1960 Apache K10 build

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Starting to look pretty bare!

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Well, things just got serious.
The guy I rent the shop from has a little tractor, and he brought it home on the weekend, so That is how we got the Tahoe body off the frame. It was little bit on the sketch side, but we managed.
I drug it back inside, and got the old body mounts cut off and ground clean, and I have all of the old wiring stripped.
While I was waiting for the tractor to show up, I got the old bed apart, and salvaged the cross sills. I took them to a DIY blasting place in town, and got them all cleaned up and painted, along with some of the other under dash parts.

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cleaning up and painting brackets

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Frame is inside, and ready for more ripping apart.

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I plopped the tahoe onto the old frame so i could tug it around. and I have to admit, it looks abolutely hilarious to me. Has anyone ever seen an extended wheelbase dually tahoe before?

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Old body mounts cut off and ground clean

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AND! i found a rattle can spray paint that is a pretty much exact match to the old patina, it is a rustoluem flat turquoise. I sprayed a little patch of the old rusty fender, and you can hardly tell a difference. So I am sure that will come in handy for a few things. its close enough for where the project is at right now anyhow.

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Man...did I get a lot accomplished over the weekend! I started out fixing up the exhaust. When I got the Tahoe, I noticed it had a pretty major exhaust leak on the drivers side. Well no wonder. the drivers side exhaust was broken almost completely off doenstream of the manifold flange. So i cut that all out, and i figued I might as well do a Cat delete while i was at it. And of course. There was the usual broken exhaust bolts to deal with. I welded a nut on each of them and they spun right out. And since i was already putting a new exhaust in, I welded on a super 44 with a little turn down. I have a nice stainless system that I am going ot put on it later, but for now, just to get it driving, I think this will work okay.

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super 44 welded on with the turndown

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the usual LS exhaust bolt carnage

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and now the exciting stuff... i finally got to the point where i was ready to mount the cab. I tried with my engine hoist and slings, but my hoist ran out of height. And it was late friday night anyhow, so i figured this was time to take a break and hit it again in the morning.

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Off to the Home Depot saturday morning, and I made the SuperCabLIfer9000.

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it was a bit sketch...but it worked.

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so i decided to mock up the front clip to see how everything lined up. SO far so good! I think the wheel is more or less cenetered in the opening.

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At this point, I wanted to see it with the rest of the front end togther, half of the reason was just to see how it sits. It is considerably higher than i thought it was going to be. I probably could have got away with a lift and level instead of a full on 4.5" lift. but we will see how it sits once the suspension settles a bit.

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and then i Mocked up a box side, just to see what the finished product will look like! I only got one side on before it got late, but I'll get everything else on this week, just so i can bounce the suspension a few times and see where the final resting height ends up.

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Amazingly enough, even the inner fenders are going to work without any trimming.

[SkinnyG]

That is a very impressive fit!

[Braunschweiger]

Great job, it comes together well.
It could be a high boy.

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Originally Posted by SkinnyG

That is a very impressive fit!

I just had to unbolt some of the ABS components from off the drivers frame rail, and it fit right on.

And speaking of brakes...Can you help me understand some of the brake system?

I want to use as much of the factory hardware as possible. I am pretty sure I have the hydroboost braking system and associated lines all figured out.

Getting it all mocked up, I realized I have to ditch the ABS if a want it to all fit properly. Which really isn’t a huge deal. However, this is where I am a bit confused. I watched your video on proportioning valves, and I am wondering if I can get away with using what I've got as far as factory components to re make the brake system.

It seems simple enough. I keep the lines from the master down to the proportioning valve. Two lines come out of the master and into the proportioning valve.

But here is where I am a bit confused.

There are three lines that come out of the proportioning valve. I am thinking two are for front and rear feeds to the ABS system. But what is the third port for? I need help understanding how to route this. As long as this rear port is not needed, I should be able to simply plug that rear port, and I should be good to go. Unless I need that third line for some reason, and this proportioning valve will not function without ABS?

