68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

Cant wait to see this done!!!!

Thanks Deer_hunter, it's great to know people are interested. By the way, part of my recreational mowing over the weekend was the field between my deer stand and the feeder in preparation for deer season

-Richard

[Deer_hunter_088]

Originally Posted by rkn463

Thanks Deer_hunter, it's great to know people are interested. By the way, part of my recreational mowing over the weekend was the field between my deer stand and the feeder in preparation for deer season

-Richard

Ours starts the first, cant wait for it! and cant wait for your truck to be finished.

[notchbackgta]

Originally Posted by rkn463

So far as the grade 8 bolts, my motto is "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!" That and every build I've seen where a crossmember was drilled out, the rivets were replaced with grade 8. This is a mix of cross members and reinforcing plates, so... Refer back to motto

Well on the frame the grade 8 are worth it, I could even see using grade 9 because that is a place that matters. But welding the grade 8 into the manifolds is just waste because you will kill the heat treat of the bolts once you weld them anyway. But I totally get it, I overdo and most of my projects snowball into much larger projects because it's worth doing while I am in there anyway, lol

Originally Posted by rkn463

I settled on carriage bolt heads to fit down inside the manifold

Glad to see you went with something more reasonable

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by notchbackgta

Well on the frame the grade 8 are worth it, I could even see using grade 9 because that is a place that matters. But welding the grade 8 into the manifolds is just waste because you will kill the heat treat of the bolts once you weld them anyway. But I totally get it, I overdo and most of my projects snowball into much larger projects because it's worth doing while I am in there anyway, lol



Glad to see you went with something more reasonable

When I set the hex head bolt on the manifold I was just judging the size, I did not realize that I had even picked up a grade 8 bolt. Since so much of the work over the weekend had been bolting the frame back together I had assumed that was the grade 8 bolts that you were referencing. For sure grade 8 there would have been beyond overkill for plugging the holes in the manifolds. The carriage bolts that I ended up using were selected because it was the cheapest sacrificial hardware I could find.

-Richard

[Deer_hunter_088]

AHHH yes the ole c50 pickup, the time when its overkill or nothing

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

AHHH yes the ole c50 pickup, the time when its overkill or nothing

Ah yes my friend, I see you understand!

[rkn463]

Update for last weekend: I was really hopeful that I would get started breaking the 68 down but that just wasn't in the cards. I had thought out what I needed to finish before tearing into the 68 and came up with 45 minutes work, multiply that times two because I'm always wrong and you still get a lot done. Yeah, right.

On the docket for Saturday:
1) cut, flare and install the brake line that has been laying around for months since I removed it to cut the frame.
2) Reinstall the oil cooler line
3) flush the power steering system (because it was an old used P/S box)
4) reconnect the pittman arm (10 seconds, right??)
5) reinstall the exhaust manifold that I welded up the previous weekend
(yep, didn't even consider the other side!)

Then I'd be ready to start swapping the body over.

So here is what did happen:

I started by digging around until I located the nifty new flaring tool that I picked up a couple of months back from Eastwood. Located. Next I looked up a video on youtube on how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxeA1lhSCsk Then I went out, measured 18 inches that needed to be cut off the line, went to cut it, figured out the cutter wouldn't go that small, borrowed a smaller cutter from my brother and cut on the line. I started by testing the procedure on the part that I cut off... I cleaned up the inside of the cut by spinning a drill bit in it by hand, then filed the rough edges with the file on my Gerber multitool. I used some anti-seize to lubricate as the instructions indicated and made the flair. Wow, perfection on the first try, for real!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Next up, put one bend in the brake line and install it (5 minutes at most).

- spend a half hour looking for the bending pliers I bought 5 years ago
- spend a couple of minutes figuring out which way to bend the line (yes really, I think it is a form of dyslexia)
- bend the line, compare to the old line looks perfect
- attempt to install, bent it backward AND it's an inch to long
- attempt to string "bad words" together in some new arrangement
- cut the extra inch off the line
- attempt to "unbend" the line
- figure out that I can no longer slide the the fitting far enough back on the line to re-flare it
- more bad words (I'm actually pretty good at this part )
- carefully straighten the line using a bench vice and actually succeed
- re-flare and install
- drill new holes for clamps, etc

OK, that five minute job just took well over an hour "mild" frustration sets in...

