Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Next up was the steering column. As seen in last weeks photos the 89's column was the correct length. The shape of all the parts was a perfect match as well. I did need to swap the bracket that holds the column to the dash structure as well as swapping the floor gasket setup. I was able to work the floor gaskets off both and knocked the metal part of the brackets loose but I ended up cutting the rubber part of the bracket from the 68 column (forgot to get a picture). Anyone that has ever put a van column in a pickup is familiar with having to make a new hole in the column for the bracket to index in to. This one was no exception. I did not want to take the time to disassemble the column to do the drilling and cutting so I rigged up my shop vac over the existing slot so that I could drill, cut and suck all the metal shavings out at the same time - worked like a charm! :bann: First I drilled a 1/4" hole at each end I stepped the hole up to about 7/16 and then used my angle grinder to cut the part between the two holes. I swear I took some more pictures but they weren't on the camera so this is all you get, pic 1 is the vac hooked up, pic 2 is the completed hole, pic 3 is the bare metal painted. I installed the column and popped on the 68 horn button. The 89 button would be cool if it weren't for the silly little horn icon at the bottom. Column installed and functional - check!

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Time to deal with the floor hump. The shifter doesn't come through in the original place so I need to move the hole. I also decided to go with the oval shifter boot from the 89, so I need to change the shape as well. I knew that the hole needed to be farther back so I started by cutting out the back end to get the shape right. Still way off. I did lots of measuring and figured out it needed to be roughly 3.5 inches farther back. I masked off a rectangle that I determined I could cut and rotate 180 degrees an weld back in. This would move it the proper distance back as well as moving it to the right about a quarter inch. I spent a lot of time measuring and masking and got my rectangle "in square" but when I cut it I got off the marks! I taped the piece in and test fit it and it looked perfect. Theory, spot on - execution, not so great. That was all for Saturday, the welding would have to wait till Sunday.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Sunday morning I dug out the nifty panel clamps that I bought from Eastwood back when I welded the bed up. Next I ground the paint from the top and the undercoating from the bottom and then clamped the pieces together. The gaps from my bad cut were terrible! I popped across the road to my brother's shop where our wire welder is and got started. The wind was howling and the doors were all open and I was in too big of a hurry. Possibly the worst looking welding I've ever done. :dohh: I hate to show how bad it looks even ground down but I swallowed my pride and took the picture anyway. The too big a hurry also resulted in massive warpage. You can see how it sits on the floor now, fortunately it will still bolt down. So I hit it with a coat of rust reformer and bolted it down to keep the critters out. I still need to spray some undercoating on the underside and paint the top with some satin and keep looking forward to the day when I cover it with a mat to hide my shameful welding job.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

At this point I had still not torqued cab down and also the connection where the pitman arm connects to the steering linkage. I looked them up, torqued everything down and put the cotter pin in the linkage. Two more pictures for you, the fist is how worn the clutch linkage was on the 68. How many times do you suppose that pedal got pushed to put that much wear on it? The last photo is my attempt to show the gap between the floor and the hump. This happened when we had to lift the cab back up to square up to the frame when we were placing it. The shifter knob caught and bent the floor. I still have some hammer and dolly work to do make those mate up properly again.

That is about it for last weekend, next weekend I have company so there will be no progress for at least two weeks.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Nice work!
I just had a thought about your clutch rod boot...I would take a look at the flat side that goes to the inside of the cab & see if you can find a number molded into the surface (flange)...probably a 6 digit number....

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Richard, you've really been moving right along. Good detail work that takes a lot of effort and time.

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Wrap that boot with some self vulcanizing rubber tape, it will look a lot better than those little patches.

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Any progress?

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I've been working on a part number for that boot, but have been unsuccessful...still trying

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I had never even heard of that...

The progress to frustration ratio is out of whack!

I appreciate the effort!



I will be posting the latest but have been working late so far this week and haven't had the energy to get it all written up. Stay tuned.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

luv the long bed cant wait to do mine

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Looking forward to a build thread from you!

