It's my turn, 47 S10 build

[Cautrell05]

I made a little more progress on it this weekend. The upper steering column mounts were just kind of rougged in and held in with c clamps. Got it lined up where I wanted so it was centered between the gauges and up as tight as possible but still have decent clearance for the shifter. Drilled a hole and mounted the left side. The right side bracket wasn't quite as easy. The dash slopes down right there so the bracket wouldn't quite line up. I ended up cutting the ear off and welding it on the inside. May not be quite as easy to get to as the other one, it's still better than 90% of the new cars I work on at my day job. Once I get the bottom of the column mounted where it needs to be, I'm going to go back and extend the upper brackets so they tie into both holes on the side of the steering column. It's probably Overkill but they look out of place being empty and it'd be a little more solid that way.

The other thing I did was throw together some adjustable bump stops out of some leftover pieces I had laying around. I took the springs out way back at the beginning of the project with the intention of everything being built at right height so that I knew it was going to be exactly where I wanted. I had a couple wood blocks that fit in between the lower arm and the frame when I was sitting on the ground they got really annoying every time I jack it up and set it down then fall out and I'd have to reposition them. That and they weren't the exact height I wanted. Out of my pile of saved hardware because I can't throw anything away, I had two 5/8 carriage bolts that I knew I would never use on anything, 2 5/8 flange nuts and a couple flat plates with the square punched in them if you're running a 5/8 carriage bolt. I stacked them up and tack welded them together and then I also welded a 3/8 bolt sticking out the bottom as a peg and slipped it in the arm in place of the bump stop. It won't fall out when I jack it up, and they're also adjustable. There's about a half inch of adjustment at the bolts which is about between 3/4 and an inch of adjustment out at the wheel. for mockup purposes it'll just be more consistent and a little more convenient than the blocks falling out all the time. One of the things i have been meaning to do for about 2 years now.

[99 to Life]

nice job, steering components add up quick.

[Cautrell05]

Thanks. Yeah, they add up really fast. I don't mind doing it cheap as long as I know it will last.

[99 to Life]

It all adds up quick! Its always been a balance on what to make from scratch vs buying. It just seems daunting sometimes during a build, sometimes its easier to just buy stuff and be done with it, other times is fun making stuff from scratch. I just watched a vid on a guy rebuilding a stovebolt, it so reminded me of all the stuff that goes into just building the engine. Anymore I look back on my builds and I'm like how the heck did go through all that!!!

[joedoh]

nice solution on the spreader. on one truck I built a "shock" out of 5/8 all thread and used a flat washer and nuts to adjust things.

Originally Posted by Cautrell05

The steering shaft is a bit of a Frankenstein job.

I mean, you obviously know what you are doing and it looks like a fine solution and all, but man I just go crazy thinking about the probabilities and how they changed just by touching (taking apart) the parts. props to you for thinking it out so logically, and no disrespect intended, but I will stick with borgeson steering parts.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by joedoh

I mean, you obviously know what you are doing and it looks like a fine solution and all, but man I just go crazy thinking about the probabilities and how they changed just by touching (taking apart) the parts. props to you for thinking it out so logically, and no disrespect intended, but I will stick with borgeson steering parts.

I hear ya. Swapping the u-joint was a one time deal. If I ever have to replace it I'll buy 2 joints and a slip shaft. I planned it out so I had that option later.

[Cautrell05]

Last weekend they tackled the brake pedal. I reused the original 47 pedals for the clutch and the brake mainly because it's one more thing I did not have to buy or build. I was not sure if that front down bar for the chassis brace was going to be in the way or not but I got lucky and it lined up exactly where it needed to be. Not sure how that worked out but I'll take it. I reused the original pivot shaft from the 47 pedal assembly. Using some more leftover brackets, a couple c clamps in a jack , I was able to have the brake pedal where I wanted without actually being attached to anything. Looked at it for about an hour checking if I needed to go back up or down and then notched the top half of the tube so that the pivot shaft would fit. Couple slight adjustments and I had both the clutch and the brake pedal going through full travel without rubbing on the floor, and the brake pedal also clears the engine by about a quarter inch. I might clearance just a little bit off the end of the brake pedal to give me a little more room when I have it out but I think that should be enough clearance.

[Cautrell05]

Current plans are 700r4, or a 4l80 if I find the money. So for right now I don't need a clutch pedal, but I can pull the pedal out and put a spacer in and if in the future I want to run a manual it's just a matter of putting the pedal back in instead of trying to fabricate something later.

