Project 69SWB

[~Whitey~]

Put in the firewall covers and bulkhead for the Painless Wiring
Was a little pain to get the covers fitting, but I managed.

[sduckworth13]

Looking good Jimmy.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looking good Jimmy.

Thank you Scott!

[~Whitey~]

Got ahead of myself and forgot to put in the Jute up under the dash, before I added the brake assemblies.. But it was easy enough to do afterwards. I cut my own pieces for this and put it in more places than stock. I'l try to get some better pics.

[sduckworth13]

You've got a lot done. I've been waiting to see you get going again. Glad your still at it.

[mcbassin]

Glad to see you're still at it. Excellent progress on the cab and wiring. I know how bodywork sucks the life out of a project
Looking forward to seeing some paint pics soon.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

You've got a lot done. I've been waiting to see you get going again. Glad your still at it.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Glad to see you're still at it. Excellent progress on the cab and wiring. I know how bodywork sucks the life out of a project
Looking forward to seeing some paint pics soon.

Thanks fellas. Oh no way I'd give up on this project. I've come too far.

Next up is the Steering Column Rebuild. I wish I would have documented this more. I was REALLY intimidated at tearing this thing apart, but it wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I tore this entire thing down from the rag joint to the knuckle to the steering wheel. Painted inside and out and reassembled.



I couldn't find where to buy this piece, so I welded it back together so carefully and ground it smooth.







New bearings upper upper , upper lower, and bottom

[~Whitey~]

Here's some paint pics. haha.




and while I had the gun out I finished out my glove box door.

[~Whitey~]

Rebuilt Rag Joint


Rebuilt knuckle, got the boot from EBAY was for a GTO


all tuck up tight


New turn signal assembly


I don't know what I did wrong here... or if I just had the wrong piece but that's all the further I could get it to go on. Was I supposed to heat this up first?

[~Whitey~]

Oh I forgot this one... rebuilt this a while back in the thread. It was a special moment putting it in place.


pay no attention to tan carpet, That just so I got a comfy place to work.

[sduckworth13]

I had the same thing happen to the same piece when I pulled my column apart to replace the dust boot, luckily I had a spare column to take parts off of.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

I had the same thing happen to the same piece when I pulled my column apart to replace the dust boot, luckily I had a spare column to take parts off of.

I looked everywhere for that little piece.. short of buying another knuckle for parts that is.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Wizardry at it's finest

[Low Elco]

Purrrdy work!

[~Whitey~]

This week I finished up the heater components.


I had some cracks and one missing tab I needed to repair. I filled in the cracks with PC7 and used a wood clamp to pull them closed, just a little though because I didn't want to squeeze out the PC7. This is the same stuff I'm used when I started to repair a 68 steering wheel with a few pages back and never finished yet. :-/


This one the tab was missing completely on. I spead the PC7 on and then used newspaper and pressed it on each side so I could mold it how I wanted, keep it in place, then just sanded, and formed it how I needed it to be. This is an in progress pic.


This sealed up real nice... This area I spent alot of time on straighten it out and making it smooth. Was a mess after sandblasting the cab. I'm sure my heater will work much better without cold air blowing in through the cracks that were here.
BEFORE

AFTER


I'm not sure how I'm going to finish these off yet, going to look to the board for inspiration and ideas, but in the end, they will be sealed up nice and tight. I also took my heater core to my local radiator shop, had it flush and tested for $20


I had my paint guys mix me up a can of semi-flat to paint the box with after I lightly sanded it and washed it and scrubbed it with dawn dish soap.

[~Whitey~]

I disassembled everything used my little electrolysis setup to strip all the under dash heater stuff down to bare metal, made a few metal repairs, etched primed it all and painted. The seals for the vent doors where all still in really good shape. I did buy a complete gasket set and heater control rebuild kit from GMCPauls.. I like their stuff and a lot of it is made in the USA and their customer service is fantastic.





