Finally, My 68 is on the road.....

[adpostel]

I took the maiden voyage today with my 8 year old son. I have been waiting a long time for this day. Its not a show truck, but its what I have, and it should be fun. 1968 LWB 454 cu in BB/TH400 trans 2800 stall, 4:10 gears ...Its definitely a 50 footer right now, hopefully in the very near future I can get it down to a nice 20 footer or 10 footer. Had very few minor hiccups to take care of today, installed the grill, and the hood, had a water leak, water pump bolts were only hand tight for some reason, it didn't leak until I took it for a spin, but tightened them up and no biggy. Installed the new Sears Die Hard Gold Battery so now I can start up without the use of a battery charger, (you don't know how good that feels) Got the timing down to where it starts right up. I had trouble finding TDC with the piston stop, so I couldn't mark my balancer. But I'll get to that soon. For right now, I can open the garage, get in start it up and take it for a spin, and that has been a long time coming........I washed the truck and everything, and I just forgot that I didn't even take any pics of it washed, Darnit..... I'll post a few pics, and take some more pics tomorrow of it clean....How embarassing....but I'm too excited not to share........Hope ya'll enjoy......

[jrdv]

Looks good to me and I'm only 20 inches away ( comp screen).
Have fun with the truck!

john

[71swb4x4]

I agree nice looking truck. I bet your son was grinning big time.

[DtownSteve]

Lookin' good. What's the seats out of?

[adpostel]

I wanna say they were out of an earlier model mustang 5.0 Didn't want to do it, but the seats were clean and matched really well, so I went with them.....

[Richard8971]

Sweet truck, congrats on getting her running!

D

[70cst]

Great lookin truck. Looks like a fun driver!!

[OARNGESI]

Really nice tru8ck congratulations on getting it going

[72BlckButy]

Beautiful truck, nice work!

[Slick67]

Good to see another lwb truck saved! Keep up the great work on that 5 footer!

[monte0185]

Nice!! Glad to see you got it going. Best of Luck!!

[adpostel]

Well after driving it around a couple of weekends, the old BFG's gave out and before I bought new tires for it, I managed to get the Okie Doke from the LAW for some new Boss 338's....So I ordered a set of staggered 20x10's and 18x8's, black centers with chrome lips....I bought them on the group buy, so the 18's didn't quite fit the front rotors. I ended up having to take them to my buddies job and have one of their machinist grind the hub bore a little to get them to fit. I thought I may have to grind the rotors as well, but they were able to do it without grinding them. So my wheels sat in the garage until I could get the Okie Doke on some tires. Sorry, but 900 bucks for rubber on a toy took a little bit of convincing. So last week, I went and got my tires. Ended up with Toyo Proxes STII's 295/45/20 for the backs, and 255/55/18's for the front. Man they look sharp. It took a couple of shots with different tire sizes to get what I wanted, but we finally did it.




So when I saw everything mounted up, I was super excited to get home and put them on. I get to the garage, and try to put the back ones on and OH NO!!! I wanted to vomit......Apparently, the previous owner of the truck installed a GM 10 bolt out of a CAR??? WTF?? So here I am with a 5x5 bolt pattern in the front, and a 5x4.75 in the rear. I am sorry, I would have never thought to check that, I assumed that the rear end was a GM 10Bolt truck rear end, never gave it any thought, as the wheels and tires have never come off while in my possession. What a DRAG! So now comes my first attempt working on a rear end. I had to pull the axles to have them drilled for a 5x5 bolt pattern. And I have to have the darn drums drilled to a 5x5 bolt pattern as well. So I got the axles out and they are at my same buddies job to have the new bolt pattern drilled. Oh well, they will be on soon enough... I will post pics as soon as I get them mounted.....

[Katrina/10]

Swap in the correct truck axle if you can find one.

[ubtripn]

I have a 68 and that is EXACTLY the color I was thinking, nice job man. All the way around.

[Bennett68C10]

Nice Truck

[BIG ORANGE]

Well why dont you put a lil engine in that bad boy!lol Now that a dam engine there!!! I hear ya bro. she looks tits..............
Enjoy her!!

[674x4ton]

Very nice truck,how long did it take to get it done?

[adpostel]

***UPDATE***

So my buddy took the axles to his job yesterday, and did some test holes in a scrap piece, and he couldn't find the right bit for the new wheel studs. So we did some measuring of the wheel studs and found out that the advertised knurl size of .535 was actually more like a varying .515 to .527, so we had to find a bit size that was as close to around .008 to .010 under that size. After much debate, we decided on a 33/64ths drill bit that translates to a .515 hole size. I had to go buy the cobalt bit at a local tool distributor, joker cost me 24 bucks. But it should work. I am at work and anxiously waiting for a call from him to see if its gonna work.

So I got off at 6am this morning, and the tool shop didn't open till 730, so I had some time to kill, and I end up at the local parts house that opens at 7 to get some more stuff for the installation. Diff fluid, Diff additive, rear end housing gasket, etc... SO since I'm tired and bored right about now, I think about how much trouble I have gone through with these darn wheels and think about what else I can do while all of the wheels, rotors, drums, axles are all off waiting.....Bad but good idea. So now, once its all said and done, the truck will have all these parts brand new, Rotors, calipers, front pads, bearings, seals, wheel studs, rear brake shoes, rear drums and Lucas diff fluid with additive. I have decided to paint the front calipers red with caliper paint, and I am gonna do as good of a job as possible on the new calipers. Rear drums will be painted black. I realized after seeing the wheels, that these things will be extremely visible now when the wheels are mounted. I know they aren't Brembo or Wilwoods, but there ain't no reason for them to look bad. I can guarantee you that my power boosted, front disc, rear drum setup will stop and get your attention when doin it too.....So the next step after getting the wheels mounted will be to focus on the static drop. Once they are on, I can decide how low I need to go to make the truck look killer. I don't want to slab the thing, I just want a nice small raked look and a very small amount of space between the tire and the fenders. I am going with spindles and shocks in front, and springs and shocks in rear.....I will keep everyone posted. This baby is gonna ride so good, I just know my wife is gonna tell me to go get it painted after this, LOL! Remember, my whole front suspension is from an 86 truck, and it is very tight....can you tell I'm excited.....

[adpostel]

as best I can remember I traded my nova for this truck back in 01/02. I drove it around daily for a couple of years with a 350 (worn out) and a 3 speed. It looked exactly as it looks in the pics. I just enjoyed what I had traded for. But back in 2004, I decided that I needed more power, so I began that whole journey and located a 454 BBC and A TH400 trans. and slowly the process began......I have most of it documented on my cardomain webpage listed in my sig. I am sooooo looking forward to cruisin my truck again. My wife and I actually went out in it a few times last year before the BFG's took a crap on us. I didn't want to spend anything on tires for the 15's since I had the Boss's sitting in the garage. So the last time I drove it was probably in early November last year. She ran really good, and everything was very reliable, (thats how I put her together, for reliability). SO I am chompin at the bit to get the wheels on her and get her back out....

[69Beauty]

That is a VERY clean engine bay. I am Jealous!

[adpostel]

Here are some updated pics when I was driving it around last year....It is the last time it will look like this.....LOL.....