Project daily drivable 62 C20

[72cs20]

All you guys doing great work on your trucks has motivated me to try and document the refurbishment of my newly acquired 62 C20. Exterior shots of truck here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=703157

My goal is to bring this truck to a condition where it will be reliable transportation. Safety features like a dual circuit brake master cylinder and seatbelts will be added. All the other systems will be gone through completely :

Cooling
Fuel
Brakes
Electrical
Steering
Drive line(u-joints, carrier bearing)

This is a good starting list. So far I've started with a good cleaning of the interior and cowl areas. I've also removed most of the old cooling system parts.

The cowl area was packed to the hilt with cedar tree needles. I removed all of the cowl panels and used a screw driver to break up the needles and vacuum them out. Still have a bit more to do and also make sure the drains are clear.

Also looking for any sign of rust in these areas and only finding a few spots of minor surface oxidation. Yay!

[Bomp]

Hello and welcome.
Deep cleaning, been there.
Glad to see another truck saved.

[72cs20]

The corner cowl panels had holes from what looks like some sort of antenna and also from the camper cabover struts. Dropped them off at a shop to have the holes closed up. Both panels solid metal.

[72cs20]

When I was looking the truck over at the time of purchase I unscrewed the radiator cap to look inside and quickly saw that the radiator was in poor shape. When I disassembled the cooling system I found lots of sludge in the bottom of the radiator and rusty scale in the engine itself.

Somehow I need to see if I can flush as much of the rusty debris as possible before putting things back together. Also still need to remove and inspect heater core. It is probably toast too.

Radiator is at radiator shop being rebuilt.

[72cs20]

Bomp ,you got that right.

Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning and then painting, painting and painting.

Well, I figured I'd try and back flush the engine through the t-stat housing port in the cylinder head. This approach seemed to work well and I got four or five 5 gallon buckets of nasty rusty water before it started running clear. It all came gushing out of the water pump port in the block. I think this will be as good as it is gets short of re-building the engine.

Here is a pic of some of the water that came out and a pic of probably the 7th 5 gallon flush. And one pic of the cleaned t-stat and water pump mounting surfaces

Now it was time to put everything back together.

[72cs20]

After a lot of scraping, wire brushing and painting I got the t-stat housing and water pump installed. I painted them gray. The pulley and fan got semi-gloss black. Also got my radiator back from the shop just in time to finish the weekend.

Other new items are upper and lower hoses, belt, heater hoses and heater hoses fittings.

Thankfully, my blast cabinet should be here this week. Hand cleaning these rusty filthy parts has gotten old.

Step one is done. Next up is carb, fuel lines and fuel tank.

Here are a couple of pics of before and after:

[72cs20]

Well, since my last post I've modified the plan a little bit. I got lucky and landed a complete 150k mile 1990 K1500 very cheap and will use the 350 tbi for my 62. Also acquired a 1972 C20 front cross-member and Dana 60 rear. Will be doing power steering too. Haven't decided what to do with the transmission just yet but I think this a good start.

I'm going to start with a cross-member swap. This past weekend saw removal of the engine, transmission and drive line. My truck now looks like this -



First thing to do is remove the torsion bar suspension and clean and paint the frame. That is the goal for this week.

Here is the 72 C20 cross-member I'm using -



I'm going to try and carefully record and post what it takes to do this swap on a torsion bar 8-lug truck in case anyone is interested. Be back soon.

[72cs20]

This weekend I got the 62 frame drilled and the 72 cross member fitted.



A couple of photos showing the two different cross-member L-brackets with the mounting bolt differences. Rear is to the right in the pics.

The 62 first -



And the 72 -



As you can see the upper holes are the same for both. I bolted up the cross-member using the upper bolts and then drilled for the lowers. The lower rear bolt needed a new hole more rearward than the original. The lower front needed to be slotted slightly upward and to the rear a bit.

Also, since the 62 frame is shorter than the 72 frame, there is a gap between the bottom of the frame and the new cross-member. A shim made from the scrap pieces of frame that came with the 72 cross-member fills the gap nicely.

[72cs20]

Another difference between the two are the 6 bolt holes for the bolts that come up through the bottom of the cross-member into the bottom of the frame.

