47-55.1 Project: Kechi AD S10 4.3 auto

[joedoh]

round two went perfect. I wonder why the first time is always a problem?





on another application of the joedoh rule, I tried bleeding the brakes and two bleeders snapped off.

edit: last coat, no flash. you can really see the oxblood color, my favorite

[oldman3]

Russ, don't know about the first time, but second looks great...Jim

[dsraven]

are you sure you don't wanna shoot a little gun wash over it just so you can redo it again? lol.
looks good.

[8man]

That looks good. Like the color.

[edgeleycanuck]

I noticed the kick panel appears to have an arc cut out of it where the typical rust shows up. I'm interested if you have a fix for that problem area? If so do have a solution where the toe board meet the floor?
The reason I'm asking is, I'm not concerned about appearances so much as being water tight and solid. My rust issues aren't as bad as some and I'm wondering if I can do something with those areas without getting into complete panel replacement. Thanks alot, I watch your work closely and appreciate your approach to practicality yet reliable and safe!

[joedoh]

these arent rusted badly either, I already have the patches cut and most of the kicks prepped. I will patch them from the outside and use a seam sealer to keep it from rusting again.

the thing about patching them in part is you almost have to run inner kick panels because that patch is very visible. on my last truck the kicks were almost GONE, and I patched them with steel cut to shape. rust repair is my least favorite thing to do, I have some nice cabs that are virtually rust free, hope to pick them up soon.

[Old57]

Wow, great progress! I haven't logged on here in a while. Looks good.

[joedoh]

hey gabe! havent seen your truck running around but I have mostly been driving beeps to summer gymnastics haha.


starting to finish up the things that would be hard to finish with the front end on. I usually bend the trans lines to mate up to the rad but sheesh its a real pain in the poker so this time I got some oil safe hose and cut and flared the ends. I flared them because no matter how tight you make the clamp it will always just sliiiide right off.



then I put the dizzy and oil pressure sender back in, I had to massage the cab slightly for the coil wire, the dizzy is clocked just slightly from square. no big deal, a few well placed prods and it has a paper width clearance. although I dont envy the guy who has to change the rotor, it was definitely an operation that included tongue angle.



put the interior HVAC setup back in, went right together like butter. stock S10 heater hoses!



made a nice template for the kick patches out of kydex so it doesnt get lost like all my cardboard ones (that are indistinguishable from trash in a dirty garage haha) cut em out of some 18ga, spot welded them in a few places, and seam sealed them. I will use kick panels to hide the ugliness inside, it was more important to me to have a smooth outside with nothing to catch water or grit.





more in a second

[joedoh]

for the air distribution I wanted to do better than the last time, the GM guys had figured out airflow and pressure so I wanted to keep that relationship this time instead of just chopping the top off and sticking hoses in it.

this is what the air distribution for the HVAC looks like, at least the dash vent and defroster setup.



I chopped it with my miter saw (and a sawzall when the miter saw ran out of cut depth) until I thought it might fit in the dash.



I may need to shorten the height just slightly but I think leaving the oem air pathways will help with the airflow. there are spots to run a left and right face vent that I will block up and the big main face vent should blow right out of the speaker grille, fingers crossed. I will make a screw-on adapter to make the most of it.

tomorrow I will put the front end back on and run wires, maybe even try a start!

[oldman3]

Russ, nice update, look forward to the start up...Jim

[joedoh]

thanks jim. I do too!

in application, the joedoh rule sounds like murphys law, with one fine distinction. if I state something with absolute certainty, the odds of me being wrong skyrocket. I worked on the front end like I said, but if you remember how bent and dented it was when I got it I decided to make sure it was super straight, especially the lower rear corners of the fenders. this meant straightening the rods too, and by the time I was done a whole afternoon had elapsed.



ARROW straight support rod, it used to look like a pretzel.



today the starter for the mower (that has been broken) showed up and so I braved the 107 heat index (right at 100 on the thermometer but humidity makes it feel hotter) and promptly gave myself heat stroke. no kidding! I was 3.5 acres into the 4 acre mow and the talk radio on the worktunes kept squawking about recognizing heat exhaustion, hot dry skin, weakness, and I realized I had stopped sweating and felt flushed. OOPS. I get in the truck cab and try to cool off, feel sweat on my lip and its salty, good sign, OOPS my nose is bleeding. barely get the mower loaded, drive home and take a cool shower while trying not to puke my guts out. finally better after that, but it was some serious stuff haha.

hey giga, if you are reading still, I looked through my stuff to see if I had those bolt in lower cups and sure enough I found them, along with most of two ART air bar setups (the rest of them is outside in the back yard), some old school air lift cups with bags, and all my super old school MIC manual valves.




before he had a TV show, ryan used to sell bag stuff in the late 90s, he had a string of trucks on the covers of minitrucks mag. love these manual valves, push a little for slow or push a lot for speed. doubt I will ever use em though.

[oldman3]

Russ, yeah heat is nothing to mess with. I was out with the truck today, top off, it was 103 index here today. Even at 60 mph, it was hot, take care...Jim

[8man]

Joe, take care with the heat stroke. Been there.

Truck front looks good.

