1968 GMC - Ol' Blue

[MDPotter]

I'll post some good pictures when I get into it in a couple months. It'll just be MDF wrapped in some kind of fabric. What will take the most time is figuring out how to cut and assemble the pieces.

[dec010974]

@MDPotter what wheels are you gonna use?

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by dec010974

@MDPotter what wheels are you gonna use?

For now, the wheels that came on it when I bought it. One day I'd like to get a set of 18" Vision 143's though.

[MDPotter]

Not much eye candy in this update. I spent all day Saturday wiring the interior. Still working on the power steering/hydroboost lines saga too.

I ran a bunch of wires between the tunnel and the carpet - seat power, amp turn on signal wire, amp sound wire, tach signal wire, speed signal wire, power wires to the PCM, PCM ground. I forgot to add in a couple switched power wires since I'm installing relays in my console for the check engine and brake warning indicator lights on my cluster though.

Having my dad to help me on this is huge. He and I combine our skills and experience and come up with solutions to things that we wouldn't come up with on our own. For instance, I knew from our experience on his truck that it would be nice to have a ground buss because we kept coming up with more ground wires to be connected and kept having to find another spot for them. So I bought a ground buss and a switched power buss for mine and we installed them in the dash. Now I have plenty of ground and switched power room.

I also took a picture while the sun was hitting the fender. The pictures just don't quite show how vivid this blue is.

I'm continuing to work on my pressure line from the hydroboost to the gear. The issue I'm having is that there is very little clearance between the gear and the inner fender, so it has to be a very tight bend to make it work. I've gone through two iterations of the line so far and ordered another stock line yesterday to see if it has a tighter bend than the one NAPA gave me. One of our local NAPA's has a guy that makes brake and power steering lines and I'm sure he's tired of seeing me in there by now.

I'm also taking my door locks and ignition core to a local locksmith to see if they can re-key the locks so I can use the new keys from the American Autowire kit.

[1971Stepside]

I am so looking forward to getting to wiring, but I'm sure about 20 minutes in I will be fed up with it

Looking good. Can't wait to see the speaker box.

[MDPotter]

Thanks guys.

The classic update kit is great. Most of the connections are already made up and you have plenty of wire in most cases. It's also nice because it has the accessory circuits which I'm using to power the LS harness, power seats, and a couple relays. Things that have made this easier and more flexible are the busses I installed and cutting a hole in the carpet to run wires from the dash to the console area. What really made the difference is all the time I spent researching ahead of time. I looked at the American Autowire diagrams, the gauge cluster diagrams, and how to wire up the LS harness. There are still surprises and things that don't make sense at first, but all the pre-planning has made this go really fast.

We should have just about all of the wiring done in the next couple weeks so we can test circuits and see things light up. I'm also getting close to pulling the trigger on a radiator. Once that and my column show up, I'll have all the parts I need to fire it up!

A little eye candy - I installed the plug wires the other night. Got them from Speed Engineering - these are the 12" wires. They have a choice of 10" or 12" and I didn't want to be short so I went with the 12".

[MDPotter]

My $200 (delivered) radiator/fans setup showed up yesterday and I installed it last night. I have to say I am very happy with the fit and finish for $200. It fit perfectly in my factory 3-row mounts. It was packaged very well. The radiator is painted a silver/aluminum color but the shroud is bare aluminum.

I have trans cooler fittings on the way (made a guess that they are 5/16" inverted flare). The upper hose is a Gates 22436 and I cut about 2" off the radiator end. I heated up that end and used some soapy water and it wasn't hard to stretch over the inlet. The lower hose is a Gates 22437 and I cut about 3.5" off the thermostat end. Same thing as the upper - I heated up the radiator end and used some soapy water and it wasn't hard to slip it on.

I won't have feedback on initial function until I have my truck running in the next month and won't have long term testing feedback for quite a while, but I'm impressed so far.

Here is the eBay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3Row-Alumin....c101112.m1982

[MDPotter]

More pictures

[MDPotter]

My rebuilt tilt van conversion column also showed up. Shout out to 70shortfleet for an awesome product. It was packaged very well - I actually had to use a hammer to open up the wood packaging.

[1971Stepside]

Radiator looks good, especially for the price. Column looks even better. I may have to contact 70shortfleet to see what he has.

