Thrash 2007: Will I drive it to the board meet?

[LUV2XCLR8]

Updates ? ? ?

[BACKYARD88]

What's going on with the thrash?

[Alvin]

My apologies for my lack of updates in MY OWN build thread. Not much of a build thread afterall, eh? It's been a busy couple of months... and things have changed direction a bit.

A friend of mine purchased an original paint 1971 Camaro. It's pretty cool looking, so I told him I'd keep an eye out for an original paint body to put on my rebuilt chassis. At the end of April I saw a post by Keith (n2billet) about his new project "SwingSet". In the post he mentioned selling both Lucy his red '68 and Ethel his blue '68. I had seen pictures of Ethel from last year, and knew she had just the look I was going for. I contacted Keith, and even though he was out of town on business, the transaction was flawless. It couldn't have been any easier. At any rate, on May 19th, Ethel was in my driveway.







So now I had another complete '68 SWB that I had to take apart... dang these projects get out of hand quick! Luckily my dad came into town on May 23rd, so I had some extra manpower and ambition to drive things along. With the help of a few friends we had Ethel mostly apart in one day. Had it not been for a cab mount bolt welded to the floor board, we would've had the cab off the first day. I set-up a web cam to take a pic every 30 seconds, and compiled the pics into a video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...37984470014080

So a couple days later (between weather and work), we had the cab on the frame. Now it was starting to look like something!





Next up was test firing the engine. This 350/TH350 combo had sat in my garage untouched for two years. We made a pre-oiler out of the old distributor, and while pressurizing the oil system, quickly discovered there was no oil pressure sending unit in the block. So right away she was a quart low! We stole the sending unit from the other engine, and finally got some oil flowing on the rocker arms. Looked pretty promising. We aligned the timing mark, stabbed the new distributor, took the carb off the other engine, and worked on wiring it up so we could test fire it. So finally, on June 8th, we rolled it out of the garage, filled the block with water (oh, you mean there's no temp sending unit in the cylinder head? Let's go steal that off the other engine too), and with a little spray bottle of gasoline tried to see if she'd start.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...46237619644234

I couldn't believe it, it started right up! I looked at my dad and said, "We're not this good". He replied "Apparently we are!". So we ran it a few seconds and let it sit for a minute. Tried starting it again, and it ran again. Figuring the third time is the charm, we tried it one more time, and that's the one I shot the video on (with my cell phone). So, that was pretty encouraging. One less thing to *really* worry about.

Since then, my dad has gone back home to Tucson, and we've made just a little more progress. Sunday night we had finished up the wiring harness for the air ride switches, so we mocked up everything on the garage floor to see if all the components would work. Again, everything worked just as expected. So again, that was pretty encouraging.

Last night we took the bed off of Ethel's old frame, and set it on the rebuilt frame. It will most likely come off one more time before being bolted down, but I needed it in place to mount my compressor and air tank properly, and to measure for wheel backspacing. It was dark when we got done last night, so I just nabbed a pic with my cell phone this morning.



So I'm not really expecting to drive her to the board meet, sorry guys but it's just not worth it to rush at this point. I'm pretty happy with the quality of the work I've done so far, and I'm not willing to sacrifice that just to run into problems on the road to Missouri. I will still be there, most likely in my S-10.

In other news, I will probably be re-doing Ethel's original frame so I can put her body back on it and have matching VIN #s. But that won't be for quite awhile!

So there you have it! Thanks for taking the time to read all that and catch up!

[n2billet]

Amazing! I'm glad to see that Ethel went to a good home...

[Alvin]

So tonight we swapped the axles between the frames, and I sprayed some paint on the radiator support. While the truck was outside I took some pics.







In this pic, you can see all my air ride stuff.


That's all for tonight. Work continues tomorrow!

[72CSTC5]

Nice truck, Keith usually has nice stuff. Glad to see his truck stayed on the board. Too bad for his son though. He told me last year it was going to be for him~

[68GMC454]

looks like you were making good progress...i wish i was ging to the meet..but unless i come into some money,,its not gonna happen this year..maybe next year...anyway you got alot done trying to get there..do you think yuo will get it done this year..

[Alvin]

Well, it won't be "done", but I"m hoping to have it on the road starting in July sometime. It'd be great to take it to the Goodguys show in Columbus on 14th and 15th, but I'm not sure if that will happen either.

[n2billet]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Well, it won't be "done", but I"m hoping to have it on the road starting in July sometime. It'd be great to take it to the Goodguys show in Columbus on 14th and 15th, but I'm not sure if that will happen either.

Keep working ! I would like to see the old girl in Columbus....

[Alvin]

Ok, today we got more wiring swapped over and she is now "turn key"! Also got the radiator support mounted, and fixed a leak in the air ride plumbing.

Still have to run a fuel line to the carb, cut a hole so I can fill the gas tank, and hook up the cooling system and the drivetrain is done except for the driveshaft (hopefully will have one next week!!).

Then it's the brake system, air ride compressor/tank/valves, and getting it to the shop for exhaust. Sheesh, seems so close... yet so far!!!

[faribran]

Alvin
what are u gonna do with the side trim of the ole girl?

[Alvin]

I'm running the side trim! I've got some used & abused pieces to fill-in where I'm missing pieces currently, I just have to get some clips to put them on. I've wanted the 67-68 side trim for a long time now!

[N2TRUX]

Awesome progress Alvin...

[Alvin]

Well I'm not gonna make it. I was getting a little burned out after two months of working on this thing 4 or 5 hours every night after work. Then I hit a couple snags that I hadn't anticipated. I'm taking a break for right now. I'll do some little things and try to figure out what parts I need to order to get rid of the snags.

I've also watched my bank account dwindle all year, and it needs a break too

So, I'll keep updating this thread even though I didn't reach my goal. Another month or so and she should be on the road!

[BACKYARD88]

Sucks that your truck isn't going to be finished. Are you going to the meet anyhow?

[Alvin]

Yup, although I'll probably be heading back Sunday instead of Monday now. I had planned to take my time driving out Friday and driving back Monday because of it being my freshly completed old truck. Since it will just be my '02 S-10, I'll push it a little and make my way back on Sunday.

[BACKYARD88]

Cool! See ya there!

[Alvin]

Bringing this back TTT so it can be moved to the project thread board.

Also, I'm FINALLY getting back to working on it after nearly 3 months of avoiding it.

[Spray-Bomb]

Hurry up and update us bro !!!

How ya been ???

[Alvin]

Been doing pretty good, just got burned out on this project, and had some other things crop up in life, but now I'm back at it, and I think I'm more enthused now than ever before. We'll see how things go before the snow flies, hopefully it will move under it's own power.

[Ackattack]

looks good. I think I now know what drag wheels I'm going to get...pro stars! They look good!

[Alvin]

Thanks!

Yesterday and today was spent re-doping air fittings and checking for leaks. Also replaced the rear bumpstops with some taller ones to keep the axle from hitting the bed floor.

Found some trim rings in the garage that look great on my black steelies. Shame I only have 3 of 'em

No pics today, my camera's battery was dead.

[Alvin]

Okay, I hung some sheetmetal back on the front end to clear up some space in the garage. Although it looks a lot closer to being completed, in reality I haven't done much of anything!

[Alvin]

Pulled Ethel out today so I could sort out the garage in anticipation of winter.

Aired up:


Aired out:




Ethel next to her cousin who we pieced together this afternoon:

[Spray-Bomb]

Hey man, nice to see that you've done a little something... lol

What bags did you run, cuz you don't have much travel ???