My journey to create a comfortable driver.

[jgrote]

I've had my truck for a couple months now, and I think I'm in love. I managed to find a truck with most of the options I wanted, and I'll make it my own in time. Here is my starting point:

[jgrote]

My first step was to provide a little security, so I installed a quick release steering wheel. The guy I bought the truck from just put on a brand new stock steering wheel, but black plastic is not my taste. While I was in there, I fixed the horn.

[Louisvillekytruck]

Welcome very nice truck

[jgrote]

And now, it's time for the first big change. I'm adding Old Air Products A/C kit. But first, I needed to undo a few badly done mods from yore. I removed the long water pump, and went back to a short pump. I moved the alternator back to the driver's side with an OAP mount kit, mostly because I wanted the compressor on the passenger side. I also managed to get the condenser installed and mounted in place this weekend as well. I'm about half-way done so hopefully I can knock out the rest of the job next weekend.

[jgrote]

Another day under the hood yesterday. It's coming along, but slower than I would like. The new radiator is in. The belts are on, and the evap. box is hung under the dash. Today, I hope to get all the vents and hoses installed. That way, I can pull a vacuum on the system this afternoon, and let it sit overnight.

[cj847]

I like your style. I have had 2 of these trucks and in both cases I spent most of my money on safety, reliability and comfort. The only downside is both trucks look just about like when I bought them even though I have spent $6-8 k on each.

But the upside is, I can hop in, sit in a comfortable seat, flip on the A/C, fasten my seatbelt and drive virtually anywhere without having to work on it, worry about tires, brakes, etc,etc.

[jgrote]

Well, the a/c is "done". I ran into a few issues, but have worked through most of them. I had one leak in the high side hose. I just forgot to tighten up one of the fittings. I then got that tightened up and refilled. Everything was working fine. Pressures looked decent. I went to disconnect my gauges and found the low side schrader valve was leaking. And, of course I couldn't find my core tool. I went back to the store for the 200th time, and bought everything needed to suck it back down, replace the valve, and refill. I ended up getting away with just tightening up the core and topping it off. I was a little cautious filling it up, and will call OAP to find out what they recommend pressures be at. At 80 degrees, I'm at 175 high side, and 25 low side. I'm not sure why the low side is so low.

[jjzepplin]

Good job! Is the Sanden compressor a real SD5?

[jgrote]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

Good job! Is the Sanden compressor a real SD5?

I'm not sure what that even means. I doubt it though. I will say, it's a pretty nice kit. It's not perfect, but I'm kind of okay with that. If it was strictly a bolt-on affair, I wouldn't get the satisfaction of actually working through problems. The biggest thing was the alternator bracket. Nothing lined up perfectly. I had to cut, and grind, and shimmy, and weld, and... until I got it to fit pretty well. I know that I can get the OE replacement bracket for ~$25 just about everywhere, but I like that it mimics the compressor bracket in style. Here are the mods that I made (or will make)to the kit.

1) I changed how the condenser is mounted slightly, really just to make it look nicer.
2) I sealed up the firewall covers with RTV as well as the foam already installed on the plates.
3) I modified the bracket holding the hard lines to the bottom of the battery tray. Their design would have had the battery sitting on screw heads.
4) I will probably replace the cheap side vents with something nicer later on. They are real garbage.
5) Since there are only 3 vents, and 4 outlets on the evap box, I'm going to add a vent below the steering column.

[jgrote]

I spent the morning preparing the floor for new carpet. In the last 50 years or so, many people have done many things to this poor floor. It's had different seats, transmissions, and who knows what else mounted down. I patched up the floor with dimes and "panel bond". I had to make a patch for the tunnel where it had been cut out for some floor shifter at some point. And what better place to find perfect metal patch than from the heater box I just removed?

[May70]

I can relate to the desire for modern comforts in one of these trucks. I got my vintage air kit in last week but still have several items from Holley on back order unfortunately. Progress is somewhat held up. I started my gm 14 bolt conversion but have been sick for 3 weeks so havent made it back out there.

6.0 and 4l80 fully rebuilt with the gm14 bolt with discs all the way around. It will be sweet when I finally finish....

