66 GMC long story longer...

[rustyrodknocker]

I am going to try to get my history with my Suburban spelled out here for the sake of keeping it organized in one place.
I never thought of it a a build because its really not.
I bought it to drive it, I had to make it run to do so and I had to make repairs along the way.
Unfortunately I have lost much of my data and the dates are questionable. I hope to firm these up as I get along.

The basic beginning is, I looked for one of these specifically. I eventually found this one in the Truck Trader with the typical tiny black and white picture. Remember the days? This is the last vehicle I bought through Trader. It was in Milwaukee Oregon and is/was a pretty poor example.

It was a stalled project and had sat for years as happens when life changes.
I think this was 06-07 ish.

It came with a 350 laying in the engine compartment. Also had a th350 and new tires. The engine was new but never fired or installed.
I installed it and fired it up on the first day. From there I immediately started to daily drive it.

More to come later..

[rustyrodknocker]

In going through my recently recovered pics a thing occured to me. I can peel the registration stickers back and determine when I bought the truck. This actually delighted me. I can make out the October tag in the pics So that is the time of year.
Ill get the tags peeled this week.
Anyhow the truck had Blazer highbacks and console which I liked a lot. Has a B&M floor shifter and 4x4 rally wheels. 3:50 posi also.
The motor was indeed new but the cam was out of time and as I learned later, In the years that the motor layed in the engine compartment with no carb, two cylinders with open intake valves had rusted and pitted.
The motor made outstanding power but burned oil from day one. Eventually choking me out at stoplights. The trans had a shift kit that hit way hard. Too hard for awhile, chirping 2nd regularly. It eased up over time but had the very unique issue of kicking into a false neutral after taking a left hand turn on a cold morning.
No amount of gear selecting would get you moving. It would warm up and engage.
We learned it would only do this once when it was cold and then you were good for the day. We also learned not to rev it when this would happen or you would experience a neck snapping neutral drop. Transmission functions fine in warm weather.

[Southcity]

Nice GMC Burb, dual sliders! I spy a pop-up sunroof. Any interior pics?

[rustyrodknocker]

There may be some interior pics in the file. Nothing special. It did have a sun roof or as I call them, a leak roof. No longer has that. But the corresponding leaks were hard on the floor and one of the blazer buckets. The vinyl was fin but the frame rusted from the foam being wet.
I will try to continue with pics soon.

[Southcity]

Please keep us posted with progress and pics (if possible). A lot of great knowledgeable and helpful folks here that can help along the way.

[jweb]

Cool Suburban, it looks like we're neighbors with similar projects. I live in Salem and my next project is a '64 Suburban, I just have to finish a camp trailer first.

[rustyrodknocker]

Continuing on as time and memory allow. Thanks for the comments, hopefully I can continue to put this together in story form.
For the first 5 ish years I kept the burb in driver mode while working in it. This is my preferred method with old cars. It helps keep them in the forefront and I get the value of having them on the road as they should be and if life gets interrupted by reality at least its not forgotten in non op mode. I seem to have to many cars to do this now though.

The burb got backed into at the drivers rear at one point. I was strapped with work so my father in law did a repair of this. I don't have pics of this but fear not, it was crunched again and I have pics of the second time it was fixed. Which I did.

What I was wanting to do was a sun roof (rain roof) delete so If would stay dry and then make it worth while to do the floors.

So I needed a parts vehicle...

[rustyrodknocker]

I seen a picture of the panel on a picture board at the Albany swap meet.
It was in Cottage Grove, it was cheap enough and the guy said the roof skin was solid.

I drug it home and it did not take long to see it was pretty darn solid. That was about all it took to make me fold up on the idea of cutting it up. So... I needed another parts truck I guess. More waiting and driving.
The Burb Had no back bumper when I got it and I could not find one at the time. I had a spare square body front bumper. I thought it looked kind of presentable. So I ran it...

[rustyrodknocker]

I eventually found a parts truck in Portland. It was from Iowa and the bottom was gone from salt damage. However the top was perfect. So on a Thanksgiving weekend it was hack and wack. I needed the long weekend because it was still in daily mode. I took off the top before it was time to leave for dinner. We arrived in fine style and sporting brain freeze. It snowed on the way, we had stocking caps but they were no match.

Yes I said we. As in, I had a woman go with me to Thanksgiving dinner in this truck. I know what your thinking. The ultimate Woman.
Well, its 29 years now, started together at 18 years old. Aw how sweet... except for the part where she stole the truck. Literally stole my vehicle. But unlike most people that steal a car then leave at a high rate of speed. She is still here and so is my truck. But I dare not say my truck aloud. Ever. Not a joke. What was mine is now not mine. I don't even know. She did drive if every day for years. If she was not so attached it may have gone away. At a point I offered to just buy a better one. Nope.
Has to be what she calls "The Beast"
Could be worse I guess.