I did get sent the black faceplate (for 67-68) instead the of the Chrome, which wasn't their fault (but another vendor they use) and they sent me out the Chrome plate as soon as I as let them know. Anyway.. I painted my face surround black and then used a little thinner to remove the paint to make the chrome trim shine through. I think I like it, I haven't stuck the knobs yet so I can decide, but I think it goes well with the black on black theme.

[sduckworth13]

Very nice work Jimmy, it looks like a brand new truck inside. The heater box looks great.

[Low Elco]

Looks great! This is the kinda stuff that takes for-friggin'-ever, and you feel like you ain't gettin' anywhere, and who cares, BUT, it's one of the many small details that if done right add up to a much nicer total package. Everyone thinks/knows it's a nicer truck, but no one can quite put their finger on why. Keith Stephens is master ninja level at this. Nice work, Jimmy.

[Mr Chevorlet]

Jimmy, That is looking fantastic, I like how the dash looks with the green indicators,along with the rest of the truck!

[Bennett68C10]

Nice progress Jimmy, everything looks great.

[mcbassin]

Very progress on your truck. I had the same problem on my shift knob, I put it in boiling water the second try. I still had to tap it on with a mallet to seat it on the shoulder.
Keep up the good work.

[jmking9]

Excellent work! I cant wait to see this thing in person. Are you going to have it on the road this summer?

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very progress on your truck. I had the same problem on my shift knob, I put it in boiling water the second try. I still had to tap it on with a mallet to seat it on the shoulder.
Keep up the good work.

I'm going to give this a try tonight and see if I can't save the one that's on there... Thanks for the idea.

Originally Posted by jmking9

Excellent work! I cant wait to see this thing in person. Are you going to have it on the road this summer?

Thanks. We'll definitely hook up somewhere and take the old rides for a cruise. I'm projecting FALL, but I might run out of money seeing how the wife wants to take a vacation this year... So maiden voyage date is still up in the air.

Well I've spent an hour here and there this week routing wires and figuring out where they go. I'm making some progress.

I unraveled the nice and neat way Painless had it all bundled up.


routed my speaker, radio wires from the fuse block and they go above the gauge cluster, the rest will go over the steering column and behind the cluster, unless I see a better way. Just laying this all out now and lightly tying together, will use harness tape on everything when done. NSW, brake light, back up lights, I'll be routing over closer to the firewall.


so far just two plugs I needed from the original harness.. The backups light plug and the brake switch plug.


Which leads me to the first problem I've run into during this wiring adventure. Apparently I have a Van tilt column. The neutral safety/backup switch is located higher on the column and there are clearance issues with the brake pedal assembly. So... I'm going to go ahead and wire everything as if the neutral safety/backup switch was in the right place and ponder on whether I want to pull my column back out to cut the slots needed for the switch to be lower on the column and clear everything all the while risking a scratch somewhere on the column... or just purchase the Lokar kit http://www.jegs.com/i/Lokar/625/BL-1400U/10002/-1 , put the back up light on the transmission and wire up a hidden toggle/theft prevention device using the neutral safety wires that are in place.


I'll be figuring out the rest of this while I ponder that decision.

[~Whitey~]

Almost forgot.. I had to use the plug for the column from my old harness as well... easy switch over. Plug and play. That grey wire with the greenish plug is the shift indicator light, hadn't quite figure out where it is SUPPOSED to go, but know what I can do with it. On the old harness it went to the fuse block, but don't see a place for it on this new one.

[~Whitey~]

Hit the wiring more this weekend, but had to freshen up my windshield washer motor also.

No wonder they didn't work very well back when I was driving the truck.



Also my pump assembly had a cracked piston, ah.. that's why they didn;t work. Luckily, I had another motor that was pretty rusted, but the pump was good on it. Looks like they're about $45 to replace just this part.


I regreased it, as well as the gear on the motor. Not sure if that's how it got greased from the factory, but that's how I did it. Didn't have any point of reference.


All done, fresh paint and ready to install.