'69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project

[IvelDesigns]

finally an update. I've been doing a lot of small stuff to the truck over the past couple months, but now i'm making some good progress.

the whole rear end has been taken apart. I had a set of good trailing arms media blasted, then painted black. after pressing out the old bushings, i put new ones in.

Today the trailing arms got mounted and the carrier bearing mount was flipped. I also did a test fit of the home made lowering blocks and new u bolts. looks like everything is coming together well.

next on the plate is getting the exhaust cutouts done in the X member, and the c-notch installed.


oh, and i noticed that i had not posted an engine shot in this thread, so one is attached below. nothing special. just a 2bbl 283 with corvette heads/intake. at least that's what the PO claimed them to be.

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

Why did you flip the carrier bearing mount? I'm guessing it has something to do with lowering it. Do you have a part number ofr the carrier bearing? Thanks,

exactly. i flipped it to help compensate for a lower ride height. Hopefully this one change is the only mod i need to make.

I don't have the part number handy, but i did buy it from a board member as a new item.

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by IvelDesigns

exactly. i flipped it to help compensate for a lower ride height. Hopefully this one change is the only mod i need to make.

I don't have the part number handy, but i did buy it from a board member as a new item.

Thanks!

R

[72armyswbtruck]

Gotta love Photoshop

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by 72armyswbtruck

Gotta love Photoshop

indeed!

it looks like the snow this weekend is going to prevent me making any progress on the truck. But, i should be ordering all of the front end part next week, so it might work out to where i can get it call done at once.

[69lnghrn]

looks pretty damn clean to me

[texanidiot25]

Lol, my neighbor cut me a deal on it. Hes a cool guy, restoring a 68 Cougar. This was going to be his work truck, but its too long to fit in his garage, and too many cars in his drive way. So we was selling it, and offered it to me.

Yours is sick, I dig the rims a lot. Evetualy mine will be lowered on maybe a 3/4 drop. But 1st things, 1st. Gotta get it running.

[IvelDesigns]

this weekend i got some clean up work done on the frame. The bed is off and upside down in another building so i can work on getting the rear left patch panel in when it's warmer.

For the frame, I was most concerned about getting the framerails looking decent. I have new T arms on the way, and will be installing a new parhard bar, bags, c-notch and shocks in soon. Getting it painted was more of a preparation thing than anything.

I went from this:



To this:



To this:





Also got to see some of the new parts that came in. I only snapped a pic of the bags though.

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by Big D

Hey IvelDesigns , Is that a 2" piece of tube youre using? I was thinking about doing the same to my SWB. I'm trying to keep the truck low buck.

i used 2.5"x2.5"x.025" square tube. i was gonna use 2", but i had the 2.5" handy.

also, the U bolts started out as 26" rod. they cost me about $20 at the local driveline place and took them about 5 minutes to pull off the rack and bend.

[IvelDesigns]

good progress this weekend. buttoned up the carrier bearing mount. made a bracket for the air tank and got it mounted, welded and painted. did the same for the air compressor.

the big accomplishment of the weekend was getting one of the C-notches in. after getting that done, i just had to see how the axle fit. looked good, but i'm gonna have to do something about the brake line on the P side. the T is really close to the frame, and will bust the line if it were to bottom out. I'll probably try to move it over a couple inches and call it good.

I can't wait to get this on the road!!

[IvelDesigns]

and some more:

[IvelDesigns]

anyone have any suggestions on where/how i should mount a water trap?

[IvelDesigns]

D side notch is now in and the panhard bar is in. also stopped by the frieghtliner place today (twice and will need to go again tomorrow) to get my air line fittings. they aren't gonna be setup as i had planned, but i still like the config i ended up with. pics will come at the end of the weekend. hopefully i'll have all plumbing and wiring for the rear done by then too.

[IvelDesigns]

ok, so in addition to the D side notch and the panhard bar getting done, I was able to complete all of my wiring and most of my plumbing. the only lines i need to run are from each fill valve to each bag.

It was great getting the wiring done today. let the compressor run for a bit with no pressure, then let it fill the tank. then it came time to play with the switches. Now I just need to drill a couple huge holes in my frame for the bag mounts and we'll be ready for the front.

unfortunately, it'll be two weeks before I'll be able to get up there and continue working on it.


here are the pics: -- I just noticed that I didn't take any final pics of the wiring. It looks much better now than it does in the pics below.

[Zumo]

Looking good!

[lurch115]

so have you figured out how to get it off the one foot tall jack stands yet???

[IvelDesigns]

mucho 2x4's...

[lowrollin70gmc]

subscribed to see progress...

[GREASEMONKEY72]

looks good, cant wait to see it on the ground

[IvelDesigns]

uhg, 2 weekends have gone by an i was unable to get up there to finish the rear. this weekend looks promising though. Come hell or high water, the tires are getting back to the ground this weekend.

[IvelDesigns]

i guess hell and high water came cause i didn't make it up there that weekend. But, i'm leaving in about 30 min to head up there and have (hopefully) a couple guys helpin me out this weekend.

i only have one more weekend after this that i can work on the truck before the goodguys show. hopefully i make it.

[shootfirst]

Great find will be looking forward to more build flicks down the road and of course the finished project. Picked up my 69 LB down in Tennesse for $1,300 had a motor knock

[IvelDesigns]

ok, so this weekend went well. I was able to button up both of the rear bags, got all of the air line run for the gauges into the cab, and also got my headmen headers installed. as the pics show, the truck sits at 4.5" off the ground aired out. and i have to say, it sounds really sweet with open shorty headers.

It's getting trailered to my uncles shop this week to get 2.5" or 3" exhaust put on it. He used to run an exhaust shop and has his own bender (not one of those manual things) so he's gonna try and get the exhaust to the back bumper. When we looked at it this weekend, we talked about routing it to the outside of the frame rail before the rear end, then out to the back bumper (gas tank will be going in the back section this fall). problems is, my air tank and compressor are both back there.... so, it may end up just getting dumped right before the rear end.

anyways, here's some pics for ya:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloa...6_10_2007/web/

[IvelDesigns]

welp, she's on the road again, as my daily driver. I made the maiden voyage last sunday from cedar falls to des moines (2 hrs) with no issues. Been driving it all week and only had a couple issues come up. The first was the manual compressor switch that i installed to cut the power to the compressor so it doesn't kill my battery when sitting over night. the switch just broke, so i had to replace it.

the other issue was that my pressure switch in the tank made contact with the bed cross member and shorted out. I knew it was close and had planned to change it this weekend, but apparently the bed shifted a bit and made contact. So, for right now it's hard wired and i use the main power switch to stop the compressor when it gets up to 150psi or so. I'm really happy i put that switch in now

here are the pics:

[IvelDesigns]

and some more