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:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Your original bezel: I believe LDO started a thread, where he made his look new again. I'll look around, see if I can find it.

Here it is:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=732238

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks! I still have some more updates to post. We're working on the seat right now and a solution to mounting it.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Time for a tiny little update. It's cold, so progress is slow. Next step we fiddled with wheels a bit. Figured out what wheel studs I'd need, lugs, and tire sizes. I ultimately decided on 255 60 15's for the front and 295 50 15's on the rear, cooper cobras of course. There was a deal going on with discounttire on ebay, I paid a little less than $500 shipped. They arrived at my doorstep in less than 24 hours.

I had to get a spacer from titan wheel accessories, which was a little hard to find. I was going to buy them on Amazon and in the 24 hr they were waiting in my cart they went unavailable so I had to buy them from their website. Turns out I bought the last set. They are .25" thick to clear the knuckle on my drop spindle.

Next, I had to measure and get wheel studs. This was way harder than it should have been. I also went through amazon, ended up buying dorman part number 610-475 for $17. This is the part number for 10 on dorman, but this seller on amazon sold me 1 stud for $17. :lol::lol: I found them on summit for $18, accidentally bought two boxes but now I have 21 wheel studs.:waah:

Next, I needed lugs. We were pretty sure my wheels were supposed to come with studs but the whole debacle of even getting these wheels from the people they were purchased from was pretty painful and crazy. We didn't bother asking. I picked out a set of mcgards on amazon. They were pretty reasonably priced. $35 for part number 84562. Comes with 18 lugs and 5 locks so there's some extras.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

We recently did some more block work and actually got it shortblocked and ready to go. (Which is really freaking awesome!!!) Everything went together rather smoothly. While this block has been a pretty expensive and time consuming process, I think it was worth seeing how it's done! I saved lots by getting used eagle rods and a bunch of other bits second hand. There's not much else to say about this, so I'll flood you with some pictures.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Oh, and by the way. I got my windshield installed. $120 I think installed by a local company that came by the house. :metal: They were a little rough on the chrome mylar but it looks pretty good to me.

I'll show you that vinyl floor on the next post, and my dad was alone when he "redid" my steering column so I'll have to get photos of that. Converted it to floor shift by cutting off the knub from the 3 speed and using some filler.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Lookin good.....

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Love this build. I've just read through the entire project... Keep the updates coming

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks, guys! I'll have more to share soon.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Here's a some pictures of that black vinyl floor. Stuff is pretty thick, we installed it in December I think, so it wasn't the easiest to get in cause it was a wee bit COLD! I got it from stock interiors, it's actually the ACC brand which I hear is the best. I could have gotten a better deal from rockauto, ALWAYS CHECK ROCK AUTO!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Not sure if anyone noticed but on that last one I used a little big larger photos, maybe a little bit too big? I couldn't decide so I'll be following up with my original size.

So, I don't know if anyone reading remembers but I have the 60/40 bench out of like a 90's model chevy truck to put in mine. The floors on those trucks are flat because theres not gas tank under the cab, so the brackets are massive. It took some talking with my dad and we are actually still working on this bracket today a little here and there to make it fit JUST RIGHT but here's the basics of it.

We bought some steel here locally and ended up with enough to make two of these things. I'm sure we'll find something to do with the extra bits later! We (my dad) drew up and created a bracket to bolt up to the original seat mounting locations and then we planned (and did so successfully) to cut the 60/40 seat rails to fit.



After looking at all of these, I think we need better lighting in the garage! Or, better yet.. IT NEEDS TO GET WARM! That way we can open the doors and let that sweet natural light in. I also think we need more rags. I apparently cleaned up the metal with a dirty rag so the paint did some funky stuff, but hey.. it's under the seat. whatever.

Also, that dash in the last two pics is AN ORIGINAL DASH! It's pretty cool! It was in a camper conversion that had curtains pulled all around the glass. I got the door panels, kicks, and seatbelts too. It's all mint! I'll share pics of that next, I think. My dad got me the steering wheel for christmas.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

I thought about it for a minute.. I think I'll tease you all with the door panels and belts until I get my doors on! Here's a little sneak at the panels wrapped up from shipment and my dash. :devil:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

So, one of the small things that I wanted to address was the situation on the back wall inside of the cab. It had the foiled backed GT mat sound deadening exposed back there. I thought of an idea to cover it. I know they sell cardboard tool trays that go back there but a replacement is kind of pricey for a big piece of cardboard. I got some acoustic carpet that matched the seats current color almost dead-on (harsh camera flash begs to differ, but take my word for it. They're close!) and a cheap sheet of subflooring material from lowes. I cut a rectangle out in the wood sheet and the carpet and glued them together with some 3M adhesive. I'm not a real big fan of drilling holes in my truck, so I made it just wide enough to be secured with the 6x9 speaker brackets I got here off the forums.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

You and your dad are doing a killer job on your truck! Reading your thread is like deja vu all over again for me. Weird though how your truck had so much more rust in some places, and none (that you mentioned) in other spots where I had a lot of it to deal with. Keep up the good work!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Yeah, we think it was a north Florida truck. There was a hamilton county inspection sticker on the front windshield corner that had been on there for a very long time. Most of the rust seem to have been caused from the debris or something being picked up on the center of the road as it was all only on the drivers side. Old tan bench seat was full of sand, too. I wish I knew more about it, someone cared for it at one time. It came with welds aluminum draglites on it, previous respray, and someone pulled the inline 6 and built a 350 for it.

