Project Daily Driver in the weeds

[STOCKISH]

WOW! Great progress.

[bucketObolts]

Thats a ton of work in what? a month and a half? keep it up

[jays68yak]

It helps having access to a bunch of tools and parts. Not to mention a ton of **** kinda fell into my lap right when I got the truck.

Anyways..todays update.

My buddy Kenny came by and helped me get the 6 speed back together. Then mated it to the 6.0 liter and tossed the whole combo into the truck. Its just mocked up so that I can figure out what motor mounts I will be using. Or Fabbing... It also brought up some issues, gotta rework the tunnel in the floor for tranny and driveshaft, need to do something about the oil pan, and the headers will need to be modded.



I was trying to raise the motor so that I could gain ground clearance...but with the Z'd frame thats not really working. haha

Also got the rest of the sheet metal mocked up. I need to get the bed mounted so that I can figure out the center of the wheel well to start mounting the rear end.

[jays68yak]

Guess Im committed to doing something to the floor now.


Work also donated a cracked f-body oil pan to the project. Welded most of it up last night after work. Finished it up today and leak tested it. Didnt leak so I swapped it on tonight. Gained a ton of clearance under neither the engine, it also lowered the motor a bit, and pushed it back some. All things that should help me out else were.

[jays68yak]

I got some motor mounts made and bolted in earlier this week. But didnt take any pictures.

Started messing with the headers tonight. These started out as 98-02 fbody mid length headers. On the drivers side the first tube was hitting the motor mount tower, once I started bolting it up it went into the frame rail. Ill need to take about 1/2" at the flange and weld it back together to get the tubes closer to the block. I will beable to flip a slit bend around that was in the forward most tube and then it will clear the mount.

On the passenger side I had the same problem with the front tube. To get it to clear I will need some more tube. The tube sticking straight up is the new routing. I need two 90s to get it to the flange.

A keen eye will notice the stock ac bracket is on the engine...The Ac compressor will go on and clear the frame.....For the most part. I do need to notch the x-member for the lower part of the a/c compressor. I want to use the compressor to run the air system. Less stuff I need to find a hiding spot for.

[yukon ratrod]

nice project! glad to see you save a truck that in the wrong hands would have been ready for the wreckers.nice work, keeping an eye over here!

[Newtz67]

Liking it! Subscribed.

[RCbowtie69]

looking good,keep pictures coming & progress of your up dates

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn talk about getting me motivated to work on my junk... Btw voted for ya on the ttc.

[jays68yak]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Damn talk about getting me motivated to work on my junk... Btw voted for ya on the ttc.

Thanks for the vote. Wasnt too bummed I didnt make it, cuz that means less time and money away from this.

[jays68yak]

5/8 So ive been slacking on this thing. When I have been working on it over the last 2 weeks Ive been slowly messing with the headers. Had to cut the drivers side totally off the flange and take about 1/2" out then weld it back to the flange. Also had to rework the forward most tube to clear the motor mount. The passenger side was a lot more involved. I even cut the collector clean off, pulled the EGR port out, rewelded the center of the 4 tubes together, then rewelded the collector on. Not to mention notching the frame and redoing the forward most tube.




5/10 Pulled myself into the garage for a bit tonight. There was one last thing I wanted to do to the firewall before I even think about mudding it. Ive installed a porterbuilt firewall patch kit before and liked how it made the passenger side of the firewall match the drivers side. So I made one of my own on the bandsaw. Added a little twist to it tho, also continued the inner lip to match the new edge. This way I dont have to attempt to sand bondo way far down into a canyon.



Its hard to see the drivers side in the picture...

[jays68yak]

So I took an almost 2 month break from this. Working on OPPs (other peoples projects) all day makes me just want to chill on the couch after work rather then work in the garage. That whole time I was itching to work on it, just wasnt motivated. Then last week something kicked me in the butt and got me out there. I think it was the heat, if its hot inside and Im going to sweat might as well go outside and sweat.

I started by knocking out the old ball joints from the upper arms. Painted them, then tossed in the new ones. Im going to pull the motor to do some other things and will pull the lower arms at that time to use the press to change the lower ball joints.

Also started bondoing the low spots on the firewall. YAY! sanding.

I needed to mount the clutch master cylinder....so after some thinking. I decided on a way to mount it. Ive installed the ATS bracket on a few camaros and liked how simple it is. So I made something like it for my application. Drew it up in CAD and then went old school. Drill press, hole saws, unibit, bandsaw, cut off wheel, press, and a grinder where used to make the bracket. Could of cut it out on the CNC plasma at work but it was more fun to spend time making it without the fancy tools.



