Project '64 Cheapskate

[65Pickup]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

^^^Now that's a slick idea! I would put the 30 and 90 ohm guts next to each other and see what the difference is. From an electronics standpoint, an ohm difference could mean just a different resistor. This might be even simpler than it looks.

You might be surprised. GM was so good about utilizing the same basis component and making slight changes to satisfy all the brands that you might be able to just plug and play. If I recall, GM went to the 90 ohm set-ups in the mid-to-later '60s. I'm pretty certain that the Chevelles had them.

I would Google or do a little research and find out when GM changed from 30 to 90. I would start making "recon" trips to the wrecking yards and look for a suitable substitute that has a similar size and the "half-sweep" range like your truck's stock gauge. I would also research and see if a 30 ohm system can be changed to a 90 ohm using common Radio Shack components, like maybe a resistor.

Here's a link that might get you pointed in the right direction:
http://www.novas.net/forums/showthread.php?p=90006

Check this out. It's from a Ford truck forum, but look at Post #3. I think it has the answer you need:
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/96...ding-unit.html

Google is your friend.........Let us know what you come up with!
Alex

Thanks Alex I will if I succeed, your tips on Chevy dashes is perfect, a little research and we'll see what comes up. I'll have to get one of those overlay sheets too. Great help, thanks again. Mike

[65Pickup]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

^^^Now that's a slick idea! I would put the 30 and 90 ohm guts next to each other and see what the difference is. From an electronics standpoint, an ohm difference could mean just a different resistor. This might be even simpler than it looks.

You might be surprised. GM was so good about utilizing the same basis component and making slight changes to satisfy all the brands that you might be able to just plug and play. If I recall, GM went to the 90 ohm set-ups in the mid-to-later '60s. I'm pretty certain that the Chevelles had them.

I would Google or do a little research and find out when GM changed from 30 to 90. I would start making "recon" trips to the wrecking yards and look for a suitable substitute that has a similar size and the "half-sweep" range like your truck's stock gauge. I would also research and see if a 30 ohm system can be changed to a 90 ohm using common Radio Shack components, like maybe a resistor.

Here's a link that might get you pointed in the right direction:
http://www.novas.net/forums/showthread.php?p=90006

Check this out. It's from a Ford truck forum, but look at Post #3. I think it has the answer you need:
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/96...ding-unit.html

Google is your friend.........Let us know what you come up with!
Alex

You got me thinking and this link says go to Radio Shack (The Source) for a potentiometer, and dial down the 90 ohm. Sounds simple, lets hope.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/gm-f...hm-106069.html

[chevyrestoguy]

I just got back from the wrecking yard with an incredible haul. I got work a little early yesterday, so I went on a recon mission to two of the yards that are on my way home. My commute is 68 miles each way, and both yards are self-service. The first yard was a complete bust, nothing. The second yard is substantially larger (Ecology Auto Wrecking) and lo and behold, there was a '65 C-10 that had just been put in the yard. The body was thrashed, but it had not been picked apart at all. While I was checking it out, a guy walked by and said, "If you wait until tomorrow, the yard is having a half-price day". Awesome! So, I pulled everything I needed and stashed it all in a Chevy van and showed up first thing this morning.

Here's what I got: a COMPLETE automatic steering column, with e-brake handle, all the auto trans linkage, a 3-core original V-8 radiator (!) AND a perfect fan shroud, 2 window cranks, 2 inside door handles, a huge bag of bolts, a GMC horn cap, and a horn for $85. And that includes the stupid $13 core charge for the radiator, column, and shroud. Man, I am one happy camper. It was total luck that I went by the yard and they actually had a 60-66, and also the fact that it was 1/2 price day.

I was racking my brain on what I was going to do about a column. My truck was originally a 4-speed, and I'm converting to an automatic. Auto columns are not easy to find, so I was in the process of modifying a 67-72 column to work. I was about 80% done and was about ready to mock it all up to see if it would work. This column I got today eliminates a bunch of headaches. Plus, I'm still keeping this build very effective, using all factory parts, and cheap.

[SFTorange]

That's awesome! It's great to find one that hasn't had anything of value pulled off yet!

[65Pickup]

Great fortune, must be karma...

