Cali,
The hardest part was wrestling the old fuel tank with 10 gallons of "fuel" out. It was so plugged with shellac and crap that when I pulled the petcock off nothing drained out! As you can see it was a lost cause though and I have added an "aftermarket" feul cell to the fender.
I originally pulled it home thinking I could put the dump body on my 1 ton and have some steel left over to play with, but the motor spun so I figured Id give it a go and was rewarded. The body is actually very restorable (by salt road NH standards anyway) but who knows if hat will ever happen
It doesn't even smoke that bad. runs, dumps, drives, no brakes though and that means I dont get to use all 5 speeds and the electric 2 speed rear to much.
I pulled a similar vintage Chevy at the same time though thinking it would make for some good parts but actually the GMC engine is significantly different then the babbit pounding 235 bowtie (not a complete loss though, the windsheilds in the Jimmy came from the Chebby). It is a relatively modern engine with high pressure seals and all that. It litterally purrs these days.
I first got it going and decided to test it a bit with the excavator. I loaded it 1/2 way, no problem. (it is a 3.5 ton machine) so I decided to heap it up and see what happens. Drove it about ten feet and it sounded like the guns of Navarone went off and I blew out all 4 rear dry rotted tires. Fortunatly a neigbor works for a tire place and I got some decent used ones at the right price.