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1960 GMC Saga

76K views 88 replies 14 participants last post by  dshotaur 
#1 ·
This is the first time I’ve ever been on a site with a unique GMC sub-forum which is pretty cool. I guess I’ll post in this section although my truck is probably more Chevrolet than GMC at this point. Since we’ve owned our 1960 GMC for over 20 years, it’s been through many changes so I’ll limit this post to an overview summary.

Acquired in 1992 from the nephew of the original owner, the truck was remarkably preserved with only minor rust in the front fenders:





The only modification ever made by the original owner family was to replace the 3 speed column shift transmission with an SM420 4 speed transmission. Even the original seat cover was still in place (I added the seat belts):



There were only 3 options on the truck. A Bardin bumper, front and rear turn signals, and west coast mirrors. No radio, heater, inside rear view mirror, armrests, or passenger sun visor.



The very first accessory purchased was a set of NOS bumper guards because I always liked them and Golden State Pickup Parts happened to have a set:



The 305 V6 was only running on 5 cylinders and was given the deep six. Only one shop was willing to rebuild it, at a cost of $2500:



Since I wanted a long distance freeway commuter, a new Targetmaster 350 and power steering went in along with a TH350 for less than half the cost to rebuild the six.



After relocating to northern Idaho, it suffered from a bad case of rust measles.



It took an entire year to tear it apart, repaint everything inside and out, and put it all back together:



Once I found a decent replacement hood I also added a 1950 Plymouth bumper overrider bar as a custom touch below the stock powder coated GMC grille.

 
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#30 ·
Apologies for the long post, but it’s been really busy around our place for the last several weeks and I’ve been neglecting web updates.

For the first time in nearly 50 years of doing hard lines, I had to completely redesign the fuel pump to carb layout I had just fabricated. I simply could not get the setup to stop leaking. Gasoline kept dripping off the bottom of the pump, and I could not determine where it was coming from. Checking the bottom of each line with a piece of paper towel - none had any gas on it, but gas kept dripping off the bottom of the pump. I redid every tubing flare, and replaced every brass fitting, and the pump continued to drip. So I pulled the new pump and replaced it as well. I thought maybe I cracked the outlet housing. The new pump leaked exactly as the other one did!

So I threw in the towel, pulled everything off and made a much more simplified arrangement mounting the regulator at the top of the vertical line coming off the pump. I also added an inconspicuous bracket to the cylinder head, eliminating any vibration at the pressure regulator.

Everything works perfectly now, although I still have no idea why it leaked in the first place.

Around the same time I decided to finally make an effort to install the Edelbrock carb isolator plate I’ve had hanging on the garage wall for a couple of years. One feature of the AFB/Edelbrock carb I’ve never been thrilled about is the hot-engine-soak flooding. I’m running a 180 degree thermostat and when the engine is turned off on a hot day the intake manifold can soak up to 215-220 (or higher). This boils the gas in the carb and makes hot restarting difficult. So I finally installed the isolator, it’s the orange spacer under the carb shown below:







Since the addition the engine has soaked up to 205-210 several times and fires right up. What a nice improvement!

It was a pretty simple swap, requiring longer studs and fabrication of a longer connection from the cruise control cable to the throttle arm (which has been completed since the photos were taken). The hard line from the fuel pressure regulator to the carb was also replaced with a taller version. The choke, smog and power brake vacuum hoses, and throttle linkage required no modifications.

o

I recently lost my Moon Equipped decal on the back window. It was added to somewhat conceal the camera mount on the back window. I was washing the truck the other night and when I started rinsing off the back window, I realized the top half of the Moon eyes were gone!?. Within minutes the rest had blown off as well. I found this surprising as I had identical decals on the front fenders for a couple of years and they held up great to repeated washings. Perhaps they just don’t stick to glass as well as they do to paint, or the window was contaminated when they were applied.

o

On another beautiful morning I decided to add the chrome locking bead to the rear window. I made the mistake of using Windex as lubricant, and the ammonia attacked the chrome finish. A clear film over the chrome wrinkled and pealed ruining the effect. Here’s what it looked like from a few feet away. Note the blotch at the left side:



So it was ripped out and the black bead reinstalled. It took over an hour to install the chrome piece as it is almost as hard as wood and very difficult to curve around the corners. The black rubber bead by comparison pops in taking less than 5 minutes.

I immediately ordered another chrome bead and used mild diluted dish soap for lubricant. It still took over an hour to install, but this time came out nice.

