Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

Ordered new leaf spring bushings today. I am rethinking my crossmember again - I am not sure if I want to leave it. I may keep it as a shadow of its former self and rename it "exhaust hanger.

I love all the layers of previous paint on this thing. Looks artsy.

crankwalk wrote: I love all the layers of previous paint on this thing. Looks artsy.

Should I just clear over it?

So I didn't get into the garage tonight. Not only is if cold and rainy, but my wife and I did the financial aid application for the kids next year and adjusted our withholding for 2013, fun times indeed!

I'll get back to moving the shocks tomorrow.

I got two words for you:

I have one of these in my my garage in B-more. even on the low setting (75k BTU) it roasts up the 24 x 24 portion of the garage I'm working in really nice on the coldest B-more nights. I typically run it about 2 to 3 hours per night, on and off, to regulate the temperature, and a 100 lb tank (about 80 bucks to fill) lasts 3 months.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: I got two words for you: I have one of these in my my garage in B-more. even on the low setting (75k BTU) it roasts up the 24 x 24 portion of the garage I'm working in really nice on the coldest B-more nights. I typically run it about 2 to 3 hours per night, on and off, to regulate the temperature, and a 100 lb tank (about 80 bucks to fill) lasts 3 months.

I think you're missing two crucial words from my post, "financial aid". Not only do I not have enough money to buy or operate such a device (nor could I justify buying one in SC, as I've been out on far colder nights), but we spent like 3 hours doing financial aid and budgetary work last night instead.

I am going to try and maintain the damper mounts I have rather than buying these nice pieces, for instance:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cee-3170/overview/

Too bad, they look purty.

Well, when you get to be my age and joints ache if it gets cold, you may change your mind. I've spent my share of cold nights in an unheated barn. And there are cheaper models, which use less fuel_ my usage works out to about a buck a night. I spend more than that on sandpaper each night I'm doing body work, or other consumables.

Plus, I find I'm more likely to go out and do work, and stay out longer, if the shop's a comfotable temperature

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Plus, I find I'm more likely to go out and do work, and stay out longer, if the shop's a comfotable temperature

I work from 9-10 or maybe 9-11 if I'm not sleepy, trust me, temperature is rarely a deciding factor. I dress for it. Nomex undies under the jeans, wigwam skiing socks, three or four layers of T shirts from a certain ex-employer and a hat. it's all fine and dandy.

I dress for it, too- but I hate wearing gloves for some things, and bare hands get cold quick. Plus, when I'm actually painting, it's gotta be at least 50 degrees in there.

That little propane heater I had that we used to use at Rob's house was about $90, and it would run forever on a 20lb BBQ tank (I think they rated it about 40 hours on 20 lbs at max setting), and seemed to heat his 2 car garage enough to make it bearable. 15k BTU IIRC.

No. I am not getting one. It is silly.

What a night! I had SOOOO much trouble getting the damper off because some idiot put the bolt in before the bump stop, on the bump stop side. I was sure this was going to be a disappointing oatmeal morning again.

I got it off, finally, and proceeded to lift the rear of the bed to gain a little room for the grinder to get to the :: BAM!!! :: the bed fell down. Nice. No damage. Just embarrassment. Actually, I didn't need to type it out to you guys, so it must not be that bad.

Anyway, once the bed was back in the air, I ground off the rivet heads and got this:

Nice, my "fast grinding/cutting" wheel made short work of those heads.

I guess we're doing two posts tonight, oops.

So I then got a hammer to whack out the shafts.

Uhhh - the peen side is hitting the bed in this pic, and I can't really get the bed up much higher.

So close!

So. I sat there. I called my cousin and we talked politics, guns, trucks. I stared. I stared and stared. I looked at this.

And then I got it. Do you see it? The answer is there.

Why is there a bolt/nut combo holding the thing to the lower part of the frame rail? GM does rivets to attach things to this frame. Nice big solid rivets. Never bolts. Why would they put a bolt there? Was it a new bolt? No. Nobody would have replaced that with a bolt and not the upper rivets. Hmmm...

Because it's pulling the bracket tight. It isn't a tight fit inside the C channel of the frame. Nice. They even left a gap for a prybar. THUD

The rivets are STILL stuck in this thing, but I can drill them out later. For now I ground them flat.

Stock is about 10" longitudinally

and about 14" vertically

That's 35 degrees for those of you playing along at home. Too much angle anyway. This really should be like 18 degrees. I can relocate this one too, but I may need shorter dampers to do it. As of now, at the current ride height, the damper is 17.2" long whereas if I reduced the longitudinal distance to 4.5" (to get 18 degrees which I hear is a good rule of thumb for ideal damper inclination) the damper would have to be 11" long. WOW. I would have to buy a damper intended for a 6" drop. Those DO exist, and they are not expensive, and it would control the axle much better...

