Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Final the major hurdle was overcome and we could breathe easy and return back to what we do well in assembly and fitment. (We are not engine builders/tuners or the best of diagnosing them either) but we do know how to get them there and bring them back. My pops specialty that he passed down to me was taking pride in making it look just as you want and taking the time to perfect it (no matter how much it bugged you then, it would only big you that much more if you left it be.) so with that said we spent hours upon weekends getting every little thing to look they way we felt was right and proper to the truck. We researched and have adapted tricks from our build on my 72 many times in relation to the rebuild of this 73 of his. My big pet peeve is having non-functional pieces to any build, for what is a truck worth if it only cosmetically performs but not truly perform in its nuances? So I dove into the largest project of routing wires, repainting pieces and areas to give them new life but I left a majority OEM as some areas would just require more than what they were worth in the long run within the engine compartment and replacing fuses and finding shorts within the system or improper ends that were hacked poorly. We all hate wiring even the electrical prowess builders upon us as it's just purely not fun but as of late I've found it enjoyable to a point and makes a very large statement on the dedication to detail and function. New fuses throughout the truck, new hand made thicker/stronger battery cables, new ground leads and true grounding techniques along with resurfacing contacts on sockets for the best in the lights, brand new LED quality bulbs installed within the gauge cluster that had made an absolute WORLD of difference. ( they don't dim like most people ask about but I've never found a reason to dim them myself as I enjoy being able to see my gauges and they certainly don't blind me ) new discovery led me to hearing a true AM radio for the first time shortly after that, though there's never anything good to me on :haha: here's our first big reveal though in my pops first fully custom piece of interior. A factory seat frame from the truck with ORIGINAL seat foam as it was good enough to shape and create "buckets" like a newer car and used a combination of Saddle Tan vinyl and Ostrich pleated inserts. What a gorgeous seat this came out to be from our good friend Jess of Jess's Auto Tops in Salida, Ca! Big shoutout to him and his amazing work. So comfy to sit in and just sets off the inside so well. Here's another awesome story to share TWO different trucks though. Back when I was very little obviously my pops set me in his square-body Dooley's steering wheel that he was building in the early 90's, well I grabbed the opportunity to get this picture of my baby cousin Niko setting in the wheel of great grandpas truck. Definitely smiles all around at the memory there, of course I had to grab one of Papa-San himself enjoying his new seat and reliving memories of his time with his grandpa.

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

The engine and the minor upgrades turned out nice. The Seat looks really comfy too!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

I'll be very jealous as he'll be driving it to the local goodguys show at the end of this month.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

So we've had the startup now, I suppose it's time to get her driving and causing havoc! Just kidding no havoc as the truck won't even brake stand or do a slow rolling burnout :uhmk: believing the rear brakes may be a little tight causing the back not to break loose so we'll have them evaluated at our local tire shop (City Tire) in Modesto. Great business and amazing people we always love their customer support. Speaking of we just had new wheels and tires put on, not fancy but they get the job done.

Now into debugging week 1 of Great Grandpas Legacy. First and foremost we had quite a few problems getting the correct bracketry setup for the throttle cable and trans kick down . Took a few tries but I managed to cut and spread the throttle bracket to allow full throttle when pressing the pedal as it was awfully doggy and had at least an inch more to go when we first put it together. Second task was getting the kick down to act properly as getting on the freeway was a mighty task without the drop down at least without doing it yourself and risking a drive to 1st gear shift.. :burnout: was quite problematic going from bone stock intake and Quadrajet setup to an Edelbrock performer with Quadrajet and a 1" intake to carb spacer as well in the mix making the height of the bracket to cable mount on carb quite steep, luckily I had a few different style and managed to make a stock one work well enough for the time being.

The third and largest task, but most fulfilling, was making all the darn lights work! Man chasing grounds like crazy and not knowing these trucks underneath was a heck of a challenge to me. Lots of up and downs and checking areas in the late nights after work in the driveway. That big 5 truck garage-mahal we all dream of needs to come quite sooner than expected if you ask me. Found a couple bad sockets in the tail lights that were causing a flurry of turn signal and driving lights issues but was able to clean all contacts as best as I could and get them functioning properly. Installed new door pins and brought back the dome light and under dash courtesy light which is a MAJOR must have when trying to get in your truck at night or early morning and it's pitch black. Was even able to get the cargo light jinning as well so that made her all legal as every other light functioned just as well as it did off the assembly line in 73.

We would also like to take this time to put in a poll and see what everyone else thinks what would look best, the black NASCAR style wheels as they are, or the cheyenne full wheels covers fully polished or painted as they were from factory? Truck originally came with full wheel covers of course and we even managed to find two of them that came with it from the dealership. LET US KNOW!


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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

sweet

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Wonderful build! May I ask what paint you used on your exhaust manifolds? They look fantastic.

