Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'm running a TCI Outlaw with the 2 buttons. The buttons will control a tap-shift function thru the Megashift module.

Just another option for you.

http://www.jegs.com/i/TCI/890/611641...oductId=757631

http://www.jegs.com/images/photos/80...890-611623.jpg

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

The compushift/paddle shifter option still retains automatic shifting, actually 2 different selectable profiles for automatic shifting and then electronically allows full manual shifting with the paddle shifter by pulling the right paddle and holding it for a couple seconds. Everyone I talk to seems to put the compushift TCU in a whole other category from all the other TCUs out there. Cheap it ain't though.

Anyway, this all goes along with the dynamically reconfigurable approach I'm trying to get to with this truck, I'm going to be using the electronically selectable Ridetech Select coil overs. I've chosen the ECU because it has the hooks to do launch control, and a lot of spare analog and digital I/O ports, which I can use for, um... stuff. The engine in its native habitat has things like VVT and knock sensors which I may try and make do useful things eventually, although the stock cam grinds really use the VVT to do emission compliance and smooth out the torque curve so that the kids toys don't roll around in the back so much, not my priority.

I am trying to figure out a hackable double din Sat/Nav head unit that maybe I can tap into the touch screen output and video input so I can manipulate an onboard mITX PC to do ECU/TCU monitoring as well as control things like the Vintage Air system. If I can figure that all out I can pretty much eliminate virtually all switches and knobs from my dash. We'll see, that's more down the road.

I see the value in all the modern stuff new cars come with, well a lot of it anyway, but not so interested in the plastic tub it comes in, or the California "don't touch anything" rules, or the fact that I'm lucky if I truly understand 20% of how the controls really work. My goal is to build a technology advanced vehicle with a durable retro racing inspired shell. I know I don't get airbags, crumple zones and anti lock brakes, the last of which I find more of a nuisance than a feature, and the first 2, well I'm going to try not to crash into anything:rolleyes:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Sounds like a cool unit...but it better be for $1100+ :lol: Sounds like your mind is made up, but have a look anyway ;)

http://www.msgpio.com/manuals/mshift/4L60e.html

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

It's interesting, is it only available as a DIY bare board?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Sounds like a great build cant wait to see some more..

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I believe so.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Stuff going on, just not real entertaining stuff. Brackets to complete the accessory drive for the front of the engine finally got here after being involved in a train wreck in New Mexico, literally, ordered from GMPartsDirect and the shipment was on a train that derailed. Also moved the truck to it's disassembly spot, which starts this weekend. Oh and brakes started to grind on my '03 Sonoma so needed to order rotors and pads, and while I was at it ordered the rotors and pads for the Jimmy. These got held up in a flood in Dekalb, IL...What's the deal? They're Z51 Vette rotors, 13 1/2" front, 13" rear, the internal drum for the parking brake on the rear rotors is kind of a cool deal. I took a pic of the front and rears for the Jimmy along side the cute little 11" Sonoma rotors:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

wow you have a lot of great things going into this one sounds like you project is in the right hands!! cant wait to see more

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Progress, It is 4 by 4 no more, well I guess it still has a transfer case for the moment. Got the rear pulled apart on Saturday (in pic) the front cam off on Sunday after some snotty weld grinding that seemed to serve no purpose other that to make it impossible to remove the front bolt from the drivers side leaf. I guess some time in the last 43 years there was a wave of thefts of drivers side leaf springs, dunno. Didn't get a picture of the naked front end, it got dark. But I did get a picture of the ultra rare aftermarket Turbo Vapor Injection system :metal:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'll bite. What the heck Is a Turbo Vapor kit? Nice build BTW!

