Dennisch' Pickup! Rolling project.

[Dennisch]

After realizing that my trusty Golf 2 just wasn't up to the task anymore, due to massive oilburning, I had to go find a new vehicle.

This is my new daily driver. A 1976 GMC Sierra Classic.

Due to it having a heavy duty chassis, and fat rear axle, it weighs in at 2445kg.

It used to have a 454Ci in it, which was beefed up a bit. But the previous owner could get a lot of money for the engine so he pulled it out and put a nice and beefy 350Ci into the engine bay, along with a new automatic transmission, and he overhauled the rear axle, along with a lot of new bushings etc. etc.

But, I hear you think, a V8? With today's gas prices? 1.80 per liter?? Yup. Ballin' yo.

This car, like almost every other classic v8 that rumbles through the Netherlands it's equipped with a LPG installation. So it runs on a mixture of propane and butane. A lot cheaper per liter. 0.799.

See:

That piece of metal turns the liquid into gas.

My interior is in superior condition, considering the car is 36 years old.

Inside the glovebox the option sticker is still there:

It used to have twin 60 liter gas tanks underneath the car, but the left one is gone, only the right remains, along with a 95 liter LPG tank, which hangs between the rear axle and towbar.

The front runs on 235/60/15:

And on the back there are 275/60/15:

But, Dennisch, why do you have 5 bolts on the front, and 8 on the rear??
I don't know! Probably because of the fat rear axle that's there.

And, some of the badges on the outside:

And the purrrrrrrrrdiest of them all:

👍

 

[Tornado]

How did you find one of those in the Netherlands?

 

[Dennisch]

How did you find one of those in the Netherlands?

Bitch, please. Our country is full of cars like that. Very hot items, those classic Murican cars. This one came from Cali just 3 years ago.

Only because I woke up way to late today I couldn't go to a meeting of US cars. Usually up to 500 cars come to the meetings.

 

[Tornado]

Well, it looks to be in decent enough shape for a 35 year old truck. No rust that I can see, the interior looks to be holding up pretty well and with a good cleaning it would probably look pretty nice. Cool.

 

[Dennisch]

I already polished it, by hand, which took me 4 hours!! And it came out very white!

And indeed, there is no rust on the body or chassis, at least nothing to worry about.

Only 1 thing kinda bugs me, me speedometer has a bit of a life of his own, it works good, it doesn't work. It works way to optimistic, needle over 100mph while driving 50mph.

 

[Keef]

I dig the one red fender. I think you should keep this truck in this condition. It looks exactly like something I might see an old guy lumbering around out in Farmersville about five miles away.

 

[Liquid]

Prefer your 6 series, but not a bad truck.

How much did it cost?

 

[Dennisch]

I dig the one red fender. I think you should keep this truck in this condition. It looks exactly like something I might see an old guy lumbering around out in Farmersville about five miles away.

I actually was thinking about that, since I bought it, but today, taking the pictures, I figured it need to be in a perfect paint coat, because it looks so kewl. And, most of the cars from the 70s I see at meetings are mostly not in very good shape, unless it's a rare car. So, to be the oddball at the meetings I need to show up in a pristine car.

Prefer your 6 series, but not a bad truck.

How much did it cost?

€5500. Which is a pretty good price for a new engine, new tranny, and a rust free chassis and body. And I've seen quite a few cars that cost more, and were in a lot worse shape.

Oh, and the 6 is just too much of a classic to be a daily driver, parts are stupidly expensive. And US parts are cheap as dirt.

 

[Dennisch]

Getting ready for fall and winter, so the Pickup will stay indoors for a couple of days. I'm going to get rid of a bunch of small patches of rust, before I need to do serious repair work on it.

Took off all the molding that was on the bed, and removed the anti-slip from the wood.
All the rust I found was nothing to be scared about. I will grind it all clean and repaint it.
The wood will be sanded and then given a new tough clear coat. Still indecisive to remove all the wood, but as long as I am busy, why not..

