Blue 64 Short Bed

[Blu64c10]

Last weekend my dad found a great deal on four 5 on 5 chrome steelies with tires at a garage sale. I had planned to run 5 on 5 up front with the disc brake swap but didn't have anything lined up to swap the rear to 5 on 5 (eventually a ford 9 inch ). I was going to run my old 6 lug wheels on the rear until the 9 inch swap but the tires are shot. So this week during free time at work

I took the old crusty 6 lug axles



Made slugs



Cleaned the axle flanges and filled the 6 lug pattern



Fusion welded the plugs



Turned the welds and slugs flush



Next I took an aluminum slug



And made an offset fixture to hang the axles off of the milling machine table





Bolted the axle up in the fixture



Located and drilled 5 on 5 bolt pattern, then reamed holes to . 015 interference for the wheel studs





Finally pressed the 1/2" wheel studs into the new bolt pattern

[Palf70Step]

Very nice. I need some of your toys to play with!

[bumwine]

Nice truck! Off topic a bit but do you have any pictures of the layout of your shop? I'm about to build a detach garage. I'm in the design stage and I like some of your features

[Blu64c10]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Very nice. I need some of your toys to play with!

Thank you, I'm lucky enough to work in a shop where I have excess to a lot of cool machinery and more importantly learn a ton.

Originally Posted by bumwine

Nice truck! Off topic a bit but do you have any pictures of the layout of your shop? I'm about to build a detach garage. I'm in the design stage and I like some of your features

Thanks, I don't currently have pictures but can get some for you. The garage is 26' wide by 36' deep and 14' tall. Would have liked to go taller but town code limits the detached garage to a max high of 14'. About 20' of one side of the roof is dormered out for the lift. The storage loft surrounding the lift is useful but difficult to maneuver in due to the roof hight and pitch. I plan to put a horrizontal compressor on one side of the loft. Let me know of any specific pictures you would like.

[bumwine]

Yeah I like your storage loft. I'm dealing with zoning codes as well. They sure do make it a pain in the ass for us to have nice garages ha ha.

[Blu64c10]

Got the rear end buttoned up this morning and tried the new wheels on





Bought a slave cylinder for a 84 Nissan Z for the hydraulic clutch last week. The two bolt holes needed slight machining to fit but it looks like it will work. Just have to make up a push rod.



Started fitting a Wilwood master cylinder for the hydraulic clutch. Kept it in line with the brake master which keeps the clutch pedal at the correct 6:1 ratio.

[Blu64c10]

Found some time to finish up the clutch master cylinder.

The master cylinder ended up dead in center of the rib running down the inside of the fire wall. I was happy with this location because it would be the strongest portion of the fire wire and prevent the fire wall from oil canning under hard clutch depressions. Because the two bolts holding the master cylinder also ended up in dead center of this rib I made two spacer for the bolts to seat flat on.







With the master bolted up it was time to move onto linking it to the pedal. Had a 5/16-24 female heim joint and the master had male 5/15-24 threads. Also had some mirror polished stainless steel left over from a job, so I turned a linkage and spacer from the stainless.



All bolted up



Propped my new wheels up to get a feel for them.



Also started machining my block. Squared up and zero decked.





Suppose to have warmer temps here the next few days so I'm hoping to get some paint on my frame. Then I can start putting it back together to get it on four wheels.

[scottco]

Looks great...

[Dubnova]

IN on this build. Nice work....Looks great.

[Blu64c10]

Got out in the garage early and popped the inner fenders out to make it easier to paint the frame. Glad I did rather than having to work around them. My inner fenders have some rough spots and I'm still undecided on wether I should take the time to fix what I have or purchase repop fenders. I like the idea of having original steel but not sure if they are worth the effort. Anyways got some paint laid on the frame.

[Sickfast1964]

Great job. I did the same thing to my rear axles, I had to step the brume hubs because the new wheels I purchased would not fit over them.

[Sickfast1964]

Great job. I did the same thing to my rear axles, I had to step the brume hubs because the new wheels I purchased would not fit over them.



Don't know why it posted twice. Sorry

[northern 85]

Im in on this build, great work!

[Blu64c10]

Originally Posted by Sickfast1964

Great job. I did the same thing to my rear axles, I had to step the brume hubs because the new wheels I purchased would not fit over them.

Nice work, first thing I did was check my hub register fit to the wheel. Nice project you got going.

[Blu64c10]

Originally Posted by Dubnova

IN on this build. Nice work....Looks great.

