Joe's 79 GMC Heavy Half Stepper

[Joe R]

Well after taking my time and finally finding a site to host pics I figured I would make a build post.

A friend of mine sells used cars on the side and had the 79 as the result of a lein sale. At the time I needed a truck and since I had been doing repair work on the side for him he gave me the truck and found a set of rims and tires for it.

She was an old work truck that had been neglecting pretty badly but nothing that cant be fixed.

Here she sits now in my driveway.



Originally I went through and redid all the smog hoses and everything on her for the initial sale smog here in CA. That was a chore to say the least. Well a few months later after realizing that the smog motor and its whopping 160 horses didnt like to move much less pull a small garbage trailer I got permission to have some fun.

So I yanked the engine and tranny and went from this


to this


Didnt do a full rebuild to the engine, just redid all the seals because it had been sitting for 10 years before I got it. To get some more power out of it I swapped in a set of fuelie heads a buddy gave me, Edelbrock intake and a mild cam. Added a set of Summit headers and a dual 2 1/4" exhaust.

Next step is to redo the suspension. When we got it up on the rack to get the exhaust welded we took a look at the springs. All 4 springs had been heated to lower the truck, woohoo So time for new springs all around and to decide if I want to do a 2/4 drop or 4/6.