2 for 1 Part II...

[aggie91]

My own. I bought a set of 5200lb capacity trailer axle seats at Tractor Supply and added the vertical sections to them. I made them from 1/4" thick x 1.25" wide flat bar that I cut to 3.5" long. Korbin welded them together for me since my welder is at his buddies shop.

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Some of us watch closely brother! I just try not to 'clog' up threads w/the repeat praises all the time. If I see something I'm curious about or might have an alternative idea, I'll usually post.

Yeah, ditto that. For a trash-hauler, you sure are detailing it well.

[Hunyoc]

I liked 1 I really lilike t2 well dun leading by good example.
good to see a truck going together well enough you don't need
my input. Thank you for your time and pictures and info.

[aggie91]

Thanks for the replys. It makes me feel good that others appreciate what I am doing. Thanks for the comment on the detailing, but I have taken a few short cuts on painting the rear part of the frame that I would have done different if the weather had been better. My goal has been to get it running and moving under its own power before I go back to work on Jan. 5th.

Here is one of the areas that is going to work out OK for the budget, just not look that great....

I am reusing the headers from Sunburn. The rear tube on the driver side header was damaged to a point I first thought I would need to replace it. I will try to describe what happened to damage it and how bad the damage was since I did not take a before picture....

On these square bodies there is a reinforcement plate behind the master cyclinder on the firewall to support the pedal assy and steering column and make that area strong for all that it supports in the truck. Look at the first two pics below. I am pointing to the edge of the part that is about 1.5" from the firewall near the bottom closest to the engine. That edge came in contact with the rear tube of the header and folded the tube around it. It was nearly closed at the corner of the bend.




The red line on the tube below represents the spot where the flange made contact with the tube. If you imaging pushing on a tube with that thin edge and all the force hits just that line, you can understand how the tube was "crimped" nearly closed.


Using my rose bud tip on my torch, I heated the area up to glowing orange and pushed the end of my breaker bar in from the flange side to get it pushed out and try to get it somewhat round and smooth. It took about 15 minutes of work and got it mostly round and smooth inside. Its not perfect, but I can live with it over buying new headers. This particular Headman Header is now $600 a set...That's up $200 from what I paid for them a couple of years ago. I will touch up the worked area on this one with some VHT silver paint to help "hide" the damage, but it will work for a driver...The other dent was there before the accident. I did that while setting the motor in place, it fell and hit the frame rail. I am not going to worry about that one.

Here is what it looks like with the work done, but not painted:


I am hoping to meet up with a guy today that has a good bench seat for sale that is in good shape, $80. Thats cheaper then a cover from Brothers or somewhere else. Its black and will work with the dash pad that came out of Sunburn.

Later...

[aggie91]

Did not get with the seat guy today. Spent most of my day moving stuff between storage units and the house. More of the same tomorrow.

I did get a few things accomplished for the truck while doing my other tasks. I picked up a can of VHT Flame Proof Coating and a quart of Gear oil to go with the quart of Lucas oil I already had. I looked around Lowes for a bit while getting some paint for the house mixed up. I found a few deals on some tools I want, but they will have to wait.

I left the header in the house overnight to get it warm to paint. I had the paint in the house for a couple of hours today too. I was able to shoot the paint on the "repaired" tube. I think it will work for my end goal at this time. What do you guys think?


If I was really concerned with the overall look of the header, I would take both and scotch brite them down real well and shoot a coat of the VHT over both of the headers. For now, this one tube is to the rear and somewhat obstructed from view. It will work for White Trash.

There is a Discount Tire near Lowes that has treated me well over the years I have been in Longview so, I got 2 front tires mounted on the rims I got from Tommy (back in March) while getting the paint at Lowes. Thanks Tommy for getting them for me. I will post pics of them on White Trash once I get the brakes blead and it back on the ground.

Happy New Year to all you guys!

[aggie91]

well that's a first for me...on Photobucket that picture appears right side up...I have tried to fix it 3 times, no luck.

Oh Well...

[Hankster]

I like that you fixed the header instead of buying new!

[aggie91]

Well now the picture is showing up correctly. Don't understand it...

It finally stopped raining today. After taking care of some household responsibilites, Korbin and I went to the local u-pull it yard and found a few items we need/want. I picked up another battery tray that I will modify for the left side.

After we got home, Owen helped us get the brakes blead on this thing. While he and Korbin were doing that, I filled the rear end with fluid and made sure the leaf spring bolts were tight.

The rear is now ready for wheels and tires along with the front. I will still leave it up on stands tomorrow so I can work on the exhaust, wiring and shifter that has to be done from underneath.

