Junkyard Jimmy Super Low Buck Build Thread

[hgs_notes]

Today was kinda sucky. Hotter than hell. Humidity was oppressive. Things were just not going well in the garage.

Had some sandblasting to do, but the humidity was causing problems with the grit. Too moist of air. I got the bumper done but little else. Got the driver side vent window disassembled, but the glass came out too and I don't have the tape to get that back in. I needed to spray some stuff black, but the only paint I had was some rustoleum, which I hate to use cause it seems to take days to cure and it runs too easy.



Then I took the Jimmy out for a short cruise, but it started sputtering and I ended up coasting into a gas station. I start pumping gas in but its leaking on the ground. I get down to see wth is going on now and find that the filler hose into the tank has come loose. So I'm on mu knee reaching to hold the tube into the hose at the tank as well as I can and reaching up to hold the pump nozzle. I get gas in alright, but now the engine doesn't want to turn over. Two problems. First the starter is heat soaked. Second, the battery is weak. Not sure I'm getting a good charge out of the alternator. So I sit and wait for the starter to cool, but I can't get it running, so I call the wife for a jump start. It starts up alright when the fresh gas finally gets to the carb and no problem on the drive home.

But I was overheated, probably somewhat dehydrated, a bit disappointed and embarrassed at the situation, and just not in a good place mentally. Got home, took a shower, got something to drink, and found some perspective.

When my C-10 got painted it was a month before I could get it together enough to drive. It was about a year before I had all the bugs worked out of it to trust it for more than a 15 minute drive. This one I drove into and out of the booth and have been slapping parts on it ever since. I expect issues, but it's still disappointing when they show up.

[TennesseeZ]

Keep pluggin away HG, you're gonna have issues but I'd say you're closer than you think, judging from the quality of your work.
Seems like most of your latest problems are from the parts you re-purposed without knowing if you could trust it?
Hang in there you'll get it worked out soon then move to the fab work this winter to stay busy. Or if you're like me it's relaxing to get out in the shop and build something.

[Dale99]

I was away from the computer all weekend. Man you got a lot done!! Looking good!

[Pife]

It's looking great. I didn't know if I would like that color on the entire k5 but it looks outstanding. Whenever I read your thread I always get motivated to go get some work done. You are a beast at staying busy and getting stuff done.

[Dieselwrencher]

Looks good man! You'll always have bugs to work out or parts that fail, or things that got over looked. We took the 72 and my vette to a show a few weeks back. Guys were doing burn outs so my brother Nick took the vette to do one. He drove up turned around and stopped. Started getting ready to do one and it went to idle..... He swerved over and parked it. I was like WTF? The throttle cable broke. Great. So my other brother Scott goes and gets the 72. Pulls on the street and starts bringing the engine up in R's. I swear he waits til 4k and lets the clutch out, blah, it died. He tried to restart it and nothing. Nick walks down and does some investigating. The injection pump never got finished being timed. SOB! The nut almost fell off and the gear popped off the injection pump shaft. Luckily I had the adapter on the front cover to run my tacj or the nut would have made me more work to do. That sucked, especially with a crowd and our name on the side of the door! Oh well. Haha You just fix em and go on other wise they'll just sit there because you're too mad to work on them. I know I've been there more than once.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by TennesseeZ

Keep pluggin away HG, you're gonna have issues but I'd say you're closer than you think, judging from the quality of your work.
Seems like most of your latest problems are from the parts you re-purposed without knowing if you could trust it?
Hang in there you'll get it worked out soon then move to the fab work this winter to stay busy. Or if you're like me it's relaxing to get out in the shop and build something.

I know I'm close, and normally I wouldn't be pushing this hard. But my sons senior picture day is in a couple days and I'm doing my best to get it ready for him. The weather has not cooperated here lately either. Hot and humid. Yuck. That's why I keep thinking about moving out west some day.

