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My Slow 71 GMC Build

Thanks Mike. I appreciate the help.

I do have my fender pushed all the way forward. I am afraid to go too far with it. I don't want my hood to be all messed up too.

I have the cab sitting on the original body mounts right now and its not bolted down. How much do these cabs flex. Could that be the problem?

I may try another 16ga shim. I'll keep you posted. I'll either fix it or make it a convertible (I just kicked myself in the pills for even thinking such thoughts).
 
NorCalTank said:
What do your body mounts look like? Do you still have the body lift in it? It took me a lot of time on mine to get the gaps correct, shimming the body mounts back and forth. It is amazing how much they will move.
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The frame mounts are great. The body mounts mounts are great. The rubber between is 40 years old. I need new ones. How are LMC's rubber mounts?

How did you shim your body?
 
FYI: I posted this picture earlier, but its right after I did the rockers. Nothing has changed...other than the door won't fit right now.

IMG_2553.jpg
 
lukefalls said:
Thanks Mike. I appreciate the help.

I do have my fender pushed all the way forward. I am afraid to go too far with it. I don't want my hood to be all messed up too.

I have the cab sitting on the original body mounts right now and its not bolted down. How much do these cabs flex. Could that be the problem?

I may try another 16ga shim. I'll keep you posted. I'll either fix it or make it a convertible (I just kicked myself in the pills for even thinking such thoughts).
Click to expand...

Bolt everything down then check alignment. They will have some flex / warpage to them.

If your mounts are that old, it will affect it to. I'd definitely consider replacing them. I have poly on mine, but I know Greg did the LMC rubber kit.
 
Thank for the two links, Mike.

Thanks, AJ. I know that I need new bushings. Its actually the very next thing on my list. I think that I'll go with LMC to keep the vibration out of my cab...unless someone know better.

I am just surprised because it was the same body mounts a few months ago. I wouldn't think that after 40 years, 5 months would make that big of a difference.

I put in a double 16ga shims. It helped a bit. Now there IS a gap between the door and fender. The door does hit the fender, but not nearly as bad.

If my math is correct, this is what I've got with two 16ga shims.119. 1/8" steel is .125 I think that I have room or one more 16ga piece. That will balance out my two gaps. I will tack them together with a rosette weld.

My daughter is now in bed, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for you help. Clearly, I need it.:whistle:
 
FWIW, I put the LMC rubber mounts in my blazer about 6 years ago. They are shot and need replacing again. I have a new set of poly bushings (from ORD) for it. The blazer stays in my shop and I keep it fairly clean underneath.
 
I will take the easy one. Don't worry about the front fender so much. You can adjust that with shims at the core support position. To gain more gap between the fender and the door use a porta power from the firewall to the core support. Make sure the bolts are tight on the front of the fender to the core support and the 2 on the top and the one on the bottom in the back are loose.
 
90k5blaze said:
I will take the easy one. Don't worry about the front fender so much. You can adjust that with shims at the core support position. To gain more gap between the fender and the door use a porta power from the firewall to the core support. Make sure the bolts are tight on the front of the fender to the core support and the 2 on the top and the one on the bottom in the back are loose.
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I was actually thinking about doing this. I'd have to open up the holes on the back of the fender though. How does this affect the hood/cowl lines?

My door problem will sill persist, I'm afriad. The upper curved body line matches the fender and cab perfectly, however the bottom of the door and the window frame both stick out. I think that my window frame is bent it may be easily fixed.

The real problem is the bottom of the door. Once the front bottom of the door is lined up, the aft bottom of the door sticks out. This happens while the top aft part of the door is flush. Its like the door is twisted. Can doors twist that much?

Blazerguy, thanks. Sounds like I'm using ORD's poly bushings.

My brain hurts. :dunno:
 
Luke,

Definitely replace the body bushings first.... no sense chasing alignment issues with 40-year old rubber in there. All the alignment will change anyway once you add the new bushings. I'd torque 'em down to spec also.....then start aligning things.

Check both the doors and the cab in the hinge areas for signs of fatigue cracks. I had a DS door that wouldn't align worth a damn, and then I noticed that there were cracks all around the upper hinge mount. The metal was so weak that the weight of the door would pull it out of position and it would never shut right.