-Richard

[rkn463]

Next I went to reinstall the hard (steel) part of the oil cooler line that has somehow NEVER gotten it's picture taken! (right now I'm wondering if I ever even mentioned this ongoing aggravation. I'll go back and check and if not will write that up). Anyway, when I pulled it off many weeks back I ever-so-carefully dropped 2 of the 4 clamps that tie the two cooler lines together directly on the floor under the motor so that I could find them again. The other two stayed on the line that that I didn't remove. My plan would have worked had I not cleaned up the floor when I last rolled the frame out for paint. I clearly remember picking up the clamps and thinking "I'll never see these again" before I put them away where I could "find them later." Searched for at least 45 minutes taking time out, every now and again, to try once again to rearrange those "bad words" in some manner that I hadn't used before. Never found the clamps. So... very... frustrated
I scrounged up 2 other clamps and used them. Wasted at least two hours on this!

By the time I got that done I was so aggravated that I didn't want to even look at it any more. I still needed to flush the power steering box and reinstall the manifold but I didn't have the stomach for it.

I decided to grab the chainsaws and go cut some cedar posts. I have a project looming that is going to take a LOT of posts. My brother is currently clearing some land and there are lots of good posts to be had. If I don't harvest them, they'll just end up in a burn pile. I already had three sizable posts in the bed of the 68 from the previous weekend that would have to be unloaded before I could remove the bed so I figured cut some more and then unload them all, hopefully regaining a sense of calm. It worked. Just one picture of the 68 with a load on it for the last time with the old frame and drivetrain.

-Richard

[rkn463]

I didn't finish unloading the posts until after dark on Saturday. Sunday afternoon, after changing the oil in my DD I enlisted some help from my brother and we flushed the power steering pump. I pulled the belt off the P/S pump and rigged up a socket on an electric drill to spin the pump with. I had a gallon of P/S fluid that I picked up at AutoZone to flush it with. I worked the steering back and forth while my brother ran the pump. We went through the whole gallon but were getting nice clean fluid by the end. After that I reinstalled the exhaust manifold, that is about when I realized that I still need to pull and weld up the manifold for the other side. By the way, Felpro exhaust manifold gaskets have a shiny, dimpled side and a side that just looks like a dark grey gasket, any idea which side is supposed to be against the head and which one to the manifold?

That's all for now folks, I hope to make some real progress next weekend!

-Richard

[rkn463]

A lot happened this weekend. First I had long ago scheduled off Friday to go to the Good Guys car show in Fort Worth. My boss and another manager from work were going to go as well. Unfortunately both had stuff (important stuff) come up at the last minute that kept them from going. I didn't think it would be much fun by myself so I decided to head down to the country to work on the truck. As usual I had a lot of stuff that had to happen first. A quick trip into Meridian to get my DD inspected, then to Brake & Clutch Supply in Waco to get the auxiliary pump for the "hydro boost" rebuilt. I put that in quotes because they actually called this a High-Power system, that is the AC-Delco version; that same year there was also another more popular version (senior moment, can't remember the manufacturer). Anyway, on the way back stopped in Clifton and tried to buy some good grill trim off a beat up dump truck that I've had my eye on for two years but the guy wasn't having any of it. Exactly what I expected and the reason I had waited two years to even try... I'll probably call him this week and see how much for the complete truck but there isn't much good on it.

Back to Meridian, got the tags for my DD, then over to Morgan Street Burgers for what might just be the best burger in Texas. Then back to it...

I got going on the truck Friday late afternoon. It's finally time to take the body off of the 68! First up remove the bed. As it turns out I only had six bolts holding the bed on. I recall now that was "temporary" . In the last picture you can see the spacer that I made to raise the bed up to the correct level. It was some 3x5 box tubing that I had laying around that turned out almost perfect. Anyway, that gets us through Friday afternoon, more to come but that will be after some sleep.

-Richard

[Advanced Design]

Getting in some good progress! I like the Bobcat...very handy.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Getting in some good progress! I like the Bobcat...very handy.

I think that the Bobcat is the most versatile tool ever invented!

Check out what comes next

-Richard

[rkn463]

Saturday was tear-down time!

