51 GMC 'Project Why Wait'

[oldman3]

Nice job, will look great when it's painted, keep up the good work...Jim

[dsraven]

nice. gonna be awesome when it's done.
just curious, post 53, 3rd pic from te bottom, shows a couple of braided lines coming through holes in the frame. do you have plans to grommet the holes to keep the lines from chaffing?

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Originally Posted by dsraven

nice. gonna be awesome when it's done.
just curious, post 53, 3rd pic from te bottom, shows a couple of braided lines coming through holes in the frame. do you have plans to grommet the holes to keep the lines from chaffing?

Unfortunately no, the holes are filed down smooth with a Dremel and round file as best I could but since the cross member is two layers I couldn't get a grommet on the inside holes if I tried.

It's the pro classic 2 hose which is the stronger of the 2 braided lines.

However I've been toying with the idea of running a rubber or plastic sleeve over it.

[dsraven]

how about just splitting a section of the plastic air hose and feeding it through over top of the braided line. secure it with some seam sealer and then there won't be the worry of water getting in and rusting the inside of the frame

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Nice job, will look great when it's painted, keep up the good work...Jim

Thanks Jim!

Originally Posted by dsraven

how about just splitting a section of the plastic air hose and feeding it through over top of the braided line. secure it with some seam sealer and then there won't be the worry of water getting in and rusting the inside of the frame

That's about what I was thinking. Air hose might be a little too narrow (ID) but maybe some pex pipe or something.

[lower50's]

Nice job Dave I can't wait to see this thing in person.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Still rollin' on er

Got my ride height senors, main management harness, and second compressor harness all squared away.



Ended up using generic split collars to mount the sensors too. I drilled and tapped them versus messing with my control arms.



The template Air lift supplies for checkint to see if things are in range was really useful. Great way to double check my measurements.



Tucked right in near the control arm seemed to be the best spot. Didn't have to worry too much about anything coming into contact with it. This was actually my second spot after the front didn't work out.



The rear was much easier, just mounted it right to the frame and a right angle bracket off the lower link bar keep sthings in place.



For the main harness, it's a lot of wire I didn't want cluttering up my back half so I tediously fished it through the frame and mounted it to the back of the air ride cross member I had made previously



You can hardly see it!



Next up I am going to dig into my cab. So far I'm doing both front floors, hinge pockets on both sides, and inner and outer cowls on both sides.

It's a little daunting to consider, and perhaps a little overkill, but I'm already this deep what's a little more right?

Oh my four year old has been helping a bit more too, nut and bolt type stuff but he seems a little bit more interested every day.

[youngrodder]

Nice details...I think the hardest part of setting up an air suspension with sensors figuring out the correct placement for the sensors...

Marc

[lower50's]

Nice idea with the collars Dave. Having Ash help you will make some great memories for you both. You are going to have an amazing truck.

[joedoh]

thats the best kind of helper!


free!


no just kidding, great memories and bonding haha.

[rusty76]

Cool. They grow up fast so spend as much time you can with them.

[84blaze]

Looking good dude!

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Thanks everyone!

And yeah he's growing up crazy fast he might not even need a booster by the time I finish!

Young Rodder took me two attempts at the front to find a spot that worked out well.

Bob I got the idea from an old thread here actually. So much useful information buried in this forum

[dsraven]

do they make nitrile gloves that small?
cool that he enjoys figuring stuff out

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Hey guys, I'm back. It's been awhile but the rust got me. Here's an update.

I went over to Bill's truck shop and bought the following. I thought it would be enough but once I got into this it really wasn't.



Here's more or less what I was dealing with repairing.





It's pretty crazy how rusty a "solid" truck can be. Anyway ever ambitious, and super naive I got to cutting




and even more cutting



Eventually the cab support too had to come out, which took some of the rocker with it. I used some of the old metal patches to make a new rocker patch since I came across this issue 11pm on a Sunday.





It worked!



From this point on it was the weld grind weld dance with a little bit of rocket guard sprayed here and there for now










A more detailed recap is up on my blog.

I'm optimistic side two will go better (at the very least I'll know what to expect) and plan to start on that this weekend.

It's prime garage temp time so I plan to hit it hard before I fly out to SEMA.

Once I get back the final grinding and mud work can begin. As well as cleaning up the inside portion of my firewall installation. I'm planning to epoxy primer the floor, seam seal, then POR-15 as it's the easiest product to use in my garage.

