1956 GMC panel truck - POS to RatRod in one year.........

The looking at - pre-purchase inspection - no motor, no transmission. Maybe I should do a carfax?




It's a shitty eastern rig that has been off the road since '83. Real shitty, but cheap.



Yes, they are holding the front end on.





5 Gallon pickle pail for a seat, and Fred Flintstone is right at home!

Man, is it shitty.



The frame, is in surprisingly good shape. A few cracks, and a fishplate repair job done eons ago, but other than some rust not too bad.



Step two - the delivery. This was really easy - one phone call to my Tow Guy.



Thanks Will!





Resting comfortably on stands, step one is to seperate the frame and the body.

stay tuned..... more to come soon, I started back in early fall.

Turns out there were only a couple of bolts left holding the body on.....





it came apart real easy.



The plan is to get the frame done first, and get it the hell out of my shop. It's in the way.

Brakes are first, everything is shot, except the e-brake cables, which are original, with grease fittings. Wild.



I'll get new return springs later................

Sand the frame by hand, then apply penetrating primer.... with a brush. This is a rat rod, not fookin' pebble beach.



one coat down, now for a coat of paint, rust-oleum. Save your bill hirsch and por-15 for those fancy pants rigs on the show circuit.



I got a new paradigm - "who you saving it for, the next owner?"



Note the arrival of the engine - I scored a chevy 250 6 cylinder, and a 3 speed manual transmission for $100 - had to pull it out of a '64 pickup. No big deal.

Everyone wants me to V-8 this thing - fuck'em, I want a six.


Master clyinder and brakelines next -


new shocks all around -

Awesome! Great to see a practical, real-world build-up.

awesome!! a Mary Kay panel truck.


just kiddin'.....I love them old panel vans. looking forward to reading about your progress

In

Count me in too! I'm a Ford guy but that is way cool.

Good on ya for going with the Stovebolt motor. You can do some interesting hop-ups on those. I smell sidedrafts in your future...

D'aww, i thought this was an old thread that someone dug up from the grave... you mean to tell me I actually have to WAIT?!


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Very nice, love the 6 cyl choice.

Subscribed.

Hey,,,you should put a V8 in that!

IN!!!!!!

Oh my

Split the exhaust. Put a glasspack on one pipe and turbo muffler on the other. It'll bark.

I was thinking one exhaust with a cut-out connected to the hand throttle knob. Quiet + stealth when you need it, and loud ass mayhem while it's doin' the one wheel peel.

The panel truck uses a frame mounted fuel tank like a modern pickup (inboard of the frame rail) so a dual exhaust would be difficult to route.

We'll see how it progresses.........

Meanwhile the body has turned into a shelf - - a good place to start piling up body repair patch panels. The body is alot worse than the pics show, I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore.



The metal over the top of the windshield was all perforated, and there is no panel available to repair it. Let the record show, that MZ is not a bodyman, but has a welder and a grinder, and is pretty stubborn.

The lip that holds the windshield gasket is part of a compound curve with two 90 bends in it. Not the easiest thing to replicate. I figured I would start with the harderst section, to make sure it was doable.



I made 3 or 4 little sections, and welded them in. Hard to see in the photos, but this part is a total PITA.



I put a bit of "teaser" black primer to it, to up the ante in desire to make the rest of it look black primer. Actually, I was hoping it would spread to the rest of the truck, like the rust did, but that seems to be working out very poorly.



Meanwhile, back at casa de MZ - the engine has been degreased, and it and the chassis were moved to my house for the winter. The engine will be torn down, checked over, and rebuilt to run stock to start with.



At this point you can see problem #1 - this 6 cylinder (out of a '71 nova according to the engine #s) runs side mounts like the V8.

My original 6 cyl, (which I don't have) used a single front mount. HMMMM..........

Good thing the resto-re-pop catalogs sell a "tubular crossmember" to allow the side mount V8 to be installed in early truck frames.

GM - also made the 6 and the 8 share mounting systems, so the engine I sourced will work with the crossmember.

Before I can go too much further with the crossmember, I need to bolt it up to the transmission and bellhousing to make some measurements, and fit the crossmember to the frame in the right spot.

I've cleaned up the bellhousing and repainted it, and I started my Muncie 3 speed saga shortly thereafter.



Before I can put the trans in, I need to tear it down and put new seals/gaskets to it. I've never had one of these apart, but with only 3 speeds, how hard can it be? There are only a couple of gaskets.....





Well, I don't have pics of it apart, but the transmission has an input shaft that nests into the output shaft, and are connected by sliding sleeves. Pretty standard stuff. I pull it apart, and loose needle bearing rollers fly everywhere, two different sizes of them even. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK!!!!

They are stuck everywhere, in the gear teeth, the inside of the box, all over the bench. Whoa up the train!!! We need the internet!!!

Had to find a schematic of where the loose rollers went, and a roller count, so I can be sure they go back into the right place.



That is actually a later trans, but I couldn't find the diagram I used before. On the top shaft, you can see the "rollers" - they go into a blind hole in the end of the input shaft on two different races...... Pack'em on the output shaft with heavy grease, and slide it all back together, without loosing any - I got it on the first try. Put the 'ol school indian head gasket shellac (give'r a shellackin'!) to it thick, and repaint it.



Now, we can see about mounting that up to the chassis, so we can measure the driveshaft. I have two shafts to pick from, a two piece, and a one piece, both are too long. I'm going to go with the one piece, and it needs to be cut down 3 1/8" to fit.

We used the tractor to lower the engine into place, to locate the crossmember -





Mark the crossmember locations, pull the engine + trans back out -
Here is a good shot of the new crossmember -

6=8

http://www.cliffordperformance.net/

This should be good, I'm in.


Mike