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

OK, it's been a while since I updated; some progress has been made just not nearly as much as I would like. As I stated in a previous post my progress to frustration ratio has been very out of whack! I guess the first problem is that I was working with wiring and that always takes way longer than I expect. I had a few things to accomplish with the under hood wiring:
- Get rid of the resister wire that went to the coil and replace it with a wire capable of running HEI
- Add a tach wire into the harness
- Extend the alternator wires since the 366 has the alternator on the passenger side instead of the driver’s side
- Get rid of the extra wires that were for the externally regulated alternator and make it like it came with the internal
- Unwrap everything and look for any problems that need to be addressed
The under hood wiring is in two blocks - first up was the “motor” side of things: ignition, starter, temp gauge and backup light switch.
I grabbed the under hood harness that was on the 89, from it I stripped the plug and wires that went to the distributor.

Attachment 1592382
Attachment 1592383

Next I used colored zip ties to mark various things on the original harness: red is where the harness branches, green is where there were tie downs, white marked where the harness was connected to the “gutter” that runs across the firewall. (Note the blue masking tape where I marked the connections when I disconnected the harness from the old truck)

Attachment 1592384

Then I unwrapped the old wires and separated out the ignition wires. I pulled the resistor wire from the connection that screws to the fuse block, cut the old wire loose and then soldered the big HEI supply wire and then rewrapped the harness. The other wires were all in good condition. I also had to extend the tach wire. Then I plugged it back in to the connector

Attachment 1592389

Attachment 1592388

To be continued...

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

First of all WOO HOO I finally found out how to post pictures in-line with the text! :cf: :cf: :cf:

Back to wiring, I didn't have any more room for pictures in the last post so here is the new big wire plugged back in to the connector and the harness rewrapped

Attachment 1592399Attachment 1592402

Any splices I make are wrapped around each other, soldered and covered in heat shrink tubing.

Attachment 1592400Attachment 1592401

Once the wires were ready I rewrapped the harness and plugged it back in to the truck. I had a bit of difficulty getting the newly wrapped harness down in to the gutter but I prevailed. Didn't get a picture of that one.

That wraps up what I got done the weekend of October 29th.

More updates soon.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Next up was the weekend of November 3rd which happened to be the start of a week of vacation. The plan was to do some deer hunting in the mornings, work on building a new fence between myself and my neighbor; a refreshing little 2400 foot project across solid rock and down a steep hill (should be a hoot). Any time left over was to work on the truck.

So that plan did not work out very well. First of all it rained from the time I got there clear through the following Thursday morning. Seven inches total. OK, too muddy to work on the fence which should leave more time for hunting and working on the truck. Apparently the truck does not want to be finished, it fought me at every step. Saturday when I was cooped up in the house I went about doing the other half of the under hood wiring, this side is the lights, horn and alternator part. Again it needed to be assessed for damage and rewrapped but it also needed the alternator conversion to internal plus make the wires for the alternator reach to the passenger side of the engine. For what ever reason I did not take any pictures of that process. I did the conversion and extended the alternator wires longer than they will need to be and will not do the finish work until I reinstall the front clip to see where things land. The rest of that part of the harness is done but not installed. This took most of my free time Saturday and Sunday. After hunting Monday morning I headed in to Waco to pick up the auxiliary pump for the hydroboost, the re-builder was done with it. My Camaro was in need of state inspection, license renewal and replacing the transmission mount so after Waco I headed on in to Fort Worth and traded the truck for the Z28 and headed back South. I stopped off in Meridian and got the car inspected and licensed and headed back to get in an afternoon hunt.

