Attempt/Mistake #2

[El Campo]

Craigslist came through for me for once. Was bored so jumped on there and scored some great parts. Got this fender in original paint (someone didnt like the patina so threw some rattle can primer over it) with 2 very small dents and virtually no rust and the hood to match it for a song. Then I got some still in the factory box door weatherstripping that looks and feels brand new. And it cost less than the LMC Taiwan *&$# Got some window felts and scrapers (also in factory package) that will be for sale as I have one piece windows and do not need them.

[RexDodge]

pm sent

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

...I have a set of the standard Hooker Competition series 2" tube headers that fit a 68-72 Chevelle and 70-81 Camaro that I was going to try to fit to my 69 stepside. I will see if they clear and let you know. It might open up some options for more headers than could fit with little or no mods.

I finally got a chance to install the 2" tube Hooker Competition #2455HKR big block Chevelle headers onto my 69 stepside. They fit pretty well and will only need minor trimming of one corner of the clam shell motor mount shell on the driver side to bolt right in if you have a T-400. The first gen Camaro version I tried earlier didn't even come close to fitting so I was kind of surprised the Chevelle ones fit at all let alone fit so well.

They are tucked up nice and clear the floor pan properly as well as sit higher in the frame than the truck headers I had on the stepside before. They are about 3" higher up off the ground so they will work great on lowered trucks. Down side is that this puts the collector exit right in the middle of my transmission crossmember. Some crossmember mods will be needed to allow the exhaust to be connected but if done right could allow the exhaust to be routed even higher than before for additional clearance.

The only real issue is that the rear tube on the driver side is right in the middle of the factory clutch Z-bar so they won't work with a mechanical linkage manual trans without moving the tube. With a hydraulic clutch no changes would need to be made.

Best part is they have been around a long time so they are out there used but also only run $180 new. The set I have I purchased new more than 22 years ago.

They should do well for your engine and give you more throttle response vs. bigger tube headers with just a little top end power loss due to the smaller tubes and save you a pile of cash in the process.

I've got a few pics I can post when I get home if you want to see how they fit.

This means the bigger tube Chevelle headers should fit well too if you really want to go bigger. I think I would try the 2" tube Chevelle headers first and upgrade to bigger tubes if the power falls off too much in the upper RPM range with your combination. They should be easy to sell off if you end up going with bigger tubes.

[El Campo]

Ok sounds great! Pics would be cool if you can provide them. I appreciate it!
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[68 TT]

Originally Posted by El Campo

Ok sounds great! Pics would be cool if you can provide them. I appreciate it!

Didn't get a chance to upload the pics from the camera today. I will post some tomorrow.

[jhaymon]

Originally Posted by El Campo

Finally had a chance to work on truck again. Spent a BUNCH of time spraying just these 27 parts. I see now why people use rattle cans because it sure is easier than a spray gun. (especially when your small gun is a POS from Harbor Freight) Got so infuriated with it I contemplated buying an Iwata. It dripped paint over my perfectly painted sway bar because it sporadically ejaculated paint from various orfices where it was not supposed to. Now the parts all are satisfactory though after wet sanding etc.

nah you just get a new cup. i had the same problem. once you set em up they're actually good guns for home shops. i use the hell out of hf guns for primmer.
i don't know how true this is, but supposedly the harbor freight guns are made by cp. devillbis makes most of the parts for the cp guns. im using dekups on all my guns now. worth every penny

[68 TT]

Here are some pics of the Hooker Competition series big block Chevelle headers on my 69 stepside.

They don't clear my T-350 transmission crossmember on the passenger side so the header won't pivot into place all the way but it is really close.

The driver side one tube just hits the corner of the clam shell motor mount housing. Easy to clearance but I didn't do it for the pics.

With them dropped in all the way they will clear well in all the frame & suspension areas and clear the floor nicely too.

In the pics the passenger side collector will come up a bit as it is hitting the crossmember and the driver side down a bit since a tube is hitting the clam shell.

[68 TT]

Here are some comparison pics of a typical set of 1-3/4" tube C10 specific headers on the same truck.