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by MDPotter

My rebuilt tilt van conversion column also showed up. Shout out to 70shortfleet for an awesome product. It was packaged very well - I actually had to use a hammer to open up the wood packaging.

Dude his packaging was the best lol. It took forever to get the column out lol. He has that packing down to an art.

I like the radiator and fans dude. It's different. I'm assuming the fans and shroud all in $200?

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Radiator looks good, especially for the price. Column looks even better. I may have to contact 70shortfleet to see what he has.

I also highly recommend his columns. He is quick to respond and quickly builds the column and ships it to you. I think whole process for me was 2 weeks. I had him shorten my column 2 inches, add tilt, add the auto indicator, add wiring for cruise control, and painted it. Boom. Don't have any safety issues like you would with a cheap unit and less expensive than the ididits

[MDPotter]

Yep, delivered to my door for $200. All I need are fittings, hoses, overflow, and to make up connectors so I can disconnect the fans easily. I'm sure they're cheap fans, but even if they fail I still have the radiator and shroud.

[dec010974]

@MDPotter, I'm looking at thesame radiator/fan shroud combo you purchased. i love the way wat the build is coming together.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by dec010974

@MDPotter, I'm looking at thesame radiator/fan shroud combo you purchased. i love the way wat the build is coming together.

Thanks! I should have some pretty good visual updates after this weekend. I'm planning to install the column, gauges, finish my power steering plumbing, and tie up some engine bay wiring.

[TA_C10]

Looking great man! Your making good progress! I'm glad your ahead of me, I can take notes Do you think the 10 inch plug wires from Speed Engineering would have been long enough? I need to order some.

Had family in this weekend so I am falling farther behind. But plan to really get a lot done this weekend. What are you doing for power steering lines and will you be using an adapter on the pump?

.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Looking great man! Your making good progress! I'm glad your ahead of me, I can take notes Do you think the 10 inch plug wires from Speed Engineering would have been long enough? I need to order some.

Had family in this weekend so I am falling farther behind. But plan to really get a lot done this weekend. What are you doing for power steering lines and will you be using an adapter on the pump?

.

Yes, the 10 inch wires would have been long enough. It looks a little silly, but not worth it to me to buy another set.

Funny you mention that, I was typing up my novel on that subject before I saw your post.

[1971Stepside]

Post a pic of the engine bay where I can see the power steering hoses and how the lay in the engine bay. Very good write up. I spent big dollars on the braided lines and I am not sure I like them. It would be hard to swap them out now since I spent the money. I'm afraid they are going to be in the way of my shift linkage. Thanks,

[Putzer]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Post a pic of the engine bay where I can see the power steering hoses and how the lay in the engine bay. Very good write up. I spent big dollars on the braided lines and I am not sure I like them. It would be hard to swap them out now since I spent the money. I'm afraid they are going to be in the way of my shift linkage. Thanks,

yes please post pics. I was able to make stock PS lines from a 2005, 2500HD truck work with my hydroboost setup but i havent put my inner fender liners or steering column in yet. Thinking at this point it would be easier to modify the inner fender.

[MDPotter]

I will take some pictures tomorrow or Friday for sure. Cutting the inner fender would have saved me a lot of time and money, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

[MDPotter]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We got quite a bit done, not as much as I wanted but still a good amount.

The steering wheel is on and actually went about 10X faster and easier than I expected. On my dad's, used a Grant wheel and install kit and ended up having to use a horn contact ring and the cheesy foil stickers and it was just a really lame installation and it took a few tries to get it right. But mine was so much easier. Forever Sharp steering wheel and horn button with a Grant install kit. I literally used maybe 25% of the parts that came with the column, wheel, horn button, and install kit. I didn't know that the horn button was a switch itself which is nice because I only had to take one wire to ground out the button and hook up the other wire coming out of the column.

Also got my DBW pedal done. I had cut off the adjustable pedal assembly because there was no way it would work. There was already an almost 3/8" hole in the arm of the pedal itself so I bent up a piece of 3/8" rod and welded it to the pedal. I had a pedal pad, spring, and pin for the later style pedal that I made work and it came out pretty clean.