Originally Posted by scottco

Looks great...

Originally Posted by northern 85

Im in on this build, great work!

Thanks for the kind words.

[Blu64c10]

Not much of an update tonight but progress none the less. Finished up Sunday night by bolting the crossmember on and getting a final coat of paint on everything. Really happy with how the paint laid out and how durable it is. Monday night I got the A arms bolted up, installed springs, and drop spindles. Sometime this week or next week Ill pick up new disc and wheel bearings.

[CRGRS 66]

Subscribed, great looking project

[Grizz1963]

You are really impressing me with your progress

[Blu64c10]

A small update as I'm working seasonally FedEx early ams and spare time is a little sparse. But I decided to rip into my inner fenders and see how they come out. Also my motor has come a little further along.

Cut a large dent out



Cut and bent patch





Cut out the fronts where a PO had welded steel on top of rusted out steel.



Made templet for front patches



Transferred to steel



That's it for the sheet metal work so far. Got the bottom end of the motor assembled and the cam degreed.

[northern 85]

Very nice work keep the pics coming!

[flips72]

x2

[Blu64c10]

Ok finally some updates. After a long winter with the weather finally starting to break (except for more snow today) I've been able to get out in the garage and start making progress. The motor was finished up at my buddies shop over the winter and brought home last week.

It's a pretty mild 355 but should run pretty well and be a much better improvement over what was in there.



I placed a big order with rock auto last week and got timken wheel bearing, seals, front rotors, calipers, pads, inner and out tie rods, adjusting sleeves, pitman arm and idler arm.



The drivers side caliper took a little work to fit properly. After swapping rotors and pads side to side, I bolted the drivers side rotor and caliper to the stock spindle and realized the drop spindle caliper mounting pad was causing the fitment issue. Some quick work with a file and everything fit as it should.



The most tedious work was filing the half hex half round hole for the late model brake hoses.



Yesterday I spent my time properly setting up the the drag link and late model idler arm. The new pitman arm was installed on the steering box then the drag link and new idler arm were installed as well as the idler arm bracket. The bracket was clamped to the frame and moved around until the drag link matched level with the crossmember and parallel to the crossmember. These measurements were taken with a magnetic level on the drag link and crossmember and a tape measure from the drag link to motor mount holes. Once level and square two 3/8 holes were drilled through the bracket into the frame rails and new hardware was installed.







Once the drag link was in the correct location the tie rods were installed and round about adjusted.

[Blu64c10]

Haven't been able to get on here and write so here's an update from the past couple of weeks, ill try to keep everything in order.

Everything in my front end is brand new, except for my rag joint. After doing some reach search on here I found that I could rebuild my existing rag joint for a fraction of the cost for a new one. My local parts store had the rebuild kit so with the help of txfirefighters post ( http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=614332 ) I rebuilt my rag joint.

Old crusty rag joint


Cleaned parts and new parts


Rebuilt rag joint


Next I received my brake hoses and shocks in the mail and installed these. The metal line portion of the brake hoses took slight bending to clear the ball joint of the drop spindles.

Brake hose installed


Brake hose after bend


KYB Gas-a-just


With almost all of the front suspension and brakes done it was time to get some sheet metal back in between the fenders. Back in the fall I started patching my inner fenders when I ran into a local guy who was getting rid of aftermarket inner fenders and radiator support. With all the work to patch what I had I figured these would save me some time and the price was right.
I was wrong about the time part as it took almost a whole day to get the new stuff to fit right.

Sheet metal sanded and fitted




Then the truck was rolled outside for some paint.







At this time I had just received in the mail pedals and a stock column to put back in the truck. Putting a 4 speed in the truck I wanted to get rid of the ugly late model column shift auto column. In order to link the steering column to the power steering box I choose to use a steering u joint one end 3/4 DD to match the steering box shaft and the other end 3/4 smooth weld on for the column shaft. Having a straight steering wheel when going down the road is something I always found important to me. This meant getting the steering wheel dead straight with the steering box dead center it's lock to lock. To find dead center of the steering box I set up a pointer at 12 o'clock on the rag joint and used a sharpie to mark each lock and then find the center.



The 3/4 DD was cut right where it begins


U joint installed

[Blu64c10]

Front grille and surround back on



Ran asphalt coated cloth wire loom



Started running front brake lines



Finished restoration and installed deluxe wheel

[Blu64c10]

New clutch


Clutch installed, bell housing indicated, motor going in.


Motor in


Trans in