68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[Okiefromwatonga]

Originally Posted by rkn463

That looks like great project truck, I recall seeing your previous post now. If you decide to go with the tow bar be really careful, these trucks are big and heavy and could easily overpower what ever is pulling it if you get in to an emergency situation. Just out of curiosity, how far do you have to move it?

-Richard

Only about 30 miles. Cruise along at about 35 mph shouldn't be too bad. My DD is a 07 Toyota Tundra that is supposed to be able to tow 10,300 pounds so flat towing it should go fairly well. Might have a friend ride the parking brake in the GMC. Also good to know about the body change, Ill have to look into that. Sorry for hyjacking your thread.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by rustytruck50

Great read on your work! I like the C50 and C60 in those years, just as much as the C10's!

Thanks for checking it out. It's funny how my tastes have changed over the years, there was a time when I wouldn't have given the medium duty trucks a second look, now I'm obsessed with them. (I still love my 10's, 20's and 30's too!)

Originally Posted by Okiefromwatonga

Only about 30 miles. Cruise along at about 35 mph shouldn't be too bad. My DD is a 07 Toyota Tundra that is supposed to be able to tow 10,300 pounds so flat towing it should go fairly well. Might have a friend ride the parking brake in the GMC. Also good to know about the body change, Ill have to look into that. Sorry for hyjacking your thread.

Fortunately that is very close, just keep in mind that since the towed vehicle has 4 wheels and more weight it may have a mind of it's own. However, I'd be lying if i said I haven't done stuff just as sketchy if not worse. OK, I've done a lot worse and walked away, but I'm really lucky.

No hijack perceived, I'm glad to have a good dialog going. Can't wait to see your build thread once you get things going.

-Richard

[rkn463]

I had high hopes for this weekend, however things did not go as planned. Job #1 was to get the cab squared up to the frame, when we set it on last weekend only the driver side front mount was in the correct place, the whole cab was rotated clockwise around that mount point. Also when we set it down one of the forks on the forklift had slipped over to where the passenger side rear mount could not even be placed over the hole in the frame. I'd had a whole week to consider how to rotate the cab, so here is what I came up with and what I did:

1) Use my cheap Porta-puller to lift the back of the cab off the mounts and remove them
2) set the back of the cab down on a piece of pipe that it can roll on
3) lift the front passenger side with a floor jack
4) rotate the cab while supported as described
5) set it back on the mounts

This is the only thing that worked right all weekend!

-Richard

[rkn463]

More pictures from rotating the cab:

-Richard

[rkn463]

After getting things squared up I was ready to drop the cab back on to the mounts however they looked really grungy, there was a lot of rust stuck on them. I checked the 89 mounts and they looked much better and are the same size as the 68 mounts so I used them instead. The bolts for the rear mounts had suffered some rust over the years so I cleaned them up and hit them with a coat of rust reformer paint before reinstalling them. With everything lined up and the bolts ready I lowered the front corner back down on the mount, lifted the back off of the pipe and inserted the mounts and bolted it down.

This was a lot of pictures and dialog describing this process, however the whole thing probably was done in less than 45 minutes. For once something went as quickly as it should. I was convinced that I was on a roll. I was wrong...

More tomorrow.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Like I said, I was on a roll, or so I thought. Next up was to connect the clutch linkage. I expected this to be as simple as to pop the linkage in and stick in a cotter pin and move to the next item on the list. When I went to connect it, the rod was a full two inches too far forward and three inches too short. I fooled around with it for several minutes but it just wasn't going to happen. I spent a lot of time trying to measure locations on one frame and then walk a couple of hundred steps to the other one to compare and finally decided that the part of the linkage bolted onto the frame must be different so I went about removing it. Pulling the z bar and mount from the 68 frame wasn't fun but I got it all out in under a half hour. With the big block, full exhaust and a cab in the way it did not go nearly so well on the project truck. One of many frustrations was that the bolts holding it on were 18mm instead of 3/4 inch. That meant a trip across the road and down the way to my brother's shop to borrow an 18mm combination wrench (I had a 17 and a 19 in my box, but no 18!) It's an absolute crap shoot on the 89 what will be standard and what will be metric. Anyway after fighting it for what seemed like forever I finally dropped the exhaust on the driver side and got it loose pretty quickly after that. I then compared the two and although different the difference was negligible. Time wasted, a lot of time wasted.
Because of other commitments my available time Saturday was done. What a bummer of a day. Sunday morning before church I had some cows to feed and a missing bull to hunt for. Cows fed, bull not found; I can only hope he shows up soon. Anyway by now I had determined that I needed the clutch rod from the 89. Simple, one cotter pin holding it at the top, five minutes, right? WRONG! An hour and a half later and I finally had it out. Impossible to convey how frustrated I was. I went ahead and pulled the steering column while I was there. It was literally two bolts, 3 screws and unplug the harness and it was loose. I was running so late that I didn't even have time for a shower before church, I just washed my face threw on clean clothes and showed up as they finished the first hymn.

