My 55 GMC Blue Chip

[spitfire_er]

I thought I better start a thread on this thing.

I bought this truck last fall and it has sat in my garage all winter. I finally got started on it about a month ago. The plan is to try and get this thing moving in the next month or so. I don't think I'll be doing any major body work on this thing for a few years, but the drive line should be all re-done or rebuilt by the end of the summer.

A little back story on this truck. Back about two years ago my wife and I were looking to get into a classic truck for not a bunch of money, something we could fix up. My wife loved the look of the 47-53 chevys so we looked long and hard for about a year for a 5 window fixer upper. We finally located one got it home and I started working on it. Got a good 235, T5 and had the frame just about done and ready to throw the engine/tranny in when we decided to change directions. The guy we got the 5 window from had an old 55-56 GMC 100 sitting in the dirt at his place. A couple trees were growing around it and the front end was down to the bumper. My wife always thought that was a cooler truck, but to me it looked like more work!

I then found a buyer for the gmc, and ended up buying it and was getting it ready to get sent out to California for the buyer I had lined up. After getting it home and looking it over and realizing what exactly it was, we both decided to keep the GMC and sell the partially finished 49' 5 window.

I proceeded to sell the 49' and started planning the 55' out. As I said before, it sat all this past winter and just a month ago I started really working on it.

Two big issues I had to deal with. My engine the original 288 v8 (Pontiac 287) was seized. Hoping for the best, I tried to break it loose over about a month. Then I just gave up and started tearing the eingine apart. That's when the bad news hit.

[spitfire_er]

That's when the **** hit the fan. Everywhere I looked inside the intake and the top of the heads was rusted, not good! took the heads off, and the underside of the heads were rusted! Inside of the cylinder walls rusted.

Even though it had the hood on and air cleaner on, I suppose over the course of 25+ years snow drifted up inside there and condensation crept in and wrecked the top end of the engine.

Even though the thing looked OK on the outside when I bought it and the oil looked good on the dip stick, I was thinking this was a possibility that I would have to replace the engine.

I then looked for about 4 months trying to locate a replacement engine for this thing. Now being that GMC use Pontiac engines in their trucks in the mid to late 50's, I had to find a 55+ year old engine to use somewhere. Being that I'm on a tight budget with this truck, I wanted to find a running engine which as you can imagine, was not very easy. I thought about throwing in a 327, but I wanted to try and keep the Hydra-Matic and i'm not currently wanting to throw a TH400 or 350 in there.

I got a phone call one day with a response to a wanted ad I place about a month prior. The guy said he had what he thought I was looking for and mentioned he read my ad a couple weeks prior and just ran across his note to call me about it. He had what he thought was a 57 GMC bus conversion. We talked, sounded like what I needed and I headed down a week later to pick it up. To this point I had found several other engines but they were 500-1,000 miles away. This one was only two hours away, and I had another erron to run that day so the stars aligned. Showed up and it was a 55 truck but the engine was several different colors, but was a Pontiac V8 of the era, and it spun freely and I was guaranteed it would run. It also had the heads rebuilt not too long ago so I'm a happy camper as far as the engine goes.

Got the engine home and got it all cleaned up and painted with a quickie paint job that should last for a couple years till I have more time to do it right.

[spitfire_er]

Back to the old engine and trans, I just picked up a new cherry picker last week and am stoked about that so what better then to use It right off the bat. Got to work pulling the old engine which as a little struggle without a hoist equalizer bar, but I got it. Will be buying a bar for the install for sure.

Shown below are a couple photos of when I was pulling the engine apart.

I was then stuck with a stuck engine and no way to pull the tranny off without turning the crank. I ended up pulling the entire engine apart and dropping the crank from the bock which was not easy task in and of itself. Finally after about 6 hours of struggling with that I got the trans pulled off of the crank and the flywheel was loose. that's kinda where I'm at now. I did find that I needed a torus wheel gasket so I ordered one of those yesterday from the Gasket Company online so I can mate the trans and good engine.

I also cleaned up under the hood and got all the black parts painted so I looks nice up under the hood again.

I have more photos, I'll try and get a few more up as I go.

[Kim57]

Looks like a real cool project.
Keep the pics coming.
Kim

[OrrieG]

Front clip comes off with 8 bolts , unplugging the wiring harness and a few other wires (alt, starter, coil, dist.). Takes about 1.5 hour if you already have the hood, radiator and front bumper removed, two if not.

Bummer about the engine, did you take a look at the inside of the franken one before painting?

[spitfire_er]

thanks for the advice on the front clip. I did not look too hard at it, but it was running about a year ago, and all good fluids were in it and clean and hooked up to everything minus trans until about 2 weeks ago. Once I get the trans back on, I'll throw the starter on and do a compression check to make sure my compression is OK before I throw it in there. If not, I can work with a free spinning engine.

[Katrina/10]

The grille and bumper on that truck are totally cool.

[spitfire_er]

Thanks, that's why we kinda fell in love with this style.