Here’s a front shot of the truck, and 3 pics of the back. Of note is the recently installed 1958 Impala door mirrors. When they were mounted, I made my first attempt at blending in the paint repairs with a Blitz Black rattle can. The paint didn’t blend well at all and can be seen around the mirror areas.

The rear window trim is a rather small thing, but I do like the extra detail to go along with the windshield trim and the rest of the shiny parts. It was a very harsh time of day to be taking car pictures, but here’s what turned out:









The white stripe at the bottom of the tailgate is just a sun reflection.

I recommend not using the aftermarket bead lock installation tool. It runs the black bead lock into the groove in nothing flat without problems. But the chrome bead lock version is so stiff, I’m reasonably certain the tool is part of what damaged the chrome surface causing the wrinkling. In addition, it just didn’t help insert the lock into the seal cavity.

What worked better was pushing either half of the lock into the groove, and then lifting the opposite flap over the bead with a hook tool. This went much faster and had very little of the lock popping out after insertion. When going around corners, I tucked into the inside of the corner first, and then worked the outside flap of the window seal over the lock bead.

o

Here’s a tiny little video clip of us leaving our daughter’s place recently. She captured the moment on her cell phone, so the video quality is rather poor but the audio is halfway decent. Listening to this I realized the electric fan was coming on too soon, so it’s been adjusted to come on a 180 and go off around 170.

http://youtu.be/4M4EUSce7fo

o

We’ve been having a ton of fun since the new motor went in. The idle really sounds tough, and the Pete Jackson noisy gear drive really screams now. I’m not sure why it’s so much louder than before. The only two changes I made was to really close up the camshaft end gap and provide more clearance between the power gear axle and the engine block.

I don’t really know what the clearances were in the old engine, but when first installed in the new engine the camshaft thrust bumper was nearly 1/8” from the back of the timing cover. It was supposed to be between .005 and .010, so I set it at .010. Perhaps this is causing the timing cover to act more like a diaphragm speaker.

Again I didn’t check how they fit in the old engine, but when the idler gears were installed in the new engine, there was zero clearance between the front cover and the idler gear axle on the front, and zero on the back against the block. The gap called for was between .015 and .065. I kept it tight at about .015-.020. It wasn’t real easy to measure as the block is not flat in that area. In any event, whatever I did turned it into a real screamer. I’ve been driving behind a Pete Jackson noisy drive since about 1984, and people stopped turning heads many years ago. But now, we have guys, girls, and old ladies turning to look at the truck. Between the cam/exhaust and the gear drive it really commands attention.

o

A recent trip to the store turned up a 64-66 4x4 short bed. I normally carry my big camera with me, but left it at home. So for the first time ever, I snapped a few shots with my cell phone. I think they came out pretty decent considering it was bright daylight and I couldn’t see what I was doing on the phone. The blazing sunlight just bleached out the view screen. And being an old Jarhead I replaced the Moon decal with a gold foil USMC sticker instead. They’re actually a very thin metal, are impervious to just about anything. Everything except the white is a highly reflective hologram effect:







o

With my wife retiring soon she’ll be driving the truck more than she has in recent years, and the door mirrors weren’t working for her. So they have been relocated closer to the vent window(s). This required masking off the entire truck and repainting the area from the body break below the glass, to the body line below the door handles. This time I used my trusty Sata Jet 90. The finish and color match aren’t 100 percent perfect, but they came out much nicer than last time. Good enough to make me happy. I like the new position of the mirrors better as well. Now they’re in line with the spotlights, and provide a much better view to the rear:





Now I get to figure out why my high beam indicator light quit working! It’s always something!
 
#31 ·
Sounds great Mark, wish I had it, I get mine done some day....
 
#32 ·
I completed a few minor tasks. After some debugging it was determined the 100,000 hour LED high beam indicator light simply burned out. As a generous estimate it may have provided an hour or two of illumination over the last several years. I don’t drive that much at night and the high beams are seldom needed. I guess the longevity promises are to be taken with a grain of salt. In any event I now have a new indicator light in place that works fine.

Next I addressed a rattle that’s been annoying me since the new engine went in. Because I have both an electric speedometer and cruise control, the hall effect drive units connect to each other off the speedo drive of the transmission. If they aren’t tethered correctly a rattle occurs with the transmission crossmember. When the transmission went back in I just didn’t get around to securing the parts against vibration. They worked fine but were very annoying.

