47-55.1 Project "Bickle" 1948 1/2 ton 4.3 4l60e

[28TudorAZ]

Looking great!!! The CNC stuff is nice. I am surprised you havent made a custom column cover for the bottom yet.

[joedoh]

thanks guys!


with the PCM in I could cut the blower off the still charged AC and wrestle it into the enginie compartment.



started tacking in the distribution box bracket and the welder was acting weird, sputtering and popping.



oh!



better get some of that today before the holiday.


switched gears to mount the rad then I guess. drilled holes for the s10 rad bushings, dont go to deep!



you can see the power steering line under the hole, its about an inch away.

rad in the mounts and there is just enough clearance, about 3/8" at the bottom.





this rearward engine move is perfect, everything fits better than last time when I was trying to get the engine back as far as possible, almost 9.5inches. this is 7.25 and its easier to work on for sure.


more in next post

[joedoh]

daughter had the car so no welding wire yet, ok, work on blower.



doesnt line up with the original hole but still plenty of room for the 4" pipe.

I flipped the cut piece to fill the old hole.




blower is quite a bit bigger, but still fits, crookedly haha.




trimmed for the battery box too, plenty of room! the trans lines line up, there is room under it for the lower rad hose, and the ac lines go behind and around it.



my daughter showed up at this point so we ran to get the welding wire and the 3/4 tube for the rad mount and some other odds and ends.

more coming!

[28TudorAZ]

It amazing how much you have this down. I forgot to ask. How well did the A/c work on the last truck you did? Freeze you out?

[joedoh]

everything worked from the factory controls but the airflow was a little slow because of all the twists and turns, I am trying a new scroll blower this time. my next cab is missing the upper cowl vent so I think I may see if I can move the hvac over a little and keep the stock blower on. its the upper cowl vent mechanism that keeps it from coming over more


happy 4th of july, one of my favorite holidays and defintely my favorite country! I love my country and I would die to defend your freedom! TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP!

YouTube

[8man]

Happy 4TH to you and everyone else as well.

[OutlawDrifter]

Happy 4th Russ! I feel the same way about our country and freedom!

[oldman3]

Happy 4th to you also...Jim

[joedoh]

thanks guys!

what a great 4th with my daughter, and the rest of the fam. I sandbagged work on the truck and we sat on moms new deck which gave a nice elevation to see EVERYONES fireworks even the ones at the local city hall a mile away. my daughter left today so I popped out in the garage for some work.

I got the battery tray trimmed and fitted, has less than a gnat hair clearance to the (-) terminal, but it clears!




the only thing left to fit that corner is the fusible link to the distribution box! dialing in on a solution for that too.

bent up some sheet to direct the air into the evaporator, just taped it up to check airflow.



the two heat spots you see are a director I welded in to funnel air through the sharp left turn. tried out the blower and whaddayaknow, it blows just fine, lots of airflow! so I sealed up the inside and outside and now the HVAC is finished too except the wires for the fan.



you can see my little air director on the right, the half moon.

blower fits perfect too! I thought I would need to tilt it but it fits perfectly straight! woop!



I wonder if they make a mirrored version because it woould be super great to pull fresh air from the cowl.


more tomorrow, once I bundle up some wire and bracket the rad and pick up a lower hose, I will push it out for a start.

[8man]

Very nice fitting that together.

[twinshadows]

Hi Russ (a late Happy 4th too you) ……..
and, I really like "your A/C re-cycling" ; using the fire-wall plate
and factory unit. 'Smart cookie' . . . . as with your "CNC build
brackets" . Great job (makes me want too go find an early truck).
Having fun with the "new bracket - building / planning & using that new
tool is even fun for us too watch all those 'changes .. then, better
changes .. then , that finished product .

Makes us (helps us) , think about how we can build our projects
better . . . . .

"Killer build --- Bickle" .

Thanks . . . & still watching . . . . . jim

[joedoh]

mongo if I walk past my bottle I make sure its turned off, lost a lotta gas that way never think to check the wire till its gone though.

Originally Posted by twinshadows

Hi Russ (a late Happy 4th too you) ……..
and, I really like "your A/C re-cycling" ; using the fire-wall plate
and factory unit. 'Smart cookie' . . . . as with your "CNC build
brackets" . Great job (makes me want too go find an early truck).
Having fun with the "new bracket - building / planning & using that new
tool is even fun for us too watch all those 'changes .. then, better
changes .. then , that finished product .

Makes us (helps us) , think about how we can build our projects
better . . . . .

"Killer build --- Bickle" .

Thanks . . . & still watching . . . . . jim

thanks jim! I actually got made fun of for that "round" pipe I made for the pass through. I wasnt super proud of its pumkin shape, but it worked!

[joedoh]

rain in the forecast, cant pull it out. spent yesterday getting all the various things a startup would need, like coolant and oh I DONT KNOW MAYBE SOME OIL? my hubris was almost my downfall, starting an empty motor may have sounded like shaking a bag of hammers.

look at the crowd in here.



in that corner are: TWO AC lines, a lower rad hose, two trans cooler lines, a battery and cables, and the fusible link for the drivers side power distribution. everything is accessible and easy to work on.

spectre sells an air cleaner that uses adapters and fits the s10 AFM, but I noticed a 3" air cleaner last time and used it instead. the s10 AFM is 3.25" but with a little flap disc it fits nice. best part is the price, the air cleaner with all the adapters is 37 bucks and this one is 22. they even started selling a black one in case you dont need the extra horsepower of the red one.




if you use an s10 4.3 pay attention to that nipple right here.



it innocuous enough, but that vacuum line runs to the HVAC inside and is ALWAYS rotten. always. it will give you a rough idle you will likely never find.

finished up the HVAC blower pass through, good enough for the girls I go out with!



also bolted on the 2.5" hubcentric spacers, you have to grind the bearing hub just slightly where the hub cover is, but they fit great after that. I need hubcentric on this truck because of the wheels, coys, need the centering hub.




and finally! no muss no fuss, just turned it on and away it went! (click to play)

IMG_7498 by Rooty Tooty, on Flickr


with everything almost done underhood, I can do glass and interior inside. still need to weld up that floppy door. but everything else is just bolts.