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'm hoping some one knows, has some poisonous flammable liquid that gets sucked in through a vacuum port, what it is and what it does... mmm, dunno. I am curious though.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Chuck Norris in a Bottle?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I just saw that item on a info mercial. Seems to increase your fuel mileage by 53%, or so they claim....buy one now and get a second for the price of shipping and handling

Right now it is listed under US Patent #543210-543210

Basically, it injects molecular ball bearings into the carb throat, and they attach themselves to the butterflys. It is a time release capsule, and despenses the solution in nano seconds. Thus, the small container.....:lol:

Or, it could be a water injection system for a turbo unit. Keeps the a/f charge cooler

Im in to follow along with build

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Interestingly I just Googled it and apparently it bubbles intake air through some mixture of antifreeze and acitone, according to an article in a 1980 Popular Mechanics (err Popular Science one of the 2). The article went on to state that it was tested by the EPA and found to achive none of it's claims and that was 30 years ago. I'd find it even more ridiculous that such a product, claiming gas milage increases and power improvements that couldn't achive anything in an engine in the days of points and carbs could achive anything in the world of EFI and VVT. Anyway, I'll never know, I don't plan on searching for refills of Super Secret Injectable Turbo Juice.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

My fav. was the turbo devise that created a vortex in the air inlet, wonder if you could mate it up to your tvi....
Or, my dual antennas on my '62 Impala. Ah, to be young and foolish again lol

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

The truck has now been stripped of all it's 4 by 4ness and no longer has it's heavy greasy orange heart. I have it mocked up at close to it's final ride height, but really need to check and double check the numbers. It is sitting at 9 inches off the ground with a slight rake. Porterbuilt was telling me 8 and a half but if I drop the front stands by one notch to get 8 and a half at the front of the flat section of frame the 28" tall tire is slightly up under the lip which it shouldn't be when it's done. The well should be about 2 inches above the tire, so anyway that works out to just under 9 inches at the front of the straight portion of the frame and a hair over 9 inches at the back. This is how that looks.

Sorry for the stretch wrap on the tires and wheels, but apparently if you don't wrap them when you stack them the redlines will turn black from leaching of rubber from transfer from the adjacent tire.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Some updates, I've been working on getting brakes together, here is the parking brakes and rear calipers (for 13" Corvette Z51 brakes), The under the floor pedal assembly from Scott's Hotrods, and the front 13.5" Z51 calipers and rotors inside the wheel with the custom hub Kore3 made for me. They're a thing of beauty. Front caliper clears by about an 1/8th of an inch, so close that I need to pull the wheel weights off and relocate them, they hit the caliper. Very, very happy with the Kore3 components. The CPP Modular spindles are at the machine shop getting the other side of the caliper mount faced so I can double up on the brackets, one on each side to stiffen the caliper mounts, I don't want any chatter, probably overkill, but since I brake late and a lot of the turns around here have 1000' drop offs, better safe...

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I read a thread about using an air dam from a '90s SS454 truck, they were cheap so I ordered one and sure enough looks like it'll fit right on there, was even available with fog light cutouts. Seems to line up perfectly with fenders and frame. Here's a pic of it clamped on the front and also a pic of the NOS Marchal fogs that will be going into it. Gotta say the pics do not do the Marchals justice, these are seriously pretty fogs I snagged, they are almost jewelry like.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Now I don't know how everybody else does it, but here's how I approached getting the body separated from the frame. I put the whole truck on jack stands and loosened up all the body mounts, then set a set of high stands under the bed support behind the rear wells which seems like a particularly sturdy one. My rockers are still off waiting to be blasted, so I spread the weight across the whole length of the torque box with a steel pickup box decking beam on 2 short jack stands per side. Then I set up a gaggle of mini furniture dollies from Harbor Freight on 2 4x6s, jacked up the back just high enough to pull the frame stands out, then the front and dropped the frame out of the bottom of the truck onto the 4x6s and wheeled it out on the dollies. Easy Peasy :metal:.

