Attempt/Mistake #2

[El Campo]

So since I am putting the serpentine system on the big block like I stated above I had to find a factory big block pulley which I located at a truck salvage yard. I got the one off of a 94 BBC which apparently is the year that GM changed the size of the snout. I got the pulley with the number 10187661 which is not the one recommended by Kwik Performance although they thought it would work. It will work but not without throwing it into the lathe after welding a spacer into it. As you can see (maybe) in the pictures the ID of the harmonic balancer is 2.25 inches but the OD of the pulley snout is 1.75 inches. It might work but I do not really trust the 3 mounting bolts to keep it from moving around. And so am going to add on a piece and turn it down. Another odd thing was that when I pulled the pulley off of the donor the harmonic balancer bolt was THROUGH the pulley also thereby making it impossible to take the pulley off without taking that bolt out also. Going to have to knock the lip down a bit too as there is only 0.3 inches of clearance between the back face of the pulley and the front face of the balancer washer but the snout lip is 0.4 inches long.

[El Campo]

Got the serpentine system mocked up and it fit perfect! Am going to put a Sanden compressor on (found a way to adapt this to the SBC backets so don't have to use the crappy R4 pancake compressor) but for mocking it up just used an AC delete pulley. This thing is sweet and I don't know why I didn't do it years ago. Now I just have to figure out where to run the 4 wires from the 94 alternator. I am mocking everything up on the entire truck before I coat anything so that I dont have to drill holes in fresh paint, find out things don't work, have to weld something different, etc etc

[El Campo]

Also modified my A arms. I did not like the bumper brackers on the lower A arm so I shaved them off. Cut the springs down one coil while I was in there since the front has always sat higher than I liked. Also since I have the 73 A arms the shock mount on the arm was at a different angle so I cut that off and rewelded it at a more pleasing angle. Also mounted the steering gear up on my new front frame piece that I welded on and it fixed my clearances of the center link trying to hit the motor pan and crossmember. Fits great now. Then I cut off the brackets above the rear axle and cut them down and modified them a little so that when I C notch it the way that Ackattack did with a piece of pipe that I will still have bumpers. Oh yes and I made a loop that I am going to mount on the front crossmember in case I have to ever pull the truck that I will have something to pull on. Will be making one for the back also since I have a roll pan in the back.

[El Campo]

And a couple more. Had to cut the old bumper bolts off with a torch and of course I cut into the brackets so had to fix that too.

[68 TT]

Looks like a fun project. Too bad you had to go back & redo so much.

[El Campo]

Yea I learned my lesson about halfa$$ing things. It won't happen again I can guarantee you that! I was young and dumb back then. At least now most of the stuff had been mocked up and that helps somewhat. Been doing some other things on it, will update as soon as I can.
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[El Campo]

Worked on the truck again. Put the bed and my new cab on to test fit some things and see where to move my fuel pump and filter to as well as where to put wiring harness that goes to the back. While I was at it I threw my 20s on to measure some more and see what tires I can squeeze under it. Looks like I can fit 315s under the back with my 5 inch backspacing Unfortunately the front is too wide and I am going to have to send them back to Intro to get rehooped down to 8.5 inch hoops. That is 280 dollars a piece ...

[El Campo]

Pictures: Sorry I am having trouble uploading pics but I have a ton of them

[El Campo]

More

[El Campo]

Since I have a one piece driveshaft and the truck is lowered in conjunction with my homemade motor mounts it tried to hit the top of the center crossmember so I cut it out and welded a pice of 6 5/8 pipe in for a driveshaft loop. I will smooth the welds yet. Had to cut it out with the torch.

[El Campo]

Try to post more pics

[stfinney]

Love the rims! I'd love to have a set like those for my 72.

[El Campo]

Ok will try again with the pictures. Im having hell with them. Here is some of the driveshaft loop. As you can see I really did a crappy job the first go around to make it fit. Let this be a lesson to ALWAYS TEST FIT EVERYTHING!!! And no it does not hit the cab. I put the cab on just to test fit it and make sure that it did not before I welded it in.

