Onuma's '66 1000 (Lotsa Pics)

[Onuma]

A few of you have read about my woes & successes, but I'll list the build progress (occasionally a lack thereof) here.

In 2012 I purchased my 1966 GMC 1000 Custom pickup. She rolled off the line from Pontiac, Michigan with an inline 6 (L6 250, I'm guessing, from the VIN: I1002PD15995A ), 3 speed column shifter (SM-318?), in Light Blue w/ white cab accents. She must have been a sight to see in her prime.

By the time I found her, she had been neglected at best and abused at worst. Someone painted her with an ugly red enamel paint, used her hood as a work bench for spray painting other parts, and then left her sitting in a yard for a couple of decades. Rotten tires, tons of rust, stuck carb, and more. I brought her to a new home.

Could have been a lot worse, but there's a lot of good metal & glass to work with here -- along with a very good frame:

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Fast forward a couple of months, after I put on some new (read: used) tires and did a few minor things, my crazy-cat-lady neighbor smashes up the glass at 2 in the morning! Driver's door glass and windshield were done...

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Luckily, the crazy lady was apprehended that night, where I ID'ed her as the culprit. She confessed to the local magistrate. It took me several months to testify against the neighbor in criminal court, for various reasons (mostly her lack of showing up, or otherwise delaying), so I didn't see any restitution $$$ until almost a year later. Windshield & door glass were replaced.

At the same time as the glass was being replaced, I had a rebuilt carb put on and the gas tank & sending unit replaced.

Next area to tackle was the front fenders. Both had various degrees of rot at the bottom, but the LH side was abhorrently worse. Someone had attempted to repair it at some point by putting bondo over some kind of substrate which had rotted away, leaving nothing but a shell of body filler. Being that I was in an auto body welding class at the local community college, I decided to put my newly-acquired skills to work.

Before:
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After (before primer and just a test fitting w/out bolts):
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Next up, I needed something smaller to focus in on. I decided to shave the antenna off (there's no radio anyway), so I took off the RH cowl cover panel, used my cutoff wheel to take away the rusty old antenna fitting, and plugged it in with a steel slug.

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Then I had to weld a lot of pot holes from that panel, which once-upon-a-time was filled with pine needles, leaves, and bee hives. Tons of rusty spots here, pot holes, and an overly-complex design made it a paintstaking task.

Partially complete:

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I had just finished welding, grinding, dolly & hammering, body filling, sanding...
then right after I hit her with the first coat of epoxy primer in the spray booth, another guy comes along, spraying a different part, and puts his butt right on my freshly-primed panel! He didn't do it on purpose, but now I have to sand it all smooth and do it again next week.

You can see some of the smudges, but I put a second coat of primer on top and let it dry. It doesn't look too bad, considering.
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That's all I have for now. I'll be sure to share more as I make progress.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Heck of a deal with the cat lady. Some people just shouldn't breath public air, ya know?

But it looks like you rescued a winner there. With your schoolin' I can't wait to see the progress. :thumbsup:

[Onuma]

Thanks!

I'm glad I have a dog who was alerted to the noise outside...I caught the lady just as she put a brick through the glass, and the cops came within a few minutes to pick her up. No better security system than canine :)

I am definitely looking forward to turning this truck into a gem. Even better that I'll be able to do most of the work myself.

[Onuma]

Can an admin/moderator correct my thread title. I mistakenly put "'66 C-1000" where it should just be "'66 1000"

[Jeannie]

Can an admin/moderator correct my thread title. I mistakenly put "'66 C-1000" where it should just be "'66 1000"

Nice work! Wish granted. You have two remaining.



-Jeannie

6066 GMC Club (<br><font color='red'>To view some links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Maybe you should introduce yourself with a new topic?</font><br>)

[Onuma]

Something tells me that isn't the first time you've played on the Jeannie/Genie thing :) Super moderator, indeed!

Thank you.

[Onuma]

Here is the back of that patched fender, btw. The reinforcement piece was completely gone when I got it...so I just tacked it down. Not a perfect fix, but it works for now.

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[TJ's GMC]

:worthlesswithoutpic of the engine!!!!! :coolphotos: though! lol

[Onuma]

Fair enough. Ask and ye shall receive!

Someone plunked in a 1977 305 V8 at some point. I'd have preferred the original 250 (assuming that's what was in there), but it doesn't make sense to shell out dough to replace the [running] engine at this point.

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You can see that the radiator mount and fan shroud are someone's project, made from galvanized steel and self-tapping screws. Not exactly a stellar job, but it works.

[Onuma]

My work was postponed by a week, at least.

My son (2 y/o) decided to jab me in the eye with his thumb. Scratched up nearly a quarter of my cornea, which rendered me ****-near blind and out of commission for almost a week. I couldn't safely work in the lab with all of that dust, solvent, and other junk in the air. I'm mostly healed up now, but that was a very long week.

I'll get back to that cowl cover panel ASAP, but the semester ends after next week so I won't have access to the auto body lab for the summer unless I register for another class (not the plan, at the moment).

Hopefully I'll have the dough to get a few air tools together so I can make short(er) work of this over the summer. I'd like to have a small ventilated area for me to be able to paint with a spray gun, which probably means installing a new fan in the basement.

