41DegreesSouth Build Thread

[1985-GMC]

Nice!

[Dieselwrencher]

The paint looks great! I'm sure you're stoked to have the cab back on the frame! Keep up the great work! I'm betting we will have weather like you were having in 4 months.

[Billhilly]

Thanks Guys!

Trying to keep things moving along here. Fitted the extra cross member for transfer case skid plate, and finished up the transmission linkage cable brackets, sorry no pics. Oldest daughter is only here for a couple more weeks so trying to get a bit more done before she goes back to college. Bed went together well, and sat it on for a quick look.... I'm going to take it off while I finish up running cables, propane hoses, etc. Starting to get an idea of what it's going to look like when we're done....

[cmabolt]

Ahhh the moment of truth. The cab meets the bed again. Looks great! Really like that color combo.

Keep at it. Your almost there.
Chris

[ryanroo]

Nice!

[1985-GMC]

Man that looks good and that was the perfect wheel choice!

[Palf70Step]

Looking Good!

[swamp rat]

Its coming together nicely!

[Dieselwrencher]

That color looks great and the truck wears it well!

[Billhilly]

Thank you again for the encouragement guys. I appreciate it, and understand most of you have 'been there, done that' with truck rebuilds! Sorry for the slackness on my behalf with updates. Interesting days...
Well as I said months ago, my eldest daughter was here helping. Because of a variety of delays we managed to get a few things dismantled but nothing put back together! Good times. So I've had the fun of doing the vent window dance. Stripped everything right down, sandblasted, zinc plated, powder coated (most of it), then did the whole reassembly thing. Read a lot. Watched some YouTube clips and all in all I think it went ok. Just patience. And soap and water! The actual glass went back into it's frame reasonably easily with the help of the soap and water. Possibly should have used Vaseline instead of the soap/water deal for the rubbers into their frame, but thought if I got the whole thing slimy/slippery things would have gone downhill! It was hard enough anyway. Looks good now, but again, so much detail/time into these little parts.
I also proved that yes, you can get a tilt steering column apart with no special tools (but the 'right' bolt to get the pivot pins out sure helps!). So after that vomited all over my bench I left that for a few weeks as well. It helps the memory process on re assembly. NOT! So once I'd reassembled it a couple of times I had it down cold.... Cleaned and painted it all up. New lower bearing/retainer/seal. Came up nice. (Did scratch it the other day...)

[Billhilly]

Finished modifying the heater gate box thing for RHD. The Old Air deal only has one hot outlet, and I wanted heat for windscreen, and feet, so it was kind of a necessary deal. Not many stock bits left now! Me and my good ideas. Also finally got onto painting all the 'left over' bits black. Again spent hours cleaning and 'lining' the fuel tank with a POR15 three pack deal. The outside was kind of grotty so decided to paint it as well. Also painted up, and did some of the install on my wiring blocks.

[Billhilly]

Was very fortunate to get my panel guy back onsite a couple of nights. Got the doors hung, and the front/rear screen in. Having someone as experienced as Scott come in is certainly a help with jobs like that. Starting to look more like a truck! (Sorry for the rubbish pics).

[swamp rat]

I guess the key words are "don't quit" take breaks from it from time to time but get back at it at a later date.

You are absolutly doing stuff i don't want to think about doing like the vent windows, i figure i'll end up exchanging them for a set done by one of our board members for a hefty price. LOL!

[Billhilly]

I'm doing stuff that I don't want to do!! This whole thing started out with me looking for an original paint truck to use for work, and taking my daughters to the beach and the bush. I am well over putting so much time and effort into all these details! But once you are in so far..... there's no getting out!

Down here we have rules. Lots of rules for lots of things. Since this truck has been sliced and diced it has to go through a 'low volume vehicle' cert process. Basically any vehicle that has been modified has to be inspected, and issued a LVV tag. Fortunately we have a guy in town who can do it. Unfortunately he is really busy. So I went to see him about six weeks ago and said I don't want to be that guy who turns up months in advance to book in, but I didn't want to leave it to late because I know how busy you get. Well he says too late already, he's booked till next year!! I was gutted, because I have been pushing hard to get it done before Christmas and I've got a wedding party to go to in late December and it would be a great road trip for the truck. Well, we managed to negotiate and he said he had to have it by the 16th of this month! Today! Well I've been wagging work, pulling sickies, and working nights, but by late last week I could see I wasn't going to make it so rang him and the long and the short of it is I am now booked for next Tuesday. And that really is it, otherwise I have to wait till next year. So I have a week to get the truck completely road worthy. As well as LVV I have to re-register it, and pass the Warrant of Fitness (safety check) as well! That's another day and another $400! So yeah, its going to be an interesting week.....
So here's where we stand right now.