Hopefully I can keep the burnout to a minimum and keep going on this project. It doesnt help that Ive done headers, drilled rotors, and pads on my tow rig. Then new shafts, joints, driveshaft, a diff service, and some other small things on my wheeler. I guess I havnt been on the couch too much.

[67chevy1series]

so i take it your going to have a 67 68 style e brake?

[1972hays]

cool truck

[dougminton]

subscribed

[jays68yak]

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

so i take it your going to have a 67 68 style e brake?

No I kinda spaced the whole ebrake thing. I dont like the 67-68 style and would rather have the newer style. Time to locate one and redrill those holes in the firewall.

[kev2809]

well the 67-8 wouldnt be much work to make it fit. just bolts under the dash and you can run the cable to one of the holes you left. seems easier that way than to drill in that freshly smoothed firewall

[jays68yak]

I havnt bondo'd that side yet so Im not too worried about it.

[jasonhall]

Dont need a e brake.. just lay it out!

[jays68yak]

Originally Posted by jasonhall

Dont need a e brake.. just lay it out!

If it wasnt a stick I probably wouldnt sorry about it. But it would be nice to have it there if I need to start on a hill or something.

[jays68yak]

More updates.

The motor was keeping me from doing a few things so it found its way out on friday night.

Used the impact to drop the lower arms. Need to change the ball joints and knock the remaining part of the bump stop off.

Arm with ball joint out and part of the bump stop remaining.

Bump stop all gone and cleaned up.

Notch for AC compressor

Capped open part for the Z.


Then today I took a small road trip to get out of the area. Went to "church", aka picknpull. I was going just to walk and see whats out there. Ive also been needing to do something about hood hinges. The stock ones are not going to work with the tire and where cut off by the PO. I walked around looking at different hinges and came across a few 98-99 exploders. They have flat mounting surfaces on both sides, and provisions for gas struts. Seemed like the best choice that I saw. After fighting a few sets, one bolt on each hinge is hard to get to with normal junk yard tools, I finally got midevil on the AC box with a big piece of metal support that was holding up a van hood behind me. The drivers side called for getting midevil with the wiper motor. Left the struts at PNP so they didnt try to charge me $$ for crap that didnt work. Cut a hole in the firewall, lost my carbide bit in the process. Spent a good 30 minutes fishing for it and finally got it out so that I could continue. Got it mocked up and called it a day so that I can ponder how to go forward from here.


As it sits the back part of the hinge that bolts to the hood is 1" lower then the front. The stock hood bolt hole is 3/4" off. Thinking about making a new arm that keeps the strut rod distance and geometry, but moves the hood side over to clear the hood itself. The new arm would also compensate for the angle that the hinge is off from the hood, and make the mounting foot bigger to use the stock bolts.

[jays68yak]

So I messed with the hinges some more yesterday. Remade the part that bolts to the hood. They fit awesome with the hood closed. Open kinda.


Here you can see where the back of the hood is hitting the cowl and there is not even enough room for the cowl panel to go on.

Another shot, this side the hood is being stopped by the windshield wiper. Guess it is the passenger side and not needed.

I feel like it opens a decent amount and would be happy with that as long as I can run the cowl panel.


After some thinking and a lot of beer, or was that a lot of thinking and some beer???? I have a better idea what I need to do. And no thats not giving up just yet.

Green one is the current one on the truck. The one behind it is with the pivot moved up and back. The small circle is the arc the green hinge travels, large is the other one.


And with the hood closed.


So now I need to figure out how much room I have to bring the pivot up.

[jays68yak]

OK its time I walked away from this for a bit and see if I can think of any more problems.

Tan is current one
Green is the one from last night with a different pivot to test my theory
Red is Rev3 and what I think Ill modify the current ones to. The pivot has been moved back 1.6" and up 1.75". It will be above the cowl, but under the cowl panel. The grey boxy lines are either the cowl, the top of the cowl panel with the wiper, or the top of the hood through out the travel relative to the hinge.


Hinges at full close

[71Sleeper]

Jay, u are making my head hurt...Sure looks good from here, Alabama. Let us know how it works for ya! LOL

[VA72C10]

Looks like you're close to figuring it out....but now you know why porterbuilt charges a decent amount for his (still a good deal IMHO)....but he's got to cover the R&D time