New project! The "Red Herring"

[Advanced Design]

Too bad about the rust! Nice repair on the fender. I know a place that usually has good fenders. I've purchased a number of parts from them over the years. http://www.tricktrucknrod.com/hh/Stu...n?refresh=true

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Too bad about the rust! Nice repair on the fender. I know a place that usually has good fenders. I've purchased a number of parts from them over the years. http://www.tricktrucknrod.com/hh/Stu...n?refresh=true

I may be giving them a call here in the next few days ...

Today I worked on stripping some of the suspension off the donor frame to get ready for it to come into the garage.

Driver's fender is off again, after some scraping and poking I'm confident I've found all of the rust and this side won't be too bad to fix:



I'll be working on that tomorrow.

Small V8 (55-57 GMC) arrived today. Devilishly hard to get a good photo of, but:

This is where I had pictured putting an emblem



And here's the other spot


Opinions, please!

Of course, this one has a different curvature and it doesn't really fit the fender, either ... so we'll see

[FarmerSid]

What about below the vent on the cowl? A different attachment method may be needed. Just a thought.

[Chevy-49]

Yes, nearby the vents sounds good.

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

What about below the vent on the cowl? A different attachment method may be needed. Just a thought.

[JJorgensen52]

I'll give that one a try the next time I'm out there. This emblem has a weird curvature to it, as well, which I have an idea for how to deal with but it's making me wonder if maybe this truck just doesn't want more trim!

I spent tonight wrestling the fender on and off while I attempt to repair the lip ... this is definitely not my cup of tea

[JJorgensen52]

Alright! I actually feel like I made progress tonight

Fixed the fender flange on driver's side

Still need to clean up the bottom edge to make it blend, but that's for later.

Checked the fit, still pretty good:


So who has ideas how to fix this gap at the back of the hood? Beyond adding metal to it:

The other side is more even but it has a gap too


I don't recall it being quite that wide when I bought the truck, but I don't have any good photos of this part of it. That was dumb!

Now, back to V8 emblems:

It has to go this far forward because of the door:


So then I tried this one. I hadn't thought of it before because the other emblem was way too wide. This is my new favorite I think.


Keep the ideas coming!

I got what should be the final draft of the gauge artwork today, it's looking great!
If only you guys could see the size of the pile of wire, connectors and terminals I have sitting here in my living room ... I think I may write a separate thread on that one.

[JJorgensen52]

Last couple days, more electrical design work done, spent a bunch of time at the boneyard hunting up parts, and some time out of doors just enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend.

But I also got the axle pulled from my parts Blazer and test fitted to the frame:



This is important for two reasons.
1. Confirms I have clearance for everything as I had hoped
2. Will allow me to roll the chassis under the truck here tomorrow or Wednesday

It also shows me (you can see in that second picture that the parking brake cable wants to go through the coil spring) that I am probably going to have to swap the backing plates around (so the brake cables exit rearward) for routing purposes. The 2WD backing plates have the calipers clocked opposite these, so I can swap the parking brake cable orientation and keep the calipers in the forward position.

[Chevy-49]

Posted via Mobile Device

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Chevy-49

Posted via Mobile Device

Richard, your post disappeared??

Big progress today!



And after a lot of moving, measuring, blocking, lifting, lowering...




Based on my measurements between the frames, the 67-72 shortbed front bedstands are within 1/2" of where the 47-54 front block fell. Hopefully tomorrow I'll start working on getting the bed set up on the chassis so I can get a more certain location for the cab.

Right now I'm blocked up one 2x4 - at this height I'm definitely going to need a transmission tunnel. Based on my clearance to the trailing arm crossmember, I may need to go up about 3/4" or so to be in a good place. After that, I'll be in a good place to build cab mount stands and get the cab fixed in place. Then I can re-hang the front clip and work on getting the stub situated.

I'm also riding at about 1" below my unloaded ride height in the rear at the moment - based on where it sits, it looks like I can mount the stub right into the straight center section of the longbed frame and I'll have ~1-1/2" of rake, which is about what I'm after.

[Advanced Design]

Big progress! Going to be an interesting chassis.

[JJorgensen52]

I forgot in the last post! Approved the final proof artwork for the gauges yesterday

[Chevy-49]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

Richard, your post disappeared??

