Chris K. – 1956 GMC

[skymangs]

This is my 56. It was a lime truck. It was given to me by a friend, the next day my neighbor came and he said, "that used to be my dad's, was you like a title" the next day he brought Round a title. The 84 Chevrolet came from another neighbor, paid $600 for it, and drove it home. it had a Welders bed on it when I bought it, so I put it on Craig's list for $500 and sold it. I sold the cab stuff for scrap. Made just over $100 so s on I figure I got an almost free truck. I did spend $200 on the bed sides and fenders though.

[skymangs]

This is how the truck arrived a cab, a front clip, and a front bumper. The 2nd and 3rd pic are of me mating the 56 to the 84 chassis. Now I'm thinking about making it a diesel. Not sure yet if it will be a Cummins, a 6.5 TD, or a 6.6 TD. Depends on what I find. The next order of business was to get the clutch and breaks working in the new cab. That's the 4th pic.

[Oldtruckwelder]

Nice GMC !!!
Keep sending progress pictures.
JT from SC

[skymangs]

pic 1 is of the 84 Chevrolet brake pedal assemblypic 2 is of the really cool 56 Chevy powerpack air cleaner I found on eBay for like $40. Notice the front bumper is on too. pic 3 shows the engine dog house I had to build to cover the recession in the firewall. Pic shows the new double–roller timing set.

[skymangs]

pic 1 shows the interior. I have put a bearing on the bottom of the steering column to convert it from a closed to an open column. I am reusing the original column and wheel.pic 2 shows just a random pic of my 56 in the shop. pic 3 shows the bed welded up. I made my own cross sills. They measure 68 inches compared to the stock 50 inches. pic 4 shows me templating the fender. pic 5 shows the actual fender installed, about 8 inches back from the original location.

[mr48chev]

That is going to be a nice truck when you get it done. I like the idea of the wider box rather than super fat rear fenders.

[skymangs]

pic 1 shows how well the box lines up with the cab. pic 2 just shows how well the fender fits and covers the duals. pic 3 shows the framing for the bed floor. pic 4 shows the bed floor welded in. It is 1/8 diamond plate, as will be the back of the bed. I have something special in mind for the tailgate.

[skymangs]

pic 1 shows my new shiny aluminum radiator. I also have a nice new haden 16 inch electric puller fan on a thermostatic switch. pic 2 shows me building my headache rack. Note, that it follows the wind lines of the cab both front to rear and side to side. pic 3 shows how my headahe rack came out, very forward design. pic 4 and 5 show the finished product sans paint and bed running boards.

[RanchTruck]

Originally Posted by skymangs

pic 2 just shows how well the fender fits and covers the duals.

It doesn't look like there's much room for the inner duals to move up as the suspension compresses? I would have expected a tub on the inside of the bed. If you measure from the top of the axle to halfway up the bumpstop that gives a reasonable idea of the minimum clearance needed above the tire.

The guy who built the custom bed on my truck made it wider than stock, which clears the tire if the suspension only went straight up and down, but since the axle twists under articulation the top of the tire can tip in and rubs the bed. There's rusty half circles on both sides where the tire's taken the paint off.

[tmoble]

seriously? Chris (Old Sarge) (Skymangs) is posting on here again and nobody says a word?

How are you Chris? Lot of water under the bridge since I last saw you on here.

[_Ogre]

nice work skymags
so 2 free trucks and 1 $200 bed. your speaking my language
i do like the widened bed vs super wide fenders
what did gmc call that model? chevy would have been spartan

[dsraven]

nicely thought out, basically a free truck, in great shape too. wow!
honestly, where do you guys come up with these old trucks that are in such good shape? up here in Canada everything seems to be a flintstone unit, feet through the floor. here is a sample, from my truck cab, of what i mean

[dsraven]

nice to see you're back at it again and not discouraged. looks like you have a decent shop to work in too. keep posting, we all enjoy your "outside the box" thinking.

[Kim57]

very cool build.
Hard to beat the deals on the trucks.
Kim

[tmoble]

hey Chris, those things that look like bump stop welded to the frame over the rear axle, somebody posted pics on here awhile back with a similar setup. They broke the frame on both sides. big cracks, needed serious repair. Just FYI.

