49 3600, s10 swap, project boogie

[Advanced Design]

Wow, I've been missing out. Tagging along now!

[BlueJeep]

Looks great, love the gauges!

I was wondering too what would happen if you blow a front tire, would it plant the bumper? Did you end up doing drop coils in the front with a spindle?

[joedoh]

yes, drop coils and a spindle is what it had. I put stock springs in it today so its about 1.5 inches higher now. rode very nice with the drop, just that bumper liked to kiss the pavement in a hard turn. now its less of a roadkill skinner.

it would probably plant the bumper and probably the running boards too if the tire came off the rim, and it would probably be close with a flat.

[joedoh]

raised the front 1 inchlike I said, not a lot but it gives a lot of room


installed the rad overflow tank too.


now I know why the 40s-50s are referred to as the "golden age", the rear view mirror is like a real time instagram filter. I may pull this off and keep it!

next: bed wood! I figured out that 6 8" boards and 5 metal strips are the same width (within a 1/4") as the original 8 strip 9 board bed floor. And that is great news, because I like the wider board floor.


I am going to use the thompsons opaque water seal I used on the 65 too

[lower50's]

Those gauges look amazing.

[joedoh]

thanks! I may put them in soon haha. like tre5 I need the nut size for the gauges.

today was deferred maintenance day. need to mount the electric fan, had to flip the blades, cant run reverse polarity on this fan.

[joedoh]

raised it a little more, must have been 2.2 springs, I put in some for sure 4.3 springs with half a coil cut. sure looks forlorn without the caps.

[joedoh]

more bed shenanigans. tried the sequoia red thompsons this time, I like it

replaced the water pump

[joedoh]

was able to lay in carpet

and install door panels and headliner

[99 to Life]

luv the scaffolding. I also luv the patina on the green truck, is that the 47 GMC? I see your 49' must be an earlier year 49' since it has the bolt on door/cab windlace. Later 49's and up have the track style (which I hate). I had to bolt my windlace on.

[joedoh]

yeah the 49 is still waiting to get started. luckily the 47 gmc is almost done, after this weekend just need to install the AC/heater core.

when we switched columns the PRNDL, odo, temp and gas gauges went out. I messed around with it today and it turned out to be a short in the column harness. luckily I have a few s10 parts around hahahah

getting the ignition switch electrical tumbler in exactly the right position was a bit of an in and out trick, once the starter engaged and stayed engaged, lucky I knew how to pop the electrical tumbler out quickly. once it worked, I was happy to see all the stuff that didnt work, worked again.
the springs keep on settling, the truck gets lower and lower. I need to clearance the rear sheetmetal some more inside and that takes time, so for now I just

since that would raise the truck 2 inches, I thought it might look silly, so I popped on the red wheels from the 65 which are 3 inches shorter, for a net gain of 1/2 inch raised.

I was happy to see the electric fan working exactly properly, turning on at about 200 degrees and letting the gauge run almost dead center. tomorrow is last run in ark city, it is my HOPE to have the gauges installed tonight and the headliner buttoned up for the 1.5 hour trip. for sale sign in the window, of course!

[Clay54]

joedoh, you have stated that some gauges read backwards and you say it's OK with you. I'm confused. Does this mean the gauges are incorrect and cannot be corrected? I was really hoping this would be a solution to convert the old gauges to digital. Would I be wasting my time in doing this conversion? And by the way, I'm for sure mounting the S10 radiator like you did. Thanks, Clay

Originally Posted by joedoh

yeah the 49 is still waiting to get started. luckily the 47 gmc is almost done, after this weekend just need to install the AC/heater core.

when we switched columns the PRNDL, odo, temp and gas gauges went out. I messed around with it today and it turned out to be a short in the column harness. luckily I have a few s10 parts around hahahah

getting the ignition switch electrical tumbler in exactly the right position was a bit of an in and out trick, once the starter engaged and stayed engaged, lucky I knew how to pop the electrical tumbler out quickly. once it worked, I was happy to see all the stuff that didnt work, worked again.

and that meant I could finally set the needles for the original gauges

some gauges read backwards now, but really if you pay attention to the NEEDLE position, most gauges are made to run in the middle for AOK operation, so it doesnt present any REAL problem to me.
the springs keep on settling, the truck gets lower and lower. I need to clearance the rear sheetmetal some more inside and that takes time, so for now I just pulled the blocks

since that would raise the truck 2 inches, I thought it might look silly, so I popped on the red wheels from the 65 which are 3 inches shorter, for a net gain of 1/2 inch raised.


