Danny Boy is BAACK! w/ '55 Big Window

[Red Foreman]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Seat frame looks great!

Hope your upholstery guy is quicker than mine!

"All good things take time" Btw ChuckDriver your seat came up so nice it ended up as my screen saver!

Keep up the good work Dan!!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Seat frame looks great!

Hope your upholstery guy is quicker than mine!

Hi JJ,
I've never used this guy before but Mike speaks highly of him. I've seen some of his work and was impressed. For now the seat frames will hang in my garage rafters. I don't dare take the seat before the whole truck is available or I might not get all materials from the same bolt - can't have that!

Thanks Red, How're things down under? What's new with your truck?

[Red Foreman]

Where doing fine down here in Melbourne thanks for asking Dan.
As for the Gmc still get driven weekly and doesn't let me down however reading your thread makes me want to redo the bench seat properly this time instead of just a re-trim.

Here's a current pic of it in my shed, cheers George.

[Dan in Pasadena]

The GMC's are such great icons of the 50's. Many years ago I bought a '57 Chevy truck at the Pomona Swap meet (big here. Bigger back then!) that turned out to be pretty rusty. The next meet was 6 weeks later and I had to pass on one the same color as yours that was an absolute peach. It killed me I'd spent my money on such a poor one and couldn't buy the Jimmy. Hope you enjoy the heck out of yours. I still wish I had one.

[Red Foreman]

Thanks Dan and yes all us Aussies know about Pomona, for us its the mecca of swap meets!

[ChuckDriver]

Originally Posted by Red Foreman

"All good things take time" Btw ChuckDriver your seat came up so nice it ended up as my screen saver!

Keep up the good work Dan!!

Thanks Red!!

[Russell Ashley]

Originally Posted by Red Foreman

Where doing fine down here in Melbourne thanks for asking Dan.
As for the Gmc still get driven weekly and doesn't let me down however reading your thread makes me want to redo the bench seat properly this time instead of just a re-trim.

Here's a current pic of it in my shed, cheers George.

That's a nice truck, one of my favorites. For most of us a shed is an 8X10 place to park your lawn mower, LOL. I wish I had a "shed" like yours to park my truck in.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

....I wish I had a "shed" like yours to park my truck in.

Me too!

[Dan in Pasadena]

More chrome button head bolts today delivered to body shop. Man, those things are spendy! Saw Marcos had painted a bunch of misc. small parts: Door hinges, ashtray/heater control delete plate, hinge access panel covers.

The other night I picked up a set of Lang thread chasers from Amazon. No idea if they're a decent quality set but kinda doubt it; they were fairly cheap. Never owned thread chasers before but don't want to round-off the Allen head opening in these pricey bolts. Some of the holes were powder coated over so hopefuly this helps.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thursday, May 18th, 2017

"I've got good news and I've got bad news".

First the good: The cab is back on the chassis. YAHOOOOO!!! That only took a month longer than promised.


The bad news?

Even though the engine was installed with the cab on the frame, it is now super close to the passenger side valve cover. So close Marcos had a microfiber towel between the valve cover and the firewall when I saw it. It wasn't pinched so tight I couldn't pull the towel out so there is SOME room. But it's genuinely tight. He also had to slightly bend the trans filler tube. Not enough to kink it but just enough so it wouldn't rub the firewall.

I've asked Mike to meet with Marcos and decide what; if anything, needs to be done? When I stopped by the shop one of his guys said, "...just beat in the the firewall a little". Uh... OH HELL NO! I didn't come this far to hack it now. There'll be no beating of my newly perfect firewall. So we'll see just how much an issue this is. The engine will move slightly with torque left/right but should never move forward/back and the head doesnt get hot enough to bubble paint but I still don't like the idea of there being 3/8" to 1/2" clearance vs. almost none on the other side.



Last: The cab mounting bolt kit I bought from The Car & Truck Shop doesn't SEEM to have the right parts. I confess i don't remember exactly where all the rubber, washers and short reinforcement tube-thingies were. Does anyone have clear photos of how it's supposed to look from the interior and from below? I DID buy a Factory Assembly Manual and gave it to Marcos. He's studying it but the pictures aren't all that clear. All help appreciated - Dan

[Henry50]

Obviously something moved. I'd loosen the cab mounts try scooting the cab back a little.
What do the engine mounts look like?

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Henry50

Obviously something moved. I'd loosen the cab mounts try scooting the cab back a little.
What do the engine mounts look like?

Dan I agree with Henry50. Move the cab back, if NO ONE is sure on the placement of rubbers they could be wrong. Sorry no experience with the TF...Jim

[MBrown]

I know its not exactly the same but my LS fits about the same on my '59 GMC, luckily mine's not beautiful new paint. Don't know what happened there.

Mark

[bobinbc]

Dan were those covers on the engine when it was fitted up? Maybe they are causing the problem? Agree with what was already said, should be able to fudge the cab back 3/8-1/2 inch with no trouble. It just needs a little breathing room

IIRC when I did the body mounts on my 57 there was a few shims and a very thin rubber in the front and a much thicker rubber for the rear, like 5\8 or so. HTH

[ChuckDriver]

Wow Dan that is tight!

