TA_C10: Stage 1

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by MDPotter

It's really coming down the home stretch now!

It is hard to get colors like that to match when you paint panels on different days. I look at my dad's 64 that is a metallic blue and I painted it in pieces on different days and it bothers me all the time. Number of coats is what got me on that one.

I'm anxious, and thanks. It IS tough. And I thought the paint went on so easy . I should have put them next to each other before I installed them... Duh.. I am NOT and paint and body guy.... I put 3 coats on everything, 16psi in my HVLP, but it's all about my gun speed this time.

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

First off, truck is looking great. I'm glad to hear the LMC window setting rubber works. I can't find the metal track at the moment, but I know I restored it and put it somewhere safe.

No worries on the vent windows!! I'm glad I caught that before I had all the rivets in. Don't blame you for waiting.

Thanks man, I'm so close I can taste it. I'm not building show like you guys so a few dings and screw-ups don't stop me from moving forward And yeah man, your truck, I'm glad you caught that too. I research the heck out of everything, but I got in a big hurry that day and this is what happens...

Keep on building fellas!

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[TA_C10]

Got a question. Is this normal? Notice my window rolled all the way up is "TOO" far up? The window channel is past the rubber.... Why is that?





Another question, I am installing the door switches for courtesy lights. Are those supposed to be threaded in the door jam or you guys putting a nut behind it? They didn't come with a nut but the metal is so thin it seems weird to just try and thread it...






And some other things I have going on from the weekend project. I finished wiring all the PW and PL. They all work. The PW need a little extra boost of power in the passenger door but a relay and larger gauge wiring should fix that no prob. When the truck is running it has zero problems. You can see my mess of wiring right now. I barely got all that wiring fed through those 1/2" door looms. And I forgot one, mirror still needs its wire snaked through. It's pretty tight in there... My access panels on the kick panel make it really nice to work in, but I should have moved them a big higher. Still not sure if I want to make a hinged door for them or just leave them open behind the kick panels....

I got all my bed panels and small parts back from sandblast and the primer he uses is nice. I scuffed several of the small parts and painted them with rattle can matte black from Eastwood, and I guess I didn't wait long enough for the paint to dry, I already rubbed a couple spots on BOTH striker plates in door jambs, wrench hit when tightening bolts.... Easy fix later.


More pics:











The PO had already painted over the VIN plate on door. When I tried to remove the paint it was in bad shape, so I just painted over it again. Sucks....

[MDPotter]

That is weird. I haven't seen that on my 68 or 69. You have your window channel strip installed in the door, right? I don't know what else would let you window glass run up that far.

Are you gonna get your bed all bodyworked and painted soon?

All of a sudden it's fall/winter in Colorado and I haven't gotten anything even in primer on the 69 yet.

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by MDPotter

That is weird. I haven't seen that on my 68 or 69. You have your window channel strip installed in the door, right? I don't know what else would let you window glass run up that far.

Are you gonna get your bed all bodyworked and painted soon?

All of a sudden it's fall/winter in Colorado and I haven't gotten anything even in primer on the 69 yet.

Yeah man all the weatherstripping and rubbers are in place so I'm not sure what's going on. Driver side isn't that bad. I will take a closer look this weekend.

Yeah I plan on doing bodywork in a couple weeks, gonna be out of town for a bit. I'm ready to get this thing done.

My buddy lives in Westminster, they were posting pics of snow already. Better get on that primer!

.

[TA_C10]

Few small updates

Spent Saturday mowing our new property for the first time. Rented a 52" Toro Titan from Ace(PowerUp rental) for $175 24 hours. Not bad. It's only $110 for 4 hours. I would like to find another rental place and try different mowers if I can find another rental company... 4.5 acres we are wanting a 60+ inch deck when we purchase. Took 2 hours with the 52" deck. Not bad.


Friday night I fought the drivers side mirror install with the wife. That backside bracket gave us trouble but we finally conquered. Sunday I did some cleaning up of wiring. Installed the new dash speaker and Custom Audio radio. It's not wired yet, and the dash speaker is the only speaker I have so far so no review on the radio just yet. But it looks good. Installed super easy. I only had to adjust the mounting nuts once and it was just right. And the dash speaker I had to modify the bracket a little, and because of the VA middle dash vent, that speaker is really squeezed in there...