I was happy to see the electric fan working exactly properly, turning on at about 200 degrees and letting the gauge run almost dead center. tomorrow is last run in ark city, it is my HOPE to have the gauges installed tonight and the headliner buttoned up for the 1.5 hour trip. for sale sign in the window, of course!

[joedoh]

gauges in!

I thought this seat cover was a period piece and it is, but not the period I thought. it has a tag from the 80s on it


almost ready to change this


into this! I like the redwood stain too, almost as much as the cedar.


I went to the show saturday but did not take the truck, the PRNDL vacuum fluorescent was acting up and I didnt want to chance losing gauges in the middle of a road trip. I stopped by my friends place where I bought the GMC, kylie used the wrong bumper so I owed him for using his. instead I bought his bumper and the rest of the 53-4 gmc frontend.

I figure I will give the choice to the eventual buyer, 47-8 grille or 53-4. I'll use the other on another truck, never hurts to have extra frontend pieces around.

[Advanced Design]

Wow, you have been busy! The bed floor looks really good.

[joedoh]

thanks!

drilled the strips for screws today, and gave them a shot of titanium paint




drilled some drain holes in the s10 floor, so water doesnt collect under the wood. shot some paint to keep rust down too

[99 to Life]

living the dream, building trucks with your little gal.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

living the dream, building trucks with your little gal.

X2 Doesn't get much better that than...Jim

[IWanna49]

What they both said!!

[joedoh]

yeah shes awesome-o, we have a lot of fun, we call her "beeps" which is short for a kids story I made up and told all the kids.

beds done! I really like the redwood color



just a little more work and a shakedown cruise or two and this puppy is ready to go! I am thinking of putting on some door art, something like all seasons garage™ or Beeps Garage. Always wanted to do some sign art, never tried.

[Palf70Step]

Very Nice!

[lower50's]

Looks good!!

[joedoh]

thanks! eagle eyed viewers will remember I put all the mark k bed wood dims in a spreadsheet and figured out that 6 8" wide boards with the 0.5" between them was exactly the same width as the mar k dims for 9 boards and 0.5 between. so why do I have 7 boards and the center one LOOKS to be 3.5" wide...

well, hubris mostly. yoshi called it in his post on the main page, that he cut his boards exactly to the mar k dims and he had a gap. I asked him to measure his boards and he promptly did not. it was in the back of my mind also, but I promptly did not go out and measure the width of my bed to compare. turns out, I should have. Putting all my faith in the mar k dims, which were confirmed on the classic heartbeat bed wood page, I cut my outer boards for the wheel wells and laid it all in and...

it didnt fit. I dont know if its the angle strips (shouldnt be that) or that the online dims are actual width PLUS the milled pat for the strip (so an 8" board would actually be about 9" wide but only 8" between strips...) but for some reason, I had about a 3.5" gap, necessitating an additional board (easy but inconvenient) and an additional strip from LMC, cheap unless you figure cost + shipping one single strip plus the cost + shipping of the other 5 strips is substantailly MORE than ordering a full NINE PIECE SET and shipping it.

I actually almost ordered a 9 piece set the second time to have 8 spares for the next truck, but I didnt want to chance them being punched with square holes. see, even though the LMC website SAYS the strips are prepunched, the original 5 showed up unpunched, a fact that originally miffed me. but the more I though about it, hey great, because I could drill my own holes and use my own fasteners since I was screwing it down to the metal S10 floor and not using the regular carriage bolts. it was a nail biter to see if the additional strip would come unpunched and sure enough, no worries. I had that phone call all laid out in my mind haha.

so 30 holes in the strips and 38 stainless fasteners (8 in the side boards), 6 strips, 6 8" boards and one 4" board, and a whole lot of pre drilling because stainless sheetmetal screws like to SNAP when you try to plunge them into sheetmetal.

/rant. well not really a rant. more of an anecdote of a pissy, whiny, my hand hurts, mommy make it feel better kind of nature.

[rona1-35]

I'am interested to know what gauge or cluster, is under the face of your original gauge ( prnd321- odm ). Did you rewire or change pins in the harness.
From post 09/25/15.
Thanks Ron.

[joedoh]

hi ron, on page 4 I detail how to use the original s10 cluster behind the orginal gauges.

for the PRNDL and odo, I clipped the leads on the original cluster and extended them with wires to put the vacuum fluorescent display behind the cutout.

[WorkinWrenchs]

Love the build and have some ideas for mine now. Thanks for the info. Any word on your pre fab'd cab mounts?