PROJECT "Father/Son" C-20 Rolling Chassis Build

[rcrahn]

More electrical work

[rcrahn]

continued electrical

[rcrahn]

And more electrical

[rcrahn]

Wiring back end of truck along with Tanks PA-2 pump

[rcrahn]

Modification of stock engine oil cooler lines. Cut off any rubber hose leaving hard line. Drilled and tap port for oil pressure sender. Fabricated SS braided PTFE lined hoses with AN fittings to run to radiator on driver side. Very clean work by John. Note, change fitting on port to 45 for clearance on the SSR exhaust manifolds

[rcrahn]

Next up...fabricate hoses for PS box. This box (along with PS pump) was rebuilt by Lee Power Steering in SoCal. These people are legendary in the hot rod world..check out their history....

https://leepowersteering.com/pages/h...power-steering

[rcrahn]

Connected steering shaft and set up Lokar shift linkage between column and 4L80E. Realized shift indicator lens was only 3 speed but need 4 speed. Easy to fix by swapping out $5 lens. Time to bolt in SSR exhaust manifolds. These fit tighter to motor than stock LQ9 and fit better in the frame.

[rcrahn]

Back to electrical...removed temporary controller for air bags and installed simple rocker switch box. Permanently wired power to ViaAir compressors.
Ran power to doors for electric life power windows (GM49-K)

[rcrahn]

Now onto trans oil cooler setup. After much discussion decided to use Derale stacked plate cooler 13403, 7inX13inX2in. Not too small and not too large.
Chose to mount it on crossmember so it sits just behind the front bumper. Once again John showed his skill in fabricating brackets for it and using pre-existing holes in frame for mounting. It came out awesome and is going to provide plenty of cooling for this when towing

[rcrahn]

Time for adding all fluids....Paying special attention to using pressurized system to push new Mobil 1 oil throughout the entire motor prior to starting. Remember, this motor sat for around 12 years. Note: I did change the intake gaskets, plugs, new exhaust gaskets and have the injectors cleaned and tested beforehand.

[rcrahn]

Prior to starting there was much discussion about fabricating the cold air intake.
We decided to send it to the driver side since the battery was sitting on passenger side and future AC compressor was going to sitting high on passenger side as well. So the plan was to go to driver side and secure it with a couple of custom brackets including one to the inner fender. I brought the inner fender down to them and John was prepared to lengthen the MAF wires to reach over there. Luckily, he discovered the original MAF wires had been wrapped up in a bundle inside the harness and with some unwrapping he freed them up and rerouted them.

[rcrahn]

Went to start it and heard a "CLICK". Removed starter and bench tested it. Dead. Ordered reman unit from Summit. It arrived, installed it and they turned the key. No start. Checked spark and injector pulse. Those looked good. Wasn't getting fuel. Could it be brand new PA-2 in tank pump? Dropped tank to check it. Worked fine. Traced it down to the fuel hoses being connected wrong up at the fuel rails. Remember, using the stock LQ9 intake and fuel rails which include a return line. This was entirely my fault. I made those connections years before. Once they were swapped it started and ran, albeit rough, since it needs a tune. Oil pressure good at 60+ psi

[rcrahn]

Next was fabricating the intake.

[rcrahn]

To get the brakes working it needed drop downs from the MC to the existing lines already done. Running a vacuum line to booster, then bleeding everything. John did an artistic job curling these lines making it look real nice.

[rcrahn]

By this time the engine was running and the truck could be driven and safely stop. My budget was exhausted but I was thrilled with reaching a huge milestone in this long long project.
Huge thanks again the the team at American Customs & Classics in Hollister. If you live in the region and ever need work done on your truck these are the guys to go to.

[rcrahn]

Forgot to mention this....while the truck was out of my garage at American Customs and Classics I took the opportunity to finish another project that was started a long time ago. I installed a suspended ceiling and upgraded the lighting to LED panels. The grid is USG Donn. The panels are from Ceilume. Very lightweight and easy to work with. The LED panels (6) are from 1000 bulbs. Man, I cannot believe the difference. Flip the lights on at night and it looks like a showroom.

[SCOTI]

Glad to see the progress updates. Kudos for continuing & pushing to see it through.

[cornerstone]

Lotsa real nice touches and clean work! I like the brackets you made for the air intake tube, and the sturdy utilitarian look of it.

[KevinK7]

As noted, the detail work is impressive. That CAI looks great, ...and again kudos for finishing through. You've done a LOT of work for sure, truck is looking great

[rcrahn]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Glad to see the progress updates. Kudos for continuing & pushing to see it through.

Thanks for looking and your feedback.

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Lotsa real nice touches and clean work! I like the brackets you made for the air intake tube, and the sturdy utilitarian look of it.

I have known John for a long time and he's always done clean work. Putting together the CAI was trial and error. We talked about going with something like AirRaid but nixed that idea. I ordered some 4" 90 degree pipes from Summit that took over a week to be delivered only to discover they would not work. Had to be returned. Yes, the brackets are very clean and believe me, very sturdy. That intake won't be moving around. Might even drill some 2" holes in the core support close to the filter to allow for better airflow. Or, another thing I've been thinking about is creating a duct which sits below the core support and run a 3" brake duct hose up close to filter. Taking a lesson from racing. But all that is something that we can mess around with later. For now it works.

Originally Posted by KevinK7

As noted, the detail work is impressive. That CAI looks great, ...and again kudos for finishing through. You've done a LOT of work for sure, truck is looking great

Thank you. No doubt this project has taken a long time. There's still more to come but so much has happened since it was started. My son got into racing Spec E30 BMWs with NASA and we have built 2 cars. Both kids got married, bought homes and each had a baby. I had prostate cancer and successfully beat it in early 2019. So yes, life happened. I just decided, F__K it, this is going to get done. I'm glad I did it. No regrets.
This truck will soon be shipped off to Austin TX where my son now lives. We have agreed on a figure so he will be buying pops out (paying me back) for what I have into it. Hopefully he'll see it through to completion. Paint, AC, Interior...Any good hot rod shops in Austin please let me know so I can pass it along.

[ChiefRocka]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Lotsa real nice touches and clean work! I like the brackets you made for the air intake tube, and the sturdy utilitarian look of it.

Originally Posted by KevinK7

As noted, the detail work is impressive. That CAI looks great, ...and again kudos for finishing through. You've done a LOT of work for sure, truck is looking great

Thanks for the kind words ...

I am also glad to see this thing up and running again !!