[Billhilly]

About the most amazing thing that has happened in the last ten days is that 400SBC of unknown origin, that has been hibernating for nine years fired up and is running really nice!! Well it's only been running for a very short time, but it is running! I'll fill in more details later.
My biggest issue right at this second is the brakes. I have all new components. Disc conversion in the rear, 1" CPP master cylinder, and a Wilwood proportioning valve on the rear line. We bench bleed the master, gravity bleed, and then pump/release bleed the brakes and they appeared to come up well. Half pedal stroke. Firm etc. But as soon as we fired it up I get a long pedal, basically to the floor. Actually brakes fine, just to long of a stroke. I would really appreciate your opinions on this cause right now it's the biggest issue I have. I'll update more tomorrow.

[ryanroo]

Looks great! good luck with the push!

as long as the pedal feels firm, just with a long stroke, i would bet it is just the relationship of the MC bore vs teh size of the pistons in the calipers and how much volume it takes to move them. a bigger bore will give less pedal travel.

[1985-GMC]

Man that thing looks sharp!

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work and progress. I wish you luck to get it all done so it can be inspected. I think Ryan is spot on on the pedal travel scenario as well.

[DeadheadNM]

Cheers - looks great!

[Billhilly]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

as long as the pedal feels firm, just with a long stroke, i would bet it is just the relationship of the MC bore vs teh size of the pistons in the calipers and how much volume it takes to move them. a bigger bore will give less pedal travel.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I think Ryan is spot on on the pedal travel scenario as well.

I understand what you are saying, and this was my first thought too. You'd think this would be definitive by now huh?! Some guys on here are running 1" bores with four discs. CPP sold me this one....... I guess I don't quite see why more 'boost' should so dramatically change things. I re bleed everything again (don't think it changed anything significantly). I took it for another shortish drive tonight. It actually brakes absolutely fine at about half pedal stroke, but if you stop and push, it will go nearly all the way down. One guy I talked to this afternoon said with the size of our boosters this is completely normal. Please feel free to speak your minds...

Pic of MC and proportioning valve setup.

[Billhilly]

Well, first things first, I passed the inspection on Tuesday! After battling a variety of issues we actually passed with flying colours. I didn't get everything finished, but had enough done to get through this "modification' test. I will probably book rego/safety check for Tuesday week to give me enough time to get the remaining issues buttoned up.
I made a couple of rookie mistakes and had some misfiring issues. Once I got the tappets right, and the leads on properly, things were starting to come right! I spent Saturday morning replacing the 1" cylinder with a 1 1/8" one, and redoing the lines. Guess what? Brakes worked perfectly! Thanks for nothing CPP! I'll try and address this later on, but personally, using stock calipers up front, and Eldorado calipers out back, you need a 1 1/8" MC! End. Of. Story. (Thanks for the input guys).
As all of you frame off guys all know (and I've learnt over the last couple of weeks) you can soak up some serious time 'finishing up'. Wiring, lights, door rubbers, windows, latches, etc, etc. Very fortunate to have a friend come in afternoon's, and my daughter occasionally to help me out. Would have never made it otherwise.
Biggest issue I am battling now is tuning the carb. Just not getting the results you'd expect from air idle screws, and running way to rich. All my book learning ain't helping very much. Not sure how much this (not rebuilt) motor is confusing things at this stage. For the next (final) test I still need to sort window washers, dash install, tailgate, cowl, and a list of sundries. After I get the carb sorted....
Pics show door rubber install, and a couple Tuesday night when I got home from town. Last two are just now, pulled it round back to get a better photo.

[1985-GMC]

The truck looks absolutely perfect! Glad you got the brakes working correctly. Hopefully you get the carb figured out without too much head scratching.

[Billhilly]

Thanks Tony! Appreciate your support.

[swamp rat]

Beautiful truck! One of my top 5 builts since i found this forum!

Make sure your timed correctly before tuning the carb, set the carb, then recheck timing and re time if necessary, then do a final carb tune again.

Make sure your idle circuits are not plugged from sitting, it can happen with today's garbage fuel, if they are plugged its really easy to not catch it then turn the idle screw on the linkage in too far and then instead of idling on the idle circuit your idling on the off idle circuit.

I like to take a can of carb cleaner and pull one air fuel screw out then put the carb cleaner straw in and bottom it out and give it a shot of cleaner, repeat on the other side. I have felt the gumm/varnish get pushed thru.

[Billhilly]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Beautiful truck! One of my top 5 builts since i found this forum!

Thank you Swamp Rat! Just need to get it finished up now...

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Make sure your timed correctly before tuning the carb, set the carb, then recheck timing and re time if necessary, then do a final carb tune again.

So 8* as a starting point? (All new MSD dizzy etc).

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Make sure your idle circuits are not plugged from sitting, it can happen with today's garbage fuel, if they are plugged its really easy to not catch it then turn the idle screw on the linkage in too far and then instead of idling on the idle circuit your idling on the off idle circuit.

Just finished rebuilding it, wondering how much this is adding to my problems