[SulphuriousSam]

That's awesome! WTG

[wutnxt]

Dude you got some great skills.....it's really going together nicely ....keep up the good work

[chevyrestoguy]

Got some things done on the old beater this weekend. I pulled the original 4-speed trans and crossmember out in anticipation of the upcoming suspension swap. I knew those things were heavy, but holey smokes that trans was a greasy, heavy beast! I wound up firing up the torch and cutting the transmission crossmember and lowering it out with the floorjack. I removed the remaining sections of the crossmember and the attaching rivets as well.

I also installed the automatic steering column, replaced the door handles, cut out the old exhaust, and installed the rear view mirror. I'm getting real close to doing the suspension swap, but I'm going to need to steam clean the chassis first. It's a greasy mess, and that job is not going to be very pleasant.

[65Pickup]

I feel your pain, I've spent many hours over the last few months scraping and wiping my frame for new lines, wiring, cross member, and motor trans install. Amazing what you miss while trying to pressure wash it. Good luck, it sure is nice working on when its clean.

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

Well, a week or so ago I added some pictures showing the dash all cleaned up, along with the unfinished gauge cluster. In the left corner of the cluster, I had temporarily mounted a vacuum gauge from a '66 Oldsmobile 442, and promised that I would post up more shots when I had the vacuum gauge finished. Here's a step-by-step pictorial showing what I did:

I love the look of the gauge clusters when they're fully optioned with the tach and vacuum gauges, but finding those gauges can be an expensive endeavor. As the title of the thread proudly proclaims, I'm building this truck on the cheap, so I had to put my thinking cap on to figure how I can duplicate this look without throwing down a lot of dough. I started going on ebay and looking at all the GM vacuum gauges, and the prices were all over the board. The Chevy truck gauge was seemingly impossible to find, and the car gauges were pretty spendy. The beauty of GM stuff is that a lot of it will interchange, and I was taking a gamble on whether it would all fit. On ebay, I started watching one gauge in particular, one from a '66 Olds 442. It was thrashed, and it seemed like nobody was interested. The seller proclaimed that it worked, and that was good enough for me, so I placed a bid with 20 seconds left in the auction, and got it for $28, which is a steal. The housing was nicked up, the chrome was flaking, somebody had put a prisma decal on it, the clear bezel was cracked, but I didn't care because I wasn't going to use any of that stuff. Here it is. Trust me, it looks nicer than it really is:


Here it is all disassembled, pretty simple:


I took the gauge itself and held it up to the truck's cluster and the mounting holes were identical to the ones in the truck's gauge cluster (gotta love GM!) and I bolted it in to see if it would work. It was about 1/2" too high and didn't look right. Plus the font wasn't identical and wasn't the sea-green color of the rest of the gauges:


So I started researching what the factory gauge looked like, and lo and behold, I discovered that the faceplate of the vacuum gauge was exactly the same shape and size as the truck's block-off plate. Now I was on to something. If I could use the block-off plate as the gauge face, then a huge part of the puzzle could be solved.


The block-off has two tiny rivets that secure it to a sheetmetal tab that bolts itself to the mounting plate. I made some measurements on the center-to-center spacing of those rivets and compared it to the tiny bolts that secured the faceplate on the Olds vacuum gauge, and they were identical. So I carefully drilled out the rivets and removed the tab from the block-off plate. I also made some measurements of where the hole needed to be for the needle to protrude through and drilled that with a 11/64" bit.


Now came the tricky part, the fonts for the gauge. I had been in contact with a well-known gauge company and had sent them a pdf file showing the decal I wanted them to make. They agreed that they could make it, and I was about 5 minutes from pulling the trigger when I went on the site and saw the thread that Parklane410 posted concerning the gauge overlay kit he was selling. I immediately bought the overlay kit. It was like it was meant to be. Here's what Jason's kit looks like, minus a couple of the overlays for the little gauges that I already installed before I took this picture:


Here's what the old cover plate looks like with the holes drilled and the overlay installed:


Here it is installed to the truck's original mount plate, using the tiny faceplate mounting screws from the Olds gauge. I also removed the needle stop from the Olds gauge and drilled a tiny hole and super-glued in on the new faceplate. I also determined where zero Hg location was on the gauge and pressed the needle in place. I have yet to paint the needle, but it will be painted.