After church and back in dirty clothes I made another pass at finding the missing bull, still no sign of him.

Back to the truck I was able to get the clutch rod out of the 68 cab pretty quickly as it had the proper spring clip instead of a bent up cotter-pin. When I laid the two rods out side by side it looked promising, however when I tried to hook it up it was off side to side and too long. A trip to the vice to put a bend in and the side to side was good (the thin part in the second photo was originally straight), next onto the length. I made marks as to how much needed to be cut out as well as a reference line so I could get it clocked properly (3rd photo). A chop saw made quick work of the cuts, then I ground a 45 degree bevel in both pieces and welded them together. This was at my brother's shop and I didn't have the camera, so no photos. Once back I ground the weld down smooth. Pics 4 and 5 show the finished product comparison and the altered rod (sans the paint)

-Richard

[rkn463]

A test fit of the clutch rod and it popped right in and seems to work when I push the pedal. I need to replace the rubber boot that the rod runs through and it needed paint on the ground off bit so the final install has to wait for next weekend. I hit it with primer and then some top coat and set it aside to dry. Then I removed the steering column from the 68 cab and it was installed pretty much like the 89. I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had already replaced the blinker switch with a newer one so it already has the wiring adapter installed. I stood the two columns side by side and all I need to do is swap the bracket and column to floor gasket and it will bolt right in. I haven't decided yet if I am going to paint it or not. On one hand it is black and matches the interior, however the original column was a contrasting color and I am very tempted to paint it the hammered bronze that I used on the heater assembly (as seen in the 3rd photo). What do you think?

Finally, I just have to brag a bit on my 2004 DD, she hit 300K miles on the way to work this morning!

That's all the updates for this week, more next time.

-Richard

[rustytruck50]

I've been there and back.....its frustrating but when you slide in behind the wheel for the first time and get it out on the road, all of that goes away in a big hurry!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by rustytruck50

I've been there and back.....its frustrating but when you slide in behind the wheel for the first time and get it out on the road, all of that goes away in a big hurry!

