What I can afford, when I can afford it... 70 Chevy LWB

[KSWes]

Loose ends.

In an effort to recycle and reuse as much as I can I re-purposed the the power steering lines from my truck and also from the donor truck I pulled the engine out of. Had to do a double flair splice since the power steering pump is for a newer truck and has a O ring style fitting. The double flair should be able to handle the pressure.

Also reusing the trans cooler from the donor truck. Had to bend up some new lines for the cooler. I'm not great at bending lines but with the green lines you can get from the parts store it's pretty easy to do. Ran it from the trans, to the radiator then the external cooler and back to the trans. That's how the factory does it on newer trucks so I thought I'd do the same.

Got the rear wiring terminated in the junction box I'm using.

I did connect the battery over the weekend and no popped fuses and most importantly no fires. The Alarm works and it uses the horn not a siren, Scared me a little when I hooked up the battery for the first time cause the alarm started going off, I guess it's designed to do that in case someone is trying to cut the power. Then I unhooked the horns for the rest of the testing. I don't like alarm sirens I don't think anyone pays attention to them other than considering them an annoyance, they probably don't pay attention to horns either, but something is better than nothing, and gives me a little peace of mind. Also using the starter kill on it.

I did have a bug to sort out with the power locks. I used a LMC kit and the door actuators are a little weak for the heavy pull of the lock linkage it has enough umph to pull it about half the time. Also the wires I connected from the alarm to the control box are not doing what I thought they would, and I'm not positive the control box from LMC will work correctly with my alarm. And the LMC schematic leaves a lot to be desired (it's a pretty cheap kit, I think I paid 40 dollars or something, I should have just waited until I had the alarm, but it's one of those parts I bought and sat on. So I decided I'm going to replace the actuators with high power ones and I'll replace the brain box with one that is designed to work with the alarm. I can't say I would recommend the LMC kit, just doesn't seem like a quality product. And not trying to trash LMC, I buy a lot from them, but I don't think these are heavy duty enough for our trucks.

The next post from me will be a video of the truck running. Saturday is the day. Everything is done except fluids so there should be nothing holding me back.

[Low Elco]

Congrats! Can't wait to see it.

[KSWes]

She Lives!!!

70 Chevy fire up - YouTube

Quick start up, runs good needs some exhaust. A good days work today... Exhaust goes on this week if I can get an appointment.

[mcbassin]

Congrats on getting her running! Sounds great!

[Low Elco]

Hey hey! Congrats Wes! On the road soon!

[Bomp]

Sounds great

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Congrats on getting her running! Sounds great!

Thanks Mike!!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Hey hey! Congrats Wes! On the road soon!

Thanks Chip!!

Originally Posted by Bomp

Sounds great

Thanks Bomp!!

Does on a trailer count as back on the road? Headed to the muffler shop tomorrow

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the steering box cooler and wiring.

New pipes
One step closer.

[Low Elco]

Mufflers-BOOOOOO!!!!! Gotta keep the po-po happy, I guess. Almost on the road, Baby!

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice work on the steering box cooler and wiring.

New pipes
One step closer.

Almost late for work getting it dropped off. Scared all the birds out of the trees next to the muffler shop when I fired her up. Should be ready to pick up on the way home. Putting some flowmasters on it, should have a nice rumble when I step on it, but quiet when cruising down the highway.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Mufflers-BOOOOOO!!!!! Gotta keep the po-po happy, I guess. Almost on the road, Baby!

I like em pretty quiet so that'll make me happy too. I try to prevent drawing the attention of the Po Po whenever possible.

[KSWes]

Had butterflies in my stomach the whole time I was hauling the truck to and from the muffler shop. Big O tires in Gardner KS, does a great job, all welded no clamps, and Mandrel bent.

I didn't have time to do a video last night but I took a couple pictures before I headed to work today. I'll make some noise on a video with it tonight. A little more aggressive than I had planned but still quiet enough to keep me out of trouble.

[Low Elco]

Ah, they tucked it up the center too. Nice work! Can't wait to hear it. I never asked, since you mentioned work, what do you do for a livin'?

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Ah, they tucked it up the center too. Nice work! Can't wait to hear it. I never asked, since you mentioned work, what do you do for a livin'?

Thanks and yeah I think he wanted to run it outside of the trailing arms but, I have my fuel line, fuel pump, fuel filter on the passenger side frame rail, so he tucked it in the middle he said that was the way the factory ran them. Looks pretty good to me.

I work for 106-5 The Wolf, Country radio station here in KC. I'm the Program Director and do an air shift. Never really mentioned where I work as most guys don't really talk about their day jobs other than to talk about how much they eat in to the time they'd like to be working on their trucks.

[Low Elco]

Hey, that works out! With the current trends in country music, (lotsa truck songs) you can use it for station promos! Score! I'll have to listen in, I'm an ipod all day guy,(current song: Ozzy, Children of the Grave off the Tribute album) not much radio, reception stinks here in the Bunker.

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Hey, that works out! With the current trends in country music, (lotsa truck songs) you can use it for station promos! Score! I'll have to listen in, I'm an ipod all day guy,(current song: Ozzy, Children of the Grave off the Tribute album) not much radio, reception stinks here in the Bunker.

Right!! I thought maybe I'd use it to pull a station float in the Snake Saturday Parade next year. A green truck would fit right in for a St. Patrick's Day parade and there should be no excuses not to have it done by then. I didn't pick up what you do along the way either, what keeps you busy when you're not working on your projects.

