Driver on a budget.

[TchncnDen]

Sometimes being incredibily cheap bites you in the ass and sometimes it works out better than expected. With all the extra wires coming out of the PCM I figured there must be some way to make a factory instrument cluster work and after some digging I found out there is. I scored this siverado instrument panel off ebay for $40 dollars shipped. It was so cheap because the mileage/gear selector area wouldn't light up. I knew this had to be an easy fix, and sure enough it was! I also ordered a sunpro fuel sending unit with the same ohm values as stock, even the fuel gauge will work for less than $20. The message center sends out the security warning which is a shame because I will have to block that out when I make my dash panel (unless anyone knows how to turn that off). That means I'll also lose my low fuel and battery warning. Not a big deal but those would have been cool. I also made a fitting to run my steam pipe in the heater hose line by drilling and tapping a 3" brass nipple for a 1/4" barb. I screwed it in just far enough to grab so as to not block any flow and then soldered it so it doesn't leak.

All bodywork is done. I will do my final prime this weekend, try to get the jambs painted and maybe come up with some kind of temporary exhaust until I can get the real thing.

[Steve-W]

Good Job! I'm on a budget aswell, but mine is $3k...
subscribed and how are you going to get the instrument panel to fit?

[TchncnDen]

how are you going to get the instrument panel to fit?

That's the easy part. Check the thread below for a brief description of how it's done.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=500537

And another LS question. I am pretty sure the exhaust manifolds on my engine were not changed and are the stock ones from the 04 Suburban. Does anyone know why the driver side has a 2 1/4" outlet and the passenger side a 2 1/2"? Wierd.

[Tinkermc]

dash will be awesome

[hopped up]

am i right in thinking when you wanna paint over the rustoleum you have to take all the rustoleum off. is that correct? just wanna be sure, good build and great info keep it up!
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[TchncnDen]

Originally Posted by hopped up

am i right in thinking when you wanna paint over the rustoleum you have to take all the rustoleum off. is that correct? just wanna be sure, good build and great info keep it up!
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Yes and no. If you wake up the next morning and decide you want something different and try to paint over it you will have a big fisheye mess. Rustoleum is oil based after all, or at least it was. If it is really dry, and it takes a long time to be really dry, then you most likely won't have a problem. You may still get some fisheyes, but there are a couple of ways around that. I prefer a couple of dust coats with a long flash time before putting on wet coats.

I found out that the 5.3's did come with one big exhaust manifold and one small, don't know why but I assume it has something to do with the Y pipe. I found a guy on craigslist parting out a Silverado 2500 and they had 2.5" oulets on both sides. I got the manifolds, flanges and pipe past the o2 sensors, o2 sensors and AC lines for $80. Thanks to ta2ed for sending me the wiring diagram for the 2004 AC I found out the pressure switch is in the line. Now I can get the compressor side of the 04 lines spliced into the evaporator and condensor side of the 71 lines and have functioning AC. I'm at one of those points where there has been a lot of work done but not much visual progress. That should all change this weekend so I expect to have a bunch of pictures coming.

[orange 69]

Awesome Job!
Subscribed

[TchncnDen]

Got a lot done this week, it's picture time! The fuel sending unit is installed, that was easy. I messed with the electric fuel pedal. I must have cut it, added metal, moved and cut it up again five times. I just couldn't get it to look right and have full range of motion. Then I had an aha moment and cut up the old gas pedal, welded it to the electric unit and walla, one shot and done. I looked into what everyone was doing for shift linkage and it looks like lokar is the way to go. It seems everyone had to bend it up to get it to work right. There isn't much to it and a piece of metal and a couple of heim joints was less than 10 bucks so I made my own. It works great, I just took it apart to paint.

[Tinkermc]

so who did you buy the gas tank from and how many gallons is it??

[TchncnDen]

I hate paint chips, they're just too small to get any idea of what you're looking at. I wanted a silver and a black metallic. The silver is easy, but the black is where it snafued. I even carried the book out into the sun when I was picking it out. The one I got appeared to be black with minimal metallic, just what I wanted, it was called black mica after all. When I put the first coat on gray primer it obviously had a strong green tint, not what I wanted. It blackened up with more coats and the metallics are a mix of colors. I was planning on some type of blue divider stripe so I think I'll still be ok if I can find some kind of blueish green that I like. It's just disappointing when you're expecting one thing and get something else. Then when I got my satin black at Home Depot I saw they had some environmentally safe mineral spirits for a dollar more. Well, I like the environment so I got some. When I went to pour it in it looked like milk! I didn't want my satin black to turn gray so I stopped at a splash. I think everything is going to be fine, it was just a frustrating day as far as paint is concerned.

