A New 68 Build Thread

[67cheby]

LOL...that was funny...Plasma cutter !!

[VA72C10]

Nice work!!!

[nds1968]

Nice work neighbor Can't believe I never seen this build until today Nate

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by nds1968

Nice work neighbor Can't believe I never seen this build until today Nate

Thanks Nate, glad to see another truck in the area! I checked out your thread, very nice. Keep up the good work.

[ccracin]

We are continuing working on the cab. Before we mount the firewall for good, I thought it was a good time to build the brackets needed for some of the major components. The below pics are the mounting configuration for the Vintage Air Gen IV unit. Man this thing is big, but it should make it snow in the cab. The truck will be black with a black leather interior. We need the cooling. Next will be the brake pedal assembly and steering column brackets.

There was a ton of work just to prep this area to put the a/c unit in. We had to remove the old fan bump in the dash/kick panel area as well as fix some rust we uncovered. I think it turned out alright. Check it out.









This is where we removed the stock fan pocket.





By the way, that is the vintage air mock up unit. Man is it nice to work with. Not heavy and has the actual mounting brackets on it.

Thanks for looking!

[ajgriffin]

Just out of curiosity would the unit fit if you pushed it as far to the passenger side as possible? Or do you just not need the extra space that would create? I have been under my dash enough to know
Posted via Mobile Device

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by ajgriffin

Just out of curiosity would the unit fit if you pushed it as far to the passenger side as possible? Or do you just not need the extra space that would create? I have been under my dash enough to know
Posted via Mobile Device

Not sure exactly what you mean, but it can only slide about 1/2" more to the passenger side before it hits. I also want to be able to put finished kick panel upholstery in. My other consideration was being able to hook up the hoses without getting broken fingers. I will probably use the original vent opening to mount some speakers. Hope that answers the question. Thanks for looking.

[ajgriffin]

You answered it. At first glance it looked like you could fit the unit into the area where the factory vent in the kick panel goes.

Love the progress though! Top notch work!
Posted via Mobile Device

[CheyenneShop]

Awesome work! You ain't lyin that thing is HUGE.

[VA72C10]

Looking good!

[crappiewrangler]

This is some of the nicest sheet metal work I have ever seen. Very impressed with what you have going on here...

[mac72]

good info, I've been on the fence about the gen iv. nice to know you got it to fit,let me know if you want to sell the mock up unit when your done w/ it.

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by ajgriffin

You answered it. At first glance it looked like you could fit the unit into the area where the factory vent in the kick panel goes.
Love the progress though! Top notch work!
Posted via Mobile Device

I was going to do that, but then the hoses became a problem. I am really trying to build this thing with function in mind while not sacrificing the looks too much. I hate stuff that looks awesome but is impossible to maintain or work on. Thanks for the compliment!

Originally Posted by theCheyenneShop

Awesome work! You ain't lyin that thing is HUGE.

LOL, isn't it. To make matters worse, we moved the engine back about 2 inches and are hiding the LS coil packs on the back of the heads. So the firewall recess is 7" deep! I don't know if you can tell from the pics. but the thing is in there at an angle to clear the firewall too. You will be able to see that better when I put the firewall back on. Thanks for the compliment!

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Looking good!

Thanks Buddy, I keep chopping but it's tough making chips! Why you selling your project? Hopefully it's just a change direction and not stopping! Thanks for all the kind words!

Originally Posted by crappiewrangler

This is some of the nicest sheet metal work I have ever seen. Very impressed with what you have going on here...

Thanks very much. I am really trying to do it right. So far so good!

Originally Posted by mac72

good info, I've been on the fence about the gen iv. nice to know you got it to fit,let me know if you want to sell the mock up unit when your done w/ it.

With a stock fire wall recess, it would fit with no problem. The only thing is it will stick down below your factory dash if that is what you are using. This one is about 11" off the flat part of the floor. Some of this will be hidden with the new dash. Either way I think you can make it work. This truck is going to be Black with a Dark Leather interior. I didn't want the A/C unit to fight to keep it cool. I've seen a lot of vehicles that only need and on/off switch for the A/C. It's either on high fighting to keep cool or off. This unit should do the trick. We will probably keep the mock-up unit, this isn't going to be our last rodeo and this is my preferred unit if it will fit. They are not expensive. They are 59.95 at Summit. Well worth it so you don't damage the real unit while fitting and fabbing the brackets. Good luck with your project!

[FrankieD]

Just found this build I am always amazed at the talent on this site and the different types of builds being done. Keep up the good work.

[mac72]

I here ya,mines black/black & in southwest fl. its gotta cool like a hurricane in Alaska,Ive put in a few VA units myself & they all seem to struggle.I got their biggest condenser & modified the core support to fit it, hopefully between that & the gen IV it'll cool it down,still worried about blower volume though.
really nice fab work so far,that trans tunnel looks sweet!!

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by mac72

I here ya,mines black/black & in southwest fl. its gotta cool like a hurricane in Alaska,Ive put in a few VA units myself & they all seem to struggle.I got their biggest condenser & modified the core support to fit it, hopefully between that & the gen IV it'll cool it down,still worried about blower volume though.
really nice fab work so far,that trans tunnel looks sweet!!

Thanks for the kind words Mac. I really am happy with how it is turning out so far.

