68 C10 SBSS build - start to finish

[Vic1947]

By April, I was reassembling the parts and pieces painted and polished by Mike and Bruce at Precision Collision. Mike shot a Lexus silver color using a water based basecoat, baked it in the booth then shot several coats of urethane clear. After it cured, Bruce wet sanded the clear and polished it out to give it the final gloss.

We carefully transported all the panels back home and stored them in the basement room next to the workshop. Before sending out the panels for paint, I had cut all the spotwelds and removed the mild steel angle from the bedsides. I then welded in polished stainless angles in their place. I prefer this to the angles that are meant to cover the stock pieces, which were on the truck when I bought it. I was able to sell many of the unused parts at a couple of swap meets, which helped a lot.

I then began to lay down the thermal barrier and sound deadener from Eastwood. I like their material, it's pretty easy to work, very tough and sticks like crazy. I butted all the seams as close as possible and worked it with plastic trim spatulas. I then covered the seams with aluminum tape.

[Vic1947]

While the body panels were at Precision, we took a side trip down to Rolla, MO to pick up the seat, door panels and visors from Little Sid's Upholstery. As with the paint, I'd talked to a few places aroung KC about having them refurbished. The shops we spoke with were backed up over a year, so we took them down to Little Sid around July, 2011. One of my good friends, Jim Butery has used Sid for many years on his projects and he does nice work very reasonably. He used a faux leather material (I've heard it called "pleather") that worked well with the body color. Nice thing about silvers and greys are they can be mixed and matched easier than a lot of other colors.

John at Precision Collision sent his windshield man over to the house to install the front and rear glass. He did a great job and saved me from a potential boo-boo. When he found out I was using an aftermarket rubber seal, he asked to see it before he came over. Turns out, he'd installed a couple of front windshields using the type I'd bought with poor results. The rear seal was fine but he insisted on using a front seal from his supplier. You could see and feel the difference. It fit and looked great, so I was really glad he'd spoken up about it.

[99-LS1-SS]

Wow, you have an exceptional attention to detail. This is a very cool and professional build.

[Vic1947]

Thanks, 99-LS1-SS. When non-car friends shake their heads and ask why I spend so much time on stuff you'll never see, I tell them, "It's like wearing clean underwear... maybe no one else cares, but I do!"

[99-LS1-SS]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, 99-LS1-SS. When non-car friends shake their heads and ask why I spend so much time on stuff you'll never see, I tell them, "It's like wearing clean underwear... maybe no one else cares, but I do!"

That is an awesome quote and analogy! LOL
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[Vic1947]

After rolling down the thermal/acoustic material, I crawled under the cab and sprayed a layer of undercoating over the bottom side of the floor. With the cab now suitably prepped, I focused on getting a few last things done to the drivetrain before setting the cab on the frame.

The engine that came with the truck was a junk 305 not worth rebuilding. As I mentioned earlier, my engine guy came up with a 350 truck block that he bored .030" over. It now has forged rods, hypereutectic pistons and a balanced rotating assembly. Also, a mild Comp Cams hydraulic cam. Up top, I sourced a set of ProComp 210cc aluminum heads with 64cc CNC'd chambers that give me a final CR of 10.1 to 1. The original 305 had an Edelbrock dual plane intake that I'd planned to use, but when I set it on the heads, there was about a 1/8" gap showing along the top of the intake ports. So I had to spring for a ProComp air gap style manifold. I rebuilt the Edelbrock carb, but failed to check the throttle shafts. They were so worn out, when I got the engine running, it wouldn't idle down consistently. Moved it on down the road at a swap meet and replaced it with a new ThermoQuad style Street Demon.

The original pulleys were mismatched and one of the brackets was held in line with baling wire. The rest of the engine was looking so nice, I decided to forego reworking the pulleys. Instead, I wrecked my budget and ordered a March serpentine setup. It cleaned up the front of the engine very nicely. To help keep the clean look, I used one of the bungs at the back of the intake as my heater hose return.

Finally I was ready to set the cab onto the frame.

[Xeen]

WOW....just wow!

[sduckworth13]

Nice truck, you move quick and do great work.

[gearys 5600]

Nice work..

