'72 GMC long/fleet in Ottawa area

[McDeezl]

I'm in Chelsea on the QC side ... 30 mins north of downtown.

[McDeezl]

Got the dash wired up. Put in a set of different led's than the mini black ones that came with the classic dash kit. Turn signal x2, blue hi beam and red brake - either park on or proportioning valve warning. Now the fun part - testing and debugging!

[McDeezl]

Finished install for the steering wheel. Wasn't happy with the std mount adapter with rubber collar that came with it so got a billet adapter mount that matches the wheel and looks much better. Ends up bringing the wheel about 2" closer to the column also which is almost exactly stock position.

[72 tigger]

Looks good- you're doing it right!

[McDeezl]

Thanks Tigger!
Hopefully one day mine will be the same colours as your "tigger" truck!
Still have a long to-do list before I get to that point though.

[McDeezl]

A bit of a story around dash indicator panel lights.
I decided to go with a bit larger and nicer looking led panel lights for the dash, seemed simple enough and pretty common, found a set on Amazon. Installed those and plugged it all in for first power up, blew the fuse for turn signals right off the bat. First instinct was problem in the steering column so went through process of branch isolation and all ok in the column .... thank God. Narrowed down quickly to the dash and found that the flimsy termination at the led pins on the back either breaks to open circuit or in this case shorts across the pins and grounds. Tried to solder and heat shrink better termination but more of the same. So thought about going with a sturdier light setup I found at a local electronics supply store but they were 1/2" and didn't quite look right so stopped myself before I drilled those holes out .... thank God x2. So now what, I've got 5/16 holes that are larger than the original 3/16 leds that came from Classic Dash and kinda hard to make that grow back . More online searching and found some solid light assy's (Ron Francis) that are 5/16 and a diffused lens so not as bright as the leds that were a bit too intense, another issue. Found out that the led's are available in both low and hi intensity after the fact but still, want to be careful with how the terminations are done on the back.
So in the photos below to give you an idea, left to right ...
1/2" with diffused lens - well built but too large in my opinion
5/16" led - fragile wire termination and a bit too bright, nice looking
3/16" led with original dash kit - small, unsure about wire termination, wanted better look
5/16" with diffused lens - solid wire termination, looks good (to me)
So wiring is done, everything works and fuses all good.
For anyone doing the aftermarket or custom dash thing ... not all panel indicator lights are created equal, shop carefully especially online.

On another note - alternator charging.
The sbc turnkey crate came with a Delco CS series alternator which they call a "one wire" setup. Wired it to what I assumed (never assume) was correct with main power to battery and the "S" sense wire to the power post, the other 3 wires are unused options. No charge. Read back through manuals and the "L" wire normally used for the alternator light in the dash needs to be connected to ignition source with a resistor inline if no light connected. 14.6 volts. So by my counting which ain't always the greatest but ... that makes 3 wires to get this "one wire" alternator charging.

Got a set of Hella H4/H1 hi/lows to fit the headlight pots and built a breaker and relay setup to power them. Will post pictures of that shortly when it's all wired up.

[McDeezl]

Bosch relays and breaker mounted inside rad support on left side. Will clean up the wire routing later.
H4 hi-lo and H1 hi beams and lotsa lumens ... could light up a buck 300 yds across a field after midnight ... but I would never do that!

[McDeezl]

Took the original old bench seat apart to see if it is worth re-doing. Frame is all good apart from rust, no broken or bad springs so just get it sandblasted and epoxy primed. The foam ain't new but better than some that I've seen looking at posts on the subject here. Could probably clean that up and make it work under a new set of upholstery. Want to go with black vinyl and orange/black houndstooth inserts.
So here's the question .... having spent hours going through threads here on the subject, what model is this and what bench cover to order? Apparently there are several different bench models, 1/2 foam, full foam, 1/2 spring, etc. Also read that it depends on year because there's a difference there. This one's from the original '72, base model truck. Are there nicer (fuller) benches than this one cause it seems comfortable enough but the foam is kinda minimal.
Should probably do a separate thread with the questions I suppose.

[McDeezl]

MAIDEN VOYAGE

Well not much of a voyage really but 30' outside the garage door under its own steam for the first time so I guess that's a milestone of sorts. Looks like I have a blown rear brake wheel cylinder on one side .... brand new when I put it in but that was 2 years ago. Dagnabbit!!