Weather should be good tomorrow, so after church and lunch we will get some more done.

[Hankster]

Cool! Can't wait to see it on the ground!

[GAc10boy]

Diggin' all the progress! Can't wait to see some more updates.

[aggie91]

Well today's weather was a challenge to work on the truck. It was sunny, but the high was about 38 with a wind chill that was about 30 (felt like less at times). Owen and Korbin both helped and we knocked out a good list of items today even though we did not get it running.

I finished up the rear parts of the truck while the boys worked on the front stuff. They got the front shock mounts onto the frame and swapped in the new turn signal housings/lenses. Korbin installed the floor shifter from Sunburn to save time now to get it closer to working. We will go back and hook up the column shifter once I find a reasonable deal on a tilt column.

I installed the fuel filler neck and mounted up the rear wheels/tires that I am going to start off with since I have them on hand. Once it did that I moved on to mounting the PCM and wiring. One of the things we got at the juck yard was a right hand battery tray that I planned on converting to left hand to replicate the late model battery location and install the PCM next to it on the left hand inner fender.

Here is the tray once I got the spot welds apart to aid in converting it to left side use:


Once it was apart, I did a minimal clean up and looked at what was needed on the inner fender. (notice the two larger holes on the flange of the lower bracket and the two hole along the "front edge" of the tray, those will be a blessing later...) I installed the inner fender and took the lower part of the tray and held it in position. There was two dimples in the inner fender where there should be holes for a factory left side batter mount, the fender has the holes too, but not the weld nuts. I drilled the two needed holes and put the lower part on the inner fenderwell. I put the upper part in and loosely bolted it to the inside of the fender. I had to pull the lower part over a bit toward the fender, and there ended up being two holes that aligned with the tray and lower bracket. I bolted it together with bolts and nuts using those two existing holes. I did not worry about the lower bracket having part of it turned the wrong way for a left side install. I will use that part to mount relays for a headlight upgrade down the road.

Here it is installed in the engine compartment:


I chose the install the PCM on the left side fenderwell next to the "new" battery tray. I used one existing hole in the fenderwell (the one for the jack hold down) and had to drill one other. I bolted the aluminum plate directly to the fenderwell at the jack hold down hole (that hole in under the PCM) and luckly I had a spacer the right length for the other hole I had to drill to keep the plate flat. This aluminum plate and fuse block set up came straight out of Sunburn, I added the terminal strip to clean up some of the wiring to the PCM.



While we were working on the truck, one of Korbin's buddies called and asked if I wanted a good used Optima Red Top battery for $20. I said yes since he guaranteed it to be good and would give me my money back if it was not, or would not hold a charge.

Here is the PCM and Battery set up as it is in the truck:


I need to go over to my storage and find the factory positive cable for the LS motor that I kept when we pulled it. It should work just fine. If I can't find it, I will fab one out of some 2ga cable I have on hand. I will re-use the factory negative cable from the '85 since it was in good shape and un-cut.

Once all that was done and I took a break to warm up my hands and feet, I installed the engine harness. I did not take too much time to keep it neat at this time, (it was too darn cold for that...). Got all the harnesses and plugs to the engine connected except for the mass air flow. I still need to install the cold air kit from Sunburn.

Here is where we left off under the hood:



At this point we had to stop since I promised my wife that she could park her nice car in the garage tonight since school starts up again in the morning. Since we had been working on the truck and moving things from storage, the garage was a MESS! My boys and I knocked it out quick and got her car inside before heading in to warm up and eat dinner. She was surprised we did it so fast given the mess we had made. She is happy now!

Hope every one had a great first weekend to 2015! Stay tuned, we are getting closer to having a driver!

[aggie91]

We could not resist putting in this picture:



We had to see what it looked like with the wheels on sitting on the ground. There is a good bit of weight in the bed, so we will decide on the stance once the front is all together and the crap is out of the bed.

What do you guys think?

[UKNOWME]

Looks awesome!

[Chaplain]

Nice work.

[brushbuggy]

looking good

[aggie91]

Worked on the truck again last night to get the connector made up and the wires run for the fuel sender and fuel pump. The sender I used had a 2 way Weather Pack connector on it already installed. So, I got on jegs and ordered a couple of connector kits, some gray wire (to match the existing connector's wire color for the fuel pump), and some terminal removal tools.

I got the correct connector and terminals installed on the wires and connected to the plug on the sensor harness under the truck. I ran the wires along the frame and up into the engine bay. I did all this in the dark using a Ryobi work light that Korbin got for Christmas. Once I got that far, I was cold and called it a night on the truck.