[mongocanfly]

Looks good Russ...it seams like I always run out of mig wire or gas at the worst times possible..so I started buying extra wire..solved that part, but I only have one gas bottle so now I only run outta gas at the worst time posssible...I need to get a 2nd gas bottle...

[mongocanfly]

Haha...I'm a knob twister also..ever time I go by my torch and welder I grab em

[joedoh]

not much progress, I stopped by dans to help put in his windshield, the steele rubber is a real upgrade, I am glad I ordered it for mine too. took about 12 minutes!


he got his interior done and then later, his bumper.



I have sold a few more sets of mounts to local guys, one guy wanted a set of 14x6 staggered steel wheels I had sitting out front and traded me a reasonable 54 grille for it. I did the deal without seeing it, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a 1/2 ton, I was honestly expecting a 2 ton wall hanger. so now I have a whole 54 front clip, maybe I will use it on the baby coe I am always one project away from starting. . I also got a nice 57 grille for my 56, which didnt have a grille and had a 57 hood with it anyway.




and I bought a mafia staff car



the great gal selling us the NEWnew property (should I start referring to them the way silverado guys do bodystles? NBS, NNBS) had a surprise repair bill and was just going to let it go as trade in value for the diagnostic bill. being handy, I said I would love to fix it and drive it, for the price difference, and she agreed. thats next on the agenda!


more work tomorrow, I promise!

[edgeleycanuck]

"Baby COE" , you have me intrigued, what might you have in mind?

[joedoh]

oh I have talked it before a little. I dont like how tall and wide coes are, I want to make one that fits in a standard garage. I have it worked out in my mind, just need to get to it already.

I dropped off the seat for upholstery, my guys prices have gone up and his overhead down, he is in his home shop. but he came up with a good match for the pewter. ordered dolphin gauges in case I dont feel like doing the stocks. ordered carpet and more stuff

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ, I think you could fall in a pile of manure and come out smelling like roses!

There is an International COE and motorhome frame for sale about 30 miles from me...if it was a GMC I would have already brought it home.

[twinshadows]

Like you need another (car) project . . . . . cool, anyways . . . ..
(right up there with the "Lebon - Levi" look) .
I liked the Flickr vid ; worked good for me . . . . (click on the picture,
click on the starter) . . . . . "simple" . Sounds great.



'OutlawDrifter' . . . . . "ain't nothing wrong with them 'IH - COE' . . .
very cool trucks (in their own style) .

later, jim

[joedoh]

slow going, parts arriving haha. got the carpet and chopped off a 2ft piece so the back of the seat will match the floor. it was between tan and black for carpet, glad I did the tan.



gauges showed up, did electrical speedo version. gps may be easier to calibrate but I have a pcm with a 4000 ppm output, and I didnt like the idea of the receiver on the dash.



did the intake coupler on the staff car, wide-open-throttle works again, still a slight idle miss though.



put a gallon of xylene in the 1/2 tank and went to drive the stuffing out of it for a bit. while I was out I stopped at the salvage for a driveshaft, he had one, $40 with must be recent u joints because they were no stock and very tight! woot!



I had a 51" driveshaft but needed 53". local driveshaft shop wanted 225 to lengthen my 51 and put on new joints. this one was 40 bucks, all in, had the correct type of rear ujoint I needed, because the driveshaft flange showed up too. I was going to use an 8.8 ford flange because the bolt circle is the same, but the center bore is much smaller, so I had to order this part ($47!! would have needed it with any driveshaft)




had some fun getting the caps on far enough to let the clips go on but eventually they went.

stopped by to see the seat and nothing yet. looks like I dont have a monopoly on slacking haha.

[Scott2]

I think you said what your source for carpet is before but I can’t find it - mind sharing it again? I replaced my floor with flat panels and no riser so I need a big squarish piece I can cut to fit.

Thanks!

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Scott2

I think you said what your source for carpet is before but I can’t find it - mind sharing it again? I replaced my floor with flat panels and no riser so I need a big squarish piece I can cut to fit.

Thanks!

sure, its yourautotrim.com, they have carpet and jute pad kits found here. https://www.yourautotrim.com/caandcapadki.html

I use the 5000 series latex backed, my friend dan used the performance series and liked how stretchy it was. you can also just buy the carpet by the yard but I like having the jute with it. and they sell foil backed jute too.

the dimensions I give for the floor is that its 57 inches wide at the back of the door, 52 inches wide at the front of the door, 33 inches apart.

[FAKKY]

Nice find on the driveshaft !!. Yeah mine cost right at $300 out the door for a 8.8 3" with 1350 joints.

On the carpet - how hard is it lay down over tunnel and other things and get looking right.
Just weighing up your route or the pre-fab route
https://www.ocautocarpets.com/produc...-holes-molded/

[youngrodder]

Your moving right along. I like upholstery projects....I have used Miami corp in the past as well. I know a lot of upholstery shops buy from there was well.

https://www.miamicorp.com/

Marc