Love me some Rock also, we were in the car with the baby last weekend and she was fussing and then "until It Sleeps" from Metallica came on and she calmed right down. I pointed it out to the wife and she seemed skeptical until a day later she quieted right down once again when Metallica came on. I might have to get her a Metallica onesy.

I listen to everything really, but country music and country music fans have been awfully good to me and the stations I've worked for and kept me employed for quite a while so it's my fav.

I meant to put this picture up a while back, baby and her first time sitting in a shopping cart (with a little help) Home Depot of course!

[Low Elco]

AWWWWWWWW.... yer killin' me! It's like a tractorbeam of cuteness! My two have grown up on 70's-80's hard rock and metal. (and Buffett!) The 11-year old was singin' along to Motorhead in the shop just yesterday. I'm a huge music freak.

I'm trained as a machinist, currently a gage lab Tech at Lake City Ammo Plant. I rebuild, reset and certify the precision fixtures and gages used on the production lines.

Snake Saturday with that oughta be awesome! We have a family friend who's in local politics, and we have to get Yeller runnin' to pull his float in all the parades this fall. Boppa mentioned that just the other day.

[mcbassin]

Looks like they did a great job on the exhaust. Very cute kid too! future gear head I'm sure. Video.......

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

AWWWWWWWW.... yer killin' me! It's like a tractorbeam of cuteness! My two have grown up on 70's-80's hard rock and metal. (and Buffett!) The 11-year old was singin' along to Motorhead in the shop just yesterday. I'm a huge music freak.

I'm trained as a machinist, currently a gage lab Tech at Lake City Ammo Plant. I rebuild, reset and certify the precision fixtures and gages used on the production lines.

Snake Saturday with that oughta be awesome! We have a family friend who's in local politics, and we have to get Yeller runnin' to pull his float in all the parades this fall. Boppa mentioned that just the other day.

Thanks! She's a good and happy kid, I'm a pretty lucky guy to get to be her dad.

Pulling floats in parades and puttering around sounds like a good time to me. Also looking forward to being able to pull a camper.

A machinist sounds like a very cool job to me! I envy people who are good with math, you can pretty much do anything if you're good at math, And truly build and fabricate something from nothing. The rest of us get it close and hope it's good enough.

I grew up in the 80's and love all the 80's metal stuff, one of my first gigs was working at a classic rock station where I really got familiar with the 60 and 70 rock. So the baby will get exposed to everything I'm sure.

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Looks like they did a great job on the exhaust. Very cute kid too! future gear head I'm sure. Video.......

Thanks Mike, I'm happy with them, stainless would have been nice but I don't plan on driving on salty roads so these should last a longtime. I'm REALLY happy to be able to move the truck around again without having to push or pull.

The baby is going to get her share of time in the garage. Looking forward to her being better at all of this than me. Video tonight when I get home. I'll have the wife come out and start it up so I can get a video. Plus I'm pretty sure she's really ready to drive it, so maybe this will satisfy her until it's street legal again.

[KSWes]

Exhaust on the 70 - YouTube

It was after dark when we got out there tonight to do this so didn't run it for long. The kiddo was in bed and the neighbors have kids so didn't want to make too much noise. But as you can hear its not to loud not, too quiet. I'll call it a Goldilocks level...

[Low Elco]

Right on! Sounds great! I really like the old school small white bumper on the back. You don't hardly see those anymore!

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Right on! Sounds great! I really like the old school small white bumper on the back. You don't hardly see those anymore!

Thanks! I still have a couple things I need to do to the carb to make sure it's runs good. It's a Holley and the wire I have for the electric choke was too short so I have it unhooked at the moment so if you run it for long it starts running really rich and loading up. Also the fuel regulator is set right around 7 psi, I am going to back it down to 5. The Manual says between 5-7 psi but I think it would be better to be on the low end of that since I'm using an electric fuel pump.

The truck didn't have a bumper when I got it, That is the one I wanted when I went looking, and was lucky enough to find one from a guy over in Lenexa, made from 1/4 steel and probably strong enough to actually use for towing. I've seen a lot of the ones that wrap around back of the bed sides, and usually bent into the bed side from a hit, so I didn't want one of those.

[KSWes]

Had to make a couple changes with gauges on the instrument cluster. I'll have to rewire a few things in the back to accommodate the auto meter gauges.

I haven't done a whole lot in the last couple of weeks. Cleaning the garage and more organizing. Doing a little here and there to get ready for paint in the garage again. I'll need as much space as I can find since I'll be shooting the entire bed, front fenders, hood, cowl and anything else that needs done. The body shop sent me a pic of some of the progress on the bedsides and it's looking really good.

Said they should be ready to come back to me in a couple weeks so it should be perfect timing for the rest of my stuff.

Found a place I can buy some white oak boards to do the bed. I wasn't willing to pay the 400+ for the bed kits you can buy online. I can run a table saw and a drill and cut my own boards, I found a local saw mill where I could buy wood at a reasonable price northwest of Topeka, called Kansas Hardwood and they had what I was looking for. They cut local trees and the money stays around here, which I'm also happy about.

Taking a week off work the 23rd so I can make a little progress and to burn a little vacation time.

[mcbassin]

New mufflers sound great!
Glad to see you're getting close at the paint shop.

I'm totally with you on keeping the money local and doing the work yourself, I have always made my own step side bed wood too. I made a nice router jig on my last one.

[Low Elco]

Who are you using for the body? Glad to see they're doing you right. Cluster looks great. Off myself the week of the 30th. Hoping to get a lot done.