For a pickup body, I'd be less concered about the clearance between the door and front fender and more concerned about the clearance along the windshield pillar. Is that gap really tight now, or loose?? :thinking:

Somehow you need to get even gaps all the way around the door, if none of the gaps have a "taper" in them that's probably a good sign. In the worst possible case, if you cant get the door to fit well in most areas and it opens/shuts nicely you can always weld a small strip to the outside edge of the door. I've seen some custom shops do that when they are going for that showcar-style 3/16" perfect body gap effect. It's a lot better than trying to build it out with body filler. :yikes:

Remember, these trucks were mass produced and were not held to very exact tolerances even from the factory. You can expect that you may need to do some "tweaks" if you want really good, even gaps everywhere.


:usaflag:
 
Thanks Greg. I just ordered ORD's poly bushings. I'll get them torqued down and see what happens.

I do have fairly tight gap between the wing window and A pillar. Both "fore-and-aft" as well as "in-and-out". I have huge gaps everywhere else around the window.

I keep everyone posted. That for all the input. Right now, I still think that I am somewhere in "user error" territory.
 
I actually made a bit of progress. A friend of mine let me use his airplane paint booth. I laid 4 coats of high build epoxy primer. I blocked a few areas and still have low spots. I guess I'm not the body man that I though I was.

The worst spots are where the bed impacted the back of the cab. I see tons of these with damage there. I'm actually considering cutting out the damage and building new panels. I've got some more work to do.

IMG_3092.jpg


IMG_3093.jpg
 
Lookin' good, Luke.

It must feel good to at least have it all in one color, even if it is just the high build. :pimp:

Maybe I can join you some day.. :whistle:
 
:whistle: I f#@%ed up!

I figured out why my driver's door didn't line up.

When I replaced all the sheet metal, I must have measured wrong. I put the lower fender mount in the wrong spot. Its a fairly easy fix...I think.

Mike, you're exactly right. Its really nice to see it all once color again. My wife finally saw light at the end of the tunnel...enough so that she let me work on it more this week. A lot more.

Little does she know how much lie ahaead. Engine, trans, atlas, shocks (lots of 'em), role cage, the actual paint, drive lines, electrical, and...

...crap, now I'm depressed
 
It's a big elephant.......take smaller bites! :D


Looking good, just keep plugging away and try not to think about the entire list all at once.

:usaflag:
 
A wise man once said to me, that building a rig is like having a patient mistress, she will always be there..

Some days I don't believe him, as I think that if I don't work on the rig, it will leave.

Though, the rig that he owns, is still sitting nicely in his garage.

Take a break if you need one.


:wink1:
 
Greg72 said:
It's a big elephant.......take smaller bites! :D


Looking good, just keep plugging away and try not to think about the entire list all at once.

:usaflag:
Click to expand...

Thanks, both of you. I am actually not in a big hurry. I am just glad that my wife doesn't realize how much is left.

I am really enjoying this. I worked for two days finishing the body. Tomorrow morning, it goes back into the paint booth. Hopefully one more heavy coat will get it done. I'll post pics tomorrow.
 
really looking good Luke, keep up the diligent work.
 
lukefalls said:
IMG_3092.jpg
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I'm thinking this is gonna ride worse than the 8" Superlift springs that were on my truck when I first got it.

Keep at it Luke, you've made good progress in a relatively short amount of time. Heck I've been torn down for two years, and some here longer than that!
 
AJs72K5 said:
I'm thinking this is gonna ride worse than the 8" Superlift springs that were on my truck when I first got it.

Keep at it Luke, you've made good progress in a relatively short amount of time. Heck I've been torn down for two years, and some here longer than that!
Click to expand...

No way man, those post beams have way more flex than you'd think! It scored like...a 1...on an RTI ramp.

Thanks for all of the positive feedback. I posted earlier that my poor body work was revealed when I primed it. Well, I reprimed it again today. Over the past few days, I have probably 20 hours of work just on the cab. I am fixing all the small mistakes.

It was well worth the time. As soon as I primed it, I saw how much better the product is. Ironically enough, I am trying to rush my "slow GMC build". Now that I'm learning to slow down (even more), I'm liking the results.

Oh, I moved the driver's fender mount. Everything lines up now.
 
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