[El Campo]

Started working on my C notch also. I have always disliked how homemade looking the square cut ones are (personal opinion only, not trying to step on anyones toes) so I am doing it with pipe instead. It is a lot more difficult to do with pipe that is for sure! Had to cut it out with the torch because obviously a sawzall can't cut in a circle. Used 5 inch pipe and then boxed it on the inside. Only got the passenger side done so far. Sorry I ran out of gas so some of my welds looked bad

[El Campo]

I am probably going to weld a little triangle pice at the front of my boxing plate yet to fill in the gap that you see. Also I will be putting that bumper bracket that I modified on the outside, it may not look like it fits but it does

[El Campo]

I am good friends with a guy named Raymond that is a nurse at the same ER as I am and even though he is old enough to be my dad we both love vehicles so he helps me with mine and I help him with his Corvettes too. He had the idea of wanting to put the proportioning valve mounted down close to the frame like they were from the factory in later model trucks (in the 80s I believe, could be wrong) and so he built this bracket which fits nicely behind the steering column and between the cab and inner fender. Will be buying an adjustable proportioning block from Speedway that mounts to the same bracke but I don't have it just yet, that is why the bracket is only tacked on. The markings on the frame are where we will be drilling holes to run the rear wiring harness through the boxed frame to the back. Should be a lot cleaner looking plus will be shielded from the exhaust better.

[blkcorvair]

Cool build

[El Campo]

Also test fitted my Goodmark doors on my original cab from Arizona. NO GOOD!!!! I always thought that the reason I could not get the passenger door to fit was because of the crappy body work on the old silver cab itself but when I put the very same door on my all original cab it fit the same terrible way. The driver's door was not perfect but I can modify it a little and it will work fine. The bend in the passenger door does not match the cab!! It is kind of hard to see in the pictures but the door is too flat and not curvaceous enough. No matter what you do with shims, etc it will not work. The front of the door and upper body lines and even the window frame will line up perfectly but the bulging of the cab pillar never even comes close to the door. Compare it to the OEM door on my Oklahoma truck. So I need a OEM passenger door if anyone has a rust free one.

[El Campo]

Started test fitting for the hydroboost setup. The brackets that captainfab makes are amazing and it bolted up beautifully. I got this hydroboost setup from a 1 ton Chevy van 1999 model and I figure it should certainly help slow this 1/2 ton down. The Xs on the firewall are all holes that I will be filling. Will not be shaving the firewall completely because that looks a little too sterile for my liking.

[68 TT]

Too bad the door isn't made right. You would think with all the money it costs for them to tool up that more of these repro parts would be made closer in fit to the originals than they are and with better production quality.

The wrinkled floor pans bug me the most but having curves that don't match is a close second.

[El Campo]

Was just in Phoenix again for my birthday and I found a door! Looked at literally 50 doors and got the best one. It is an original paint OE door. Looks like it must have came off of a 1 ton because it has some mirror holes drilled etc. BUT not a single rust hole and I can live with this surface rust. Plus it was only 70 bucks. Heck the shipping cost me more than that!! It was really hard carrying it in my rental car without scratching the car up especially since had to drive 45 miles holding it. Ended up sending it on Greyhound back to Houston after I built this box for it.

[El Campo]

Had a chance to work on the truck again and got my C notches complete. I welded the modified axle stops on directly above my notches. Bottomed out suspension and they are at the correct place. My brother and I measured and measured and measured and even after all the welding of notches plus the different front and rear frame rails the entire frame is within 1/32 of an inch of square. Did not like the way that my rear cab mounts looked so I modified them to a more aesthetically pleasing design. Since I had previously moved the location of them I smoothed them and welded around the perimeter of them

[El Campo]

Planning on running my 3 inch stainless exhaust out the back if at all possible so put cut outs in the center section. These are 5 inch pipes in here and yes there actually IS a sliver of pipe welded in here. Also I did not like the way that the driveshaft loop that I had previously welded in looked so I cut that off flush and smoothed around it. Cut the trailing arm rivets out with the torch since I may have to flip them to get a satisfactory pinion angle and they were in my way anyways.

[El Campo]

Since I have a high capacity Milodin oil pan on the BBC and it has a wider and deeper front section of pan it came closer to the front crossmember than I liked. It made it so that if I ever had to pull the pan off that I would have to pull the entire engine out! Definitely not something that I wanted to do. So I sectioned a piece out of the crossmember. There was quite a bit of rust in the crossmember. I took 3 inches out of the top of crossmember. Now should have no problem.

[litew8]