Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Got my heads back from the machine shop, had them vacuum tested, tanked, and decked. Installed the new seals and dual springs

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I blasted and painted the water and power steering pumps, all the pulleys and brackets and got them painted up and mounted. Dropped in some new lifters and bolted the heads on.

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Blasted and painted the motor mounts

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Coat of paint on the transmission as well

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At this point the engine is pretty much button up. Still need to clean up the coils and brackets and throw the intake on. Also planning to get the alternator shell blasted and painted.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Looking good.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Plumbed in new front brake lines

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Got the engine and trans mated up and dropped in the chassis

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

What headers are those? They look like they fit like a glove.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Speed Engineering long tubes. They fit really well, only had to trim a tiny bit of the bell housing on the passenger side.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Looking good. I have the same mount plates and I'm thinking of using the I6 perches as well. Are those the Energy Suspension poly mounts? What location do you have them bolted to the plates?

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

They are Energy Suspension poly mounts but they don't fit. Way thicker than the stock ones that I used when i mocked up the perchs, gotta return themand use a set of stock rubber ones. I used the stock V8 perches, mounts are in the second set of holes from the front

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Slow progress lately. Pulled the motor and trans back out to swap mounts. Ended up getting the trans rebuilt while it was out. Cleaned up and painted the coils and brackets and threw on some new plug wires. Motor is back in and intake on. Just have to clean up the fuel rails and throttle body.

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Started back on the rust repair on the cab. Got the passenger side floor finished and started fitting up the rocker. Hung the door so i could get the gap right.

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The bottom of the back wall of the cab is rusted out. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to tackle this repair until I came across a guy giving away a full back wall.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Looking for my weekly fix...

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Cool build. Lots or good work going on here!

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Here ya go Notch!

Moving along with the rust repair. Made a pile of relief cuts, did a lot of bending and hammering. Rocker is all fit up ready to weld in. Going to wait on that until I get the cab sand blasted.

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Finished a bit of work on the passenger floor. Had to weld in a small sliver from a previous crappy fit up. Replaced a piece of the trans tunnel hump as well.

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Moved on the the kick panel firewall seam. Drilled out all the spot welds and made a template for what i wanted to replace.

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Transferred the template to some 18g and cut it out. once i was happy with the fit I cut out the kick panel section.

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Made the bends for where the fire wall gets spot welded to the kick panel. Fine tuned the fit and its ready to weld in.

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The inside of the door pillar was pretty rusty. Found a rust encapsulator product from Eastwood with a long hose and 360 Degree nozzle. Shoved it up the pillar and coated the whole inside top to bottom. Will let that cure overnight and start welding in the kick panel patch tomorrow.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Nice job on the metal work!

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Yes lots of metal magic on this one! Very nice!

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Slowly chipping away at the rust repair. Finished up the kick panel and started on the firewall.

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Built a sandblasting cabin and wheeled the cab inside. Started blasting the cab to see what was surface rust and what needed to be cut out. I was really happy to find the areas above the windshield were not rusted through and cleaned up really well. The lip that the windshield seal goes around is a different story though. That is gonna suck to repair!!

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Back onto the firewall/floor seam. Got most of the remaining pieces made and fit. Hopefully will get time to them all welded in this week.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Nice job on the metal work :thumbs:

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

How effective are you finding that sand blaster, and what size is your compressor?

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Surprisingly its been working pretty well, my compressor is a 60 gallon. I'm using 30-60 grit crushed glass from Princess Auto. Takes a bit of time to sweep up, sift and reload the pressure tank but its cheap and I can do it in stages as i go along.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

I was just thinking of something like this yesterday for a temporary parking lot set-up adjacent to my shop building. I'm interested/curious about your pop-up 'booth' for the blasting. Care to share the details? How did you seal it off (top; bottom; entrance/exit)?

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Is that a PA blaster as well?

I was planning on taking everything to "the man" and have them blast it all, but I really need to deal with the rust inside everything I have to cut out (like the rockers, corners, etc. etc.)

What HP and CFM is your compressor?

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

My booth is pretty simple, just a 2x4 frame 10ftx10ft, 8ft tall wrapped in poly. I didn't really seal it up too much, just wanted to keep the sand from getting all over the shop.

Blaster is Princess Auto, I run a couple dryers inline to the tank. This is the compressor

https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com...ssor/p705.html

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Oh, good to know. I have the same compressor (KMS Tools jobbie). I may wait for a sale at PA then, for the blaster.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Impressed with your progress on the metalwork! Great idea with the enclosure for the sand blasting. Good solution on the outer rear of the cab (finding a new back for it). I have a similar issue. Was thinking I should buy a shop press, create a press brake, and make the bends in sections. The other solution I was thinking about was maybe a bead roller with a tipping die.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

did you use the eastwood rust encapsulator on your engine block?

