New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

The seat mounts look good JJ. You filed the notches by hand...wow, determined!

Haha, sometimes I think detrimental might be a better word Thanks!

Originally Posted by lower50's

Nice job on the seat brackets. I like how you said " and then on to the next task!" That's how you have to build, so you don't loose your head.

Thanks! Yes, it's true. I have to take it one piece at a time, or it just gets totally overwhelming, because there are a LOT of little pieces going into the whole!

Made the mounting tabs tonight. Okay, well seven of eight Here you can see the passenger;s seat is set in place and bolted down (I have not drilled a bolt hole in the elevated mount at the inside front of the seat yet, and I just cooked my 7/16" bit sooo that may not happen for a bit), and the three level tabs for the driver's seat. Haven't fitted the elevated mount for this side yet.


A couple shots with both seats bolted down. The sharp eyed may note the driver's seat is slightly further back than the passenger's - the mounts are not symmetric, and the driver's seat goes further back with the front bolts aligned. Who knew??



I noticed this once I actually bolted them down:

Looks like I may be shimming the inside a little bit to get them level. Or maybe just designing different mount tabs. Or maybe just ignoring it Apparently the floor in the S10 was not flat like I thought. I'm going to have to sit in the truck a bit and decide if it feels odd to me or not.

I also decided I'd make a center support for the bracket as well, between the seats. That will also likely lend itself to mounting the seatbelts.

[JJorgensen52]

So I got the last couple tabs and brackets made for the seat mount:

The center crossbar has four tabs on it for mounting my future console. Also note that I added a vertical component to the rear inner seat mount tabs, for the seatbelt to mount to.

This mount is for the belt retractor. The plate here is tied directly to the frame via the body mount (the big bolt head in the back, 5/8" diameter).


And here's a few shots of a seat bolted in with the seatbelt:




That last shot shows the upper belt adjuster installed. I dropped two of the formed seatbelt anchor plates into the pillar to mount it - I still need to spot weld them in place, though.

I still need to pull the mount out and finish all the welds underneath, but I think I may take a break from this tomorrow and start working on my core support base. We shall see.

[7dee2]

Nice work, looks really comfy!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Nice work, looks really comfy!

Thanks! And yes, these seats are super comfy ... they're my second favorite, and Mom's favorite, so they were an easy pick!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

Thanks! And yes, these seats are super comfy ... they're my second favorite, and Mom's favorite, so they were an easy pick!

Is this still a surprise for your Mom?

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Is this still a surprise for your Mom?

You betcha I'm not sure how Dad and I have managed to keep it a secret, but it still is.

[JJorgensen52]

Went to do this:


And spent two and a half hours at it ... I got the plates spot welded in no problem, then one of the welded nuts broke off inside the pillar ... so after drilling the spots, fishing the plate, the broken nut, and my flashlight out of the pillar ... they're in. I'm probably going to repaint the shrouds, but I think this looks good.


Then I moved on to making stands for the core support. Opted for the hole in the frame with welded nut option:


Tacked in all four corners so I can build my new core support base:



And radiator test fit:


There is not much (read: ANY) space in here with the truck water pump:


And I would, ideally, like the radiator to sit back another inch at the bottom. Thinking that might not happen, at least not with this fan.

[Advanced Design]

Dumb question JJ, how did you install the 3 point belt mount in the pillar? Broken nut, flashlight dropped in pillar...just like one of my adventures.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Dumb question JJ, how did you install the 3 point belt mount in the pillar? Broken nut, flashlight dropped in pillar...just like one of my adventures.

When I order the seatbelts (from Juliano's Hot Rod Parts) they came with an installation hardware kit, which included four of these formed base plates with 7/16" hardware - they're meant to be used under the floor, but since I needed two anchor points on each side in the pillar and my floor mounts are integral to the seat bracket, I dropped them in the pillar and spotted them in place. The kit also includes a different bracket for welding into a B-pillar, like in a sedan, with a shoulder bolt for the upper point to ride on.

As far as how I actually did it ... marked where I wanted them, drilled the bolt hole and two spot weld holes, then used some wire taped to the mount to drop them into the pillar from above and a magnet stick to fish them into place so I could bolt them down. Took a little doing, that's for sure!

The idea, from what I understand, is that the rounded edges are supposed to gather the sheetmetal in an accident, rather than tear through it as a sharp edged plate or washer might do. There's not a whole lot of structure to that upper pillar, so I figured I need all the help I can get!