While I was under there I noticed a minor leak and realized the pan and valve cover fasteners all needed to be retorqued. So that’s done too. The only thing left on the list from the engine change is to recheck the ignition timing. That an trying to convince my wife that electric exhaust cutouts are really a better investment than a dual quad supercharged big block. So far I don’t think she’s grasping the importance of $500 cutouts!

And this morning I completed my final new engine adjustment. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a degreed balancer, so I had no expectation a stock timing tag wouldn’t work. Once assembled, it was immediately apparent the standard aftermarket bolt on timing tag is too big and too long and covers up all the damper markings! Watching a couple of Youtube videos I realized there are timing “pointers” on the market, mostly in the $30-$40 range.

So I did the next best thing. After removing the power steering pump (again) I pulled the tag, marked it up, and cut away everything that didn’t look like a zero pointer!

Here is what was cut away with a Dremel tool:



What was left got reinstalled as a zero pointer. I didn’t think to take a picture of it before mounting it back on the engine:



I knew I had too much advance in the engine, but I couldn’t tell how much. With the new pointer in place it was obvious I had almost 20 degrees initial and 50+ total. After spending a few minutes repositioning the distributor, the initial is now set at 10 degrees and total comes in a 34 degrees. What a difference in how it runs and sounds. A nice hour long investment in making the engine run better, and being able to repeat the settings in the future. Of course now the idle is even rougher than before, and idle vacuum dropped from 12 to 10 inches at 650 rpm. Man this is getting to be fun!!

This shows nothing more than the new Moon sticker on the heater block off:



I took the truck out for some “acceleration testing” with the video camera, but today is Saturday, the day after most of the schools closed/graduated for the season. Meaning – there are cops everywhere! :lol: not a good time to be checking performance improvements. When I pulled up to the corning in my earliest Youtube video, two police vehicles already had somebody pulled over right at the turn! When we went out for gas last night there were at least 10 police cars cruising, parked, and hiding on the trip. So I think any new video adventures will have to wait a bit.
 
#35 ·
#36 ·
Great video Mark, that is one sweet truck, you and I think alike, more into the old school...
 
#38 ·
Well I got to choose, but the supercharged big block was never really in the running! ;) So I've gone and jumped in again. This morning I spent a while under the truck figuring out where I could install electric cutouts. Finally figured out an arrangement that will fit and work, so I ordered a pair of Doug's units from Amazon at a $50 discount over Summit or Jegs.



They will be mounted outboard of the frame and have short tail pipes that exit in front of the rear wheels right under the edge of the steps. I'm not too worried about exhaust build up on the rear wheels as the cutouts will mostly be used at rod runs and car shows during slow speed driving.

If it comes out as I envision, the modifications should also add a nice feature to the exhaust system which was beautifully crafted by my local muffler experts.

 
#39 ·
Other than being a lot of hard work, today was a fun day. Really fun. I had a smile on my mug virtually all day. My electric cutouts arrived yesterday so I immediately made an appointment to have them mounted first thing this morning. So, at 08:00 the owner of Discount Muffler in Spokane (corner of Sprague and Argonne) spent a little over an hour and a half this morning creating more of his exhaust art. He custom fabricated a pair conventional cutouts welded into the exhaust system, to which the Doug’s electric cutouts were bolted. He also suggested I pick up a pair of copper exhaust flange gaskets as they don’t leak or burn out, and are reusable. Per his suggestion I picked them up last night. He was concerned about the weight of the cutouts (about 5-6 lbs each), so he doubly reinforced the welds and also added a support brace under each side.

The results are incredible. If I wanted to go somewhere and really look old school, I could just remove the electric cutouts and cap off the sneakers. But that’s not likely to happen as the electrics are just too much fun. It took me another 5 hours to route the wires into the cab so they were nearly invisible. Of course the wife immediately wanted to go for a ride.

All I can say is these things are a blast! The truck doesn’t have that “worn out muffler tractor sound” at all. At idle it sounds plain nasty. At speed, it reminds me of a 1960’s stock car racer, whether up or down on the pedal. Sadly none of our video today turned out well enough to post on Youtube, so I’ll try again tomorrow.

And the cutouts themselves are as nice as advertised. It only takes a bit over 1 second to go from full closed to full open. And the same speed going from open to closed. Here’s how they look from under the hood:





And they are reasonably well hidden. They are only visible from limited viewing angles directly to the side. There is clearance all around them, and the lowest parts are a couple of inches above the bottom of the lower control arms, so there is plenty of clearance even over speed bumps:





I’ll try and have some video up tomorrow.
 
