• We have upgraded our forum software! See here for details.

Canadian project 51

R

RHLKUSTOMS

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Location
Canada
Website
www.rhlkustoms.com
Hello, this is my intro post to the site. I've been visting here for a while and figured it was finaly time to jump in and get going on our project 51:D

As I can see theres a ton of info and informed people on the site so I hope that I'll be able to pick your brains of knowledge to help me on this build.

So let me give you a little perspective on why I want to do this build up project.

This is a little 51 that my Dad picked up along with a 1949 Chevy parts truck as well as fair bit of extra body parts, motors, transmisions etc .....Mmmm....about 26-27 yrs ago. For as long as can remember(I'm 41 and my dad is 67) he always wanted to redo an old Chevy just like the ones his father had when he was a kid growing up. But life being what life is, years passed by and he just never had the chance to start working on it.

As a kid, I was always around my dad in the shop working on some cool custom cars/trucks etc and as a result I learned a lot in the process and made countless great memories along the way. So as a payback/thank you to my dad, I decided that I will redo the truck for him....this year's the year.... "the old chevy" will come to life!

This will be a three generation project(my dad, myself and my son) just like when I was a kid with my dad in my grandfather's shop.

So as you can see we have to wait for the white fluffy stuff to melt away and the ground to thaw out so that that we can pull it out, take everything appart for blasting and start the rust repair and the reassembly process. So our plan is to do a nice as close to original looking build up without worrying about matching part numbers/parts etc....just a simple stock, well done little daily driver pick up truck with nice paint/wheels/tires. CLASSIC PARTS....I'll be in touch with you guys soon!

So here is what we have to work with....I know we have our work cut out for us but a with little of your help for some things, it's going to happen!

DSC00130.jpg

DSC00131.jpg

DSC00129.jpg

DSC00128.jpg

DSC00134.jpg

DSC00141.jpg

DSC00137.jpg

DSC00139.jpg

DSC00144.jpg
 
Welcome!

Great story, RH! Great reason to go through with it. Spanning three generations and all for the love of the AD...:cool:

One question~ What in the wangdangdoddle does that truck have a GMC mug, but a Chevy front end in the bed for? The missing oil cap on the valve cover makes me wonder what the block is? I see the interior looks full GMC, except the gauges and the horn button... Must be someone like brit who owned it last.
They had a Chevy, but wanted a G:D
 
Last edited:
Zig said:
Great story, RH! Great reason to go through with it. Spanning three generations and all for the love of the AD...:cool:

One question~ What in the wangdangdoddle does that truck have a GMC mug, but a Chevy front end in the bed for? The missing oil cap on the valve cover makes me wonder what the block is? I see the interior looks full GMC, except the gauges and the horn button... Must be someone like brit who owned it last.
They had a Chevy, but wanted a G:D
Click to expand...


Thanks for the welcome guys!

Zig:
The truck is a GMC, the guy that my dad bought the truck from had picked up the chevy mug that's in the bed with the intention of making a chevy out of it and that's what we intend to do as well, nothing against the GMC...we like them both but we a have a weak spot for the look of the Chevy's front end....the key thing here is that's it a GM right...:D

The motor is a later model 235cui that's seized tighter than....but we have a nice complete running donor 216cui engine/trans with 30 k miles that came from a friends of our's hot rodded 51 pick up.

Like I said in the intro, for us, it's not really what parts we'll use to build the truck.... it's the cool end result that matters:cool:

Thanks for checking it out so far, I will make sure to document the whole build with as much progress pictures as possible for you guys;)
 
Hey RH, looks like you're ready to have some fun. You seem to have enough pieces to get you going and enough know how to make it happen. Thanks for sharing.
 
