1972 C20 -Airride conversion-

[Wiekser]

It has been a long time since the last update.
I've been out of motivation for a little bit, but I'm trying to get back at it.

Some things that dit happen:

Made a bracket on the rightside head.



This will hold a belt tentioner for waterpump drive belt.
using the threaded hole in the head, a waterpump bolt and a intake manifolt bolt to get it mounted solid.

Made a little sliding bracket for the pulley, and mounted it up:



Mounted the alternator


And with a tentioning rod.



Decided to mount al the electrical stuff, and the valve block inside of a watertight box. Just so the most of the dirt and dust stays off of all the expensive stuff. So this is what i got.


started filling it up


made nice sealed holes for the air lines

still needs some more work done, for cable looms and such.

I'm working on getting more done in less time, cause it's kinda frustrating to just let it sit.

[Wiekser]

mounted the height sensors.

calculated where on the 4-link bars the connection needed to be to get the travel of the sensors close to maxed out.

put a zip tie on the 4-link bar that pointed to te chassis. marked it on a piece of tape to double check the travel distance on that spot.

Than mounted the sensor to the chassis.


made a decent looking bracket to weld on the 4-link bar.


Just bought myself a TIG-welder. Never welded Tig, but I like the process so i want to learn it.
I still need a bunch of practice, but for a first day weld it's decent.


Added the link to the sensor.
At ride height


At max up height


Also made the front suspention height sensors.
just a simple piece of angle iron with som holes drilled into it.

Don't mind the leaking steering box, it wil get some attention another time.


I'd like to hear what u guys think.

[SCOTI]

Looks good!

[Wiekser]

Little update today,

made limit straps for the rear axle.
this way the shocks can't be over extended.
To calibrate the height sensors the ecu sends full tank pressure to all bags.
Without limit straps that would put a lot of tension on the shocks making me worried they would fail.
So after an evening of fighting with 8mm stainles steel cable I ended up with this:


Attached to the frame with a stud:


And to the axle with this little mount



Also some shop upgrades:
solid welding table with built in seat


one side has wheels under the legs, the other side is solid but has a pallet jack pump to jack it up.
this way its solid when in use, and when jacked up really easy to move

Also made matching welding trolleys for the mig and the new tig welders


I've got a couple of days of free time right now. so hopefully lots of progress.

[Wiekser]

Welded all the brackets solid, and started painting

Took all the loose parts to the spraybooth at work so I can paint them in a warm room with a spaygun,
started with a primer.



than a couple of black layers.



Did the frame at the spot in the shed with spraycans in the same colours.
First primer, and the surface rusty crossmembers are coated with a rust isolator, and than panted.



and black



diff cover is painted as well, took it off to take a look at the gears, and changed the oil while we were at it.

everything looked good.

Putting everything back together with new bolts.
And installing the silver painted air tanks.

Still need to redo the brakes, then I will paint the drums.




it's all coming together now

[Wiekser]

Plumbed the lines for the rear bags.
I put a thick rubber hose around the airline for protection.
The last thing I want is a airline leak while driving.


I also filled the rear diff with oil, but after standing a couple of days I discovered a leak:


So I knew it needed some new seals.
took it all apart, cleaned it up and painted it.
installed new seals and installed all new brakes.
Also found a little rust spot on one of the rollers in the bearring.
decided it was better to change them out so the rust doesn't eat into the axle shaft.



installed the brakes completely wrong the first time


After some research it went together the right way


Painted the drums with heat resistant paint, wich you're supposed to bake afterwards. Did that sort of


everything installed


Decided to do soft lines on the axle. secured it with stainless zipties. also put a piece of hose around for protection.




Cleaned the front calipers, installed all new seals and gave it a nice layer of paint.

than installed them on the rusty bracket


for the park/emergency brake i couldn't use the original cable setup, because of the air tanks. So i decided to go with an electric actuator.
So made brackets for the cables

and y-ed them together to the actuator




In the meantime of all this, I got the driveshaft lenghtened by an inch by the local drive shaft shop. And installed a new seal in the transmission tail housing.

[SCOTI]

I'm seeing more & more builds switching to electronics for the e-brake set-ups.

