Yet another GMC build

[Groyd]

Looks great.

[ChuckDriver]

Looking good, it's got a nice stance!

[yossarian19]

Which radiator did Santa leave you? I'm planning my own '57 to LS build, this is one of the last parts questions I'm working on...

[OKGMC4]

It's one of the cheap chinese radiators from Ebay made by Champion. It works just fine, the only issue I had is the brackets were welded on at the wrong angle and the bottom rear of the radiator hit the splash pan. I cut them off and had them re-tigged on at the correct angle and still had half the cost of a name brand radiator. Since my clip is about half GMC and half chevy I don't know if it would have bolted right in a stock chevy with no mods.

[OKGMC4]

My parents visited yesterday and I got some much needed help installing the front glass. Couldn't resist snapping a pic of mine next to my moms Challenger.

[Kim57]

Cool pic.
Kim

[bjcaldwe]

It looks fantastic.

[OKGMC4]

Thanks guys. I should be able to get tires and alignment in the next couple of days. Then I should be able to actually drive it some! Wish I could trust it enough to take it to the Stillwater stop on the Power Tour....

[shadow1967]

Great job!

[Dads Burb]

How well did the 99 Corvette exhaust manifolds work? Do the SS ones you used look the same as the cast iron ones, or are they more like a tube header?

[OKGMC4]

They fit great and look like a 4 into 1 block hugger. I had to use a Lokar cable shift because the mechanical column shift was going to hit, but that would have been true of any manifold. I think the LSx engines are wider than a small block would have been. One of these days when I get bored I may take them back out and polish them up but for the most part I don't really care for underhood detailing. I just want to drive it.

[OKGMC4]

Got my wiper motor in. It was a rear motor out of a 2008 Chevy Venture minivan. I thought originally the wiring was power, ground, motor on, and park, but as it turned out the "park" wire was really an intermittent wire. On my universal two speed switch I have "intermittent" and "on". I paid about $10 for it and made a bracket to hold the motor and had to make a bushing for the shaft but welded the stock wiper arm to it. The real cost came with new wiper bezels, gaskets, nuts, arms, and blades. Dang this hot rod stuff nickel and dimes you to death!

[waybad]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

Got my wiper motor in. It was a rear motor out of a 2008 Chevy Venture minivan. I thought originally the wiring was power, ground, motor on, and park, but as it turned out the "park" wire was really an intermittent wire. On my universal two speed switch I have "intermittent" and "on". I paid about $10 for it and made a bracket to hold the motor and had to make a bushing for the shaft but welded the stock wiper arm to it. The real cost came with new wiper bezels, gaskets, nuts, arms, and blades. Dang this hot rod stuff nickel and dimes you to death!

can you post more info on the wiring and more on the mount please.. I really want the intermittent feature for my truck.. thanks Tinker

[OKGMC4]

The wiring was straightforward. The two speed wiper switches have four terminals.
1.Power, 2.Low, 3. High, and 4. Park.
The motor has 4 wires...white, black, green, and grey.
White is wired to 12v power. Black is grounded to the firewall. Grey goes to low and green goes to high. This makes low speed intermittent and high speed is "on". The park terminal is not used in this case.

As for the mount I used a piece of poster board to make a template that would allow me to reuse the original wiper mounting bolts. Then I cut and bent it out of sheet metal. Then I attached the motor to the plate using the original bracket from the van and tweaked everything to fit. The important part is making sure the shaft is angled the same as stock, and making sure placement of the wiper linkage bar is correct. Other wise it will bind up. I had to try a couple different settings before I found one that worked and could tighten the nut all the way. Sorry I don't have better pics. I really should have taken some before it was installed.

[waybad]

thank you,, now to the JY

[OKGMC4]

Made an error...the wiper motor is an 05, must have been thinking about my Dodge. I looked and the motors are the same on 1997 through 2005 Chevy Venture, Olds Sillhouette, and Pontiac Montana vans. Sorry about that.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

Wish I could trust it enough to take it to the Stillwater stop on the Power Tour....

3000 of us missed you at stillwater

[OKGMC4]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

3000 of us missed you at stillwater

It figures that I have it driving now. I've got 115 miles on the odometer. I just went to a small show with about 200 cars and it was fun to watch people look and then to answer questions for them. Most people couldn't believe I did the paint and interior work myself. Most thought it was my dads truck. I guess hot rodders are supposed to have grey hair!

[OKGMC4]

Degreased the engine and painted the coil brackets. Looks a little better and still no chrome to polish.

[OKGMC4]

To anyone considering a C4 swap in a 55-59....

1.The back was too high. To get the back to sit right I've lowered mine 2.5 inches from stock. That was 1 inch from shaving the sides of the rear spring and 1.5 inches from longer leaf spring bolts.

2.The front was too low. I kept bottoming out on dips in the road. Some suggested the cradle was installed wrong but it was the original corvette K member brace up front that was hitting. I think it was a combination of the engine sitting farther forward than a vette and a body that is heavier than a vette placing too much weight on the fiberglass spring. I talked to Paul at Newman Car Creations and he helped me achieve a solution. The spring can be shimmed both at the tip and in the center to achieve more ride height. You can use up to 1/2" at the tip and 1/2" in the middle and what you shim gives you double at the fender lip. I put the maximun amount in mine and got the full extra inch I was looking for. It still sits low but more manageable. Now I don't scrape my driveway with the bumper coming out. If he ever reads this...Thanks for the advice Paul!

3. Shocks...still fighting this. I bought this suspension for another car originally. I also bought a brand new set of Monroe Sensatracs. 6 years ago. Now, at 150 miles on the road they are blown. One bottomed out in the rear so bad it got stuck and made the truck sit crooked. Maybe they are old, but what if they had sit in the warehouse that long? In any case they push in with no effort and are junk. On the Vette message boards they all say NO to Monroe, and KYB are 50/50. The only shocks they all agree on are the Bilstein. Soo..I've got the rears on and still waiting on the fronts in the mail. The rears are almost impossible to push down on so I hope this takes care of my suspension problems when the front go in. Especially at double the cost for four shocks.

[Kim57]

The engine looks nice. I like the painted coil brackets.
Hope you get the suspension worked out.
Kim

[dug224]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

Degreased the engine and painted the coil brackets. Looks a little better and still no chrome to polish.

Nice touch on the coil brackets. Can't wait to get my LS cleaned up and under way. I have a long way to go. Your air filter box goes a long way towards hiding the unsightly plastic intake. Well done. Really nice truck. Dug

[Groyd]

Originally Posted by dug224

Your air filter box goes a long way towards hiding the unsightly plastic intake. Well done. Really nice truck. Dug

I agree. Where did you get the two 90 degree elbows? My setup looks like junk.

[OKGMC4]

I got the elbows at Pep Boys. I think they are made by Spectre. I've actually thought about taking the box off and going with a tube/ cone setup and finishing the homemade intake cover I started 3 years ago but this one took like two weeks to make and it's already done.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

I got the elbows at Pep Boys. I think they are made by Spectre. I've actually thought about taking the box off and going with a tube/ cone setup and finishing the homemade intake cover I started 3 years ago but this one took like two weeks to make and it's already done.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Do you have any pics of the one you started? I'm still trying to figure out what to do with mine.
Kim