49 3600, s10 swap, project boogie

[joedoh]

my wife and daughter came home, so I went ahead and did it myself.




I am happy to have my "trash can" back, it is nice to have a place for big metal chunks and parts you dont want to throw away but dont have shelf space for.

[joedoh]

did more heavy work today, miserable 2.5 hours loading the phone company utility bed. when we were loading the beds yesterday I asked about this trailer, what hitch ball size it was. he said it was a clevis pin, used as a feed trailer. ok, so I asked if his loader could lift it up on the flatbed, he said for certain it could. I went down today, chained up the trailer and lifted it 2 feet. it was too heavy. so I took the ramps off and used a boat winch that is rigged on the flatbed to pull it up the ramps while he pushed it with the loader. then the big strap my wife got at a garage sale had a smaller size ratchet. UGH. I used 6 straps and 3 boards I had cut to block the wheels and tongue.



when I had it all strapped down he says "oh look it is a ball hitch". and the ball on the truck fit. with enough air I could have towed it home. now I have to get it OFF, no loader here but I have a ditch that I have been able to drive into and load stuff off before.

[Advanced Design]

Our hobby / passion sure involves a lot of hard work doesn't it. Nice haul there!

[99 to Life]

I wish I had your garden of rust! way harder for me to find that type of honey hole. Stuff is just dried up or so far gone around me. couple diamonds in the ruff here and there. The hunt and gathering is prolly more fun than building them!!!

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

I wish I had your garden of rust! way harder for me to find that type of honey hole. Stuff is just dried up or so far gone around me. couple diamonds in the ruff here and there. The hunt and gathering is prolly more fun than building them!!!

I'm set for more than a year already. I bought the 49 GMC today since now I have all the parts to fix and build it. so I have 5 donors. I need some more yard, and some ointment for the buttkicking.



I am likely going to make an offer on his gokart and minibike when I stop down next.

getting the trailer off the flatbed in the ditch worked like a treat!



my neighbor is always down for anything and had a small tractor with an 1 7/8 ball. helluvaguy


I looked inside the fenders and this is older than I thought. someone bolted the ford fenders on the bed at some point in history, it had swoopy fenders first. the frame is an early chevrolet or gmc, looks like a 38-46?


it had what looked to be a GMC taillight on one side but this little jewel was on the other side, looks like a 1932ish ford DUO LAMP with the license bracket. someone will probably want this!

[rusty76]

Nice scores.

[BlueJeep]

Nice collection!

What front shocks were you happy with on that last GMC you built? I'm to that point on mine and looking for a recommendation.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by BlueJeep

Nice collection!

What front shocks were you happy with on that last GMC you built? I'm to that point on mine and looking for a recommendation.

I used mid line monroes, still twin tube but worked great. I got lucky and scored a complete set of bel tech nitros BNIB from craigslist and thats what will go on the 49.

[joedoh]

be forewarned, I am about to talk about wiring, which makes some faint like goats and others eyes roll back in their heads. but as a sparky tinkerer by birth and an electrical engineer by schooling I absolutely love this stuff. I will sprinkle in some mechanical stuff to keep people awake if they dont happen to share my particular bend.

most of the reason I love using the 98-03 s10 donor is because of the bussed electrical system that is very similar to what is still used, in fact the PCM is an 0411, similar to what all the LS swap guys will use. this makes it ideal, with the high pressure fuel system if you want to add an LQ/LM/LS motor its only a couple mounts and an interface harness between the motor and a tuned PCM, the gauges will all still work and everything will plug in. I dont have plans for a swap, but its nice that it can be done.

this is the mess that I will pare down for my simple truck, the engine harness is still on the engine, the rear harness is on the frame, so I need the body and dash harness today.



after taking out what isnt needed, this is what I am left with, a pared down body harness and complete dash harness.



I also dug out the correct column harness for my application, column shift automatic, key security.



I rummaged around and found the firewall cutout



which I duplicated on the upper firewall. kylie put the 47 GMC cutout lower, under the pedal box, which caused a lot of problems with wire routing, my plan is to mount as much in the same area as stock.



I had to plug up a hole, its dark under there so I forgot to touch up my overzealous cut but I will go back and fix it.





now just need to route the dash side, I may need to pull the pedal box to do it correctly, but I can already tell there will be almost nothing showing underneath, a big improvement. I am on the left side of the wiper arms too, so no interference problems.




