65 Short Fleet Small Window Update

[1963c-10]

Nice job. Looks like its coming together nicely.

[Ta2Don]

Smokin' Fast Progress!!!

Looking Good!

[nhr3]

Had some time this weekend to start the wiring. We are installing a kit from Ron Francis, The converter lockup from Bowtie Overdrive, cooling fan control from Cooling Components, Vintage Air Gen IV kit and a delayed wiper kit from Twofakind (forum Vendor). I still have to workout firewall feed through and a plug for the hood wiring. This week I also need to finish up 700R4 cooling line install, Gas Line install and brackets for the Cooling Components radiator fan. Friend is supposed to come by and take the seat to the upholstery shop. Another friend is going to bend up, new, stainless steel radiator lines. hopefully we will fire the motor up in the next couple of weeks. Then we start sandblasting bed parts.

[nhr3]

Well we have been working on the wiring. Slow progress. We install some get a better idea, order parts, wait for parts and then install parts. On to the next piece. The fuse box in mounted. Most of the vintage air wiring done and some of the engine stuff wired. Next up the transmission lock out circuit, the electric cooling fan and lights. Today we got the chassis punch in to do the air-conditioning vents on the ends of the dash board. Next on that project is to finish wet sand and buff the dash. Seat may go to upholstery shop this week.

[nhr3]

We have been working at getting the wiring settled down for a couple of weeks now. We are installing a Ron Francis kit but are also installing Vintage Air, Transmission converter lock out, Engine cooling fan, wiper delay from board member twofakind and a Dakota Digital VHS gauge package. The gauge package finally cam in this week (it took 9 weeks from the time I ordered) but did not have the accessories for dimming and the shift indication. Hopefully those will be here by the end of the week. Also coming is a replacement neutral safety switch from CPP as the one that came with the new Column will not adjust correctly.

[nhr3]

So to take breaks from wiring I also beefed up the bed cross braces with 1" square tube so they can be bolted to the frame from the underside and I can eliminate the 8 bolts and large washers through the bed wood. I plan on installing a teak bed and the off center washers were something I did not want to deal with. With the cross braces complete we installed the bed sides and front for a test fit. We will now take that apart and fix two small rust problems and sand blast inside and out. Lots to do but after 3 years it is finally starting to look like a truck again.

[nhr3]

We spent 4 hours on the sand blaster yesterday getting the bed sides down to metal. I am sure hoping I am better at body work than I was 30 years ago when I last restored the truck. They are not too bad but there will be some challenges.

[nhr3]

The Dave Boyd fuel tank arrived today. Very nice. It fits with no modifications to the frame. Also spent the day cleaning up wiring and getting ECU's for the Dakota package settled down. Nice to see electric power on for the first time in three years. We should be getting to engine start in the next week or two.

[nhr3]

Among other things I have been working on the fuel tank installation. I stole an idea from Chevyrestoguy and went a little different direction. I was also pondering how to work the tank vent system. I liked the Activated Charcoal idea but preferred to go the PVC route for the filter housing. In the attached pictures you will see I was able to fabricate the filter using 2" PVS some hose barbs and a bit of fuel line. The Charcoal came Via Ebay and the whole deal was less than $30. I sent the filter vent line to dead end in the aft right stake pocket.

[chevyrestoguy]

I can't believe I missed so much of this build! I remember it early on, but hadn't checked on it in a while. Man, you are one busy dude! I really like what you're doing. The fuel tank vent is really slick.

It's funny how much our trucks parallel each other. Both have small blocks, factory serpentine set-ups, overdrive transmissions, air conditioning, wiper delay, and fuel tanks not in the factory location. And, I'm also in the aerospace business. I have been an aircraft prototype technician for one of the Big 3 aerospace companies for the last 24 years, working on everything from the Stealth Bomber to the Joint Strike Fighter to the latest unmanned stuff. The business has been very good to me.

I can't wait to see more, and I promise not to miss out on this thread again.

[nhr3]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

I can't believe I missed so much of this build! I remember it early on, but hadn't checked on it in a while. Man, you are one busy dude! I really like what you're doing. The fuel tank vent is really slick.

It's funny how much our trucks parallel each other. Both have small blocks, factory serpentine set-ups, overdrive transmissions, air conditioning, wiper delay, and fuel tanks not in the factory location. And, I'm also in the aerospace business. I have been an aircraft prototype technician for one of the Big 3 aerospace companies for the last 24 years, working on everything from the Stealth Bomber to the Joint Strike Fighter to the latest unmanned stuff. The business has been very good to me.

I can't wait to see more, and I promise not to miss out on this thread again.

Thanks for the complements but this site constantly amazes me with the talents of the folks that post.

My progress goes in spurts. I worked for the Whispering Wonder Wagon factory in Savannah for 26 years. I bought the truck as a daily driver at that time. My career took me from the Service Center into Field Service for many years.

I left the company and started my own consulting business 10 years ago. It has only been in the last few years I have had time to start working on my own projects again.

At this time in my aviation life, I only take special projects that interest me. I try to work 3-6 months a year and when not on the road I like to work on my boats or in my shop on the truck daily. In the last few months I have had weather and time on my side so I have really made some progress. The truck has now been off the road for about 15 years. I sure look forward to the day I am once again screaming up and down the road in it.

[nhr3]

Working at cleaning the shop today I was able to get some outside photos of the project

[markeb01]

Nice progress!