The current timeline is hopefully have it ready to pull the cab and box off by Summer. Go back through and finish weld everything at that time. Where the brake pedal Mount is I'm going to run a bar off of the threaded end over to the cab Mount that's right next to it. And another small one straight down to the frame. It's probably Overkill but it make me feel better and I know that the pedal mount is not going to flex.

[Cautrell05]

I thought I had posted this already but must not have. New Year's Day I spent the afternoon getting the transmission linkage hooked up. One of the big reasons that I used the van column aside from the shift indicator on the inside was that the linkage goes on the outside of the column on the frame side where most of the other GM columns linkage runs down the inside by the engine. Going around the outside let me run the linkage right around the pedals instead of trying to run them through them. I'm sure I'm not the only one but I've got a box of shift linkages and pivot brackets that I've been hoarding for close to twenty years now. I don't remember specifically what they came off of, I just know they were GM products. One of the pivot brackets on the frame side that I had happened to line up almost perfectly with the curve of the S10 frame. It needed just a slight tweak on the end with a crescent wrench but it'll work just fine. The crossbar had to be stretched as expected and rotated anyway. On a regular pick up column, the linkage will run on the front side of the bar, the van column runs on the back side. I recommend putting both the column and the transmission in park, make sure your lever on the transmission is not pointed too far down, and then tack weld it and make sure it works. First time around I thought it was good but it ended up being real hard to get it out of park because the angle is wrong. Second Time around worked a lot better.

[Cautrell05]

The rod going up to the column was easy part. One of my homemade projects I put together a while ago was a small round bar Bender. I copied the idea off of one that Eastwood sells. except this one is free cuz it was all leftover stuff I had sitting around. I had a piece of 3/8 round bar that I experimented on when I first got the Bender put together just to see what all I could do. Turns out the 90 degree bend I put in it was just right to line up with the column on top. So I drilled a hole for the cotter pin on top, welded washer on it and the top-end was done. The bottom and slides do the factory GM swivel. They may not be as fancy-looking is a heim joint, but they are just as reliable, and myself I like using the factory stuff instead of aftermarket as far as looks go. Just my preference. I did have to put one bend in the linkage to clear the clutch pedal. The bend worked out in my favor anyway. When it's in park if the rod was straight it would be angled out slightly from the column out towards the frame and from the front it would look crooked. I put enough of a bend it that when it's in park it goes straight up and down just because I'm OCD on some of that stuff. The nice part is that it actually works. I've seen cable shifters hooked up to the columns before and they work and all but for the little bit of time it took to hook this up I won't have to worry about a cable getting kinked bent melted whatever. That and I have about $10 worth of materials in this plus my time.

[Cautrell05]

Another view from the bottom showing where the linkage goes right around the clutch pedal.

next on the to-do list is to get the bottom of the column mounted salad to the firewall, and I started laying out pieces for the throttle linkage. Still not a hundred percent sure how I want to do it. I want the original pedal on the inside, and I would prefer a metal linkage versus a cable. Bit by bit it's getting closer.

[99 to Life]

very ingenuitive!

[Tempest67]

yes, very creative, good job

[joedoh]

looking great!

on the one truck that I used a normal round column on, I cut off the weird firewall closeout that was at the bottom of the column and used a regular old round column clamp and seal.

[Cautrell05]

Threads not dead. Gonna try and get some updates in the next couple days.

[Cautrell05]

Sorry about the lack of updates. Last year was a bit of a roller coaster. Between all the covid bs and quality of my work environment going to crap my motivation was long gone for much of anything. Between bad management chasing out good help and the new help being way under qualified and under motivated I had just had enough. I got really lucky and one of the guys I work with sent me a link for a restoration shop near me looking for help. I knew it was going to be a part cut, they just went through and gave everybody big raises to stay. In a shop with 17 techs, 5 had quit in the previous 2 months. I went over and we talked numbers and he was close enough to make it work so in September I loaded up my tools from the gm dealer that I had been at for 13 years and started over as the new guy. For someone that enjoys building things from scratch as a hobby this place is the definition of a dream job. No set schedule, work whatever days I want, 40 plus overtime however I want to schedule it. Nobody yelling at me at 802 because I'm late, no customers showing up 2 hours early and wanting their stuff done right now, nobody pissed off because they got towed in for the third time this month. No stress, no pressure, nothing like the car shows on tv. And I have a key to the shop and full access whenever I want.
The place is pretty well set up. Three hoists, two band saws, drill press, sheet metal stomp shear, large and small sheet metal brake, 2 110 migs, 220 mig, 220 Tig, plasma cutter, full size industrial lathe and mill. They do everything from small upgrades to full frame off restorations. The shop owner did the interior and upholstery work. Many times all from scratch. Needless to say progress had tremendous. I'll and get updates as I can. My laptop is being stubborn and it takes forever to type on my phone.

