68 C10 SBSS build - start to finish

[67cheby]

looking SWEET !

[Vic1947]

Well, by mid May I was getting closer to the finish line. When Mike re-painted the cowl cover, he also painted the kickpanels for me. With the front fenders and grille, etc. in place I was working to get the rest of the wiring done. I don't know about everyone else, but it seems like wiring is a never ending task. I wired both the halogen headlights and the electric fans using relays with 8 ga. wire to be on the safe side. Both those items have high amp draw and I didn't need any failures. In retrospect, it would probably have been a good idea to wire the power windows with relays also, but that's something I can retrofit this winter when the weather's lousy.

With the engine bay wiring flanged up, I was able to install the fill panels between the grille and core support. I can honestly say, these were the only pieces of sheetmetal I bought that actually fit without needing to be redone. Bolted 'em in and they lined up on the first try. Whoever designed and built these panels obviously spent a lot of time getting them right.

[Graham57a]

What's the deal on those valve covers and how do I get some?
Posted via Mobile Device

[VA72C10]

very nice work and some nice quality part$

[VA72C10]

very nice work and some nice quality part$

[VA72C10]

Curious with all this attention to detail you have if you kept a spreadsheet of hours and parts/materials costs? I've done that on past builds and the current project #1 build and the numbers always surprise/shock me

You mention working on it 7 days/week...how many hours a week do you think you spent on it?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Graham57a

What's the deal on those valve covers and how do I get some?
Posted via Mobile Device

Valve covers are easy to do. I picked up a set of chromed aluminum valve covers on eBay. Didn't look at them closely when they arrived and later on found out one had some scratches on the top that couldn't be removed. So I asked my buddy Steve, who is a sign man, to cut out some vinyl stickers to apply over the tops. The color is a nice silver and he weeded out the Chevy emblem and the letters so that the chrome underneath shows thru. Font is italicized Impact. Voila!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Curious with all this attention to detail you have if you kept a spreadsheet of hours and parts/materials costs? I've done that on past builds and the current project #1 build and the numbers always surprise/shock me

You mention working on it 7 days/week...how many hours a week do you think you spent on it?

Yes, I kept an Excel spreadsheet on everything and you're right, it makes my hands shake to open it. Including the initial cost of the truck and what I spent on services I had to farm out, minus original parts I sold at swap meets, it's north of 40K a little bit. That doesn't include any of my time. I didn't keep an accurate count of my hours, but I'd estimate I spent an average of 40-50 hours a week on it. Some days just a few hours, others a lot more. I did that for eleven months minus several weeks for personal time, so probably between 1600 and 2000 hours. Not all of that was grunt work as I spent hours chasing parts, design time on DeltaCAD and occasionally staring into space just mapping strategy. Nothing I hate worse than finding out you need to tear something apart because you forgot a step somewhere.

[Hduramax]

Just read through your build,really nice work. I really like how the grille turned out, and with todays technology on the USB port in the dash thats sweet. Keep up the nice work
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[Vic1947]

By the third week of May, the wiring was complete and all that remained was to install the hood and carpet and finally a test drive. The hood fit just so-so and after fixing the body line mismatch with the cowl, neighbor Mike and I were able to adjust it for a little bit better fit. It's okay, but if I'm ever forced to do any more repair work, it will get a makeover. When Precision Collision resprayed the cowl, I had them re-shoot the underside of the hood also. I'd failed to trim the expanding foam they use to adhere the substructure to the outer skin and didn't like the result when it came out of the booth initially. So out came the Xacto knife, scraper and the mini DA sander. After the respray, it looked much better.

When it rolled out of the shop I was planning on just running a LED light bar between the tailgate and rollpan for brake/turn lights. In MO, you have to have a safety inspection every year and mine had lapsed during the build. At the Chevy dealer where they aligned the frontend, they refused to sign off an inspection without "separate" tail lights. The single bar was not acceptable in their opinion. So I cut a small piece of duct tape and placed it in the middle of the light bar, which sort of gave it the appearance of being two separate lights, took it to a different station and they passed it with no complaints. Later, I added a small light on each side because I thought it needed it, but for awhile we had fun watching people search for the tail lights.

.

[Vic1947]

Some interior shots after we had the carpet installed. Wish the mats had matched a little better, but when you mail order stuff it's always a crapshoot. One of the photos shows the USB port and retractable cupholder I grafted in from a Geo Prizm. I was surprised that there were provisions in the B pillar for a three point seatbelt, so we upgraded to that from the lap belts that were in the truck to start with. You can also see the aluminum covers I made for the lower door panel area that had been previously cut up for speakers. After rollling the design into them, I had them anodized so they should stay nice for many years.

.

[Vic1947]

Just a few last engine photos...

.

[67swb72klb]

nice realy liking the parking and marker lights,mesh grill great work!

[tommys72]

damn nice truck......