The 62 -



The 72-



On the 72 cross-member the 6 large bolt holes (3 on each side) are equally spaced front to back. On the 62 the front two holes are spaced the same as the 72 but the rear hole is not, so the rear hole on the new cross-member needed to be slotted forward to match the 62 frame.

One other thing is the hardware. All the cross-member mounting bolts on the 62 are grade 8 fine thread 3/8ths x 1 1/2. The 72 uses a combination of different length 3/8ths and 7/16ths all grade 8 coarse thread.

The 72 also came with this brace in the frame C channel -



I may try to use this by cutting off the top ear so that it will fit the shorter 62 frame.

This week will be cleaning frame and firewall and fitment of Capt Fabs brake booster bracket and clutch master.

[72cs20]

A brief update today for my project. In the last few weeks I've cleaned and painted the firewall and the frame forward of the tranny cross member and permanently mounted the new cross member, installed the new a-arms, springs and all new bearings and brakes. Also have about 90 percent of the new brake system hard lines installed.



Didn't get to the brake bracket yet due to more cleaning and painting needed on the inner side of the firewall, but that should happen soon. I went ahead and stripped out the interior to prep it for new paint. Lots of wire wheeling, and wire brushing and thankfully all cab metal solid. Should be paintable this week.


One interesting thing I found behind the fuel tank when I removed it was this poster with calendar for a eastern California service station. Check out the year on the calendar.

[72cs20]

A bit of an update. Not a glamorous project, but coming together and should meet the goal of being a nice driver.
I've decided to give the interior basically a complete restoration. So after many hours of prep I finally got the interior painted. I used a paint I heard about on this board, that it was a good match for the original Fawn. I used Dupli-Color Nissan Sunlit Sand. Here is a before:


And after:




I think it came out pretty good. All other metal interior items have or are going through the new blast cabinet. The brake and clutch pedal bracket and steering column support bracket are installed after going through the blaster and then getting a good black semi-gloss paint job. The brake pedal is the only one going back in. I've decided to go with the 700r4 automatic.

[72cs20]

Also got my Captain Fab brake booster and power steering bracket mocked up to their final locations. Sorry about the fuzziness of some of the photos.

The booster shown is from my 1995 C1500 parts truck painted gloss gray.



The power steering bracket was a bit of a challenge. The lower rear hole to be drilled has a re-enforcement rib perpendicular to the vertical frame rails. it is right in the middle of the drill bits travel to the other side. I bought a titanium bit at Home Depot which ate right through the rib. The use of the provided template made it an overall simple task. I'll be taking the truck down to a friends shop for the final fitting and welding of the top rear bolt.

[bj383ss]

Your interior came out looking great. Looking forward to your next update.

Bret

[62stepside longbox]

Man that interior looks just awesome, can't wait until I paint mine. Thanks for showing what it takes to do the crossmember swap on a 60-62, I'm just starting to dive into mine. Please continue to show progress on the swap, very helpful and appreciated.

[72cs20]

Pretty much finished up the steering portion of the cross member swap. The last bit was to locate the idler arm to the frame in the right spot. I first installed the 62 idler arm and bracket just to see if it would work.



It does work but not like it really should. The idler arm pivot point location between the 62 and 72 is very close, but the 62 location will not fully allow the idler arm to copy the movement of the pitman arm. Along with that I also couldn't get the center link located where I wanted it with the 62 setup so off it came and the 72 idler arm and bracket went on as the final setup.

[72cs20]

After wrapping up the cross member it was time to move on to other pressing tasks of the project. For now I've decided not to use the 700r4 trans and just go with my stock 4 speed. It is in good shape and will allow me to retain the tranny mounted parking brake. When I figure out how to convert to the hand lever style parking brake, then I'll convert to the 700r4.

The next task was to place the 350 tbi engine into the truck to see how it fits. I bolted an old bellhousing to the engine and set it down onto the rear engine mounts and bolted it down.



Using the cross member under the bellhousing to locate the engine works great. It sits in there nicely. But this is where I hit my first big snag in this project. I seem to have the wrong engine perches for use with the rear holes in the main cross member, not to mention the brake line interference.




Now the hunt is on for the proper engine perches to keep this project moving along.

[72cs20]

Moving on from the engine for now I started reassembling the interior. Put in a new firewall pad, a new two speed wiper motor with delay and the dash harness portion of the American Autowire harness.