[Cautrell05]

Couple pictures of some shop projects we're currently working on

[6DoF]

life happens, it's not always a bad thing :thumbsup:

[Cautrell05]

Throttle hook up wasn't too bad but it did take some work. I wanted to be able to use a standard replacement 47 pedal inside for looks and simplicity and also run the standard steel rod under the hood for the same reason. I have ran them in the past right from the pedal to the bottom of the throttle arm at the carb as a push rod but it didn't line up as well as I wanted on this one. Instead I built a bell rank that bolts to the firewall and the throttle arm pivots on that. Used a universal 3/8" door bushing and pin set and tapped the pin for a 3/8 lock nut. Initially it seemed good but now that it's on I need to pull it and make the arm a little longer.

[Cautrell05]

The front sway bar was the next thing I worked on. I was trying to get stuff mocked up while the front sheet metal was off. With the 4 inch frame mod a third gen Camaro sway bar just fit in place. 3 inches would have
Made it line up perfect but it clears and I think it will be fine. I got lucky at the you pull it and there was a 90s formula firebird with a 36mm hollow front sway bar. Works out well as the front sway bars on 07 and up suburbans are also 36mm and the mounts on those are a little better.
So the suburban sway bar mounts and bushings combined with some 2 1/2"x3/8" strap for the frame mounts were tacked in place. I drilled and tapped them first for 3/8". Studs ended up being used just to make it easier. Standard sway bar end link bushings were used with a custom length sleeve. I fully welded the mounts in later when the chassis was at work.

[Cautrell05]

About the middle of may the wife mentioned a local car show that was coming up in the middle of June and suggested that I enter it as a work in progress. I really had no interest in pushing it into a car show as it sat but considering the equipment available at my new job I wanted to be able to drive it in. Even if it's just functional enough to drive, stop and steer safely. The next 5 weeks were an idiotic continue thrash session of going in early, I was there several times before 6, and staying late after work. I made a ton of progress but I don't remember what I did and did not get pictures of so I have to sort through and find or take new.

[6DoF]

i'm jealous of that throttle link, that's awesome.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

i'm jealous of that throttle link, that's awesome.

Thank you. It took a bit to get it worked out properly. Now I need to figure out how to add a kickdown cable sand cruise cable to it so I don't have either one up on the intake.

[Cautrell05]

Kinda jumping back and forth between this past summer and now because im really bad about doing updates. The plan for a long time had been to mount the hydroboost and master cylinder under the floor on part of the chassis brace that I previously welded in. After getting the plate welded to the chassis and the booster mounted The next step was the push rod and as expected it did not line up directly with the pedal. It was possible to go straight from the pedal to the booster but it would be severely sideloading the booster where the pushrod goes in and I think long-term it would not be good for it. So the not so quick solution was to build basically an idler that pivots halfway between the pedal in the master cylinder. That way the pushrod from the brake pedal is lined up at 90 degrees and the pushrod from The idler to the booster is going in a 90°. The other added benefit is the side coming from the pedal I have a couple different holes I can mount it into either increase or decrease brake pressure. I spent an afternoon making use of the equipment at my job and got all my individual pieces made on either the mill or the lathe and then tig welded it all together. My TIG welds might not be Instagram quality but they're more than structural I don't look horrible anyway. It worked out really well that that the front bar for the chassis brace lined up and made a good mount for the idler.
The rest of the brake system consist of GM full size calipers on the 92 Impala spindles up front, and then out back it has GM metric parking brake calipers that you can get from speedway. As it sits right now there is no proportioning valve. There's just a distribution block that I don't know where I picked it up at but it fits really well with where everything fits. Brake bias was handled by a different size calipers front and rear. The big full-size GM calpers up front and 11 7/8" rotors and outback the smaller metric calipers on the 11 1/2" Rotors.

[_Ogre]

just noticed your mc pic. i had my tank under the floor for a couple years, had to check/fill the reservoir from under the floor, that worked fine until i had a leak. found this little item on a cobra replicar site, they mount the mc under the fender where it's hard to service. find a nissan quest or mercury villager and get the tank and mc adapters from one to convert to a remote reservoir. teflon lined hose is pricey, i got lucky and bought the end of a roll from a gearhead

1st pic is the adapters stuck in 2003 ford hydroboost with the tank in the back
2nd pic is the remote reservoir on my firewall