In my mind, the factory proportioning valve should work well because I did not make MAJOR changes. Brake size and everything else will be the same, there will just be a bit less weight on the rear of the truck than the factory. But in my mind, I think I will have shed weight relatively evenly across the entire vehicle, so it shouldn’t change too much.

And is it true that the rear port on the master is for the front brakes and the front port is for the rear brakes?

[SkinnyG]

I suspect there are two ports for your Left and Right front brakes, and one port for the back brakes that T at the axle. The valve acts as your T for the front. I could be wrong. I'm using an adjustable proportioning valve on the rear only of my '61.

The factory proportioning valve should be pretty spot on for what you've done. Worry about it only if the back brakes start locking up first.

If the master cylinder has the same pistons front and rear insde, it technically shouldn't matter which one goes to the front and which one goes to the rear. I plumbed the front port to the front brakes, and the rear port to the rear brakes. Old-school iron masters often have different master cylinder volumes for each half, with the larger volume going to discs and the smaller volume going to drums.

If you can still keep the ABS (even just by moving it onto an inner fender), I think that would be super stellar awesome!

[Duncan K]

Great progress, that is a really cool project!

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Originally Posted by Duncan K

Great progress, that is a really cool project!

thanks man! I found my shop space out by Cochrane. Theres always beer in the fridge if you want to stop by lol.

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I got a lot done over the weekend, but I forgot to take a lot of pictures of it!
I first focused on getting the brake master in and getting the linkage working properly. I used a similar idea to this thread to make my brake system function, using the same bell crank concept.
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...&postcount=324
I wanted to keep the push rod stock, so if I had to replace it in the future, it is just a bolt in affair. I did the same lowering the pedal hole by 1.5”, and it all seemed to work out well. The only difference is that I did not reuse another brake pedal. I reused the clutch and fabricated up arms to go with it. Same concept though.

Next I got onto the steering column. I got a flaming river direct fit column, and wouldn’t you know it, it was not a direct fit. It probably fit perfectly for the original non tilt, non automatic shift column, but of course, I changed all of that. So the larger diameter of the automatic shifter bell shaped portion of the column was hitting the opening in the dash. No biggie though. I just drilled new holes in the bracket about an inch towards the driver, and that gave me enough room to clear the bigger diameter.
Then I moved onto steering shaft.
The steering box is mounted on the inside of the Tahoe frame, and the outside of the original frame, so this changed the alignment of the shaft a bit. The shaft made some contact with the inner fender, but nothing a quick zip disc couldn’t take care of. I will make a little patch panel that bolts in place along with the other indent piece in the inner fender.
The Tahoe steering shaft is 1” double D, and the flaming river column is ¾ double D, so I just sleeved a piece of ¾” into a piece of 1”, and everything worked perfectly.
And with the column in place, I hooked up the transmission shift linkage. I was going to get the Lokar part, but then I got the knock off version, which is almost good, but not really. The Heim joints don’t have spacers with them, so the linkage binds instead of fully articulating. I whipped up some spacers on the lathe, which solved this issue.

Then I decided it was time for the fun parts. I bought a 3200 stall converter and a truck Norris cam. So I decided I was going to put these in the truck. After looking it all over, I decided it would be easier to pull the engine out instead of transmission, transfer case, driveshafts etc. So out came the engine. In went the new converter and cam, and back in it all went.
I then mounted the radiator. I got a direct fit rad from Entropy. Whish is a wonderful looking piece. And of course…not a direct fit either.
I had a conflict between the rad and the steering box, so I moved the rad up 1”, and it seems to work fine. I measured it out to make sure I don’t hit the hood, and I SHOULD have about an inch of clearance, but I wont know for sure until I hang the sheet metal back on.
Then I plumbed tranny cooler lines, fit the upper rad hose, and ripped out all the existing brake lines and ABS assembly. I also got rid of all the evap lines to the fuel tank.

So that is where we are at! Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will do better. I was just in full thrash mode and hardly even took enough time to eat, never mind take pictures.

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so...things left to do before it moves on its own...

wiring

brake lines (which I am waiting for parts from Amazon)

lower rad hose and heater hoses.

and then reassemble the body. I might even have this thing making noise by haloween!