I also bought a paint gun to paint the underside of the car, as it is now all bare metal. More photos will come.

 

[Dennisch]

The gearbox died on me, and this is what the oilpan looks like, something tells me that it wasn't a rebuild one...

 

[Doth1s]

That's a shame. Did you get around to removing the wood from the bed?

 

[Dennisch]

Now that you mention it... I removed the wood, found no serious rust. Used a grinder to clean it up a bit, and then painted it 4 times, and after that I sprayed bed liner on it.
Did the same to the complete underside of the car, and all the inner fenders.

 

[Doth1s]

That is a lot of bed liner spray on.

 

[Dennisch]

Well, for the underside I used a different coating, bitumen based stuff. But it should be rust proof for at least 5 years now. I'll be working on the paint itself when the temperature goes up a bit, working in the cold sucks.

 

[Slash]

I just noticed you have the same steering wheel cover as I do, just mine is red. The foam with the plastic wire/cord wrapped around it that is. Same rims too, cept mine are 8 lug and white/red 2 tone.

 

[Dennisch]

I just noticed you have the same steering wheel cover as I do, just mine is red. The foam with the plastic wire/cord wrapped around it that is. Same rims too, cept mine are 8 lug and white/red 2 tone.

That was one of the first things I removed after I got settled into the car. Disgusting plastic bacteria infested piece of bleh!

Also!! More pictures of my work this winter.

I noticed that the floor by on the passenger side was a bit wet, it leaked from the windshield rubber (replaced it), and this was the result of that water:

It had some small holes here and there, and it was a bit thin. So I welded some new plates into the floor :

I didn't bother too much about the welds and grinding them down, I figured that it would be out of sight anyway. After that I got me some white paint and this happened :

Layer 1.

Layer 2.

I put on a third layer, but no pic.

Then, the bed got the works. Removed all the wood and this showed up:

Nothing rusted through, but it took me 4 hours with an angle grinder with a wire brush on it to clean most of it up. Gave it 3 layers of black paint, and then 2 layers bedliner. Voila :

I also removed the wheel wells (front and rear) to clean up all nook and crannies in there. They were all in great shape, I just sanded them and gave them the same treatment of paint, paint, more paint, and underbody spray.
This is a front one with just the paint.

I can bring the transmission to the repair shop tomorrow, probably have it back on Tuesday, at the cost of €650,-. But hey, it will be good for another 25 years after that.

I will also be replacing my dash with a later type, with a tachometer, electric instead of mechanical oil pressure gauge, and the fuel gauge sits in a different position, due to this I will have to rewire the original connector, all 16 wires have a different position, so that would take up most of a day to get it right...

Oh and 1 more thing I did : the wire of the dome light used to run past the driver side door, on the floor, but it now goes up the moldings on the A pillar, straight to the back, out of sight. Not a single wire remains in sight now in the cab.

👍

Another thing I did!

Due to the lack of a decent way to signal with a floor mounted lightswitch, I made something myself, I had some cateye lamp sockets laying around, and placed them behind my grill.


I didn't need to place a new switch in my car, I used the cruise control button to signal with the lights.

 

[Dennisch]

So, some new pictures!

First, my tranny in it's miserable poor old state, after I pulled it out of the truck:

And, freshly rebuild and cleaned :

Yeeuy!

And some new interior pieces, a steering wheel : (I had a Chevrolet steering wheel)

And 2 wooden arm rests, because in the old ones the foam was in bad shape:

 

[DaDog]

just came accross this thread now , good looking truck .
Good job on refreshing the truck again .
I'll defenatly keep an eye out on this thread 👍

 

[Tornado]

That hole in the dash because you plan on putting a double DIN in there?

 

[Dennisch]

just came accross this thread now , good looking truck .
Good job on refreshing the truck again .
I'll defenatly keep an eye out on this thread 👍

Thanks! 👍

That hole in the dash because you plan on putting a double DIN in there?

