Sullii the 72 GMC 1500

[lolife99]

Perfect!!!

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Perfect!!!

Thanks!

New page, new problems.

While the truck was on stands waiting on tires, I discovered two things that need immediate attention. First was a coolant leak that was coming from a crack in my block. I never noticed this spot while I was doing the swap, and I've never noticed any coolant on the ground. It appears the leak was slow enough that the coolant evaporated before it dripped. At first I was thinking the worst and that I would need to replace the block, but after reviewing old photos I realized the block has been cracked for quite a while.





I figured if I've been driving it like this the whole time I've had it then it was worth trying something to stop the leak. I decided to add some GM coolant tablets into the radiator and after several heat cycles my leak was gone! I'm not sure how permanent this solution is but I plan to run it and see if this issue ever resurfaces.



The second issue was my idler pulley. The outer lip of the pulley had cracked off and the grooves were starting to cut into my belt. Then I realized I made a bonehead mistake. I was supposed to use a smooth idler pulley for the backside of the belt. I'm not sure how I missed this, but at least I caught it before my belt snapped!



At first I tried a 5.3 truck pulley, but it required spacers and the diameter was too large. Next I tried a 5.7 Camaro pulley and this was the correct one.



One last aside is a correction to my bed alignment. I thought that my bed didn't look quite right, especially when viewed from the side.



After running a stringline I realized how far off it was.



I took some measurements and added the correct amount of spacers under each mounting point and was able to get things much closer.



Bed misalignment is one thing that always jumps out at me when I see a truck, so I'm glad to have this resolved.

[hewittca]

Now that I have those issues squared away, it's time to enjoy the truck a bit! I discovered that there is a truck show next weekend called C10 Resurrection that isn't too far from my house. They are doing what they call a photo poker run where you take photos of your truck at landmarks around town for a chance to win a prize at the show. I don't care too much about the prizes but I definitely wanted to take the opportunity to ride around in my truck. My kids tagged along for the ride. First we hit the carwash and then we were off to Lexington.



They have a list of locations that qualify for the drawing. Of course, since Lexington NC is known for barbeque you have to hit a BBQ restaurant.



There were a total of four locations in Lexington that we needed to hit.









There were also two locations a few towns over in Spencer NC.





We had time to hit 6 out of the 9 locations. It made for a fun morning driving the truck, hanging out with the kids, and taking some cool photos!

[hewittca]

It was such a beautiful day today and the lighting was perfect so I decided to pull the truck out into our field and get a few shots of it "in the weeds".





It was fun seeing the truck hiding in the grass, so I left it out until evening. When it was time to pull it inside I was rewarded with the setting sun casting the perfect glow on the truck. Photos like these are the ones I love revisiting after years gone by and I'm several builds later. Keeping that in mind, I'm trying to remember to enjoy this truck while I have it!