68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[rkn463]

Next potential problem is that the fan on the 366 is mounted high, offset and it is a really big fan! The radiator in the 89 was a full two inches taller than the 68 and tucks right up against the bottom of the hood. In fact, these rubber pieces seal the hood to the radiator in order to keep all of the air flowing through the radiator rather than around it (notice the extra holes so that the seals can work with any of the various width radiators they offered):



Even though the hood gets significantly taller right behind the radiator I was still concerned that the fan or fan shroud would hit the hood. In this picture you can see the stock 68 shroud on the right and the one from the 89 on the left. As you can tell the fan on the 68 dipped a bit below the bottom of the rad and the one for the 89 was higher, larger and actually hung past the edge of the rad on the driver side:



I was thrilled when I test fit the 89 shroud on the 68 and fount that it bolted in to the same holes in the core support as the 68 and had it in the proper orientation for the fan, just a bit high and narrow:







Five picture limit hit, continued…

[rkn463]

WOW! I just saw that this thread has been viewed over 20 thousand times, thanks everyone!

OK, back to the update, So the shroud was in place, now just carefully close the hood and see if it clears. With the wheel wells still out it will be easy to check it out from underneath. So as I very carefully lowered the hood it stopped going down on the passenger side when the hood hing hit the corner of the battery



Had I mounted the tray a half inch forward or to the right this would not have been a problem. So frustrating. Anyway, I can fix that later, removed the battery and sure enough the hood can shut and clear the fan and shroud

I have worked out most of the shroud modifications in my mind, but that will start next weekend.
Thanks for checking in and stay tuned folks!

-Richard

[Deer_hunter_088]

FINNALY AN UPDATE i like seein this truck, maybe someday il take the k10 up to wherever you live and we can post pics of em. i cant wit to see this done man. im ready to finish mine to.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

FINNALY AN UPDATE i like seein this truck, maybe someday il take the k10 up to wherever you live and we can post pics of em. i cant wit to see this done man. im ready to finish mine to.

Thanks for hanging in there deer hunter!

-Richard

[Advanced Design]

Good update there Richard. And the fence! Wow, well done. Straight, tight, tops of posts uniform height...Did you have to drill for some of the posts? Did you pile up the rocks along the fence?

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Good update there Richard. And the fence! Wow, well done. Straight, tight, tops of posts uniform height...

Thanks Doug.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

...Did you have to drill for some of the posts?

Yes indeed. I bought a 9 inch rock auger for the pipe posts that we set in concrete and a 2” “puff auger” for the tee posts; seen in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA-VzFhsAjo&t=4s The top of the hill was solid rock, every post had to have a hole drilled.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Did you pile up the rocks along the fence?

Yes, I restacked a lot of the old rock fence rather than just have a dozer shove it out of the way.

-Richard

[rkn463]

This weekend I made some progress, I now have a fan shroud. As seen in the previous posts the shroud from the 89 was too tall and not wide enough. Fortunately I had a spare shroud identical to the 89 (it came from the school bus that donated the power steering box). I was able to hack it up and along with an 8 foot long 1/8" thick 2x2 angle aluminum I was able to fabricate a shroud. I didn't stop to take pictures often enough, but I'll share what I have.

First is a shot of the shroud that is getting sacrificed. All cleaned up and ready to cut:



I took three inches off the passenger side of this one and removed one inch off of the one that will go on the truck. In the next picture you can see that piece added on. At the bottom I trimmed down a piece of the angle to fit and pop-riveted it on. Because the two pieces were different heights I relief cut the main part so that I could pull them in to line. Then I cut a piece of the angle in half in order to get a 2 inch wide flat piece and pop-riveted that long the seam pulling them together as I went. Here is how it looks:



Here is the back side:



And here you can see the angle reinforcement at the bottom. The oblong hole is where it bolts to the core support.



More to come...

-Richard

[rkn463]

Along the top I cut off the lip that was sticking up and pop-riveted a piece of angle flush with the top sticking down where it can seal up against the radiator. Here you can see the original lip sticking up:



Here is the angle Riveted on as seen from the top:



And from the back side:



Here is the piece that I added to the driver side, the curve was fun to cut:



And what you will see with it installed, this will get it perfectly even with the edge of the radiator.



Five picture limit hit

-Richard

[flashed]

Looks great ,a lot of handy work there.

[rkn463]

Finally I covered the relief lines on the front side with masking tape and filled the cuts from the back side with quick drying epoxy:



While that dried I reworked the battery tray. As I mentioned last week, the hood hinge was hitting the battery. I ground the welds and popped the tray off, then reworked the reliefs in the box tube frame and moved the tray as far in board as possible as well as a bit toward the front. I also took this opportunity to add a filler piece to cover the gap. I think the before and after shows that it looks better than before. If it still hits I'll be pissed!