[Low Elco]

Looks great, can't wait to hear the rest!
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[Vic1947]

As of the first of April, I was down to two months to finish assembling the panels, wiring and plumbing, etc. if I was to meet my goal of the car show in Sedalia the first of June. A major step along the way was getting the cab back on the frame. My neighbor across the street, his son and a friend came over and the four of us lifted it up and walked it down the length of the frame and, with my wife Kathy directing traffic, set it in place. First couple of tries immediately identified an interference issue between the trans, the trans dipstick and the lower edge of the firewall pinchweld where it met the trans hump. Removed the cab and put it back on the rolling cart then crawled under it with some body tools and applied some gentle persuasion to the problem areas. Up top, there were some ribs on the center top of the trans that had to go as well, so I used the angle grinder and flap disc to give me the clearance I needed. A quick coat of black from a rattle can hid the surgery and we were ready to put the cab back in place. We had to remove the cab two or three times for more adjustments but finally had a good fit.

My next task was to route the wiring and begin terminating everything. The instrument cluster was all Autometer gauges, so I built a wiring harness using WeatherPak connectors so it could be removed if needed down the road. The OE instrument cluster used a printed circuit board which was long gone and wouldn't have helped anyway, but along with it went the provisions for the turn signals and high beam indicator. I solved that by using 1/8" green LED's for the turn signals and a blue one for the high beam. I had to make some small aluminum discs and epoxy them into the turn signal recesses. The LED's fit into a small hole in the center of the discs.

A tactical error I made with the wiring was using a Painless kit for a late 60's GM muscle car. On the cars, the wiper motor is on the outside and the heater motor is on the inside which is opposite of the trucks. This meant I had to turn some wires around from the engine side of the firewall and run them back inside under the dash. For that reason, I wished I'd gotten a kit dedicated to my application. But I'd had that Painless kit sitting on the shelf for a number of years and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it. Bottom line was, I made it work plus it was the most cost effective solution.

[Graham57a]

Beautiful truck, you should be proud of that thing. I know I sure would be

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Graham57a

Beautiful truck, you should be proud of that thing. I know I sure would be

Thanks, Andrew. You're making great progress also and your work is outstanding. I thought your shop truck build was a hoot.

[Xeen]

Im having a great time watching this build.

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, Andrew. You're making great progress also and your work is outstanding. I thought your shop truck build was a hoot.

Thank you sir. I do the best I can and make sure I ask as many questions as possible. I don't think she'll be half bad when done. As for the shop truck, I love that thing. The best part is the 307 in it has a HUGE cam, headers, flowmasters, and a gear drive. It sounds BIG but looks so small under there

[Vic1947]

During the wiring process, I revisited the sidemarker lights I'd previously sectioned. I wasn't happy with the way they looked with satin black sprayed on the backs, so I built some aluminum covers to hide the ugly.

I used the factory style plastic tape to tidy up the wiring behind the instrument panel. It helps, but thankfully this area is well hidden. I was finally able to install the seat, the instrument panel and the CPP tilt column. I still had all the engine bay wiring, tail lights and etc. to go, but it was a big relief to see the dash buttoned up. Good advice from Painless was to test the circuits with a low amp battery charger instead of the actual battery. That way, wiring mishaps are less likely to balloon into an ordeal. I popped one fuse on the power window circuit before tracking down the problem, but no smoke!

[Xeen]

How do you like that CPP tilt column, quality, fitment, etc... I am thinking about buying one but they are always back ordered so im wondering if its worth the wait.

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

During the wiring process, I revisited the sidemarker lights I'd previously sectioned. I wasn't happy with the way they looked with satin black sprayed on the backs, so I built some aluminum covers to hide the ugly.

I used the factory style plastic tape to tidy up the wiring behind the instrument panel. It helps, but thankfully this area is well hidden. I was finally able to install the seat, the instrument panel and the CPP tilt column. I still had all the engine bay wiring, tail lights and etc. to go, but it was a big relief to see the dash buttoned up. Good advice from Painless was to test the circuits with a low amp battery charger instead of the actual battery. That way, wiring mishaps are less likely to balloon into an ordeal. I popped one fuse on the power window circuit before tracking down the problem, but no smoke!

I really like the way the wiring is done. r u doing it all from rolls of wire r u using a pre wired systems.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

How do you like that CPP tilt column, quality, fitment, etc... I am thinking about buying one but they are always back ordered so im wondering if its worth the wait.