Originally Posted by Dale99

I was away from the computer all weekend. Man you got a lot done!! Looking good!

Thanks. Seems like I've been running in circles.

Originally Posted by Pife

It's looking great. I didn't know if I would like that color on the entire k5 but it looks outstanding. Whenever I read your thread I always get motivated to go get some work done. You are a beast at staying busy and getting stuff done.

Thanks. Really glad that I can motivate others to keep working on their junk. Staying busy is my own therapy and keeps me from thinking about things I don't have a lot of control over. And it feels good when you actually accomplish things. Especially when its something new to try and its a bigger bonus when it actually turns out as well or better than you hoped.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Looks good man! You'll always have bugs to work out or parts that fail, or things that got over looked. We took the 72 and my vette to a show a few weeks back. Guys were doing burn outs so my brother Nick took the vette to do one. He drove up turned around and stopped. Started getting ready to do one and it went to idle..... He swerved over and parked it. I was like WTF? The throttle cable broke. Great. So my other brother Scott goes and gets the 72. Pulls on the street and starts bringing the engine up in R's. I swear he waits til 4k and lets the clutch out, blah, it died. He tried to restart it and nothing. Nick walks down and does some investigating. The injection pump never got finished being timed. SOB! The nut almost fell off and the gear popped off the injection pump shaft. Luckily I had the adapter on the front cover to run my tacj or the nut would have made me more work to do. That sucked, especially with a crowd and our name on the side of the door! Oh well. Haha You just fix em and go on other wise they'll just sit there because you're too mad to work on them. I know I've been there more than once.

I had so many issues with my C-10 the last couple years before the body work/paint that my oldest girl quit going for rides with me because every time I took her something broke. Like I said earlier, I just want to get it going well enough and looking good enough to not be an problem for my son for his pictures. After that I can relax and just plug away at it without the time pressure.

I didn't talk about it much before, but getting the windshield in so I could take it down the highway was really a big thing for me. Up to that point it had not been driven faster than 50 mph and I had no idea if the tranny would even shift reliably into 3rd and go straight down the road without steering issues or the front end shaking apart. It actually all works better than I had hoped. The tranny was a worry. I did nothing to it other than filter, seals and gaskets, etc. If you remember from waaaaay back when there was corn and other junk in the pan from mice dropping it down the dip stick tube because there was no dip stick in it.

Now today Da Burb was kind enough to bring parts to work with him again for me to pick up. Unfortunately I forgot to pick them up. Cuz sometimes I forget what the hell I'm supposed to do. Sorry Kevin.

So I can't mount the door mirrors yet. I picked up a qt of krylon satin black paint for a respray of what I did yesterday. Hopefully that damn rustoleum set up in the heat today enough for me to smooth it out and spray it again. But that has to wait until I grill my pork tenderloin, steam some baby red potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner. (and let the temps outside slide down a few more degrees. Still 90 out there in the shade.

[Dieselwrencher]

Yeah, this heat is weird after all the decent weather which we usually don't get in August. Your dinner sounds tasty for sure!!!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Yeah, this heat is weird after all the decent weather which we usually don't get in August. Your dinner sounds tasty for sure!!!

Well August can be plenty hot, even late august, but it's certainly a PITA now. Which is why I had a short night in the garage. All I did was pull off the rear bumper, sand it with some 320 and sprayed it with epoxy primer. Also cleaned up and sprayed the door mirror mounts too. I'll let that cure tonight, then tomorrow I will scuff the front bumper again, and spray both bumpers and mirror mounts black.

The door handles I sanded with 320 yesterday, and the 1 good mirror head I had also. If I can find the time and energy I will try and spray them with the tinted clear. I'd like to get the vent windows installed tomorrow night too. At that point it will basically look like a completed truck, or nearly enough to fool most people.

See you fellows tomorrow night. Senior pics wednesday morning. I'm gonna try and snap some pics of my own during that session, as long as the photographer doesn't have a hissy fit.

