Project Jones--a different kind of build-up

[gferris5]

Hey So here's one pic to whet your appetite. Like I said, this build has been slow, but it will continue, and it will turn interesting in a few months. My goal is to drive it to Hot August Nights in Reno--we'll see.



Also, Here's a picture from Europe--another reason the progress has been slow. I was there for three weeks, this is the sunset in Italy's Cinque Terre national park.



More pictures/progress to come.

[kevncar]

I'm somewhat halfway between Sonora and Santa Cruz. If your still looking to tow using AAA or something, let me know. I have a wide driveway you could park that thing in for a few days. I'm in Atwater, which is in Merced County. (there's 2 Atwaters in CA, the other is in L.A.)

It's about 70 miles from sonora to atwater, and then about 120 miles to Santa Cruz. Just tryin to help. Let me know.

[gferris5]

Kevin-
I know where Atwater is, believe it or not, I used to play soccer there all the time when I was a kid.

Thanks for the offer, I may have to take you up on it if the truck doesn't make it very far on its maiden voyage. I think I can get it to run before having to tow it home. Once it gets here, it will be wonderful to be able to work on it on a nightly basis and post pics and really get this thread rolling.

I'll keep you posted if I need to use your offer!

[PanelDeland]

gferris, get an LMC catalog.Don't buy any of the overpriced parts in it.Use it for an assembly guide and parts reference.There are a number of members on this BB that are parts vendors for these trucks.Many of the parts are available at your local parts store and some are still avail thru GM.These sources will be much cheaper than some of the restoration companies.Also a Chiltons or Haynes manual will help with repairs and upgrades.Many of the vendors will carry factory assembly manuals and if you are lucky you may be able to find a factory service manual or chassis overhaul manual. Good luck and keep us posted.

[kevncar]

Sounds good man. I would rather see you drive that thing than tow it anyways. I'll PM you with my cell # just incase something changes though.

[gferris5]

Thanks for the help guys-

I ordered the correct throttle cam assembly from BowTie OD today; they have always been cool. The last one they sent me was for a Holley carb, but I have an Edelbrock; its in the mail as they say.

What criterion do you guys use for replacing steel brakelines? I am not inclined to scrimp and save on brake lines, but there's also no need for frivolous expense.

Also, thanks for the LMC tip, it is nice of them to provide such great drawings! I think I figured out what goes between the pedal rod and the booster (its an I-bolt of some sort), but I think it may be hard to locate unless I deal with an actual person and not a business who wants to sell me an entire assembly (I understand where they're coming from, I'm just not going to buy more stuff than I need).

Anyway, the pics I promised are on my friends digicam so I will post them up as soon as he emails them to me.

Any suggestions for my brake quandary are definitely welcomed!!

[gferris5]

Teaser: I think I might win the award for least updates ever in a project thread, but I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks in Sonora working on my truck. In the time since I've started this thread, I had to stop two jobs, start a new one, finish that one, move, and get into graduate school. It has been a hectic year. I just can't wait to get back to the wrench therapy and start supplying this thread with some more pics and updates. I also have a few creative ideas I'm going to throw at this thing that should be cool and of use to the community. See you soon! The next pics will be of this thing running.

[68GMC454]

sounds like your making prgress..but real life comes first, and with out a good job,, not gonna get far with toys or hobbies..good luk with your drive,,and be carful...cant wait to see more pics..looks like a good ol truck to start with..
billy

[gferris5]

Okay, so these last two weeks have been very productive, although its not the sort of thing that leads to sparkling write up material, but I can put up a couple of pics and make a list of what's been done.

Done:
1. Gas tank relocated to rear, plumbed, but filler neck is not in its final place.
2. Brakes have been completely rebuilt, new lines, new MC, new drums, new shoes, I couldn't find the right brackets and rods for the power booster, so I'm gonna run the manual for a while. Good thing I grew up playing soccer and mountain biking--gonna need it to slow down this thing.
3. Some sewing up around the transmission--installed inspection cover, yada yada,
4. Throttle linkage hooked up

So now it has two working pedals, feels like an accomplishment.

What's left:
1. Set up the 700r4
-Hook up torque converter lock-up
-Speedometer gear housing.
-finalize TV cable set-up
-take it to a tranny shop for the OK

So yeah, only a tranny set up and I'll be on the road. Not a ton of progress, but hey, I'm only a beginner. I like body work, and I'm better at it than all this mechanical stuff, so I'm looking forward to having a truck that runs like new that I can tinker with other stuff and make it look nice. My girlfriend says she won't ride in it until I get the interior done. Can't say I blame her, that stock gas tank has been putting turpentine fumes out for 10 years...not sure how much I want to ride in it before the interior's done...what can you do.

