A New 68 Build Thread

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

ME 2...............................jim (yes I am paying attention!!)

Good, there will be a test later!

[72k5zl1]

just found this, looks great!

[ccracin]

It seems we started this project forever ago. We have been trying to get the new firewall in the truck. Every time we thought we were ready to put it in we found something else that should be done before we put it in. All in all I'm glad we did it right the first time. Every thing fit just as it should. Here are some pics to show how we went about it.

This is the empty hole. The floor and trans tunnel are all finished. We then went around the face of the cowl area in the dark with a light and welded up any pin holes in welds from the rust repair. The new firewall has a mounting flange that covers this area, so I don't want any moisture to get between those panels and into the cab. After all the holes were taken care of, I coated the area with Eastwood's rust encapsulator. This was to help curb any development of rust from factory seams we did not take a part.



Before mounting the piece, we applied a bead of seam sealer to the mating face of the cowl. This is mostly to eliminate any potential vibration between the 2 sheet metal panels. We also sealed the bottom weld seam. This will be done on the inside of the wiper tray before paint as well.



I also coated the back of the firewall mounting flange with self etching weld through primer for an added level of protection.



We then used cleco's to hold the firewall on and braced it to hold everything flat for alignment while tacking.



And FINALLY, here it is all tacked in. The fit to all the mating panels is excellent. Now it's time for me to try to weld it in and finish it with out screwing up all our hard work!











Thanks for looking!

[67cheby]

Clean !

[VA72C10]

Nice work!

[trevorrhine]

That looks awesome. Great job, the detail on this truck is going to make it stand out..

[ccracin]

I finally have some more pictures to post. I ended up putting a bunch more tacks on the firewall before we pulled it back off the chassis to do the final welding.



Once we got it off the chassis, we turned it up on it's back so that I could do all horizontal welds. This also let me do alot of weld finishing on the bottom of the chassis.

Before anymore welding or grinding.




Here is the firewall all welded in with the transition to the original cowl sheet metal initially finished. A little more touch up and it will be ready for the body man.









These next couple are the new trans tunnel and floor pieces all ground and sanded. Again a little touch up and it will be ready for the body man.







I've been trying very hard to make these welds "disappear", but welding new metal to this old stamped floor pan, firewall, cowl etc. is very difficult. I have been finding that the old metal shrinks and moves much easier than the new. All in all I am happy. it shouldn't take much filler to smooth all this out.

As always any comments or suggestions good or bad are welcome.

[Nsanehotrodz]

Looks Great!

DeWayne

[VA72C10]

very nice!!!

[67cheby]

Great work !!
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[sduckworth13]

Looks great! Nice work! What do use to gring down your welds with? I've never welded but have a project cab that I'm getting ready to start learning on.

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looks great! Nice work! What do use to gring down your welds with? I've never welded but have a project cab that I'm getting ready to start learning on.

Thanks for the kind words! I mostly use an angled die grinder with 2" Roloc discs. 80 then 120 then finish them off with a DA sander. The da helps show how well you have blended the welds in. Good luck. Start a build thread. Love pics!
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[ccracin]

More progress has been made, although it has been difficult. Summer makes it tough to get in the shop and work. Several things have happened since I posted last. The transmission has been ordered. As usual we did not order what we had intended to. The truck was originally going to have a 4L80E in it. Well.......after doing some research and having discussions with Steve at Twist Machine, we decided to go with a 4L70E. Basically it comes down to control and speed at which the transmission shifts. The 60/65/70 based transmissions will execute the shift faster than the 80 according to Steve. Without getting into details here there are also differences in other parts of the control scheme. In the end it came down to what I mentioned about shift speed as well as less overall weight. In the end, we are getting a Stage 4 4L70E with Compu-Shift controller from Gearstar as well as a Shrifter Paddle Shifter and Muscle Drive Billet Converter from Steve at Twist Machine. Steve is going to handle the programming for the package as well. This thing should be a hoot! I can't say enough good so far for these 2 vendors. We have received the Shrifter and Converter and the tranny should be done in a few weeks. The tranny change allowed another addition. All along one of our primary design criteria was to not allow anything to hang below the chassis of the truck. Well, that has been a challenge since we also wanted to run 3" exhaust. The one compromise we had made was that an X or H pipe was not going to be possible in a reasonable manor. That has now changed, so we cut up a perfectly good setup to add the H pipe. Pics are below. I think it will definitely help some in performance as well as sound. We have contacted a friend of ours about doing some TIG welding for us. I have been spending too much time finish welding and not enough time designing and fabricating. Hopefully with our limited time in the shop this will help move things along. Well, this week is Columbus so we will be back at it after we bake on the asphalt a while. Thanks for Looking!