[El Campo]

Thanks for those pictures sir!! Yea those look like they would definitely be an option with a little work. Will keep that in mind. I had a chance to do some work on the truck again finally. Was out of town down to the Border and in South Padre for the 4th. So I have been really itching to get this frame on the ground again but have been waiting on some Rage Xtreme to come in the mail. Problem is that UPS ruined my package and the filler and discarded it all and now I am waiting STILL for TCP to send me more. I am going to put a very thin layer of filler on the top and bottom of my trailing arms to smooth them. Got tired of waiting for it so I went ahead and primed my control arms and will paint them and then whenever the filler comes I will do the trailing arms. I have been storing the control arms inside the house since they have not been primed since they were blasted and even inside they flash rusted in a few places. So had to do some sanding and wire wheeling followed by the DA with 80 grit so my primer holds. I have thought and thought in my mind how would be the best ways to do the cross shafts and I ended up screwing the caps on about 3/4 of the way and then masking them off before sandblasting with painter's tape first and then covering that with duct tape so that the blaster would not eat the painter's tape off immediately. I think it turned out nice. These were my brand new MOOG cross shafts by the way. Blasted them because they were so machined slick from the factory that paint would have had a very difficult time sticking to it. I have new stainless 1/4x28 grease zerks that I will put in the shafts after painting. Yes, the parts are hanging on a cable that I am stretching out with a tractor haha.

[El Campo]

Finished painting the A arms. This is 3 coats of white epoxy primer and then 3 coats of the '97 and up hugger orange. It looks red because it is still wet. Still having issues with my HF gun but hey what can I say, it laid down paint nice. I am very very impressed with the Pro Spray paint. Had heard alot of horror stories about less inexpensive paint not covering well etc. One coat of orange and it looked almost perfect. The second coat for sure did. I had extra paint already mixed so I put the third on just to be sure.

[67c10rustbuket]

Loogs great! good idea on blasing/painting the cross shafts, You are right they are super slick machined out of the box. I will be borrowing your technique after I send everything out to be blasted. I may wear a long sleeve shirt though since my gun drips occasionally too.

[67cheby]

Looking good !
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[El Campo]

Mocked up the engine in the frame to be positive that I cut the reliefs in the frame at the right place for the headers. Turned out great BUT I noticed that the engine was not sitting square in the frame! The passenger side was about 3/4 of an inch higher than it should have been. So measured and measured and had to grind on my freshly painted frame . I put these dowels into the motor side mounts to figure out exactly how wide apart the mounts were and then employed a string to help get engine exactly level. Looks a lot better now. The header clearance actually improved with the motor leveled also. It is kind of difficult to see in the pictures but there is plenty of clearance for the headers.

[El Campo]

Also put my first piece back together on the truck! This was the rear brake line that was put on for the last time haha. Hung one of the A arms on the frame to see what it would look like, what do you all think does the colors clash or do they go together alright? Also sanded on my gauge panel some more. I got it all sanded with 600 grit now. It was really difficult to get all the "brushed" part sanded off but I think that I got it done finally. Have burned through about 15 DA discs already and still sanding on it with 1000 grit now.

[El Campo]

Still trying to get bezel polished. This is turning into a real PITA!!! Sanded with 1000 grit and then part of it with 2000 before hitting with my jewelers rouge and the part that I did with just 1000 grit looks better than the part that I sanded all the way to 2000!!! To be continued... Bought a factory Eaton posi off of Leddzepp on here and it arrived in amazing shape. This guy did a fantastic job of packaging and I would highly recommend buying from him with all confidence. Thank God I can finally get rid of the spool in this truck and have some driveability now. Going to stick with the 3.08 for now though..

[67cheby]

Looking great !
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[El Campo]

