1962 GMC 305V6 4WD Slow DD Build - Cecilia (Pic Heavy)

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Due to this being a one man and two little kid show I wanted to remove the tailgate to make this thing a little lighter.

I put a 1/2 inch socket on it and spun it.



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Put a helper on the other side to catch the fallout. Our helper here lost two more teeth last night. In one night. I said, "Go brush your teeth for bed" last night and she said, "Daddy, I don't have any more teeth!" Har har.



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Mine were stuck in this stupid welded-on bumper. I whacked it with a hammer and it gave up pretty quickly.



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After getting both chains off I started on the nut at the bottom of the tailgate.


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YOU NEED TO BRACE THE TAILGATE BEFORE DOING THIS.

I thought it was a bolt that ran the length of the tailgate. I was very very wrong. I spun it about a half-second then the entire tailgate fell off into the floor. The Powder Puff was only about 6 inches off to the side.

Here's her reaction right afterward.



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I can't show you mine. I was pretty upset by this hunk of heavy steel almost hitting my kid. I don't swear but I sure had a frowny face on for a while.

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Here's all that holds the tailgate on.



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After that we moved Cecilia back to the backyard. Actually no, we took a little break to cool off. Then our new neighbors pulled up and what are they towing? No, not a GMC, but a '78 Camaro. My oldest said, "Ooo Daddy, you guys can talk about old junky cars together! You'll be besties!" LOL!
We walked out and shot the bull with them for about 30 mins or so. I'm even more convinced that they're pretty good people now. You can't beat great neighbors. He wants to paint his camaro himself by winter. Maybe I'll get to help and get some tips.

As a side note, if I paint Cecilia it'll be the dead last thing I do. I don't know why everyone wants to hurry to paint. Don't you just scratch it all up while you're working on the rest of it? I don't trust myself that much. I'm sure I'd ruin any paintjob if I wasn't almost all finished before shooting paint.

OK now we moved to the backyard.

[Vernski]

That is a tough job for two grown men no matter how you do it, rusty bolts are the curse of the GMC owner.My sympathy is with your skinned knuckle's that take drive..Vernski

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[FetchMeAPepsi]

After driving her to the back we cleaned her bed out.



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Removed all of the bolts. Here's a tip - they're all the same. Someone told me they're different lengths. They're not.



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Then I placed the first post in the front between the bed and frame. You don't have to lift or anything to get it started. It's already got a void that fits partway in.



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At this point I remembered that there is an electrical junction on the bed by the bumper. DOH! I took that off with a flathead screwdriver.



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Then I lifted it up so my helper could shove the board through to the other side. My helper is my oldest daughter this time. She's not strong, she's not tough. She's just a girly girl. If she can do it just about anyone you have hand can probably help just fine.

Pay no mind to that handsome guy in the pic.



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You have to really raise it up high and the bed flexes a lot. It's not very heavy in the front though.

The back is stupid heavy though. I had to crawl under it and push up with my feet (and bad hip) to get it up high enough to slip the posts in.

My oldest was supposed to snap a pic of me pushing the bed up. She just took a pick of what appears to be the old man's butt. Very funny ya punk kid.



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After getting a post under front and back (8 ft uncut) I still couldn't lift it over the bumper's fins in back because it weight about a billion pounds. So we put another block under the front.



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And the back. It looked like this.



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From my perch here I was finally able to lift it up to the top of the bumper fins. It wanted to push me over backward. I have a trailer back there though and used it to step on and brace myself. I recommend you don't do this at all. Get a cherry picker or a forklift and just pull it off. This is VERY DANGEROUS.



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I set it down gently on the fins themselves. This allowed us to move the boards to the front so I could pull it backward some without it falling off of all of the bracing blocks and killing me.



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When I pulled it backward off of the fins the first blocks collapsed. That was OK because it fell on the backups. I had it past the fins anyway at this point so I was golden as far as I was concerned.



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[FetchMeAPepsi]

My plan was now to tie my braces together and drive forward. That didn't happen, but it sounded like a good plan.

I drilled pilot holes and ran my lag bolts into my boards under the rear.



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Then ran it in to secure the post and cross piece.



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Next I moved to the front. I picked up the front cross piece to put it on the post. No problem.