[ccracin]

Look what just showed up on the loading dock!

[ccracin]

Ok, here are all the goodies that were packed in the crate!

4L70E Stage 4 Trans! Keeping the bag on for now!



Compu Shift Trans Controller!



Hayden Trans Cooler!



Lokar dipstick!



I have to say Gearstar did an excellent job packaging the trans for shipment! So far, a first class experience!

[Hart_Rod]

Nice parts run! Any more info on the hinges? What's the status of the other truck you sold?
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[ccracin]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

Nice parts run! Any more info on the hinges? What's the status of the other truck you sold?
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Rob,

It sure has been! Now we need to connect all those pieces. The hinges are from The Ring Brothers. www.ringbrothers.com

They are first class pieces. They come in 2 styles and several finishes. We chose the natural aluminum because we will be painting them to match the theme under the hood.

That truck is somewhat on hold while he finishes another truck he is working on. It's cool too. It's got a complete Hotchkis suspension setup under it as well as Corvette brakes and hot ex-circle track small block. It's being built as a shop autocross truck. Should be done soon. He did have the engine built for the truck we sold him. Nice "little" 454 with Edlebrock Aluminum heads and Comp Cam. He has been talking to Hilborn about an 8 Stack EFI setup. As soon as there is major progress, I will post it up. I'll try to get picks of the shop truck as well!

Thanks for checking in!

[67cheby]

Wow. Nice batch of parts !
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[FRENCHBLUE72]

Gearstar is awesome I love dealing with thim everything arrives just as it should.

[ccracin]

Well, what was supposed to be a cool milestone in the project has turned into one of the biggest disappointments. It is time to move on to the fabrication of the front end of the truck. Mount the Rad, coolers, make close out panels etc, etc... So we un-box all the new Tri-Plus panels and bolt it on. Everything was fitting OK (As far as repop stuff goes) until we got to the hood. It is a brand new 2" Cowl Induction hood from Tri-Plus. It is JUNK! Completely the wrong contour on the leading edge. We are contacting the vendor today (not from this site) to see if he will help out. The problem is we bought it over 2 years ago. This is the first time it's been out of the box other than opening the flap when we picked it up to make sure there was no shipping damage. Needless to say, we are dejected. I don't mind cutting and slicing, but this would be rebuilding 1/4 of the hood. Anyone had any better luck with another brand hood! Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking!

[sourkraut]

I feel your pain got 2 doors to save time and I have more time in them that if I would have fixed originals. What stinks is once you start you won't get any money back. I had to cut both hoops off, and major surgery on the inside of drivers plus .25" spacers to get good body lines. Will finish truck thenfix original doors to use later. Hang in there.
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[jtp67-72]

Hate to tell u Chad..there all like that ...they just don't have the right curve as the fender....whether the fender is original or aftermarket....it's not the fender...I put one on trucks with both and it's the same....did u see the thread on here yesterday where the guy used 1st gen camaro cowl hood ....cut out cowl...looked great welded on 67-68 hood...may be an alternative....."Ain't it fun" lol......jim

[67cheby]

nice work , i am looking for some nice exhaust clamps , what are the ones you are running ?

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

nice work , i am looking for some nice exhaust clamps , what are the ones you are running ?

Sorry Mike, I just saw this. They are V-Band Clamps. Check them out here:
http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.c...2C-V%2C/Detail

Just a word of warning, they are not all the same. there are different flange and clamp configurations that don't interchange. Make sure you get all the matching sets you need. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[1967wannabe]

Awwww, come on man, you can use that hood!

It'll be fine.........look, this one worked!
http://www.accelautogroup.com/used-c...ls.php?cid=115