Archive for March, 2004
March 14th, 2004
87 GMC V3500, Dually, 4×4
I purchased this 87 V3500 single rear wheel truck from a member on the Pirate Board. It was hit from behind while parked. The car was apparently going about 40 MPH when the driver dozed off. The truck was pushed about 2 houses down the street before coming to a stop. The list of damage was long. Some of the major items were a split 14 Bolt FF axle, both rear leafs broken and pushed through both gas tanks, drive shaft bent, 205 split, Turbo 400 split, spring perches torn from frame, bed past the point of repair and pushed into cab, cab to frame mount broken … you get the idea. The plan was to part it out and put (what was left of) the drivetrain in my Suburban, but … it didn’t happen exactly that way.
After swapping what parts I wanted onto the Suburban (I only took the Dana 60 front axle and the Detroit Locker guts from the rear), I started looking around the basement and noticed I probably had enough parts to actually get the truck up and running. I stuck a lumber rack on it and made it a work truck … for a while.
Then, I really got carried away. I wanted to straighten the body, make a dually out of it and paint it myself … black! The interior was already black, sooo, I was half way there … kinda. I found straight used front fenders, inner fenders, a hood and a drivers door. I used a dually bed off a work truck I had which kept getting the fenders torn off (8′ wide trucks don’t do well on narrow city streets). I had a Dana 70HD rear axle and a Dana 60 dually front axle sitting around, a custom built set of 16.5″ x 8.25″ chrome rims I had built 15 years ago for another dually (see a trend here) and 5 BFG A/T 33 – 12.50R – 16.5 tires. The work began.
And finally, it’s done.
Back with the lumber rack, add a tool box – would you believe this is my daily driver?