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But then I did the final "foot" on the driver's side front and the entire thing collapsed toward the rear. If it hadn't been for the trailer behind the truck the bed would have fallen to the ground and probably scratched or tore itself up horribly.



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At this point I was too worn out to do anything else. This was a real body killer here. This is what it looks like as I type this, my hands sore and throbbing and my muscles crying for pharmaceuticals. Note the boy making a surprise appearance. He happened to be in the mood to help as we were closing up. Shirtless. "Dis one's for da' way'dees! (ladies)"



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I'm dead. Tomorrow if I can move I'll go out there again and try to get it up on blocks again and nail a brace between the two posts as originally planned. I'll then pull forward till I get to the front stake pocket, then lift it over the fins as I did the rear. If I'm lucky.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

[Andice]

I guess that monster of a rear bumper is welded in place, eh? Too bad. I thought I had it tough just trying to lift my bed high enough to clear the upward curvature of the rear frame section - but your bumper "wings" are crazy high. I simply dropped my bed down on the driveway and let it sit on the tailgate. Then I tilted it forward on a sawhorse. Then we slid more support under the rear of the bed. I worried about how I was going to get my bed back on after the truck body was painted. I ended up recruiting some help with the offer of free beer. It worked.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by Vernski

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That is a tough job for two grown men no matter how you do it, rusty bolts are the curse of the GMC owner.My sympathy is with your skinned knuckle's that take drive..Vernski

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Thanks! I'm hard headed. Sometimes too much

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Originally Posted by Andice

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I guess that monster of a rear bumper is welded in place, eh? Too bad. I thought I had it tough just trying to lift my bed high enough to clear the upward curvature of the rear frame section - but your bumper "wings" are crazy high. I simply dropped my bed down on the driveway and let it sit on the tailgate. Then I tilted it forward on a sawhorse. Then we slid more support under the rear of the bed. I worried about how I was going to get my bed back on after the truck body was painted. I ended up recruiting some help with the offer of free beer. It worked.

Yeah, I considered just taking a grinder to the fins and removing them altogether to make things easier but I wasn't sure I could weld them back on in the future. At least not and have them look right.
Your helper there doesn't look like your average "beer for work" buddy

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You're a lucky man! My blonde won't even ride in my truck lol.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

I went outside on Sunday sore and aching. I surveyed the wreckage.



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The first step was to see if things were stable. I looked underneath and saw it was resting on the trailer's tongue and the tongue spinny thing that runs the front wheel pad up and down. I forget what it's called.



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Then it hit me. It's right there halfway on the trailer anyway. The trailer is like 25 feet long. All it has on it now is a spare tarped 305....there's plenty of room!



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So I took the tailgate and pieces I had just put on the trailer off and started huffing it backward onto the trailer. My thoughts were that I could easily pick it up off of the trailer, at least easier than off the ground.



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After kinda walking it backward a bit I had to move around over the frame again and push from the front. Then it hit me - O

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href="http://windypix.com/?pm=RZC9" target="_blank">

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Standing on the rear axle gave me an amazing foot cramp! Ha ha you thought I died didn't you? That's why you shouldn't do this. Be smart and get someone to do it for you with heavy equipment.

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From the front I walked it backward inch by inch, pushing one side then the other like youd do with a fridge.



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The tailgate area finally reached the trailer bed and stuck. So I pulled out my jack and put it under the truck bed to give it wheels to roll better into the trailer.



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Eventually I got it walked and rolled to the end of the bed. Whew!



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[FetchMeAPepsi]

From here I tried to be a big tough man and lift it up over the fins again to clear the stake posts for the front but there was no way that was happening. I was too sore from yesterday and I'm just not that strong.

Instead I put my spare 4x4 under the bed from here to the trailer's front rail.



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Then I made my redhead come out and push the post down to take some of the weight off of me. Her little 90 lb frame wasn't big enough to push it down so she improvised.



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I eventually got it worked around where I could lift it one corner at a time. This let her use her hands (and be more safe with me lifting on it) to help me lever it upward.



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I propped one side on the fins, then the other. It weighed a ton.




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But finally it was FREE! All that was left was sliding it down the lever onto the trailer.



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This is where she rested when I gave out. And it's where she'll stay for now.



