Stovebolt.com Forums The Forum Gallery 1973 - 1987 Trucks 1984 GMC General

Here is the photo shoot I did about 10 years ago of the late Bill Alderson's GMC General. I can't find those notes and its hard to remember everything he told me. I do recall that the mechanical restoration of this truck was relatively straightforward -- it had been a well-cared for truck. It has the 1st year Cat 3406 engine and an earlier Eaton-Fuller 13-speed transmission.

He did say that most of the interior pieces were challenging to track down, but his dogged determination paid off. I recall that he could tell me the ultimate source for each piece of weatherstripping, each interior panel, each knob. Just a beautiful truck and a great job by Bill and his son Wayne (who did a lot of the work and, especially, the paint.

John

Beautiful!! That General looks better than any/all of the Generals we ever had in our fleet!!! Almost makes me want to own one!

I worked on a super liner Mack that looked very similar except it was orange V8 with triple counter shaft box with quad box overdrive a definite heavy hauler we had low loader behind it that opened to 14 foot wide 4 rows of 8 wheels on trailer We never had the GMC line of trucks out in Australia

MAAAACK! In a canyon, anyway. We got it out. http://www.bunchobikes.com/lineman7.jpg

Mark -- Should have left it there ...

Agreed, but those things were work horses. We'd race them from the canyon back to the home yard to pick up another load. They never seemed to break. First tractor they ever put me in. They didn't even train me! I think all they asked me was "Can you drive stick?" and threw me in the truck. They probably said "sticks" and I misheard them. Sink or swim. The standard answer after that point was "Sure! Show me where to start it!"

"Want to fly this Bell 500?" "Sure, show me where to start it!"

First time I hopped in a machine with a 10 speed Road Ranger, I thought I was in heaven!! I didn't have to put my sandwich down!!

The Generals with the 6V92 were work horses too. I actually miss having to replace the starter in one compared to the stuff we have to work on these days. Although, these days, we seem to kill less starters.

Mark -- Kinda sounds like the first time I drove a Class 8 truck -- 10 pm in a raging blizzard. My friend (now my boss) calls and says "Can you come drive a plow truck?" I thought he meant a pickup truck. It was a 379 Peterbilt triaxle dump truck with a 10-foot plow. 3406B Cat and a 13-speed roadranger. My course of instruction was merely how to operate the dump body, the plow and the salt auger and spreader. And the low oil pressure cut out to start. And the rest ... is history. Here I am now doing it for a job.

Anyway, back to Bill's General -- is that a 3406A Cat??

Could be. It's been so long......