[nhr3]

We went to Carlisle Truck meet last Friday and bought some wheel tubs for the bed. This got us to moving on the bed part of the project. The plan is for a teak bed. I was doing a boat project a few years ago and purchased a lot of teak never got used. Over the years I have built furniture, tool box tops and other things with that teak and reclaimed teak stripped off old boats. Teak is my wood of choice. What better material for a bed floor. I sorted through t he stock in the shop attic and decided each bed board would start with a glue up of 2ea 5/4X4 boards. We picked 16 boards and sorted things out for grain and appearance. With sorting and positioning done we cut the boards to length, ran one edge on each through the table saw, cut biscuit groves and glued up. At the end of the day we had all our boards to rough size. The next step will be planing down to 3/4, squaring things up and cutting the edges for the separator strips.

[nhr3]

I laid the rough cut teak into the bed this morning to get a feel for how it was going to look. I am considering going with an oil finish and unpolished stainless strips and hardware.

[1963c-10]

Wood looks great. That teak should last a long time.

[nhr3]

Big day today. I cut all the teak to size, ordered more planer knives (the teak eats them alive), ordered the new strips and hardware and ordered a new engine. All that and by three the shop was clean and I was on the boat scaring the fish away. Got to enjoy while I can it is looking like I have a couple of months on the road coming up.

[nhr3]

Started on the basic body work on the bed sides yesterday. I am going to have to replace some metal where the wheel tubs bolt to the bed sides and around the the forward stake pockets because of rust. I decided to weld over the stake pocket and eliminate the inside structure. This should make the bed side look a lot cleaner and it eliminates a lot of troublesome body work. I found during the work that the wire feed motor on my Lincoln ST180 mig welder is about gone. It stalls and will not feed frequently. Have to manually turn the wheal to get it going only to have it stall again. Replacement motor is on order. I am a bit disappointed in Lincoln. The welder is not new, I have reworked the cab and many other projects with it, but it is not that old. Hind sight I am thinking I should have bought a Miller.

[nhr3]

We decided that if we are going this far with the project a new motor was in order. The one I have been using for system tests is a 2 bolt main 350 I built and installed in the early 1980's. I did it right and bored .30 over installed an overhauled crank and re did the heads. All that said it does have 30K miles on it now and is 30 years old with a lot of storage time.

With GM crate motors running around $1500 for a 4 bolt main long block I could not resist. The new motor arrived today (4 days after I ordered).

[nhr3]

Finished working the teak for the bed and laid everything in for a test fit. I still have to decide on finish but I am leaning toward just sand and oil. The bed strips are 'unpolished" stainless steel from Mar K. They definitely shine enough for me.

I was going to deploy this week on an Aviation project I work on but that has now been put on hold. I am contemplating either dropping the crate motor in or starting back into body work. Today I will probably put the new feed motor in the welder and do shop maintenance.

[nhr3]

In between long periods on the road for work I installed the crate engine. During hook up I found, with my vacuum tester that I had a coolant system leak. Went round and round until I decided to do the old pressurize 10PSI and soak down with soapy water. Bottom line is I have ordered a radiator from RnD, a gold vendor on this site. All reviews are good and it is a 4 row radiator. Sparky seems like a good guy to deal with.

With the systems about up we are going to start into the finish body work to get ready for paint. The goal is to be driving next spring or summer. This could slip as I have a big airplane project coming up. It is just not right when how you earn a living gets in the way of hobbies.

[Modges'66]

Wow!
The truck is looking great, and the bed-wood has turned out awesome!
I am about to start on my wood, and was wondering if you knew exactly how thick the original wood is?
I am going to do mine myself, and when I bought my truck there was no wood in the box...
I do know that if it isn't the correct thickness, I will end-up shimming to get the body-lines to line-up with the cab...

[nhr3]

Originally Posted by Modges'66

Wow!
The truck is looking great, and the bed-wood has turned out awesome!
I am about to start on my wood, and was wondering if you knew exactly how thick the original wood is?
I am going to do mine myself, and when I bought my truck there was no wood in the box...
I do know that if it isn't the correct thickness, I will end-up shimming to get the body-lines to line-up with the cab...

Interesting - When this message came in on my phone I had the calipers out and was measuring the thickness of the boards I dimensioned and the the original boards. I measured the old boards under where the wheel tubs bolt down so as not to have to guess at shrinkage due to weather. I roughly came out to 3/4 inch on the old boards and about 1/32 thicker (25/32) on my boards. Mar-K calls out 25/32 (http://www.mar-k.com/Catalog/PDF/Ins...Dimensions.pdf). I am using unpolished Mar-K SS strips so I cut the grooves to their dimensions. GM Pauls also has a great page on wood dimensions. http://www.gmcpaulstruckparts.com/47...dWood_Info.htm

I am having issues with body lines but I think that is because I have not bolted anything up yet. I have decided that I will assemble the bed, in full, off the truck. My reasoning is I will be better able to get everything square before I tighten up. all the fasteners. Hopefully everything will work out.

[Modges'66]

Thanks a bunch for the great info & links!
Because I have widened my wheel tubs, the width of my boards will not be standard.
I will be eliminating one board & making the remaining boards wider....I have already drilled all of the new holes in the crossmembers and box. More work than it sounds like...

[nhr3]

Originally Posted by Modges'66

Thanks a bunch for the great info & links!
Because I have widened my wheel tubs, the width of my boards will not be standard.
I will be eliminating one board & making the remaining boards wider....I have already drilled all of the new holes in the crossmembers and box. More work than it sounds like...

sounds like quite a chore but at least it is the round holes and not the little square ones. I was thinking if I ever had to do the square ones I was going to look for something like a greenlee chassis punch to do them.