I am ashamed to say how long this took. the S10 tank uses an oring and lock ring, you have to push down the pump with one hand and operate the lock ring with the other, but the o-ring it just a bit bigger than it needs to be. lots of pushing, grunting, swearing, and holding my tongue right and



I need to mount up the radiator, from the GMC I know it will fit but still, trimming the inners was a trail and error operation. I will tin it back in, but I need to mount the AC condenser first.




hey look at that, the factory radiator hold down/fan shroud will fit with a little work.



and the hood shuts like a dream




more to come! I could rush around and plug some things in and hear it run but I want to get the gas pedal and steering finished first.

[99 to Life]

way more patience than me. good job

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Wonderfully written up thank you for all the ins and out of the process just yesterday a pared down my own harness and not are these trucks simple

Keep up the good work

[joedoh]

thanks! I only got in a couple hours work today, my head has been pounding. last year I took the spindles off this truck with a sledgehammer and laying sideways, I thought afterwards I had torn or damaged my rotator cuff, I had a dull pain and it was tough to lift my arm over my head, always had a twinge like "dont do that, stupid". It got really bad about two weeks ago, keeping me awake and just throbbing all the time. I gave it a really deep massage, and it felt a little better, so Saturday I had my wife use her KNEE, the only thing she could apply enough force with, and gave it one of the most painful massages I have ever had and it feels totally healed... but...

it was a bad muscle cramp, so there was all these toxins and ibuprofen and lactic acid built up in it, now coursing through my system. I have muscle cramps in my neck now, from my shoulder being loose, and really bad headaches. They were better today, so I worked, but still a little nauseous. shoulder still feels great though!

[Palf70Step]

Hope you get to feeling better soon. Those kind of issues can be a big pain. Nice work on the wiring. I enjoy the stuff, but my eyes still roll back some when I look at starting a project like that.

[lower50's]

I give everybody credit for wiring there entire vehicle using any method. Good job. Hope you feel better soon having a lasting pain has got to be the worst.

[joedoh]

still massaging the shoulder, seems to tighten up every couple days. started a big clubhouse swingset for the beeps, but they "forgot" all the high grade bolts in the kit so I only got about half way done, and its been raining walls of water since. the gutter guys phoned it in, I specified 6" K gutters with 3x4 downspouts (low slope roof with a lot of surface area) and they barely X cut for the downs, so every rain is a clog/overflow and the sump runs and runs. I fixed them with some nice downspout transistions, gotta do everything yourself now a days it seems.

I took out the pedal bracket and cut a wiring window in it and added a foot at the bottom for extra strength on the cantilever of the steering column torque


finished cleaning up the wiring pass through


painted everything silver so it would reflect light and let me see what was going on, reinstalled the pedal mount.



wire window works


I took out the ignition switch and routed wiring


from under the hood


column and pedals reinstalled and everything routed and hooked up. I had to reverse the snap bracket for the relays but it worked out perfect. The remaining harness is for the column wiring. yes I lost the special brake clip haha, that makes about 10.




so much cleaner than the 47 GMC was, I almost want to call Bubba and have him bring it back so I can redo it. oh you cants see it but I added the triangulating brace to the existing dash brace. the column only wiggles a tiny bit now, no worse than an s10.

[Advanced Design]

Good work! I've always been interested in electrical, even making a telegraph system in the house when I was about 12, so my eyes didn't roll up.

Are color bands still used on resistors? Haven't looked since college electrical class...

Anyway, I digress, great recycling and resourceful work.

[joedoh]

yes color bands for resistors. funny story I am reminded of, I worked with a bunch of engineers, most of them electrical, at a retail goods firm. one giant pain in the ass manager who would interject into engineering discussions (usually to their detriment) would always remind us that she too, was an electrical engineer. we were looking at a print for an older piece of equipment for the value of a capacitor, which was not listed on the print as it was a support drawing only, and finally we got an example piece to simply examine the capacitor for markings. she walked in with the chief technical officer (my boss) and interjected that we were wasting time clipping the capacitor from the circuit and should just look at and decipher the color bands.
FOUR double e's did the slow turn, and after a pause she followed up with "or just meter it in place!". one EE asked "where did you go to engineering school, exactly?". I stopped him before he went any further.

