And so it begins! Ghost's 68 project

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by halfstep

Thanks. I'm not at that point yet, but it's good to get some hands on feed back. They sound like a good way to go for the harness. Always curious about cams - interesting how many people get custom cams now. Like the silver color on your truck too. Looks good and is not very common.

For being a Faux Patina paint job, the silver goes quite well with the red interior. Truck was not painted by me BTW Lol

Originally Posted by TruDom

nice build.
i like that wrinkle black finish. is that from a rattle can?

Yup! looks pretty cool and matches the Fast intake manifold lid quite well too. Here’s a pic of the rattle can.

[Ghost's68]

Finally got around to doing one of the upgrades I’ve been wanting to do since I got my LS swap running, got Dakota Digital Gauges. Went with the HDX’s with the black face. Since running my swap I’ve been using on of those OBD2 blue tooth dongle and an old android phone running the Torque app. It certainly worked at the time but the small screen was getting old quick, not to mention the battery died really fast lol.

Here’s the old set up


And here’s the new setup! Man these things are super nice. When running the LS swap, wiring is a breeze! I choose to not run the DD sensor wiring since I wanted to keep things neat how I have them currently. Went with the BIM-01-2 to read all my engine data. Nice with my setup I even get speed off the BIM. took the time to clean up the wiring behind the gauge and originize things while I was in there.

Old gauges


Here’s my son helping papa with install


Gauges all done

[Ghost's68]

I got tired of using my IPhone and and Bluetooth speaker to listen to tunes while I was driving so decided to upgrade the stereo. This radio came with the truck and never really worked. It certainly isn’t the original stereo. I was hoping since it had the knobs that weren’t connected to the body, the dash wouldn’t be cut up. But sure enough, the dash was cut. It appears at one point it had a standard deck in it. then when the deck that was in it was put in a plate was made out of aluminum to allow stock style decks to be used. It gave it the appearance of an uncut dash.

Anyone ever see anything like this before?



So after seeing it had a standered deck opening cut, I decided to go with a Kenwood media player deck. This thing is half the size of a standard CD player deck. This does not play CD’s and is intended for Pandora, Spotify, iPhone music streaming etc etc. I don’t even own CD’s so this was a no brainer lol.



PO also cut holes in the doors and installed 6x9’s. So while I was upgrading the sounds I went ahead and threw in some new Kicker OS 6x9’s and ran all new wiring. It feels good not carrying around my bulky Bluetooth speaker.

[Ghost's68]

I ordered up a set of the delux side markers. Originally when I bought the truck it came with the Clear delux style markers. I always liked the original orange/red look. Also truck never had them wired in so I took the time to get em wired up. I did wire the front to blink with the turn signals. So when the lights are on, markers are solid. When I use the turn signal the side signaling will blink. Love how the truck looks when it’s lit up.



Here’s a shot in the dark with the parking lights on. Sexy.....

[Ghost's68]

She’s far from pretty! I would consider her a pig with lipstick. I ran across these stickers one day on Instagram and thought to myself, “that’s totally how I feel about this hunk a junk”. Bought them then placed one on the rear window and another on the driver side vent window.

[TA_C10]

Looking good man, I hope they make those deluxe side markers in LED form cuz that's what I would like to install.

Can you explain a little more for us newb's on the gauge wiring and lingo?

What is DD sensor wiring issue you spoke of? And what is the BI and the wiring your talking about?

I am going to be running my old samsung phone with the torque app as well before I can afford the DD(Dakota Digital guages). I really like the look of the stock with some upgrades However I am also installing a power inverter so I will be able to power my phone that way without worrying about dead phone battery

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Looking good man, I hope they make those deluxe side markers in LED form cuz that's what I would like to install.

Can you explain a little more for us newb's on the gauge wiring and lingo?

What is DD sensor wiring issue you spoke of? And what is the BI and the wiring your talking about?

I am going to be running my old samsung phone with the torque app as well before I can afford the DD(Dakota Digital guages). I really like the look of the stock with some upgrades However I am also installing a power inverter so I will be able to power my phone that way without worrying about dead phone battery

Yea They sell em in LED versions. I chose not to run em for now. Maybe down the line when I completely upgrade the truck wiring I’ll switch everything over to LED’s.

Not an issue about the wiring per say as more preference. With LS swaps since all the data is going into the ECM you can pull that data from the computer then relay that info to the gauges via the BIM module. It basically converts the info from the ECM and sends it to the gauges.

If I were to go with the DD wiring I would have to run all kinds of wiring to the various sensors. Such as oil pressure, coolant temp and other various points. Check out the bag with all the extra wiring I would have to run if I choose to go that option. The BIM connects to the OBD port. Similar to the BT dongle, it just sends the data to the gauges.



Here’s the BIM and OBD connected

[knomadd]

The new gauges look good! I like the HDX series gauges and the many color combos you can run. I wish I had known they were coming out before I bought my VHX gauges.

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by knomadd

The new gauges look good! I like the HDX series gauges and the many color combos you can run. I wish I had known they were coming out before I bought my VHX gauges.

Thanks man! I’m really happy with them. I spent maybe an hour going through the settings and man you can adjust about everything on these things. Really cool.

[Ghost's68]

A buddy and myself decided I needed a real radiator overflow catch can. I was using a plastic water bottle with a hole in the cap and just ran the hose straight into it. I had zip tied in place lol. Crude design but it worked lol. We used some left over 4’ aluminum piping I had from my intake and used that for the body. I ordered a weld on threaded cap and some AN fittings and Viola! Instant catch can lol


A couple coats of the wrinkle paint I used for other various pieces of the engine


And here it is mounted under the battery tray. Excuse all the excess wiring

[TA_C10]

Thanks for the info above. And that new catch can is awesome 👍, sweet custom fab work sir.

[Ghost's68]

Finally ordered a set of 3 point set bets from Morris Classics that are close to the look of the original. PO had thrown in some ugly newer style retractable seatbelts that looked way out of place. I wasn’t able to have my sons child seat in the middle since the old middle lap belt wasn’t long enough. But these new Morris belts are spot on!!! Now I can take my Son wherever I go! He loves riding in the truck

Here’s the old ugly belt setup


And here’s the new Morris Classic belts

[Ghost's68]

When I was working on getting my new sidemarkers installed and wired in, I found the tail light harness was just falling apart. I would grab it and from just moving it around I could hear and see it just cracking and exposing the wires. I also never had working reverse lights, so pulled them off and found the wires were cut! Makes you wonder what people think when they do weird things like this.

Ordered up a new AAW tail light harness, reverse lamp assemblies, and a license plate light. Once installed, BOOM! Reverse light work! Now everything so far works the way it should. I did have to trouble shoot the right turn signal though. It was staying solid and would not blink when I had the headlights on. Found the bulb had to be turned just a bit to get it to work just right!

Here’s the old harness looking bad. Don’t mind the splices. I was just trying to limp it along while I got my new harness.