[Wiekser]

@SCOTI for me it's an easier option than making custom cables and rerouting them.


Something else that needed rerouting...
There now is a big air compressor right in the way of the upper coolant hose.
Because finding a fitting hose and a fitting thermostat housing isn't an easy task, I decided to make my own.



Gave it a mount on the end, so the weight isn't all on the thermostat housing boltholes.

With this pipe, it's basicly a straight hose form here to the radiator.


Also made an aircleaner for the compressor.
It's basically 2 leafblower filters on a pipe.
Will get new filters, these are just for mockup.




Then on to this thing


The power steering pulley.

This is the last pulley on the engine that needed fitting.
But ofcourse it doestn't fit anymore.
Put it on a piece of allthread. locked it in bitween nuts, and added another nut apart from that.


Than welded the outside of the pulley to the nut.


This way I could cut it in the laith without messing it up.
than just turn the outside rim to the measured distance apart.


I than added a piece of tube and welded it thogether



The pulley came out to be more straight than it ever was

Gave it a quick rattlecan black, and fitted it to the pump.


it's close, but there is room...


Ordered a belt that will be here tomorrow. than the pulley madness will finally get to an end.



I've also shortened the swaybar mounting brackets. And installed the original swaybar.

[Wiekser]

Next up...

Exhaust

A lot of work, but it's fun work.

I went with 2 1/4" pipe, all v-band clamps and Trush welded mufflers.
mainly because I all had these from my year old exhaust.
That's also why there are parts already painted black, and new parts.


Started from the headers. on the drivers side. i Looped underneath the shifter assembly.
(not the greathes pictures but you'll get the idea.




Than an exhaust flexi, and straight back true the carrier bearring crossmember.
Passenger side was the same, but with an easy down and straight back.

After the crossmember it goes down and in, to go past the airtanks and next to the driveshaft.


Than back up, and real close to the frame, to avoid the panhard bar mount. and down past the shock.



The other side has the same idea. up and over the panhart bar mount, over the axle, underneath the shock mount tube, and back up over the brakeline.




I needed some more clamps, and bends to finish up so i took it all apart and finish welded it.
pile of pipes to weld:


I solid mounted the pieces over the axle, because there is not much room for movement. Did that with tabs like this.


mounted it to the carrier bearring crossmember aswell, used damping bushings for these:


Added extra flexies before the solid mounted part. to maybe get rid of vibrations.


Than it needed an H-pipe.
So up and over the driveshaft looked like a good place for it.
Went with a smaller diameter tube, for clearance purposes
offcourse there needed to be a clamp aswell.



So after plasma cutting the holes I tacked it in.


In the meantime parts came in. So back to the rear.
After the solid over axle part, I added a v-band clamp straight into another flexi.


than down under the frame, and back up into the mufflers.
I reused the trush mufflers I used in my old exhaust.
Mounted them with rubber vibrating dampers tot the frame.




Same for the other side.


And added a 90 degree out of the muffler, down to the side.

result... good looking, functional exhaust.



Next up, paint.
taped up the stainless v-band clamps, flexies and the stainless endtubes out of the muffler.


Than a fresh coat of heat resistant black


Endresult...



Wrapped up some parts. protection where the airhose goes over the frame, and the solid mounted parts, because they are really close to the frame.


All back in the truck.



I'm really happy with the finished result.

[SCOTI]

Looks good from here as well.

[Wiekser]

@SCOTI, Thanks!

More updates,
since the exhaust was done all it needed before the bed could be fitted again was the parking brake.

So I got this little actuator controller.


This is an easy way to controll the electric actuator.
Just wire up power from the battery, power to the actuator and 2 signals for pull in and push out.
It will controll the actuator as needed, and has a current limit off mode. So when the actuator pulls 3,5 amps it stops. that way it allways pulls with the same strength. Even when the brakes wear down a little.

I wanted to keep it looking original in the cab, so I liked the idea of still using the foot pedal for the parking brake.
So I used 2 pull style switches pulled by the foot pedal.