Pull the bumper, then the hood. That was kind of diecy by myself but I made it work. It's really weird, the hood will stand on its butt without leaning it up against anything (forgot to get a picture). Next, remove the fender wells; I was surprised that I only had to cut 3 bolts - minimal carnage. Man that engine bay looks wide open with the fender wells gone! (I admit to a bit of vertigo standing way up there on the fenders). Next came, wiring harness, oil pressure line, clutch, throttle, etc. Nothing exciting there to take pictures of. I will have some work to do on the wiring harness. One of the previous owners had converted to an internal voltage regulator using jumpers in the original harness. I will unwrap it and redo it so that it looks like it came from the factory with an internal regulator. I will also need to replace the resistor wire that ran to the coil with a full size wire.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Saturday - continued

Pull the wiper arms; I had a bit of a scare there and thought that I might have to cut one off but it finally gave in and let go. Once the wiper arms were off next was the cowl cover. Then fender bolts. I bagged and tagged everything including the shims so that I can put it back together the way it came apart.

Drain the water and pull the fan shroud then the radiator. Speedometer cable, backup light connector off the trans. Pull the rear wiring from the clips and shove it into the open cowl area. Pulled the master cylinder from the GIANT vacuum booster.

Push it outside and grab the Bobcat again (I LOVE the Bobcat!)

No more front clip!

The third photo is the core support/grill viewed from the back - there are two pieces that you remove to use the wide radiator, pretty cool.

Also I just had to take a couple of pictures of my air cleaner mod. One of the POs had replaced the original oil bath air cleaner with a tiny 4 inch paper element POS. When we pulled the motor from the school bus (the one that donated the steering box) a few years back, it had a full size paper element air cleaner but it was for a 4 barrel. After poking around for a few minutes I made a pattern on a thin piece of wafer board and cut a ring that I silicone'd into the old base. The full size air clear sat down in it quite snug and gave me some peace of mind as well as making it look way better, at least in my opinion.

Enough for Saturday, shoved it back in to the shop and had myself an adult beverage.

-Richard

[Deer_hunter_088]

Love seeing progress on this beast!!!

[rkn463]

Last bit on Saturday was to "remove" the cab bolts. The back ones came out easily. Removed the nuts from the front ones and the bolts never turned, WTF?? Turns out someone welded the bolts to the cab floor. That may make this fun.

So that brings us to Sunday.

I remembered that I had not welded up the AIR holes in the passenger side exhaust manifold so I did that and reinstalled it. I didn't take any pictures because it was the exact same procedure as the driver side covered in post #125.

Back to tearing down the 68... I removed the power brake booster from the firewall, then I pushed the truck outside and disconnected the fuel line under the cab. Then I pulled the bolts from the rag joint on the steering box. At this point two of my brothers jumped in and helped, one ran the "skytrac" (it's actually a Lull but few people have heard of that) brother #2 helped watch and direct. The cab came right off without hanging on anything.

Next up, I pushed that frame out of the way and took the power washer to the cab while I could easily get to the firewall. I didn't spend too much time but it wasn't greasy, just years of dust and dirt. After that we rolled the 89 frame out and went to set the cab on. There were several runs to the tool box as I had to remove some of the temp braces holding up the master cylinder and just little stuff like that. On the first stab we were off to the driver side and not enough slack to push it over so we had to lift again. It barely caught the shifter knob on the floorboard as it came up and put a small bend that I'll need to hammer and dolly out but that is no big deal. On the second try we were close enough that I was able to get both sets of bushings in place in the front and one on the back. One fork had slid over just far enough to keep the remaining body bushing in place so I set it over a few inches just to support the weight. At this point the cab is still sitting a little crooked so squaring it up and bolting it down will be the first priority next weekend. Nothing was removed from the cab for this procedure so it is very heavy but I have a plan

OK, so I'm pretty happy with the progress this weekend. I've found a couple of new challenges and will need to address some that I knew about all along like the steering column having a different connection and not reaching the box by about four inches as seen in the last picture. I'm hopeful that the column from the 89 will fit, if not I will use that to justify adding a tilt!

Thanks for checking in folks!

-Richard

[saxart]

This is a great thread. Like reading a good book, you can't put it down. Well done!

