This 1951 GMC truck sits atop a 4th generation GM B-body chassis, in this case, a 1992 Chevrolet Caprice, which is one reason why this GMC truck has a Chevrolet tail gate – the other reason being the GMC tailgate was missing.
The entire chassis, suspension, and drive-train were used as well as the entire wiring harness including onboard diagnostics and under-hood A/C components.
The drive train features a Throttle Body Fuel-Injected 5.7L/350 CI mated to a Turbo-Hydramatic 700R4 4-Speed Automatic Transmission with Overdrive and limited-slip rear-end.
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The interior is freshly re-upholstered in white with red piping to include seats, door panels, kick panels and durable carpet.
The truck has power ABS brakes (disc/drum), power steering, tilt column (w/ turn signal switch and shift handle), new glass and seals, new door handles and window cranks, new Dolphin Gauges as well as Ice-Cold A/C and heat in a single under-dash unit.
This truck drives like a couch. And it boogies.
The GM B-body drive train was built for the weight of a full-size modern automobile; with the body swap, hundreds pounds were lost, and power to weight ratio is a wonderful thing!
As a bonus, this truck can be serviced at any service center anywhere (just convince ’em it’s a 4th gen B-body) and any parts store on the planet will have thrice the parts you’ll ever need, as the drive-train, wiring and computer are complete from a very popular GM B-body: Chevrolet Caprice, Impala SS, Buick Roadmaster: 1991-96.
This is what we started with, a project that was 1951 GMC project truck that was underway, but had a long way to go. The owner hoped to place the cab on an S-10 and call it good. We had a ’92 Chevrolet Caprice already torn-down, stripped and ready to go, and the rest appears below…
Generally, we modify the cab when using the 4th generation b-body chassis. The owner was not having that so we opted to narrow the chassis…
See more on the narrowing of this frame in this article: How To Narrow a B-Body Chassis
All set. The original frame rails were stripped and used to narrow the donor chassis so the cab will lay right down without modifying the cab or step…
Initial placement. The cab will move forward a couple inches after some relief cuts are the transmission and firewall…
Cuts made and front-end in place, bungs are welded into the framerail and the cab is mounted with hockey pucks…
Setting the steering column with a simple yet effective stand which has served us many times. The pedal hanger from the donor was used in its entirety with minor trimming…
And with the column in place, we can get on to the harness…
Untangled, the harness spread out as it will be fed thru the cab and body: forward lights closest…
With patience, the entire harness fits up under the dash cleanly and is simply zip-tied and/or anchored in place with various size harness anchors…
The fuse block was attched under the dash.
The weather seals from the original harness were carefully removed with the harnesss and reused where appropriate.
The splash pan was missing from the truck, so we fasshioned one quickly out of another from the yard…
The running boards fit to the original brackets that have been welded to the chassis (which we missed photos of).
Positioning the running boards and brackets was easy by mounting the brackets to the running board, fitting, then clamping the brackets to the frame rail, remove the running boards, and weld ’em up…
The rear of the donor chassis remains largely unchanged. The frame rail ends were cut to fit behind the bed, and the fule tanks straps were refashioned to work with the current setup.
A simple 2″ x 2″ and 2″ x 4″ frame was contructed andbolted in to support the bed material…
Fitting the auxillary cooling fan and transmission cooler. The Transmission cooler is from the donor, the fan was an add-on in place of a mechanical fan and clutch setup…
Fully fit and functional, time for body work and paint…
The owner handled the body and paint work, an returned the truck to us to wrap it up.
So in goes the bed. Nine (9) 2″ x 6″ boards plus eight (8) 10 penney nails fill the bed width exacly…
To ensure the 2″ x 6″ boards lay down nicely, pilot holes are drilled as instead of simply driving the screws in directly.
This approach allows the wood to shift slightly when the screw is tightened and helps boards with slight bow from the store to flatten out, plus the screw head seats neatly with no tearing of the wood.
On to the new gauges…
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