Project racing $$$. 1968 GMC SWB 5.3/4l60E Build

[68PitbullChevy]

awesome truck! i hope my truck turns out as half as good as yours

[Daaaanz67]

Nice build and fast pace. I'm also doing an ls conversion on my 69 c/10. Who reflashed your ecm? I'm only about 45 minutes from sac and looking for a reflash and what did it cost if you don't mind me asking? If your looking for a constant hot wire in run/crank, i used the resistance wire terminal that goes to the coil and then down to the start solenoid terminal "r" I went back into the firewall bulk head connector and removed the resistor wire and replaced it with a normal wire so to get 12v just used the same wire terminal and soldered the new wire on it. To remove the brass spade terminal in the connector just gently squeeze the spade slightly and it will push out of the connector. you probably already knew this.

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by Daaaanz67

Nice build and fast pace. I'm also doing an ls conversion on my 69 c/10. Who reflashed your ecm? I'm only about 45 minutes from sac and looking for a reflash and what did it cost if you don't mind me asking? If your looking for a constant hot wire in run/crank, i used the resistance wire terminal that goes to the coil and then down to the start solenoid terminal "r" I went back into the firewall bulk head connector and removed the resistor wire and replaced it with a normal wire so to get 12v just used the same wire terminal and soldered the new wire on it. To remove the brass spade terminal in the connector just gently squeeze the spade slightly and it will push out of the connector. you probably already knew this.

I had the pcm flashed here in sac at force fed performance. I don't remember how much it was, but I want to say around 90$. We are trying to get it finished up since race season is a few weeks away and we have a list of stuff to do to the camaro to get it ready. It has been a very busy 2 months. We did a frame off and cleaned, primed and painted every part on this thing. All I need to do now is figure out the cluster issues and its ready to head to the body man. I will get some more pics of the interior all painted with the carpet and seats in, looks really good.
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[Daaaanz67]

Thanks for the info on the flash nice build
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[imsuchaman55]

Here some more pics of the interior...

Interior all primed, ready for paint.


Painted the dash from the dash pad foward satin black. It helps break up the color difference of the burgundy and the black dash pad.


Painted the fuel tank black so its not as noticable with the bucket seats and console down. It will have the black carpet kit on it as well, but figured blacking it out will hide anything you do see



I know its against the rules of 67-72, but we cut the original dash to install the double DIN touch screen CD player...







All done, primed, ready for paint


Burgundy paint everywhere!!


Here is the dash pad installed. I think the black top of the dash blends really well with the dash pad. It doesnt make the dash pad look so small or out of place because it is a different color.


Hushmat installed on entire floor and firewall, and also under where the headliner attaches to the roof, so should ride nice and quiet, except for the stainless steel headers and 3" race muffler we will have on it.


Carpet layed in to get some of the wrinkles out from being in the box, and to test fit to see how it looks. Much cleaner!!


We took the advice from ERASER5 and shortened the steering column. We were able to shorten it 2 inches without having to move the neutral safety switch outside of the firewall. Im glad he mentioned that before it was all buttoned up, because the wheel was really close before shortening. We should have installed a tilt wheel, but its too late now. thats my dad test fitting the passenger side.


And here is a pic with the painted glovebox, new carpet, new carpet hold down rail, and black GMC Door sill dress-up plates.

[Graham57a]

Lookin great man. You need to slow down, you're going way to fast

[scotts72heavyhalf]

[imsuchaman55]

hahaha, thanks guys. Believe me, I feel the same way. This has been the fastest, and slowest, and most expensive 2 months Ive had in a long time. But its soo close to being done, cant slow down now. at least get all of our stuff done so the body man can do his magic on it. Plus race season is a few weeks away and I need to get the truck out of the way so we can get some stuff done on the camaro. first play day is march 9th.

[stealthy '69]

Wow, what a transformation. I'm digging the the mixture of old school with the satin paint and new school with the LS build. Keep it up. I love the inspiration your dealing out here.

[imsuchaman55]

I'm glad you guys are liking the build. I am still having issues with the cluster not working the way it should be, and think I will get another cluster and see if that fixes the problem. Also, the dbw is not working either, but I posted a question about it in the ls section, hopefully I can get some help. Its really frustrating being so close but not being able to rev it up or see any of the gauges that the pcm controls
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[ERASER5]

I like the 2 tone interior. Most GMCs came with a 2 tone interior. The glove box and colum usually were darker than the dash color. Some had (all tilts) black as the off set color. I find it a little more interesting than all one color.

