Be Gentle. . . I'm an Amateur.

[bjcaldwe]

You will get it figured out. Also, the questions you ask, will end up helping others too.

[Groyd]

Had the day off today. Got a little bit done. I sprayed rubberized undercoating on the bottom of the cab and on the floor, firewall, and rear of the interior of the cab. All of the tac welds from the seat pan got welded in today. I also finished welding in the lower steering column mount to the toeboard.

[IMG][/IMG]

I cut a piece off of my left over cab corner replacement panel to patch the bottom of the passenger cowl. The curve of the cab corner was almost a perfect fit. I ran out of line of the welder and will have to finish some other time.

[IMG][/IMG]

I also tried to sand and paint the dash flat black like the firewall, must've not paid attention because the dash ended up being glossy black. It looks very cheesey. I'll have to fix that later as well.

[Groyd]

I've been doing little bits and pieces here and there.

I've been taking off the eight different colors of paint on the doors with aircraft paint remover and spraying etching primer. The stuff is potent, but it still takes multiple coats of it to get to bare metal.



I sprayed some flat black on the interior and fitted my seats and steering column. It's all just hand tight, I'm still working on the space. It's a small cab and I'm 6'5" so it'll be a tight fit no matter what.



Just used a U-bolt for the steering column drop.



I came so close to reaching the joint on the original s-10 shaft.

[Groyd]

I've gotten some stuff done over the past few weeks. I tried for three days to get the paint off the doors, then I found a guy with a set of '50 doors, primered and ready without the vent windows like I wanted for cheap. I went and picked them up and put the different latches on today.

[IMG][/IMG]

Looking online and in catalogs has me a little confused. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the windows need as far as channels, inner/outer frames, anti-rattle kit?
Who is the best to buy from?
What all weatherstripping do I need?
I'm not sure exactly what all I need to put the windows together. I'll need pretty much everything.

[OrrieG]

never mind, wrong series truck info

[52 choptop]

It's lookin sweet! You mentioned brakes a couple of posts ago. Are you mounting the master cylinder under the floorboard? Either way, check for flex where the brake pedal goes through the firewall. After mine was done, I had to go back and reinforce the firewall. When I applied the brakes it flexed about 1/2", but it felt like 6"! Great job so far!

[Groyd]

Originally Posted by 52 choptop

It's lookin sweet! You mentioned brakes a couple of posts ago. Are you mounting the master cylinder under the floorboard? Either way, check for flex where the brake pedal goes through the firewall. After mine was done, I had to go back and reinforce the firewall. When I applied the brakes it flexed about 1/2", but it felt like 6"! Great job so far!

Thanks, I'll be mounting to the firewall, but I'm still not sure about my brake pedal assembly or deleting the ABS. I guess I got caught up doing other stuff. I'll get to it soon enough though. My firewall definitely has some flex, I'll probably have to brace mine as well.

[BlueJeep]

If you use the s10 brake pedal assembly you can use the pedal hangar bracket to triangulate the firewall back to the dash. That's what I did with mine and it's solid.

[Groyd]

Originally Posted by BlueJeep

If you use the s10 brake pedal assembly you can use the pedal hangar bracket to triangulate the firewall back to the dash. That's what I did with mine and it's solid.

Oddly enough I've got your build thread bookmarked specifically for the brake pedal assembly.

[BlueJeep]

I can take some more pictures for you in the next couple of days. I have the gauges out to install new ones, and can get a pretty good look at the mount with them out.

[Groyd]

Originally Posted by BlueJeep

I can take some more pictures for you in the next couple of days. I have the gauges out to install new ones, and can get a pretty good look at the mount with them out.

Please & Thank You.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice progress on the truck!

[BlueJeep]

Here's my pictures. First, a reference picture:


Looking inside that hole you can see the black tab that bolts to the dash, that is one of two tabs I made to connect the pedal hangar bracket to the dash. The other one is behind the speedo.


This last one is from the passenger side looking up at the driver's side - side view:


One other thing that helps triangulate everything, is the factory brace for the cowl vent, which attaches just to the right of my new brackets.

This setup works good and has no noticeable flex...and my 49 has the firewall with out any beads rolled in it so it's a flat piece of sheetmetal...ie. no strength coming from there. I've been driving the truck since July, so I know it works!

