66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap

[Duncan K]

I did spray it in my shop. I have a large exhaust fan that I run to deal with the over spray. I have just accepted that there will be dust to sand out later.

[joesscamaro]

It looks great! I can't wait to see the bed assembled with the wood in it.

[Duncan K]

Here you go Joe

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[88Stanger]

DAMN, Nice work!!

I seen SkinnyG talking about the inflatable booths, too funny because I have seen them used on a few shows and looked into them. You can get them from just about anywhere and they are good sized! So for approx. $850.00 i am going to get one!
Anyways, great job on the truck!!

[Duncan K]

I got the letters painted on the tailgate, got it installed and put on the chains. Wired up the tail lights, and fit the exhaust tips.



I lined the floor with Kilmat, and installed carpet from ACC. It fit really well! Got the seat belts installed and put in the sill plates.



I took it for a quick spin out on a country road by our shop. I went maybe a kilometer, turned around, came back to the shop and parked. Got out and was admiring it in the sun when I noticed I lost the front driver side hub cap. I hopped in my other truck and went back out down the road assuming I would see a bright white hub cap in the ditch. I have searched that stretch of rode top to bottom and there is no sign of that hub cap. I was back within probably 5 minutes. Only thing I can think of is that someone stopped in that 5 min window and picked it up. That is a real bummer because those hub caps are hard to find in decent shape.

I trailered the truck in to the city to Kal Tire to get an alignment, and the out-of-province inspection that is required to get it registered. Everything on the truck was good, but I ended up failing because of the wheel spacers. My stock 15" wheels don't clear the disk brake calipers, so I used the spacers for clearance. Now I have to find a set of wheels and tires to throw on there that clear the calipers, then have it re-inspected.

I drove it from the tire shop to my house. First time ever driving it on asphalt. It sounds amazing, I had a huge grin on my face the whole way. Now to find a set of wheels to get me through this inspection and on the road for good

[rodstored-72]

duncan, sad to hear about the hubcap. happy to know that you are able to drive it, that is a huge milestone!! interested in the failed inspection?? what do the wheels have to do with inspection? and... the truck looks FANTASTIC!!! very nice job!

[Braunschweiger]

Fantastic work, the Truck is beautiful.
Sorry you lost a hubcap.
I also assumed you had more engineering freedom.

[SkinnyG]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

I also assumed you had more engineering freedom.

In Canada, any vehicle that comes from out-of-province must pass an inspection.

Passing an inspection is really up to the interpretation of the inspector. Sometimes modifications get through, sometimes they can be very hard-nosed.

It took me a LONG time to find a 60-66 that 1) had BC registration and 2) had no outstanding order for inspection - it would be a total pain to fix everything only to take it apart and modify it later. I build my vehicles to "hopefully" pass an inspection, but there is a very real possibility that they won't; depends who I take it to.

[Braunschweiger]

Thanks for the Clarification, here in Germany the rules are also very strict and it depends just as much on the Inspector,
at least if you want to have the status of a Classic Car,
which has advantages.
Greetings Harald

[bigmoe]

Truck looks awesome. What are you doing to finish off back of the cab behind the seat?

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by bigmoe

Truck looks awesome. What are you doing to finish off back of the cab behind the seat?

Still thinking about that one. Some sort of storage, built in and carpeted to match.

[Duncan K]

Well after a couple weeks messing around buying wheels and tires I found a combination that cleared the calipers and fit in the back. Ugly as hell, but it passed the inspection. Got it registered and plated.

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Swapped the wheels back over and went out for a cruise around the neighborhood. Steering is quite loose, will need to adjust the steering box. After about 10 mins it started over heating. I adjusted the kick on temp for the fan in HPTuners, will see how that does.

Took another walk down the ditch where I lost the hub cap, this time from the other side of the fence in the farmers field. Found it behind some long grass!!

[caseyjones]

Originally Posted by Duncan K

Took another walk down the ditch where I lost the hub cap, this time from the other side of the fence in the farmers field. Found it behind some long grass!!

I've actually been thinking about this thread, hoping that hubcap would show up. Excellent!

[SkinnyG]

Yay!

[350TacoZilla]

Man I know that feeling you had when you first saw that cap. I unfortunately also know the feeling of never finding one. I looked for hours once and couldn't find it and it was on a little back rd with not much traffic so I doubt someone else got it but I dunno what else it could be. I also had someone steal one of my hubcaps while I was in a store and started to steal another when someone else ran them off.

[cag]

Nice build, where did you get the inner fenders from??

[joesscamaro]

First time checking in in a while...so good to see your truck on the road and getting to enjoy it. It really turned out great! Job well done!

[Duncan K]

It's been a while so I thought I would post an update. I put about 500kms on the truck last year. It was great to finally get to drive it after over 7 years of restoration. I even managed to get it out to one of our local car shows. I painted an old Coleman cooler to put in the back which got almost more comments than the truck!



Found a few issues after getting some shake down kilometers in.

The power steering pump started leaking and had to be replaced

I had an intermitent no throttle response issue that left me on the side of the road a couple times. I replaced the throttle pedal sensor but the issue kept happening. Since then I replaced the throttle body, but haven't put many kms on it since so we will see what happens. Hoping I don't have to replace the TAC module.

Biggest issue has been a major driveline vibration at 95 km/hr and up. I rechecked the driveline angles and found that they had changed somehow since I initially set it up. The trans and diff were both at 4.1 degrees. When I checked it again the diff was at 5.7 degrees up, so I set the trans to match. The vibration is still there but now it doesn't start untill I hit 100km/hr. Not sure where to go with this? Do I need to get these closer to 3 degrees? I thought as long as they matched it would be fine.

While I patiently wait for spring to get here I finished up the interior. I made a panel to cover the back wall with a little storage tray at the bottom. I covered it with some speaker box carpet.



I sent the seat out to be recovered as well. This was the only part of the truck I didn't do myself. I strongly considered buying an industrial sewing machine and figuring it out but decided I just wanted it done so I left it to the professionals.Really happy with how it turned out.



I also started sanding a few runs out of the clear coat, and a few areas that had more orange peel than I was ok with. I thought I was done with sanding, but not so much. Cut and buff is a lot of work!

I spent some time dialing in the fueling, logging data and starting to learn HPTuners. I still have a long way to go with this

[SkinnyG]

Is the PCM, Throttle pedal, and TAC module all from the same donor? Sometimes it matters.

What is the operating angle at each universal joint? They don't want to be more than 3°. Is the vibration steady or cyclical?

Wheel imbalance likes to show up around around 100km/h - don't be afraid to re-check that. On my truck I have found a front wheel imbalance can feel like it's coming from the rear.

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Is the PCM, Throttle pedal, and TAC module all from the same donor? Sometimes it matters.

What is the operating angle at each universal joint? They don't want to be more than 3°. Is the vibration steady or cyclical?

Wheel imbalance likes to show up around around 100km/h - don't be afraid to re-check that. On my truck I have found a front wheel imbalance can feel like it's coming from the rear.

The pcm, pedal and TAC were all from the same donor.

I don't know what the operating angles are on the u joints. I will have to measure them. The vibration is steady after about 95 km/hr.

I will definetly check the balance on all the wheels again

[rbruno68]

That back wall panel looks really good. I may need to do something like that in my future for my cab. It does a great job of hiding that back wall of the cab. Great job.