1972 SWB Build

[Low Elco]

What would the proper crimpers be? Weatherpak? I've done some audio stuff, but I'm no one's electrical genius.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

What would the proper crimpers be? Weatherpak? I've done some audio stuff, but I'm no one's electrical genius.

https://www.americanautowire.com/pro...rimping-tools/

You can rent them from AAW or purhase a Delphi Packard crimper. They make really nice crimps. I borrowed the pair from a buddy.

[beaterku]

Got to spend a little time on the truck today. I was able to finish up cleaning the truck arms and some brackets. The cross members wouldn't fit in the blast cabinet. I'll have to drop them off to be blasted. Coated the parts in Chassis Saver. Most likely going to put a top coat of roll bar paint to give it flat look.

[beaterku]

Parts are staring to arrive

[beaterku]

More parts arrived today. I am starting to get pumped for the winters project!

[Camaroguy]

Cool truck, and I like the direction you're headed with it.

[Jason7121]

Nice work so far. You cant go wrong with red and white with a 6.0 swap.

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by Jason7121

Nice work so far. You cant go wrong with red and white with a 6.0 swap.

Do you mind if I ask what air intake kit you used? I am swapping an f body LS1 into my 70 c10 swb.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by mdelosrey

Nice build. Enjoying the videos you put up. Sorry if I missed it but what are the wheel/tire specs?
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks for watching. The wheels are 18x9 0 offset all around with 265/50/18 tires.

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

Do you mind if I ask what air intake kit you used? I am swapping an f body LS1 into my 70 c10 swb.

I actually fabbed it up myself. I bought a 4” 180deg bend from summit and used some silicone couplers to make it all work. I did weld on a little support tab. I think a page back in this thread there are some pictures of it.

[beaterku]

Afternoon all, just uploading some pictures of how I ran my starting wiring with the Speed Engineering shorty headers. I've had some questions about routing, so I thought I would add some photos.

[mdelosrey]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Was there not enough room between the block and manifolds to comfortably run them inboard? Would love to see more pictures of the rest of the exhaust routing. If you could take pictures during the exhaust build and note any issues I would really appreciate it.

Take care of yourself and thanks for sharing.

[Advanced Design]

Looks fun, I'll be tagging along.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Jason7121

Nice work so far. You cant go wrong with red and white with a 6.0 swap.

Thanks! Good looking truck you have there!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looks fun, I'll be tagging along.

Thanks! It's a slow process. I have two kids that keep me busy, so it's about an hour at a time.

[Low Elco]

Mmmmm, yummy parts. We'll need a report on those shocks.

[beaterku]

Thanks!

[Dieselwrencher]

At least you're making progress. I'm sure digging those bed bolts out is pure fun.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

At least you're making progress. I'm sure digging those bed bolts out is pure fun.

It's been painfully slow. Between sports, a 1 year old who is not happy with really anything right now and life, it's hard to find time to work on things. I am hopeful that I can find some time this weekend to really dig in.

The bed bolts took about 3 hours with a drywall blade. It was tedious. The PO took the bed off with the bolts in place. That had to have been a nightmare putting the bed back on. All but one of the bolts where bent, so I'd imagine it was a nightmare. I took my time to minimize the cutting so the new bolts don't look too bad. We shall see what it looks like upon reassembly.

[beaterku]

Well, I was able to get the bed off and rear end out this weekend. It ended up being a little father son bonding time with my dad. I made a little video about it as well. This weekend I am going to remove all of the rivets, clean up the frame a bit and start laying out holes for the coil spring crossmember and track bar crossmember.

Thanks!
Nick

https://youtu.be/k1tx_uXx6bw

[beaterku]

Made a little progress this weekend. I was able to remove the exhaust, shock mounts, and some funky brackets someone welded to the frame yesterday. I ran out of time, but it's ready to start putting back together. I'm going to bolt the trailing arms in as well as the axle to approximate locations for the cross members and start measuring and drilling!

I have not removed the leaf spring mounts yet. I'm going to remove them last. I left them on just in case I needed to move the truck for some reason. It's easy to bolt the leaf axle back in. They'll be gone this week.

[beaterku]

Good morning all. I was able to spend some time on the truck yesterday. I bolted in the trailing arm brackets and tailing arms and attached the rear end to help verify the location of the shock crossmember and bolt in c-notch.

The shock crossmember is bolted in on the bottom side. I've got to figure out how to transcribe the top bolt holes to the top flange of the frame. The c-notch lines up perfectly. I was using a frame dimensional drawing that I found on the forum (forgive me, I can't for the life of me remember the user who posted this) to locate the crossmembers. I triple checked the shock crossmember center line and went to drilling. Much to my amazement, it lined up perfect!

I ran out of time and had to call it quits, but it's slowly coming along. Next up is finishing the top holes on the shock crossmember, drilling the holes for the frame stiffener and drilling and cutting the notch in. After that, all that is left is locating/bolting in the panhard bar crossmember and installing all of the ridetech parts.

Here is the video I made of what was done this weekend: https://youtu.be/BXHq3jkOqTA



Thanks!

[Advanced Design]

Nice progress. Removing the bed that way was pretty handy.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice progress. Removing the bed that way was pretty handy.

Thanks. Slow progress but it’s progress!

[my67chevytruck]

nice work...

[beaterku]

Sigh, progress has been at a snails pace. Between the holidays, sickness coming to my house and ravaging everyone and life, it's been painfully slow.

The shock cross member is in, finally. I started in on the bolt in RideTech c-notches and quickly found that the paper template supplied is more of a suggestion than the answer. The holes were sorta kinda close to where they needed to be. Instead of taking 30 minutes to drill out the holes, it took 2 hours. A lot of measuring, marking, drilling pilot holes to see how close I was. Finally, one of the notches was all drilled an bolted in. I ran out of time on Sunday, but now I have a plan for the other side. The I'll cut the notches in the frame and be done with this debacle.

I not placing blame on RideTech here for the pattern since my truck was not originally a coil truck. The holes are all in "flux" since I am locating the cross member with a 50 year old dimensional drawing on a frame that was never mean to be square. It's more of a throw the dart at the wall kind of locating method.

I put the rear in yet another time to triple and quadruple check that the notch was located where it was supposed to be and all is well. The problem I am having is that I am a Type A, so close enough is really bringing my anxiety up.

One thing I am concerned about is the Ridetech track bar clearing my Moser girdle cover. The cover is quite large and just by quick inspection, it looks like it will interfere. I've got a bit of wiggle room since I get the locate the mount on the frame.

Also, the hardware is just fit-up hardware. It will all be 7/16" GR8 hardware on final assembly.

[beaterku]

Forward progress. Started working on the panhard bar cross member. Ran in to a problem that I knew I was going to have. The girdle cover I have sticks out to far. To get the panhard bar to clear the cover, I have to move the cross member back 3.25". This is not going to work with the Boyd tank I have so I am going to have to ditch the girdle cover for now. I may, down the road, fabricockle a new panhard bar that clears the girdle cover, but for now, I am going to use the stock cover and locate the crossmember were it is supposed to be.

The front edge of the blue tape is where the center of the cross member is supposed to be. I installed the shocks to see where the axle will hang at it's lowest, which also happens to be the worst case scenario. It's a bummer, but I'll make it work at a later date.