1949 GMC 3/4 ton4 speed with 4.57 gear
This truck has been restored to stock components. It's also now my daily driver and shop truck. It has 79,000 original miles and completely rust free. I just didn't have the heart to change much.
Anyway, have owned and restored many muscle cars. I am owner of a motorcycle shop in Georgia (
Baxter's Garage). Our specialty is high end customs, blueprinted engines, and EFI tuning but we also restore bikes as well. With a complete machine shop and sheetmetal fab shop at my disposal, it's hard not to go at this ol' girl with a long list of upgrades ... but I've refrained. LOL.
My very first post
was in Driveline in regards to fluids. Here's what I came up with:
Engine SAE 30, Trans GL1 Mineral 90 weight, Diff GL4 non syth 80W90, shock oil 10 weight.
My
next post was in General Truck Talk about the bias plys and stock wheels. That quest ended and led me to completely go thru the mechanicals and use this ole girl as a daily driver. So...its now a 270 with a 4.10 rear gear and she purrs at 3000rpm at 65mph. I was able to find a 302 which I will be rebuilding with period correct hot rod parts, install it, and drop to most likely a 3.08 or 3.55 rear gear. I've got a
Project Journal started with videos of the GMC 302 complete rebuild. Current mods will get me thru until then.
Back to the wheels. I had Detroit Steel Wheel make up a set of raw 18x8, 8 lug, 3.5 inch backspace wheels. I painted and striped them, installed clips and caps, and tossed on a set of 235/60/18 tires.
On top of that, the drivers side of the I beam was beat up a bit and an oversize king pin simply wasn't big enough so I machined the hole, made up a bushing, reamed to size, all new brakes and hardware on all 4 corners, replaced the single reservoir mast cylinder with a dual out of a 67-69 Camaro, plumbed it in, and good to go.
To finish up for now, shot some paint on the grille and running boards, refinished the bed, made the side wood, lettered everything up for my shop, and done ... until the 302 gets finished anyway.
Great forum guys. Here are a few pics, including the 302 "before" shots.
Thanks for your info.