[Groyd]

Thanks for the help.

[Clay54]

Groyd, what did you do with the old doors. I need a driver side door. Not sure a 51 door will fit my 54 - I'm sure someone will tell us.

Will PM you. Clay

[Groyd]

I've been working like a dog and not a lot to show for it. I spent all day yesterday cutting off the cab mounts and lowering them 2", then replaced the rear end with a '98 blazer 4X4.



I picked up a brake pedal assembly from an '89 S-10 and cut it down to fit under my dash. I still have to get the booster and master cylinder (they came from the blazer) all bolted down. I was just making sure it would fit.



There's not quite enough length on the arm from the booster. I guess I'll just have to lengthen it about 1-2".



I took the bed apart and had it media blasted. There are a ton of dents and dings that I've been trying to Bondo and sand on. I just put it temporarily back together.

[Groyd]

Any suggestions for a radiator. . . dimensions, type, prices, etc? I've got a 5.3L and 4L60E.

[BlueJeep]

Depends on what you have room for. I believe most of us with the s10 frames have either a 19x22 cheepie aluminum one or a stock type one kicked forward at the bottom to clear the steering box.

[Groyd]

I decided to go ahead and make a mess of my rear fenders before I sent them to the body shop. Here is some evidence of my attempt at tunneling in some taillights.

1. I got the bed even and found the center of the tunnels.



2. I tried to follow the advice of a bunch of people online and I watched the episode on "Trucks" where they installed a set of tunneled taillights. I measured about a thousand times and still cut the hole a little to low on the drivers side, I ended up having to fill in a small gap. After about a thousand tac welds I tried to get a bead around the tunnel. I know absolutely nothing about welding so be as critical as you like, it won't make it any prettier.

I literally spend three hours on each one trying to get the tunnel to fit in parallel to the bed side before I welded it in place. I ended up having to shave a significant portion of the side of the tunnel.

3. I ground off the beads and taped it off to copy on the other side.


4. Duplicated it on the other side. Then cleaned it up a little with some filler.


5. I just sat the taillights in the tunnels to see how they looked. I'm going to take the fenders to a body shop this week or next and maybe they can fix some of my screw ups. You can see on the close up shot that I couldn't get my grinder in close enough to get the small ridges out. I needed a more precise tool.

[bobinbc]

That looks really good, you are 95% of the way there. Unless you know a good bodyshop that does custom work for free, I would come back to this later to clean it up yourself. You'll be surprised how much easier the finishing will seem to be after you do a bunch of other bodywork on the truck. I think it looks AWESOME!
2 things to remember: (1) NO car or truck is perfect, nice yes, close yes, but not perfect. Any goood body guy or painter knows this.
(2) You can't see both sides of the truck at the same time, so even if they don't turn out exactly the same it will never be noticed

[Spackle100]

Looks pretty darn good to me. 3 hours per side sounds about right IMO. But hey, at least you know a thing or two about welding now

[Kabwe]

Man it looks good, good work keep it going.

Originally Posted by bobinbc

(1) NO car or truck is perfect, nice yes, close yes, but not perfect. Any good body guy or painter knows this.

What I wish someone would have told me this before I started I would have been done by now.

[hotrodrookie]

I’d say the tunneling job looks pretty slick. I agree with Bob, why take them to a body shop after all that work you put into them for a little bondo and sanding. And because you mentioned it about the welding, you’re right about the thousands of tacks but I would try and avoid running any continuous beads on sheet metal. I like to turn the heat up when using the tack method because the initial penetration of the "hot" tack is more than if you were running a bead on the normal setting. I would also suggest picking up a bottle of shielding gas and solid core wire for your mig if you can, makes a world of difference.

[Kabwe]

Originally Posted by Groyd

You can see on the close up shot that I couldn't get my grinder in close enough to get the small ridges out. I needed a more precise tool.

Get one of these to get to those tight spots (I like the cone one but I have all of them you can buy the separately) put it in a angle grinder. Use a sharpy to mark the metal you need to remove, but careful because these things remove metal fast. You can do it man.

[hotrodrookie]

If the die grinder takes off too much material, a sander like this would probably be more controllable. Sure its harbor freight but for little stuff like this it would be a cheap investment, throw in a 20% off coupon and it's even cheaper.

and dont forget to pick up some flap wheels too...