Halfbreed - GMC Z71 + IH Extd Cab

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Thanks - I still haven't figured it out.
I keep thinking they were holding a heat shield onto the tranny cross member. They are the same style as the other bolts around the engine bay that hold heat tin on. But I can't see where I missed anything.... and I don't have an extra heat shield left over.

THe reason I say crossmember bolts is I ran into a similar situation with extra x member bolts. THey seemed too long to be x member bolts, but then I found the nuts for them, which had a spacer built onto them, taking up the extra length.

[sparkydog]

Sorry guys just a story tonight but no pictures.

Waaaay back at post #296 I had left my roof joints tack welded and covered up the seams with masking tape, then a quick layer of bondo and some primer. This was so I could get the truck as "normal" looking as possible for the DMV.

Well it was time to go back and get things right with the roof.

Last week I scrubbed the bondo and tape off the seams, prepped the metal, finished welded and did some hammer/dolly work. During this time I became an official member of the grind-your-welds-with-a-cutoff-disk-club. My $.02 is to weld, then flap disk the top crown down so it is uniform but high. Then hit it with the hammer and dolly to mash out the shrinkage. Then go in with the cutoff disk (on edge) and get the weld crown down to flush or maybe even below grade. Then back in with a light flapper session.

This weekend I started my poor-man's lowering kit. I want to get the back end down about 4" to get the rake almost level. But I don't want to fork out the $$$ for a kit. So this weekend I took out the bottom over-load leaf and replaced the coil-over shocks (load levelers) with regular shocks. (Well actually all I did was disassemble the coils off the coil-overs.) After getting everything back together snug but not tight and a couple of trips over some rough roads and a final snug up of the u-bolts, I was able to drop the rear 1-3/8th inch. Nobody else can notice the difference but I sure can!!! Next up will be to mod the forward spring shackles and get another 2 or 2.5". After that if I need more I will de-arch the leafs.

Yesterday evening I took her out on I5 for our first long distance high-speed cruise up to Orange County. It was a fantastic evening with almost no traffic on the road and a dead-calm ocean and nice sunset. Halfbreed did 75 with the cruise control on and just ate up the miles and purred away! I probably have 750 maybe 1000 miles on by now.

Tonight I cleaned up the rear window glass and will put it back in this Friday.

I continue to search for my next set of wheels and tires on CList. I am still wanting to try the OEM Jeep wheels off 02/03/04 Grand Cherokee but they are kind of hard to find. My other favorite is still the OEM Impala SS off 94-96. A little easier to find.

[WIDESIDE72]

Have you thought about lowering shackles? They are pretty cheap, definitely quick and easy. I have run these on a few trucks with no effect onn ride quality or cargo capacity, which removing or re arching springs will do.

http://www.streetbeatcustoms.com/Bel..._-Rear/803855/

(There may be cheaper ones out there, these arejust the first ones I came across. I bought a set of used ones from a swap meet for $20 who was going to a flip kit.)

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice progress on the roof, and congrats on the cool road trip.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

Have you thought about lowering shackles? They are pretty cheap, definitely quick and easy. I have run these on a few trucks with no effect onn ride quality or cargo capacity, which removing or re arching springs will do.

http://www.streetbeatcustoms.com/Bel..._-Rear/803855/

(There may be cheaper ones out there, these arejust the first ones I came across. I bought a set of used ones from a swap meet for $20 who was going to a flip kit.)

Hey thanks for the suggestion! I don't have much room back there to go with longer rear shackles. (See picture). Yes I could probably mod the bed cross brace so it would clearance a longer shackle but I'm tired of chopping up body parts. There is plenty of room on the forward perches to raise them up or flip them or whatever. That looks to me to be the easier place to gain 3" more drop.

[kwhite4]

You could always swap the axle to the top of the springs, just relocate the spring perches and shock mounts. Your real good at relocating or blending things...LOL

Anyway great project, I always come and check on your progress, very Cool idea...

Keith

[sparkydog]

I did several odds and ends this weekend. It was time to change out the tranny fluid after 1,000 mile break in. I had also cleaned, primed and painted the interior roof skin and now I have welded in the arch/brace that I scavenged out of the 96 GM truck. This will become my anchor point for my dome/map lights (rear seat) as well as an overhead console.

