Project 69SWB

[~Whitey~]

Oh I forgot this one... rebuilt this a while back in the thread. It was a special moment putting it in place.


pay no attention to tan carpet, That just so I got a comfy place to work.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

I had the same thing happen to the same piece when I pulled my column apart to replace the dust boot, luckily I had a spare column to take parts off of.

I looked everywhere for that little piece.. short of buying another knuckle for parts that is.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Wizardry at it's finest

[Low Elco]

Purrrdy work!

[~Whitey~]

This week I finished up the heater components.


I had some cracks and one missing tab I needed to repair. I filled in the cracks with PC7 and used a wood clamp to pull them closed, just a little though because I didn't want to squeeze out the PC7. This is the same stuff I'm used when I started to repair a 68 steering wheel with a few pages back and never finished yet. :-/


This one the tab was missing completely on. I spead the PC7 on and then used newspaper and pressed it on each side so I could mold it how I wanted, keep it in place, then just sanded, and formed it how I needed it to be. This is an in progress pic.


This sealed up real nice... This area I spent alot of time on straighten it out and making it smooth. Was a mess after sandblasting the cab. I'm sure my heater will work much better without cold air blowing in through the cracks that were here.
BEFORE

AFTER


I'm not sure how I'm going to finish these off yet, going to look to the board for inspiration and ideas, but in the end, they will be sealed up nice and tight. I also took my heater core to my local radiator shop, had it flush and tested for $20


I had my paint guys mix me up a can of semi-flat to paint the box with after I lightly sanded it and washed it and scrubbed it with dawn dish soap.

[~Whitey~]

I disassembled everything used my little electrolysis setup to strip all the under dash heater stuff down to bare metal, made a few metal repairs, etched primed it all and painted. The seals for the vent doors where all still in really good shape. I did buy a complete gasket set and heater control rebuild kit from GMCPauls.. I like their stuff and a lot of it is made in the USA and their customer service is fantastic.





I did get sent the black faceplate (for 67-68) instead the of the Chrome, which wasn't their fault (but another vendor they use) and they sent me out the Chrome plate as soon as I as let them know. Anyway.. I painted my face surround black and then used a little thinner to remove the paint to make the chrome trim shine through. I think I like it, I haven't stuck the knobs yet so I can decide, but I think it goes well with the black on black theme.

[sduckworth13]

Very nice work Jimmy, it looks like a brand new truck inside. The heater box looks great.

[Low Elco]

Looks great! This is the kinda stuff that takes for-friggin'-ever, and you feel like you ain't gettin' anywhere, and who cares, BUT, it's one of the many small details that if done right add up to a much nicer total package. Everyone thinks/knows it's a nicer truck, but no one can quite put their finger on why. Keith Stephens is master ninja level at this. Nice work, Jimmy.

[Mr Chevorlet]

Jimmy, That is looking fantastic, I like how the dash looks with the green indicators,along with the rest of the truck!

[Bennett68C10]

Nice progress Jimmy, everything looks great.

[Mr Chevorlet]

Looking good Jimmy, Like the green gauge needles, and engine, Great job well done.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Very nice work Jimmy, it looks like a brand new truck inside. The heater box looks great.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks great! This is the kinda stuff that takes for-friggin'-ever, and you feel like you ain't gettin' anywhere, and who cares, BUT, it's one of the many small details that if done right add up to a much nicer total package. Everyone thinks/knows it's a nicer truck, but no one can quite put their finger on why. Keith Stephens is master ninja level at this. Nice work, Jimmy.

Originally Posted by Mr Chevorlet

Jimmy, That is looking fantastic, I like how the dash looks with the green indicators,along with the rest of the truck!

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Nice progress Jimmy, everything looks great.

Originally Posted by Mr Chevorlet

Looking good Jimmy, Like the green gauge needles, and engine, Great job well done.

Thanks everyone.. I started on the wiring over the weekend (PAINLESS KIT 10206). Working on running the wires inside the cab... pics coming soon on that. It's gonna take a while, it's damn cold here and I'm no electrician.

[mcbassin]

Very progress on your truck. I had the same problem on my shift knob, I put it in boiling water the second try. I still had to tap it on with a mallet to seat it on the shoulder.
Keep up the good work.

[jmking9]

Excellent work! I cant wait to see this thing in person. Are you going to have it on the road this summer?

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very progress on your truck. I had the same problem on my shift knob, I put it in boiling water the second try. I still had to tap it on with a mallet to seat it on the shoulder.
Keep up the good work.

I'm going to give this a try tonight and see if I can't save the one that's on there... Thanks for the idea.

Originally Posted by jmking9

Excellent work! I cant wait to see this thing in person. Are you going to have it on the road this summer?

Thanks. We'll definitely hook up somewhere and take the old rides for a cruise. I'm projecting FALL, but I might run out of money seeing how the wife wants to take a vacation this year... So maiden voyage date is still up in the air.

Well I've spent an hour here and there this week routing wires and figuring out where they go. I'm making some progress.

I unraveled the nice and neat way Painless had it all bundled up.


routed my speaker, radio wires from the fuse block and they go above the gauge cluster, the rest will go over the steering column and behind the cluster, unless I see a better way. Just laying this all out now and lightly tying together, will use harness tape on everything when done. NSW, brake light, back up lights, I'll be routing over closer to the firewall.


so far just two plugs I needed from the original harness.. The backups light plug and the brake switch plug.