[tmoble]

RanchTruck, are your rear spring mounts and shackles in good shape? Don't think you should be getting much if any side to side sway if the stuff is in good shape.

you could mount a Panhard bar, positively locate the rear axle if it becomes a problem.

[skymangs]

Originally Posted by RanchTruck

It doesn't look like there's much room for the inner duals to move up as the suspension compresses? I would have expected a tub on the inside of the bed. If you measure from the top of the axle to halfway up the bumpstop that gives a reasonable idea of the minimum clearance needed above the tire.

The guy who built the custom bed on my truck made it wider than stock, which clears the tire if the suspension only went straight up and down, but since the axle twists under articulation the top of the tire can tip in and rubs the bed. There's rusty half circles on both sides where the tire's taken the paint off.

thank you for all your concern, but the rear and of this truck has zero travel even with the trailer and a car on the back. It rides like a rock. Just what you would expect in a 56 GMC.
Thank you all for the kind words, but that's not my current shop. That was before the fire. I'm just now catching up with my posts. I'm still in the wheelchair, and using a head mouse and Dragon speak to post. I continue to imrprove slowly but surely. I am not back at full capacity yet, but I fully plan to open the shop once again. And I will be at all truck nats next year Showing my 49 and mabye my 56.

[dsraven]

well, hey, you got the right attitude man. keep at it. keep posting too, you have some good stuff and ideas.

[skymangs]

Originally Posted by dsraven

nicely thought out, basically a free truck, in great shape too. wow!
honestly, where do you guys come up with these old trucks that are in such good shape? up here in Canada everything seems to be a flintstone unit, feet through the floor. here is a sample, from my truck cab, of what i mean

And dsraven I don't know what your talking about, this is MO. there supposed to be rusty here too!

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by tmoble

seriously? Chris (Old Sarge) (Skymangs) is posting on here again and nobody says a word?

How are you Chris? Lot of water under the bridge since I last saw you on here.

I think maybe you missed the other threads where people noticed him posting and sent their well wishes, but you are still right, its cause for celebration! we can be pretty myopic about only thinking about the forum, not realizing there is the rest of 99% of life outside the forum, so I am really glad he is well AND posting.

[dsraven]

haha, ya, I guess you're right. every once in awhile a good one shows up though. nice you found it.mine? it was -30C the day I picked it up off the farmer. it was parked in an unheated quanset. I had a uhaul car hauler and assumed he would maybe help load it with the tractor. well, he said"she may need a boost but she'll probably start. no brakes though so you load it yourself". funny, like loading it myself was gonna be the toughest part. we boosted it, give i a couple pumps on the gas and some choke and it fired right up. drove on the uhaul trailer under it's own power. the engine and stuff was good. the body, lots of rust.

[dsraven]

hey skymangs, maybe you know more about this than i do, since you probably have a better memory than me. when I took my 57 gmc apart I took lots of pics but have forgotten what holds the front fenders together at the bottom, behind the bumper. there is a sheet metal valance attached to the bumper that covers that area but I can't seem to find it in my parts. the farmer had jury rigged a few things up front due to a small collision with the bale truck, so maybe that part was "custom". do you remember what holds those fenders together? is it the same as a chevy truck with a contoured/scalloped piece in there?

[1project2many]

Originally Posted by skymangs

And dsraven I don't know what your talking about, this is MO. there supposed to be rusty here too!

It must be a matter of perception. I buy 10 yr old "rusty" buses from MO because they're worlds better than 6 yr old "rusty" buses from NH. I can say I've seen a difference between vehicles from the western half of MO and the northeastern part of the state.

[skymangs]

1project2many, the best place to get them is definitely out West. I Colorado or Arizona.
dsraven, as far as I can remember, the bottom of the front fenders just bolt to the core support. The back of the fender should have one bolt on top and one on the bottom. I think there is also several inside the door jamb.

[dsraven]

ok, thanks. there are apparently 2 styles of rad support, of which, i have the style like a chevy truck has that spans the whole front between the fenders except for the fender extension area. some are u shaped, like the 47-55.1 trucks, and have filler panels next to the rad support to fill in the gaps. worse case scenario i will just get a 57 chevy truck filler panel or look closer for some brackets that would attach the fenders to the rad support as you mentioned.
Dennis