Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton - now with Teaser video!

[Lon_H]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Nice work. I really dig the Advance Design series trucks, and one with a turbo'd six is awsome!

[GH]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Buickguy, I know what you mean about working stainless steel. I used to have to grind the inside of milk tanks. People always ask me why don't you grind all those welds and polish them off? My answer is "I used to grind for a living, I am not going to grind any more". I use a flap wheel on a belt sander to work the seams over.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

ya know, if you heat muriatic acid and run that over the weld, you won't even have to grind

ages ago my dad used to build those things and sell them to sheet metal shops - we'd convert a battery charger with a hotter transformer, then change the positive end to a flattened copper tube, wrap the copper tube with fiberglass matting, dip and let the heat take the color out of the weld.... works pretty awesome, just have to remember to rinse it well.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

This week's update pics. Have been on the phone giving wiring instructions to Gary. He thinks sometime in early or mid April I can go down to Springfield (which is a beautiful vacation area) and we can fire this thing up and drive it!

I will definitely take video when that happens.

I used to live near there, and we love going back there, so I am pretty excited to get down there for a visit!

[dieselgeek]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Update:

Got the call I've been waiting for: Gary's ready to fire it up! I'm headed down there on Friday the 8th of April. Will take the video camera with me. Who knows what this thing will sound like but, it should be pretty awesome!

[milner351]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

SWEET!

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Looking forward to some Turbo L6 pointers ;)

[Huskinhano]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

I was just wondering the other day how things were going, funny. Looking forward to see it fire up, that's going to be great!

[dieselgeek]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Today's the big day. Leaving Omaha at 1:00pm, should be in Springfield in time for dinner. Then, we have to install his LC-1 wideband O2 sensor, wire up the relays for fuel pump and coils, set the airgap on the crank sensor, load up the "Extra" firmware on his Megasquirt-2, and run through a few other First Start checklist items.

Will it start on the first try? it's a good omen but only happens on a small percentage of new EFI installs.

I expect we'll be ready for startup at noon Saturday. Stay tuned for youtubes.

-Scott

[Russell]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

I love this build can not wait for the video! Feel free to record the first burnout while you are there! ;D

[milner351]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Have a safe trip Scott - what a great way to spend a weekend!

[DanStokes]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

I'll wait with baited breath. No, that's not a typo.......

Dan

[dieselgeek]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

I spent the weekend in lovely Springfield, MO at Gary's shop finishing up the wiring and EFI install on his truck.

Saturday was spent mostly on completing the installation - it would have run if it weren't for a configuration mistake I made on his Megasquirt-2x, which resulted in a handful of dead LS coilpacks : (stupid EFI tuners)


Anyways, we got it running pretty good, worked through a few typical mechanical bugs, it looks like I'll be back in a few weeks to put a finished tune on it.

One thing that came up: originally this engine was built for racing at Bonneville. It still has an aggressive cam - Gary thinks he'll keep it in there for now - we like the sound at idle.

Sorry there's no driving vids yet - we were too busy tuning to take videos of that part. We'll have driving videos in a few weeks, I'm sure.

Here's the youtube teaser though, where Gary is learning TunerStudio (upgrading from MegaTune) and taking a practice datalog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9FDCyBAXZE

[squirrel]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

sounds really nice uncorked

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Gary Hart's 1951 GMC Half Ton

Ohh, I have to wait 'til I get home to watch the video :'(

Saturday was spent mostly on completing the installation - it would have run if it weren't for a configuration mistake I made on his Megasquirt-2x, which resulted in a handful of dead LS coilpacks : (stupid EFI tuners)

Any pointers ??? PM me if you don't want to accidently jack this thread.