Thanks for checking it out!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

You are correct about the sand. I wondered where all that came from, lol.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

:lol:

couldnt wear anything half decent when driving around with that seat, I had actually forgotten about the sand when I sold it to you! It's been apart too long.. about to be at the two year anniversary of the engine pull.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

The truck is looking real good.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks! :metal:

Here's a little update on the bed.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

White letters in or out...

I never gave it much thought and I'm on my way out the door to get them mounted.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

If I recall you are going for retro look, so white letters out.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Yuuuup. That's what I ended up doing. Had a bit of a problem with some weight clearance on one of the four but everything's good now, I think!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

No idea how glad I am to have these cragars out of the box, they've been taking up space in my room for a good while! They look awesome.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Very, Very NICE!!! :metal:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

So over the last couple of weeks I sucked it up and finally got around to getting my cylinder heads. The thought of spending so much in one purchase kinda made my stomach churn. :waah: Anyways.. just about one year after we got the big block it's pretty much done! What I saved on used eagle rods, used crane rockers, and the 88-98 serpentine was ate up with a roller cam and aluminum heads but dang, my block has come some ways since day one! Here's some pics from day one and after some time being tumbled.

http://i.imgur.com/Gdp0HB6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JLoqsLn.jpg

And here's what we got done the last few weekends.. I got the serpentine brackets off of my dads old v6. He used to have a pretty cool 1990 chevy he dug into and swapped the engine out. I got some brackets from a company called kwik performance. ( http://www.kwikperf.com/bbc_serp_kit.html ) They make everything you need, including an adapter so that you can use a sbc crank pulley. (big block ones are hard to find and are expensive, apparently.)

https://i.imgur.com/KyjTFh4.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/JM7bwgD.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/XnDKtGZ.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/amsAyBW.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/NhzHS49.jpg?1

Seems like I bought my distributor ages ago. It was my first purchase and the outcome after I had my first break down.

http://i.imgur.com/3qPDsrx.jpg?1

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

He's going to wonder where I found this photo at, but here's his old truck since I brought it up in the last post.

I was kinda salty when he sold it but I was like 7.

https://i.imgur.com/YLlfrTG.jpg

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

I got the engine and trans in today, I'll get my pics organized sometime this week and share :metal::metal::metal:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

talk about a night and day situation, engine is :metal:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

I know, right? It was only worth saving because of the free access to machines and equipment I was lucky to have.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

awesome build

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Thanks for all the kind words, guys! I appreciate it. Sooo, I got a hoist. Pretty neat, got it off ebay. It's an old Jet chain fall made in Japan along with a CM 3 ton beam clamp. It cost me around $130.00 shipped total for both. Pretty good deal if you ask me, I can do a lot more with this than I could with a cherry picker. I wonder what we are going to do with it..... ����

Tested it with an old safe.

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Your truck is coming along nicely!! I was skeptical about that seat, but I have to admit, it looks pretty darn nice in the truck. I was pretty impressed on how you guys made the all the modifications to make that seat work. Great Job!!!

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

Yeah, they look pretty good. I have two sets of good seat belts and I'm on the fence. One matches the seats almost exactly. It's the darker blue belts from an 80s square with the metal buckles. The other is my Hawaiian blue color with the original type plastic buckles. I feel like they clash a little bit, hard to say until I get the Hawaiian blue door panels in.

Thanks for the comment, TK

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

I'm really excited to share this bit, it's been a long time coming since my truck had an engine in it. It's right at the one year anniversary of getting this big block, and the two year anniversary of taking the old motor out of my truck.

It was a pretty straight forward process. We got the engine suspended from my chain fall, lowered it down onto the engine cradle my dad had made out of an old bed frame, and bolted up the flywheel and pressure plate. We got the cradle out of the way and got the transmission bolted up, in she went. I recall us having trouble putting the bolts between the motor mounts and the clam during the bare block mock-up about a year ago.. they went in like butter this time. No adjustments needed, bolts just fell in.

PS. My dad doesn't have dandruff, it's from cutting the drywall in the ceiling for the new chainfall. :lol:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

It was a really exciting and productive day last Sunday!! I'm excited. Next on the list is to test out some Chinese headers (Lol.. $60.00 for a set of stainless big block headers, I thought I'd try it.)

Oh yeah, and the new holley sniper unit I've had sitting in a box for a good while.. :ito:

Re: The Hawaiian Blue 1978 GMC.
 

The darker blue, the ones the match the seat, those would probably look better.

I bet your pretty pumped about the engine finally going in!!