Next project?

[hgs_notes]

Man, I'm fried. No really. I think the oil and the heat has sizzled me. I'm at least slow roasted, as Stephen King would say, I'm long pork. After the sun came up enough, I wet sanded the bumpers and wiped them down to prep for paint before it got too damn hot. This time I used a qt of krylon satin black enamel. It's kinda thick even for a 1.4 tip in the gun and the air pressure turned up to 50 psi. Its a water clean up and I thought about thinning it with water but in the end just kept spraying thin coats in an almost constant pattern. The can said recoat in 6 hours. I'm thinking no F'n way am I waiting, so I just kept spraying. Then I let them bake in the sun. They got so hot I needed gloves to move them. And they even felt tacky after sitting there like that. I moved them to some shade to cool down and the paint set up pretty hard then.


I went to mount up the rear bumper again and set it in place, but immediately took it back off.


See the tops of the frame rails? With the chrome bumper and somewhat bright paint it wasn't that noticable. But with a black bumper, that primer overspray was like a neon sign. So I taped and papered up the ass end and shook the rattle can some more and sprayed. That hitch was not exactly looking too sweet either, so it got a couple coats also. Then the bumper could go back on, and I love how it came out. That chrome was in rough shape. Amazing what some elbow grease and sprayed on chemicals can do for it.


The front looks awesome too. That bumper looked like crap before. Mostly straight, but dinged, scratched, gouged and rusted. I'm much happier with the look now than after the rustoleum (hate it).


The mirror mounts I painted with a rattle can, but couldn't mount them cuz I don't have the backing plates for inside the door, cuz I'm a dummy and forgot to pick them up. But once I get that stuff, probably next week, I can mount the mirrors.

And I got the driver side vent window together. I didn't have the rubber piece to re-install the glass into the frame and neither did Kevin. I checked at the body shop and he said they haven't had any in a few years, but suggested using black silicone on the original piece. So I pick up some black silicone adhesive, clean up the old rubber I pulled out, put a bead inside the vent glass frame, slid in the rubber, put another bead in that groove and slid the glass back in. It should work. It was a snug fit and that silicone adhesive stuff should bond pretty good.

I was dreading the install of the vent window assemblies cuz it was a complete PITA on my C-10. But they dropped right in on these doors. The space between the inner and outer skins was a bit wider on these and it was a piece of cake. Except that I forgot to put the felt in the window divider channel before I installed it. So out it came again.

Cleaned out the channel for the felt, put it in and dropped the vent window assembly back in the door. I did both sides.


I also got the little cap things on the top of the door frame above the vent windows.Cleans it up a bit. And I put the door lock pulls on, one less rattle. I put the door handles on unpainted. They are easy enough to pull off later and spray. Will do them with the mirror heads and hopefully door locks, if I can find a pair with a key that fits. But really not that important considering there is NO TOP ON IT!!!

Well here it is for the night. I will wipe the dust off in the morning and hopefully the pics will turn out. I'm shot. Beat. Tired. Sore. Pffft.

[swamp rat]

Great progress, been asking myself if my truck would look good with black bumpers (satin) or repaint them stock white which they have always been.

[Low Elco]

It's gettin there! Props to you on powering through. Oughta get em both out for a group pic this PM. Maybe have you drive one and the kid drive the other to dinner. Congrats, really looks good.
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Great progress, been asking myself if my truck would look good with black bumpers (satin) or repaint them stock white which they have always been.

Well now you know how they look with gold paint to contrast. I think if you go with black bumpers then the rest of the trim should probably go that way also, but that's just how I see things. Chrome works too.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

It's gettin there! Props to you on powering through. Oughta get em both out for a group pic this PM. Maybe have you drive one and the kid drive the other to dinner. Congrats, really looks good.
Posted via Mobile Device

I have plans for pics with them together this fall. It's definitely getting there. I can't keep my foot off the go pedal though.


