Time for a little update. I haven't had much time to work in the garage lately but I took the weekend off from my other projects and events to get some progress done on the old pickup. Thursday night, I finished plumbing the pressure side of the fuel system and started on the return side but ended up needing more fittings so the fuel system had to wait a little longer. I was happy with how everything was looking from underneath but when I got top side, I couldn't live with what I had.
This is how the feed line to the rail came out. It just didn't look right and I wasn't happy with that.
Friday night, I fixed that with a longer piece of AN that runs from the regulator up to the rail. Much much cleaner and looks like it was supposed to be like that.
Saturday, I had some running around to do in the morning but my AN fittings were in so I was able to get those on my way home and plumb finish the fuel lines. One thing I had to do was swing by my buddy's place and cut the final version of my coil pack brackets out on his plasma table. I wasn't sure how they would look after seeing them in CAD but I'm super happy with how they turned out.
New on the left, old on the right
Looks good on there!
While I was waiting for the paint to dry on the brackets, I took the time to clean the valve covers up and shoot them Chevy Orange. They turned out awesome.
Looking real good at this point and I was super stoked to see it all together!
Sunday morning, bright and early, my buddy Sean showed up and we got right to business. We started the morning off by taking the front clip apart and getting the inner fenders and core support bolted on the truck. From there, we were able to basically finish the motor install, all the wiring, radiator, air intake, etc. Here he is cutting a hole in the inner fender to mount my relay and fuse block for the 5.3. After that, we figured out where the ECU will sit, it'll be tucked down between the radiator and the motor so it will not draw any attention to it. Can't wait to get the mount done for it!
Gettin his cutting on!
This is where it ended up, looks super good here!
We had to go pick Sean's Coyote F100 up from being on display at the Performance Warehouse tradeshow and while we were out and about, we picked up some remaining wiring items, radiator hoses and some other miscellaneous items we needed. When we got back, I had a phone call to make and when I was done, I walked into the garage to see this. Holy crap, it's coming together!
I finished wiring the fuel pump and then we started working on getting the bed wood back in place. Some HUGE progress was made on the old girl over the weekend and I can't be happier with where it is right now. I truly have great friends that are willing to jump in and kick my butt into high gear. Wouldn't change them for the world!
The theory behind the install is that the motor needs to look at home, like it could've come this way from the factory and I gotta say, I nailed it.
My obligatory progress board shot. These items were all completed yesterday, it was a hell of a good day in the garage!
Check back soon for the first start