Which leads me to the first problem I've run into during this wiring adventure. Apparently I have a Van tilt column. The neutral safety/backup switch is located higher on the column and there are clearance issues with the brake pedal assembly. So... I'm going to go ahead and wire everything as if the neutral safety/backup switch was in the right place and ponder on whether I want to pull my column back out to cut the slots needed for the switch to be lower on the column and clear everything all the while risking a scratch somewhere on the column... or just purchase the Lokar kit http://www.jegs.com/i/Lokar/625/BL-1400U/10002/-1 , put the back up light on the transmission and wire up a hidden toggle/theft prevention device using the neutral safety wires that are in place.


I'll be figuring out the rest of this while I ponder that decision.

[~Whitey~]

Almost forgot.. I had to use the plug for the column from my old harness as well... easy switch over. Plug and play. That grey wire with the greenish plug is the shift indicator light, hadn't quite figure out where it is SUPPOSED to go, but know what I can do with it. On the old harness it went to the fuse block, but don't see a place for it on this new one.

[~Whitey~]

Hit the wiring more this weekend, but had to freshen up my windshield washer motor also.

No wonder they didn't work very well back when I was driving the truck.



Also my pump assembly had a cracked piston, ah.. that's why they didn;t work. Luckily, I had another motor that was pretty rusted, but the pump was good on it. Looks like they're about $45 to replace just this part.


I regreased it, as well as the gear on the motor. Not sure if that's how it got greased from the factory, but that's how I did it. Didn't have any point of reference.


All done, fresh paint and ready to install.

[~Whitey~]

On with the wiring...

Got everything routed under the dash, ready to wrap with harness tape.


Washer motor in it place and plugged up.


Really hard to take pics and they make sense under the dash.


Few things left to tidy up... but all in all this part went pretty smooth, I just took my time.

I did run into some snags that confused me, not being an electrician and all.

Those snags were.. The tach wiring. I have an HEI and I understood it all but the Painless Kit did not give a wire for the 12v tab on the back of the tach and I didn't know where to run it to. I know it needed 12v, but where? So I ended up running it to an ACC tab on the fuse box, don't know why that won't work.

The other snag that was confusing until I figured it out, was the GREY wire shift light, the Lighter light (using lighter assembly from Classic Parts), and the Heater control light, didn't know where there were supposed to go, until I ran across a light socket with a wire lead that supposed to go in between the speedometer and the tach.. so they got plugged into that.

[Low Elco]

Good lookin' work, nice job on the wiper motor. I just marked and yanked our column and cut it.16 years without backup lights and NSS was long enough. Wasn't bad at all, took maybe 30 min with a worn down cutoff wheel. I just drilled a 7/16 hole in the inner with a Unibit and filed the tab a tad, bingo! Works great.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Good lookin' work, nice job on the wiper motor. I just marked and yanked our column and cut it.16 years without backup lights and NSS was long enough. Wasn't bad at all, took maybe 30 min with a worn down cutoff wheel. I just drilled a 7/16 hole in the inner with a Unibit and filed the tab a tad, bingo! Works great.

Thank you sir. Did you pop out that lower bearing so metal shavings didn't get all up in its business? I seen a thread somewhere where the guy used a magnet to keep them from falling down there.. but I'm not so sure about that.

[sduckworth13]

Looks good Jimmy. I need to rebuild my wiper pump too. I've debated just using a washer reservoir with the pump built into it from a newer model vehicle. I had replaced my washer pump twice. Both times they only worked for a short while before I just gave up on it lasting for any amount of time. One thing I did do when I got this stepside was address why the windshield wipers that wouldn't work. I thought it was the motor at first and bench tested it, and it was fine. I pulled the wiper linkage out because it was rusted and wouldn't move. I had another set of linkage arms from a truck I parted out and used some bearing grease on them and tried stuffing grease in anything that rotated. They work excellent now and hopefully won't have to worry about the arm seizing up again.

[68Gold/white]

Awesome workmanship!
Carry on!!!

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looks good Jimmy. I need to rebuild my wiper pump too. I've debated just using a washer reservoir with the pump built into it from a newer model vehicle. I had replaced my washer pump twice. Both times they only worked for a short while before I just gave up on it lasting for any amount of time. One thing I did do when I got this stepside was address why the windshield wipers that wouldn't work. I thought it was the motor at first and bench tested it, and it was fine. I pulled the wiper linkage out because it was rusted and wouldn't move. I had another set of linkage arms from a truck I parted out and used some bearing grease on them and tried stuffing grease in anything that rotated. They work excellent now and hopefully won't have to worry about the arm seizing up again.

Should work for a good long time... I'm going to make sure mine are lubed up good too, but will strip them down to bare metal and all that jazz first. It's gonna be nice having all these things work like they're supposed to. I drove this truck for 3 years with lousy wipers, no washers, no back up lights, no neutral safety, sloppy steering column, drum brakes that locked up when you blinked your eyes, rattley ass windows and holes in the floor... the list can go on.

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

Awesome workmanship!
Carry on!!!

Thank you very much!

[RRR18]

Thought I was subscribed. Am now. Nice work.

[Low Elco]

I used the vacuum trick, and grease on the drill bit. Seems ok.