Monday night I decided to finish up connecting the "motor" half of the wiring harness. All that was left was the starter connection. The previous week I didn't get it connected because I didn't have an 11/32 socket to get the old solenoid wire disconnected. I borrowed a 1/4" drive set from my brother and went to remove the wire. It did not want to come loose. I ended up dropping the exhaust pipe for better access and could see that the battery cable was fried, disconnected that but couldn't get the nut on the solenoid wire loose. In frustration I cut the wire and removed the solenoid from the starter. Now with good access I drenched it in PB Blaster and started twisting and broke the post off the solenoid. I decided to use the solenoid and battery cable from the 68 as they were both still relatively new (3 or 4 years). No big deal getting them loose other than I did it by flashlight. When I went to remove the old positive cable from the truck there was a heat shield covering where it was connected to the frame. I removed that and finally got the cable replaced, then put the solenoid back on and connected the wires. Great, what I expected to take 10 minutes just took three hours! I did not realize it at that time but this would set the tone for the rest of the whole week.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Good updates Richard. Often the parts fight me like that....sounds like the rest of the week was more of the same?

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Yes Sir, very much the same indeed. If I get some free time this evening I'll post some more. Thanks for checking in!

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I'm late to the party but I'm really digging this build. So much in fact I added it to my low buck build threads. Really cool truck and lots of cool stuff. Great writing also.

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Thanks for checking it out! I love build threads too and I just bookmarked your build threads thread :lol: I'm honored to have made the list! Thanks for the comment about good writing; I often think I'm spending too much time choosing my words, I'm glad to see that it has some 'return on investment'!

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Sorry for the slow updates folks. I guess that I got so frustrated that it kind of killed my desire to even think about the truck. OK, done belly-aching!

That brings us to Tuesday, November 8th (remember I was still on vacation…) I went hunting that morning and did not see much, it was still raining off and on. When I got back from the morning hunt I changed clothes and drove in to town to vote. This is a really small town and at around 10:00 AM I was only the 37th person to vote!

After lunch I bolted the auxiliary pump on to the hydroboost unit. I hit up the FSM for torque values for all of the bolts and torqued them accordingly.
Attachment 1593701
Next up was to bolt the hydroboost unit to the firewall. I had test fit it prior to getting the auxiliary pump bolted on and it fit perfectly, that is until I bolted on the aux pump. Now it hits the firewall! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: I had not planned for firewall modifications, this was supposed to be a ten minute job! It was hitting on a raised portion that the steering column gasket screws down to. The raised part is probably an inch or so larger diameter on the 68 than the 89. In the first out of focus picture you can see where it was hitting and in the second photo the mark I made on the firewall for the piece that needed to come out.
Attachment 1593702Attachment 1593703
I finally got to try out the pneumatic body saw that I bought a Northern Tool a few months back.
Attachment 1593704
It worked pretty well except where things were multi-layered. After several cuts it looked like this:
Attachment 1593705
To be continued…
-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

A quick test fit and it looked much better. With the excuse of better clearance as well as to vent some frustration I beat the crap out of it with a BFH (big fancy hammer) clearance even better.

Attachment 1593708Attachment 1593709

I bolted it up temporarily and decided to bolt up the master cylinder as well and had a moment of panic when it hit the power steering pump. Then I remembered that I had removed the belt and had the pump in the full upright position when I was flushing the system. As soon as I put the pump back in its normal position the master cleared just fine!

Attachment 1593710Attachment 1593711

With that imagined crisis over I started making a template out of cardboard to A) make sure there was room to slide a cover over the hole and B) to get an idea of the shape I would need to cut out. Here is what I came up with:

Attachment 1593712

Another whole day killed, time to go out hunting again...

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Im still reading and watching ,one of my favorite builds .

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Now that I had spent the day doing “a ten-minute job” it was time to head out for the afternoon hunt. About 4:30 I saw this:

Attachment 1593717

Our area has historically had small deer with small antlers and I was so shocked that I about had a heart attack. I will not take a shot without knowing that it will be a quick clean kill and I did not have time to settle my nerves before he walked behind a tree and I was never able to get the shot in. Oh well, maybe there will be another chance before the season ends.

