First off, awesome forum, I've lurked here for a long time before I made an account, gotten lots of great information and ideas. Anyway, on to the wordy first post....
I'm Chris and I'm building a '63 GMC 4x4. It will be a slow build as I am full time in school (for welding,
) so don't expect too much too fast. Being built on a starving student with access to awesome machines kind of budget. I'm 19, have 5 welding certs (4 TIG in the 6G position for chromoly, stainless, titanium, and aluminum, and 1 structural MIG cert) and working on more, I think I'm a pretty decent fabrimakator but I get to use all of the fancy machines at school like a PlasmaCAM, lathe, bridgeport mill, etc.
PICTURES WILL BE HERE, DON'T FREAK OUT JUST YET! JUST READ FIRST! I promise I'll have pictures for this within the next couple of days. I have to show off my cool TIG welded parts for cool points.
So here's the plan for it.... I want a truck that is reliable, very easy to work on with emphasis being put on easily accessing anything on the drivetrain, a very strong drivetrain, a major PITA for any car theif to steal, heavy metal body protection wherever possible to increase crash safety and obviously to protect the body, good towing capacity, capable offroad as this may be used to get to remote welding jobs from time to time, and most importantly, what all of this really adds up to, the peace of mind that I won't break it, as I have magazine syndrome... I've been working on it for a couple years now and progress has been slow but hoping to speed things up a bit.
Here's what gear it'll have -
-SBC350, nothing special other than an aluminum edelbroke performer intake
-TH400 with a TransGo 400-1-2 shift kit, acts similar to a manual VB only much more daily driver friendly, will hold 1st and 2nd to any RPM and it does have pretty good compression braking from what I've read, put it in 3rd and it'll run through the gears like normal "Drive" selection with "shift like you mean it" shifts. Trans will be getting a full rebuild with all new clutches, steels, bushings, orings, gaskets, torque converter, Transgo kit, etc.
-NP205, divorced ford drivers drop. Going this route because I'm building an HO72 front axle and drivers drop puts the pinion much further from the engine oil pan and drivers drop also avoids that large lump on the passenger side of GM transmissions. Nothing too special here other than 1350 joints for input and both outputs. 32 spline shafts all around, input and front output will interchange, rear will be a flange and flange yoke setup. Also getting a custom built driveline disc e-brake setup with cable and hydro operation on the e-brake caliper. Will be twin stick'd, and that combined with the e-brake, I can do that cool parallel parking maneuver like all the ricers do. Also will be getting a custom mounting system in the form of a plate for the front and rear of the case with fancy poly-bushings and all. The case will be getting a full rebuild with new gaskets and new input shaft (I have ford mated case internals and a divorced case housing, so I have to buy the input shaft).
-HO72 rear, already finished. Has a factory Eaton No-Spin locker, 4.56 gears, taper roller bearing pinion and load bolt. Did disc brakes too with 3/4 ton front D44/10b rotors, DIY4x caliper brackets (bolt on), and new 9/16-18 wheel studs (same thread that the 14b uses) from Dorman. New spring perches from WFO also welded onto the housing with 73-87 SRW spring mounting span width (wider than the older trucks). Also, I was an idiot and re-used the ring gear bolts when I put it back together, and read online that I wasn't supposed to after the fact. I have magazine syndrome (Or maybe Pirate4x4 syndrome?) which means the chunk is getting rebuilt again, re-setup with new ring gear bolts, and probably safety wired for cool points. Housing painted flat black, chunk and cover painted Chevy Orange with black bolt heads. I am a bit OCD with the whole black/orange thing but I think it looks cool.
-HO72 front, work in progress. After seeing another guy on Pirate4x4 start on an HO72/D60 hybrid, I knew that it only made perfect sense for my GMC since I have one in the rear. Using the HO72 housing and center chunk, extending the long side, cutting the short side, and everything from the inner C's outwards will be Dana 60 hardware. Already have the inner C's and the dimensions to get my housing built to the correct width, currently working on that. Inner shafts will be kept on the down low for now, I've got a cool but cheap trick up my sleeve on that to avoid paying $400 for custom inners.
All outer hardware will be chevy 60, including stubs, knuckles, hubs, brakes, etc. Will have crossover steering of course with a panhard bar for extra stability. Axle seals will be of the Seals-It brand variety. Center chunk will be a ball bearing chunk with 4.56 cogs, open diff.
-Frame is a mint '63 GMC 4x4 K20 frame, and it'd already gone under the knife. Did my 52'' leaf swap up front, notched the frame for the leaf mount crossmember, has 2 leaf bolt holes for 2'' and 3'' forward. Crossmember made of heavy square tube and plate. It's all welded in and final. Engine motor mount crossmember is too. Previous owner had some funky mounts in it, so I drew up a fancy crossmember in CAD, cut it out on the PlasmaCAM and TIG'd it up, its plate welded in a box formation with some cool guy holes (you know, the holes with tube running through them... unfortunately no dimple dies). Crossmember uses poly-bushings, and the bushings are in the crossmember. Once they wear out, support the front of the engine, remove 10 bolts (4 per side from the crossmember and 1 for each poly-bushing) and it drops right out from the bottom and they can be replaced. Much easier than factory motor mounts. Rear suspension is currently being worked on, trying to match the front with anticipated height after weight as best I can. 56'' leafs for the rear.
Other basic stuff... removed the in-cab gas tank, going with something much bigger. Going to run a flat bed on this truck also. Interior floor from the firewall to the back of the cab has been truckbed lined. Will probably get some insulation mat and a rubber mat over that. Has a mint factory dash gauge panel, with an inaccurate boat compass that I put in it that changes direction when the door closes, but it looks cool. Truck still has the clutch pedal, but since I am going with an auto, that clutch pedal will get a small master cyl hooked up to it and it will work the driveline/e-brake caliper on hydro, and the factory e-brake lever will work the cable part of it. Will have a dash to back of cab center console that will have cup holders, trans shifter, tcase shifters CB, gauges, etc.
Body protection will be in the form of 2''x5''x.25'' rectangular tube where the rockers currently are. It will be a shame to cut out nearly perfect rockers out of the cab to replace with hefty steel, but only the trained eye should be able to see the end result, and it will keep the cab from getting tweaked should it be rubbing the rockers offroad. Also have a 4''x.25'' wall tube bumper for the front, that will get some more plate and such, with feet first mounted winch on it tucked up under the grill/in front of the core support if possible.
Anyway, I've probably gone on too long and lost some interest due to lack of pics, but don't worry, the pics will be here soon, this is my first vehicle build thread so I'm still learning. Hope you've enjoyed the read so far, any comments, questions, suggestions, and criticisms are welcomed!