[JJorgensen52]

Made some progress on the core support base today:



After some cutting, some bending, some more cutting, more bending:


First trial fit:




I still have to cut my temporary brace off the back of the core support so it can sit all the way down into the base, and then I can hang the fenders and set my height and drill for bolts.

Only one problem with this, which is somewhere along the way, I decided to offset the radiator to the passenger's side about 3/4" for steering box clearance - when I bent up the mount, I did the steering box side first and then mirrored it, so it's actually a touch too narrow. I'll cut out the offending section tomorrow and make the radiator notch wider. Then I have to finish welding it up and cleaning the welds... trying not to warp anything

Once I set the height for the core support in the base (I'm going to make it a tad low, so I can shim the whole base upward if need be for alignment), I'll make two vertical supports for the radiator. Still going to tip it outward a bit for better clearance at the bottom, but not as much as I had originally thought - maybe 5/8" difference top to bottom.

Very pleased with the progress, though, this is a HUGE step towards being able to get it wired and rolling for shakedown miles

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Looks good...Jim

Thanks Jim!

Cut out and flipped around my error from yesterday, gave me that extra 5/8" I needed:


Here it is set in the truck:


Radiator fit into its final resting place:



Dropping the center of the cross member gave my much more space for the 16" fan. Set up like this, the clearance to the water pump is enough for me to be comfortable with, I think:


Also swapped in my remote PS pump setup tonight. Thinking I will cut the bracket down on the reservoir and mount it right here off the back of the core support. Neat hose routing, easy access and I can't really fit anything else in that spot so

[JJorgensen52]

Got it all trimmed, height set, drilled for mounts, and bolted down:



And I'm very pleased to find that once I had the front end securely bolted to the frame, my panel gaps are much nicer.


This is pretty close to ride height, but my final tires are 2" taller, so the wheel wells will be fuller!

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the core support JJ! Good looking radiator too.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice work on the core support JJ! Good looking radiator too.

Thanks! All the radiator credit goes to the folks at R'n'D Fab ... did good work for me, even put on my oddball trans cooler fittings

So I've been monkeying around with a lot of the little stuff, but got the radiator mounted up tonight:


A little tough to see, but I made standoffs that bolt into the core support, the radiator is about 5/8" forward at the top and about 1" at the bottom, and it's offset to passenger's side around 1/2"



Thinking I probably need one more bolt on each side. I need to pull the stand-offs out and weld the nuts in and finish up the rest of the welds, anyways.

Getting a little Frankensteinish here:



'98 S10 airbox cut down (I'm going to make the base metal and integral to the inner fender) to fit, using a '98 Suburban bellows, the MAF sensor is going to be a combination - I ordered the "updated" MAF for the '96-'99 Vortec trucks, it uses the late truck style bolt in MAF sensor so I'm just going to use the correct '11 sensor in the updated housing - and then into a '98 Cadillac Seville intake elbow. I still need to order a 3.5"-4" transition elbow for the TB and a short piece of tubing to make it all fit together. I will also weld bungs on for the PCV and charcoal vent air intakes at that point.

I had this overflow tank laying around, I think I may use it.


As you may recall, one of my quirks (and goals for this project) is making things look as much like they came out of the factory as possible - so in this engine bay I'm trying to use as much GM or OEM made equipment as possible to keep with the theme. It might not be the prettiest way to do things, but it's highly functional without spending too much cash, and that's what I'm after.

I say that, and then I look at my expenses tracker for this project and ....

[Advanced Design]

I like going for the factory look under the hood. It is a clean theme that doesn't have to break the bank. Expense tracker? Ugh...I never wanna know. All kidding aside having a budget and trying to stick to it is wise. Operative word is trying...

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

I like going for the factory look under the hood. It is a clean theme that doesn't have to break the bank. Expense tracker? Ugh...I never wanna know. All kidding aside having a budget and trying to stick to it is wise. Operative word is trying...

I'm over the original estimate, of course, but not by too much so I'm calling that an accomplishment

More tinkering tonight. Spent some time searching the Dayco hose catalog, found radiator hoses to fit. The lower I haven't put on yet (need to order a new water neck that points downward), but did the upper.



It's about 60% of the upper hose for an '84 Cadillac Deville Diesel ... guess the Olds diesel was good for something after all! The lower hose is the upper off an '03 Dodge Ram.

Gas tank skid plate/cradle and straps came today:


I've got a good plan as to how I'm going to mount it now, I'll work on making the requisite bracketry tomorrow.