The top big spring is just to have a little "feel" in the pedal, and for the pedal to go back when pulling the release handle.
The smaller springs are to prevent over extending the pull switches.
Top switch will be pulled when pedal gets pushed in. And will tell the controller to pull on the actuator.
When I pull on the park brake release handle the footpedal gets pulled back by the big spring, and also pulls on the bottom switch. Which is telling the controller to push the actuator out.

Pretty simple, and works like a dream.


So with the park brake working it was time to put de bed back on.
Cut out the middle reinforcement, for clearance.


Then threw it on

[tinydb84]

I love that you are making all the parts on your own.

The table with the built in chair is my absolute favorite though.

[SCOTI]

I wondered what your approach would be for the e-brake actuation & you tackled it the way my brain said it could be done w/o losing the 'old school' look. I wasn't sure what sort of switch would work for proper functionality but my mind was thinking something along the likes of a brake light switch.

[Wiekser]

@tinydb84
Thanks, the chair table is really nice. Especially when you're having a drink while thinking about the next project within a project.


@SCOTI
The switches are actually universal brake light switches used on tractors.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Wiekser

@tinydb84
Thanks, the chair table is really nice. Especially when you're having a drink while thinking about the next project within a project.


@SCOTI
The switches are actually universal brake light switches used on tractors.

Well I wasn't too far off then.

[88Stanger]

damn, this is a great build!

[Wiekser]

@88Stranger, Thanks!

[Wiekser]

Next up... Cooling.

Because of the compressor sticking out in front of the engine the stock cooling fan didn't fit anymore.

so there were 2 options...
1. make a spacer on the waterpump and bring the fan closer to the radiator.
There is room to spare so that wouldn't be a problem, but it would hang further off of the waterpump. which means more stress on the bearings.
2. electric fans
silent when not needed, pretty easy to install. But expensive.

Since I really liked the idea of them being silent when not on, I went with electirc fans.

So I ordered a Fan controller, and 2 Spal fans.
Mounted them with aluminium strips to the top and bottom of the radiator.

The controller next to the radiator, behind the compressor air dryer.



Fixed the leaking shifter axle seal on the transmission. threw in a new filter while at it.
Also found out why my shifter felt really loose, and sometimes fell out of gear when in reverse...

Are these common to break?


Threw the hood back on and took it for some drives over the weekend.

[SCOTI]

How was the drive?

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

How was the drive?

yes how was it?

[Wiekser]

The drives were good, I really didn't know what to expect.

But... I imagined it would be like floating on air , it's a lot stiffer than I thought it would be. (compared to my volkswagen I daily drive)

But than again... It's way smoother than the 3/4 ton leafsprings for sure.

Cornering is great, It doesn't hang in the corners like it did, probably mostly because the centre of gravity is way lower.

Also with this longer geared rear axle it drives way easier and smoother (I don't really know how to explain). Just the lower rpm makes a huge difference.
Plus my tacho used to read 15 mph higher than the actual speed, right now its pretty much dead on correct
Which makes me belive it doesn't have the original gearbox.

[SCOTI]

Yeah.... It won't feel like it's floating on a cloud just because it's on air-springs. But, like stated, it should feel much better vs. the harsh ride of heavy-duty leaves stacked on top of each other.

Dial in the Caster/Camber + some good tires & these old trucks can be fun to drive.

[LT7A]

Cool truck. Creative ideas, designs, and solutions. I like how you think through how you want a system to work and then set about putting it together. I'm glad you decided to show us your build.

[Wiekser]

@LT7A, Thanks!

In the meantime I've just been enjoying the truck.
Gives me a smile everytime i get in it

Little upgrade I did the other week:
went from this:


To this:


Just a piece of aluminium with some clamp mounts screwed in the back.


don't look at the welds... first time actually welding aluminium

and a bit of blackness



also mounted 2 4" speakers

aluminium plate with a tab to the two holes in the firewall, and a tab to the small stud from the dash pad.

And put a bluetooth radio in the glovebox compartment.


Just need a new antenna, but that will be on order soon.

[CG]

Great build! If you ever decided to super detail that engine compartment I would look killer with old school finned valve covers and air cleaner, painted between the fins. Polish up the compressor head and paint inside the fins to match.

Keep up the good work, fun build to watch.