Don't the Canadian GMC's have Chevy engines.... So it is a beautiful G, but without the long long long motor:eek:

Anyway, welcome, and thanks for the background and the pics. Gotta love these trucks.

my dad had on when I was 2 yrs old, there are pics of me "driving" it around. im 26 now, and i have always loved these trucks. they are just fun!!!


thanks again
 
Good plan to change the front end. The only differences between a GMC and Chev are the lettering in a few places and a GMC's butt-ugly grille.
 
here we go again

OMG another GMC to contend with and all their uppity talk ! LOL ! welcome and best of luck, you will find a wealth of info and good natured ribbing here:D
 
Welcome !

It looks like you have the right attitude as well as scads of parts to work with.

Your son is very lucky , as is your dad .

Some folks are not aware that Canuckian GMC's were all built with the Chevy engine .

A 216 will be nice , maybe you'll find a decent takeout 235 or roaring 261 to stuff in there .

I'd fill that siezed 235 ful of Diesl Fuel right now , it'll kill the weeds below the truck and it's an effective if slow , penetrant on old stuck engines .

The rockerbox with central oil cap indicates it's a passenger car engine .

Keep the updates and pictures coming ! .
 
another rescue!

Awesome. I love looking at these pictures where the truck is just there - found as is - and then knowing how they can still be brought back to life along with all it's memories. Amazing.

I moved to Florida several years ago and I can send you my ice scrapper - I don't need it any more!
 
Thanks again for the good wishes guys!

For now I think we'll stick with the complete 216 engine that we have, simply because we got it for free:p and it's a strong running motor....we'll see what happens as we get into the rebuilding process...you never know with these things.....sometimes you end up completely in left field:cool:

For now I have to wait for warmer weather to arrive :(so that we can drive up to it with a flat bed and take it back to the shop..... Until then, I'll start ordering some new suspension and cab parts ahead of time so that we have something to work with when we get the truck in the shop. Man, I can't wait to get started on the old girl!:D

A questions for you guys...:

-Any of you have suggestions on how to deal the rust in the seam of the back of the cab?....the best thing would probably be to seperate the roof from the lower cab section to sand blast inside the seam.....:eek:.

I'm glad to have found a place like this with so much resources, support and inspiration ! Thanks again for your input.
 
I placed my first order of parts today with Classic Parts.....:D

Basically the main bits and pieces that we'll need to pre fit the cab and bed to the frame, engine to frame as well as the fenders to the cab and bed

-Cab mount kit
-Bed mount kit
-Rad support rubber pad mounts
-Rubber engine mounts
-Mounting bolt kits for the front fenders, rear fenders and rear bed
And last but certainly not least ....
-A factory assembly manual to make sure we do it right from the start!:D

So it's not huge but for now it's a good start in the right direction.

I did'nt tell my dad that I started ordering parts for the truck(it's difficult not to tell him just yet that the project is now officially off and running:(:)....), it's his birthday in about 3 weeks so when the parts arrive in a week or two, we'll wrap them up and he'll have some "goodies" to open up....He's going to get such a kick out of this!:cool:

So that's all for now, I'll post pictures of the parts when they get here!
 
Last edited:
Hey guys!

Just something fun to add to how far the history of this current project goes back...

I was at my dad's today and we where going through some old pictures from when he was a kid. He's got more that he will look for that I'll show you as I get them.

This is a 52 Chevy truck that my grandfather had at the time (the picture was taken in 1955 so the truck was pretty new) he had a business making wooden windows and doors for houses and was used for picking up the wood used for making the windows/doors as well as for delivering them. This is the truck that my dad learned to drive in at around 12 yrs old.

As you can see the old chevy had one hell of a load of wood on the platform..you don't see trucks loaded like that anymore on the road these days:)

So here's to looking back on some family history...
shoptruck1.jpg

shoptruck2.jpg
 
Grandpa's Rig

I see Grandpa had a nice eye , stainlklees grille and a NuVue cab too....

The reason you no longer see trucks overloaded like that is the ICC , they put a screeching stop to than nonsense in the 70's , we used to run our rigs like that and the loggers up North still do on the back roads out of the public's view....

:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top