Though part of me wants to sandblast when I'm done...

[joedoh]

ugh rust repair has taken years off my life.

looks like you are cruising through it though. last truck I bought those flat panels and fought with getting them to fit so this truck I just used my sheet brake and made my own, except the complex shapes like the backs of the hinge pillars and the rear cab corners, gotta have those even as a starting point. could have just been the panels I bought though, did you find they fit ok or needed a lot of tweaking?


me after any truck with rust: "ugh next time I will spend more on a better truck"

also me when someone shows me a $200 cab they were going to scrap:

[Dave_The_BMXER]

The fit "ok" at best. I mean the unmodified the factory battery cover didn't fit, at all, so that kind of set the tone.

Also I saw someone else do this job and the two floor panels, if installed, don't meet each other. So I tried to keep as much oem metal as possible just to keep things from biting me later.

I feel like I'd buy a better cab next time around but who knows because now I know I can make it through with some wearing lol.

[gigamanx]

Very cool to see the airlift sensors going in. I have my accuair e-level setup going in this winter so I'll have to figure out all those little angles like you have. Nice work!

[lower50's]

Nice job Dave, even a super solid cab will need more repair than expected. I guess that's to happen 67 years later, but hey that's what grinders and welders are for.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Originally Posted by gigamanx

Very cool to see the airlift sensors going in. I have my accuair e-level setup going in this winter so I'll have to figure out all those little angles like you have. Nice work!

I got the idea for the collars from here actually.

Originally Posted by lower50's

Nice job Dave, even a super solid cab will need more repair than expected. I guess that's to happen 67 years later, but hey that's what grinders and welders are for.

Welders and grinders get such a work out in my garage.

Some winter motivation just arrived too. Ididit hopped on the project

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Ahoy there fellow AD builders. I am back. I actually ruptured my left Achilles tendon which took me off my feet for awhile but things are sorted out enough now for me to keep pushing forward on the truck.

As far as updates go, I managed to do quite a bit while I was down, but able to get in the garage. Because I still can't ride I've been spending even more time in the garage and things are moving along pretty well.

Picked up where I left off with more rust repair, this time on the driver's side




Got a little better at fighting the panels and picking and choosing where I needed to cut to make things work.

So naturally I decided to add more work to my plate and shave the upper cowl



Turned out pretty well, after my version of metal finishing



Not as dialed as some of you, but I shouldn't need too much filler... hopefully. I also test fit my column and made a lower mount for it using a bit of exhaust tubing and extra sheet metal



Then I went through a pretty epic clean up effort inside



Since these photos I have epoxy primed both sides of the firewall and seam sealed it all up. The plan is to hit the floor with Tremclad then rubberized under coating then call it good until I put a carpet on it.

On the other (pretty side) I'll lay down an initial coat of fiber glass filler, before moving on to standard filler and sand it all out.

The firewall, jambs, upper back wall of the cab etc will all be done at a shop, the rest in my garage.

Few more photos of the work between my last update and now can be found here.

Fingers crossed my motor comes home tomorrow too.

[8man]

Nice work.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Gone for a bit but I'm back. I ended up cleaning up the floor, covering it in epoxy primer (2 part rattle can) Tremclad, then rubberized undercoating. I also seam sealed all the areas where I did repair.



Should ultimately the floor will see some insulation and carpet so I didn't go too nuts cleaning it all up inside.

Outside however...



Got everything roughed out in 80 grit. Fiberglass filler as the base for it's waterproofing properties then standard filler on top. There's a lot left but it's all fairly straight now.

I also whipped up a new steering column pass through



Then, my friend dropped my motor back off and we tossed it in the chassis. I modified a speedway cross member and then....




The wheels generic rollers I found on Kijiji for $300. Two of the tires are fine, two camber worn. Burn those off later.

With the cab on I was then able to sort out my steering. The Hooker LS manifolds are super low profile. No need to run my steering off into Timbuktu!



Hoping to keep momentum going in the garage until it gets really cold. Ideally I can send the cab off for paint (firewall, roof, door jambs) when it's cold so I don't lose a month or two to winter.

I'll dive deeper into what was done to the motor, trans, and the intake manifold. Got a 5 year old bouncing off me right now.

Couple more photos are up on stanceiseverything.com

[youngrodder]

Looks great. Its always motivating when the motor goes back in and it's setting back on the wheels all laid out. Keep it up...

Marc

[Greenlee]

Nice work!