I also put my intake back on again, used zip ties to hold it in the 2 places I plan to make brackets to hold it on. I tried this with the hood on a while back and it had plenty of clearance. With the zip ties holding it there was a good 1/4" or more around the upper radiator hose all the way around so I am happy with that. The only thing I am not happy about is the location of the MAF sensor. I have stock style so it will need another boot to install. I want to put it after the 90 from intake halfway to the 45 bend over the rad hose, but that part of the pipe is slick, no mounting bumps. So I guess I will have to mount it further back between the 45 at rad hose and 45 at fender. There are mounting locations in the pipe there. But I will have a lot of silicone sleeves in this dang thing...... Not sure I am going to like it but maybe it will be ok....

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Few small updates

Spent Saturday mowing our new property for the first time. Rented a 52" Toro Titan from Ace(PowerUp rental) for $175 24 hours. Not bad. It's only $110 for 4 hours. I would like to find another rental place and try different mowers if I can find another rental company... 4.5 acres we are wanting a 60+ inch deck when we purchase. Took 2 hours with the 52" deck. Not bad.

I have a commercial grade John Deere Zero turn and man can it chew up some grass fast! I also have a 72" finish mower that I pull behind my JD tractor. We have 9 acres at our house (cut about 4 acres). We also have 68 acres that we use for camping, hunting and ATV's. We don't cut all of that, but we do cut some some.

Originally Posted by TA_C10

I also put my intake back on again, used zip ties to hold it in the 2 places I plan to make brackets to hold it on. I tried this with the hood on a while back and it had plenty of clearance. With the zip ties holding it there was a good 1/4" or more around the upper radiator hose all the way around so I am happy with that. The only thing I am not happy about is the location of the MAF sensor. I have stock style so it will need another boot to install. I want to put it after the 90 from intake halfway to the 45 bend over the rad hose, but that part of the pipe is slick, no mounting bumps. So I guess I will have to mount it further back between the 45 at rad hose and 45 at fender. There are mounting locations in the pipe there. But I will have a lot of silicone sleeves in this dang thing...... Not sure I am going to like it but maybe it will be ok....

Is there a reason you went with your intake set up to the passenger side? I can't recall unless I go back and read through the build thread again. I am real happy with the one I used. It puts the intake to the driver side and allows me to keep the stock battery tray. You can see it in my build thread.

[SkidmoreGarage]

Looks like good progress. Getting closer.

You didn't ask for advice on the intake, but I see an opportunity to offer some motivation. I see a lot of trucks that are super nice with LS swaps and the intake tube is a compromise. They have couplers, bends, and an awkward look. My suggestion is to take your time, and maybe even weld up what you want. Once it runs- you may not get back to it for a while.

When you say it's smooth, you mean it doesn't have the bead for the couplers? For N/A you can get by without a bead on an intake tube. You can even get away without a bead on 2.5" intercooler piping at 7 psi.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by SkidmoreGarage

Looks like good progress. Getting closer.

You didn't ask for advice on the intake, but I see an opportunity to offer some motivation. I see a lot of trucks that are super nice with LS swaps and the intake tube is a compromise. They have couplers, bends, and an awkward look. My suggestion is to take your time, and maybe even weld up what you want. Once it runs- you may not get back to it for a while.

When you say it's smooth, you mean it doesn't have the bead for the couplers? For N/A you can get by without a bead on an intake tube. You can even get away without a bead on 2.5" intercooler piping at 7 psi.

Ditto and I'll add.... Use what you have to get what your set-up needs as far as the length, bends, & the position of the specific parts. Then find a shop to build a single tube from aluminum (or whatever) based on your mock-up stuff. It would look much cleaner.

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by derotoreut

I have a commercial grade John Deere Zero turn and man can it chew up some grass fast! I also have a 72" finish mower that I pull behind my JD tractor. We have 9 acres at our house (cut about 4 acres). We also have 68 acres that we use for camping, hunting and ATV's. We don't cut all of that, but we do cut some some.

I would love to test out a JD....


Is there a reason you went with your intake set up to the passenger side? I can't recall unless I go back and read through the build thread again. I am real happy with the one I used. It puts the intake to the driver side and allows me to keep the stock battery tray. You can see it in my build thread.

I chose the passenger side because I built my PDU panel on drivers side. I also relocated my battery to frame rail and that left a huge ton of "nothing-ness" on the passenger side so it was the logical place. And logical as well because I wanted to build a box or block off plate in the fender area.

Originally Posted by SkidmoreGarage

Looks like good progress. Getting closer.