Now that I am doing 70-80mph on a regular basis I realized I really only had 2 bolts holding the entire hood+grille+ front fenders onto the frame. I didn't want to participate in a high speed aerodynamic experiment - so I upgraded my mounting in this area and now I have solid, safe anchor points for the IH grille onto the GM radiator support (which then ties into the frame).

I have decided that I am going to eliminate my original hood hinges and go with a front hinge. This will allow me to re-mount the stock GM coolant overflow tank, the cruise control module and the main fuse block back where the originally were. However doing the forward hinge mod will be a ways off in the future but I needed my coolant overflow tank NOW (warmer weather) so I fabbed up a temporary home for the tank up near the radiator.

[WIDESIDE72]

Yea, it looks like there is not enough room for longer shackles with your IH bed. An axle flip might be too much drop, thouh...

[sparkydog]

Mocking up the interior roof metal off the GM cab. This will allow me to attach a GM overhead console - which is where I want to eventually put modern idiot light cluster so that I can get the dash back to looking like the 60's.

Rear window is back in.

[sparkydog]

I continued working on the overhead console graft.

The open area on the console is where the passenger AC control knobs were mounted. This is where I hope to (someday) adapt all the idiot light symbols (along with their backlighting) that are currently scattered around the stock GM gage cluster.

I also managed to mate the GM review mirror (with the night dimming tab) to the 67 IH mounting stem/bracket.

[89muscletruck]

As always, nice progress!

[kmdracer]

Good build! Great reading, and looking forward to more.

[sparkydog]

Yesterday I worked on Halfbreed for the last time in my rental garage. After 1.5 years of waiting/hoping/planning to buy a home in San Diego county and get the rest of my family moved here... we are closing on a home this Wednesday.

So I will be out of project mode for a few months whilst I deal with the numerous repair/upgrade issues involved with the new (to me) house and property.

Here is an "action photo" of my interior map lights which I hooked up yesterday. The truck has hit the 2,250 mile mark too.

[1985-GMC]

Nice, Good progress!

[nuke1]

Congrats on the house!!! You will be in your glory, having the shop set up how U want it!!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

It's been a good while, so how is the new house/big move coming along? Hope to see you back on this soon!

[sparkydog]

Hey thanks for asking!
I've been driving the truck every day to work (except when raining) and probably have 5k miles on her now. I have not done any other work except to take the GM floor carpet and put it in. The workshop is coming along slowly. I just tried out an idea for hanging my power tools (see pic) and I really like it. I also "retired" my jetboat and decided to part it out. I saved a couple of pieces to help put some character into my man cave.

Next up for Halfbreed is wheels and tires. I have been trying to pull the trigger on buying a set and may finally have a deal today. If so then I have to do a little work mocking up and then buy some spacers. (Modern wheel with big offset going onto a truck/body without offset so I need the spacer to make up the difference.)

[fryer1979]

Congrats on the new home, and a successfully daily driven project! All looks good to me.

[sparkydog]

Teaser pics. I found my wheels, put some tires on them and now I just have to wait for my wheel adapters to arrive next week!

[jb1016]

Nice, they look like Mustang GT takeoffs?

[sparkydog]

Yes they are Cobra/SVT 17x8".

My wheel adapters arrived today and the good news the bolt patterns and thickness are correct. But the hub bores are off on both the inside and outside. So tomorrow I will get them tweaked at work on a G-job and hopefully I will be rolling by Wed!!!

[low'n slow]

Are you running duallys?

JK

[sparkydog]

The truck looks kind of tuff with the dually thing in back. But not my style - somebody else can try that out on an IH conversion.

Got the wheel adapters modified, got them home, started the install and then realized that the bores for the lug nut cavities won't let a big enough socket into them. I've had 3 days to figure that out but now I have to wait some more and try to find skinnier lug nuts tomorrow.

[jb1016]

The front wheels sit way back in the arches...I remember you talking about this earlier in the thread, but I can't remember what you decided to do about it?

[sparkydog]

Ha! What I have decided and what I have actually done are two different things!. The basic story is - I intentionally positioned the body the way I did because I want to shorten the entire nose of the truck.

The big nose job is still off in the future. Of course now I am older and wiser and a little worn out and now understand just how much more work it will take to blend the hood and fenders after taking 3" out. If and when I ever get it done then the wheels will look centered in the wheel openings.

I could always just redo the fenders a bit and that would be slightly less work but would still look odd. The fender openings would center on the wheel but there would be too much body hanging out front. IMO.