Anyway. To mimic the current setup, this is what I have.

Wow, that's a crappy picture. Sorry about that. It's sitting at about 10" back. The height would be off by about an inch, but I can easily make that up with the damper bracket by welding it slightly lower on the tube.

Now the question is what to do about the proposed angle change. Another issue is that if I go with a net 2" drop in static ride height, I actually will need dampers intended for a 7" drop. So this:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wst-55811/overview/year/1972/make/gmc/model/c15-c1500-pickup

OK, maybe I am doing this. Thoughts? The cool thing is with this change that I am using all GM stuff. Unless you know this era of truck inside and out, you'll never notice it and it will ride better, have better load carrying capacity, and better handling and axle control under acceleration.

Cool, eh?

All this and a family? In cold weather? Rock on.

TRoglodyte wrote: All this and a family? In cold weather? Rock on.

Yes sir. Family of six with a three month old kid as the youngest. Thank you for the encouragement.

It was above freezing, so that's nice. I sat on this thing not touching it for years. It's time.

Family of six. Any sightseers that have'nt raised kids, Tuna is writing the playbook. Grow a pair while your young.

a family of six i think you need this old truck to keep your sanity.....great work really like seeing work on a low budget get done

cutter67 wrote: a family of six i think you need this old truck to keep your sanity.....

Thanks, and this part is super true.

I get the older three kids ready in the morning, drop off the oldest two at preschool on the way to work, bathe everyone and get everyone ready for bed and tuck them in after dinner. The day starts at 5:30 and ends around midnight. Staring at that bracket for 20 minutes is therapy.

My email's on the fritz, so here's my correspondence.

I've got that part drawn up to your dimensions. Is 10 gauge (.1345") heavy enough, or would you rather have 3/16 (.1875")? You want 2 or 4?

JohnInKansas wrote: My email's on the fritz, so here's my correspondence. I've got that part drawn up to your dimensions. Is 10 gauge (.1345") heavy enough, or would you rather have 3/16 (.1875")? You want 2 or 4?

If I was buying something, it would be 4 or 10 gauge.

Honestly, my brackets looked better than I remembered when I was down there last night, but better brackets would allow me to put the dampers exactly where I want them...

Your call. I'm ballparking shipping, but $10 would get you 4 pieces of 10 gauge. Lemme know.

TRoglodyte wrote: All this and a family? In cold weather? Rock on.

Seriously man, you make me feel like the laziest person in the whole world. I only have 1 kid and she's 13 months old!

I think you're on the right track for the shock relocation on both sides. It's brilliant that will be cheap, too!

John, you may have me there. That's cheap. E-mail with details.

Tonight I probably dropped the bed four times. It was very difficult to prop one end up and then use the propped up one as a pivot point. I consider myself to have a decent set of tools, but we're talking one floorjack and a bunch of lumber here.

Here is how it's propped up now.

and

Which is about this high

Which enabled me to do this

But DEFINITELY not this

So I put this here to make myself feel better

Two problems. I am at least 5-6 inches away from being able to use that drill. We're talking another two 4x4s on top of what I have to get the bed high enough, and that's pretty tippy. I need ideas. Please. Don't want to weld it in.

Also the brackets still have rivet stubs in them. Can't get them out. hammer and punch = nothing. Vice with two different sizes of socket = nothing. Maybe I have to start drilling?

Tomorrow I'll work on getting the front leaf spring brackets flipped. I still have to dress up the cut I made on the old driveshaft crossmember, too, so maybe that should be first. Something like that.

How heavy is the bed, and how strong are your rafters(if exposed)?

on thr rivits: do you have oxy/acetaline? if so, heat em with a rosebud till they glow, then p[op them out. if not, start drilling.

what about putting the bed up a little higher on saw horses with a pair of 2x4 or 4x4, and pushing the truck out from under it?

I am severely limited here. The garage ceiling is 2x4, 20" trusses, super weak. There is a compressor up there which I pulled up using a come-along on an eyehook, but it weights maybe 100 lb. The bed weighs like 4x that. I have no sawhorses, no budget, and no torch!

I'll get to drilling those rivets out. I have a few other ideas as far as the bed lift. I have to dig through my crap lumber pile to see what I have.

Do you have an engine hoist?

Don't make me break out my joist calculations and figure out beam loading. But I recall swapping a bed on a truck once with a friend of mine, and the two of us were able to lift the bed by itself fairly easily. If you support the bed on 4 or 5 of those trusses, you "might" be OK...

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Do you have an engine hoist?

That's where my mind went as well. For ultimate success, borrow a second one from a friend.