68 c10 2wd in Sacramento, CA

[no1udknow]

I'm going to take a moment here to do a little psa.... I welded on my cab the other day with gloves, but without sleeves. No that is not eczema or psoriasis, those are lots of tiny little hole burnt into my arm from dropping slag. Wear your gear people. Oh, and don't keep your cell on you while welding either, you will undoubtedly burn a hole in the screen like I have done to about 3 different phones...

[no1udknow]

ok moving on, took apart the front clip today to remove the blasted fender and the slightly bent grill. Low and behold.... the rad support is bent.

[no1udknow]

So I called around to see how much one would be, and unfortunately $75 was too much for me to afford at the moment, so I decided to try and bend it back. The only caveat is that it is A) fairly sturdy, and B) too big to fit in my tiny shop press. so I decided to use a makeshift press by putting a machine on my lift at work and using the weight to straighten it...









and just like that BAM!!! purdy straight.

[no1udknow]

For those of you who live here in Sac town, I have to ask? Ghetto white trash or other?

[Roadkill58]

Making what you have work for you. If it gets the job done do it.



.

[Saclandman]

Originally Posted by no1udknow

For those of you who live here in Sac town, I have to ask? Ghetto white trash or other?

If it were ghetto, you'd have wrapped a chain around it and hooked it up to the bumper of your hoopty wit 22s and pulled.

If it were white trash, you would have taken a speedball and just beat on it with a hammer.

I'm gonna go with Other: Pure genius.

Already told the vice-commish to STFU.

[no1udknow]

on another note, I've been thinking about future projects for my truck (that's right, you guys that just build your truck once are blowing it I intend to give this thing a makeover in a few years ) and I think down the road I may want a cowl induction hood. So I have an extra hood and I am trying to decide whether I want to sell it, or keep it to make a CI hood.

As to other plans... Down the road, the truck will be stripped again, repainted, undercoated, bedlined, new front fenders, new passenger door, and new rocker panels, cab corners etc..... oh yeah, and it's going to get an LS EFI swap. So it may seem like I'm blowing through my project now, but I want to drive this mutha, and It wont be perfect right away. That's the real fun of a project truck.... the constant upgrade. If I just blow through it and build it up the first time, I might be inclined to sell it and start over, and I don't want to do that.

[no1udknow]

Made a little more headway over the last few days.

had to make some rust repairs on the fender from the parts truck. I know, why not get a new one... cause I'm broke and its the only one I have for free that isn't smashed :-)






put the front clip back together and installed it on the truck







I'm just basically slapping it together for right now so I can drive it home, the boss wants it out of the shop at work so he can work on his car he has a 65 el camino I'll be assembling for him. now that he has seen my truck coming to life, he is getting the itch to have his back together

[no1udknow]

well, I am almost done putting the front end back together and wiring up the engine cab etc. the beast should be back up and running this week, but I realized I had not bled my brakes yet (something I should have done before I put on the front clip to make my life easier...oh well) and I was thinking to myself"I should probably have good working brakes, before I have a running engine because if I know anything about myself, it's that the minute that thing runs, I'll want to test drive it and that could lead to problems if I forget I have no brakes. So I started to bleed the brakes, but I noticed since I had been pumping the pedal while trying to install/fabricate the push-rod for the brake booster, the prop valve had slammed shut to the rear outlet, and I was getting no fluid out the back. I decided to use my vacuum bleeder... no dice. I ended up pulling the prop valve apart and pushing the valve back to center ( which I tested by putting a multimeter on the plug for the sensor, and a good ground, and then set it to the audible ohms setting, so when the valve returned to the neutral position, the meter stopped beeping.)
I put the prop valve back together and hooked up my bleeder again and "pop" the valve slammed shut again. I needed to figure out how to get the valve to remain in the neutral position while I bled the brakes. I looked at a few cutaway images of a pro valve. like this one...


as you can see, directly under the sensor in the center of the valve, is an indentation so that the sensor will not make contact when the valve is centered. I also noticed that there are o-rings/seals at either end of the sliding valve, meaning that the center should remain free of fluid, so I pulled the sensor and even with the pedal depressed, no fluid came out. Why this is important: it means I can make a tool to hold the sliding valve, bleed the brakes, and then re install the sensor without introducing air into the brake system.

so I inspected the sensor, and the hole it goes in, and realized I would need a large bolt with a tiny nipple at the end.

in my case I needed a 1/2x18 bolt (which is the 1/2 fine thread bolt you can find them at most hardware stores.) and a 3/16 steel shank rivet.