Hey Brian, the tilt wheel was a good addition for me because I'm 6' 2" and the seat sits so high. Having the tilt feature allows me a little extra room. Might not be as worthwhile if you don't need the room or have seats that position the driver lower and further back.

As for the quality, it's fair. I bought mine from Speedway (their generic house brand at $299) but when it arrived it was in a CPP box with CPP instructions. I'm not sure whether Speedway offers it anymore. It has a little slop in the tilt mechanism, not too bad but much more than the Ididit column I have in another project car. Also, I've been unable to find a combination with the two levers they sent that attach to the Morse cable going to the trans. Neither one will line up the shift indicator properly. However, if you plan to use a floor shifter, manual or auto, that wouldn't matter.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by gdavis

I really like the way the wiring is done. r u doing it all from rolls of wire r u using a pre wired systems.

I started with an 18 circuit Painless wiring kit made for a late 60's GM muscle car. I bought it some years ago and it was sitting on the shelf and I figured since the year and make were right, I could make it work. I had to splice some of the wires, particularly in the rear of the truck, but I had some extra from the kit and the rest I used from rolls I got at the electronics supply. If you're considering a kit, it's probably best to get one specific to the truck instead of a universal, just my $.02.

[Vic1947]

With the wires strung to the back of the chassis, I set about assembling the wood floor and bedsides. After removing the original wood that was in the truck I discovered each board was 1/4" narrower than standard. The PO had compensated by redrilling the holes in the cross sills and leaving some of the sills out completely. I preferred not to go back together like that, so I got a new, correct width, oak bed kit from Classic Parts and applied several coats of marine grade urethane to seal it. The original boards that were in great shape became swap meet items.

After mounting the floor and bedsides to the chassis, I shimmed the left front corner of the bed slightly to make the top of the front panel parallel to the body line on the back of the cab. Not sure why this was needed as everthing else on the chassis seemed nice and square, but it was a minor adjustment. During reassembly, I had to remind myself periodically that the factory fitment was not nearly as precise as what I was shooting for.

I'd ordered some stainless steel mesh from McMaster-Carr and sheared it to the width I needed at my buddy Keith's shop. I then held it in place using the stock grille trim. I had previously cut openings for the parking lamps into the dividing bar between the grille openings and then installed a pair of flush mount LED lights into the openings. Doing this not only cleaned up the grille openings, but it also matched the work I'd done to the sidemarkers.

[67chevy1series]

out of every single design/idea i have seen to get the parking lights out of the grille on a 67 68...... this idea is actually badazz, best one ive ever seen i usually dont say this but i love what you did with the parking lights.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

out of every single design/idea i have seen to get the parking lights out of the grille on a 67 68...... this idea is actually badazz, best one ive ever seen i usually dont say this but i love what you did with the parking lights.

Thanks, Rick. This was actually my alternate plan. I originally bought a pair of the 7" halogen headlights that had the parking/turn signals built into the bottom of the headlights. But when they arrived, the quality was so poor, I sent them back and went this route. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I liked this solution much better. The vendor that supplied the LED's doesn't keep much in stock, so he had to build them from scratch and it took a little while, but he finally came thru and it all worked out.

[Vic1947]

Wiring was on hold until I got some more sheetmetal hung, so now began the task of fitting it all up. Confession time - by now, I'd been working on this build for nearly a year, seven days a week. Other than stuff I absolutely had to farm out, I'd been toiling in solitude the entire time, so I was worn out. I'd taken a calculated risk and not pre-assembled the front clip prior to sending it out for paint. I don't recommend this approach. Instead of doing it the right way, I'd laid out the fenders on the floor next to the doors, lined up the body lines, eyeballed the gaps and adjusted as needed before sending it out for paint. But there were a few things I missed by not assembling it all first. All that was about to catch up with me. All I can say is - self imposed deadlines and fatigue make you do stupid stuff.

Fortunately, most of the fitment issues could be fudged enough to keep them from sticking out like a sore thumb, but not all. The most serious came to light later on when I installed the hood. The body line between the cowl vent cover and the hood had a noticeable discontinuity. The only fix was to take the cowl vent cover off, slice it from front to back, move the body line inboard and then weld it back together. Mike at Precision had kept some of the basecoat they used for just this situation. He was able to match the repair perfectly.

[Xeen]

I really like your idea with the Stainless Steel mesh inserts in the grill it looks very nice with the silver paint.
Its a very modern style upgrade that improves the look of the truck.