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I heavily recommend you not do this by yourself. Or at all.
I can't say it enough. I had a lot of close calls, pinned feet and legs, and pinched digits. One slip or shift and I could have ended up with broken bones.

So, lesson learned:

• Truck beds are heavy
• Sometimes it's good to know people. If you don't know anyone, make your own helpers.
• There will come a point in your rebuild that you'll realize you didn't get what you thought you did. It's still what you have though. Enjoy it.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

I forgot to mention these things. They're little blocks located under the wonky bolts under the bed. You know, the ones that are inside the frame. They go on like this and are metal so they'll get a painting.



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Look at how easy access to that rear end is now? I also found some numbers on it after the bed was off. I was looking in the wrong place.

THey're not on the cover at all, they're on the top right side of the axle. It's still a Dana 44

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To celebrate our little victory and my not losing a limb my redhead sat down and finished our emblems. She said "For $20 bucks each I'd do this all day" so if you guys want 'em done I guess PM me and give her a week. School starts soon and there's alot of touchup.



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The Powder Puff mechanic wanted to whittle. I don't know where she heard it before but I was about her age when my dad taught me. So here she goes. Dull pocket knife and stick in hand.



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And me? Well I got to work putting this together. I wish you guys could smell 'em.

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Coming up next I'll probably paint some of those supports I took off. Then on the weekend I'll pull a wheel off and see if I need to order brakes along with the rear end seals.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

A couple of weekends went by. You'd think nothin happened but it did! I fell into a great 175psi 2 stage 80 gallon 220v Porter Cable compressor!

For FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!

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Here it sits next to my 20 gallon noisemaker.



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I just about had a heart attack. So I rushed out and picked it up. I got it home and put on rubber feet (chopped up old Cecilia tires) in the corner. There it sat all week while I ordered the electrical stuff online. We may as well call this post "How to Wire 220 in your house". Here's my shopping list:

• 1x 10/2 Romex with ground, 50 ft. (or enough to reach the panel if you have to go that far)
• 2x 4" square box with 1/2" knockouts ($0.99 ea at lowes)
• 1x 4" square raise plate single hole cover (for receptacle to poke through)
• 1x 4" square blank plate (to cover the box that will connect to existing wire. Not req'd if panel wired) ($0.91 at lowes)
• 6x 2 screw romex connectors
• 1x NEMA L6-30 30 amp twist lock plug (also called a wire cap)
• 1x NEMA L6-30R twist lock receptacle
• 8x Big Gray Wire Nuts
• 1x 8 ft. Gray Electric grade PVC Pipe ($1.99 at Lowes)
• 1x Gray Pipe 90 Degree Bend with 1/2 inch knockout sized socket (to fit in 4" square box) ($2.64 at Lowes)
• 4x 3/4" One Hole Straps (for holding the wire to the wall) ($0.98 bag of 4 at Lowes)
• 1x 3/4 inch hydraulic hose 4ft long with connectors (Tractor Supply or auto store)
• 1x Electrical Hotstick. I got this
  
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  .

I still dont have a few of the cover plates but everything else is here. I was anxious to get started so I got my stuff laid out. I began by putting my boxes together. I knocked out a left, right, and top hole one one box. Then I knocked out only one side hole on the other. Here's how that's done.

Knock on the hole with a hammer or hammer and screwdriver until it's slightly bent.



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Then grab it with your pliers. Wiggle it back and forth till it comes free.



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Now put your Romex connector in the hole and tighten it down.



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Repeat this for every one of the three holes in the box that'll go in the attic. For the box that will be by your compressor (or whatever you're running) you can put the gray 90 degree connector in it if you want but we'll take it back out later. Here's what it kinda will look like.



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Now grab your NEMA plug and the cable coming from your compressor. Mine came with bare wires snipped off. Take the two big screws off of your plug and set the screws and plastic clamps aside. Now poke your cable through the back of the plug. It has a rubber surround that might make this difficult to push but I got it. So can you.



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Strip the wires about 1/4 inch on the ends then poke them into the plug. The black wire goes in the gold screw's slot, the white, yellow, or red (not all three!) will go in the silver screw's slot. The bare or green wire goes in the green screw's slot.



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