1970 K20 Z62 Full Restoration

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking sharp! I love that blue..

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by BAD1916

Loving the detail. Incredible work!

Sorry I missed ya before. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking sharp! I love that blue..

Gracias!

[IronCanine]

I've gotten to where I like to post completed steps as much as possible. Unfortuantly not a lot of that this week. Some slogging but no scoring. We were luckier than a lot of folks, but Helene did wreak a little havoc for us. More than that it was just (I guess usual) aggravating parts dramas.

Steering link in. (Sometimes you gotta take the low hanging fruit). But even with this I had to special order the pinch bolt that locks in the pitman arm...because GM put a 3-1/4" 9/16-18 bolt in there...and that's even hard to find online if you don't want to buy $400 worth. The first of a few hanging chads this week.

[IronCanine]

Brace yourself I'm about to start talking about InLine Tube.

First the good...(yes I said it, there's some good)...The rear axle brake lines are pretty darn close to factory. A little fighting and stretching, but a very reasonable copy of factory. It's the first time I've installed their rear axle lines on a truck. We've handmade all the others.

And the lines at the front of the truck are good. The only real difference between theirs and factory is they don't have the short coil sheathing section on the cross member line (that leads to the rear brakes) that the factory line has.

[IronCanine]

Now the bad. The long line to the rear brakes is only about 30" short. I assume they split it on purpose since it's so long...but they advertise this kit as a 9 piece. If they did that intentionally, they need to call it a 10 piece and send me an extra line. I'm waiting to hear back to see what their solution is.

I've got a history of dogging InLine Tube on this site. Even though this is a mixed bag situation, it's hard to be very complimentary considering the fact that I'm batting 1.000 on having an issue every time I deal with em. Don't worry, I do try to be nice on the phone.

[IronCanine]

I wanted to highlight the clip situation on this truck, but since I'm still in progress on the brake lines, I guess I'll do it piecemeal.

The clip set almost completely changed in '71 (at least at Fremont) so I think these are some decent details to show. The frame rail clips for the brake lines are the same as the power steering clamp. The clips on the front crossmember are two separate single line clips stacked together with one bolt.

All of these are original to the truck and have been refinished.

[IronCanine]

70 was a year where GM was still figuring 4WDs out. First open knuckle Dana (but still drum) and remember that crazy oil fill tube?

Anyway, could this cobbled together driver side brake hose situation be more insane. Eric said it best when he suggested they must have outsourced that to Ford.

What you're looking at is HOSE-FITTING-BANJO BOLT-EXTENSION...then finally wheel cylinder.

Oh geez, the wheel cylinders...

[1970cstblazer]

Originally Posted by IronCanine

Now the bad. The long line to the rear brakes is only about 30" short. I assume they split it on purpose since it's so long...but they advertise this kit as a 9 piece. If they did that intentionally, they need to call it a 10 piece and send me an extra line. I'm waiting to hear back to see what their solution is.

I've got a history of dogging InLine Tube on this site. Even though this is a mixed bag situation, it's hard to be very complimentary considering the fact that I'm batting 1.000 on having an issue every time I deal with em. Don't worry, I do try to be nice on the phone.

Not surprising. Their "customer service" is the worst in the business. I loathe them. I will say their 1972 Blazer kit fit well on my 1970 and doesn't leak once I had all of the proper lines the kit was supposed to have. I had to purchase two kits to get what was required.

My 1970 Blazer used the red spring clips on the frame to secure the brake lines to the frame on the front crossmember. These same clips secured both the fuel and brake lines to the rear.

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Wow!

Good to know nothing has changed over at In Line.

Thanks Pete. Yeah some things are evergreen.

Originally Posted by 1970cstblazer

Not surprising. Their "customer service" is the worst in the business. I loathe them. I will say their 1972 Blazer kit fit well on my 1970 and doesn't leak once I had all of the proper lines the kit was supposed to have. I had to purchase two kits to get what was required.

My 1970 Blazer used the red spring clips on the frame to secure the brake lines to the frame on the front crossmember. These same clips secured both the fuel and brake lines to the rear.

This truck has that type of clip. The rub is this is a 3/4T frame and it's thicker. The reproduction clips don't have a long enough push pin to do the job. We had to preserve and refurbish the originals. There are two other (different style) push clips that carry the end of the long brake line. That style does not appear to be available...and I don't think mine are recoverable. We'll see.