No, there should be a complete dash covering all that white you see, (picture 8 in the op) and that hole is for a vent. But I still have to replace my gauges with a newer set so I didn't want to put the dash back in, just to take it out again for installing the gauges.

 

[Slash]

Awe too bad you took out that steering wheel cover, I adore my red one lol. Don't know why, just always thought it was neat.

Shame the previous owner removed the 454 and repleaced it with a 350. They get similar* gas milage but the 454 packs much more torque. Regardless both engines are great and it looks like that 350 is a stout motor. Nice. Any plans on boosting it up in the air a little (under 4 inches)? Bigger tires? Looks like it sits a little low.

 

[Dennisch]

The 454 was tickled so I doubt it would get the same milage as this one, doing 90km/h it runs 7.5 km on 1 liter lpg.

And raising it, I am still in doubt, my dads pickup is still on stock tires and ride height, and it drives so much smoother than mine, but my truck really hugs the road when driving 'sporty'..

 

[Slash]

Ah I see. Have you had it dynoed to see what kind of numbers it's making? I can't imagine more than 230hp at the wheels and 315ft-lb torque, but I don't exactly know what's been done to the engine. You've got to get me a video of it running, I want to hear the beast unleashed

As far as a lift I would only bump it up with a few inch body lift, nothing major. That leaves you the option of bigger tires, a wider stance, and the big thing that I like is that you have a better view point in the air, you can see more.

Something like this, but maybe 1 inch less of lift.

 

[1stlsx]

Ah I see. Have you had it dynoed to see what kind of numbers it's making? I can't imagine more than 230hp at the wheels and 315ft-lb torque, but I don't exactly know what's been done to the engine. You've got to get me a video of it running, I want to hear the east unleashed

Id bet its less than that on LP, but I could be wrong....

 

[Slash]

Id bet its less than that on LP, but I could be wrong....

Yeah but his is also got from the looks of it an intake so that might help boost power a little bit. I doubt a whole lot though. Can't tell if there's headers on it but from what I can see it might have stock manifolds.

 

[Dennisch]

The engine was bought/sold as a 330 Hp engine, and now with the new tranny behind it, it sure feels like that, I need to test it on petrol to see what it does, but I can only imagine that would be even more fun.

I don't have headers on it yet, but that is for later on, because when I go for the headers, the rest of the exhaust goes as well, and I'm thinking about stainless steel from front to back.

And lifting it like the black one you posted might be a bit of a hassle, as mine is RWD, and I have the coil springs on the front.

 

[Slash]

The engine was bought/sold as a 330 Hp engine, and now with the new tranny behind it, it sure feels like that, I need to test it on petrol to see what it does, but I can only imagine that would be even more fun.

I don't have headers on it yet, but that is for later on, because when I go for the headers, the rest of the exhaust goes as well, and I'm thinking about stainless steel from front to back.

And lifting it like the black one you posted might be a bit of a hassle, as mine is RWD, and I have the coil springs on the front.

That may be crank horsepower. With the drivetrain loss then it must be close to around 265hp, which is still respectable.

That's understandable about the exhaust. I figured you would.

Body lift will do the trick. All suspension components are left alone.

 

[Ibonibo]

I always though i already gave a comment here, guess not, maybe in your bimmer thread or something...

Nice pickup 👍 Still exotic even if not overly rare.

Your rust elimination seems nicely done too


So now what's up with the Bimmer 635Csi?

 

[Dennisch]

The 635 is sitting nice and warm in the garage untill my wallet fills up again. Apparently classic BMW parts are kinda expensive.

And besides the money pouring problem, there are another 2 cars in need of some tender love and care, a 1970's Bel Air, and a 1974 GMC Sierra Grande, both belong to my dad. And I kinda want those two to be ready before I go further with the BMW.

 

[Slash]

What other plans do you have for this truck?