1967 GMC - SWB, great patina

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Primed the crossmember and Dana44 - will get after the Chassis Black when the weather allows it.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

2 coats of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black (satin) on the frame, front crossmember and Dana44.

Will let it all dry nicely, assemble it with new leaf springs, drill holes for mounting brake lines, fuel lines, motor mounts etc and spray it one more time before dropping the drivetrain in, and the cab on.

Eastwood makes nice products - sprayed it at ~30psi and it laid down pretty well.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Reattached the front crossmember and the AZ Speed tubular front member, and got the frame on dollys for roll around.

I pulled the leaf springs apart for cleaning and repainting with Snyders graphite paint

https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/p...0300&cat=41904

Any idea what these markings are on the lowest leaf? Despite being an 8-leaf set, my local chassis & spring shop says it’s a “5+3” and is only rated for 1200lb?

The markings do say “1207”? Most of the replacement leafs I’ve seen are much higher capacity than that.

Also….any idea what these marking is? A foundry stamp like the Winters “W”
on aluminum parts of the 60’s?

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

After some research, the logo on the leaf spring is from Keystone Spring Service in Portersville, PA

The numbers are some sort of date code. 1207 coils be
120th day of 1967, January 20th 1967?

Sprayed everything down after a degreasing with Acetone…with the Snyders leaf spring paint - sprayed it on after replacing the bushings.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Started assembly of the front end - the CPP tubular control arms.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Assembled the leaf springs and shackles with new bushings (PN 35207) put on the flip kit from DJM Suspension ( PN FK10102-5 https://djmsuspension.com/product/19...-leaf-springs/ ) which is a really nice high quality part, and got everything loosely bolted up to the frame.

She’s low. It’ll definitely need a c-notch but it feels lower just sitting on the rollers than my ‘68 C10 did with trailing arms, 5” springs and 2” blocks.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Parts have been delivered - a set of stainless brake lines from Inline Tube (PN: SCTB67D4), a Moog 331 and 348 ujoint and Strange Engineering U1662 yoke to attach the aluminum crownVic driveshaft to the T56 and Dana44.

Also ordered an LS style input shaft with bearings and shim kit from Texas Drivetrain to start converting the LT1 T56, over to an LS style. I’ve ordered a bellhousing, and will do the midplate conversion myself (access to a Bridgeport and ample shop tools).

….and built a trans holder for my engine stand to help with the disassembly.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Slapped the LT1 T56 midplate on the Bridgeport to get rid of the input shaft tube, and add clearances for the slave cylinder lines. Waiting on a plate for attaching the slave to the midplate, that will require some drilling & tapping to properly orient and mount the slave.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

T56 is back together after installing the new input shaft and adapter for holding the LS style slave cylinder.

After changing input shaft bearings, it needed an additional 0.004” shim to get the correct end play (with a pretty crummy dial indicator setup….but it worked).

Next steps - bolt on the flywheel, clutch, and measure for the correct spacing to the throw out bearing to see if any slave cylinder shims are needed.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Flywheel and clutch all bolted up nicely - photos for part number reference. I also put in a new pilot bearing and used the old LT1 input shaft as the alignment tool.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Installed some brake lines with hardware to get things tidied up. The lines were from Inline Tube. The hardware was from Jbugs.

https://www.jbugs.com/product/17-2717.html

https://www.jbugs.com/703122-1.html

On my ‘68 I used clamps from Notchead which were nice, but the lines would occasionally pop out of the holders so I opted for stainless bolt-down this time.

https://www.notchead.com/store/c10/H...ne_Clamps.html

Marked the center of the crossmember, center of the lines, bent things a bit and bolted them all down snug.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Installed the Summit sliding LS mounts and am immediately cautious. They only “slide” a bit compared to the OEM mounts location.

The mounts on my ‘68 (may have been POL brand?) allow for about 2” extra movement of the engine. Sounds dumb but the placement of the LS mechanical fan, in the OEM fan shroud dictated the position of the entire drivetrain.

On this truck, I’ll have electric fans so the engine will end up wherever the correct amount of slip yoke insertion into the T56 lands it. My hope is the mount perches and slider mounts all allow that to happen.

Photos of the Summit mounts on the 6.0 slid all the way forward (positioning the engine back as far as possible), and how my ‘68 currently is. There is a ton of room between the intake and firewall - enough to put a quart can of paint.

