Aussie 81 GMC 3500 "Project Hillbilly"

[Manland Customs]

Gday guys.

Thought I'd post a thread on our newly bought "shop" truck used primarily for towing duties over here in the land down under. These are certainly not a common sight over here and local "utes" (pickups) have got very sub par towing capacities so this was certainly a score for us.



She is a 81 GMC 3500 3+3 Camper Special, sold in 1981 by Mel Rapton Pontiac in Sacremento. Further details are a little hazy but she has been here since at least 1993 and was converted over to RHD upon landing here for compliancing. She is powered by a 454 BBC backed by a T400, diff unknown as I haven't got that far or the knowledge to check it. She runs on gas (Propane) and has a 300l (80 Gallon) gas tank up back in the tray. She has what appears to be after market wheels or trims on it and is set up for towing via a Hayman Reece style 50x50 setup, as well as gooseneck setup in tray.

We bought her for the princely sum of $5000 Australian and came registered (licensed) which given the cost of our registration over here to have it on the road (V8's are currently around the $1100 per year mark to be able to drive it on the road), that was a good thing. She has a few rust issues, in particular around the top of the door frames on the cab, a spot on the back of the cab, and there was rust on the top of the tray where a canopy had obviously been previous.

Interior is in decent condition bar the RHD seatbelt which I need to try and source as it's mechanism is broken, carpets shagged but one of my trimmer mates should be able to knock something up for us, in the short term there is just some local part shop mats on the floor for now.

[Manland Customs]

Some pics of some of the rust repair underway:

[Manland Customs]

Pic of the truck with it's current trailer setup:



Not sure what we are going to do paint wise yet, but it will be painted. We have our own breed of "Redneck/Hillbilly" down here in Aus that we call "Bogans", this isn't your average Bogan chariot though so I'd like to keep an American theme to it, hence the "Project Hillbilly" designation. Plans are to "Redneck" the truck with what items we can scrape up here in Aus and from the US, cost permitting to have something that is a bit fun to drive and but takes the piss at the same time...........

[Gordonr1973]

Truck is looking good! I have never seen a GMC that big running around over there ;-)

Where abouts in Australia are you at? The homes look like up the East coast....Brisbane to Cairns somewhere?

[Manland Customs]

Originally Posted by Gordonr1973

Truck is looking good! I have never seen a GMC that big running around over there ;-)

Where abouts in Australia are you at? The homes look like up the East coast....Brisbane to Cairns somewhere?

Got a keen eye mate!

Live Brisbane/Gold Coast area, that was actually take on the Sunshine Coast, towed my old mans new car back out from Roma (outback) for him.

To be honest, it could quite possibly be the ONLY 81 3500 in Australia, there are a couple of late model trucks running around, but you don't see the early ones all too often.

Bought a new headunit and speaker setup for it yesterday so I'll post some pics of it tomorrow when I'm working on it. I've got to tidy up the engine bay wiring too, holy mess batman!

[Gordonr1973]

Any news on the truck?

[Manland Customs]

Yes, my apologies.

Cutting the cancer out of it at the moment and trying to figure out a problem where it is not selecting 3rd gear anymore. It will select but only at high speed (65mph) so will have to throw it into the gearbox shop for a look, if me changing the vacumn lines today hasn't fixed it.

Also installed a wireless reversing camera into it which caused a bit of a problem until I realised that both the indicator and reverse light is fed by the same wire, now all good.

Pic from last weekend of me towing my newly completed wagon up to a show near us:

[SIC-K5]

wow, never saw a right hand drive gmc dually before. Whats the fuel cost there?

[truckzilla]

Originally Posted by SIC-K5

wow, never saw a right hand drive gmc dually before. Whats the fuel cost there?

Me either! I hope you get better than the 9 MPG I got with my '88 model with the 454!

[truckzilla]

Originally Posted by Manland Customs

Pic of the truck with it's current trailer setup:



Not sure what we are going to do paint wise yet, but it will be painted. We have our own breed of "Redneck/Hillbilly" down here in Aus that we call "Bogans", this isn't your average Bogan chariot though so I'd like to keep an American theme to it, hence the "Project Hillbilly" designation. Plans are to "Redneck" the truck with what items we can scrape up here in Aus and from the US, cost permitting to have something that is a bit fun to drive and but takes the piss at the same time...........

To 'Redneck' it up right, you need to have at least a case worth of empty beer cans rolling around in the bed. Not that Foster's stuff, as good as it is, but a cheap American beer like Keystone or Old Milwaukee! If you can't get those down there, let me know and I'll work to get you some empties sent down there. All you'll have to do is pay postage! It's the least I can do for a fellow dually owner!
Also a rifle rack in the back window would be appropriate which you should be able to obtain there along with a confederate flag decal or two stuck somewhere on the truck. Those might be a little harder to come by, but they're plentiful on the internet.
Empty smokeless tobacco or snuff cans tossed in the back are purely optional.

[johnnyclack]

I whish my dash pad looked that good

[truckzilla]

I'm wondering if it was recovered or if the right hand drive dashes are just different. It doesn't look like a reversed American style dash pad from what I could see.