Thats from in front of the body shop. Kind of an unofficial tradition. I think I blew away anything done there recently. It goes past the dairy queen across the intersection there.


Here are some of my pics from this mornings session...






Pretty sure the photography will have his cropped down a lot more to focus more on the boy, which is what I would normally do except this is the Jimmy thread, so he's blocking my view of the Jimmy. Big oaf.

After the photographer was done I drove over by the water and in the sun to take a few of my own.



Very photogenic don't ya think?


Think I'm gonna take a short break from this rig. I need to get the interior of my C-10 pulled out for upholstery. I have some work around the house to get caught up. Have job work to get caught up. Been a rough couple weeks but I appreciate all the support and encouragement I got from you guys here.

Bomp and Elco, video to come later.

[Low Elco]

Nice Pics! Good memories.
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[Bomp]

Well Done.

Very Well Done.

Killer pics of the boy and the GMC.
Viiiiiiiideooooooooooooooooooooo.
Big'ol burnout past the DQ......... Priceless

[TennesseeZ]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Very photogenic don't ya think?


Think I'm gonna take a short break from this rig. I need to get the interior of my C-10 pulled out for upholstery. I have some work around the house to get caught up. Have job work to get caught up. Been a rough couple weeks but I appreciate all the support and encouragement I got from you guys here.

Bomp and Elco, video to come later.

You've obviously received too many paychecks in a row. Your priorities are getting jumbled and you're losing focus. Take a deep breath.

All kidding aside, that thing is gorgeous, especially remembering back to what you started with. I know you're still working on the wipers, but it looks naked without them, and if it was mine I think I'd have to get the exhaust tucked up higher and more incognito looking, but that's just me. If you like it,
I love it! Great work HG!

[NTR72GMC]

Looks awesome! For a low buck build it sure looks high dollar. Sweet buggy. is it a Welch's fun car? Hope to see a build on it as well.

[my90k5]

Yeah baby! Red Hot Chili Pepper's. Looks great.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Nice Pics! Good memories.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks. Good, bad, in between. Had them all.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Well Done.

Very Well Done.

Killer pics of the boy and the GMC.
Viiiiiiiideooooooooooooooooooooo.
Big'ol burnout past the DQ......... Priceless

It being a 1 wheel wonder when in 2wd gives me the opportunity to burn through all 4 tires eventually.

Originally Posted by TennesseeZ

You've obviously received too many paychecks in a row. Your priorities are getting jumbled and you're losing focus. Take a deep breath.

All kidding aside, that thing is gorgeous, especially remembering back to what you started with. I know you're still working on the wipers, but it looks naked without them, and if it was mine I think I'd have to get the exhaust tucked up higher and more incognito looking, but that's just me. If you like it,
I love it! Great work HG!

Everyones a critic.

Long ways to go. Some of the things will get attention eventually, as the project continues. Exhaust might get tweaked for practical reasons, get it up out of the way more. This is truly one of those projects with no end. It's my toy to play with, experiment on, learn with, etc. My canvass so to speak.

Blast from the past. Same boy, and the rig that got this started. I'm using the bumper from that truck, the top, and I think the base of the hood. The grill is in the attic yet as a back up.


As it sat in the junkyard...


Then I got this one and I'm using the front seats, the chassis and driveline, minus the engine which I rebuilt from another ebay find. And maybe the rear bumper.


As it sat in the junkyard.


Then I got this tub from a parts truck in AZ (this was the "good" side)...


Used the wheels from this rig. I still have the push bar, door panels, front axle maybe and a few other odds and ends...


Fenders were junkyard finds, and at least one of the doors. The passenger door came with the cab I bought for my C-10 out of CO. Tailgate came off the parts board here from a guy in the twin cities area. Tires from Da burbs stock of old crap that were mounted on ford wheels, which I sold. The actual number of different vehicles this was built from is almost impossible to know, but it's safe to say probably at least a dozen.