Took 10 jack stands to do this, six 3 ton and four 6 ton, but still, 2 guys, no lifting.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I pulled mine, and set it back on the frame using my engine hoist. I have a steel C channel cut to fit the width under the bed rails, side to side. If the tub is bare, the balance point is just behind the front of the bed side, right behind that vertical box section behind the door jamb. I have a couple slots cut in the beam for a chain to catch in. Hook up the hoist, jack it up, move it where you want.

Here's a pic from my thread...
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=324

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'm lazy and used the hoist. Left the frame a roller and made carts for the box and cab.
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Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I was hoping to get the frame out to the blaster this week but delays and coordination have forced me to have to procrastinate that a bit. Delmo is full up because I missed my window, since he was going to do the Porterbuilt frame prep, so maybe this weekend I'll grind off all the crap the PO welded to the rear of the frame. I don't really understand why it was necessary to weld in the rear cross member and bumper brackets to mount a cheap 3500lb, 200lb tongue loop hitch but he did.

My plates are off to the Tag Dr and will come back all new and shiny and scored an unused red month sticker (those of you from the other 49 states will have no idea what I'm on about), and my Marchal lighting is starting to trickle in. Also need to start stripping the firewall.

There was a post a week or so back in the pickup forums about the odd extra wiper mount under the cowl which has me all intrigued now and noticed that '66 and earlier has opposed wipe wiper linkage (as opposed to 67-72 parallel linkage) and thinking this may be translatable to these trucks. I would really like to extend the cowl induction hood all the way to the windshield and opposed wipers solves the issue with the passenger side wiper that would cause.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

The lack of replies vs number of views ratio leads me to believe that maybe my concept is a little out there for many, hmmm...

Anyway, if that's the case this probably won't help, got these today to graft into the front fenders :lol: :

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

What are those from? I'm wanting to do heat extractors on my stock hood.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I was originally thinking 6 or 8 in louvers in the hood, like an E-Type, but seems tooling for those kind of louvers is a rare commodity, and not sure my TBI socks would like it much when it rains. The extractors are off of a 70-81 Trans Am, seemed like a good compromise to me.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3dF6HUZjpu...dit-080212.jpg

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Nice. Looking forward to seeing them installed.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Nope, been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get the wipers to turn opposed with the stock motor... then how well will it work when I escape to blizzard climates.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Seems like the 60-66 use the same wiper motor and have opposing wipers, the difference is the linkage on the 67-72s attach on a single downward facing lever on the motor, and the 60-66 have a "T" type linkage with the drivers wiper attached below the motor shaft and the passenger above the shaft. Top is 60-66 bottom is 67-72:

http://www.rustrepair.com/PICS/60-CH...GE-5060704.GIF
http://www.rustrepair.com/PICS/67-CH...GE-5067704.GIF

I know it's hard to tell exactly what's going on there, but seems like you could just use the 60-66 lever and make your own rods to length. The difficult part is the cowl panel. Now for me, I want to extend the cowl induction into the cowl and maybe only have vents in the cowl scoop itself and smooth the outer parts like they did on some later C3 vettes, would make fabbing the wiper hole easier. I plan on using a vintage air unit so the cowl vents are actually completely irrelevant anyway. I would personally love to get the wipers to stack behind an extended scoop just short of the windshield but don't know if that is possible.

As far as snow, I think it would actually work better, you don't have the drivers wiper dumping snow onto the passenger one. Used to have a friend with an early '70s Mercedes with opposing wipers in Chicago with a foot switch (before intermittents) to turn them on for a single stroke, and they seemed to just magically fling all the snow off the windshield.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'll have to look at my 65... it does look like they would work

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Now of all the pics of parts for this project I've taken, this is the one that makes me smile the most and also the one that I fear will turn all the readers of this thread into Despicable Me Minions going "whaaa?":confused: and for this reason I've hesitated to post it, but this is the lighting that will be going on the front of my rally car to be Jimmy, all vintage Marchal:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