If things go really well with reassemble then that first test drive may not be too far away. I can hardly wait!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Weekend update:
First on the agenda was to finish hooking up the clutch. When I pulled the clutch rod out the previous week I noticed that the rubber boot in the firewall was disintegrating. While I didn't have any expectation that the light duty and medium duty would use the same part I ordered one from LMC. As soon as it came in I knew it wasn't a match, you can see from the second photo it wasn't even close. That meant that I needed a plan B. With nothing to lose I set out to remove the old boot from the cab without finishing it off. I ended up using a blow dryer to heat it up to get it soft enough to remove it from the cab without destroying what was left. Once out I cut both apart and then grabbed some tire patch material and bonded the two together. It is a crappy looking temporary fix at best but for now it will keep air from blowing in. If anyone happens to have an old GM parts book I'd love to get a part # so that I can search for an NOS piece. Once It was back together I heated it with the blow dryer again and reinstalled it. Then I popped the clutch rod in and pinned it top and bottom. Clutch functional, check!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Next up was the steering column. As seen in last weeks photos the 89's column was the correct length. The shape of all the parts was a perfect match as well. I did need to swap the bracket that holds the column to the dash structure as well as swapping the floor gasket setup. I was able to work the floor gaskets off both and knocked the metal part of the brackets loose but I ended up cutting the rubber part of the bracket from the 68 column (forgot to get a picture). Anyone that has ever put a van column in a pickup is familiar with having to make a new hole in the column for the bracket to index in to. This one was no exception. I did not want to take the time to disassemble the column to do the drilling and cutting so I rigged up my shop vac over the existing slot so that I could drill, cut and suck all the metal shavings out at the same time - worked like a charm! First I drilled a 1/4" hole at each end I stepped the hole up to about 7/16 and then used my angle grinder to cut the part between the two holes. I swear I took some more pictures but they weren't on the camera so this is all you get, pic 1 is the vac hooked up, pic 2 is the completed hole, pic 3 is the bare metal painted. I installed the column and popped on the 68 horn button. The 89 button would be cool if it weren't for the silly little horn icon at the bottom. Column installed and functional - check!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Time to deal with the floor hump. The shifter doesn't come through in the original place so I need to move the hole. I also decided to go with the oval shifter boot from the 89, so I need to change the shape as well. I knew that the hole needed to be farther back so I started by cutting out the back end to get the shape right. Still way off. I did lots of measuring and figured out it needed to be roughly 3.5 inches farther back. I masked off a rectangle that I determined I could cut and rotate 180 degrees an weld back in. This would move it the proper distance back as well as moving it to the right about a quarter inch. I spent a lot of time measuring and masking and got my rectangle "in square" but when I cut it I got off the marks! I taped the piece in and test fit it and it looked perfect. Theory, spot on - execution, not so great. That was all for Saturday, the welding would have to wait till Sunday.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Sunday morning I dug out the nifty panel clamps that I bought from Eastwood back when I welded the bed up. Next I ground the paint from the top and the undercoating from the bottom and then clamped the pieces together. The gaps from my bad cut were terrible! I popped across the road to my brother's shop where our wire welder is and got started. The wind was howling and the doors were all open and I was in too big of a hurry. Possibly the worst looking welding I've ever done. I hate to show how bad it looks even ground down but I swallowed my pride and took the picture anyway. The too big a hurry also resulted in massive warpage. You can see how it sits on the floor now, fortunately it will still bolt down. So I hit it with a coat of rust reformer and bolted it down to keep the critters out. I still need to spray some undercoating on the underside and paint the top with some satin and keep looking forward to the day when I cover it with a mat to hide my shameful welding job.

-Richard

[rkn463]

At this point I had still not torqued cab down and also the connection where the pitman arm connects to the steering linkage. I looked them up, torqued everything down and put the cotter pin in the linkage. Two more pictures for you, the fist is how worn the clutch linkage was on the 68. How many times do you suppose that pedal got pushed to put that much wear on it? The last photo is my attempt to show the gap between the floor and the hump. This happened when we had to lift the cab back up to square up to the frame when we were placing it. The shifter knob caught and bent the floor. I still have some hammer and dolly work to do make those mate up properly again.

That is about it for last weekend, next weekend I have company so there will be no progress for at least two weeks.

-Richard

[rustytruck50]

Nice work!
I just had a thought about your clutch rod boot...I would take a look at the flat side that goes to the inside of the cab & see if you can find a number molded into the surface (flange)...probably a 6 digit number....

[Advanced Design]

Richard, you've really been moving right along. Good detail work that takes a lot of effort and time.

[notchbackgta]

Wrap that boot with some self vulcanizing rubber tape, it will look a lot better than those little patches.

[Stephen717]

Any progress?

[rustytruck50]

I've been working on a part number for that boot, but have been unsuccessful...still trying

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by notchbackgta

Wrap that boot with some self vulcanizing rubber tape, it will look a lot better than those little patches.

I had never even heard of that...

Originally Posted by Stephen717

Any progress?

The progress to frustration ratio is out of whack!

Originally Posted by rustytruck50

I've been working on a part number for that boot, but have been unsuccessful...still trying

I appreciate the effort!



I will be posting the latest but have been working late so far this week and haven't had the energy to get it all written up. Stay tuned.

-Richard

[63 gmc]

luv the long bed cant wait to do mine

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by 63 gmc

luv the long bed cant wait to do mine

Looking forward to a build thread from you!