[Advanced Design]

You Texas guys have all the big cool tools, Bobcat, Lull, tractor and mower...

Enjoying the updates Richard...oh, and that description on the hose clamps missing was a hoot....been there myself so many times!

[Okiefromwatonga]

Richard, firs off let me say that I admire you and your work. Top notch for sure. I have a question though, Are you useing the 68 cab mounting "ears" or the ones origonal to the frame? I ask because I am looking at doing the same with a 69 GMC 5500 and a 93 Topkick

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

You Texas guys have all the big cool tools, Bobcat, Lull, tractor and mower...

Enjoying the updates Richard...oh, and that description on the hose clamps missing was a hoot....been there myself so many times!

LOL, I thought the clamps would pop back in to view as soon as I managed to find something else but so far they're a no-show.

Thanks for checking in Doug!

Originally Posted by saxart

This is a great thread. Like reading a good book, you can't put it down. Well done!

Thanks or the compliment saxart. I checked out Ol Roy, I really like what you've done so far. That recovered seat looks awesome, it's making me rethink my bucket seats. I'll definitely be following along to see where you go with it.

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

Love seeing progress on this beast!!!

Hey Deer hunter, glad you are hanging with me. I'm getting pretty excited with the prospect of firing it up again soon.



I need to get in an order for some parts with both LMC and Classicparts soon. I've really let myself get spoiled by Amazon prime and their two day shipping. Having to wait for stuff will be a blast from the past.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Okiefromwatonga

Richard, firs off let me say that I admire you and your work. Top notch for sure. I have a question though, Are you useing the 68 cab mounting "ears" or the ones origonal to the frame? I ask because I am looking at doing the same with a 69 GMC 5500 and a 93 Topkick

All of the mount points on the frame are original to the 89 and the cab mounts should line up perfectly. I may need to put a spacer under the core support mount. If so it will be less than an inch, at least that is what I think.

I know that he body changed again by 93, I have no idea what they may have done with body mounting points. Do you already have the Topkick? If so get to measuring! If the frame itself is the same width then adapting the body shouldn't be too difficult. What would concern me is the width of the front axle. I got really lucky that I was able to adapt the newer knuckles to my older axle, I don't know if that luck would extend to the 93 knuckles or not. From the pictures that body style looks to have a really wide axle...

Have you started a build thread for your GMC yet? I'd like to see what you are working with!

Oh, and thanks for the compliment, much appreciated.

-Richard

[Okiefromwatonga]

Originally Posted by rkn463

All of the mount points on the frame are original to the 89 and the cab mounts should line up perfectly. I may need to put a spacer under the core support mount. If so it will be less than an inch, at least that is what I think.

I know that he body changed again by 93, I have no idea what they may have done with body mounting points. Do you already have the Topkick? If so get to measuring! If the frame itself is the same width then adapting the body shouldn't be too difficult. What would concern me is the width of the front axle. I got really lucky that I was able to adapt the newer knuckles to my older axle, I don't know if that luck would extend to the 93 knuckles or not. From the pictures that body style looks to have a really wide axle...

Have you started a build thread for your GMC yet? I'd like to see what you are working with!

Oh, and thanks for the compliment, much appreciated.

-Richard

No thread yet as I still have yet to get the 69 GMC home yet. Worked out the deal but cant find a trailer big enough to put it on, tempted to remove the front bumper and bolt on a tow bar and flat tow it home so I can start working on it. I do have some pictures of it in this thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=697424. As soon as I get it home and start the work It will get its own build thread.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Okiefromwatonga

No thread yet as I still have yet to get the 69 GMC home yet. Worked out the deal but cant find a trailer big enough to put it on, tempted to remove the front bumper and bolt on a tow bar and flat tow it home so I can start working on it. I do have some pictures of it in this thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=697424. As soon as I get it home and start the work It will get its own build thread.

That looks like great project truck, I recall seeing your previous post now. If you decide to go with the tow bar be really careful, these trucks are big and heavy and could easily overpower what ever is pulling it if you get in to an emergency situation. Just out of curiosity, how far do you have to move it?

-Richard

[rustytruck50]

Great read on your work! I like the C50 and C60 in those years, just as much as the C10's!