81 Chevy K10 ShortBed

[MTCK]

Oh yeah this will be way fun with all those belts

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Oh yeah this will be way fun with all those belts

I'm assuming on your particular install you have a serpentine setup right?

[MTCK]

Yes I have the factory serpentine setup from the L29. Vintage air sent me a new compressor for my engine application and a universal hose kit to tie it all together.

[Matt Man]

Well guys the install is not going well, taking a lot longer than I thought. I don't know how well I am going to write this up. I will get some pictures later.

[MTCK]

Not sure if you put the box under the dash yet. It does fit in spite of the fact that it does not appear to fit. I think that was the single worst part on my install. Getting all the holes to like up.

[Matt Man]

Ok today was a slighty better day, yesterday was teardown day. I first took the seat out to have more room (smart move), got the dash and dash bezel out, glove box, passenger side kick panel.

So I proceeded to place the firewall plate, all the oem holes but one lined up OK no problem. Placed the plate up drilled all the holes, placed the plates up and sealed them up.

Now here comes the "fun" part got all the AC and heater lines on the box installed both the front and rear brackets. I have to say, for nearly 1400$ they could have used studs that come through the firewall. I struggled for about 2 hours to place this box under the dash and bolt it up. Luckily my dad came over and helped me place it. Not a very good design if you ask me, but oh well. After this I had to stop working as I was very irritated at this point and thought I would stop.

Todays work consisted of installing the dash vents, and wiring the unit and getting the interior back in.

The dash vents that go into the dash bezel ARE A JOKE for nearly 1400$ the design for mounting them, especially the center one should be way better. I did not use the "mounting" plate that came with it as I saw no way it would fit. I don't even want to show a picture of how I mounted it. I will be buying another bezel and oem vents when time permits, for now I will use it. The dash trim piece is very nice, no complaints there.

Wiring the unit was very straightforward and easy, no complaints here either. Got the dash, bezel and stereo back in just need to reinstall seat and modify the glove box and reinstall the kick panel.

I'm still waiting for my 3 groove pulley to show up, when it does It will probably take another day to knock out the condenser ect.

Overall the kit is pretty nice, but the vents are a joke and some of the directions are not that great. So far the unit pushes a lot of air out of the vents, more than I expected. The controller is very nice quality.

Here are some pictures!







I used some fatmat under here




I will try to post more, I really wanted to do a nice write up on this but I thought the kit was going to be more of a direct fit, a lot of things I had to "massage" to get to fit right ect. I hope this system works great for all the effort.

[MTCK]

Nice work! I had the same experience installing the air box in the cab. Eventually my 5-months pregnant wife helped me get it lined up and tightened down. Neither of us was very happy by the end of it! How did you run the flex hose for the drivers side a/c vent? I went under the steering column and was not thrilled with how it's smashed against the inspection plate.

You will love the A/C. My complaint is with the cold weather defrost performance. The system only uses in-cab air so the moisture builds up. Probably not a problem in your climate!

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Nice work! I had the same experience installing the air box in the cab. Eventually my 5-months pregnant wife helped me get it lined up and tightened down. Neither of us was very happy by the end of it! How did you run the flex hose for the drivers side a/c vent? I went under the steering column and was not thrilled with how it's smashed against the inspection plate.

You will love the A/C. My complaint is with the cold weather defrost performance. The system only uses in-cab air so the moisture builds up. Probably not a problem in your climate!

I had to run it under the steering column, my speedometer cable was in the way to run it through the top. How did you mount the right dash bezel vent? The one where the storage pocket was?

[rusty76]

Cool truck. I had a 87 Silverado 4x4 fully loaded. It was fun to drive but I never did love it. I sold it because it liked tires and exhaust. One question how in the world is those rams horn exhaust manifolds emissions legal? I've never seen them on a smog truck. Cool truck and I'm following along.

[MTCK]

I trimmed the bezel to fit and mounted it from the outside. Pilot holes for the screws and hand to clearance one corner of the vent. I can take a pic tonight if you need.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Cool truck. I had a 87 Silverado 4x4 fully loaded. It was fun to drive but I never did love it. I sold it because it liked tires and exhaust. One question how in the world is those rams horn exhaust manifolds emissions legal? I've never seen them on a smog truck. Cool truck and I'm following along.

I said the same thing when I first bought it, it passed smog at a legit gold star station here. It has the provisions for the A.I.R injection which it has. I need to smog it in a few months I hope it passes again...

[Matt Man]

Ok got more accomplished with vintage air install...

Got started with removing my radiator, fan shroud, fan ect...



Then I put all the brackets on the condenser and mounted the drier, went to mount it in the truck and when I put the discharge and suction line on the drier I noticed that the radiator would smash up against them....great. So I went and bought a step bit and cut a 1" hole in the core support to run the lines through, I also wrapped them with old heater hoses so they won't rub the edges of the hole.




