72 GMC LWB 4x4 Project "How Much?"

[Eturnit3]

Well here she is with new rims n tires, this 1st picture was taken about 4 years ago. When I found her, she had about 160,000 on a LP converted 350, 80 gal propane tank in the back and a camper shell than any child molester would envy. Paid $3500 for it, and the guys wife cried as I drove it off (they were both in there 80s/maybe 90's and had owned it for 30 years). When I got it home I immediately converted her back to gas, took the camper shell and the propane tank out. Then realized what I had just committed to. Sold the stock rims, the lp conversion w/tank. Put a Edlebrock performer Intake and carb. Bought some cheepy steel wheels and some decent 31" mud n snows, since I like to play in both.
At this point Im into this thing about $4200, dozens of bloodied knuckles and enough shop time and beer to piss off my old lady enough for her to leave me. She said "its me or the truck", I said "Im gonna miss ya babe"
The poor thing has character like you wouldn't believe from the white oxidized house paint on the lid,bumper and side mirrors, to the Custom shaped rear fenders ( the previous owner pounded them in so he could fit his aluminum fishing boat in the bed with the camper shell on )
About 2000 miles later, the motor blew. Im not entirely sure why, I have been told that it had soft valve seats due to the LP conversion? No matter, I have always liked to wrench on the old trucks so I figured a gm crate 350 would be easy enough to swap( +$1800). The 3 year guarantee sounded good.
The whole process took me about a week to get everything together and bolted in (gaskets/replacements +$200). I had a really hard time with the clutch linkage and stabbing the motor. the little bushing on the back of the motor, where it slips onto the tranny shaft just wouldn't go... fought with it a full day before I called a few more experienced fellas to have a look and lend a hand. They found that the little brass bushing thingy was a little marred up and advised on how get it back into shape (a small hone for remote control cars). A little cleaning and a little grease, pulled the clutch off to make sure it was aligned right. Finally after about 20 minutes of pushing n tugging, it finally slid in. Anyways, after all the hard knocks. She fired up and sounded terrible. The old point n condenser distributor was to blame. Rather than rebuild it, I chose to swap it out for a Mallory HEI($150ish). Was a pretty basic swap, did take me a few tries to get the thing dropped in on T.D.C. but after that she purred like a kitten. Drove the hell out of it after that, commuting from Grass Valley to Sacramento (about an hour drive) for about a year. It was pretty hard on it, and I hated the 3 on the tree. It locked up on me constantly and was generally a hassle. Eventually, I got a Hurst conversion which I had to modify, unknowing it has an installation kit it also came with the crappy shifter. It was still my daily driver at the time, and I wasn't about to put the column shift linkage back in. So we had an old Hurts shifter that had the same bolt pattern, and bent it with a propane torch and a vise. And here it sits today lol

Ive beat the hell out of this poor thing not researching anything I did, obviously. I was recently pointed towards another conversion kit made by Hurst, the Mastershift 3 which I hear is pretty good. I am having a bit of a hard time finding the installation kit. But when I find it I will put that in with the right shifter.. Probably going to need new sheet metal on the hump which I think I can get.
My brother, lent his 67 stepper to Our step Dad and long story short, he totaled it. He had recently put a nice set of Hedmans and *****in holly carb. Eventually I talked him out of them and put them in (with very little modification) and had a set of 50 series flows put on. Sounds pretty good and make sooo much more power. Mileage has gone down considerably but, who cares
It has been parked about 2 years as I bought a little Toyota and have been driving that to try and save some gas. I fired up the old beater every so often n drove it a bit. I realize how much I missed all that horse power. I found this forum a few weeks ago. Last weekend I pulled it out of non op and to the gas station. Was a terrible ride, worse than I remember. So that will be the start of this beast: Ride Improvement. What i want out of it is to be like new again and a littler taller with some wider stance, and I want it to to shift well. Also, it needs a new windshield.