Project '64 Cheapskate

[McMurphy]

Here are a couple of quick and dirty shots of the stock bench seat measurements I promised.
I hope this gives you guys a ballpark estimate of what you were discussing.

Rock on man !!

[Bomp]

Thanks for the pics McMurphy.

From the way chevyrestoguy describes the room and comfort Im keeping my eyes open for a seat to try out.


Thanks Fellas

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Thanks for the pics McMurphy.

From the way chevyrestoguy describes the room and comfort Im keeping my eyes open for a seat to try out.

I was looking at only the standard cab trucks at first and had no luck finding a good, serviceable seat. Most of them were thrashed. Once I realized that the 4dr crew cab trucks used this same seat as the rear seat, it gave me another possible option. You will find that the crew cab rear seats have much less usage and usually in very good condition. Try to find one with the flip down armrest, it's a really nice feature for the driver.

McMurphy-
Thanks for the measurements. Is there any way you could get a vertical measurement from the floor to the top of the upholstery at the front edge of the seat? This measurement will tell us the height difference between my modified seat and a stock seat. My measurement was 14.25" from the floor to the top of the front of the seat.
Thanks!

[dean jendro]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

I was looking at only the standard cab trucks at first and had no luck finding a good, serviceable seat. Most of them were thrashed. Once I realized that the 4dr crew cab trucks used this same seat as the rear seat, it gave me another possible option. You will find that the crew cab rear seats have much less usage and usually in very good condition. Try to find one with the flip down armrest, it's a really nice feature for the driver.

McMurphy-
Thanks for the measurements. Is there any way you could get a vertical measurement from the floor to the top of the upholstery at the front edge of the seat? This measurement will tell us the height difference between my modified seat and a stock seat. My measurement was 14.25" from the floor to the top of the front of the seat.
Thanks!

What year crew cab seats are you using?

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

I was looking at only the standard cab trucks at first and had no luck finding a good, serviceable seat. Most of them were thrashed. Once I realized that the 4dr crew cab trucks used this same seat as the rear seat, it gave me another possible option. You will find that the crew cab rear seats have much less usage and usually in very good condition. Try to find one with the flip down armrest, it's a really nice feature for the driver.

McMurphy-
Thanks for the measurements. Is there any way you could get a vertical measurement from the floor to the top of the upholstery at the front edge of the seat? This measurement will tell us the height difference between my modified seat and a stock seat. My measurement was 14.25" from the floor to the top of the front of the seat.
Thanks!

Mine measured at 12" however the springs may be worn, which would explain the foam pad that was glued to the seat of it.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by dean jendro

What year crew cab seats are you using?

Because it was in a wrecking yard, I wasn't exactly sure of the year. In 1992, GM finally started building crew cabs in the body style that came out in 1988. If memory serves me correctly, 1995 was a year where they made a lot of interior changes, seats included. If I were to guess what year crew cabs had the "good" seats, I would have to guess 1992-1994. I'm not too versed on that generation of truck, so it's just a guess.

Because this seat isn't a 60/40, it also came in the standard cab trucks. Extended cabs had the 60/40 for access to the rear seats. The base models were usually vinyl upholstery, whereas the upscale models like the Silverado, had cloth upholstery and usually, the armrest.

This might be a good question to post up in the '88-'98 forum. Those guys could give us the exact years to look for.

[likaroc13]

looks like your photos on page 14 got messed up...you're correct on the interiors changing in '95....I had blue cloth buckets in a similar pattern in my old '93 fullsize reg. cab....from reading, it seems as though crew cabs began in '88 for the '88-98 body style, but it was a 3500 series. Not sure when that particular seat pattern began though (if it matters), but I think '90-94 should be what to look for.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

looks like your photos on page 14 got messed up...you're correct on the interiors changing in '95....I had blue cloth buckets in a similar pattern in my old '93 fullsize reg. cab....from reading, it seems as though crew cabs began in '88 for the '88-98 body style, but it was a 3500 series. Not sure when that particular seat pattern began though (if it matters), but I think '90-94 should be what to look for.

The pictures are now fixed. I had exceeded my bandwidth and had to upgrade my Photobucket.

likaroc13-
Thanks for the info. I remember that they carried over the old (pre '88) crew cab 4 drs. until 1991, and the '88-'98 body style crew cabs showed up in 1992. I'm talking crew cab, not extended cab. I remember that everybody with a pre '88 wanted the '88-'91 crew cab front ends because they were cool looking and only the rich guys could afford the swap.

[likaroc13]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

The pictures are now fixed. I had exceeded my bandwidth and had to upgrade my Photobucket.

likaroc13-
Thanks for the info. I remember that they carried over the old (pre '88) crew cab 4 drs. until 1991, and the '88-'98 body style crew cabs showed up in 1992. I'm talking crew cab, not extended cab. I remember that everybody with a pre '88 wanted the '88-'91 crew cab front ends because they were cool looking and only the rich guys could afford the swap.

No prob. You are correct, as I had forgotten crews were square-body through '91. Same for the fullsize Blazer & Burbs. It's a little confusing sometimes. So yeah, I'd say '92-94 for the crew cabs, & '90-94 for regular OBS C/K trucks.

btw, nice job on your brake pedal modification...& I dig the steering wheel, which fits in nicely

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

..btw, nice job on your brake pedal modification...& I dig the steering wheel, which fits in nicely

Thanks!
I really stewed over using that wheel. I'm old enough (I'm 49) to remember when those wheels were really popular, and also remember a few years later when they were EXTREMELY uncool. I remember yanking them out of a few cars and tossing them right into the trash. A pristine original Superior or Grant wood wheel brings big bucks nowadays. I've seen them going for $300 on ebay. Who would have known?