[jgrote]

I wanted to add a 1" fan spacer to push the fan out and under the shroud. While I was in there, I wanted to torque the crank pulley bolt, since I didn't get to when I put everything back together. This is when things went sideways. Most of you will know what the second picture says. This is how 20 minutes turns into 3 hours. I was able to clean up what was left of the threads, get a longer bolt, and get everything tightened up. I don't think I got to 80ft/lbs, but I wasn't going to push it too far. It's guud-n-tite. This little excursion almost cost me a motor. I currently have a good 327 sitting in the car next to this one, but I really was not in the mood to swap it.

[Palf70Step]

Nice work on the truck. She is a good looking one.

[SRU1436]

Looking good, I need to do an AC install on my C10. I completed a Vintage Air install on my 66 chevelle recently the problem I ran into was the ran 10-15 degrees hotter without the AC on. I was fighting cooling issues, but was able to fix it by replacing the standard fan clutch with a HD fan clutch.

With your AC on you might see 20-25 degree temp increases, especially during the summertime.

Just something to watch out for. It was my first AC install on an old car so it caught me off guard.

[jgrote]

I added an "inexpensive" aluminum radiator during the ac job, and it almost works too good. Now, my heat is barely warm. I barely move the needle off cold on the dash. It can start to warm up a little at stop lights when 90 degrees+ out, but I just turn off the compressor for a minute to let it cool down. I went with the OAP kit specifically because I wanted the compressor button.

I got the carpet installed, and I made a huge difference in NVH. Now, I can hear all the little places air is leaking around the doors and windows!

[cj847]

"Now, my heat is barely warm."

The radiator size/cooling should not affect the heat (unless there is no thermostat). If it really is cool, check the heater valve that is in the heater hose, it may be in backwards.

[jgrote]

Originally Posted by cj847

"Now, my heat is barely warm."

The radiator size/cooling should not affect the heat (unless there is no thermostat). If it really is cool, check the heater valve that is in the heater hose, it may be in backwards.

I understand that the water to the heater core gets water from the engine before it goes to the Rad., but so it the temp sensor. It's barely moving the needle. If I sit in a parking lot, with the air on, in 95 degree heat, it will climb to about half way. It's running at like 140 degrees on a 70 degree day with no ac running.

I'm not sure I'm in love with the aluminum radiator, but I needed some cheap and fast. I had to replace it during the AC install (where I was inching too far bast my budget) and needed a radiator that had a trans cooler integrated.

[jgrote]

Well, it got cold out. I needed to deal with my heat. After a little testing, I have figured out that my radiator is working a little too good. The engine just doesn't get very hot. I put a piece of cardboard in front of about 60% of the radiator, and now my gauge climbs slightly above cold, and the heat is decent.

[72 tigger]

Nice upgrades

[jgrote]

I finally found a seat that meets all my needs. The hardest part was finding one with the middle 3 point belt, and relatively flat mounting. The answer is 07-14 Suburban 2nd row seats. If the weather cooperates, I hope to get them mocked up this weekend.

[May70]

Thats funny I just got seats I had been looking for a while. Almost have them finished and brackets made up! Good looking seat you got, I was tempted to try that color out in my truck but figured id go with the tried and true.

[68 C10 Driver]

Originally Posted by jgrote

Well, it got cold out. I needed to deal with my heat. After a little testing, I have figured out that my radiator is working a little too good. The engine just doesn't get very hot. I put a piece of cardboard in front of about 60% of the radiator, and now my gauge climbs slightly above cold, and the heat is decent.

What temp thermostat do you have? You may want to check out one that is of a higher temperature to see if that helps...or maybe the one you have is defective and stuck open?

Overcooling can be a bad thing too.

[jgrote]

Originally Posted by 68 C10 Driver

What temp thermostat do you have? You may want to check out one that is of a higher temperature to see if that helps...or maybe the one you have is defective and stuck open?

Overcooling can be a bad thing too.

I have a 180 degree t-stat in it now. I bought the "failsafe" one, so it could be stuck open. My issue right now is this; I really don't know for sure what's going on. I'm relying on the cluster gauge, which doesn't have any numbers. I also have aftermarket a/c and heat, which of course isn't going to be as good as factory. And to add to the confusion even more, I have a replacement cluster, so I'm not even sure that the sending unit in the engine is matched to the gauge in the cluster. AND... the engine is out of something completely different (no idea what), so I don't really know what sender it has...

As I see it, with a piece of cardboard in front of ~2/3 of the radiator, I have decent heat. In the summer, I remove it, and the engine doesn't get hot. (And I have cold a/c.) Sometimes, it's not worth the hassle to troubleshoot the problem, when a solution to the symptom is so easy.