So this project is my first attempt at a restoration. I have fixed many cars, but never tried to do something of this scale. It started in 2013 during Junior year of college. The truck has a long history with my family. Its a 1979 GMC Sierra Classic with a 4.1L inline 6. The odometer stopped a long time ago so I estimate it had somewhere around 300k miles on it. My Grandfather bought it new in 1979 and it has traditionally been the first car for everyone in the family. The pictures below have captions as I tried to document the work as I went along.
I decided that while I had these pieces off and out of the way I would pull the engine as well. I left the transmission in the truck and supported it with a jack. The next few pictures show that adventure.
Success!
This engine had a perpetual oil leak over the years from the timing cover so it was pretty nasty. Next I began disassembling the engine to see what I was working with.
The next step was to get this block to the machine shop and have the check for cracks. There was also a lot of wear in the piston sleeves so I ended up having it bored .040 over.
You can see in the picture here I got a comp cams setup. It was the comp cams grind 260H.
Once I had everything back together is was time to put it back in the truck.
Next step was to put on the new fenders and radiator support and get it to paint. I ended up putting them on and having to take the off again, but no big deal.
Next is a collection of all the paint prep
Luckily the shop bought me a shiny new one!!
Final result of all the hard work. I ended up replacing the gauges with a set of Dakota Digital ones. That’s where I am with this project currently. Next on the list is to have the transmission rebuilt and finish of the interior with the seats. I will post those when they get done. Hope everyone has enjoyed following this so far.
The Nonconformist's Guide to Engineering 
Sweet!
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