While I was in the truck mood, I pulled out my spiral where I am keeping track of expenditures on this project. With the seat and junk yard purchases added in, I am at a total of $1161.40 cash out of my pocket. If I did not have the Auto Zone Rewards credits, a few gift cards, and the sale of a couple of parts, the total would be $1353.36.

Not bad so far. The weather is going to turn bad cold tomorrow, at this point I am not sure what will get done for awhile. Most of what is left is wiring under the hood and under the dash to swap out the instrument cluster.

[aggie91]

I thought I would post a couple of pics of the truck when we first saw it and made the purchase. Mr. Kilgore kept it on his property till we picked it up last year. He had "stored" it for 3 years after Korbin made the deal on the two trucks.

These are pics from the day we bought it. It was still in that postions and nothing had changed in the extra 3 years it sat there...

[Hankster]

It's crazy to look back at old picture where it started isn't it?

[68Timber]

I remember seeing that picture in the other thread, congrats on the good work.

[aggie91]

Well the weather is not making this fun to work on. I rained most of the last couple of days. I did recieve my electrical order from DelCity. I was able to make up the plugs and connections for the wires that go into the cab.

I had planned on using the seat I bought with the nice black cover as is. But after closer inspection I found some missing springs and some questionable repair work to the seat. I pulled it completely apart and found the foam on the seat is shot and the back rest of the seat is bent. So, I pulled the other seat I had apart. It is great shape for the foam and springs, just the cover is shot. SO, I am going to have an upolstery shop look at the tears in the cover and come up with a satisfactory repair and put that cover on the seat frame/foam I already had. I also pulled the dash apart and got the cluster out to get ready for the cluster swap to the 1990 Suburban unit.

Yesterday, I went over to my sister's to pick up my deer meat she brought back from the processer after visiting our parents. Looking forward to some deer sausage for dinner this week! We already finished off one package of the jerkey we had them make.

So with that and the rain, the truck did not get any more attension...

[aggie91]

I have been able to get a few things done on the truck in the evenings this week. I have been working by flashlight on it, but making progress.

I got my connectors in that I needed and made up the 6 wires {Tach, Speedo (VSS), TCC, Tow Haul, Serial Data, MIL control} from the PCM that go into the interior. I used the grommet and hole that the old mechanical speedo drive cable came thru the firewall as my point of entry to the interior for those 6 wires. I have installed the new NC/NO brake switch and got the wires connected to that switch under the dash. I re-pinned the instrument cluster for the 1990 Suburban Electric Speedo IC and got that installed. That included the 2 wires from the PCM for the MIL light control and the Speedo. All I have left for the wiring on the PCM is the Tach (whick I have not decided on what tach to get and use or even have one at all), the Serial Data to the ADL connector, and the wire for Tow Haul mode. For now, I will leave the Tow Haul and Tach wires long and cap them off till I decide what I want to do with them.

Here is the new IC installed in the dash. the WHITE wire to the right of the IC is the Tach wire...



Here are the TCC wire (purple), the Tow Haul (orange), and the Serial Data (green) wires. I have already done the TCC wire after I took this pic.


I also need to run a 12v+ Key On wire into the engine compartment to the PCM. In the Engine bay I need to run new wires from the bulkhead connector of the factory harness for the Oil Pressue and the Water Temperature senders on the engine. I also need to finish the routing and install the power wires and starter wires from the bulkhead to the starter and the power distribution block on the firewall. I will use the stock '85 ground cable for the Battery and the stock 2000 model power cable from the battery to the starter. I hope to have the all the electrical finished and tested by the end of this weekend.

[Raceaprilia]

I wait the day that my knowledge on electric parts is on your level. I need to do search on tow/haul mode too.

[SCOTI]

Looking good Karl. The before pics in the field vs that last pic on the ground w/the wheels & drop is a nice transformation!

[Matt1977]

Love this..! Subscribing

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by Raceaprilia

I wait the day that my knowledge on electric parts is on your level. I need to do search on tow/haul mode too.

Thanks, but I don't know as much as I would like to know about it. There are some great resources here (ls1nova71 is one) and on other sites (lt1swap.com) that have helped me do the first one and make this second one a little better.

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Looking good Karl. The before pics in the field vs that last pic on the ground w/the wheels & drop is a nice transformation!

Hopefully I can get a better one this next weekend from a front 3/4 view...

Originally Posted by Matt1977

Love this..! Subscribing

Thanks, Matt!