Will have to see how it all works out.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

In order to properly install the u-joints in the Crown Vic interceptor driveshaft, I of course needed to buy a shop press 😎. Always nice to “justify” a tool purchase.

Pressed in the Moog 331 to the shaft and yoke on the front end, then the Moog 348 onto the tail end.

The PN for the yoke (uses a 1350/1350 u joint combo) was a Strange U1662. Strange has several “strength” offerings. This was a middle of the road yoke.

[clay68c10]

It's handy how that driveshaft is the right length. I'm running the same one in mine and am using the Hooker/Holley frame stand and mount combo with a TKO.
Nice build!

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Thanks Clay - that’s part of the greatness of this forum is sharing the information - wish I’d known it before dropping $450 or so for a steel driveshaft behind the 4L60 in my ‘68. I’m trying to take a lot of photos and share part numbers in the same way - maybe it’ll help someone in the future.

I may be hosed with the engine mounts. The summit slider mounts don’t slide as far forward, meaning the towers will need to be further back. The ones I bought (same as my ‘68 which I loved being tubular, easy to route things around etc) fit nicely in the front location, but when I slide them back they don’t sit flush at all with the crossmember.

I’ll mock it up but have a feeling I’ll need another style motor mount

[clay68c10]

You could try the Speedway stands. They look like the ones I'm using, just cheaper.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/1967-...yABEgIDRvD_BwE

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Saw those….I’m going to set the drivetrain in, and see what my options are.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Clutch stuff is finally all set after getting some treats to convert the OEM slave lines to AN-style. This converts to a fairly universal 36” stainless line that will go to the clutch master, and to a remote bleeder kit by ISR.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Easily mated the T56 to the LQ4, and snugged up the hardware after adding new bellhousing dowel pins. I am picking up a crappy set of 5x5 rallys to bolt on and get the frame up off the floor high enough to slide the engine crane under, so I can drop in the drivetrain.

Once in I’ll figure out the motor mount situation. For the time being, I’ll just leave the two side by side to get acquainted.


Dunno why it took me 20yrs to learn that if everything you have is on wheels…it’s way easier than dragging stuff around like roadkill.


A couple pics of the cab also - I absolutely love the patina on the passengers door.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

I picked up a ratty mismatched set of 5x5 wheels with rubber, to get the frame up off the dolly’s and high enough to slide the engine crane under.

The drivetrain is in for a first-fit and looks reasonable. I wish the engine mounts fit better on the crossmember, but they aren’t so bad that I’ll change them out.

The Crown Vic driveshaft fits nicely through the aftermarket crossmember and has ~ 3/4” of relief from being fully bottomed out in the trans.

Getting there slowly but surely…

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

There isn’t much room at all between the axle and frame. A 2x4” for reference between the frame and top of the axle tube. No doubt when the cab and bed are installed it’ll bottom out.

Definitely needs a C-notch….might need “bigger” springs than the factory ones as well ��*

Wish I knew why the stupid photos are never in the right rotation. ��

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Bought a power steering box (Borgesen 800132 quick ratio) and now need to “dimple” the frame to allow its mounting (example photo shown - my ‘67 is flat and not recessed). Seeking info on creative ways to do this.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Mounted the box with (2) stainless fender washers under each of the mounting points and added longer grade 8 flange bolts. There’s still a small gap between the box and frame. I could have probably used 1 washer. I can’t imagine this shim will ever cause a noticeable change in steering from one side to the other.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Ordered an American Autowire harness from Matt on here with a Black Friday deal, so started pulling apart the LS harness that came with the LQ4. 90-mins later I had a loom-free harness that I’ll start to cut apart and custom build for this truck.

I know they sell plug & play harnesses, but I’d like to 1) custom route the wiring exactly like I want it, 2) know 110% that every connection was crimped, soldered, and heat-shrinked, and 3) this was a VERY enjoyable and satisfying portion of my ‘68 build. I learned a ton about the makeup of the harness, the LS wiring system, and how to route things through the truck. Having never done it, the truck fired and ran right out of the gate with the only issue being the set of Amazon coil pack harnesses being miswired so each bank had 2 cylinders swapped based on their pinout at the connector.

I love what Apple iOS thinks the photo of the wire, and the trashcan of loom might be. Nailed it guys. 👍

[PowerdbyChevy79]

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