...and of course the tail has plans as well, here is a rough Photoshop of what I'm thinking for the back end, which would use Suburban backup lenses on the inner tailgate mounted lamps. The taillights would need to be LED to reduce the depth so they fit within the depth of the tailgate. The idea is to do Thunderbird/Cougar/Shelby style sequencing turn signals. I'm kind of torn with which LED lamps would go best, I think the Digitails are simply too expensive for what they are, There is another type that uses 20 LEDs and a more modern looking lens which I like but they are pretty unsophisticated in their operation, and then there is a third style that will strobe 3 times then solid on braking but is intended to use the somewhat bland looking original lenses. The Festler lenses are cool, but expensive and there is no Suburban version of the backups, and the Marquez Designs ones are cool (Digitail based) would cost me thousands and there still isn't a Suburban version.

Maybe I can do up a simple board and control it with Aduino Board contol and maybe accelerometer based intensity and/or strobing for the brake lights.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

that would be different... looking forward to seein how your gonna mount up that LL8

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Mounting it up is not so big a deal it has these nice iron wings on it, more the issue is the dyslexic manner it's laid out. Alternator and air conditioning compressor bolt directly to the block (no brackets) on the drivers side, and the power steering pump sits on a combo bracket with the belt tensioner on the passenger side, meaning both the air conditioning compressor and the power steering lines need to cross sides to be in the right place. Heat in/out are on opposite sides of the block and the radiator hi/lo are opposite sides from, well pretty much any other GM engine. So I need a custom backwards radiator and I guess I'll be running a bundle of lines between the rack and crossmember on the Porterbuilt drop member.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Here is the Trans Am extractors laid onto the fenders, they should work out well, the fender curve is really really close, and my concern that they would be too far back and into the cowl plenum were unfounded, they should be right where they need to be with the open area just before it. Looks like you'll even get a little peek of the stacks in the drivers side one. I plan on moving the GMC/Jimmy emblem down between the extractor and the beltline.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Front seats showed up today, I'm quite pleased, how can you not be, they're the holy grail of seats IMO:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Holy crap that's a lot of switches. Are they eleventy way adjustable? lol

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Funny thing is, all that and scooting them front and back is still a manual adjustment, as is changing the shoulder angle relative to the lower back, changing the amount the seat "hugs" you in the lower back bolsters and changing the seat bottom length for thigh support. The blue buttons aren't electric, they are pneumatic, they direct air to different parts of the seat to inflate bladders. Oh and they're heated. Like I said the Holy Grail of car seats.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Finally got the front brackets all sorted out. I worked with Kore3 to come up with the extra beefy bracket setup for the CPP modulars and my billet hubs. I had to mill the outside surface flat and consistent on the spindles and through a series of spacers am able to sandwich 2 sets of adapter brackets which should eliminate any concerns of caliper chatter. They are just finger tight together in the pictures so if they don't look perfectly unsquare that's why. The typical setup would only use the bracket furthest from the caliper and what I felt was an uncomfortably long spacer, compounded by what would be another 3/4" to compensate for my hubs. This setup is really really solid.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

...and a bit of the bad, or maybe just my over perfectionism. Got my rack drop shipped to me from Unisteer and well the dipped in paint look powder coating just looks a little too much like a Pep Boys rebuild for my taste, especially considering I'll be doing my aluminum straight 6 and a dark gray hammered vein powdercoat on the frame and suspension components. This dipped in black look, I think, will look like hell, so back that will be going and I've already ordered a quick ratio Flaming River rack.

The frame got picked up today and will be de-bracketed and de-riveted and de-PO-snot welded in addition to being sand blasted in prep for the Porterbuilt pieces. Those of you that have done a 4wd to 2, what do you do about the front leaf spring mount? It also serves as the mount for the radiator support, seems you can de-rivet off the bottom part but it still leaves that odd bracket there.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Trim it off with the plasma until it looks right.

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps67f60db0.jpg

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...psd55b5bcb.jpg