[ccracin]

We are still trying to get as much done under the dash as we can before we weld the new firewall on. Next up is the steering column and mount for the brake pedal. After a lot of measuring, what iffing, we got the bracket built. I decided that I wanted to incorporated the pedal mount anf steering column mount into one piece that could be fixed to the cowl area. This is the area that the factory bracket was fastened too. Here is what we cam up with. A couple more gussets on the pedal mount and I'll get the bracket welded in. Here it is so far.







As always comments good or bad are welcome.

[ccracin]

So before we do anymore work to the cab, I want to get it back on the chassis to make sure everything we have done so far works. I also want to make sure the cab is held in place on the chassis before we fit and weld the firewall in. There were a few things we wanted to do before we put the cab back on the chassis. One of the main things was to fix a missed assumption we made when building the chassis. We set the front drive shaft loop height thinking we were going to use a 3" drive shaft and making some assumptions for rear end travel. Well, it turns out after talking to Denny's drive shaft, we need a 3.5" shaft because of the length and power output. That combined with the wrong guess as to rear u-joint placement and you have an interference with the drive shaft and front drive shaft loop. Here is a close up of how it looked.



You can see it is an integral part of the X-bracing in the chassis. After some head scratching we came up with a plan to fix the issue. First it called for grabbing the plasma cutter and sawzall and getting the bulk of the original loop out. Then we wondered how to get the rest of the bars cleaned up. Here is what we came up with. The trusty tubing notcher!





It really worked better than we had hoped. Check it out.



Then we made some sleeves to fit in the stubs to align the new loop. After that we cut and fit the new loop. Overall we added 2 1/2" to make sure we had enough room. There may be a trans change coming and the new one will be slightly shorter.



Some welding and grinding and you would never know we made the error, well except for me telling you here. Oh well, it's all part of the process!





Next up is putting the cab back on the chassis and then putting the engine and trans back in. Just to make sure everything clears! Better safe than sorry. After that we go for the firewall! Thanks for looking!

[VA72C10]

Nice work!!!

[ccracin]

Let's see where were we? Well the cab is now back on the chassis and the new drive shaft loop fits nice. The driveshaft will now fit as well. All good things! Now that the cab is bolted back on the chassis it is time to continue with the fitting of the firewall. Well, until you get side tracked. More on that in a minute. We set the engine in the chassis to verify that all the work we did on the trans tunnel was correct. It was, however we decided we wanted more room around the bell housing. So we added some pieces to make some room. All in all it didn't take anything away from the interior and it will be much easier to work on the drive train. Here is what we did.







Once this was complete I went ahead and welded in the steering column/brake pedal mount. I coated the cowl area with Eastwood's Por-15 product before welding it in. Here it is.





Now here is where we got side tracked a bit. As we were taking the motor in and out, we realized we hated our original design for the motor mounts on the chassis. If you look in the back ground in the first and second second pictures above you will see what they looked like. They didn't fit the LS engine as well as we would like since they were put in with the Big Block. They were also tight to the oil pan rail of the LS. You can see the notches we were contemplating. (Looks Like A Mistake Too) They also made us stand the engine and trans up at a severe angle to get the assembly in place. Are you getting where I'm going here? We need to get this truck done, we are running out of cut off wheels! Out they came and a new design was developed. Check it out:

Old Vs. New










These will allow the engine to slide back between the mounts. Previously the kick outs on the Champ Pan required us to go over and in the set the engine and trans. in. I think these look much better in general. The other thing this allowed us to do was lower the front of the engine 3/4". We couldn't do that with the rack and Big Block. I know it was the so called 2 steps forward one step back, but we will be better off in the end. Once we get the mounts stitched in, we will be off the side-track and back to getting that fire wall put in for good! Thanks for looking and sorry for the long post, but it is progress!

[jtp67-72]

Originally Posted by ccracin

I think these look much better in general. !

ME 2...............................jim (yes I am paying attention!!)

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

ME 2...............................jim (yes I am paying attention!!)

Good, there will be a test later!

[72k5zl1]

just found this, looks great!

[ccracin]

It seems we started this project forever ago. We have been trying to get the new firewall in the truck. Every time we thought we were ready to put it in we found something else that should be done before we put it in. All in all I'm glad we did it right the first time. Every thing fit just as it should. Here are some pics to show how we went about it.

This is the empty hole. The floor and trans tunnel are all finished. We then went around the face of the cowl area in the dark with a light and welded up any pin holes in welds from the rust repair. The new firewall has a mounting flange that covers this area, so I don't want any moisture to get between those panels and into the cab. After all the holes were taken care of, I coated the area with Eastwood's rust encapsulator. This was to help curb any development of rust from factory seams we did not take a part.



Before mounting the piece, we applied a bead of seam sealer to the mating face of the cowl. This is mostly to eliminate any potential vibration between the 2 sheet metal panels. We also sealed the bottom weld seam. This will be done on the inside of the wiper tray before paint as well.



I also coated the back of the firewall mounting flange with self etching weld through primer for an added level of protection.



We then used cleco's to hold the firewall on and braced it to hold everything flat for alignment while tacking.



And FINALLY, here it is all tacked in. The fit to all the mating panels is excellent. Now it's time for me to try to weld it in and finish it with out screwing up all our hard work!











Thanks for looking!

[67cheby]

Clean !