[Advanced Design]

Did the Dayco hose catalog provide good dimensions and pictures? Haven't gone that route myself. Usually I bend up a piece of copper tubing and the guys at Napa let me wade into their inventory to do a physical match.

Anyway your hoses fit up really well.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Did the Dayco hose catalog provide good dimensions and pictures? Haven't gone that route myself. Usually I bend up a piece of copper tubing and the guys at Napa let me wade into their inventory to do a physical match.

Anyway your hoses fit up really well.

If you go to their Dimensional Search Catalog, it lets you select hose end diameters and the rough length you want, and spits out part numbers with photos. I found a couple matches that would work, this one just happened to be in stock at the local O'Reilly so that was my first try!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

If you go to their Dimensional Search Catalog, it lets you select hose end diameters and the rough length you want, and spits out part numbers with photos. I found a couple matches that would work, this one just happened to be in stock at the local O'Reilly so that was my first try!

Excellent resource! Saved in favorites. Thanks JJ!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Excellent resource! Saved in favorites. Thanks JJ!

You betcha! I get enough help from y'all it's nice to be giving now and again

Got the fuel tank bolted up today:





Couple notes on this:
1. It would have been easier to just run a piece of tubing (1" square 16ga) across the rear of the tank, but since I'm installing a trailer hitch on the truck and it wanted to land in exactly the wrong place with regards to those bolts, I made this funny cantilevered arrangement.
2. You may note the tank looks canted up at the front. It is, though not as badly as it appears. I am going to shim the front mount down with a couple washers to make that less of a slope.
3. I'm not a huge fan of how low the tank hangs, but once the bumper and hitch are up there it will be much less visible. From the bottom, the Jeep tank mount is actually a skidplate - and a legit one at that. It's stamped from about 12GA !

This is a stock '93 S10 4.3W (CPI) fuel sending unit. It uses the same pump as the Vortec 350 / LT1 cars, so more than adequate to feed the LS. What you see here is that I took the float arm off and rotated the float 180 degrees (viewed from above, a stock one would point left in this photo), because it was hitting the sump inside the tank.


And here it is dropped in the tank. Note that the original Jeep index points are at 12 and 5 o'clock, I had to rotate it counterclockwise to clear the fuel lines on the cross sills and the float to not hit the sump.


The Jeep tank is 3/8" deeper than the S10 unit, but I don't think that will be much of an problem.

One other issue is the fuel fill. The Jeep one is 1", and it has a 3/4" vent right next to it. Since my vent is on the sending unit, I'm thinking I may use both those inlets to connect to my fill neck - which is 1-3/8". I'm going to have to make a funky elbow arrangement to go around the frame anyway, so that won't be too terrible I don't think.

On to the next step! I'm going to work on getting the various ancillary stuff mounted under the hood - airbox, power steering reservoir, fuse panel, that kind of thing. Once that stuff is tied down, I'll probably move on to the exhaust system.

[JJorgensen52]

Power steering reservoir is in its final home


Installed my A/C drive ... looks like more butchery of the inner fenders is in order


I've been through three iterations of air box bases thus far, and I've not been happy with any of them. Have a new plan to try tomorrow, so remains to be seen just what I come up with...

[iowaboynca]

Sorry couldn't find any info about your A/C set-up (sorry if I didn't go back far enough). Anyway i'm curious about your compressor and bracket. Thanks!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

Sorry couldn't find any info about your A/C set-up (sorry if I didn't go back far enough). Anyway i'm curious about your compressor and bracket. Thanks!

I don't think I mentioned the belt drive before, it's made by Kwik Performance, their kit k10291 - it was the best alternative I could find that didn't either hang way out to the side or go really high above the motor. I bought it as a package when I ordered the Vintage Air system - uses a Sanden 7176 type mini compressor.

Finally got an airbox base made that I'm happy with


Mounted up to the fender, with the trimmed airbox base set in. It's a TIGHT fit, when I do this the final time I'm going to use sealant to glue it in there, and put some truss head screws through the base from the inside to hold it together.

I'm going to build a sheetmetal box underneath, but not sure if I'm just going to draw air from the engine bay or run it up forward somewhere. Thinking maybe just running it down the inner fender and drawing from the space in the back of the fender...

It's a 6x11 filter:


And I have enough clearance for the hood spring as well as the A/C lines and compressor.


My MAF should be here tomorrow, so I can work on getting the rest of the intake plumbed up.

[7dee2]

Looks great Jim! Man you move fast!