[Low Elco]

Looks familiar! Wish ours was half that nice.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Vic1947]

Thanks for the nice words, everyone. Here are a few more photos taken after a summer of cruise-ins, a road trip to St. Paul, MN for the Car Craft Summernationals and several local car shows. We picked up two "Best of Show" awards along the way and more importantly, we met a lot of great people that share our enthusiasm for old trucks.

I have some more photos I'll post later showing the work I've been doing to try to correct an annoying vibration at highway speeds. Meanwhile, we'll catch you later!

.

[original-71]

very nice truck

[Low Elco]

Post up! I'm still fighting! It's going to a pro trans/driveline guy tomorrow.
Posted via Mobile Device

[99-LS1-SS]

What size rims and tires are you running?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Post up! I'm still fighting! It's going to a pro trans/driveline guy tomorrow.
Posted via Mobile Device

Will do, I took some photos with the rearend out of the truck showing the line up bar in place and the amount the axle tubes were off center. It's back under the truck at the moment but I'm just getting started on the brackets to relocate the shocks to an upright position. Will post it soon.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by 99-LS1-SS

What size rims and tires are you running?

Fronts are 235/65/17 on 17x7 rims, 4" BS.
Rears are 275/60/17 on 17X8 rims, 4" BS.

[Apstar44]

Wow nice truck. I like the work that was done to it.

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Well, by mid May I was getting closer to the finish line. When Mike re-painted the cowl cover, he also painted the kickpanels for me. With the front fenders and grille, etc. in place I was working to get the rest of the wiring done. I don't know about everyone else, but it seems like wiring is a never ending task. I wired both the halogen headlights and the electric fans using relays with 8 ga. wire to be on the safe side. Both those items have high amp draw and I didn't need any failures. In retrospect, it would probably have been a good idea to wire the power windows with relays also, but that's something I can retrofit this winter when the weather's lousy.

With the engine bay wiring flanged up, I was able to install the fill panels between the grille and core support. I can honestly say, these were the only pieces of sheetmetal I bought that actually fit without needing to be redone. Bolted 'em in and they lined up on the first try. Whoever designed and built these panels obviously spent a lot of time getting them right.

Engine looks sweet. Keep up the good work.

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

By the third week of May, the wiring was complete and all that remained was to install the hood and carpet and finally a test drive. The hood fit just so-so and after fixing the body line mismatch with the cowl, neighbor Mike and I were able to adjust it for a little bit better fit. It's okay, but if I'm ever forced to do any more repair work, it will get a makeover. When Precision Collision resprayed the cowl, I had them re-shoot the underside of the hood also. I'd failed to trim the expanding foam they use to adhere the substructure to the outer skin and didn't like the result when it came out of the booth initially. So out came the Xacto knife, scraper and the mini DA sander. After the respray, it looked much better.

When it rolled out of the shop I was planning on just running a LED light bar between the tailgate and rollpan for brake/turn lights. In MO, you have to have a safety inspection every year and mine had lapsed during the build. At the Chevy dealer where they aligned the frontend, they refused to sign off an inspection without "separate" tail lights. The single bar was not acceptable in their opinion. So I cut a small piece of duct tape and placed it in the middle of the light bar, which sort of gave it the appearance of being two separate lights, took it to a different station and they passed it with no complaints. Later, I added a small light on each side because I thought it needed it, but for awhile we had fun watching people search for the tail lights.

.

I like to piece of flat metal in the front on both sides of the hood latch

[Vic1947]

I've had some issues with a vibration in the rear of the truck and with the local cruise-in's winding down for the winter, I decided to see if I could isolate the problem and repair it. At first, I assumed it would be an easy fix. Not so!
Thus far I have...
1. Replaced both rear tires
2. Balanced all four corners using latest Hunter GSP9700 Road Force system
3. Replaced the rear trans bushing in the 200-4R
4. Shimmed the pinion angle so pinion c/l and trans c/l are parallel
5. Installed new u-joints and balanced the driveshaft

None of this changed a thing. If you jack the rearend up a couple of inches off the floor and set the speedo on 65, there is still a noticeable vibration.

In an attempt to isolate the problem...
1. I removed the rear tires, ran all the lug nuts down on the brake drums and spun it up to 65, vibration was still there.
2. Removed the driveshaft and used a high speed 1/2" electric drill to drive the pinion to higway RPM, no change.
3. Removed the brake drums entirely and turned it over again with the drill, vibration was still there.

At this point, I had removed all external sources of vibration and the rear axle housing was still shaking, so I pulled the rearend out of the truck and went back thru it. So far, I have...
1. Replaced the gov-bomb with a new Auburn posi
2. Put in new axles
3. Swapped out the 3.08 gear for a 3.40
4. Setup the line up bar I use for narrowing rearends to check the straightness of the axle tubes.

Both sides were off-center slightly (about 1/8"). One side was off up and down, the other side was off front to back. I used heat to draw the tubes back into line, reassembled everything and put it back under the truck.