Here it is, installed in the cluster. It looks 100% factory. I figure that I have about $33 invested in it when you consider the ebay price and the overlay price. I wound up overlaying all of the gauges, so the vacuum gauge overlay price was 1/7th of the total cost of the overlay set ($35). That's a heck of a lot cheaper than some of the $200 gauges I was seeing on ebay.


Next step, tach! Stay tuned for more cheap-ass adventures!

Subscribed..

[chevyrestoguy]

I haven't posted in a few weeks, but that doesn't mean that I haven't done anything on the truck. As I posted earlier, I have a '79 Suburban that I am using as a donor for suspension and whatever else. Well, last weekend, I started tearing it down. Some of the parts were ones I was going to keep, others were spoken for by friends, and I was able to post an ad here on the site and so far have had a lot of responses. It's going to donate a lot of parts, and I'm really excited about how it's going to benefit the '64.

In parallel, I have been pulling the suspension out from under the '64. Here's a few shots with the front suspension removed:


The Donor:

And finally, the pest that wants me to play fetch every 30 seconds. She's a great dog, and she would play fetch until her feet bleed. Yeah, she's addicted to that ball.


Next weekend: Pull the final 14 bolts holding the suspension into the Suburban, stream-clean it all, then start detailing the chassis in preparation for the suspension install. Gotta keep knocking things off the list!

[oakstcustomz]

Looking good! I picked mine up for $100 and made it a driver......my winter project is to do the newer front suspension swap from a sub or a long bed pickup......along with some other things....keep it up!

[65Pickup]

dogs have got the looks that make you melt, one of mine is just like that...ball, ball, ball

[chevyrestoguy]

I got a lot done today. First off, we pulled the front suspension out of the Suburban, then we bolted up the '64 front suspension to the Suburban so it would remain a roller. Then, I steam-cleaned the front suspension and all the rest of the Suburban parts I plan on using. After that, I got on the '64 and steam-cleaned the chassis. What a nasty mess. Oh, another thing: After we bolted the '64 suspension into the Suburban, Brad noticed a NASTY 4" crack in the Suburban's driver's side framerail. It had obviously been in a wreck at sometime in it's life.

I even yanked some more parts off the Sub that I'm going to sell. My buddy Bob, came over and whacked the roof off the Sub so he could use the ribbed roof skin for a '33 Ford sedan that he's building for another buddy. That Suburban has been an amazing donor vehicle.

Tomorrow, I plan on bolting the '79 front suspension into the '64, then yanking the 12-bolt out of the Suburban and steam-cleaning it. I'll get the rear of the '64 up high in the air and double-check the chassis and steam the areas I missed. If I have the time, I'm going to McGuyver the '64 rear into the Suburban so it'll still be a roller.

Next weekend, I plan on painting the chassis, torching the perches off the 12-bolt, and re-welding new perches. I would like to bolt the rear into the '64 and put her back on the ground. We'll see!

[chevyrestoguy]

Another good day today! I got the front suspension installed in the '64, did some more steam-cleaning and yanked the 12-bolt out of the Suburban.

Here's the steam-cleaned front suspension ready to go into the '64.


And here it is installed. It's definitely got a nose-up stance because there's no engine installed, and the suspension has big blocks springs in it. We'll fix that in the next few weeks. The swap went really well. The suspension is really heavy, and it can be a challenge to get it placed on the floor jack evenly. Once we got it in position, everything lined up. I had to slot one hole on each side and had to drill a new hole on each side as well. It went really quick. I still have to get a steering box bracket from Captain Fab and remove the sway bar frame mounts off of the Suburban chassis. This week, I am going to buy a set of spring perches and hopefully, they'll show up by next Saturday. I'll clean the shock mounts and old perches off of the 12-bolt, and if everything continues to plan, I'll get the rear end installed in the '64.

[wutnxt]

Dude....

Your a machine , thats alot of work....sounds like your making great progress ..Keep the updates rolling on in.....

[chevyrestoguy]

Thanks! You may think I'm a machine, but after this weekend, I feel like a worn out pup. Getting up for work today was brutal.