[OutlawDrifter]

Nice work...keep hydrated!

[Nut Case]

Joe

Nice work, ox blood looks grand. In paragraph 136 you talk about the time it takes to do fiddly tasks, the proper name for those jobs are "clock suckers" And they sneak up on ya and nail ya to the floor!!!!!



It's a b!tch getting old aint it

[joedoh]

thanks fellas!

haha nut case, clock suckers that is perfect!


I can usually put my head down and get some serious work done, but the heat stroke monday really rocked me and I guess dropped my immune system a little because now I have a wallbanger summer cold. still moving slow. on contract this week so a little more to do than normal, but all phone calls so no need to wear masks.

[joedoh]

they said I would be sensitive to the heat for a while and boy howdy, I flop sweat at the stove nowadays.

I got the main harness through the firewall though and some of the stuff like the cruise moudle and the main power distribution box mounted and hooked up. I decided to work on front harness as a change of pace, normally I do it last but I had to pull the latch pan to build the air deflector so it would be easy to run wire. I was able to peel the harness a little and all the wires lined up perfect for the park/turn and the headlights.

the 98+ s10 uses a weird wiring arrangement for the headlights, there are discrete wires for high and low beam, and they are ground switched, not 12v, so you cant just use a 3 prong 7" headlight. I use a light that has a H4 and an H3 and wire the H3 as the high beam. the 70 year old headlight buckets are usually trashed anyway so I order a light that has a new adjuster and mount, and cut the original buckets so the trim ring still snaps/screws on. the three holes are for the new adjuster screws.



test fit, looks good.



mounted for good

[joedoh]

did the air deflector next, just a nice piece of kydex, I use the hood latch pan as the pattern, works well, then trim for all the supports.



screwed in on the sides and the bottom to the original pan, kydex really takes paint (not like abs) and so a squirt of black makes it disappear.

[Desert1957]

Originally Posted by joedoh

for the air distribution I wanted to do better than the last time, the GM guys had figured out airflow and pressure so I wanted to keep that relationship this time instead of just chopping the top off and sticking hoses in it.

this is what the air distribution for the HVAC looks like, at least the dash vent and defroster setup.



I chopped it with my miter saw (and a sawzall when the miter saw ran out of cut depth) until I thought it might fit in the dash.



I may need to shorten the height just slightly but I think leaving the oem air pathways will help with the airflow. there are spots to run a left and right face vent that I will block up and the big main face vent should blow right out of the speaker grille, fingers crossed. I will make a screw-on adapter to make the most of it.

tomorrow I will put the front end back on and run wires, maybe even try a start!

How much of the S10 heater box shows under the stock AD dash?

Did you make any templates for future mods for the heater?

Thanks,
Desert

[8man]

Nice work Joe.

[oldman3]

Russ, really like the set-up on the headlights. Nice job with the deflector. So it this kedex, like a plastic, but different?...Jim

[joedoh]

thanks 8!

Originally Posted by oldman3

Russ, really like the set-up on the headlights. Nice job with the deflector. So it this kedex, like a plastic, but different?...Jim

yes, like abs, but really flexible. abs would need heat to bend like I have bent this, and would have white stress marks. kydex is floppy, its almost like a plastic fabric, but it looks just like abs. I get it at a local surplus store that gets it from the aircraft industry. kydex is used in aircraft interiors and baggage compartments, its really really light but very high strength and like I mentioned, super flexible. if you have flown in a commuter aircraft, likely the interior side walls were kydex.

Originally Posted by Desert1957

How much of the S10 heater box shows under the stock AD dash?

Did you make any templates for future mods for the heater?

Thanks,
Desert

the line of vacuum hoses is just visible under the dash, and everything below. I was going to make a chipboard cover on the last one but didnt need it, it wasnt very intrusive to your view. the only drawback I noticed is that wiring liked to get caught in the vacuum mechanisms, I had to build a plastic cover so the wiring wouldnt jam anything.

I am still learning, no final patterns yet. I think I will use a 12V bilge blower on this one rather than try to adapt the factory fan again.

[oldman3]

Russ, thanks for the info...Jim

[joedoh]

today I bit the bullet and realized the motor was at a slight angle that would have made replacing the cap/rotor a real chore and replacing the distributor impossible. so I sectioned the passenger motor mount to straighten it all out.

[joedoh]

I got the motor straightened out, I think whoever changes the cap and rotor in the future will be a lot happier. no pics, imagine a 3/8" lower engine on one side, which may actually be more exciting in your imagination.

on the last one I just used the stock PCM mount and screwed through the plastic to the inner fender but I didnt like it. so I cuut a piece of metal that picked up the mount holes of the plastic PCM mount and knocked the fender flatter so it wouldnt hit the AC box I havent put in yet. but I didnt want water and dirt to get stuck in between the mount and the inner fender so I made a dimple die from a 12mm socket and an 8mm socket that I taped in the vise. a quick squeeze and I had a nice standoff.





fits nice!




next was the battery, I reused the s10 box after some trimming and it also came out great.




I am splitting time at the new place and normal engineering work and so the truck is really falling behind, but maybe this week I can get the bumper mounted and the truck spun around.