That night I spent a couple of hours looking at the butcher job I’d done on the firewall and thinking about just what to do next. The cab is on the truck and has all the insulation inside so I can’t weld a patch in. I really don’t like just screwing stuff on with sheet metal screws but that was going to have to do. Maybe someday If I ever build an extended cab or crew cab I’ll really stop and do it right, but once again this is a ranch truck. I just need to seal it up where it doesn’t leak or trap water and rust.

It was late and I headed to bed wondering how the election would turn out...

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Thanks Flashed!

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Youre welcome ,look forward to more .

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Wednesday morning I slept in and did not hunt. I must say that when I heard the election results I was surprised. I will spare you my political leanings, let’s just say I was not very impressed with what either side had to offer up this time around.

I spent the day with my brother picking up some 2-7/8 pipe to use on the fence project that I wasn’t getting done because of the rain. Oh, did I forget to mention that IT WAS STILL RAINING! Don’t get me wrong, I’m in agriculture and rain is a blessing, but 5 days straight rain while I’m on vacation from my day job that supports my ranching habit… let’s just leave it at I was a bit frustrated at the timing. That afternoon I sawed a piece of roof panel out of an old suburban that my brother had parted out but I did not get to work on the patch until that night.

Attachment 1593722

Finally started working on the patch about 10:00 PM. I traced the pattern on to the metal.

Attachment 1593723Attachment 1593724

Then I made my cuts and put the bend in it to match the firewall. After verifying that it kind of fit I rounded off all of the edges with the grinder took it to the wire wheel and scuffed off all of the paint on the side that would be facing out.

Attachment 1593725Attachment 1593726

Out of room for pictures, to be continued...

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I held the patch in place again and wondered how I could fill this oblong hole that I had created. The flange and gasket that was native to the 68 just wasn’t going to work at all, way too big around, plus the rubber was old and stretched and would already leak water. I needed to use the one from the 89 but it couldn’t fit flush because the bend in the firewall cut across an edge. With that in mind I decided I could cut it so now I had to cut out the opening in my plate to make it fit in. So I held the patch in place and made reference marks with a sharpie and then cut the hole out round. I test fit the flange/gasket and it fit the hole nicely.

Attachment 1593733Attachment 1593734

Next I cut the flange/gasket so that it would clear the bend in the patch and it fit perfect.

Attachment 1593735

It fit great but the gap at the bottom would have to be filled. All this time I had been avoiding pulling the column back out but it would have to happen to swap this flange on. I knew that I really should just make a new patch but it was almost midnight so I decided I would figure out what to do the next day and I shut down for the evening.

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Thursday after the morning hunt I made a small patch to fill the gap at the bottom of the patch panel and berated myself for rounding the inside corners!

Attachment 1593737

I welded it in and cut the radius to match and ground down my bird-crap welds. I test fit the flange and it looked good.

Attachment 1593738

I drilled some lead holes into my patch as I would be securing it with sheet metal screws. Next I pulled the column, removed the 68 style flange/gasket and replaced it with the one from the 89. I slid the column back in place slid my patch panel over the shaft and then bolted the column back in place. With everything in I shoved the flange through the hole in the patch panel to orient it properly then drilled two of the sheet metal screws in. After that I took a body hammer and formed the patch to the rest of the irregularities of the firewall adding screws as I went. When done it was skewed a bit from what I had planned but it won’t show anyway. I removed the sheet metal screws and put a thick bead of black silicone sealer on the back of the plate, screwed it back down and smoothed out the silicone.

Attachment 1593739

Then I screwed the flange to the firewall/patch and painted the under-hood side black to match the firewall.

Attachment 1593740

Finally, I bolted the booster back on with the patch in place and it cleared with room to spare!

Attachment 1593741

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Friday night I got to work on the truck again. I added the high pressure line that goes from the steering box to the hydroboost, installed the flow control switch in the low pressure side of the booster and ran the return hose back to the power steering pump. At last the steering brake booster system was closed up!

Attachment 1593745

With the belt off I filled the reservoir and used my drill to spin the pump to prime things. The front axle was up on jack stands from when I replaced the solenoid so I was able to turn the column by grabbing the shaft with my right hand while spinning the pump with the drill in my left hand. I was able to prime the system without ever sucking in any air, it worked great!