[MDPotter]

Also got my fans and fuel pump wired up and running. I used the GM 3-relay setup for the fans so they both run half speed when the PCM calls for low-speed and they both run full speed when the PCM calls for high-speed. This is a fuse block/relay setup I got from Amazon for $30. I looked at the Bussmann setup and it's nice because it has internal bussing to make wiring a little easier, but I would have spent over $100 because there is a minimum quantity of seals and terminals so I would have ended up with hundreds of them that you don't use. This block worked pretty well - I soldered the 10 ga wires to the terminals since they weren't big enough to crimp. Other than that, the seals fit tight and I'm pretty happy with it. Don't mind the labeling on the wires, we just used leftover wiring from my AAW harness to match the colors used in the GM diagram.

And the intake is done. I used the Spectre 9900B (B for blue filter) kit along with a straight piece of 4" tubing and another coupler to get the clearance from the alternator coming out of the throttle body. I cut off the long mounting arm from the long section of tubing and fabbed up a custom aluminum bracket to firm up the tube to the alternator bracket. Just a heads up for anyone using this kit, it utilizes a clamp from the stock 99-06 intake. It could be done without it, but fortunately we had the part we needed from my dad's 06 leftover as he has a K&N system on it.

I went to prime the fuel system and I've got a couple leaks that I need to figure out. One is the single outlet from the fuel filter/regulator and the other is somewhere at the pump. So here I am regretting the Tanks Inc setup again.

[1971Stepside]

Thanks for the pics. That helps a lot. I need to get back to working on mine.

[TA_C10]

Man, your really pounding out some good work here

I really like your steering wheel. I've done a grant or two in my day and while they aren't bad, having a quality wheel, column, and internals really makes a big difference. I think grant has low budget, and high budget stuff

Fuse block setup looks nice, I'm thinking of that same 3 relay fan setup as well. Hopefully I pinned the PCM correctly and won't have to go back and redo the engine harness again...

So what exactly is leaking on your fuel setup? I'm using the tanks Inc PA-4 series and didn't have any problems at all back when I pressurized the system and fired up my motor. I'm using A/N to braided line looks like it's the only difference. Curious to see how this one turns out.

Looking good man, keep it up!

.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Dude.

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Thanks for the pics. That helps a lot. I need to get back to working on mine.

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Man, your really pounding out some good work here

I really like your steering wheel. I've done a grant or two in my day and while they aren't bad, having a quality wheel, column, and internals really makes a big difference. I think grant has low budget, and high budget stuff

Fuse block setup looks nice, I'm thinking of that same 3 relay fan setup as well. Hopefully I pinned the PCM correctly and won't have to go back and redo the engine harness again...

So what exactly is leaking on your fuel setup? I'm using the tanks Inc PA-4 series and didn't have any problems at all back when I pressurized the system and fired up my motor. I'm using A/N to braided line looks like it's the only difference. Curious to see how this one turns out.

Looking good man, keep it up!

.

Thanks guys.

TA - We tested the fan wiring by grounding out the wires we identified as the ground trigger wires to be connected back to the PCM and confirmed that they work as they should. Only time will tell as to whether the wires I have coming from the PCM will send the ground triggers when they're supposed to! I had a mail order tune put on my PCM so that's another variable. Per the GM diagram, once the coolant temp reaches its higher limit, both wires should be grounded. If only the high temp wire is grounded, only one fan will run full speed. But with both wires grounded, both wires run full speed. With only the low temp wire grounded, both fans run half speed.

The first leak is the single supply fitting coming out of the regulator - the one that has all the play in it. I should have lubed up that fitting before pressing it in, I may have messed up the o-ring. I might end up ruining the regulator in pulling that fitting out because of the teeth. Or it may already be ruined if I messed up the o-ring.

The second leak is somewhere at the top of the pump assembly. I tightened up the supply and return fittings and I think they quit leaking but it almost looks like fuel is seeping out where the pickup and returns penetrate the mounting plate. I used Permatex aviation sealant on both sides of the cork gasket and the threads of the screws, but maybe I overtightened the screws. I used anti-seize on the supply and return fittings so I want to take those back out and put Permatex on them and make sure they aren't leaking. I'm also wondering if maybe the fittings are putting some side load on the pickup and return tubes and causing a leak. So lots of variables to explore.

[TA_C10]

Ok homie.... How did you wire your 3 relay fans with A/C? Are you using a trinary switch? I went through all the old threads and I don't see where anyone really answered this question with certainty when it pertained the following details:

LS Swap - ECM controlling fans
Vintage Air A/C
3 relay setup

LS1Nova71 was the closest I found to explaining this setup but looked like it was never verified....?? http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=781007

Thanks man.