Halfbreed - GMC Z71 + IH Extd Cab

[Sven]

Get's better every time I read ... you better get this running after all this work, mate!

[sparkydog]

Thurs eve and Friday afternoon I finished the mods to the rear bed mounts and got them in and the bed back on. Now the bed sits as low on the GMC frame as I can reasonably get it without having to do major mods to the floor of the bed. Not the most exciting pictures but they show the new rear mount bolt coming down into the frame and the other two major cross ribs of the bed as they hug the frame. This extra .5" of body drop were important to me.

[sparkydog]

With the bed taken care of I raised the IH cab high up and did a final round of cutting/clearing and primer to the interior of the cowl area before beginning to weld the IH cab onto the GMC floorpan.

I also finally got around to joining up the two rocker boxes. I'm sure some of you were wondering from my photos whether I was just going to leave them 1/4" off in height or not. But all it took was a little scissors jack and some final trimming and they lined up real nice. I also let the jack work on the boxes a little after I tack welded just to get the metal warmed up and relaxed in it's new orientation.

[sparkydog]

I had saved some of the pieces of GMC rockers when I shaved them to get the floorpan to fit inside the IH cab. Now I used these to scavenge off the box sections where the GMC body mount brackets were going to merge with the inner wall of the IH rocker boxes. I also "cleaned" and prepped the IH rocker box areas a bit before sitting the IH cab down into it's final ride height.

The final photo is crappy but it's trying to show that I was using a plumb line to run along the bottom corner of the rockers and the bed to get them to all line up.

[sparkydog]

And again not the most spectacular pictures but these next three represent a HUGE milestone for me. The three trucks have now officially become one truck!!!

..... ......

For the first time early Sat afternoon the GMC chassis and the 67 and 68 IH body parts were all together and a single ground clamp anywhere on them would allow me to weld anywhere else.

WHEEEWWWW that was a lot of work. I sat down to admire and instantly dozed off. So I went in the house and took a proper nap. While I was sleeping some aliens must have came in my room and beat the crap out of me because when I woke up I could barely move I was so sore.

[sparkydog]

I can start fitting and welding in the missing sections of floorpan and lay in a few struts up in the cowl area to solidify the body a bit.

Sunday I dealt with what to do about my fuel tank needing to be lower than stock. I took pictures but they aren't very exciting. By the eve I had decided what to do and brought my mediocre fab skills to their best and had modified the two stock mounting brackets and dropped the tank 2.5" so it would clear the IH cab and bed. Now that it is lower I will have to reroute the filler pipe a bit. But what street rod project would be complete without a filler pipe relo?

And that concludes this week's tinkering folks. I actually got every one of my tasks accomplished for this trip to SoCal. And I still have a couple of evenings after work before I fly home.

[Palf70Step]

Very nice. I am loving watching this one come together.

[sparkydog]

Well I squeezed in a little more progress. Last night I "integrated" the cab cowl and the firewall by adding 4 little tab brackets. (Metal for these brackets courtesy of leftover 67 pickup roof tin.) Here is a shot of one of these little brackets that contains my personal best MIG bead so far (on the right) I should have shot the photo before I primed because it was sweet - like a factory robot did it.

The effect of these 4 simple little brackets was dramatic. Suddenly the cab structure wasn't "loose" anymore as the firewall began to serve as a major structural support. Now I can grab onto the cab and it feels like a real truck.

I was having such a good time that I decided to see if the GMC HVAC unit was going to clear the cowl sidewalls and what do you know!!! Misses by a 1/16th or so! So here's a teaser pic with the HVAC unit mocked up and one of the dashboards thrown in for fun.

[sparkydog]

And tonight I finished off the mods to the rear frame x-member that holds the fuel tank. Here's a couple of pics just before I trimmed off the excess metal and primed. The steel for the dropped flange used to be the forward bed mount brackets. Hey - I'm from Oregon and we recycle!

The modified x-member is now back up inside the frame and the tank is clamped up for mockup of the fuel filler pipes. In the last pic that thing on the right looks like a tow bar but is in fact my "fab bench" - that is what I use to clamp off stuff to when I cut or weld. Yes my knees are sore.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn nice work that dash is huge or at least it looks huge this is gonna be a killer ride when done..Are you gonna leave it in cali or bring her home to oregon when finished?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Damn nice work that dash is huge or at least it looks huge this is gonna be a killer ride when done..Are you gonna leave it in cali or bring her home to oregon when finished?