[Onuma]

Success! I finished priming & sanding and got this panel into the spray booth. Since I wasn't sure what color I ultimately want to paint this truck, I mussed around with the options the school had to offer (AKA the ones I don't have to pay $300 per gallon to use). I took Volvo Dark Blue and a GM Opal Blue colors, mixed them 1:1, thinned them out to the right viscosity, and did a bit of testing with a Sata mini spraygun. The end result is a medium-dark blue with a nice silvery metallic texture. Three base coats. 4:1 clear coat with hardener, twice afterward.

Here's the panel just prior to painting. This is a 2K gray primer which has been guide coated and sanded down:

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This is the same panel after base coat, prior to clear coat:
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End result immediately after painting, before the clear coat fully cured. You will notice a tiny bit of orange peel texture where the lights are reflecting:
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This is the finished product after it has been curing for about 6-7 hours, in different lighting in my basement. Notice the orange peel effect has significantly reduced as the clear coat cured and flowed out more evenly. Also, in this light the paint is slightly darker. Not a problem -- still looks great!:
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The paint used, for reference:
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and

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Yes. The paint is 12 years old; donated to the school by some organization or individual. It can still come out great, despite its age. Proper preparation and mixture will yield solid results!

Thanks for reading so far. I'm enjoying sharing this project with folks who appreciate it :yourock:

[TJ's GMC]

Very nice paint on that panal! :thumbsup: I'm likin that blue! I think with that blue and maybe some silver to do a two tone would be awesome. :D

[Onuma]

Thanks! I was thinking the exact same thing with the 2-tone potential.

Originally, I wanted to go with a crystal green such as in the 1960-1963 GM lineup, maybe with a metallic finish. This, however, is turning out pretty nicely.

[TJ's GMC]

It might look like mine. lol I'm going with eastwood blue pearl and a silver on my 66.

[Onuma]

Then you, sir, have good taste :thumbsup:

[jturk]

Looking good, the only way this can be done is slow and steady with both minor and major hic-cups along the way. Looking forward to your future updates.

[Onuma]

This isn't an immediate musing, but I'm considering replacing my engine in the distant future. It seems to run alright (mediocre) when the carburetor is rebuilt & clean. Ethanol gas (10% here in VA) really does a number on it though, so it gets very difficult to start and running smoothly can be a PITA if your carb is gunked up, etc.

For the record, the original engine in my '66 is gone. Someone, once upon a time, replaced it with an 1977 GM 305 V8. Woefully inadequate engine for just about any purposes; 140 hp, not much more torque, and equally lacking gas mileage. No advantages, with the exception of it being easy to work on and having tons of replacement parts available.

Here are the options as I see them:
A.) Deal with the constant degradation of engine & related parts due to ethanol -- This will probably be the most costly option in the long term.
B.) Upgrade key parts of the current engine to be more resistant to modern fuel, and/or provide additional performance. I know for a fact that this block can manage to drink modern E10 or even E85 with the right mods, as well as being capable of pushing out ~300 horses or so. Getting it there may be tricky, but will also save the headache of replacing the entire engine.
C.) Replace w/ a modern gas engine which readily accepts E10/E85 gasoline. I'd pick something GM, preferably GMC, just to keep things within the same family. I know I can find a wrecked Sierra engine on the cheap -- maybe $800-1200 tops -- and in working order. This means it will be injected, of course, but that just takes away the hassles of carburetors and puts in place future injector troubles.
D.) Replace w/ a diesel engine. This completely eliminates the requirement for an "ethanol friendly" engine, which is nice. It also means solid MPGs and a ton of torque, even with a relatively small displacement engine (in the high 4L or low 5L range), and basically guarantees that the darn thing will run forever.

Either way, I have a lot of time to consider my options. Any choice involves a lot of work and a decent amount of money (at least). I like the idea of keeping this truck original, there are already so many modifications, replacements, and other things which were done, that a bone-stock truck isn't even on the table anymore.

Just musings. I'll go back to my hole :)

[TJ's GMC]

Heck, 305 V6 runs fine on 87 octane. The low compression of 7.8.1 really makes these engines almost run on water. Mine runs fine with the E10 blend using 92 octane. Run "sea foam" fuel additive in every tank fill and you'll be fine. A new engine isn't "readily able to take E10/85 blends) if they sat for as long as people let their classics sit then you'd have the same issues. Its your choice all together, but a good running 305E isn't hard to find and can be picked up cheap and they run on low octane just fine. With a good tune up cold starts are easy. Mine starts right up every time with out issue...and the cost to replace a carb is waay less than an injection system. My 2 cents.

Edit: The 305 gets a SOLID mph to. :lolsmack2:

[jturk]

Well Onuma I totally get what you're saying about all of the problems and I appreciate everything that TJ has to say about the 305 V6 because I went through all of that. What I did was decide to go the modern route. I used a 2005 GM 5.3L Vortec engine. It's the LS type of engine. This gives me fuel injection, pretty good HP & Torque, fuel availability, fuel economy, upgrade parts, and reliability. I also decided to go manual transmission which this engine never had a manual available, so that was a problem all its own. Things to look at would be motor mounts, cooling, exhaust manifolds, wiring harness, computer programming, and either throttle by wire or by cable. I've addressed all of that and my engine has 50K miles and runs great. Saying all of that no matter how you go it's your truck and if you make it your way that's good in my book, so have fun and good luck no matter how you go.