#40 ·
Well here are the best videos of the exhaust cutouts my wife and I have been able to capture so far. The first one is from the in cab camera, and I only have the cutouts partially opened so they wouldn’t overwhelm the microphone. It’s pretty boring, mostly just the engine idling. I also discovered either my aircraft clock timer runs fast or the camera timer runs slow. As a result I shut the engine off too soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9f0Co_u71U&feature=youtu.be

The 2nd video was taken next in sequence on the tripod camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPMAZ2hghOw&feature=youtu.be

Until about 45 seconds the cutouts are only partially open. They are wide open for a while and then back to partial again. The difference is pretty obvious. On the cab camera of the same sequence (which I’m not posting), the partially opened revs sound fine, but the fully opened revs blow out the mike. In this second segment there is so much background noise the idle sound is almost absent. That and I moved the camera too far away to successfully capture the idle sound, in order to avoid having the open exhaust blow out the mike on the tripod camera.

I just love how fast this engine revs and immediately drops to a rough idle of 550 rpms with no tendency to want to die. I’ll try to capture better video/audio again, but it’s going to be over 100 degrees here tomorrow so it won’t be for a few days.

I rewarded my squeeze with a trip to the ice cream place. In addition to capturing some video I wanted to test the new engine’s ability to tolerate idle traffic in high temperatures. The old engine always overheated above 85 degree temps unless I could keep it moving. Being trapped in traffic was not good. The new engine sat idling for almost for almost 25 minutes in 90 degree heat and maintained a constant 187 degrees on a 180 or 185 degree thermostat. There’s a local rod run this weekend and now I’m confident we won’t have any problems in the cooling department. WOOHOO!
 
#41 ·
Sweet Mark...maybe some day I`ll put hedders on my truck..somewhat torn on it thou, I`ve got a set sitting in the garage full length tight tube sandersons...the last time I ever fired up an engine in the garage for breakin was my big block dart, 440 with open hedders, couldn`t believe the amount of stuff that rattled off the shelfs, it was great....neighbors weren`t too happy either....anim_63
 
#42 ·
This morning we attended the Sprague Annual Hay Days event and car show. It was the first time we attended. The destination is about an hour out, which is the farthest I’ve been able to travel in about 15 years (back problems). Thank goodness for modern medicine. It went so well we’re already planning some 2 & 3 hour trips to see how those work out.

Nearly 100 vehicles showed up. The mix included Corvettes, Mustangs, show cars and clunkers. We had the only 60-66 present.



This was the prettiest truck there. It was a real work of art:



Wandering down the street, I spotted this rather extensive collection that apparently lives in permanent residence:







It was an enjoyable few hours of looking at cars and talking and having a good time with people we’d never met before. As we were leaving town heading down the side street next to the collection, something caught the corner of my eye. It was this – positioned directly behind the collection shown above. Eight lugs, long step bed, and just about stripped to the bone:








Once I backed up and turned around to grab the pictures, this came into view:





It has debris up to the front axle, and the driver’s side of the hood is damaged, but it had a full set of early wide windshield trim complete with all the clips, and – a full set of chrome vent windows with chrome side window frames! I would have loved to buy the chrome vents and frames, but judging by how long everything appears to have remained untouched, it doesn’t appear the owner is willing to part with anything. There was a very nice looking 49 Plymouth sedan just behind the stepside, but it’s trapped between the fencing and a trailer home indicating it’s been there for a long time, and will continue to do so.

This was the first road trip for the new engine and it ran like a Swiss watch. 189 degrees at 60 miles per hour, spinning 3,000 rpms. 70 mph shows 192 degrees at 3,400 rpms. With the 268 cam, the engine seems to like it better at 70 than 60.

Overall it was a fun day and I look forward to more similar adventures. Thankfully next weekend is the Spokane swap meet.

I had some reasonably cool video of us idling out of town with the cutouts wide open. Unfortunately some inappropriate comments in the cab ended up on the clip so it won't be going on Youtube!
 
#44 ·
I’m a little behind on getting anything posted here. Over the summer we attended a few car shows and had a great time at each. Not a whole bunch of trucks, but here are some that showed up:









Before the last event I added a set of tri bar knock off spinners with red Corvette centers:











Now it's time to start getting the snow tires back in the garage!
 
