Nik's 62 build

[TJ's Chevy]

New pedals are nice.

[65sub]

looking good Nik. New pedals are an easy safety upgrade. Smart idea

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Yep, big improvement and a good idea.

Thanks Doug

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

New pedals are nice.

Thanks tj

Originally Posted by 65sub

looking good Nik. New pedals are an easy safety upgrade. Smart idea

Thanks Dale, my thoughts exactly. I imagine that the old smooth and hard pedals would be quite slippery when wet.

Today I got some more parts in. New brake hoses and brake pads, all I need is calipers and I can start to put the front brakes together and bleed them. I'll try to pick some up tomorrow. The list of things needed to get the truck driving is getting pretty small now. Here it is, I'm sure there's lots of other small things, but these are the bare necessities:
PARTS NEEDED:
-calipers.
-new rear ujoint (conversion joint because new rear end pinion yoke needs a wider joint with larger diameter caps).
-belt for fan, alt and ps pump.
-various bolts.
-differential cover gasket.
WORK TO BE DONE:
-make and flare lines for hydraulic clutch.
-make and flare brake lines (from proportioning block to calipers, and piece on rear axle).
-brake bleeding.
-fill rear end with gear oil.
-wire in and mount 39 Ford Taillights.
-finish up the floor rust repair on passengers side.
-weld up new front upper shock mounts (not critical, but still needs to be done along with installing the front seat bar).

[62stepside longbox]

Today I went and picked up the calipers from my local auto parts store, this weekend I'll get them bolted on and start hooking up the lines.

[62stepside longbox]

Decided I wanted to take a break from the usual boring things such as brakes so I removed the gauge pod, did a quick coat of primer and light sand and then sprayed it flat black, I decided on flat black for now since it matches with the faded fawn on the dash. It'll eventually get painted fawn when I paint the dash some time in the future. I also did a cool little modification with the radio delete plate, I put it on a small piano hindge. Here it is closed.

[62stepside longbox]

And here it is flipped open, as you can see I hid the radio behind it. I did this because I always hate seeing ugly aftermarket radios in these trucks ruining the whole look. I still need to mount the radio but here is a video showing the operation of the opening and closing delete plate: https://youtu.be/J4g6zcLk6Ao

[Palf70Step]

Nice work Nik!

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Good work man!

Thanks Tj!

Originally Posted by Captainfab

I like the hinged radio delete plate

Thanks John, so do I

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice work Nik!

Thanks bill!


Today I found a great deal on a much larger welding tank, and it came already filled with c25! This should last me a while. Also worked a little bit on brake lines.

[62stepside longbox]

I also made some progress on the gas tank filler neck, the angle of the filler tube wasn't to my liking as it landed in the middle of my bumper where I want to put a hitch. So I reshaped it with plenty of pie cuts and welding very carefully to make sure no pin holes existed. This way the filler cap is placed in the bed panel under the tailgate. I then used a piece of rubber hose to link the two together to compensate for any bed movement. The rubber hose came from a filler neck on an old ford truck in the junkyard, so I know it is rated for fuel. Changing the angle of the filler neck also ensures that I won't have gas pouring out the back when driving up a hill.

[62stepside longbox]

And here is the rear view, I still need to fill some of the old holes that were already there when I bought the truck, but it's starting to take shape.

[Palf70Step]

Very Nice. I would NOT have thought of putting the filler neck in that location.

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Very Nice. I would NOT have thought of putting the filler neck in that location.

Thanks bill, it took a little creative thinking.

I finished up the metal work on the front bumper and bolted it on the truck, but I didn't want the bare metal to surface rust so I sprayed it with some gloss aluminum colour paint, looks pretty good for now, kinda like a poor mans Chrome . It will eventually get painted white in the future along with the grille.

[Classic v6 GMC's]

Nice idea on the radio and the truck is getting close to back together!

[TJ's Chevy]

Bumper looks nice!

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by Classic v6 GMC's

Nice idea on the radio and the truck is getting close to back together!

Thanks Andy, Should be soon!

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Bumper looks nice!

Thanks tj, good to see you join the Facebook group!


Been busy lately with fishing, dirtbiking and such, but still been getting lots of little things done. I discovered that my pinion yoke is much wider and doesn't match the driveshaft yoke. So I went to the junkyard and found another 30 spline yoke that had the correct 1310 ujoint size. This one used ubolts instead of straps and bolts, but luckily I kept the ubolts from the old rear end. Other than the ujoint size, they are the exact same and will interchange. New one is the one on the right side. Unfortunately I'll need to reset the pinion bearing preload, oh well.

[SSpeed66]

Did you go to Allens Hose N All for that ?

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by SSpeed66

Did you go to Allens Hose N All for that ?

Yes

[RANDY COX]

That was a great mod on that radio delete plate nobody would ever suspect that there's a hidden radio back there...That's getting creative.. That's what it's all about making the truck your own...good job keep up the good work....

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by RANDY COX

That was a great mod on that radio delete plate nobody would ever suspect that there's a hidden radio back there...That's getting creative.. That's what it's all about making the truck your own...good job keep up the good work....

Thanks randy! Little touches like this is what will make this truck so unique compared to all the others out there.

Due to the truck being parked in the same place the entire time I've owned it lots of random crap has gotten piled up in and around it. So I spent the morning taking a load to the dump and sweeping out the bed and the interior. It's staring to look like a truck that might actually run now😂.

[62stepside longbox]

Since the original bed wood was completely rotten I just bolted in the piece of plywood I had laying around. It doesn't look too pretty but it will allow me to use the bed, eventually I will put some nice planks of oak in the back, but that will be at least a year or two down the road.

[Classic v6 GMC's]

Looks good!

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by Classic v6 GMC's

Looks good!

Thanks Andy!

I then drilled the hole for the brake hose on the passengers side and bolted it in, all that needs to be done is the passengers side upper shock mount welded in and the front end will be completely done

[62stepside longbox]

I also worked on making some tailgate latches. Some of you might remember that last year I picked up a chrome set of seat belt buckles from a Cadillac in picknpull exactly for this. I bolted the female end of the buckle to the bedside, I still need to get the correct length bolts.

[SSpeed66]

Hey Nik. I'll be getting a local old boy who has a wood shop to do the cutting & milling of my bed wood, probably out of local Douglas Fir as there is so much of it here. If there were 2 of us going together on it, it might be a lot less $$$

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by SSpeed66

Hey Nik. I'll be getting a local old boy who has a wood shop to do the cutting & milling of my bed wood, probably out of local Douglas Fir as there is so much of it here. If there were 2 of us going together on it, it might be a lot less $$$

Just sent you a message on Facebook