Does anybody know what color this is and where I could get a rattle can. I would like to do the fire wall before I throw the engine in. The outside of the truck is going to look as is for a while.

[_Ogre]

sweet grill, gmc always had a little more look than chevy
no rattle can will hold up to much grease or dirt, it will look worse for wear before you get it on the road
look at denee's build thread, she detailed her engine bay nicely with the front clip on, though it is easy to pull off too.
do a search for clr wash jobs, i think your truck is a candidate for clr wash and some clear coat
harbor freight has cheap spray guns that do acceptable paint

[Russell Ashley]

Nice truck to start with even with the stuck motor.

One thing you might want to consider while the engine is out is to replace all of the steel casting plugs with brass ones. I would replace them all if it were mine, but for sure replace all of the ones on the rear of the engine that would require dropping the transmission to get to. Cheap insurance and not much trouble to do now while it's out.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

look at denee's build thread, she detailed her engine bay nicely with the front clip on, though it is easy to pull off too.

Denee's fenders were welded to the cowl and cab by the PO, she did not want to risk ruining the paint or figuring out why it was welded and how to fix it. I only mentioned it because he said he spent 6 plus hours pulling the pan, crank to take the engine and trans apart.

[spitfire_er]

I thought about getting out my HVLP gun and throwing some paint, but I will be going to chiropractic school this fall so I won't have time to mess with this thing while I'm in school. Just trying to get it put together, and running. I'm just cleaning up the rust, throwing some rust converter on it, and a quick rattle can job so it is maintained till I get back to it in a few years and it looks OK while I drive it around this summer. That's if I can get it going! I'm going to restore it after school but just want to get it driving for now. It will only go out on nice days anyways. I try not to drive my old cars in the rain, but it happens every once in a while.

[spitfire_er]

Did a few more things today too! Got everything in the dash pulled out minus wiring, and one gauge cluster.

Also got the old gas tank pulled. It was rusted on the bottom and had a couple holes in it. I got a used one for free that should work out of a 56 Chevy.

I also swapped my old rear for my new (old 56 chevy) HO33 rear. Has 3.90's but I figure I can always buy the 3.38's later.

I also washed out the interior with simple green and soapy water. I'll have to see if it still smells like mice in there tomorrow, if so I'll pick up some of that Nature's enzyme stuff.

Lastly, cleaned up the floors a little, they were rusty, but no holes! threw some converter on it and shot it with a little flat black. I have some padding and I'll throw a chunk of carpet in there for now.

Hopefully next week I'll get some parts and be able to get my engine together and this thing put together by the first part of July.

[Kim57]

Cleaned up real nice.
Kim

[Katrina/10]

Why the axle swap? Maybe I missed it.

[spitfire_er]

it had a spicer 45 in it which is not suppose to be there. i would have used it but sat outside with no cover for many years and siezed it up. would have needed all new parts. just easier to use this used one.
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[Katrina/10]

Spicer 45? Never heard of that one, I'll look it up.

[Katrina/10]

Spicer 45? Never heard of that one, I'll look it up.

[sqrlnts]

Best factory front end on a TF truck period. Love it.

[spitfire_er]

thanks,

I do like the chevy's especially the 55-57's, but you just don't see these GMC's every day. I love all that chrome up front. Next best thing to an early 50's caddy! There are only three of these in my town that I know of, my 55.5, and I sold my second 57 to the guy that owns the 3rd 55.5.

My torus cover gasket set arrived today from vintage gasket. That was quick, I ordered it last Friday night! Was too tired tonight to wrestle those two together, maybe tomorrow.

I guess I never really mentioned what the truck was exactly. I'm sure most of you have pieced it together by now, but here are some specs:

-1955 2nd series GMC 1,0** serial number range.
-102- 1/2 ton, long bed
-Big Back Glass
-288 V8 with Hydra-Matic
-Chrome window trim
-Factory Radio
-Deluxe Heater
-Chrome bumpers/ trim
-12V
-Born in Pontiac Michigan

I think it was completely optioned out except for I don't know if the short or long bed was standard in these trucks.

[spitfire_er]

Wasn't going to do anything today but I walked in the garage and the rest so they say........

Got the heater tore apart and blasted and painted. Also got most of the controls working properly. I'm not going to put the heater completely together until I get a new cable for the thermostat.

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[spitfire_er]

I think I have all the major parts I need to make this thing move and more importantly STOP now! I'm going to spend the next three days trying to get this thing put back together as much as possible.

[spitfire_er]

Didn't get a bunch done yesterday because of the heat and humidity, but I did get a load of scrap to the scrap yard. I tried selling some of this stuff for dirt cheap, but no takers.


I also got my brake parts, so I rebuilt the master cylinder and put that back in. The photo shows all the old parts before the rebuild kit.

I also put on the rear left brakes with new master cylinder. I gotta get new shoes yet, but these will work for a test drive around the block. The fronts will get new shoes and drums all the way around before I test drive it.

[spitfire_er]

Got a few more things done. Engine and tranny hooked up, engine in, and brake cylinder rebuilt along with one of the rear brake assemblies.