[gferris5]

First pic set: blazer tank relocation

I went with the truck and car shop out of Orange CA. What a neat place! They have a store room with everything you could ever want for one of these trucks. The kit was pretty good, those straps and j-bolts are a total pain in the butt to get all working together. What I ended up doing was hooking the j-bolts through the straps and then sticking them up through the holes and reaching around to start the bolts. This is much easier than starting the bolts and getting the straps up to meet the bolts. The kit earns minus points for not having the holes drilled larger enough in the flange and reinforcements on the tank. You just have to drill 'em out, but hey, I hate drilling.

From the top. It came in handy to have the bed rotted out, pretty much the only way you could do it with the bed on and it was still a pain to reach around all that stuff to get the bolts started.


From the sides now:







Oh yeah: I love gravel, thorns and wasps.

[gferris5]

Okay, here are some more random pictures from around the truck, unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the new brake lines and all that jazz, but the engine bay just doesn't get old to me, so I'll throw up a couple more pics of that as well. I went with the pre-bent sets of lines from the truck and car shop in Orange as well. I think it was a good idea to go with the pre-bent, although threading them all up through the headers and around all that other stuff was a bit of a pain. Worked nicely in the end though, with everything running it its proper place.

sorry for the rotated pics, for some reason the uploader isn't keeping that part of the file intact; they look fine on my computer




This last pic holds a special place. You see, when I was redoing the front drums, I struggled to get the bolt out that olds in the wheel cylinder, it is the bolt upon which all the springs and guts of the drums mount. I did however, manage to get them out. When I moved to the rear of the truck, I *assumed* that they would be the same. Idiot!!! So I began to work on getting off the same bolt for which all the spings mount. In the process, my socket slipped off the bolt and sheared off the stud itself. Try and find this thing at Napa! The clencher, as you might have figured out, is that the rear wheel cylinders are removed with a couple small bolts. The thing I was fighting did not even have to be removed; and I snapped it. Woo-hoo.

Thank goodness for the junkyard which happened to have 3 68-72 chevy pickups and the guy just went and grabbed a replacement for me. The bolt? Well it never came out under its own threads. I managed to loosen it a few turns and then I took it out the rest of the way using my best friend: el DeWalt reciprocating saw. I had to get a new nut for the back of the new one and everything else worked out fine. This whole ordeal set me back like 8 hours, from working to get the thing out of there. It's all about learning...and swearing.

[gferris5]

Note to Mods:
Should we move this thread to the build-up section? Shoot me a PM if you do, or whatever is the normal thing that you do. I"m cool either way.

[68K20 x Drill]

Santa Cruz needs more of these trucks, Are you still headed this way?

[gferris5]

I wanted more than anything to rock this truck around Santa Cruz, but unfortunately life moved me down to orange county It's not a bad gig, but it's not as cool as Santa Cruz.

[gferris5]

Again: Worlds slowest build thread gets an update:
The truck is running! It moved under its own power for the first time since 1994 last weekend. It is getting the exhaust finished up (3"--boy the girlfriend will definitely not want to ride in this thing) and I ended up having it towed to a tranny shop to get it wired up. I can't believe I'm seeing some light. I have made mistakes at every possible turn of the road in this project, but I never quit! We'll see what that means when I comes time to enjoy it. Pictures to come in, oh, maybe the next month or two! Sorry, worst build ever, but it is more for my records than anything else...

[gferris5]

haha! Okay, well I think this is probably the longest delay ever in the history of build thread, but I think I can resurrect this thread to keep showing the progress made on the truck--humble though it has been.

Here's what's happened since I started the build:
-Got a phd in neuroscience
-got married
-moved three times

But I never quit on the truck, and now it runs and drives really well and is very rewarding to be around. Let this be a lesson to those of you out there thinking about quitting on a build: don't do it until you're sure you can find something better, or just can't continue. If you're passionate about cars, keep working, it's worth it in the end.

Here's the twist for the project build thread: rather than write everything up, which takes a long time for me, I'm going to just post periodic videos from youtube of everything.

I also started a youtube channel dedicated to my two passions: cars and brains. I'm going to use it as a venue to talk about the brain and to talk about restoring cars, as it blends things that I think actually go together very well.

Here's the video:

Project Truck Description - YouTube

Hope you dig it!!