You didn't ask for advice on the intake, but I see an opportunity to offer some motivation. I see a lot of trucks that are super nice with LS swaps and the intake tube is a compromise. They have couplers, bends, and an awkward look. My suggestion is to take your time, and maybe even weld up what you want. Once it runs- you may not get back to it for a while.

When you say it's smooth, you mean it doesn't have the bead for the couplers? For N/A you can get by without a bead on an intake tube. You can even get away without a bead on 2.5" intercooler piping at 7 psi.

This is good to know, yes I meant the beads. If I don't need those I may have another option here. More on this in a minute.

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Ditto and I'll add.... Use what you have to get what your set-up needs as far as the length, bends, & the position of the specific parts. Then find a shop to build a single tube from aluminum (or whatever) based on your mock-up stuff. It would look much cleaner.

Thanks for the options fellas. I would much rather do a short run to a filter with a smooth pipe because of looks for the most part. But I see time and time again factory setups going to a box or block off plate(essentially a box) to the fender side away from heat. And we all know here by now I am no expert at any of this business. My father owned a mechanic shop for years so I have more of a mechanical set of skills and knowledge than anything else. So I understand the cooler air intakes. This is ALL I was trying to achieve here. My brain said let's get cooler air, and left out the good looking part... If I had it to do all over again, I would have put the PDU on passenger side, and then ran intake to drivers side not competing with rad hoses. Or different radiator with upper on the drivers side.... But I am at most things here, a newb when it comes to ground up builds. This is my first.

I purchased this expensive kit almost a year ago now, I should have waited.
But the decision behind that was I can't weld aluminum because I don't have the tools for that. This is also going to only be a daily driver, so looks weren't at the top of my priority list. But then that's a lie, I still want it to look good, I just made a hasty decision and now I gotta live with it.

However, I think I still have a small option for better looking, if my idea works out. I am really hoping to be able to hot weld this plastic together in the middle joint removing that sleeve completely. I also plan to smooth all the unnecessary beads if I can do that and paint it perhaps, I dunno. But I will still entertain any ideas from you guys. I will look into the aluminum route and see what it will cost me on top of the expensive kit I have now

[SkidmoreGarage]

If you are thinking to plastic weld with a soldering iron style, I would say try it out before you dive in. The results are really hit or miss based on the type of plastic and the application. You will have one good looking side (after a lot of fettling), and one side that is a globby mess, assuming that it isn't too thin or the wrong type of plastic.

Can you run a cartridge style MAF? The bolt in type?

[TA_C10]

The plastic is really thick, good stuff. But not sure about the welding yet, I have test pieces to try it first. And I can run a cartridge style MAF but I already bought the stock style. I guess I can look into price on those and maybe sell mine, I just hate wasting money if I can't find a buyer...

.

[siggyfreud]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

I chose the passenger side because I built my PDU panel on drivers side. I also relocated my battery to frame rail and that left a huge ton of "nothing-ness" on the passenger side so it was the logical place. And logical as well because I wanted to build a box or block off plate in the fender area.



This is good to know, yes I meant the beads. If I don't need those I may have another option here. More on this in a minute.



Thanks for the options fellas. I would much rather do a short run to a filter with a smooth pipe because of looks for the most part. But I see time and time again factory setups going to a box or block off plate(essentially a box) to the fender side away from heat. And we all know here by now I am no expert at any of this business. My father owned a mechanic shop for years so I have more of a mechanical set of skills and knowledge than anything else. So I understand the cooler air intakes. This is ALL I was trying to achieve here. My brain said let's get cooler air, and left out the good looking part... If I had it to do all over again, I would have put the PDU on passenger side, and then ran intake to drivers side not competing with rad hoses. Or different radiator with upper on the drivers side.... But I am at most things here, a newb when it comes to ground up builds. This is my first.

I purchased this expensive kit almost a year ago now, I should have waited.
But the decision behind that was I can't weld aluminum because I don't have the tools for that. This is also going to only be a daily driver, so looks weren't at the top of my priority list. But then that's a lie, I still want it to look good, I just made a hasty decision and now I gotta live with it.

However, I think I still have a small option for better looking, if my idea works out. I am really hoping to be able to hot weld this plastic together in the middle joint removing that sleeve completely. I also plan to smooth all the unnecessary beads if I can do that and paint it perhaps, I dunno. But I will still entertain any ideas from you guys. I will look into the aluminum route and see what it will cost me on top of the expensive kit I have now

The intake looks good. If I can help clean it up at all let me know. I too would go for cool air over aesthetics. I remember in the speed-density days people would stuff a cone filter right off the throttle body. Looked clean, but you're sucking up nothing but radiator air at that point.