That's all for now folks, thanks for checking in.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks great ,a lot of handy work there.

Thanks!

-Richard

[Deer_hunter_088]

Just checkin in. Looks great! My trucks goin good. Until i cant get fuel. Wiring harness works. Just no fuel to carb. Fml lol

[rkn463]

I made some progress this weekend. One significant problem I was facing was that the wider radiator was touching the steering box. Not pressing against it hard, but hard enough that it would have eventually rubbed a hole in the tank. After much head scratching and a few attempts to gain clearance (I even tried to move the body forward on the frame. FAIL!) I finally gave in and had the radiator shop notch the tank.



While they were at it I had them add a new petcock to the passenger side tank (the original petcock was in the way of the steering box as well).



I used a 2-1/4 “ hole saw to make a hole in the bottom of the core support to access the drain. A bit of sanding and some Rustoleum and I'm ready to install the radiator…






Five picture limit hit.
-Richard

[rkn463]

Next up I bolted the radiator in. A quick check showed that while the hole I drilled wasn’t exactly centered it would work.



Next up was the lower radiator hose. The lower hose for a 68 with the 366 is obsolete and no longer available. The 89 setup wouldn’t work because the new radiator is about 4 inches wider to the passenger side and the hose setup couldn’t fit. The 89 actually used two short pieces of rubber hose with a steel pipe in between. This was because the alternator belt is really tight to it and by using steel they could keep the needed clearance. I ended up getting a lower hose for a 78 c60 366 which was all rubber but also did not fit. By cutting off part of the steel pipe and part of the 78 hose I was able to fabricate a working solution. Here are the bits I cut off:



and the hose mocked up



Here you can see how close the alternator belt is to the steel pipe. There is only about ¼” clearance!




I also spent MANY hours making up the oil cooler lines. I didn’t feature them in any pictures specifically, but here is one showing the upper line:



Five pic limit again…
-Richard

[rkn463]

With the radiator in I needed to finish up the fan shroud. All that was needed was to add some way to attach it to the upper radiator mounts. I had a tiny bit of my angle aluminum left. I used it to make the two mounting tabs and pop rivet them on and then hit it with a bit of paint:



That is all for tonight but there is more to come (foreshadowing )

-Richard

[flashed]

Looking great .

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looking great .

Thanks Flashed!

Did I forget to mention that after topping off the coolant I DROVE THAT *****!

(That is what the foreshadowing was )

I don't have the dash cluster in, so no temp gauge. Because I had no way to monitor the temp I only drove it 4 or 5 miles, but dang it was good after all this time

-Richard

[Okiefromwatonga]

Once again your resourcefulness is inspiring. Your simple "lets not over engineer this problem" approaches to all the hurdles this project tosses at you are refreshing in this billet everything day and age. It's good to see someone building a truck instead of assembling one.

[Flipnoco]

Richard, looks good and I make trips to the back rooms of the autoparts stores looking for combinations of hoses all the time. I need that special rubber hose bender thingy

[Advanced Design]

Great solutions Richard!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Okiefromwatonga

Once again your resourcefulness is inspiring. Your simple "lets not over engineer this problem" approaches to all the hurdles this project tosses at you are refreshing in this billet everything day and age. It's good to see someone building a truck instead of assembling one.

Thanks! While it is nice to have a robust aftermarket, there is a lot of cars that seem like they were picked out of a catalog.

Originally Posted by Flipnoco

Richard, looks good and I make trips to the back rooms of the autoparts stores looking for combinations of hoses all the time. I need that special rubber hose bender thingy

I didn't know they made anything to bend rubber hoses, man would that be handy.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Great solutions Richard!

Thanks Doug, I hope all is well with you.

-Richard

[flashed]

Im surprised DeerHunter (Noah) ,has not piped in ,this is his favorite build on here .

[Deer_hunter_088]

Im here john!!! From workin on the k10, hangin with the girlfriend, summer, and my job ive not had alot of time to check in! Looks good rnk!!!!!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

Im here john!!! From workin on the k10, hangin with the girlfriend, summer, and my job ive not had alot of time to check in! Looks good rnk!!!!!

[Deer_hunter_088]

The projects keep mountin. But the k10 is inching closer and closer to bein done. Just waitin on some parts (from flashed) and for them DAMNED wasps to leave my truck. The deerhunter became puffy after that........