[TchncnDen]

Originally Posted by Tinkermc

so who did you buy the gas tank from and how many gallons is it??

It's a blazer tank I got from Classic Parts, I think it's 20 gallons.

I got the satin black on the inside of the fenders and hood also, just didn't get a picture.

[ta2ed]

Lookin great man I look forward to more progress. Should be 1 killer ride when done
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[TchncnDen]

I feel like I stole something! I called some exhaust shops and was told it would be about $700 to have a dual system ran. OOUCH!! It's been a long time since I had any exhaust done, but back in Florida I had friends that owned a Meineke shop and always paid less than $200 for a system. Since I wasn't going to spend $700 on a budget build I went searching for one of those exhaust bend kits to make my own when I stumbled across this......

Amazon.com: Thrush 89027 Dual Exhaust Kit:...
This is a premade, mandrel bent system with mufflers and an H pipe for $234 including shipping. Are you kidding me, that rocks! It's oversized and overweight so shipping alone had to be expensive, I don't think anyone made any money on this one. When I got mine it said only two available and now it says 3 to 5 weeks for shipping, but if you need exhaust I like this one for its looks and its price. I will need to come up with a way to get from the manifolds to the pipe because the kit is designed for an old school small block with headers and I may see if I can get bigger mufflers since I want to be almost quiet, but other than that I'm very happy. I even held it up in place and it will clear the Blazer tank fine.

I also decided to move the engine computer out to the engine bay. I just couldn't get it to fit under the dash to my liking. I had a harder time pulling the wires out than I had putting them in since I didn't unplug the engine. I did get them out and now I have a bunch of wiring cleanup to do. I'm going to try and have it driveable this weekend, you know, so I can drive it to the paint shop.

[ta2ed]

Movin right along man. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product with this kind of progress it shouldn't be much longer. Looking good!
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[67cheby]

Nice exhaust buy and great paint progress !
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[TchncnDen]

My friend Sid came out to help but he was too tired to be of any good after staying out all night partying so I had my neighbor help me bleed my brakes. I also had my driveshaft shortened and got that installed, did a little wiring cleanup and mounted my computer in it's temporary custom Husky mounting device. I'll clean the wires better once I get around to the interior and I'll mount the computer on the inner fender once that is installed. I also played with the exhaust a little. I had to tweak one of the flanges to get the pipe to clear the frame and have the o2 sensor in a better location. I mocked up the rest of the exhaust but I want to wait until tomorrow when I can get some mandrel bends to go from the flanges to the cross pipe before I start nailing any of it down. Then I can just work my way back and make sure it all fits just right. Once the exhaust is finalized it should be driveable, then it's time to put the panels back on, block it down and paint.

[fourspeedwagon]

Outstanding budget build. I'm jealous..

[ta2ed]

I'm diggin the husky mounting device! Where ya get those and are they year specific? Lol seriously though, lookin great man.
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[TchncnDen]

Originally Posted by ta2ed

I'm diggin the husky mounting device! Where ya get those and are they year specific? Lol seriously though, lookin great man.
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Since the truck is a 71 and the motor is an 04 I got one for an 87. It only took a little trimming to make it fit. You can find them anywhere that sells muffler bearings.

[Tinkermc]

lookin good and glad you got the dash to work

[67c10rustbuket]

Looking good man! I was wondering one thing on your rust replacement panels, are they Tabco? If so how was the fit? I noticed the rear jamb pillar bottom looks like it has the correct curve unlike the junk piece I got from LMC everything else I used fit "almost decent" from Tri plus. I ended up slicing my original rear pillar into pieces and replacing the rusted parts. arrgh

[TchncnDen]

Originally Posted by fourspeedwagon

Outstanding budget build. I'm jealous..

Originally Posted by 67cheby

Nice exhaust buy and great paint progress !
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Originally Posted by ta2ed

Lookin great man I look forward to more progress. Should be 1 killer ride when done
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Originally Posted by orange 69

Awesome Job!
Subscribed

Thanks!!!!