[TA_C10]

Well, I'm back from vacation, and I am trying to get re-motivated on the truck again but this list...... Seems like I keep adding to it faster than I can cross items off





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[1971Stepside]

I'm holding on the rearview mirror until I see what you figure out. Remember the good thing about a big list is if something starts fighting you, you have something else to move on to.

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Well, I'm back from vacation

FINALLY! I've been wondering why no updates.

I hope you're all rested up, cause that list ain't gonna tackle itself... Like 71stepside says, just try to switch to a different project when things aren't flowing right. I'll do my best to inspire you, here goes... You're getting very close to having a personally hand built one of a kind classic Chevy daily driver with all kinds of cool amenities. Now lets see another 50 pictures please, I need some motivation too.

Here's an idea, just work on the things absolutely needed to make it drive-able, then maybe the motivation will come naturally?

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

I'm holding on the rearview mirror until I see what you figure out. Remember the good thing about a big list is if something starts fighting you, you have something else to move on to.

I will be working on the mirror very soon. I plan to polish the metal ball, paint it, and test it out in the socket to make sure it doesn't rub the paint off, and go from there.

Originally Posted by cornerstone

FINALLY! I've been wondering why no updates.

I hope you're all rested up, cause that list ain't gonna tackle itself... Like 71stepside says, just try to switch to a different project when things aren't flowing right. I'll do my best to inspire you, here goes... You're getting very close to having a personally hand built one of a kind classic Chevy daily driver with all kinds of cool amenities. Now lets see another 50 pictures please, I need some motivation too.

Here's an idea, just work on the things absolutely needed to make it drive-able, then maybe the motivation will come naturally?

LOL. Thanks man. We can all use the motivation from time to time. And speaking of motivation, I knocked off an item on my list Tuesday(sealed bulkhead on firewall) and now i'm working on intake tube again.

The original style MAF fits directly into the 4" tube on one end, and needs a coupler on the other end. If a clamp can squeeze the tubing enough to hold the MAF in place I will be happy. Otherwise I will have to come up with something different.

Here is what it looks like so far with mock-up. It's right after a 45 degree curve I know, but this is just to get me started. I may end up going with doing an aluminum tube another day like some of you have mentioned.


I will need to cut off a little plastic notch in the MAF so it sits flush inside the intake tube, but currently it's a pretty tight fit just sliding it in there so this may work.










.

[SkidmoreGarage]

Slight detour, I noticed that you had a pull type parking brake a couple pages back. I have the big lever under the column and I'd like to switch it out.

Is that OEM or did you make something?

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by SkidmoreGarage

Slight detour, I noticed that you had a pull type parking brake a couple pages back. I have the big lever under the column and I'd like to switch it out.

Is that OEM or did you make something?

Where did you see that? I have the regular foot pedal e-brake man

.

[SkidmoreGarage]

Yeah, I suppose the mind sees what it wants. I saw the release handle and made an assumption. Carry on!

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by SkidmoreGarage

Yeah, I suppose the mind sees what it wants. I saw the release handle and made an assumption. Carry on!

I'm guessing you have and earlier year truck. I don't know what the cutoff is but the 67 and 68 have the long horizontal lever just under the column. My 72 is the same style as TA's... a foot pedal design near the drivers kick panel.

[TA_C10]

Yeah I forgot to mention the for pedal bracket and assembly is available at a couple different online vendors. They just bolt to dash and firewall. Doubt it would be an issue swapping yours out.

[TA_C10]

Modified a tab bracket to bolt up to the radiator support. Holds it just right. OE MAF fits perfectly inside the tube on the front side, silicone sleeve holds the rear. Now I need to fab up a custom cold air box and get it mounted. New pigtail harness won't be here for a couple weeks so finish wiring up the plug when that arrives.


I used a die grinder to get rid of the tab so the MAF slides inside the intake tube and seats flush.




Here is bracket modified and attached to the rad supoort bracket.




Waiting for pigtail.




I don't have the filter side tube all the way in the silicone sleeve here yet, it fits better than what you see. Later pics show it fitting better.









The kit only came with these 2 silicone sleeves. I don't like the idea of this one on the intake with the bubble ring in it so I will probably get another one to replace this.




Neato Bandito!

[1971Stepside]

Be a lot cooler if that beer was open

[TA_C10]

yes it would wouldn't it...

[TA_C10]

Doh! Ran out of correct size connectors...