Got a few more parts from Summit in. Mainly got parts to get the motor running with the radiator as I want to run it for 10 or 15 minutes at a time before I have truck all assembled so I can make positive there are no leaks before I paint the block orange. (recall that I have an engine stand to run the motor on, just have not had the correct water neck to hook it to the radiator with). Got and AFCO 15 degree aluminum water neck and they had this BS on the package. I have to use this long top hose because of my SBC serpentine system and I think it looks funny to try to go over the top of the belt to reach the radiator. (not that it doesn't look a little strange the way that it will be now, never liked the ribbed hoses but that was all I could find anywhere). Got a pinion seal and assembly kit for the 12 bolt from Ratech (all American made components,heck yea). Only bought one Auto Meter gauge for right now as I wanted to see how the black face looked in the billet bezel. I hope it looks ok in the white dash (will have black dash pad and the seat, carpet and door panels are all black). I have the billet shifter and knobs for the steering column as well as a Grant billet steering wheel with black wood grip. The panel has been wet sanded with 1000 grit and all I need to do now is hit it with my jewelers rouge. It will look much much shinier when I am done but it definitely looks better now. SOOOO glad to be done with this part as it took me hours to get all the brushed lines off of the panel. Now I just have to figure out which color I want the gauges to be when it is dark outside. I am kind of thinking blue, any ideas? (it came with both red and green light bulb covers)

[stfinney]

I think blue would look great with the combo you have. Just my opinion.

[NewType72]

whew buddy presents!! now just to unwrap and install

[El Campo]

Have been super busy with nursing it up and doing some side work (harvesting catfish, my old job) so haven't done any real work on my truck but I did get the rest of my gauges bought ($$$) as well as some stainless header bolts. The gauges I ended up getting are: 10,000 RPM tach, 160 MPH mechanical speedo, oil pressure (electric), voltmeter, fuel, water temp, and a clock (for the top middle gauge hole, pretty cool even has a second hand). Going to wire the gauges all together into a Deutsch connector so I can pull the entire panel out in the future if I need to polish it, etc. Got a new radiator hose as the other new one I got was 2 inches too short. Needed some more spark plugs as I had some cracked insulators on 4 of them from header installation gone wrong. Bought some fitting for the TH 400 so I can run stainless braided AN lines to my tranny cooler. Also broke down and just bought some Moser wheels studs because no one has been able to tell me how to measure the knurling on my factory studs and which ones to buy. So now it is trial and error experimentation. Does anyone know if I can just drill out my axles a bit larger if needs be and then press in the new studs? Also how much press fit do they need?

[El Campo]

KrazyRay sold me a whole bunch of taillight housings and reverse housing for a song, And they all looked GREAT! He even included the pigtails. Thanks Ray, you the man. I picked the best sets of housings and gave them a good cleaning and then sandblasted them with my POS Chinese suction blaster (actually did a nice job of scuffing them just the right amount). Before I did that I wrapped the nonremovable pigtails in bags and tape. He included some old bulbs so I left them in to protect the sockets. Then after was done figured I would prime them with white epoxy primer (doesn't need to be topcoated). I don't know if this is just good in theory or will work in reality but I figured that since white reflects the most light of any color that I would use white and hopefully it would brighten up my lights a tad. Hey, if it doesn't work at least I still have epoxy primed light housings!

[El Campo]

Also FINALLY finished painting my trailing arms. Had previously primed them black but since ultimately wanted orange had to prime over that with my white epoxy. So I had welded together the two halves so that they would not be so inclined to rust out and start the paint bubbling in between the halves (like happened the first time I built this truck) and had a littl bit of a lip at the edge of my welds when I ground them flush that I did not like. Nothing a little bit of Rage Xtreme didn't fix. So now I have smooth tops on my trailing arms. Sorry I did not take any before pictures. Put this over the black primer as recommended and then two coats of white followed by my customary three coats of color. The little bracket on the bottom is for my rear sway bar. And that is all I got done for now. I apologize if I bore you all with my small updates...

[El Campo]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Chinese crap fitting is worst thing I ever bought. Milton makes a great fitting though which hasn't leaked a bit yet. Annnnd I think it is about time for a new paint gun!

[67c10rustbuket]

oooh nice parts, paint gun looks like it needs a bath in some thinner! Did you weld the seams on the trailing arms solid top and bottom? I have seen others weld a bead every few inches but never solid, sounds like a lot of work my friend! Nice boots

[El Campo]

Lol!! Yea they were some anteater print that I got in Mexico a while back. Got some real anteaters back in 2005 and tried to get some more but got burned and these were fake. Anyways.. Yea I welded the seam entirely. I welded it and then ground it level before skimming it with filler. I wasn't afraid to put filler on them even though they were suspension parts because of that. I NEVER EVER put filler over gaps that don't have weld or solid steel under them. It took long time but I am pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for looking
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