Originally Posted by Tinkermc

lookin good and glad you got the dash to work

Thank you, the dash is just sitting there, not mounted, in that picture but it does work. I took it back out just to keep it clean until I'm a little further along.

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

Looking good man! I was wondering one thing on your rust replacement panels, are they Tabco? If so how was the fit? I noticed the rear jamb pillar bottom looks like it has the correct curve unlike the junk piece I got from LMC everything else I used fit "almost decent" from Tri plus. I ended up slicing my original rear pillar into pieces and replacing the rusted parts. arrgh

I bought all of the panels at Golden Gate Parts that is nearby. I don't know what brand they are but I do know they came from different suppliers. The guy that runs the parts place says he likes one suppliers cab corners and anothers floors, etc, etc. If you go back and look at the picture of the B pillar installed you can see a small V where it meets the original pillar, I split the difference on all sides to make it work. Your method is ideal but I bet that was time consuming, way to keep at it. It's funny, I went through your thread again today (very nice by the way) and just about every little cut and adjustment you made is the very same thing I did. You just do a much better job of detailing the steps. About the only thing I took that many pictures on is the in tank fuel pump. I can do a how to on that if anyone wants it.

[TchncnDen]

The exhaust is done! I knew before I started this project that there is a sliding scale between time and money and it has been proven over and over again, the less money you spend the more time it will take. The exhaust was no exception. The kit I bought is designed for an old school smallblock with headers and a turbo 350 tranny. Since I have an LS with a 4l60E this led to a few complications. In order to have the crossover tube not make it impossible to ever do any work to the transmission I had to move the crossover back behind the tranny. This meant that instead of cutting the pipes on the straight portion like they were designed to be I had to cut them behind the X while still in the X. What this means is that the entire intended goemetry from there back was thrown way out of whack turning this kit into a combination of pre made and cut to fit. I bought one mandrel 180 and used that to get from the manifolds to the duals and then used what was left along with cutting strategic angles to get everything else to work. I think a custom system from an exhaust shop would have been better, but I'll rate this as acceptable.

I also started with the intention of just using the supplied u bolts, but after setting everything in place just about anywhere that would need a clamp was against a crossmember or something. Since this kit already hangs kinda low I had to weld those in order to not have to drop the pipes even lower for the clamp so I just went ahead and welded everything. This did make for a solid system and I think I'll be fine with only one hanger for each pipe. I went by an exhaust shop and showed them the mufflers that came with the kit and told them I wanted to be quieter. They told me about the only way to go quieter would be to go with a stock type muffler. I've had systems with turbo mufflers before so I decided to just try these and see if I could live with them. I never had a system with a crossover before and what a difference, I think the sound out of these will be fine. As an added bonus I was able to drive in and out of the garage for the first time, which is nice because it has been hard to push since I put the engine in. Enough talk, here's some pictures!

[TchncnDen]

Now that it is movable it's time to put it back together. I have the last week of July off so that is when the paint will fly. The doors went back on for the final time, piece of cake. Then for the fenders, of course there's a problem. The core support is too high causing a large gap in the bottom of the door fender line. How can this be? I have all new body/core mounts, it's all the same parts that came off the truck, doesn't make sense. I took the mounts out of the core and with the core sitting on the frame things almost line up, confused. Then I remembered when I put the cab bushings in there were two different ones. I thought they were supposed to be the same size but it looked like the bigger ones went in back from the pictures in the scant directions, I also put the same shims back in that were only in the rear mounts. I'll play around with moving bushings and shims and I'm sure I can make this work with the core bushings back in, just more work I wasn't anticipating. Has anyone else had this problem? Did I get the wrong bushings, are they supposed to be the same front and rear like I thought?

I also painted the hood hinges, tailgate hardware and the inside of the tailgate. I'll put those on in the next couple of days and get the cab mount thing straightened out.

[67c10rustbuket]

Thanks again for the info and comment on my junk Yours is looking great, Nice job on the exhaust and congrats on the startup. For the record I have seen many problems with cab/core mounts but I don't have an answer. I imagine you are using the correct 69+ core mounts and it looks like the core mount holes are indeed the larger 69+ version. Cant wait to see some paint