[rustyrodknocker]

The blue door was kind of the frosting on the cake or rather whip on the pumpkin pie that day. I got it and some other things from Lostmy65 in Oregon City. I think anyway.
The roof got put on after dinner. At that time I was intending to swap to solid rear windows that I had custom cut. The slider are of a horrible design. Dont know whay they were thinking there. However the solids did not work out. The rubber was problematic. So I put the sliders in with black RTV and rolled on. The solid glass will be going in with urethane after I rework the opening to let the glass sink back rather than flush out..

[rustyrodknocker]

Moving on,
At a point the motor became so noxious with the smell of burning oil we could no longer take it, even though it didn't smoke. Maybe after waiting in line for ever at the taco shop or something. Anyhow I swapped in a used 350 from a k5 that I bought for parts. Its tired bug runs good. It has that worn out small block characteristic of the starter really being able to wing the motor over. They start fast like that.
While driving daily I continued to work around the body. When I got it somebody had made literal hundreds of swipes with red spot putty over nothing then covered the whole truck in a flat black spatter paint.
I was doing panel by panel and smoothing and straightening. I was paiting it with rustoleum satin, which looked pretty decent.

This is a terrible picture but the only one that kind of shows where I was at with the work. Which was almost done with exterior panels.

Then I got ran of the road or ran myself off the road trying to avoid a drunk driver that pulled out in front of me. It was going ok until it just got too narrow and the fight front dug into the bank.
It is a story that deserves its own space but ultimately ever corner got into the bank as we spun down the road.
That put me starting over.

[rustyrodknocker]

I started to rebuild the drivers rear quarter and aldo around this time stopped driving the truck in favor of other cars I was acquiring.

I started forming up a quarter using the parts truck a template.
And using metal from a family truck that I parted out due to coastal rot. I dont know why I did that other than I have a glitch that gives me enjoyment when each car has part of another. But it was as pain and would not do that again.

[rustyrodknocker]

Panel coming together

[rustyrodknocker]

Made fsp from panel truck

[rustyrodknocker]

More of same

[rustyrodknocker]

And continuing on with lower rear.

[rustyrodknocker]

Quarter complete and moving on to drivers floor. Also bought a garbage goodmark lower rear fender patch. And had to throw it away. Only used the flat metal

[rustyrodknocker]

Current state. Did to push through on floors and rocker. Tring to get back to good metal never ends.

[rustyrodknocker]

Something's that have came back to memory. I drove past a guys house and noticed he had his truck for sale the other night. Then I remembered that's where I got the blue parts. I cut what I wanted off his parts truck.

Then I found this pic of the Iowa parts truck and remembered how much better the build was quality was then mine. It was a Chevrolet and mine is the GMC. 65 and 66 respectively.

The Chevrolet had more spot welds and they were of better fusion than my old GMC. The upside was that it was way easier to pull the panels off the GMC!

Don't know it was a factory difference or them just trying to blow out the last of the 66's

[Southcity]

Your hard work and perseverance are an inspiration to us all, great work so far! Sure appreciate the back story and progress pics, keep em coming!

[rustyrodknocker]

Originally Posted by Southcity

Your hard work and perseverance are an inspiration to us all, great work so far! Sure appreciate the back story and progress pics, keep em coming!

Thank you for the kind words. I'm still stuck in floorboard hell. But I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it's not on the front of a train. My motivation is up anyway. This thing is going on the road for the summer one way or another.

[rustyrodknocker]

Well not that anybody cares about floors but I'll sure be happy when it's over.
I had to go rogue and just start getting metal in it. Had to go back farther than anticipated. I'm not waiting for anymore panels. I couldn't even find the upper section. Other than a complete fire wall.

The fit of the stuff I have bought is so approximate that its a struggle to figure out what is correct or close enough. I'm no body man but I have put a fair amount of sheet metal into old cars. Fabbing patches is easy. You replicate what your removing. Buying new ones you get what you get and it may look like what your taking off but the fit is terrible.

The joint where the floor meets the kick panel was rotted and had residential silicone in it when I bought it. I pulled a section out to duplicate. Then determined I could save time and have better joint design if I went my own way.

The whole concept of the floorboards doubling as an inner fender really sucks.
Then you have the groove at the back of the hood draining right down the joint.
What the hell was the point of all of that?

Anyhow this is the way I went.

[rustyrodknocker]

Pans. I had a full length outer and a full front pan. The full pan was too short right to left and ill fitting. So I cut off the outer and was going to use my full length one.
When I resumed the following weekend I forgot what I was doing and tacked the damn pan back together. But by the time I realized it it was in and fit much better.
But of course then I had to cut the full length outer in half and use the back.

It is worth noting that the piece is actually for a pickup and worked out great after I took about 6 inches off the back. I think I have a pic.

[rustyrodknocker]

Nope no close up. But you can kind of see whats going on back there.

[rustyrodknocker]

Moving on.. out of floorboard hell until I make my way around to the other side.
I'm telling myself its better over there. But Im not gonna look for a while. I did put a new rocker on it about ten years ago. But I'm going to finish the outside first.

Next week rocker panel and start on driver door. Going to scour craigs this week in hopes of finding a nice door. If not at least I can put it on a body stand. This down on the ground stuff is beating me up.