Oh, thank Putter, not me. I just pointed, he figured it out.

[imsuchaman55]

Well we got a few kinks worked out. We were having issues with the DBW, so I sent my brother to the salvage yard friday while I was at work to get a new DBW pedal, another gauge cluster, and another fuse block for a similar donor truck. We got the truck to rev up, plugged in the other gauge cluster and it worked perfectly, and plugged in the new fuse block and got it all to work the way its supposed to.

We also glued in the rear carpet on the fuel tank, glued down the regular carpet, mounted the double DIN touch screen radio, and LMC molded kick panels. The kick panels leave much to be desired, but you cant expect much with the junk speakers that come in them.

The cold air intake will be showing up today, then we need to bleed the brakes, hook up the e-brake, do a final install of the steering wheel/horn, and take this thing for a spin around the block. I will post updated pics soon.

[nuke1]

Awesome project you guys have there!! keep it up

[mcbassin]

Man, You are kicking tail on this build! Paint and interior Looks great.

[imsuchaman55]

Some new updates with pictures.

Cluster installed and fully functional


View of dash and cluster from passenger side.



New headliner installed


We decided to lower the seat frames about 1 3/4 inches lower to be more comfortable, and have more room when getting in and out with the steering wheel. This is the new height of the seats. I like it more because theres more room and you can hardly see the seats thru the rear window.


My brother built this shroud cover out of aluminum , masked off a GMC logo with a vinyl sticker he made, the removed the sticker and added a red outline sticker. The GMC lettering is natural mill finish.










Here is a short youtube clip of the first time we drove it out under its own power. I wish I had more, but it was getting dark, and we didnt want to piss the neighbors off too much with the open headers.

http://youtu.be/g_bet3bzq-I

Im glad we have it close to being ready for paint, and was not expecting it to have so much power. When we pulled it out on the street, it spun the tires thru the first 2 gears with ease. I will definately be posting another video soon.

[67cheby]

nice work , looks good and sounds good, congrats on the drive !

[VA72C10]

That shroud turned out great! Congrats on the first drive!

[RustenPaines]

The shroud logo is a nice touch. Congrats on the first drive.

[Priceman57]

Damn dude, it sure looks like your little brother knows what he's doing...... Hahahaha
I'm just happy I'm all done prepping and painting. Wait, I am done painting right?? lol

[mcbassin]

Nice work on this project. Congrats.

[nuke1]

Very nice looking truck you guys are turning out there!!! hope to see more of it soon!

[Dieselwrencher]

Your truck's interior turned out awesome! Love that cluster and radio! The engine sounds great too! How'd it feel to drive it again?

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Your truck's interior turned out awesome! Love that cluster and radio! The engine sounds great too! How'd it feel to drive it again?

When we bought it it was just a roller, no engine or tranny, so that was the first time we had ever driven it. It was tempting to drive it more, but with the open headers, no tail lights and getting dark outside, we didnt want to push our luck too much. My brother drove it around some yesterday and it started to get too hot, and the water in the radiator was cold, so the thermostat is most likely stuck closed. The water pump wasnt moving any fluid either when squeezing on the hoses. We should have changed it before installing the engine, but just overlooked it.

I just talked to them at the shop and they installed the exhaust today, says it sounds badass. We did 2.5 dual into a 3 inch Y, then into a straight 3 inch round muffler that we normally run on our race cars. I will post a video of it later to show the new tone of the exhaust.

the radio is bluetooth ready also and came with a microphone for calls, and they called me on it to test it, sounded great, and didnt sound like it was on speaker phone, so thats pretty cool. I guess we never grow up, just play with more expensive toys!

[Earl Junior]

Did you make them pretty ground and battery cables or buy them somewhere? Tell me more about them, please.

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by Earl Junior

Did you make them pretty ground and battery cables or buy them somewhere? Tell me more about them, please.

The power and ground cables are from an amp kit I had from the truck in my avatar. The guy that bought it didnt want them so I got them back. It is 0 gauge power wire. I had about 10-15ft of it, so we counted how many terminals we needed, and got the crimp teminals at the hardware store. We have a set of big terminal crimpers, but they could have been done with the solder slugs. Strip the wire back, insert the terminal, then get some heat shrink to cover where the wire and terninal meet and there you go! The heat shrink makes it look a lot cleaner. I think the red heat shrink we used was from a set of race plug wire kit we had that we never used.