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

No, but that would have been a lot simpler! I used evaporust, then a rust converter, then paint.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Passenger floor is all finished up

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Cut the bottom off the back of the cab, its all rusted from the inside out. Started cutting the back of the floor out to be replaced. Also removed the drivers side rocker.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Replaced the drivers side rear door pillar bottom with a piece I cut out of a donor.

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Blasted the back side of the cab and floor and started on replacing the rotten metal on the back of the floor where it meets the cab.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Wow man, love to see you still making progress and not getting discouraged with all the rust repair. Keep it up!

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Thanks Notch! For a while there I kept thinking "what am I doing here, just find a new cab". Was a little overwhelming at first but I have learned a lot as I go. I just keep plugging away, little by little. I feel like have the worst of it behind me. Drivers side should go a lot smoother. Glad I put in the work to save this old truck.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Replaced a bit more of the back of the floor pan. Had to cut another section off the back to get access to make the repair, then weld it back in

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Sliced the bottom back off the donor cab. Drivers cab corner is pretty good, but not so much for the passenger side.

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My original plan was to use a whole replacement cab corner, but after comparing it with the original I could see it was going to be a lot of work to reshape the replacement. I decided to use the one from my donor. I knocked out a bunch of dents and used a small piece from the patch panel

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Hung the door and fit up the rocker. Started fitting the cab corner. Have to drill some holes for the spot welds and it will be ready to weld in.

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Fit up the drivers side cab corner and the rest of the back. Looks like it will work well. Have to wait until I have all the drivers side floor and braces done before I weld this stuff in

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Sucks the re-popped stuff is that far off. Lots of extra work sometimes....
Impressive effort on your part for sure!

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Great progress Duncan.. keep up the great work

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Cab corner is welded in. Started working my way across the back of the cab. There is one small section that I couldn't salvage from the donor that I will have to fab.

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While I was welding along the back of the cab I ran into a pocket of aluminum which instantly melted and made a mess. No idea how or why it was there?

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

That was most likely lead from an old repair back when lead was used. Nice work on the panel replacement and welding :thumbs:

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

wow great job but that led is a bummer it will be another education for us to learn how many ways to fix that? what's your choice. cut it out past the led? won't the led contaminate the steel where it's tined to weld or the steel to thin if you grind to far. iv seen led .25" to 10" wide depending on who did the work not the work needed. Thanks for the story,the pictures,and the time.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Well I ordered all the patch panels to start working on the drivers side floor, pillar, kick panel, fire wall. After waiting three and a half weeks they finally show up and the floor pan is wrong, so back it goes and I'm waiting again. In the mean time I finished up the last piece on the back of the cab.

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The area above the windshield where the seal sits is rotten on my cab. I've been searching for good deal on a cab to cut up and use to repair that area. Finally found one suitable for the repair, ended up getting a set of fenders as well. My fenders were beyond repair. Didn't really want to use repop's so I was happy to find this set. Small patch panels on the bottom and they will be good to go.

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I've never been a fan of the GMC gauges, and since the donor cab is a chevy I decided to swap dashes. This will let me use the Dakota Digital set up. Got the GMC dash removed, will be able to take care of some rust that would have been impossible to get to with the dash in.

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My cab hasn't been in good enough shape to move since I installed the LS into the chassis so I haven't been able to check that the cab fit. I dropped the donor cab on the chassis to save space in the shop. Motor has tons of clearance to the firewall, probably 2 1/2 inches plus. I think it looks kinda funny, would look better tucked back into the firewall a bit more. What do you guys think?

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

The farther back with the engine as you can is better for weight distribution.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

While I agree with Captain, yours looks to be the same place as mine. Truck drives fine, but I have not driven it much and not at all over about 40 mph...

You can see it here in Post #67, not the best picture but looks about the same distance as yours.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=726351&page=3

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Got to work on the drivers side after receiving the correct floor pan. Fit up and welded in the front lower pillar and kick panel pieces. Had to replace a section of the front to rear brace.

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Started fitting up the floor pieces and ran into alignment issues. Had to take a section out of the outer floor piece on one end to get the depressed groove to line up. Then had to add it back in on the other side. What a pain in the butt!!

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Finished up slicing and got the outer floor welded in. Got the front brace fit up and ready for welding as well.

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Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

I like your commitment to what should be.

Re: 66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap
 

Truck time has been pretty limited lately but I keep plugging away bit by bit. Finished up the rest of the drivers floor and the cab braces. Had to remove the gas tank bracket to fix some rust underneath. Coated inside the existing braces with rust encapsulator.

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Drilled out all the spot welds and removed the dash from my chevy donor cab to swap into my GMC. Also cut out the area above the windshield to be used as a patch panel for my cab.

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All this rust repair is starting to get discouraging so I am going to take a break from it for a while and work on some mechanical stuff. Going to rebuild the rear end with a posi carrier, new ring and pinion, and all new bearings. Adding a rear disk brake kit from CPP.