[wutnxt]

I know that feeling........lol
One day of progress.....3 days recovering....lol

[chevyrestoguy]

I had only one day to work on the 'ol beast this weekend, but I got some of the knuckle-busting work done. The original '64 8-lug rear got yanked out, but it didn't go without a fight. That thing fought me every step of the way. After smashing my finger big-time, I was ready to quit for the day, but Brad fired up the torch and whacked the u-bolts, and then it finally came out. I spent way too much time trying to get the original u-bolts out and wasted a bunch of time doing that. Live and learn.

Got the 12-bolt up under the truck, but now I need to make some calls to Early Classic and order the panhard bar/shock mount relocator kit, along with new u-bolts.

[Kabwe]

Well at least it looks like you've been busy.lol
I'm just checking in on you man everything is looking great.

[chevyrestoguy]

Thanks, Bam!
Yeah, I've been a busy boy lately. I can only work on the '64 during the weekends because my work schedule is crazy from Monday through Friday. I'm also hustling hard to get all the knuckle-busting work completed before it starts turning cold. Once I get the rear end bolted up, I'll mount the exhaust, put the mock-up block and trans in it, set the trans crossmember in place, and then nail-down the exact pinion angle I'm looking for and then I can weld the saddles to the rear housing.

I ordered a Super Track Bar kit and a shock re-locator kit from Early Classics yesterday, and they should get here this afternoon. While I have the rear end out, I'm going to flip the front trailing arm brackets and re-bush the trailing arms. It's better to do it now than later!

[chevyrestoguy]

I got a lot of work done on the rear suspension in the last few weekends. First, I flipped the forward trailing arm brackets. Pretty straightforward, but you've got a bunch of those pesky GM rivets to remove. I wound up firing up the torch and heating them until they are cherry red, then hitting the trigger and melting the heads off, taking extra care not to torch the bracket. Then, grab the air chisel and knock what's left of the rivets out. When you flip the brackets, you have to drill 2 new holes per side. I wanted maximum strength, so I stepped up the holes to 7/16ths. A total of 16 fasteners, 32 flat washers and some red Locktite and you're done.

The next step was pressing new bushings into the trailing arms. I fired up the torch and burned out the old rubber and removed the guts. Then, I cleaned up the receptacle in the arms with a barrel sander and knocked the new polyurethane bushings in.

I painted the trailing arms and frame with chassis black (satin) paint. I bought a Super Track Bar Kit from Early Classic and CPP 5" drop rear coils and mocked up the rear end. I have still not welded the perches on because I have to mock up the engine/trans and carrier bearing in order to accurately get the pinion angle correct. I just wanted to see if there was anything I needed to address before I set the rear in place for the last time. Here is a picture of the rear suspension. Note: the rear axle is yet to be painted, the pinion angle is not set, the shocks are not installed, and the track bar is not installed. If you look close, you can see the new bolts on the forward trailing arm brackets that are now flipped.


Here's where it should sit at ride height. The wheels are mock ups; the tires are 31x11.50-15 and are really tight inside the wheelwells. I want close to a 30" tall rear tire, and these are relatively close, just a bit too wide. The '79 rear end is 1.5" wider than the original rear end, and that's a bummer because I would love to have a 10" rear rim tucked inside. Not gonna happen, unfortunately. It looks like an 8" will be the widest wheel I can run with this rear axle.


I have already started on doing some suspension mods on the front, but I'll refrain on posting pictures until the mod is done. Until then, hang tight!

[Alan's Classic]

Nice progress!! Lookin' good. BTW it that a Border Collie?

[chevyrestoguy]

Thanks, Allan! Yep, she's a Border Collie. Great dog, super smart. That dog LIVES to fetch. I would recommend that breed to anybody who wants a smart dog that's easy to train and is great with kids.

I have a picture of her that I took on Saturday when I was working on the front suspension that is hilarious. I'll wait and post that picture up with the rest of the front suspension build shots.

[McMurphy]

You are doing great work here!
Some of it is stuff I wanted to do, would like to do, and probably will do!

I am not much of a search guru, and my tries to find Parklane410 were fruitless. Could you tell me or PM me on how to get in touch with this person? I would like some of those overlays you got.

Thanks, and keep up the work. Your pics are super too!