The Stovebolt Site Forums The Forum Gallery 1947 (2nd Series) - 1955 (1st Series) 1951 GMC 100 Pickup

I bought the GMC 100 3 years ago from my son in law, who inherited from his grandfather. His grandfather had the pickup as far back as his grandmother could remember. She said he pulled their camper around the country when he was working construction and playing accordion in a band. They pulled his race car to various tracks in the area on Friday and Saturday nights. He started his own body shop and at one time he started restoring the old GMC. He put a 1959 Chevy 261 into it and painted back in the 80's and then parked in a garage where it sat until his passing. My son in law and I pulled it home to my place and stored it in my shed for a couple of years. We decided to get it running and he could drive it around for the 4th July get together. We checked everything over and it fired right off. That's when we discovered why he had parked it in the garage. It burned more oil than gas. It would go thru a quart of oil every 20 to 25 miles. Thats why the glove box was full of cleaned used sparkplugs, grandpa used them to keep it running.
My son in law said he wasn't interested in working on the old pickup and wanted to know if I would buy it from him. I bought it from him and told him that when I got done working on it and playing with it that I would give to his sons so it would stay in the family.
I soaked that engine with every concoction I could think of, but it didn't help. Last winter I took the engine out and overhauled it and it is one sweet running engine now. I've installed all new brakes and pins and bushings in the leaf spring shackles to tighten things up. This winter I decided instead of repairing the Okie bushing that I would instead modernize the trans and rear end. With the 4.11 gear and cruising around at 45-50 a guy can get run over now days. I have a drive train out of a 1967 Chevy C10 and it has a Saginaw 3 speed and a 12-bolt rear end. I'm putting new synchronizers and bearings into the Saginaw and regearing the 12-bolt to a 3.43 possi. Had trouble with the voltage regulator last summer so I'm switching it over to an alternator. As everyone knows, that In between waiting for parts, that there is a ton of other things that need attention. My plan for the pickup is to be a daily summer driver.
Although, when my grandsons and I first took it out of the shed (30 years of crud) we washed and waxed it. Couldn't believe that it shined up like it did. My neighbor came by and said we should drive it down to the car show they were having for the town parade. Took it down there and parked it and after the parade we came back and there was a trophy on the seat, 2nd place for Peoples Choice.

What a great looking GMC. The paint looks amazing for an 80's restoration. Your son in law's Grandfather picked a good color combination.

Thanks for posting in our Gallery.

John

Great looking truck. Love that blue.

Sweet looking ride. Those wheels even look pretty good on it. 👍

Great looking truck. Do you remember what Grey you used on the engine? When I did mine I found a Grey called Chevy Grey in some online sources but they all showed it discontinued. I ended up using F*** Grey. It was a good color match for the original and several guys posted that is what they used.

What a great story! I look forward to reading more about your truck in the future.