Halfbreed - GMC Z71 + IH Extd Cab

[sparkydog]

While the front bumper seemed to be an easy choice the rear bumper seems more complicated. The shape of the rear end of the IH truck is awkward (what else is new) and there were a number of bumper shapes that I felt would not work given the contour (or lack of one) of the sides of the truck. So I started wandering around the junk yard on Sat morning. I wanted something that was as wide or wider than the truck so that I would not have to buy another bumper to extend it. I wanted a step style bumper. I wanted it to be flush with the sides and not wrap around. I wanted it to have a top that would extend into the recess under the tailgate of the IH body.

Eventually I bought this Fwurd bumper from a late '80's truck and brought it home to play with. I tried real hard to convince myself to get something that matched up with the front bumper but in the end my functional side won out over my artistic side.

There wasn't much trimming involved to get it to tuck up correctly to the body and now I just have to fab some spacer blocks in order to be able to bolt it up to the frame rails, pass through the cutouts in the IH body and mate up with the F*** bumper brackets.

[ThreeQtr]

Looks like it will be a good fit.

[sparkydog]

I also put some more work into cleaning off my weld lines on the front bumper. Getting smoother but still some work to do.

I have also put some time into how I am going to solve my many firewall and cowl issues. This is a shot of the beginning of a removable section for my firewall that will allow me to assemble the wiper components.

[6772owner]

Looking good!

[NONHOG]

With the bed style it is, that rear bumper is perfect. A Sport bumper would look out of place.

Nice!

[sparkydog]

About a year and a half ago back on post # (whatever) when I was positioning the cab relative to the chassis I remember staring at the cowl area and getting overwhelmed by how I was going to merge the IH and GM together and end up with a functioning wiper system, fresh air intake, defrost and the like...

At that time my self-defense mechanism kicked in and I said "Screw it I am sure I can figure this out later. Just weld the dang cab to the floor pan and get on with it."

Well it's time to pay the Piper and let me tell you - I have created quite a mess for myself. With the weather starting to mellow out a bit here in SoCal and now that I have a 3rd car back under my control - it was time to take Halfbreed off the road for awhile and try and get this last bit of integration resolved.

Since I will be welding a bit on the GM firewall right in the area where the HVAC unit and the factory rubber/foam insulation is located I thought I would show some wisdom and maturity and remove said items before I started welding so that I could avoid an embarrassing fire. So here I am again with the cab stripped down and a rather complex project ahead to make a portion of the GM firewall removable so that I can connect the wiper linkages up to the motor. The 2nd photo won't really do much justice to the 6 hours I spent getting some mounting gussets welded in but there you go.

[sparkydog]

Some shots from wipercam. Trying to mock up the linkage. My arms and fingers look like I got my ass kicked by a cat.

[6772owner]

Looking good, you get the linkage figured out?

[JRANGER]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Some shots from wipercam. Trying to mock up the linkage. My arms and fingers look like I got my ass kicked by a cat.

Thats how it always goes.....Good work

[sparkydog]

Here's a guide to what you're looking at.

[Frizzle Fry]

Could have done a super crew...

[pickup67man]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Could have done a super crew...

Maybe I should do a rare 10 door suburban. Or you could stretch the minx for 10 doors. Or lock ourselves in a padded room.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[PAWS 72]

One of the original Limo's.

[nuke1]

I really like the bumpers on the truck, they will look good, as far as the wiper situation................I feel for ya!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Could have done a super crew...

Oh yeah! Somebody else from my home world.

That means there are three sets of IH cab noses and rear cargo areas laying somewhere.... hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

IH Mini Coopers?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by nuke1

I really like the bumpers on the truck, they will look good, as far as the wiper situation................I feel for ya!

Thanks nuke! Last night after work I got the linkages cut and welded. Moved on to how to adapt the IH cam to the GMC motor shaft and sorted that out. I was able to power up the motor and watch it all move around! Now then... where did I put those wiper arms and blades?

[missinfishin10]

Absolutely Awesome!

[sparkydog]

More shots from the wipercam. After dozens of fit-checks I was able to weld up the connecting rods to their proper lengths, adapt the IH cam to the GM motor shaft and paint the results in a beautiful "sail blue" from Rustoleum. Why this color you might ask? Because I had the can laying around and nobody is going to see it!

The last pic is a shot of the start of my complex adaptation between the GM firewall to the IH cowl sheet metal. Many more mods to go. I will be getting rid of the horribly ugly hood latch brackets too.

[sparkydog]

Next up are some burnout pics of my wipers in action. If you click between these three pics real fast it will look like they are moving.

[sparkydog]

And I have also been adding poor man's insulation to the cab interior. I'm sure you are all aware of the raging debate between using Dynamat and Home Depot roof patch tape. Well you can probably guess which system I went for.

Regardless of what you do - my $.02 is not to use a roller wheel but one of the things in this last pic. It is the handle for the smaller foam roller brushes. It was the shizzle.

[1985-GMC]

Sweet sparky! It looks awesome! You can get cars inspected in cali without functioning wipers?

[FrankieD]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

And I have also been adding poor man's insulation to the cab interior. I'm sure you are all aware of the raging debate between using Dynamat and Home Depot roof patch tape. Well you can probably guess which system I went for.

Regardless of what you do - my $.02 is not to use a roller wheel but one of the things in this last pic. It is the handle for the smaller foam roller brushes. It was the shizzle.

Acctualy I was thinking of using Ice Sheld at $160 for 225sf roll what do you think? Is this what you used?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Sweet sparky! It looks awesome! You can get cars inspected in cali without functioning wipers?

They did nothing more than a VIN check. Maybe that's normal and maybe he was just overwhelmed by the beauty of my truck.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by FrankieD

Acctualy I was thinking of using Ice Sheld at $160 for 225sf roll what do you think? Is this what you used?

This was the thread I studied from the HAMB forum before I bought my material.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=711889

The stuff I bought didn't have the same brand name as what you show in your pic. It was about $17 for a 6" x 25' roll. It took about 3.5 rolls for what you see in my picture. I want to do the doors and roof too.

[hgs_notes]

I used fatmat and its about $80 for 50 sqft, which was enough to do my floor, rear wall, lower part of the firewall and inside the doors. I probably would have used the roof sealer stuff but couldn't find it at the time. Pretty much the same stuff, but the fatmat came in 18" wide rolls.

http://www.sounddeadener.com/product...20packs/50.htm

Nice job on the wipers.