-Richard

[rkn463]

OK, it's been a while since I updated; some progress has been made just not nearly as much as I would like. As I stated in a previous post my progress to frustration ratio has been very out of whack! I guess the first problem is that I was working with wiring and that always takes way longer than I expect. I had a few things to accomplish with the under hood wiring:
- Get rid of the resister wire that went to the coil and replace it with a wire capable of running HEI
- Add a tach wire into the harness
- Extend the alternator wires since the 366 has the alternator on the passenger side instead of the driver’s side
- Get rid of the extra wires that were for the externally regulated alternator and make it like it came with the internal
- Unwrap everything and look for any problems that need to be addressed
The under hood wiring is in two blocks - first up was the “motor” side of things: ignition, starter, temp gauge and backup light switch.
I grabbed the under hood harness that was on the 89, from it I stripped the plug and wires that went to the distributor.




Next I used colored zip ties to mark various things on the original harness: red is where the harness branches, green is where there were tie downs, white marked where the harness was connected to the “gutter” that runs across the firewall. (Note the blue masking tape where I marked the connections when I disconnected the harness from the old truck)



Then I unwrapped the old wires and separated out the ignition wires. I pulled the resistor wire from the connection that screws to the fuse block, cut the old wire loose and then soldered the big HEI supply wire and then rewrapped the harness. The other wires were all in good condition. I also had to extend the tach wire. Then I plugged it back in to the connector





To be continued...

-Richard

[rkn463]

First of all WOO HOO I finally found out how to post pictures in-line with the text!

Back to wiring, I didn't have any more room for pictures in the last post so here is the new big wire plugged back in to the connector and the harness rewrapped



Any splices I make are wrapped around each other, soldered and covered in heat shrink tubing.



Once the wires were ready I rewrapped the harness and plugged it back in to the truck. I had a bit of difficulty getting the newly wrapped harness down in to the gutter but I prevailed. Didn't get a picture of that one.

That wraps up what I got done the weekend of October 29th.

More updates soon.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Next up was the weekend of November 3rd which happened to be the start of a week of vacation. The plan was to do some deer hunting in the mornings, work on building a new fence between myself and my neighbor; a refreshing little 2400 foot project across solid rock and down a steep hill (should be a hoot). Any time left over was to work on the truck.

So that plan did not work out very well. First of all it rained from the time I got there clear through the following Thursday morning. Seven inches total. OK, too muddy to work on the fence which should leave more time for hunting and working on the truck. Apparently the truck does not want to be finished, it fought me at every step. Saturday when I was cooped up in the house I went about doing the other half of the under hood wiring, this side is the lights, horn and alternator part. Again it needed to be assessed for damage and rewrapped but it also needed the alternator conversion to internal plus make the wires for the alternator reach to the passenger side of the engine. For what ever reason I did not take any pictures of that process. I did the conversion and extended the alternator wires longer than they will need to be and will not do the finish work until I reinstall the front clip to see where things land. The rest of that part of the harness is done but not installed. This took most of my free time Saturday and Sunday. After hunting Monday morning I headed in to Waco to pick up the auxiliary pump for the hydroboost, the re-builder was done with it. My Camaro was in need of state inspection, license renewal and replacing the transmission mount so after Waco I headed on in to Fort Worth and traded the truck for the Z28 and headed back South. I stopped off in Meridian and got the car inspected and licensed and headed back to get in an afternoon hunt.

Monday night I decided to finish up connecting the "motor" half of the wiring harness. All that was left was the starter connection. The previous week I didn't get it connected because I didn't have an 11/32 socket to get the old solenoid wire disconnected. I borrowed a 1/4" drive set from my brother and went to remove the wire. It did not want to come loose. I ended up dropping the exhaust pipe for better access and could see that the battery cable was fried, disconnected that but couldn't get the nut on the solenoid wire loose. In frustration I cut the wire and removed the solenoid from the starter. Now with good access I drenched it in PB Blaster and started twisting and broke the post off the solenoid. I decided to use the solenoid and battery cable from the 68 as they were both still relatively new (3 or 4 years). No big deal getting them loose other than I did it by flashlight. When I went to remove the old positive cable from the truck there was a heat shield covering where it was connected to the frame. I removed that and finally got the cable replaced, then put the solenoid back on and connected the wires. Great, what I expected to take 10 minutes just took three hours! I did not realize it at that time but this would set the tone for the rest of the whole week.

-Richard