Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

We all got sick. Probably strep throat. The pharmacist was giggling as she doled out six prescriptions for amoxyl. Apparently we all had strep throat. I had it last, and it's almost stopped bugging me. For a while, all of my food was infected with tiny, sword wielding ninjas who would slice my throat whenever I swallowed anything. For some reason, everything got a lot heavier too.

It helped greatly that Saudi Arabia called four mornings out of five at between 4-5am to wake me up and talk diesel.

Anyway, I ought to be buying paint for the tank today. I also ought to text message (yup, we joined the 1990s) neighbor Jim and find would where my bushings are.

glad to see ypou back, brian. been wondering about you and the family.

im taking it that the calls were work related?

Yeah the Saudi stuff was work. Lots of it.

We're all getting better but I'm still wiped out.

Good news everyone!

I got back into the garage.

Bad news, everyone:

Neighbor Jim went on vacation after taking my shackle bushings, so they're sitting in his shop uncut.

It was too cold to paint the tank.

BOO!!

So I wire-wheel stripped the thing. Remind me to replace my grinder wire wheel, I got hit in the dust mask and the goggles like 5 times with hot flying swords from it.

I then went and had an idea. Du-pro to the rescue. I found that an unused WD-40 pipe thing would slip inside the old pushrod tubes I had stashed from R/C planes once I heated them up a bit. I could then use that spray wax I bought like 20 pages ago and wax the inside of the roof welds, the rocker welds, and a bunch of other interior welding spots.

I also will solve the pictures-in-the-garage dilemma today. Expect actual pictures of the actual truck tonight.

You have a truck?!

Been so long we forgot.

NOHOME wrote: You have a truck?! Been so long we forgot.

yeah yeah... strep throat times six will do that to a guy. As will consecutive 4AM phone calls for work that turned into conferences.

Let me tell you, when a 4AM phone call wakes up three kids and you're simultaneously serving breakfast/potty breaks/clothes while on a conference call with a customer who is currently not producing because of your project, you wake up very quickly, strep throat or not.

I got home and Tunawife let me hang out in the garage before dinner for 15 minutes to spray the tank before it got too cold. It's purty.

More good news. Neighbor Jim came through with the bushings. The bad news is that they needed some ghetto fabrication. I needed to cut the flange off of one side, because the overall assembly was too wide. The real application for these bushings has nothing to do with these trucks, apparently. I also needed to cut a half inch or so off of the length of the inner sleeve.

So I did that.

Then I put the shackles on. Oof. First I needed to loosen all of the U bolts that I torqued already, and then assembly everything, then torque it all back up. Tons of work. Well, hundreds of ft-lb of work. Haha

So axley!

Nice!

Yay! Truck pictures!

Are those drop shackles? They look really long.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Yay! Truck pictures! Are those drop shackles? They look really long.

Factory GM. I agree, though. They are also super strong.

So is the rear suspension "done"?

DILYSI Dave wrote: So is the rear suspension "done"?

Yes! Now the tank goes back in after it and the straps were painted, then the bottom of the bedfloor gets painted and the beed gets assembled. Then I finalize and finish weld the filler neck, and then on to the transmission and front end.

Sweet! Congrats!

This whole project is looking really good!

I -started- mowing the lawn at 9 pm. You can imagine I didn't have much time tonight, especially since TunaMotherInLaw is coming tomorrow and Tunawife still freaks a bit beforehand. I reinstalled the purty new gas tank and straps and flipped the bed floor upside down in preparations for beating down a few dents and painting the bottomside.

See purtiness:

No pics tonight, but the bedfloor bottom is painted and the driveshaft is measured!

So, the transmission is angled upwards at 4.5 degrees to the front. The driveshaft is angled upwards at 1 degree to the front, and the rear end is angled 4 degrees upwards to the front. I think this is all good. Right? RIGHT???

Also, I dripped a tiny bit of Chassis Saver on the rim of the paint can last time. I basically turned the can inside out prying the lid off, and now the stuff is sitting in some big Mason jars.

Again no pics, but the bed floor is back right side up, and the perimeter is painted with Chassis Saver, and the other bedside got some attention. Apparently there were some Bondo filled dents I missed at first glance, so I knocked those out, sanded down the inner parts where you won't ever see them, and painted them with Chassis Saver and finished that up. I am now ready to assemble the bed. Hurray!

Nice work!

Man you're making progress at a good clip.

Im jealous.

It doesn't feel like a lot of progress! I wanted to have the bed assembled last night, but when I saw the mess on the inside of the bedside I had to push it back - again. At least the driveshaft angle was right. I am very happy with that, so no modifications to the suspension are necessary. I also bought the wrong bolts, so back to Tractor Supply on Monday to grab the right ones. Tonight I'll paint up the wheel tubs and get them ready.

painted them!

It's looking better now. Sorry for no pics, but the schedule was tighter with Tuna-Father-in-law in town, in the garage, 'helping'. Tonight I took a super rare while-the-Tunakids-were-still-awake 30 minutes to prep and paint the wheel tubs so Tunawife and I could spend a few minutes playing Mario Kart tonight. I really can't do much more while the paint dries anyway.

Here I sit chuckling and wondering if "playing Mario Kart" is a euphemism...

I WISH!!!