Yes seems missing, small V8 emblem on the rear of the cabine is a winner.
I also red the build 49 ls1 posted by skymangs, love the bigger V8 emblem on the hood. (Hope he does not mind)

[Chevy-49]

Nice gauges, The indicators are deadfronted? What does it means....

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Big progress! Going to be an interesting chassis.

Yes!! I'm stoked. It's definitely going to be interesting, although it looks like having this longbed is going to work out better for me than I had hoped. More to come soon.

Originally Posted by Chevy-49

Yes seems missing, small V8 emblem on the rear of the cabine is a winner.
I also red the build 49 ls1 posted by skymangs, love the bigger V8 emblem on the hood. (Hope he does not mind)

Ah, gotcha. Yeah I'm really liking that one! I hadn't read through the build, but I just took a look, and that does look good.

Originally Posted by Chevy-49

Nice gauges, The indicators are deadfronted? What does it means....

It means they'll not be visible when not lit - so at first glance, the gauge face will just be black.

[Chevy-49]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

It means they'll not be visible when not lit - so at first glance, the gauge face will just be black.

Nice, Nice, Nice, The Woodward series is already on my wish list, but your design is beautifull, I really like it, could you inform about the price?

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Chevy-49

Nice, Nice, Nice, The Woodward series is already on my wish list, but your design is beautifull, I really like it, could you inform about the price?

Thanks! Sent you a PM regards the pricing.

Got the bed set up on the frame today, couple things to note:
1. The front bed stands are in exactly the right place front-rear, lines up with the axle perfectly (You'll note in the photos it looks like I'm right at the rear edge of the stands, which I am, but the axle is about 1" too far back right now, which is exactly how far forward the bed needs to go to be centered.)



2. I think the 67-72 cross sills must be taller (haven't crawled under my '69 to check), because right now it looks like my bed wood is actually going to be sitting right on the rear shock cross-member. Which is okay, because there is supposed to be a cross sill there in the 47-54 bed, which won't fit here.

3. The other cross sills line up pretty well with where the stands are on the frame.

4. I think I am going to have to cut a little less off the frame than I would to make it into a shortbed, at the rear. About 6" it looks like, not confirmed yet.


5. It looks like the height of the bed relative to the cab on this frame is actually going to work out really well - the 67-72 bed stands are about 3-1/2" tall, where the 47-53 wood blocks were 2-1/4" tall, leaving 1-1/4" higher above the frame - but the cab is supposed to be 3/4" above the frame, and I've got it sitting right now at 2" above - so 1-1/4" higher than original. Worked out nicely!

It is TOUGH to get any good shots of this in the shop right now, it's getting cramped!


The sharp eyed among you may also notice that my wheel looks a little extra sunken in the fender - the axle is offset about 1" to driver's side right now, I haven't set it for the perches yet. The tires on there are 195's, I'm planning to run a 225 in 28" height on the 15" wheels, which is pretty close to the original 15" size tire.

You also might notice that the bed and the cab aren't on the same plane parallel to the floor - well, so they looked crooked to me, and I started adjusting the cab shims to match the bed, BEFORE it occurred to me that the rear cross sill is about 2" taller than the front ones, so the way I have it on the frame right now has the back of the bed up 2" ...

[JJorgensen52]

Not a whole lot to report, really long day at work today. I got a chance to crawl under my '69 (and aside from the scary rust ), I was pleased to see that the bed wood IS supposed to sit right down on the frame:


After that, I abbreviated the end of the frame rails to get the bed to sit flat. I took about 4.5" off the end, I will probably end up cutting another inch or so, but I need to build a new cross member back here for the bed to sit on so I don't want to cut it too short:

[JJorgensen52]

So first, I got tired of tripping over the front of the truck so I just whacked that hazard off


Then, I got all four bed sills in, plus the rear sill:


And I drilled the new mounting holes in the cross sills, which will allow me to get the bed bolted down to the frame (at least two of the sills anyway) for locating the cab.
Sills #3 and 4, behind the axle


And #1 and 2, in front


The bolt pattern for the bed strips of course only aligns at the front stand - the rest of them are close, but not close enough. That said, all of the sills DO land on the frame pads. So thanks GM for being lazy

Also started cleaning up the rear axle for mock up:


Since the S10 axle is a 2.75" diameter tube, the first thing I have to do is sleeve it up to 3" so it will fit the U-bolts and seats for the swing-arms. Do I question whether this was worthwhile? Maybe a tad ... but here we are! I have the tube, tomorrow I'll get it split and mock the axle up under the truck in the right place to verify my bed fit before I drill the frame for mount bolts and get everything tied down.