I only had long bolts at the shop so I had to cut one down. I threaded a die over the bolt so that after I cut the bolt down I could clean up the threads.
I then center punched the tip of the bold, and slowly, carefully drilled a straight hole down the tip of the bolt, only deep enough to fit the rivet.

I then used a deep 1/4" socket to drive the rivet into the tip of the bolt till it sat flush.

Finally, I compared the length of the rivet shank to the length of the sensor rod, and clipped the excess off.







I re-centered the prop valve, and the I inserted the bolt/tool where the sensor goes, and threaded it in BY HAND ... DO NOT USE A WRENCH until I felt it bottom out against the valve.
The brakes bled with ease, and after I was done, I simply removed the bolt/tool, re-installed the sensor, hooked up my meter on the audible ohms setting again, and pumped the brakes a few times, and all is well

[blake's first]

Hi there this is Joe blake's uncle...ya we will have to hook up and truck talk.. he got a duramax 4x4 and hit the skids on the truck.. but said this week that he was going to hit it after it cools off.. we will see how ..old is your boy

[no1udknow]

Originally Posted by blake's first

Hi there this is Joe blake's uncle...ya we will have to hook up and truck talk.. he got a duramax 4x4 and hit the skids on the truck.. but said this week that he was going to hit it after it cools off.. we will see how ..old is your boy

well, my son is still young, he will be 2 in October. The funny thing is, that is the same age I was when my dad picked up his 72 c10. He is surprizingly very interested in my tools already

[no1udknow]

btw, I saw that you guys had a factory ac setup? still available?

[Average Joe]

I like this project.

[no1udknow]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

I like this project.

Thanks, I just wanted to do a project from an "average joe" . I don't have a huge assortment of machining equipment, I don't have a paint booth, I'm lucky enough to have a lift and a nice level concrete floor, but other than that, everything in this build is done with standard hand tools that could be found in must peoples garage save maybe a welder and a drill press. other than those two things, I have a sawzall, die grinder and cutting wheels, a plumbers hole saw, some angle grinders, and a bunch of air tools. I am living life on an extreme budget. I have a 2 kids in diapers and have little to spend on this project. If I can finish it and make it look pretty good it might give hope to that other guy like me that looks at his rusty, beat up truck and says "I'll never afford to fix it, I should just sell it. I hope for this to be an ongoing improvement project for me and my son. It will be his learning tool when he picks up a wrench.

[no1udknow]

Last Friday, I pulled my bed in the shop... again using my trusty trailer... and a 2 yard loader we have at work


Monday, I pulled off the smashed up drivers side bed panel. And found a good place to store it.


I replaced it with the one I pulled from the 67 parts truck.


I started marking out the cut lines for the bed. I used the suggestions from Rockrln's shortbed conversion build which was 8 3/4" back from the front stake hole, and 8 3/4" forward from the rear stake hole. The front section to be cut out is 12" and the rear section is 8"

[no1udknow]

I didn't have a chalkline at work, or a straight edge long enough, so I marked out the cuts along the bed floor using a piece of string, and a can of spray paint. Just measure out your start points on either side of the bed, and maybe one in the middle just to check alignment, lay a string from one side of the bed to the other and use something heavy to hold it down (I used to 4lb sledge hammers). Then pull the string tight and line it up, set something heavy on the other side, and spray paint over the top. leaves a nice definitive line.


Then comes the crazy part.... cutting a chunk of the bed off. I'm sure some of you saw my other post, but this is what it's like to cut off a piece of your bed....







notice the piece of pipe on top of the bed rails, I actually welded it there to keep the bed from flexing inward or apart after cutting the sides, it will make it easier to line back up.