Thanks in advance,

BBQ

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

I usually use eastwood when I use a silver like this such as the master cylinder but unfortunately this was not a high enough temp rate I used and they not look absolutely awful :haha: they do offer an exhaust manifold silver paint that is rated that looks amazing I just didn't have it on hand. One of my regrets. Thanks for checking the build out!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Appreciate you checking our build out Nate! More to be written this weekend.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

It's cool hearing the trucks got history with the family and you've saved it,for another chapter

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Clean truck! My vote is on the OEM wheel covers, just suits such a clean original looking truck perfect.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Absolutely, she'll be hitting another major milestone in any classics lifetime this Saturday so stay tuned!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

The son (me) agrees that the covers just set it off but papa-San digs the black for now (I'll win eventually ;) )

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

cool

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Not all things are meant to be as we ran into a problem the last couple weeks where our power steering pulley and pump gave up the ghost due to unknown cause. To pinpoint it we are between the keyway being laid over or the spacing/alignment was simply off. So it took us nearly two weeks from tear down to locate a new "keyed" slip on as they apparently are not an easy to find double groove pulley. :m6: :cuss: but in all a new power steering pump.. And a new pulley put us back on the road last week.

Another eventual issue is solving the severely leaking heater core but we're simply looking at routing the water outlet from intake directly to the radiator for the time being. Vintage air will be an absolute for our replacement it's just simply coming sooner than later in the build. Minor mods but overall a much cleaner system and a lot more efficient. I will try to post more this Saturday of the upcoming milestone. Nothing new to report other than this for the week.

P.S. Papa-San Is very happy to have his good old c/10 back this week as he bugged and pleaded for a quicker repair the past two weeks but all Is good now :haha:

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Hey man, I followed the link your shared on Instagram to find this thread.

I love this truck, especially the color. I'm painting my truck soon and this is one of the colors I'm considering. Do you know the name or the paint code?? Thanks!

[edit] the color looks like a 1958 cadillac color: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...6-90_pic09.JPG

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

That's awesome brother! I'll be sure to continue posting that and hopeful bring more to the forum, glad that worked.

We really enjoy the color as well especially since it's latest light polish job but unfortunately the other half of the family had it resprayed in the 90's at some point due to a little bedside damage. Has a bit of Mettalic in it so we're not really sure on what they based off of, sorry man..

But wow it sure does look like that color, the caddy may be a bit more blue than ours though, very close, nice find.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Cool color non the less. It looks a close to this 1973 GMC Sierra Grande: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HM-OdetEaqA/maxresdefault.jpg

Also, paints can yellow over time, giving it a more green hue.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Wow that is eerily close, caps and camper shell and all hahaha, I would say it's alot closer to that one, I kick myself for not grabbing a great angle shot after she was all shined up this past weekend now.

And yes very true being that my pops is a painter he knows this paint has seen better days as it was just single stage and no clear at all, polisher burned through a few areas even with a very light touch. What can you expect with 90's attempts at painting Ya know? :haha:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Time for the new update everyone!! Guess where we went this past Saturday? How about rollin out to the Goodguys hot rod show and havin a blast in the trick truck corral with a ton of amazing pickups.

We rolled out of Modesto about 5:20 Saturday morning with my 72 and Papa-San in the 73 side by side all polished up and ready to show. We don't understand the word "trailer" because we love to drive our trucks and if you couldn't drive em then why have em Ya know? Topped off fluids and gas and hit the pedal we were in our way to Pleasanton which ended up as a 100+ mile round trip and a successful one at that for the 73's first big out of city venture. What a blast the day was staying till about 3-4 in the afternoon and taking advantage of the wonderful 80 degree California weather. We had many visitors stop in and listen to the stories of great grandpa Joe and dads time in the pickup and collecting a fair amount of compliments on her stock appearance. Was a proud day indeed.

We'd also like to thank our dates for the day and their patience and willingness to get up early and join us in our silly truck games, we couldn't do it without their support and love!

:burnout::truck::truck:


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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

i think the color of your truck is called turquoise by gm.i do know that it is a 1 year only color only available in 73.my favorite color on these trucks also.great looking truck by the way.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Thanks so much! And great info by the way, sorry I've been lagging on updating lately as we've been so wrapped up in the other projects when the nice ones are being neglected :/

Unfortunately the Legacy has developed a miss somewhere along the lines, we hope we've found it in a bad arc from the cap to plug wire as it seems I missed pressing one down firmly enough or it simply didn't hold well enough, the quadrajet also has been sure acting like quadra-puke as of lately, we're hoping the elimination of he choke butterfly will aide in our severe gas mileage issue. As it's going through a tank of gas in mere days, will update this weekend with some hopeful resolutions


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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

[quote=NewType72;7115430]Time for the new update everyone!! Guess where we went this past Saturday? How about rollin out to the Goodguys hot rod show and havin a blast in the trick truck corral with a ton of amazing pickups.

