Project '64 Cheapskate

[66 C10 383]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

I just bought the same wiring kit, hurry up and do yours so you can save me all the do overs LOL

x2 !!! I've got the same kit too. Wiring is not my strong point so any tips, tricks, hints, and help you can offer up would sure be appreciated!!!

You've got one sweet truck going together and a bunch of ideas I'm "incorporating" (stealing your ideas ) into my truck.

[Low Elco]

Dang, I shoulda bought your 83. You might try a round body s-10 Blazer rear swaybar. I've been eyein' 'em, just gotta get my tape measure out. And they're FAT!

[Low Elco]

Hey! Alex! It ain't that cold out there yet! You still movin' and groovin'?

[rusty76]

Man I thought there was another cheap update but dang.....dog gone it. Low Elco you tricked me.......grrrr.

[Low Elco]

Sorry Rusty! We're just the two sad little kids standing outside the closed tent, waiting for the circus to open.

[Paul Y]

This felt a little like Christmas day when you open your present expecting the Red Ryder BB gun and only got a Christmas jumper knitted by your Nan.

At least your eyesight will be safe....

P.

[rusty76]

Or worse Santa forgot to leave your present and you have to wait till he can get back by......

[TypeSL2]

This build is looking awesome. I love the attention to detail in all that line bending. My fuel lines did not turn out how I wanted them. Now that I have seen how you do your brake lines, I am thinking there is definitely going to be another set of fuel lines made for my truck in the future. In the meantime, I am going to use your welding wire trick to make my brake lines so I can get the truck driving again.

Here's one shot of my fuel lines. I didn't take many pictures of them.


Looking forward to more progress.

James

[65Gregg]

Dang Alex, we're all out here in the cold waiting for you to open the garage door so we can see what you've done....

[rusty76]

I bet he's been driving it around with Kustombrad and he just getting running shots and so on. He's probably been done with it for a while and just didn't want to intimidate us. Or he could just be busy too......One day I'll turn on the computer and there will be updates and all sorts of cool stuff for me to drool over.

[chevyrestoguy]

......call off the search party!
I have been slacking off on posting up pictures lately, and I had been blaming it on a buddy at work who works in our IT Department, and he offered to refresh my computer and install the latest anti-virus programs, along with a bunch of other upgrades. Three days after he got it, he went out on Medical for 6 weeks! It really wasn't his fault, because I have a tablet that I surf the net with, but I never knew how to post pictures until Brad coached me through it. So, here goes.....

I had been procrastinating making the power steering hoses because when we Z'd the chassis, I got a little carried away on trying to make the inner fenders look "stock" and I didn't leave a gap between the lower lip and the top of the framerails to route the hoses from the box to the pump. I didn't want to drill holes through the freshly painted inner fenders, so the only other way to do it was to bring them through the frame. The other issue was that the hose routing had to clear the steering linkage, which was now 2" higher due to the "Z". Here's what I came up with:


I had the hoses crimped only on the side that attached to the box and then established the route I wanted. The GM steering box that I used (1979 C10) has casting lugs built in, and I drilled them for 5/16 fasteners and butterfly clamped the hoses to each point. The hoses have a nice route with no kinks, and to ensure that they wouldn't rub on the feedthru hole in the frame, I made a clamp and wrapped it in heatshrink. To secure the clamp, I built a 90 degree bracket so the clamp rides flush to the frame. The hoses make a hard right after they go through the frame, and they are not easy to thread on to the pump, but that's something that I knew was going to happen.

[chevyrestoguy]

I also built some reinforcement brackets for the front sway bar. When frames get "Z'd", the swaybar winds up being bolted to the weak side of the frame (forward of the cuts). I'm running the larger swaybar, so I made the reinforcements out of 3/16 steel plate and bent them up using a press brake. I drilled them up for 1/2" bolts, Grade 8, of course. In the next few weeks, I'll be pulling them back off and painting them chassis black, along with the swaybar.

[chevyrestoguy]

I am currently wiring the truck using an American Autowire Classic Update kit (500560). I'll post pictures later. I had to buy a crimper set for the wire terminals, along with some other stuff. Right now, I am figuring out my wire routes and how I can integrate a lot of the updates I have added, like the Flarestat 105, transmission lock-up wiring, underhood lights, and trailer lighting. I don't want anything to look like an add-on.

The bad part is, it's been cold here, and I haven't been in the mood to do wiring. I did get some of the groundstraps done, like the engine to chassis one, and the engine to frame one. I used nice flexible woven straps and wrapped them in heatshrink. Turned out nice.

[likaroc13]

Nice to hear from you & see some progress! As always, I dig your ideas & clean work. I don't feel like doing much when it's cold either. Guess I'm just a wuss.

[rusty76]

Darn it I've got to go to work but when I get back I'm going to catch up......grrrr........Now you want to post.

[Bomp]

How long are the power steering hoses you had made? Never even thought of tapping out the bosses. Thanks for the info.

[Low Elco]

Super sano, as always. Gonna have to start lookin' for a dragster to push, methinks! Glad to hear from you, Alex.

[duallyjams]

500560 / I have one just haven't open the box figured you would get to it before me so you can share the what not to do.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Nice to hear from you & see some progress! As always, I dig your ideas & clean work. I don't feel like doing much when it's cold either. Guess I'm just a wuss.

Thanks! Right now, I'm doing some of the jobs that require a lot of drilling and cutting, and it's hard to get motivated when your hands are cold and stiff. Gotta get it done, though.

Originally Posted by rusty76

Darn it I've got to go to work but when I get back I'm going to catch up......grrrr........Now you want to post.

Haha, my timing is terrible!

Originally Posted by Bomp

How long are the power steering hoses you had made? Never even thought of tapping out the bosses. Thanks for the info.

The hoses are right at 34 inches long. I had the hose shop crimp the 90 degree ends that secure to the steering box, then I figured out the route and trimmed (2") the excess. The guy at the hose shop thought he was doing me a favor by making both hoses out of ultra high pressure hose, which has a steel braid inner and an abrasion protective outer jacket. Getting the hoses to make the hard bend right at the steering pump and then trying to get it to slide over the low pressure nipple was a royal pain. I'm not 100% satisfied with this, and I won't know if they'll be OK until I fire the engine and spin the pump. If they want to leak, I'll just pull the hoses and make them out of a more forgiving material.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Super sano, as always. Gonna have to start lookin' for a dragster to push, methinks! Glad to hear from you, Alex.

I've got a couple of potential candidates, but I've got to get this thing done before I can offer my services. Right now, I am at the weird stage of the build, where you seem to invest so much time and effort doing stuff that nobody will ever see. I always comment on this when I'm looking at cars at a show. I can always tell exactly where the builder finally got fed up and threw in the towel and said, "it's finished". Investing the time to work out all of the little details sucks when you're in the middle of it, but it's the most satisfying when you're finished.

Originally Posted by duallyjams

500560 / I have one just haven't open the box figured you would get to it before me so you can share the what not to do.

Here's what I have learned so far.......this kit will require you to either buy or rent the crimpers for the Packard 56 terminals. They are spendy ($125), so I decided to buy a crimper set from Tool Aid for $80 that has 5 different Die sets in it, but none if them are for the Packard terminal. I did a couple of test crimps with a die that's real close (the Weatherpak one) and I'm not 100% satisfied with it. If you crimp a 16 gauge terminal with that die, it distorts the body of the connector, but if you use the next size up, it works OK. I need to invest more time in coming up with a procedure that will work.

[rusty76]

Ahhhh......that's so much better. Just a little update is well worth it. Thanks for updating us.

[chevyrestoguy]

I was looking for a small project to do in the evenings after work, and I decided that the grill was a great one to tackle. My grill was a Craigslist purchase a while back, and it was cheap because it had a couple of dents and the factory anodizing was really cloudy. The inner brackets were also covered in surface rust. I drilled out the rivets and completely disassembled the inner brackets from the grille. At this point, I removed the dents and straightened the center mesh. You can never get the dents out completely because the aluminum stretches when it gets dented. It turned out pretty good.

After sandblasting and paint, the brackets were ready to reinstall. I removed the factory anodizing from the grill by spraying it with Easy Off and letting it sit for 45 minutes. I then polished the grille, along with the headlight bezels. The center of the grille was really pitted and didn't polish out very well, so I decided to paint it the same color as the center of the wheels.

I even installed a pair of flat lens H4 headlights. I'll make the final decision on them after I get the grille installed. I may go with round lens H4 lights if the flats look too "late model".

[rusty76]

Have you used these headlights before? I'm thinking that in the future I might be going that route. I just want to know what you think.

[flips72]

grill looks great as does the power steering lines, are your headlight bezels aluminum or chrome? I just bought a truck which has a beautiful aluminum grill but no bezels, just trying to get a few ideas, thanks.

[Black Burban]

What a great build, so many ideas in all parts of this build without breaking the bank. I am really wanting to know how the ride and drive comes out with the turned over trailing arm brackets and moved forward LCA's, can't wait to see this on the road. Have a great holiday and keep up the fantastic work.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Have you used these headlights before? I'm thinking that in the future I might be going that route. I just want to know what you think.

They kick butt, and you can upgrade to higher wattage bulbs for an even brighter viewing path at night. There is a limit to how high you can go on wattage due to the small wire gauge of the stock headlight wiring. I would recommend going to a headlight relay upgrade for anything over a 75 watt bulb.

Originally Posted by flips72

grill looks great as does the power steering lines, are your headlight bezels aluminum or chrome? I just bought a truck which has a beautiful aluminum grill but no bezels, just trying to get a few ideas, thanks.

My bezels are aluminum, and are far from perfect. Actually, they match up pretty well to the grille, which isn't perfect either. As far as I know, nobody makes aftermarket aluminum bezels, so you have to find a nice used set. The chrome ones have a brighter finish than the aluminum ones, and I don't know if they would look out of place against the aluminum grille. I would have to think that it's been done quite often.

Originally Posted by Black Burban

What a great build, so many ideas in all parts of this build without breaking the bank. I am really wanting to know how the ride and drive comes out with the turned over trailing arm brackets and moved forward LCA's, can't wait to see this on the road. Have a great holiday and keep up the fantastic work.

Thanks for the nice compliment, and Merry Christmas to you as well! I am also very anxious to see how all of my mods work out. My next step is to do a lot of research and study shock rates and lengths to get the best ride I can. Shock selection is one area where most guys don't think about. To me, it's one of the most important things you can do.