SkinnyG's '61 Apache

[WunTon]

Sounds like a great labor of love and looks like a great space to work. I'm in the "2" car garage stage of life currently with the wife and I having just built our first house a little over a year ago but we both know it's a stepping stone to our forever home. She's awesome enough to allow me to have the garage space as my space and doesn't question what shows up in there lol. Keep up the great work and thanks for the motivation!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

I forgot the most important part - I have a very loving and supportive wife. She's amazing. I'd do anything for her.

THIS........


Never forget that.


I have always been fortunate there.


You can thank your wife all the way from here, as I am pretty sure that for every one of her, there are five guys having their “balls broken”

[SkinnyG]

Got some of the crossover done, and a couple more pieces of it ready to go. Hope to have more time tomorrow.

Got distracted adding rubber sealing flaps to the impeller vanes on my Bolens 824 snow blower. Now throws 3X farther, and never plugged up once!!

[Captainfab]

I spent about 4 hours behind my snow blower today. It sounds like I may be doing that again tomorrow or Monday. How hard was it to add those rubber wipers?

[SkinnyG]

I used some self-tapping screws and pounded them in with a cordless impact. It took a bit of time shaping the wipers to seal best against the housing, but I did mine wider than most people do.

Google "impeller mod" for snow blowers.

I'm very impressed.

[SkinnyG]

Crossover pipe done, waiting on 4" downpipe to come in:

[SkinnyG]

Still working out Argon flow, cup size, amperage, travel, etc.. I don't have a lot of experience welding stainless. And then ran out of Argon. Again.

[Duncan K]

Nice job! I love the look of pie cuts

[SkinnyG]

Did not get as much done as I wanted. Saturday was filled with family stuff, so I only got 25% of what I wanted done.

Gas lens, pyrex cup, 3/32" tung, sharpened a little less pointy. I switched to 0.035" filler as recommended by a fabricator buddy. It was easier to move quick with the thinner filler.

Running this pipe down was a lot less fun than it looks. I -can- actually get to the spark plugs. Needs another wiggle to get down to the frame, but it's close.

[SkinnyG]

Wastegate plumbed. I TIG'd the merge into the downpipe, then TIG'd the elbow to the Wastegate flange, then cut a wee disc of 2.25" to fill the gap, welding it all in place so that (theoretically) nothing warps or moves during the weld. I've let it cool completely in place, and will see how bad it is later.







Working on the rest of the downpipe, intending to take it to a band clamp by the trans.

[SkinnyG]

Trial fit of intercooler. Required some cutting of the rad support, but it looks like the grill will fit fine with zero cutting to it. I will likely do a light skiff of black paint to hide it better.

[SkinnyG]

Fabricating the cold side. I bought the wrong reducing elbow.

[SkinnyG]

The only silicone coupler I could get in town was a 3"-to-3.5", which I could NOT, for the life of me, get onto the LQ4 throttle body. I searched on eBay and bought a 3"-to-3-3/4" 90° elbow, which should be here in a week or more. In the mean-time, I threw a hose clamp on the 3"-to-4" 90° just to see if would even remotely tighten. Oh. Interesting. It does up and holds tight. Hmmm. Figures.

So, I piped the rest of the cold side, and since this picture was taken I welded the blow-off-valve mount in place. I have also spaced the rad out 1.25" to theoretically fit an AC condenser between the rad and the intercooler.

[Duncan K]

Nice job Skinny, looks great. If I keep reading this thread I'm going to end up with a turbo soon!

[SkinnyG]

Inner Fender video done.

'61 C10 Apache Part 10 - Inner Fenders - YouTube

[aggie91]

Progress is looking good. What size is your intercooler? Looks like it fits well and not much hacking on the core support.

[SkinnyG]

31x12x3" from VS Racing in their Denmah Billet 7875 kit. There was significant cutting to the core support, but no cutting to the grill (yet - I have not fitted the grill since completing the tubing).

[SkinnyG]

Now that the turbo plumbing is done (attached the blow-off valve, not shown), I really needed to know for myself if the hood will fit over the fenders.

First I had to re-shape the hood hinges. No room for springs, so the spring "ear" was cut off and re-flanged for strength. Then placed in the engine bay and clearanced for the fenders and flanged.



The hood had about 5/8-3/4" trimmed off the inside edges around the wheel humps, and it fits!

[cwcarpenter98]

Progress is looking great man. That hood is my favorite of all the hoods offered

[SkinnyG]

Oh, and here's the first of the "I clearly didn't plan this thoroughly enough:" the oil return I put in the pan is right where the motor mount ended up, which was too close to fit any of the AN fittings I have; they all hit the motor mount one way or another:



So I bought bought a 90° elbow, which didn't fit because now the flared end hit the motor.



So I hacksawed it in half, cut it down, and re-welded it as a 45°. I'm sure you can buy these, but this was easy.



Then I used a 45° AN fitting to get the hose to it. Looks like it will clear the AC compressor, and I'll likely put some rubber hose around the braiding so it doesn't machine its way through things.





Except it looks like I clocked the turbo compressor and turbine in such a way that the supplied oil drain AN fitting (angled slightly to clear easily) won't fit. Figures. So I lengthened it two inches, and (what the heck!) ported the adapter for nice flow.





Other than running the turbo oil feed (I need a 90° elbow so the hose won't kink/hit the hood), this concludes plumbing the turbo.

[SkinnyG]

'61 C10 Apache - Part 11: DIY Turbo Kit - YouTube

[jkeating1]

hey brother! I'm still following along. I plan to use as much of your stuff as I can. In fact....does this cart look familiar?

[SkinnyG]

THAT'S COOL!

I'm VERY flattered!

Nothing new to report, though.

All my A/C components came in: under-dash unit, condenser, drier, hose kit, adapter to LS compressor, all for $405 CDN, shipped. Very pleased. Haven't fitted any of it yet.

Spent last week swapping the drivetrain out of my 14 year old son's '03 Civic (3-part video on my youtube channel.

Spent this week trying to resolve a drivability issue with my Super 7 replica, where it seems to be running on one cylinder. It's been kicking my butt, and I'll see tomorrow if I fixed it or not (runs like death when cold).

Also cashed in some gift cards and bought a pressure sandblaster. I may regret that, but hiring out the blasting here is around $1500.

[Notch1988]

Checking in to see if there's been any updates...

[88Stanger]

Please give us updates!! Damn Damn Fine job so far!!! Its like watching your favorite TV Show series and a season ends and you just sit there waiting for the first episode of the new season..... please.... lol