I don't think you can move the cab back very much, if any, as the rear mounts are a tight fit.

As far as how they are installed, the front only uses the c shaped shim and rubber isolator, with the bolt going in from the top. On the rear the square rubber goes on top of the frame and the round one is under the cab mount, the steel tube runs up through the round rubber into the square on. The rear bolt usually comes up from the bottom into the captured nut on the cab floor, but I have seen them install from the top down, if the captured nut has been removed.

Hope this helps!!

[bosco]

First off... beautiful paint and firewall. But, wow that is close. If left this close can the valve cover be removed? If it can you should be okay, just close.

[MIKESAD50]

Dan looks nice.
Looks too tight.
I have had some issues with fitment during reassembly.
My buddy same thing, after complete mock up reassembly has had fitment issues. Take your time and dont rush anything

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks everyone for the fast responses.

Bob, Yes. First we fit the engine with the stock valve cover-mounted coils and they cleared. They take up more room than the retro valve covers do. The Delmo adapters & Moon covers should make the valve covers rise higher off the head but not move the cover closer to the firewall. Mike tells me the passenger side bank of cylinders is slightly further back than the driver's side bank. This is news to me, but ok. As long as it doesn't hit. I'm paying too much and have come this far to end up with chipped up, crappy looking paint after awhile.

JJ, Thanks a lot for the explanation of the sequence of mounting the cab bolt pieces. I'll cut & paste and forward to Marcos. Does anyone have clear photos of what JJ describes?

[ptc]

Here ya go Dan ---- Firewalls are NOT our FRIENDS!

Hope this helps

[Henry50]

It wasn't that close in this picture, so something has moved.

[Flysocal]

It's one big puzzle, an excercise in planning with lots of balls in the air. Keeps us young. Enjoy the process take your time and don't get frustrated.

[Dan in Pasadena]

You guys are SUCH a help, thanks!

ptc, That's exactly the kind of drawing I was looking for but it appears to be for the '60-'66 C10's, not our Task Force trucks. I don't think the bolt kit I bought included quite that many pieces. But I will send it to the painter and hopefully this resolves his confusion. Thanks again. I'll keep you guys posted on how this gets resolved.

In the pic Henry50 re-posted I now see what I hadnt noticed before: That the passenger bank of cylinders IS slightly more rearward than the driver's side. But you're right, it wasn't so damn close then. Not "problem" close. And I saw the work, Marcos didn't lay on a ton of filler. In fact I'm not sure if he left any filler in that location(?) There were multiple primer coats and high build too, but even with all that I find it hard to believe it could have added that much to the firewall. Right now I'm thinking the multiple primer coats AND a slight change in the cab that the bolt/hole sizes will allow add up to maybe an additional 1/8". If we can get back another 1/16" it'll be close but never hit (not that I'm sure it will actually touch now but its too close) and I guess that'll have to be good enough because I don't want to pull the cab off and cut/re-weld/re-paint to gain 1/4" in that area.

[ptc]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

You guys are SUCH a help, thanks!

ptc, That's exactly the kind of drawing I was looking for but it appears to be for the '60-'66 C10's, not our Task Force trucks. I don't think the bolt kit I bought included quite that many pieces. But I will send it to the painter and hopefully this resolves his confusion. Thanks again. I'll keep you guys posted on how this gets resolved.

My guy a Classic parts gave me this and said they are the same kits. The TF guys use this to line everything up with the front clip, radiator cushions, fender rubbers, spacers and everything. So your body guy has all the parts he needs to get everything square and right.

When we did my hood, my body guy setup my complete front end with some measuring device so that the length from corner to corners were all the same, but he needed all the mounting hardware to be in place to do it right.

So maybe you need this kit instead of the stock TF kit?

Also your cab just looks like it is too far forward.... that pic shows you had it in the right place at that time - just have to find that place again,

[Dan in Pasadena]

I think when Mike goes over this afternoon he'll figure out what the trouble is fairly quickly. He's done a number of Task Force trucks recently so he's a little more familiar than Marcos, the bodyman is.

The thing about moving the cab much is the holes in it align with the holes in the mounts coming off the frame directly above and the bolts should be very close to perfectly perpendicular. If not it results in all sorts of other issues aligning the core support and the entire front clip sheet metal.

I have no doubt we'll figure this out but it'll cause some noggin scratching and cursing.

I won't be there this afternoon or tomorrow - niece's college graduation ceremony today and a backyard party at my house tomorrow that started out to be for 24 people and has now become nearly 70! And I live on a Southern California post stamp sized suburban lot! We'll see how that goes. But I will go over and check on Monday afternoon and hopefully they will have figured something out.

I'm thinking how I would do it (which is probably wrong and why I'm paying pro's to do it) I'd probably mount everything very loosely out of frustration including the core support and fenders and then gently push/pull everything around til I got it all close while still maximizing the clearence at that valve cover.

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
To bad about the rocker cover being so close.
Our cab kits are different than the one pictured.
We have very thin shims on the front mounts.
When I mocked mine up I didn't know and used some wooden shims in front that were as thick as the ones in the rear so I have thick ones every where.
I just used thick shims on the core support to get things to line up.
Kim