Firewall pad = PITA!. The fasteners that come with the pad are terrible. Way too big for the holes in the firewall. I ended up getting some better ones at the auto parts store and not using the ones that came with the pad.


Dash harness is impressive. The fuse panel is huge.



New wiper motor from New Port Engineering. Very stoutly built.

[72cs20]

Well I got lucky and scored the correct perches locally on Craigslist. So I figured I'd post some pics of them in the 62 truck with a 72 cross member and engine perches from a 65.

I bolted them to the motor mounts and then dropped the engine down onto the cross member and holes lined up perfectly. The bolt dropped right in.



At the top there is a 1/4 inch gap that will need to be shimmed. I'll use some of the old 72 frame pieces that came with the cross member to make those.



Front shot.

[62stepside longbox]

Your doing a really nice job here

Originally Posted by 72cs20

Also, since the 62 frame is shorter than the 72 frame, there is a gap between the bottom of the frame and the new cross-member. A shim made from the scrap pieces of frame that came with the 72 cross-member fills the gap nicely

Could you please show a picture of where the gap is and how you filled it? Thanks a lot

[72cs20]

Thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the frame to cross member gap, I ended up not using frame pieces to make a one piece shims in this instance because the gaps are not uniform. I didn't want to force in a one piece shim. So for now I shimmed each bolt separately with mostly grade 8 flat washers and in two spots there are upper a-arm shims, which are visible in the above pics. After the engine placement is completely sorted the engine will go back on the stand and I will re-visit that frame to cross member gap to see if it needs a better solution. The a-arm shims will be replaced for sure.

I have seen where others have closed that gap by using an impact gun to over tighten the vertical bolts coming in from the bottom. I don't think that is a good idea. That method will deform the cross member and/or the frame and possibly put unwanted stress on the bolts coming in from the sides.

[66ChevyMax]

This build is looking great, very nice work!

[62stepside longbox]

Originally Posted by 72cs20

Thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the frame to cross member gap, I ended up not using frame pieces to make a one piece shims in this instance because the gaps are not uniform. I didn't want to force in a one piece shim. So for now I shimmed each bolt separately with mostly grade 8 flat washers and in two spots there are upper a-arm shims, which are visible in the above pics. After the engine placement is completely sorted the engine will go back on the stand and I will re-visit that frame to cross member gap to see if it needs a better solution. The a-arm shims will be replaced for sure.

I have seen where others have closed that gap by using an impact gun to over tighten the vertical bolts coming in from the bottom. I don't think that is a good idea. That method will deform the cross member and/or the frame and possibly put unwanted stress on the bolts coming in from the sides.

Ok thanks a lot man, I've never heard of this gap problem before looking into your thread. In markeb01's thread ( http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=366828 ) he doesn't show any problems with the gap, maybe it has something to do with him using a 73-87 x member and you using a 72 xmember? I'm using a 78 so I'll see if I run into the same problem

[72cs20]

I wouldn't really call it a problem. It is just addressing one more minor, but important, step in securing the later cross member to these earlier frames. It is really not a big deal.

Back in post #8 I put up some photos showing the upper mounting holes in the cross member L-bracket that are the same for the 62 and 72. Using these holes will locate the later cross member in the right spot. Then you mark and drill or slot for the rest of your mounting holes. Given the height differences between the 60-62 and 63-87 frames, I don't see how you can't have a small gap at the bottom of the frame. It is easily dealt with. Your experience with the 78 piece may be different in some ways also.

[72cs20]

Got some little things accomplished over the last week or so. Made some shims for the top of the engine perches. Copied the shape of the perch, turned out nicely.

[72cs20]

Worked on getting the brake booster and brake pedal set up. In post number 12 there is a photo of the booster I wanted to use but it turned to be too big in diameter. It is from a 1995 C1500 and it is approximately 11 inches wide in diameter. Too big to fit between the clutch master and the engine valve cover. The truck that gave its engine for this project, a 1990 K1500, had a smaller 9 inch booster. I took it and installed on the 62. Perfect fit!




For the pushrod I just mated the 1990 push with the 62 pushrod for adjustability. I also decided to use another great idea from this board and drop the brake pedal height with an extended bump stop.