and share them here.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Sorry for the low resolution photos but these are mostly from his craigslist ad, besides the bottom picture. I bought the fiberglass fenders and then he just started handed me things - he wanted it GONE! I brought some interior pieces and the door panels as well. I probably should have grabbed more and regret not doing so.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Now that we've taken the scenic detour there for a moment, back onto my blue truck. After doing some research on different sound deadening material I went with a cheap solution off ebay but made sure that the material was butyl instead of asphalt or whatever else they use. The company I used is called GT Mat, it was really easy stuff to apply and I took my time with it. I laid down a few sheets a day over the course of a week. The difference only one sheet made was pretty phenomenal. I cleaned up the edges with some 3M insulation tape.

After I got that project completed I took some leftover speaker wire from a different project and laid out how I wanted my speaker wires to run.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

Now you might be wondering. "Speaker wire? Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Yes I am!! While I'm not a big music person I do love some GOOD SOUNDING background noise. When I go this truck that old AM was long gone and that speaker was NASTY.

Since I am going to be using a stock type AM/FM (courtesy of the man who sold me a door stop engine we resurrected) I didn't need anything too fancy so I picked up some rockford fosgates from Amazon warehouse deals. Basically returned speakers for some sort of visual damage. (They didn't have any.) I got R169X3 which is a 6x9 and a R1525X2 which is a 5.25 round speaker.

First thing's first! Let's see if these "used?" speakers work.


CHECK! They do. I was born in the late 90's, I had no idea how to use that dang radio. I had it on AM thinking the switch worked reverse of how it really does and thought I had a dead radio, I was bummed for a good 10 minutes. (It's still rock and roll to me was on, by the way.)


Boom! Just like that they were installed. I had bought bigblock73's cab corner brackets for 6x9's and then got them painted to match. (Notice the new door strikers... oops.)

I had to sit and think if I was going to talk about the 5.25" speakers as I did them a few weeks later after some other progress was made. I'm going to apologize now if I forget and talk about them twice. All we did was take some scrap wood we had around and cut them to fit the speaker hole in the dash.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Hunter's 1978 GMC Build

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Time to back it up!

I really should update this thread as I go along, I just get so darn lazy about updating it. Instead I make it harder and have to go backwards and forwards. You may have seen a back window in previous posts. I wasn't sure if I was going to talk about it because I simply haven't been happy with it.

It's a slider from CR Laurence, it looks really good but it's absolutely TERRIBLE to use. The screws on the latch have fallen out, and the slider is so stiff the truck was to tip over before I get the window open. The latch, well that's a CR Laurence manufacturing problem - they sent me a new one free of charge. The window not working is a GM manufacturing problem.

My window opening is smaller than usual and has a nasty jut in the frame behind the driver. You can see it in the rubber inside of the cab. I don't want to cut it because the paint is fresh and I don't want to start a spot of contamination. So like any sane human being we took the window frame out and went at it. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of this, it was dark out and I was DONE with this thing! We installed it like 3 times that night. It still is a little stiff for my taste but it's 210% better after grinding.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Looking great. Those fenders look like they fit amazing

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Awesome work as always. I remember that truck, the scenic route truck. You did score on a lot of good parts.
Now, if I may add. I would add a layer of foil backed jute on top of what you have put down already. And again, use your foil tape to finish it off. Maybe your already planning on putting it down. But if not, I would highly suggest it. You can order it by the roll from Home Depot online. It's a lot cheaper than the truck places. Then your carpet can go right over all of it.
Here's a pic of mine, you can barely see the FatMat under the foiled jute. There on the edge where your side sills go, I would not put any jute. It will make it harder to get the side sills on.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks for looking!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Didn't really think about that, my vinyl floor mat came with jute and it's just hanging out under there and doesn't cover much.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

My carpet had jute attached to the back also. The foil backed jute from Home Depot isn't very thick. It can be thought of as helping with heat from under the truck and sound. It isn't too much that it will I interfere with the carpet or vinyl.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Building...dfZ48tZ1z114ri

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Time for a little picture dump, this is of the installation of the vintage air unit. Since the truck isn't fully together just yet, the installation is only half finished as of right now.

I had most of the plates and hardware painted to match the color of the truck, and then they were bolted on to the firewall with some silicone to keep my cab water tight.

This unit is really cool and cleans up the engine side of the firewall. You do loose a lot of glovebox space as a result but it doesn't seem like there's really any foot well loss as it's tucked under the dash. I will say that getting it up in there is a battle. It doesn't want to go.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

I'm going to apologize for the wire abomination you are about to see. I have some brand new gauges from New Venture made for these trucks. A female adapter to the OE gauge plug does not exist. We took my nearly perfect all original wiring harness and snipped that sucker off like evil people!

I'm also too cheap to buy wires so my dad did all this with salvaged wires from an old s10 harness... :lol: The picture I'm pointing to is a spot where the instructions say there should be a wire for a high beam indicator but I guess I don't have one of those anymore.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

While we're here, I might as well share what they look like in the bezel. This is my original bezel with the Vintage air vents installed. I think it looks pretty good.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Dude! I just read through that all! Great build so far! Im also 20 and have had a 78 GMC 3/4 4x4 350/4-speed LWB and a 77 Chevy 1/2 4x4 350/4-speed SWB but unfortunatly i dont have either of them anymore, joined the Air Force so all my toys had to go :( But i do still have my 71 GMC 2wd LWB that im trying to start building but its still up in Alaska where i used to live and im down in North Dakota. Just too far away haha, but im excited to see how this turns out! Ill definitly be watching this closely! Keep it up man!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

That's a lot of trucks! Hurry up and bring that 71 home! (Or go home to it:lol:)

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

It's coming along!! Hunter, you and your Dad, do great work.:metal: