68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[flashed]

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Richard, that was some nice progress on the frame. I wonder why the engineers suggested a straight cut. I've read straight cut is good and others strongly suggest a z cut. And I know we shortened frames on big trucks with a straight cut for oil field / construction work. They held up for years of heavy use. I was just a kid then helping Pop.

Good looking hay collection. We use to put up the small round bales that needed hay hooks for handling. Tough work.

Hi Doug, thanks for checking in. The engineers are my brother (mechanical engineer) who said I'll never get anywhere near the design capacity of the truck and my cousin's husband (petroleum engineer) who pointed out that the extension welded into the frame of the motorhome that he was visiting in used straight cuts and those with fish plates and no outer reinforcing plates like mine will have. The perfectionist in me cringed but I powered through and made the straight cuts!

PS I'm still loving your burb build!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by flashed

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

Glad to have you along for the ride!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Independence day (weekend) update:

OK, time to weld the frame back together. The first thing was to make sure that we had the right electrode for the wire welder. The 89 FSM had the specs so I went and checked what we had in the MIG. Turns out it was what we needed. I'll leave the welding theory to others but basically the difference between the 3 and the 6 at the end of the spec was new metal vs. old metal and mine is 30 years old

[rkn463]

Good to go, now it is time to drag the two pieces of the frame together and check my cut. For what ever reason the back half wasn't wanting to roll easily so I dragged it together with a come along. Initial fit for the cuts looked OK, but somehow the width was off by about 3/32. A quick measurement showed that the back part was wide, the front was what it should.

[rkn463]

I decided to use a come along to pull the back half back together, it worked well although initially I found that I needed to be between two teeth on it so I added a piece of 1x1 box tube to take up some slack and it hit perfect. After that I had to grind the welds for a perfect mating surface and square to my "control" lines. I was happy with the results.

[rkn463]

You probably noticed that I ground a bevel into the frame as well for better weld penetration. My big brother welded it together for me both outside and in. Afterward I ground the welds smooth so I won't have interference when I replace the reinforcing plates. I painted it and reinstalled my shortened driveshaft. The Guys at Fort Worth Gear and Axle did a quick turnaround for what I thought was a reasonable price. I was lucky, the u-joint and carrier bearing were both good which saved me some cash.

Looking at it the cross members look goofy that close together but the front one will have the cab sitting on it so it won't be so obvious.

[rkn463]

I had been so focused on cutting and welding the frame that I found I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next so I decided to get started painting engine parts. I'm replacing the intake and valve covers with some from an older truck to lose some more of the "89" look. What I have came off of a 73 model motor that came out of my brother's dump truck and has been sitting for years. After cleaning them up I sprayed them with Rustoleum Rust Reformer and will paint Chevy orange next weekend. I chased out the threads with a tap. Also I find it intriguing that these truck motors used two thermostats so I took a detail shot of that. From grunge to black primer(with some de-greaser and power washing in between) ...

[rkn463]

I need to refrain from going overboard painting the engine, when it's all said and done this is still going to be a farm truck but I can't help being who I am. I cleaned and sprayed a bit on the back of the engine and declared it done for the weekend. One bonus shot - I don't think I ever posted a picture of the giant hydro-boost unit with its auxiliary electric pump (the light duty trucks have an "accumulator" which is only good for a couple of pumps of the pedal if you lose the power steering pump, this will stop you as long as you have fluid and a battery.

-Richard

[rkn463]

OK, now I fell old and forgetful. I had pointed a friend to this site and he asked me why I didn't just resurrect my original thread... "what thread was that???" He sent me this link:http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=504416

[Advanced Design]

That was some very nice work on the frame! Very clean.

Two thermostats was interesting as I've never seen that before. Moving right along.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

That was some very nice work on the frame! Very clean.

Two thermostats was interesting as I've never seen that before. Moving right along.

Thanks for checking in Doug, I can't wait to see what is next on your Burb!

-Richard

[Softpatch]

Originally Posted by flashed

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

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I'm with this guy
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holly smoke there some good stuff in her....
Thanks for posting ...Sp
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http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=504416&page=2
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http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=704713
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http://www.stemco.com/f/qbin/STEMCO_Kaiser_2013.pdf
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[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Softpatch

.
I'm with this guy
.
holly smoke there some good stuff in her....
Thanks for posting ...Sp
.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=504416&page=2
.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=704713
.
http://www.stemco.com/f/qbin/STEMCO_Kaiser_2013.pdf
.
.

Softpatch, I'm really glad to know that you are looking in on my build. I've followed your 59 Viking revival, that is an awesome truck and you are doing a great job of bringing it back to life! Sometimes I regret not keeping the 68 drivetrain stock, but the 89 was just a dream to drive by comparison. I hope to have some more to post next week.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Hi folks, been a while since I updated. Weekend of July 9th we had family in for the weekend, I got to meet my little 3 year old great niece and great nephew (twins). They were really cool kids and we all had a great time. That did not leave me much time for the project but I did manage to finish cleaning up the intake and valve covers and paint them. Unfortunately my phone deleted all 122 pictures in the "camera" folder along with 5 other folders. I won't go in to how mad I am at Samsung right now but to say the least this was the last straw and I'll never own another one of their unreliable products.

This weekend started early with a bit more recreational mowing but this time I brought out the big guns. You can get a lot of mowing done when you cut a 15 foot wide swath!

Now for a couple more random pictures, somewhat out of order. This weekend was about getting the motor cleaned up and painted along with getting the repainted non-smog motor intake and valve covers installed. Part of that involved stripping the front accessories off of the engine but I needed to do something about the master cylinder first. I had left it connected and just used baling wire to hold it to a piece of box tubing that I had wired down to the engine brackets. I had to come up with something different so I started looking around and found a couple of holes in the frame that I could bolt to, so I drilled a piece of box tubing that I mounted to the frame and the master to that. Now it is up and out of the way. You can kind of see how it was before and a pretty good after shot.

[rkn463]

Next it was time to remove the distributor so that I could get the intake off. I marked and removed all of the wires then I marked the back of the distributor and the motor so that I would have a reference to put the timing back where it started. Then I removed the cap and rotated the motor until the rotor cap was pointing straight to the front. I removed the clamp and pulled the distributor out and put a mark on the distributor housing showing how far it rotated when pulling it so that I would be able to stab it back into the exact same orientation.

I wanted to tape over a couple of openings before I blew it off with the air hose and couldn't find my tape. I got to looking around and found that at some point it fell, landed on top of the exhaust pipe and balanced there, what are the odds? I wish I had just won the lotto instead!
Pictures:

[rkn463]

Moving along with the tear down (actually it was probably about now that I mounted the brake cylinder).

I finished stripping everything off the top of the motor: carb, EGR, hoses, etc.. Then I stripped the accessories off the front of the motor (after taking a reference photo).

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Then off with the intake, I was really pleased with how clean the motor is inside. The truck had belonged to a family business and they obviously took great care of it! Once the intake was off I put paper towels in the lifter gallery and stuffed some down the intake ports and went to scraping. Once the gasket surfaces were clean I wiped them down with brake cleaner, sucked the paper towels out of the heads with the shop vac and vacuumed out all of the intake ports. After that I taped over the ports to keep them clean then I tapped out all of the intake bolt holes, some of the bolts came out hard and were rusty, others just plain grungy.

Next I pulled the valve covers, once again, SUPER clean in there! A bit more cleaning around the head to cover mating surface. Finally I carefully removed the paper towels from the lifter gallery and vacuumed out the minor amount of crap that had made it into the gallery.

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Finally it was time to reassemble, valve covers back on, dropped the intake on with some help; that thing is heavy! I cleaned a crap load of bolts, and put it all back together. I don't agree with the torque sequence but it was in the FSM so I followed it, we'll see if I end up with problems. Finally several coats of paint over the newly cleaned bolts and hold downs and then stabbed the distributor back in. Check out the before and after

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Next weekend I hope to get the front of the motor cleaned up and painted. Following that I can reinstall the P/S pump, alternator, belts, etc.. I still have to find something to plug the holes in the exhaust manifolds where I removed the AIR system. Then I need to cut down the reinforcing plates and reinstall them on the frame.

I'm getting pretty close to being ready to swap the 68 body on, however I have a dilemma. I already got a replacement hydroboost unit because it was leaking fluid so bad. The steering box is leaking like crazy around the input shaft and the p/s pump is leaking too. Basically the whole hydraulic system has leaks which seems a bit odd. I don't recall exactly what the PO said but I had feared that he had either added power steering fluid to the master cylinder or brake fluid to the power steering system. I know the fluids are incompatible and would cause leaks and having everything on the entire hydraulic system leaking worries me. On top of that the old hydroboost is leaking past the seals just laying on the floor! One last thing that worries me is that for a while the hydroboost unit was laying on a rubber mat and what leaked on to that caused the mat to swell up, does anyone know if that is normal for power steering fluid (ATF actually) to do that to rubber? Seems like that is why you aren't supposed to use fuel line for p/s cooler line. If I need to swap on a rebuilt power steering box I will be out several hundred more dollars. Need some serious advice here folks! Here is a shot of the hydroboost leaking on the floor. The ports are pointed up!

[tommys72]

Ive never seen this build...but im watching now

[jhama78]

This thing is going to be awesome when its done. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

[Advanced Design]

I agree with your thinking about the wrong kind of fluid being used in the hydraulic system. Can you rebuild the gear with new seals? And I've never noticed atf causing a rubber floor mat to swell, so maybe brake fluid got into the hydroboost?

Yeah, the torque sequence on the intake looks strange to me, tightening several bolts on the same side in a row. I've only ever seen starting at middle, going side to side working out to outside.

The 15 foot mower looks like a batwing? We have an old 15 footer that is flat and has zero flex. Use to use it a lot chopping corn stalks left after harvest and mowing pasture.

Good progress and engine is looking really nice!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by tommys72

Ive never seen this build...but im watching now

Glad to have you along for the ride, and thank you for your service to our country!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by jhama78

This thing is going to be awesome when its done. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

Hi j-rod, I just hope it turns out close to what I'm picturing in my mind. Thanks for tagging along.

-Richard