:burnout::truck::truck:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Nice shot on top of the Altamont. I cant wait to get mine on the road. Looking good.

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Thanks man! I really enjoy seeing more and more on the roads these days, nothin like a good ole Chevy or GMC being revived

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

We appreciate it Hankster!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Oh will you boys be in for a treat once I get all our new progress pictures uploaded and our story written. Get ready for phase two! Modifications here we come! :burnout:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

:metal:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

ALRIGHT!! sorry for the delay everyone, past month and a half sure has been hectic for my father and I getting progress done on this truck and having to move build site midway through. But we shall prevail and I shall give you all the nitty gritty details and professional camera shots that everyone demands on the forum! So without further ado here we go. :uhmk:

Great Grandpas Legacy part 2

Our goal is to leave the stock exterior appearance and function without hacking and taking away from making it look any different from a distance visually aside from being on manual airride, converting to a full custom short trailing arm setup, frame shortening, heavy duty bracing and overall enhancing of the truck.

First step is to get her in the air (don't mind the shopdog) and knock this bed loose and the 43 years of road grime and stupid repair decisions by the other side of the family that neglected this poor girl. Found out that the passenger bedside has definitely been replaced as well as the junkyard rear end that took place of the surely good factory rear end. :devil::banghead:


Uh-oh who forgot the back half outside?? Best way to tackle a frame job is jumping in head first and knocking it out of the park (we understand all possible ways of shortening a frame and have FULL belief and confidence in our straight cut so please just pay attention to the pretty welds instead. Thank you!) we moved into securing the cab and front of the chassis to the lift and began disassembly of the junky leaf spring setup in the back. Don't do this at home kids! ;)

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Now that our frame is clean and that the front 14" and rear 5" are cut out we can begin mocking up the new 67-72 Early Classic trailing arm crossmember with matching arms for an idea of the insanity were about to throw ourselves into. Had to get a shot of the donor bed on the back before we left for the night.
:metal::sumo:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Nice build! Looks like you have a bit of work ahead of you yet! Good luck!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

:metal:

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Love it!!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Awesome!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Alright well get into some detail shots of getting this crossmember prepped and installed. We weren't going to be able to go with full length trailing arms because of the way the chassis dips under the cab so the next best thing is to alter the crossmember and join it to the cab support area with bolts as intended. We made our cuts to give it a flush fit against the vertical gussets of the cab support mounts. This saved about 6-7" of arm instead of losing about a foot and a half once we were finished.

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Thanks for the support guys, we appreciate you checking out the build and can't wait to post more for you as we organize and progress. More to come tonight and hopefully a big update over the weekend before we get caught up to current build time

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Moving on we started into clearancing and getting a flat area for the bag mount and the rear end housing to sit into on the frame rails. Fairly simple process but it did make it a pain having the recessed shock mount areas in the way of our new plating. We went with a custom fabbed trac bar mount as well and our welder did an amazing job finishing up the area and making a very clean install.

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Finally finished with the prep work for the rear section of the frame we can officially mate it back to the front half where it belongs just a little shorter and stouter this time around. Having our frame rack really helped in this process getting all our our measurements dead on helped a ton knowing we'd be way within factory specs and laser straight again. Yes we did a vertical cut, yes we fully back this method. Fish plate is properly made and plenty thick. We will add more bracing once all R&D is finished and exhaust is planned. Mounted the bed because we're too excited at this point and had to check out how exact our bed mount holes lined up and they were excellent dropping right in :metal:

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Papa-San (father and owner of this 73) was a bit too anxious and decided he needed to see some 20x12's underneath the rear one night after work. Guess this is motivation for the next time we tear it apart and shorten the rear end up. ;):sumo:

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

OOOO, that is going to look good!

Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

Alright, gotta keep in this as you guys are too far behind us now, there's pictures I want to reveal but we're not quite there yet in HOW we made it this far lol. So to continue we set upon the task of making one off shorter than stock 67-72 trailing arms, but these would be a bit different as we used 2" 1/4 wall (insane we know) tubing, our first attempt literally sheared every grade 8 mounting bolt on our tubing bender.. So serious stuff for sure. So we went a little redneck and went about heating up the pipe and bending it from our floor mounted vice with a support lift. We think we turned out fairly well for the task we had to handle with a little ingenuity. Seen in the pictures are tacking the flat plate to the round tube so that our pan hard bar mount can lay flush and perches have a nice wide area to sit upon. Dad did an excellent job getting all this fabbed and ready for our finish welder to knock out of the park with some tig work.

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Re: Great Grandpa's Legacy reborn
 

I'm enjoying this one and I really like the colors. Incidentally, I heard that the 1973 pickup was the last Chevy that DeLorean was involved with. Not that it matters one way or another but interesting to know, based on his history and notoriety.