1970 GMC C15 with a few items.

[grendel]

My father bought this truck new in 1970, to use as our shop truck. He started a business in 1968 doing auto restoration with my uncle and a few Navy buddies. When he retired from the Navy in 1972, he went full tilt boogie with the business. By 1978, he had a bunch of cars out there. Please note, he did classic European cars. This truck was the only American made item we worked on, as it was constantly getting dented and beat on by shop workers and the like.
My Uncle died in 1984 and my father decided it was time to retire the shop truck my uncle loved so much and we restored it. My father DD'd it for a while and we re-did the truck again in 1992.

Fast forward to 1997 and my father passed away after battling a lot of health issues at the too young age of 62. My brother and I inherited the business, all the cars and of course, this truck. It was a bad year that year, I had career issues and my brother got divorced. His ex-wife took everything, so my Brother took over the GMC as a DD. It was pristine and all stock, with drums front and rear, 3 on the tree with a decent running 350. Black with red interior.

My brother and I don't really get along... so fast forward to 2007. I got a call from my brother, asking me permission to sell the truck. For the record, I owned it... but it cost me 2K to get it back, as he rebuilt the motor before sticking it in a field for 3 years. Yep, rockers, floor, cab corners and the windshield frame was toast... and someone hit the bed with a bull dozer moving snow.

Sorry for the book so far, but you all needed history.

Now, I have the truck, I love it and it's in shambles. My father would re-do it back to stock. Me, I can't leave anything stock, at all.

Do y'all want more?

[Spiffav8]

Originally Posted by grendel

Do y'all want more?

Well yeah... Duh. lol

[grendel]

So, my friends tell me I have vehicle ADD. This I cannot deny: I went through so many changes in this build over the last four years, it's not funny.

We started by stripping the truck to the bones: Rear got a parallel four link with a watt's link to keep it centered (it's had three sets of links since!) on air ride, controlled by Ride Tech's Pro3-E.

The goal was to be fast, handle well and still be a truck. Intent was not to lay frame and still be able to carry a load.

I bought a motor for it, a 383 gen 1 based motor that I intended to (and bought turbos for) that should have been right around 770-800hp, but right on the ragged edge of the motor's max capability.

we also plated the stock frame... and there's a lot more history to go. I will fast forward to the current build, which is a wee bit different on the next posting. I will do that in a bit, as I have to go pick up a 1970 K5 body we're setting up on a complete C5 chassis... two different C5's

[grendel]

We stripped the front off, re-drilled holes to move the suspsension forward and centered in the wheel wells at a much lower ride height.

We decided the steering needed to be a rack, so I bought a 91 Mustang "fast" rack and went to town with a set of eBay special DSE tubular control arms...

and used the plasma table to cut new bag plates for the front, as the DSE arms had 3" dropped plates:

Add bags, some sort of connector to the steering arms and not shabby... so we thought:

Around that time I also realized my HP goal (800rwhp) was right on the ragged edge of the block that I had and I understood why my friend John was selling off all his old SBC and BBC stuff. Including the 383 I had. So I found a stroked out 6.0l (408) and added some goodies to it:

The plan was to add the twin turbos to the 408 and go to town with the help of more knowledgeable folks.
Add a 4L80E, some tubing, a custom fuel cell with 3 Walbro fuel pumps with twin pick ups each and now we have a chassis.

and something just didn't look right.

[grendel]

hmn, problems with the board code. I thought I'd have the pics inline with my text.

So, as a I said, something just didnt look right... a bunch of numbers crunched told us what our eyeballs were saying was true... it was a truck suspension, it would handle like a truck.

Enter phase two... this is after some paint. Oh and we didn't center the rear axle in the wheel well, as GM didn't either. The lowered right height didn't help much either.


I talked with Nathan Porter, of Porterbuilt. I had been watching his tech happen on a board (that banned me for linking 4x4 tech) and he impressed me with the math of his suspension. So, yep, pull the entire front clip off, cut out the boxing plates and re-work a bunch of stuff.


Oh and since the motor's out, a measly forged 408 isn't enough, as I lost the turbo/EFI guru I had, so might as well do a GMPP 427 LSX (True LSX) with a whipple blower oh and a 2" cog belt drive... but the cog belt drive didn't work that well.

From a specs perspective, this is where the truck is. 427 blown LSX, TCI 6 speed in a 4080E case, 12B rear with parallel 4 link and watts. It did get new shoes and new rubber... oh and 14" Baer brakes.

Ok, so maybe a wee bit more to catch up.

[Rick D]

Cool project, I just love the old C10's!!

[Spiffav8]

Great transformation! I to wouldn't mind having one in my garage.

[grendel]

But wait, that's not all!



Thanks gents.

By now, I was sick of the craigslist wheels. The 90's called, they wanted their American Racing rims back. I bought them as rollers. Enter in some big billets... which due to my idiot supplier took 14 months to get. I bought Billet Specialties Vintecs and put nice rubber on em.

I also spent about 111 hours with miles of wire, shrink wrap, flex loom, soldier and a lot of cigars and wine.

Yes, I am a Patriots fan. Danny Woodhead was still with us back then.

[grendel]

So, since this has turned into my pseudo build thread, where we are now.

Fixing a previous body shop's issues. Ever think to yourself: "Self, we should this our self, because something's just not right"?

Yeah, I sent my father's truck out for paint.

What I found when I tried to adjust a gap and the rocker fell off, was the typical rob Peter to pay Paul paint tactics. Promise the moon, wait a year, deliver Uranus in 3 weeks after while trying to bill as if you worked on it longer.

Yes, they installed the 68 trim using the braile method... yes, I have multiple holes in my NOS bed sides, that I pulled out of the boxes they lived in for 40 years. Yes, they welded the bed together 3/4" higher on the passenger side. Yes, they used panel adhesive with it mixed wrong. I also had more fish eyes than a pool of carp.


Some pics for you.

[grendel]

Since it was at my shop, I decided it was worth finishing right. Took it right down to bare metal, as the other shop let their primer get wet and the bed rusted underneath the porous, non sealed surface.

I also decided to build my center console that houses more Auto Meter gauges.... and I wanted them to look like the belonged.

We also re-routed and tied down a bunch of temporary plumbing.