Attachment 1593746

I scrounged around and found my gallon of brake fluid and prepared to fill the master cylinder. When I pulled the cap and looked in I could see beads of hydraulic fluid floating on what was left of the brake fluid. Great they mixed the fluids on this part of the system too!

:banghead: :censored: repeat

So... now I need to replace the master cylinder and the flex hoses that are near it. I don't think any hydraulic fluid made it down to the calipers. They make several different masters so I checked and this one uses a 1.75 inch bore:

Attachment 1593747

I did not have a chance to source the parts yet to fix that problem yet.

So this concludes the saga of the frustrating vacation. I really (REALLY) thought that I would be able to have the thing almost put back together at the end of a week of vacation. Instead I finished two tasks that I would have assumed would have taken less than two hours combined.


FOOTNOTE:
Thanksgiving was great, I spent it with two of my brothers and my sister-in-law. We had a great meal and a great visit. This afternoon I went out and started poking around with running down a wire and hooked up power to do some testing. As I tested various circuits I hit the starter and it spun, so I decided to go ahead and fire it up. I had to bypass the missing oil cooler and had to prime it but it fired and sounded as good as I remembered. That really gave me a much better outlook on things.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving everyone!

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Happy Thanksgiving to you to ,great update .

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Late but, they say there's two good days with a Corvette. The day you buy it, and the day you sell it.

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

What a beauty.

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

nope that's a BOAT ;)

and

b - break
o - out
a - another
t - thousand

:lol:

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I haven't used this one specifically, but it is nice. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mor-72038
When you wrap it back upon its self it makes a permanent bond. You could probably get it at an electrical supply too, we have it at work for the linemen so I would think they sell it there

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Thanks flashed. I know yours was probably difficult this year.

I still need to experience it for myself...

I can still hardly believe it. As recently as this last Saturday he was still alive and well.

Amen to the boat acronym, I have a good friend who always kept a boat and was kind enough to take me skiing, dang those things drink money!

Thanks for the link, looks like good stuff but WOW that is expensive tape. I think I'll buy a roll and try it out. :)

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

I need updates!!!!!!! Doescit go blub blub blub and shake tge wotld or does she sound like rice? WE NEED THE STUFFS :lol: :lol:

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Assuming I interpreted that correctly I'd definitely go with blub blub blub :)

Not much happened over the weekend. I spent a few hours with a shop vac pulling crap out of the cowl all the way down to the kick panel vents. Actually I removed the vent doors and painted them while I was at it. The only other thing I did was asses (that don't look right) the wiring for the two speed rear. The segment of the harness that is connected to the shifter had crumbling insulation on the part of the wires where they connected to the junction block on the firewall. I worked my way back from the connections and ultimately cut off 12 or 14 inch inches of that section of the harness. I'm out of spade terminals right now so I did not finish that part of the wiring.

In order to be ready for next weekend I got on Amazon this morning and ordered a fuse block and a circuit breaker so that I can finish up some under hood wiring.

Before anyone else mentions it... :wop:

Yep, I get it, just one of those weekends. I hope to do better soon!

- Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Richard, you certainly have good progress and updates on your build. The cleaning, wiring work or repairs, organizing, planning all take a lot of time. Most non car folks would have no clue...

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

Thanks for checking in Doug, I just checked out your burb build and it's looking great.

So very true, it really is funny how on the one hand they can't comprehend that we "know how to do that stuff" while at the same time can't imagine that "you haven't finished that yet." :haha:

-Richard

Re: 68 C50 Looongbed pickup build
 

People at school are like "why aint the 69 done?" i always say, "well because $$$" then they ask "why aint ya parents paying for it?" Then i always say " It wouldnt be my truck then would it?"But i go to a school where evreyones mommy and daddies pay for their cars, minus a few. but you can tell the people with silver spoons, and the ones that know the word work.