My wheel is a little different because it hardly has any "dish" at all to it, which works out just right for interior space. I can only assume that my wheel came out of an old van from back in the day, because it's a small diameter and nearly flat. I'm going for a late '60s theme, so finding a suitable wheel was harder than I thought. It was absolutely trashed when I bought it, and some cleaning with acetone and a coat of satin clear made it look better, but the chrome is terrible. The patina will match the rest of the truck, I guess.

[Low Elco]

I was gonna say, I'm surprised at how flat it was!

[chevyrestoguy]

I have been working on mounting the A/C condenser for the past couple of days, so I figured that I should post up the progress. I have an original condenser that came out of a parts truck, but it's so fragile that it feels like it's going to crumble when you pick it up. Plus, I am converting the system to R134, and I need an efficient condenser designed for the current refrigerant.

I was able to find a guy on Craigslist selling a condenser out of a 1999 Z06 Corvette, and after he rattled off the dimensions, I knew it was going to work perfect. Here's a picture of it sitting on top of the core support. The width and height is perfect, but the inlet and outlet fittings were going to be a problem.




So, I got out the cut-off wheel and commenced to cuttin'


I had some square tubing in my scrap pile and made some pieces to cover the removed areas and tacked them in. I also chopped off the original outlet line because it wasn't going to work for my application.


The stock Corvette mounting tabs were not consistent from side to side, so they got whacked.




Grabbed some aluminum from the scrap pile and made new mount tabs and make my buddy Mike Jones TIG them in place.




Fast forward a little, and I drilled the core support for the AC bulkhead fittings, and shortened and reshaped the dryer clamps. I chopped up some new fittings to accept hoses at the inlet and outlet lines and had Mike TIG them on. I installed the old mock-up dryer and started mocking up the lines and have a couple of the hoses ready to crimp. I still need to get a #10 female straight fitting for the inlet line at the top and cut the hose to length. The mounting tabs will need to be drilled for mounting bolts and rubber isolators. Once this gets done, I'll blow it all back apart and send it back to the sandblaster to get it touched up due to all the grease and oils from working on the condenser. After that, I'll do a little body work, and it'll be ready for primer and paint (chassis black). Speaking of black, everything you see on this core support will be painted black because I do not want to see anything behind the grill of the truck. I always think that it looks wrong when I see shiny stuff behind the grille or body-colored core supports. You have to hide that stuff!

[Bomp]

Man you always blow me away.
Wish I had some of the talent you have.
So much great info here ALWAYS

[Low Elco]

Mad skills! AC scares me. Beautiful work.
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[Captainfab]

Good score on the condenser. Very sanitary job on this installation

[rusty76]

Looks awesome.

[McMurphy]

This looks like my kind of adaption !!
Great work here, and your buddy Mike seems to really know what he is doing, those welds look real purty

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

This looks like my kind of adaption !!
Great work here, and your buddy Mike seems to really know what he is doing, those welds look real purty

Mike is an amazing fabricator. He builds some of the most over-the-top off-road race vehicles I have ever seen. If you want to see some amazing welds, check out the rear air ride set-up on my '55 build thread. His work is in the last part of the thread. He welds like a robot.

[MisterC]

Thoroughly impressed at your vision on this one. Great work!

[65Gregg]

Will it cool faster since it came off of a Z06? :-) Cool stuff as usual!!!!
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[chevyrestoguy]

I did something tonight that I have never done before. I rebuilt my steering box rag joint. I had been shopping around for a new rag joint, but them little suckers are spendy and I couldn't bring myself to pay $75 for a piece of rubber. So, I started shopping around and found that Borgeson sells a rebuilt kit for $16. It comes with the metal reinforced rubber disc and all the hardware. It was easy. I even wire-wheeled the parts and painted them, and I was done in less than an hour. I'm going to do these rebuilds from now on! Definitely a money saver.

The original grungy rag joint from my '79 Suburban donor. Pretty messed up.


Here's all the parts laid out, cleaned up and painted, with the Borgeson kit (rubber disc and the hardware).


Finished product. The bolts holding the reinforcement bracket on look mismatched, but Chevy used two different sized bolts to attach the rag joint to the column. The steering shaft was two different sized holes to match the different bolts.


I plan on finishing the steering box and column installation this weekend, and I'll post up all the details.

[rusty76]

That's really kool.....and cheap.!

[chevyrestoguy]

Had a little time today, so I installed the steering box and tied it into the column, hopefully for the last time.

Clean and painted the steering box (1979 Chevy truck) and installed the rebuilt rag joint. The intermediate shaft is from the same '79 Chevy truck, just had to adjust the length a little to account for the different style of u-joint.


The steering u-joint is a Borgeson that I got for cheap off of ebay. It's brand new, but the only problem (for me) is that it's a shiny one. I would have preferred a steel one that I could paint black, but for the price I got it for, I can't complain. The steering column is a bit of a "Frankenstein" concoction. I never cared for the stock steering shaft on the 60-66 GM trucks because it's a solid shaft from the steering wheel to the steering box and won't collapse in a crash. So, I took the steering shaft and the lower bearing retainer out of a '67 column that Brad had kept for parts, and with a little bit of effort, got it all to work. I changed out the lower bearing while I had it apart. Man, it operates as smooth as silk, and with the collapsable intermediate shaft, the column is much safer.


Next up: Install the master cylinder, prop valve bracket and prop valve, and start plumbing brakes.

[Dinos63]

I dig your work kat!!

[Low Elco]

Aaaaack! Shiny parts! Looks good, putting things on!
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