yellaheep Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 I call it empty nest..... I sold off all but one MJ, have my '46 Olds in storage until I figure out why I haven't started on it, my uber-cool '97 supercharged 5.2 Dakota and of course, the Hellcat...... But those apparently aren't enough. So I bring you my latest project - a '66 GMC shortbed sitting on a '60-something Toronado frame....... yep...... Front Wheel Drive with 455 Olds power! I just couldn't pass it up - not for the stupid low price I got it for. At least at the time I went to look at it, it was a stupid low price...... lol. Since getting it home and crawling around it, I've found it's gonna need quite a lot of work. The fab work is actually pretty well done, but the issue is that it was done in the late 80's and was the previous owner's daily driver so it needs alot of mechanical fixing..... and some updating. Not sure how deep I'll delve into all that, but the goal is to get it running and driving again, fix some of the major issues and then sell. As with most of these trucks, they get rusty. This one has plenty of it, but luckily just the fenders, rockers, doors and cab corners. The floors, sills and roof are fine. The bed is an '80's Chevy truck bed and the metal is in excellent shape as far as rust. The bed boards are toast. Wiring has it's issues as it's a hacked blend of '66 GMC and Toronado. It's a simple harness so I may look at just getting an 18-21 circuit street rod harness from Painless and scrapping the nest it has now. For some reason it had 15x8 wheels on the front and one 15x7 on the rear with a temp spare. With the wide track width the Toronado runs, those 15x8's stuck out way to far. I've found a pair of 15x6.5's for the front that fit MUCH better and will be shod with 215/60's. The rear will get as wide as I can find and maybe even a wheel spacer to even up the track width with the front. The rear is the Toronado rear axle bolted to the OEM leaf springs, but for some reason it was narrowed by cutting out a bit of the center and slipping a larger diameter tube over the halves to join them. Might have been done when originally built to accommodate some super wide tires, deep offset wheels for that look of "irony"..... dunno. The bigger "surprises" so far have been the nasty engine oil leak coming from the front of the oil pan / harmonic balancer seal. Can't tell for certain as there's a motor mount bracket there blocking an easy view of that area..... and the front suspension parts are all very worn out. The guy really drove this thing and it didn't help that he lived out in the boonies on dirt washboard roads..... Anyway, should be fun...... I hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 That needs a rear engine and transaxle setup to make it 4wd (and twin engine). Or another Tornado front half stuck in the rear so you can have 4 wheel steering too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Chief Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Looks good, had a 62 stepside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 at no point in my life have I ever thought to myself, "self, you know what I wish we could buy, a front wheel drive pickup truck". you win the "weirdest mashup" contest for today. hands down. with a 455 pulling it along, I bet it's a blast to drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Quote The bed is an '80's Chevy truck bed and the metal is in excellent shape as far as rust. The bed is toast. Will it do a wheelie in reverse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellaheep Posted March 27, 2018 Author Share Posted March 27, 2018 6 hours ago, HOrnbrod said: Will it do a wheelie in reverse? LOL........ Not likely...... probably be more apt to do a "stoppie" by mashing the brakes at high speed..... But think of how much attention it'd get at the drag strip...... pull up into the burnout box, stop for a second, let the track attendant holler at ya to pull forward and get frustrated, then light 'em up...... Or maybe I should go get a car trailer and do this.......... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 2 hours ago, yellaheep said: oh great... I retract that previous statement. now I want to build a front wheel drive truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveevryjp1998 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 I need one of those trailer trucks here so I can move the jeeps on jackstands here in the grass onto the truck in the street. This way I wouldnt have to worry about compliance and could wrench in the street in a mobil lab. I don't need to move just buy a couple of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 This is soooo strange. Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dzimm Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 19 hours ago, Pete M said: oh great... I retract that previous statement. now I want to build a front wheel drive truck. Do that with a 4wd truck and make a PTO setup for the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 If you'd like a little inspiration.......this is one of the guys I follow. He has a whole series of vids of his restoration and he's currently working on another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 On 3/27/2018 at 3:19 PM, yellaheep said: LOL........ Not likely...... probably be more apt to do a "stoppie" by mashing the brakes at high speed..... But think of how much attention it'd get at the drag strip...... pull up into the burnout box, stop for a second, let the track attendant holler at ya to pull forward and get frustrated, then light 'em up...... Or maybe I should go get a car trailer and do this.......... ? I'm in love! Do it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellaheep Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 Some progress........ Pressure washed the entire thing, washed away decades of dirt road and engine/trans gooeyness. The truck had 2 15x8 rally wheels for the rear, one 15x7 front and a temp spare. The 15x7 still seemed to stick out when mounted to the front so I found a pair of 15x6.5's that had more backspacing. Had the 5 wheels media blasted and painted them GM Argent silver. Man was it a mo-fo to find old-school looking 15" tires used, but I found some 255/70 rears and 215/70 fronts and got those mounted up. Afterwards, I felt it needed a bit more rake, so I took a few turns out of the torsion bars. Have some NOS GMC Sierra van center caps coming. May/may not put trim rings back on them..... It's amazing what a simple set of tires and wheels will do for appearance isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellaheep Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 And center caps......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 Looks way better with the new shoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 It really needs to be a car hauler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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