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

THAT is not a sub $1000 Ford project truck!

Thanks for the offer, though! Do you have a tow dolly with it?

As for my slightly-more-than-$1000 GMC project truck...

I put in all of my grease fittings and greased the whole front end and swung the steering back and forth (TIGHT!!) a few times.

I also swapped out the upper damper mounts with awesome 4x4.com pieces that I am seriously impressed with (I now have them front and rear) and installed the new dampers with new bolts on the bottom as well.

Then I played "where do I put the swaybar" for a few hours.

I was aiming for attaching the drop link directly to the control arm with a new 3/8" hole. Here is what that brought me.

This is convenient because it's super easy to drill a hole. But it won't work because it is too high relative to the bumpstop, too close to the edge of the control arm, andwon't allow for a reasonable bushing beneath the control arm.

Back to the gusseted bracket idea

That works. I don't even have to drill the hole in the bracket! I have to weld on the bracket, though. I took no pictures of this, but if I had been able to attach the bar such that the endlink went through the control arm, I would have had to knock out a GM frame rivet and used the same hole for one of the swaybar bushing bracket attachment points Doing it with the gusseted bracket means that I'll be drilling two new holes in the frame, one slightly forward of said rivet.

No big deal.

I'll drill these, mount the brackets, weld the brackets on and mount the bar totally next time.

There is a long story involving the wife informing me that her car was the mustang and that she wanted it back for daily status. me looking at dailying her fairly new edge, then finding out she hated the car...

I had to be sensible though, cannot have two two seaters with a kinder. So project trucks/cars are on hold for three more years. her mustang will be paid off then and then I can play. (as will our student loans.) I got out of the edge pretty well and got this truck for cheaper than used ones with 30k miles are going...

Trucks already hauled it's first load of dirt to start leveling out low spots in the yard...

Glad to see some updates man.

I spent a silly long time in the garage, finally settling on a spot which would use both the existing frame hole & rivet location for the bracket, AND the bracket. I aligned everything, cleaned it all, brushed off the chassis saver, and ran a bead... of E36 M3ty weld because I am out of gas.

ARG!

tuna55 wrote: I spent a silly long time in the garage, finally settling on a spot which would use both the existing frame hole & rivet location for the bracket, AND the bracket. I aligned everything, cleaned it all, brushed off the chassis saver, and ran a bead... of E36 M3ty weld because I am out of gas. ARG[ON]!

:P.

read it like "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN".

ARGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!

I am beat.

Tunakid #4 slept through the night last night, but the preceding three nights she was up for an hour or two, and so was I. Add to that the van, which was making a fast non-wheelspeed 'whomp whomp whomp' from the rear under braking and bumps which needed investigation, and I didn't get very far.

I did, however, get the brackets welded onto the control arms. I'll need to turn down the lower endlink bushings and grease the swaybar, but it was 10:45 and it was time to stop when I finished welding.

Pardon me, but did you just say Whomp Whomp?

In reply to SkinnyG:

It's time to get bulbous

for some reason this video made me think of this build thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeju3pbopMg

Aaaaaaaaaand...

Sold.

II got enough to buy Tunawife a sweet dinette set though.

Whaaa! This an april fools joke right?

In reply to tuna55:

Har har har

Can't fool you guys, eh?

In reply to tuna55:

You know damn well that an angry mob would drive up to your house (in a variety of questionable cars) and tar and feather you if you ever sold this truck.

Plus, a dinette set? Please.

Man 13 days since I touched this silly thing and I'm getting the shakes. Between the goofy Honda and the incoming mass of in laws visiting, it's going to be a month before I get back out to work on the poor truck.

Do not like.

-1

Hmm....

Maybe we need to schedule a swamping of tunas house for honda and truck work.

We can all drive our questionable cars, bring a covered dish, and help the man.

Kinda like tje charity thing where you help the elderly with houses, but the overwhelmed with languishing projects.

We could call it the bent wrench brigade.

The dead cars thread is giving me charitable ideas...

Dusterbd13 wrote: Hmm.... Maybe we need to schedule a swamping of tunas house for honda and truck work. We can all drive our questionable cars, bring a covered dish, and help the man. Kinda like tje charity thing where you help the elderly with houses, but the overwhelmed with languishing projects. We could call it the bent wrench brigade. The dead cars thread is giving me charitable ideas...

In.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/2015-challenge-entry-88-accord-lxi/100071/page11/#post1792315

This sucks. The garage is clogged up, nobody is healthy, we're not sleeping and I have no cash to buy Honda parts.

Grrrrr.

Life is still a huge blessing, and we're all happy. I'm not mad, but this not-getting-E36 M3-done stuff sucks.

-1

I actually did something.

I can sort of get to the front of the truck while I wait for Honda engine parts.

I don't have any good pictures, but neighbor Jim turned down the lower sway bar bushing so it fit the gusset, and then I realized that the idler arm would hit the bar during hard right hand turns.

The next night I stared at it, tried to explain it to Tunawife, and went in the garage for a half hour, flipped the swaybar upside down and reinstalled it. Success!

I have to cut the endlinks down to size, but it turns out that the upside down fitment is about perfect.

Sweet!

So nearly a month later, the Honda runs, and needs exhaust parts which I cannot afford. Since I made a $300 mistake, I can't spend money on either one right now.

As such, I am piddling. I went out to the truck what with my inverted swaybar and all, and played a bit, trying to find the optimal endlink length with my upside-down bar.

It turns out the optimal length is -0-. Can I run it this way? I think the bushings will do the flexy work for me. If so, I can grease up the bar and throw it in and be done with the front suspension. It looked funky enough that I wanted the hive's opinion.

By the way, working on the truck, and hence spending money on it, is far more rewarding and interesting than the Accord.

Additionally, since I am out of money, it looks like I will be waiting on the next step, which, logically is pulling the engine out, cleaning/freshening, and getting the cab in epoxy primer to start the fine bodywork.

Logic need not apply when one's wife is ready to go ballistic over already escalating costs.

Financially, the nest way to proceed seems to be the gauge package.

Let me explain.

The Tunatruck, being an extremely low option order, was shipped with a gauge package like this:

It's SUPER ugly. And useless.

The high option gauge package looks like this:

Which is actually still pretty ugly.

My ideal is to stuff the three holes with one 4-in-1 combination gauge and a couple of big ones on each side. That turns out to be like a $700 option. More than the Accord. Not happening.

My next plan is to be creative. If I can scrounge up used up, beaten up aftermarket gauges secondhand, I am pretty certain that I can make faces for each and make them fill the spaces creatively. So, with that, I am asking for your outcast gauges. I'll even pay a tiny bit for them if you want. Essentially, I need a speedometer, a fuel gauge (for a Jeep), a tach, an oil pressure gauge, a water temperature gauge, a voltmeter, and a clock.

I'd rather old and beaten up than no-name new Chinese stuff on eBay.

Does anyone have anything interesting?

Also toying with the idea of an add-on tach, just because some of them look really cool added on:

Anything you can use from a ribbon speedo cluster from a 122? I have tons of them.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

That's generous of you, but I don't think my gauge package has the width, nor the right style for a speedo like that.