I'm not lovin the dash. It blocks off too much of that big, glorious IH windshield. But I will probably start off using it so as to get the truck drive-able. However I want to cant it down a bit and extend it out toward the driver a few inches.

Ultimately the truck will end up in SoCal because the whole family is moving there later this year. But it will see some time in Oregon before that.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Sweet deal if your ever around the southern oregon area id love to see it..

[pickup67man]

Subscribed. I love watching lots of cutting and welding to make something that wasn't original.

[sparkydog]

Oh it is soooo much easier to mockup stuff and take teaser pics than to just do actual work!!!

Bye bye little truck project! See you again in 2 weeks!

[Sub-versive]

I have to say, I can't wait to see this project completed! I really dig your vision!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Been gone a while and had to catch up!

Coming along very nicely! Looks like you won't have to cut up the front clip now?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Been gone a while and had to catch up!

Coming along very nicely! Looks like you won't have to cut up the front clip now?

A slight shortening is still in the Grand Master Plan. However I am not going to do any more chopping up and stick with putting together for awhile. I want to drive it and goof off a bit and see if I can forget about all the cutting. At that point I will be ready to take on the nose job. Plus my cut/tack/fitment skills should be better at that point after learning on the bed, cab roof and doors.

[sparkydog]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a make/model of car/truck that would have a rubber fuel fill hose that has a sharp 90 degree bend in it? I need to adapt something off another make/model to help me out on my project.

The stock GMC fill pipe is mostly a straight shot into the tank but now that I have lowered the tank I need to dodge the frame rail.

Thought I'd ask for suggestions before I just start wandering around a U-pullit yard with my sawzall.

Edit: I found a picture that shows what my situation is. It shows the stock position of the tank. There is just enough room on a GM truck for the filler pipe to do a straight shot at a slant down into the tank (dotted yellow line). But I have lowered the tank 2.5" and now the inlet is buried against the inside of the frame rail. I want to try and turn a 90* forward and then another 90* back out to the side. So I need a rubber piece like the black line in the picture.

[1985-GMC]

The 73-87 filler hose has a 90 it, but im not sure if it's what you want. Here's a few on classic parts http://www.classicparts.com/Hoses/products/1013/

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

The 73-87 filler hose has a 90 it, but im not sure if it's what you want.

Yes that will probably work. Thanks very much for the suggestion. Now I can spend less time wandering around the parts yard and more time wrenching the stuff off!

[Racinaround]

If you want Rubber, I get one at NAPA

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Racinaround

If you want Rubber, I get one at NAPA

That was a good lead. I stopped off at NAPA and they have generic 45 and 90 elbow rubber fuel pipe. The 2" 90 was approx $35. I think that for now I will stick to my plan to extract off of something at the wrecking yard. Much cheaper to spend an hour of my time, get wet and dirty, maybe bleed a little and then pay $15 than to get what I want EZ for $35.

[toomanytoyz]

Great Work, Signing on for the Ride..........

Rick

[1985-GMC]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Yes that will probably work. Thanks very much for the suggestion. Now I can spend less time wandering around the parts yard and more time wrenching the stuff off!

Alright I hope it fits right for you.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

That was a good lead. I stopped off at NAPA and they have generic 45 and 90 elbow rubber fuel pipe. The 2" 90 was approx $35. I think that for now I will stick to my plan to extract off of something at the wrecking yard. Much cheaper to spend an hour of my time, get wet and dirty, maybe bleed a little and then pay $15 than to get what I want EZ for $35.

It was nice weather here in Oregon on Friday so I hit the wrecking yard for a short list of items. Didn't get wet. Did get very, very dirty. Didn't seem to make any blood (which is unusual for me). The pre-'87 GM truck rubber fill pipes sure had the right bend in them but they were 1.5" ID not 2". I think some models of F*** have 2" rubber inlets with 90* bends but could not find one that was easy to get at so I'm giving up and going the NAPA route.

I did walk out of there with the fuel door and surrounding fender metal from an Eff-word truck. This is going to get grafted into Halfbreed once I solve the fill pipe routing. I also snagged some vapor canister tubes/fittings and a fan shroud set that were MIA on my donor truck.