[mooseknuckles]

lookin good..

[trac209]

Nice build

[McDeezl]

Finally got the seat finished. I got the frame and mounts blasted and powder coated, came out nice. Was lucky, no broken springs, all intact. Did some minor repair to the foam, patched in a few high density sections where it was worn on the driver side. Used a combination of bread knife, electric knife and 4.5" flap disc on grinder. Tried putting a 1" topper low density foam on both bench and back nicely bevelled to contour edges but covers were way too tight so cut them off. Flap disc works great but man what a mess!! Glued in heavy canvas for back of both foam cushions instead of burlap ... worked great.

[McDeezl]

So here's the finished seat. Got the covers from vendor Truckseats, awesome! I used 1/8 steel rod for the inserts for the hog rings which worked out good, nice straight even pull all around the cover instead of waves through each hog ring pull. Only negative is that the houndstooth inserts on passenger side (bench and back) don't line up perfectly but the driver side is perfect and everything is stretched, centered and aligned evenly so not sure if it was a defect or what. Thought about pulling all the hog rings and trying again ... for about 3 seconds and said nah, will be just fine and I'm pretty happy with it over all. Good thing I took that 1" topper foam off because it sits really high ... I've read a lot of comments here on the same thing.

[McDeezl]

So back to body and paint, running out of excuses and finding other things to tackle, just do it. Can you sense the void in motivation for body and paint?? I did get the doors done and they're painted complete orange/white. Next step is shoot the white sections on the cab and then clear coat it. Doing single stage with clear on top of that mainly due to durability issues with SS alone. Find that it chips and scratches if you as much as look at it sideways. Then mount the doors, then line up the fenders and gap everything so I can get the lines for paint/trim on the fenders ... doors and cab already have factory holes which should help. Once the lines are done for the fenders take them off and paint/clear those then put em back on. Then we get to the hood ... I now have 3 hoods for this thing. One is the original from yellow truck which is trash, got one last year that looked ok but after I got it blasted and epoxy primed found one front corner badly banged in that had about 3/4" of mud over it (no kidding) and got another one this winter that is all original (zero mud) with GMC holes with surface rust only. Can't say I don't have options!

[rjs53]

Nice work, I like the seat did you do it yourself?

[McDeezl]

I did the seat myself using covers I purchased from Truckseats who is a member here, many threads with guys who have used his covers. Great quality and value. Wasn't too difficult to do, just take your time and came out ok.

[McDeezl]

Shot the white sections of the cab today, came out pretty well all things considered ... garage job and minimal paint/body talent. Did some orange touchups on the rocker panels and fenders yesterday before shooting the white today. Tomorrow I'll shoot clear over it all and then almost ready to be putting stuff back on ... just gotta put clear on the doors first.

[72 tigger]

Nice progress! Looks good

[McDeezl]

Thanks Tigger .... one day hopefully it will look a whole lot like yours :-)

[71-C20]

Looking really good! I really like the seat job, the color is perfect! Thanks for sharing your journey!

[McDeezl]

Thanks for that!

[McDeezl]

Got the clear coat on the cab, came out ok but always room for improvement. Discovered that good lighting requirement for clear is probably double what you need for shooting colour. All part of the journey, learn as you go. Installed the door seals which are pretty slick .... got the new style Precision slip on ones from Wes at Classic Heartbeat. Real happy with that and glad I went that way.

[McDeezl]

Picked this up the other day to solve my lighting issues. LED double unit with telescopic stand and 7000 lumens .... no excuses now:-)
Not bad really, $180 at Home Depot.
So now I'll shoot the clear on the doors and we're ready to mount those and the fenders, gap everything, swear a lot, swear some more, etc.

[McDeezl]

What a difference added lighting makes for shooting clear coat. First coat isn't too bad you can see where you're going but after that first coat tough to see and follow your passes. The 7000 lumen LCD lights make all the difference in the world.

[McDeezl]

So the doors are done with clear coat, pretty happy with the result. Slowly improving at this as we go. Should be almost decent at it by the time we get to the end of painting! Will try to get the doors mounted on the cab this week maybe, if things go real well maybe even get the fenders back on as well. I suspect this is going to be quite a test of my patience getting it all lined up and gapped half decent.