[no1udknow]

so I have started to line the bed back up using some but welding clamps from harbor freight, some angle iron, and a few c-clamps.





at this point though, I am considering using the piece that I cut out, cutting a strip out of it, and back plating the weld. This will make it easier to weld together without burning through, and add strength to the seam. Plus, the piece is already molded to match the bed side so I wouldn't have to try and bend it to fit.

[no1udknow]

NOTES: Most guys probably cut their bed with a die grinder or an angle grinder with cut off wheels. I cut mine with a sawzall, it was really easy, and fast. I was able to maintain my line easier than with a cutting wheel. The cuts were smooth, and I aired on the side of caution by maintaining the side of my line that was to be removed, that way if I needed to trim or straighten, I had more, instead of not enough. This also allows you to but the two pieces together and run a die grinder down the seam to make the seams match. Using a sawzall also meant that I cut the inner bed panel at the same time as the outer, and I constantly checked to make sure I was maintaining the line down the inner bed panel. The only caveat to using a sawzall is, you can not ride the guide plate of the sawzall on the sheet metal, if you do you risk having the blade catch and introducing dents into the side of your panel. You will need strong steady hands to hold it away while you cut.... Good luck, and may the force be with you!

[jimbosprint]

I look forward to seeing this truck in person when you're done. Nice work!

[no1udknow]

Originally Posted by jimbosprint

I look forward to seeing this truck in person when you're done. Nice work!

Thanks Jimbo! your truck is coming along nicely too. We will have to get a board meetup together.



So I started grafting the front of the bed back together....I can't lie it is a little scary, trying to get a good seam but not burning holes in the sheet metal takes some practice. I must toot my own horn for a second though and asay that I feel like I'm not doing to bad. Before this truck, I had never done sheet metal work on automobiles. I have welded and fabricated many things together but so far sheet metal work is the hardest for me. Kudos to you journeyman body guys!





Another shout out for Rockrln's short bed conversion, the tip about using a small flathead screwdriver to even up the surfaces is fantastic!

[Xeen]

You are brave to try this shortbed conversion.
The fun part comes after it's all welded together and you start the body work.
Most guys fail miserably trying this so don't be discouraged if it doesn't work out because the good news is you can buy repros and the 1967 short bed bedsides from classic industries are excellent quality featuring stamped OEM gauge steel.
I purchased them for my own truck when I decided to convert mine from a step to a fleet and they are very nice.
http://www.classicindustries.com/sho...ed-sides-full/

[no1udknow]

Originally Posted by Xeen

You are brave to try this shortbed conversion.
The fun part comes after it's all welded together and you start the body work.
Most guys fail miserably trying this so don't be discouraged if it doesn't work out because the good news is you can buy repros and the 1967 short bed bedsides from classic industries are excellent quality featuring stamped OEM gauge steel.
I purchased them for my own truck when I decided to convert mine from a step to a fleet and they are very nice.
http://www.classicindustries.com/sho...ed-sides-full/

Wow, that sounds an awfully lot like a sales pitch your not getting a commission are you ;-). Yah, later down the road I intend to get either a repro bed or find a used one. If you dont5 mind me asking, what did it cost you?

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by no1udknow

Wow, that sounds an awfully lot like a sales pitch your not getting a commission are you ;-). Yah, later down the road I intend to get either a repro bed or find a used one. If you dont5 mind me asking, what did it cost you?

I wish!
It was right at $1000 shipped.

[Saclandman]

Looks pretty good. But I think you need more practice welding sheetmetal. I'll be right over with my truck and some patch panels for the rust holes. I'll let you practice on mine, because I'm such a giver.

[Average Joe]

Nice work! Funny you mentioned the string trick. We use that same method when we cut asphalt to repair underground utilities. It works great on a 400' run and a street saw. What guage of wire are you using in your welder? I have heard good things from guys using .030 wire instead of .035. Easier to weld a butt joint with less burn thru.