Cripes, I must be a total loon.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by NTR72GMC

Looks awesome! For a low buck build it sure looks high dollar. Sweet buggy. is it a Welch's fun car? Hope to see a build on it as well.

Well I didn't include labor costs.

I don't remember what brand of body he said it was. I didn't buy it. Will have to see what he has next spring when I have some money again. No matter what I work on it will have a thread somewhere on this board. Alternate Tinkerings has some interesting projects and the way this board is run makes it my favorite site on the web.

Originally Posted by my90k5

Yeah baby! Red Hot Chili Pepper's. Looks great.

Thanks, I was surprised he didn't wear his August Burns Red shirt instead. His favorite band.

He's getting to be a pretty good metal guitar player too. And he just got hired at the local Ford dealer. He started "on the job training" (OJT) there through school last week and they hired him to work whenever he can come in. When football is done he wants to quit his other job and just work at the dealership. To be honest I didn't have high expectations for him just a couple years ago, but he continues to surprise and amaze me. Great kid.

[NTR72GMC]

Well I didn't include labor costs.

I don't remember what brand of body he said it was. I didn't buy it. Will have to see what he has next spring when I have some money again. No matter what I work on it will have a thread somewhere on this board. Alternate Tinkerings has some interesting projects and the way this board is run makes it my favorite site on the web.

Hummm.... pretty sure its a Welch's but I could be wrong. I had one that I drove to high school that was a ton of fun. Kick myself for selling it every time I see one.

[hgs_notes]

Haven't really worked on it much lately. I seriously needed to take a break from the projects for a few days. I drove it a couple times but it was draining the battery. So my 2 biggest issues for the moment were the gas fill tube and the battery situation. I looked at the filler tube and I think I will just use hose from the tank all the way to the filler neck piece where it drops through the floor. But not today.

I took it to napa and had them test the battery/alternator with their scan tool. Battery low, but its new and good, alternator has no output. So I drive home, pull it out for bench testing. It's shot. I'm fairly sure I had it tested before I installed it, but maybe not. Or maybe I did and it was ok, but something in the past couple years killed it. In any case, its a small anchor. I knew I would swap to an internally regulated alternator eventually, so it came sooner rather than later. The guy working tonight is a pal and gives me good prices, so we found a part number for a replacement of the original 37 amp, external regulated one around $45, then found the newer 62 amp internally regulated one for about $1 more. It's cheap enough to justify buying new rather than dick around with more used stuff that needs tested and has an unknown history.

So I swap that in, change the wiring and bring it back over for a follow up test. Test sat.

Here's the thread that explains how to change the wiring for the swap...
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=119379

I cruised around in it tonight, I drive it as much as possible to keep finding the things that aren't working right. The newest problem is it started dieseling after shutting it off. So I need to work on the tuning a bit more. Picking up parts tomorrow that will let me finish window glass installation and door mirrors. I got the chrome trim for the tail lights. And door locks with keys should be delivered some time soon. I would like to clean up more of the wiring and get the dash gauges and lights working too. Lots of work to do on this thing yet.

[Low Elco]

Ain't debuggin' fun?

Glad to see the Kid hustlin'. Props to him.


You need a flowchart for where the parts on this thing came from!
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[hgs_notes]

I'm just glad it's not a daily driver where I relied on it. Takes the pressure off. As for a flow chart? Uhhh, NO. It doesn't matter where they came from, just where they go to. And this pile of parts is gonna go far.

[Dieselwrencher]

It really looks great and congrats on getting it together in time for your son's pics! He probably won't realize how cool this was of you until later in his life. Great job! I hope I can do the same for my kids when there time comes.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

It really looks great and congrats on getting it together in time for your son's pics! He probably won't realize how cool this was of you until later in his life. Great job! I hope I can do the same for my kids when there time comes.

Just 1 tip for ya, give yourself more than 3 weeks to paint and assemble.