#45 ·
After discovering another forum member had figured out how to create full size door panels, I’ve been somewhat consumed the last month and a half redoing the interior in classic style diamond tufting:













My youngest son is a custom upholstery guy. He’s whipping up a set of diamond sewn seat covers out of the same material, which will match the styling on seats better than the factory tuck & roll pattern.

I added 34 Ford door pulls just above the door handles, providing a sturdier way to close the doors rather than yanking on the handles.

The last piece was the upholstery over the transmission tunnel. I was never happy with the previous droopy shape, so it was eliminated providing a straight line across the bottom. The previous shape resulted from the factory floor mat having so much missing near the upper areas of the tunnel. The new MIP vinyl floor mat covers everything so the dips were no longer needed. Here’s the previous rendition:



And here’s how it looks as of today:



Apologies on behalf of ImageShack if the pictures don’t load immediately. They are focusing all their attention on another upgrade and abandoning normal functioning of the site as is typical of their behavior. Right clicking on the missing picture and selecting “show picture” will normally restore it.

Ruthann really wanted to go for a ride in spite of the 15 degree temperatures, so we bundled up and hit the road. Conditions were clear and dry with light traffic so I opened the pipes half way and captured a short video. Interestingly the new door panels dampened the sound level in the cab significantly. The engine sounds like I added a closed element air filter, and the half open cutouts were barely detectable at idle on the video camera.

The only change being the full height door panels instead of half metal. Everything else is the same – the thickness and density of the foam padding, brand and type of Naugahyde, etc. Now it sounds like a Buick (well sort of) cruising down the street. The gear drive still sings right along though.

Here’s a link to the latest video. I think Youtube changed something so the image can no longer be imbedded in the thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4cObwEIJc&feature=youtu.be
 
#47 ·
Looks great Mark, I had to wait til today for the pics to upload, but it was worth it, that green `64 to `66 blown longbed in the pics from your truck show, I believe I saw him at the Tahoe show about five maybe six years back, same year the camera broke....
 
#50 ·
That truck didn't look like much in real life, but studying the photos later, there appear to be a lot of rust free parts on it, including the cab.

*

Another odd duck idea I've been toying with for years, was adding illuminated Buick portholes to the sides of my hood. I finally took the plunge a few weeks ago, and here are a few shots during the installation:











I don't have any good outdoor shots of it yet, but here's a photo chopped version which is very close:



And here's a short video showing the lights in operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l83Fv06s9UU&feature=youtu.be

The portholes are 1954 Buick reproductions, and each one has two LED's. A very small one for the parking lights, and a bigger one for the turn signals.

The LED's came from Oznium:

http://www.oznium.com/led-bolt


And the sequencer kit (Part number STS-4) came from WebElectric Products:

http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm

It was the only offering I could find that would sequence 4 lamps instead of 3. Once I figured out the circuitry it was very simple to hook up.
 
#52 ·
The LED's came from Oznium:

http://www.oznium.com/led-bolt


And the sequencer kit (Part number STS-4) came from WebElectric Products:

http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm

It was the only offering I could find that would sequence 4 lamps instead of 3. Once I figured out the circuitry it was very simple to hook up.
Thanks for posting where you got them. I love the look!

The LEDs will make great interior lights (under the dash and seat) and the sequencer will look good on my '94 Impala SS! Been thinking about that for a long time and it's cheap! There are a couple other trick things like the bump turn signal, my wife's car has that and now I drive all my other cars like that and it doesn't work! Great sites.

Thanks!

Mike
 
#51 ·
You know Mark, everytime you make a neat mod I think well there is nothing else you can do, and then you just blow me out of the water with another.....! Awesome...! beer
 
#55 ·
Thanks for the comments guys. I forgot to include an update on the interior completion. It was finished just before the hood project was started. My youngest son is a custom upholstery guy and he whipped up a set of diamond sewn seat covers using a mint condition Procar cover as a pattern. The fabric is the same marine vinyl used for the rest of the interior. After installing the covers the buttons were added and pulled into place. With the upholstery finished the decals on the glove box door just didn’t seem to fit any longer, so they were removed and replaced with a 56-58 GMC fender emblem after having it rechromed:



This shot shows a different GMC emblem I picked up while I was waiting for the good one to come back from plating. It was originally painted red, and I also tried black. But when the good one came back it was just too pretty to paint:



The seats are super comfortable, even nicer than when they were new.

And here are a couple of shots of the newly plated emblem:



 
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