Here is a picture of my new crankshaft pulley, also I figured out I had to buy a double grooved power steering pulley. So I ordered that up and installed it as well.




Here is a picture of the condenser finally in place.



Then I installed the shroud, fan, and radiator, excuse the messy engine bay I just moved to a new housing development and they just finished building the rest of the houses on my street and its extremely dusty here.





I still need to buy belts, but after I do that I'm going to take it to a shop to crimp the ends of the hoses and have them charge it and finally enjoy some cold air! I plan to wrap the wiring in some conduit over my winter break, and reroute it. This vintage air install has been quite a pain so I got impatient with the wiring.

[MTCK]

Good install! Confirm the shop has the right kind of crimped that they call for. I went to about 3 that couldn't do it until I finally got a loaner crimp kit from vintage air.

Sorry I haven't made it out to photograph the crew vent yet. It's 35 freaking below and 4.5 hours of daylight right now. Having a hard time getting motivated.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Good install! Confirm the shop has the right kind of crimped that they call for. I went to about 3 that couldn't do it until I finally got a loaner crimp kit from vintage air.

Sorry I haven't made it out to photograph the crew vent yet. It's 35 freaking below and 4.5 hours of daylight right now. Having a hard time getting motivated.

What kind of crimper do they need? The shop I am going to call tommorow specializes in Automotive AC so we will see. Also no problem with the picture, whenever you got time no rush.

Matt

[MTCK]

My instructions came with pretty specific crimping instructions. All the places I tried were hydraulic shops. Got 1 of 2 but the 90 degree bend wouldn't fit any of their dies.

[Matt Man]

Got the belts on. Hoping to get it charged by the weekend. I will get some pics of the final product.

[LT7A]

I understand the paint dilemma. I'm a big fan out of getting as much as you can out of the existing paint. Your luck looks pretty darn good in the photos. I would bet that you could do a lot with touch-up and compound etc. You can save the big money towards paint job you really want, and in the meantime you can touch up the existing paint whenever you go wheeling.

[MTCK]

Sure you are long past this point but here is a pic of that vent.

[deejaaa1]

my a/c, in the 81, had a rub through right where it went through the rad core. i had tried for months to trace the leak but gave up. found it after i ripped it apart and there was no repairing it. a piece of heater hose, like you did, would have saved mine. good job on the truck. looks good.
mine looked like yours except it was 2wd. 3" body lift, 1 ton front springs, 33/12.50/15 tires. kept it 15 years. rust from the firewall finally did it in when both door rockers were gone after 300K miles.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Sure you are long past this point but here is a pic of that vent.

Hey thanks for the picture, your install looks much better than mine.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by deejaaa1

my a/c, in the 81, had a rub through right where it went through the rad core. i had tried for months to trace the leak but gave up. found it after i ripped it apart and there was no repairing it. a piece of heater hose, like you did, would have saved mine. good job on the truck. looks good.
mine looked like yours except it was 2wd. 3" body lift, 1 ton front springs, 33/12.50/15 tires. kept it 15 years. rust from the firewall finally did it in when both door rockers were gone after 300K miles.

Yea at first I did not wrap the lines and I'm glad I did now. Funny my speedometer just rolled over 300k and it just stopped working.

On another note it was 7 degrees at my buddies in the morning started great, adjusted the choke before I went up glad I did. Some people question why I would take this truck and get it all dirty. I tell them its a truck and I'm not afraid to use it as one! lol

[MTCK]

Looks great! We got em so we can use em.

[Matt Man]

Well about a year ago I ordered bilstein shocks from a online company waited about 2 months with no update on when they will be made so I cancelled. I ordered up some procomp mx6 adjustable shocks rides a lot better than the rancho 5000 series. I have the front at the softest setting and the rear at 1 up from the softest.
I miss the looks from the quadshocks but the ride is flat out terrible.... likes to knock electrical components loose it happened to me a couple of times lol.

The PO had the lift put on in 1999 so the shocks were shot. I think I am going to replace the rear springs with Tuff Countries ez ride pack.

some not so great pictures
Good

Junk

Installed


Also before someone asks, yes the shocks are mounted in the correct orientation, it says in the instruction to mount them with the adjuster nob facing down. I had these on the rear of my 2009 gmc sierra and they mounted the same way.

[Matt Man]

Well don't want to but I'm going to have to sell this truck, won't pass smog and don't want to fix it (I am trying my hardest to avoid political talk about California here). Tired of dealing with the California smog BS. I am going to list it on here first and see if anybody wants to buy it. Then it will head off to ebay if no one on here buys. Somebody from back east would be miles ahead with this truck.

[deejaaa1]

sorry to hear that.
i had mine inspected a few months ago. front tires have little tread, turns needed fiddeling by me to work, two huge cracks on windshield and not muffler. passed no problem.