51 Chev on a S10 frame, named Dale

[8man]

Looks great!

[joedoh]

looks great!

[Tempest67]

also did a little welding with an old Chev valve cover on the firewall

[8man]

Nice custom touch.

[Northern 52]

Those caps look great. What size rims and offset are you planning on using. The reason I ask is that I used BellTech lowering spindles on my S10 chassis and now the balancing weights had to be removed from the inner 16 inch rim lips as they hit the steering arms. I need offset rims as well due to the narrower frame. I would like to avoid spacers if I can as they may not be legal for inspection. The 4.75 bolt spacing also seems to limit the rim choices.

[Tempest67]

The rims I am using are just 15 x 7 inch GM wheels that were on my Tempest with Dog Dish hub caps. I think the factory wheels have a 4.5 inch back space.

I am also using 2 inch drop spindles with 2 inch spacers on the front, and 1.25 inch spacers on the rear, with a Blazer 4x4 diff. I thought the Blazer rear would have allowed me not to use rear spacers, but I do not want wheel wells in the bed, so I extended them another 1.25.

Here is a recent pic, with the cab off for the last time (I hope) and you can see the clearance between the front tire and the tie rod end....with the 2 inch spacer.

What is the Back Spacing on your 16 inch rims? if it is greater than 5 inches, I would think you will need other rims, or spacers, cause if you need to remove wheel weights to gain clearance, you are too close.

[8man]

Looking good.

[Tempest67]

Thanks 8man,

The motor has been at the machine shop for the last 2 weeks, but this has given me some time to step back and do some other things,

- bent and flared front and rear brake lines
- weld up radio delete hole in dash (will add underdash radio after truck is on the road)
- add 'Chevrolet' script to firewall
- install fuel pump and fuel line
- seam weld in the cab mounts and running board supports
- repaint frame
- add seam sealer to cab
- install wiper motor .....

I am hoping to reassemble the motor this weekend, and get it ready to install for the last time, but am trying to get as much done as I can BEFORE it goes in....Spring is not too far away

[Old Jimmy]

Looks like you have good ingenuity and not afraid to use it. Nice looking build and good progress.
Jeff

[twinshadows]

Looking good . . and, doing great work . Sucks 'bout the sbc being
'toast' , but, you did find-out sooner than later.
I'm looking " in & following along" , for sure .

And, here's a question - - - you said that you "installed the wiper motor" . . . . . any pictures , or anything note worthy about that issue ?

Keep-it-going . . . . . and, almost ready for your motor too get back .

Thanks for u'r time & pictures . . . . jim

[fear_nothing]

Looks like you are moving right along. Curious to see if you have test mounted the bed on the s-10 frame? Watched several similar builds end-up with almost a cosmetic bed [floor sits really high] due to the contours of the S-10 frame. But you mentioned this will be a cruiser so maybe you are not really worried about the bed?

[Tempest67]

Ahhh, the wiper motor..... what a PITA

I picked up a wiper motor with a 90* swing (rear hatch from a Subaru, so the guy said)

I tried to place it in the middle of the 2 wiper arms, with some brackets I made, and then attach each arm to an adjustable bracket that attached to the wiperassembly , so I could fine tune the movement of each wiper. After hours of lying on my back, trying to get both wipers to work, unsuccessfully, I decided to have just the driver's side function, and the Passenger side glass will be covered with RainX (or Wax).

The pics aren't great, but what you see are the 2 brackets from flat bar, 1 bracket is welded to the dash support, the other is bolted, and you can see where I welded the rotating arm to the wiper assembly, and it is attached to the stock wiper arm.

I hooked up a 12v Battery and it seems to go back a forth fine. I will just need to turn it off when the wiper blade is down. No Auto-Park for me.

Motor is almost assembled, but still needs paint and attach trans. (clutch and flywheel)........ step by step.... inch by inch...

[Tempest67]

Fear Nothing good observation.

This is a "cruiser", but I do want to have a functional bed, so what I did was lower the rear fenders on the bed sides by about 2 inches. I needed to add a 2 inch strip to the lower part of the bedside, at the 'apron', but when all is said and done, I don't think anyone will notice.

[jed971959]

Hi I used a rear window wiper motor off a jimmy/blazer and switch they work great
Jim

[Tempest67]

Just a quick update, ....here she is during surgery, the oil pan is now on, and waiting for a new coat of paint and some accessories.....stay tuned.

[Tempest67]

Since I welded up my drain hole in the firewall, I needed to find a way to drain any water from the cowl vent out of the interior of the truck.

So, I purchased some plastic hose, attached it to the drain tube, ran it across the passenger side of the firewall, into the kick panel cavity, down the cowl, and out the hole at the bottom of the cowl panel.

[8man]

That should work.

[Tempest67]

Been busy doing things that are not 'exciting', but need to be done.

Installed new brake lines

Installed new rear shocks

Changed Rear Diff fluid

Insulated firewall, as I am getting prepared to install new Wiring harness.


Motor is not in yet, as waiting for paint, and want to change trans fluid before install.




step by step....inch by inch

[8man]

Progress is progress, and when you do make progress it just feels good!

[Tempest67]

made some tail light brackets the other day

[8man]

Well done.

[Tempest67]

Thanks 8man. 1 more thing off the list, and getting ready for installing the wiring harness, and the engine, and the trans, and complete the doors, and....etc... you know what I mean


How do you eat an elephant?.........1 piece at a time

[joedoh]

looking amazing man!

[Tempest67]

I am getting ready for the new wiring harness, and new gauges are not in the budget. (engine rebuild destroyed that) So, what do you do with factory original gauges, and S10 gauges????....... put them together.

I removed each gauge from the S10 pod, Volts, Fuel, Oil, and Temp., and traced the printed circuit to locate the power (red tape) the ground (black tape) and the sending unit (yellow tape) The gauge terminals were just round ends with no threads, so I soldered on flat terminals (male) to accept the female plug.

Now, I needed to install each gauge in the 51 pod, so just the needle was showing. So after making some metal tabs, drilling some tiny holes for screws, and a few spot welds....

Here is what I came up with... the pic with the red needles was changed to white, I thought it was more appropriate than red.

I guess I will find out if it works after the wiring harness is installed, but all in all, I think it looks OK. (I messed up the location of the Temp. plate, but once it is installed, I don't think it will be noticeable.)

I am not sure how the electronic speedo on the trans will work this old Speedometer, but that is a problem for another day

progress continues..........

[8man]

That is really cool. I hope it all works as imagined.