[lower50's]

Great Job on the truck so far. Gauges look very cool. I know what you mean about shop getting small when the truck gets together. I had to move my work bench.

[Advanced Design]

They do start to take up a lot of space. Pretty creative on the axle tube diameter. Neat idea!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Great Job on the truck so far. Gauges look very cool. I know what you mean about shop getting small when the truck gets together. I had to move my work bench.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

They do start to take up a lot of space. Pretty creative on the axle tube diameter. Neat idea!

Thanks folks!

So Murphy came by to chat today. I set out to get the axle mocked into place, center the bed using the front mounts and then drill the holes for the rest of the cross sills in the frame.


This shows the S10 axle, complete with my sleeve tubing, riding in a conversion pad. This is not the correct U-bolt, I haven't got them in yet, these are Explorer 8.8 bolts that happen to have the same inside span.

Unfortunately, despite being a 2.75" diameter axle housing, the axle tube is actually 2.625" ... so I've got about a 1/16" of slop inside my sleeve as it sits. That's not a problem, I'll fine tune the shape to make them fit, but had I double checked that in advance I would have ordered 2.625" ID tubing, not 2.748" ... ah well. Live and learn!

This go the wheel nicely center into the fender opening:


Keep in mind, these are the Oldsmobile wheels, so I'm going to be about 2" larger in diameter and a little wider on my actual tires, to fill in the wells a little better.

Then I went ahead and bolted the cross sills down:


I got the front sill centered and tight, then set the rear most sill (and measured about 12 times) and drilled... and somehow, I'm off about 3/16" at the rear????

Anyways, it'll work. I'm going to oversize the holes (as factory) anyway, to allow for some adjustment, so this will all come out in the wash. Tomorrow, hopefully, I can start making more serious progress on cab location and mounting. Need to get some shims for the stands first, turns out my garage floor isn't quite flat ...

[JJorgensen52]

Spent a few hours getting the bed straightened out and centered tonight, then I did a lot of measuring and fiddling with the cab and I *think* I've sauced it. Although based on my cab - bed filler panel, I may need to shift it forward about 1/2" or so.

The glamour!

The rear is still partly on jackstands, so I expect to loose at least an inch of height at the rear when I fully unload the stands.

This gap looks about like I remember it being before I took it apart. Perhaps 3/4" to 7/8".


Has anybody used repop bed fillers lately? They don't fit very well...


I also did some more measuring on the frame stub, and it looks like it's going to land right in the straight section of the frame, which is perfect.

[JJorgensen52]

I'm back

Last few weeks have been super busy between work and travel but I'm back on the project again.

Tonight, I got the front of the truck frame trimmed down (cut right where it starts to turn inward)


Trimmed the stub down to 34" width



And with a little finagling with a pry bar, wa-la


You can see here three things:

1. The front stub is tilted down a LOT - the G-body frame dropped into the perimeter section here, I need to trim about 1.5" off the bottom to get it to tilt into the truck frame squarely.
2. The G-body cross section is about an inch shorter than the truck here - I'm debating if I'm just going to fish the gap, or if I'm going to pie cut the truck frame back 6-8" and taper it up.
3. There's a diagonal reinforcement inside the G-body frame, which I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet, as I had to cut a good chunk of it away to make the section fit as I wanted it to.

I've got the wheel centered:



It's going to move up about 2" into the well as near as I can figure, when I square the stub up to the truck.

Right now, the cab is sitting about 11/16" back from factory - makes the gap between the cab and bed a little tighter and I like the way it looks. I may have to trim the splash aprons. Right now, rough measure puts me at about a 116" wheelbase.

Metal should be here tomorrow for cab mounts, and I'll get the cab mounted and set in place, then I'll square the stub up and tack it in place so I can start taking cross measurements to make sure that it's all square. Then I can test fit the motor!

[JJorgensen52]

Oh yeah! Almost forgot. Got an update from New Vintage today, my gauges are on the bench getting assembled this week. Here's a sneak peak:

[lower50's]

I love the gauge. The truck is coming along very nice. The frame splice looks lines up perfect.