I went and visited wayne a last time to pick up a few things, he finally wore me down and I picked up the visor I had been passing on. I am not a visor guy but its not about me, is it?



visited another guy two towns over, he had a 40 with a 46 front end and a good looking bed, I wanted the bed but he wouldnt separate.

he said I could dig through his piles though, which were extensive. mostly 20s-30s stuff, almost bought this 36 chevy cab and grille



he had other neat stuff






tried to buy this for wall art but didnt have the strength of stack


I did trip over a 46 passenger fender though, which I bought. maybe I will put the chevy fenders back on that utility bed...


got a friend in the garage, he hides by the opening of the garage door and jumps out and scares (eats) all the bugs that wander in.

[lower50's]

Wow you sure have some gold mines around your house such cool stuff, and that's a big spider looks well fed.

[joedoh]

spiderbro disappeared today I think my grinding scared him off.

tore the place apart for this.


patched the old steering column hole and reused the section of the s10 firewall to make the new one and mount the gas pedal




chopped out a section of the old s10 tunnel for the small tunnel I needed



baby went to sleep early, no more grinding tonight


edit: finished it today, cleaned the garage, no other updates

[99 to Life]

too many gems over there. those rear fenders are extremely hard to find around here.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

those rear fenders are extremely hard to find around here.

around here too! my meadville fenders showed up today, my brother wouldnt even let me pay him for them. good guy brother!



one needs a patch but honestly, the passenger side is so hard to find in any kind of shape, I will patch it and move on. in fact the one I found the other day was actually in better shape than the one on the bed he didnt want to separate. you can see the riveted tear and beats on it in the background (I put it up next to the truck to make sure it was a 41-46 fender)

[joedoh]

had to take a break for a couple weeks. family gatherings around graduations and other parties seem to happen. built a swingset for the beeps, had some torrential rains that played havoc with our gutters and foundation backfill. I also had to tear down the metal shed in the back yard, two storms had battered it and ripped the doors off. before I tore it down though the big wood shed needed a 6ft double door framed in place of the man door. then build some doors, then re-roof it, the same storms had torn the asphalt roll off. this time I went with 26" metal panels and screws with washers. now the mower is dry and I used the truck to pull down the metal one. it was lousy with brown recluse and black widows, I had one fall in a hole in my shirt and give me a bite but he was an adult and did not put any venom in the bite. two distinct fang marks though!

anyway cleaned out the garage of the shed and swingset stuff. wolf spiderbro is back and has a girlfriend, they are tag teaming bugs in the garage, which is nice. no picture, I wish I had a video though because when I picked up some ratchet straps she jumped down and did the funniest dance, letting me know she wasnt a pushover. I let her be though, no ill will to wolf spiders, they are the best kind to have.

tried out the bench, funny that rustoleum ivory is too yellow for the seat and krylon ivory is just right. guess which I had on hand?



looks okay in the picture but is not. Also, the special lights I had squirreled away on the shelf, I was trial fitting them and she who shall not be named was putting something away.



sigh.

more parties and bbq this weekend, then I will be back at it. so close!

[joedoh]

here is the test panel showing the color difference. the rustoleum is on the left, krylon on the right.


sanded off the rustoleum ivory and painted krylon ivory today. I worked at a business that sold steam mops and had an overstock of microfiber mop pads, I seriously have a couple HUNDRED of these around. they work nice as tack rags




I have a better glovebox door, ignore the overspray. it wouldnt come off, the screws are rusty and so is the hinge, so I worked around it. I plan to leave the speaker grille rusty because its a super slippery slope. right now its just a painted dash (need a wet sand, only "signed my name" once) but as soon as you start cleaning stuff up it can really start looking amateurish to paint silvers and redo the blacks... then the knobs look out of place. I am looking for cleaned up, not restored. the next guy can fix it.

in that vein I took apart the gauges. they were rusty, which is ok because I need to relabel them anyway, different min/max on a few and backwards operation on a few others. the 4 gauge label is ok, and I might even be able to just use a metallic sharpie to draw on the new values, but the chrome rings were just terrible. first picture is a reminder from earlier.






I disassembled and sanded with 2000 grit and then steel wool. much better and fits the look I am after, will look great with the rusty speaker and dulled stainless.




I need to pick up the ribbon cables for the gauges, and I think I will put in molex plugs this time so disconnecting it isnt such a chore. I have to fix grandmas mower tomorrow but I am hard at it this week, glass install is next!

[lower50's]

Dash looks good!! Sucks about the head light that she who is unnamed broke It's hard to believe that a gauge face inside the cab will rust like that.

[99 to Life]

amazing what some rattle can can do. Rust never sleeps that is for sure. Sadly alot of these trucks, leak from the windshields, all down the dash and will rust everything and even ruin the dash in certain areas.