Re: Frankentruck
 

I don't recommend using a squarebody pedal unless it's the only thing you have on hand, or if it's cheap. In my case, it was 10 bucks, so that was ok. I already want to replace it with a pedal from 71 or 72. The 71 and 72 pedal has the metal part of the arm going straight down from the left of the mounting point. Mark shows it in better detail in his thread than what I can describe. The squarebody pedal angles back towards the right of the mounting point, so it was hitting my floor. In order to keep from bashing the floor in with a hammer to achieve WOT, I just moved the mounting point over.
It is only bolted through the firewall with two bolts, but the third bolt still holds the mount together. I don't think I lost any structural rigidity by doing it this way, but I would like to have the pedal a little farther away from the brake pedal.

With that all figured out, I got everything ready to start the engine. When I reinstalled the water pump, I had put a new seal on the back side of it. That seal ended up leaking, so I decided to replace it anyways. It wasn't worth it to me to try and fix up the GM water pump from 1964 when I could get a new one for less than 30 bucks.

My buddy found a Frankenstein head from some Halloween decoration I think, and after drilling out the base of it, it fit perfectly on top of the antenna.

Once all that was figured out, I was ready to start the engine. It started right up, but I had a massive vacuum leak. I did not realize that when using a "hot slot" intake manifold, that I also needed a metal gasket to seal off the base of the carb from the exhaust gases running through the intake. I got the correct gaskets, bolted it back on, and then the engine ran great again.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I also picked up a hood that was not as rusty at the back corners where the rear brace attaches. The front lip is still rusty, but the back is not, which is what mattered to me. Also it was cheap since I got it from the same guy who sold me the engine.

I also took a few pictures of how I wired in the electric choke. I wired it up to be run off the alternator field wire so that the choke only operates as long as the alternator is working properly. The field wire from the alternator triggers a relay which sends a full 12 volts to the choke coil. I could have just run it off of any fused 12 volt source, but I wanted to add the extra protection in case I turn the key on but don't start the truck for a while.

Re: Frankentruck
 

At this point, the truck was running and driving again, except for one major issue... Massive oil leak :banghead::dohh::m6:

I spent some time scraping as much caked on grease, dirt, and oil off the trans crossmember and related components. I also took some time to install new door check links that I got back in October. I also got new arm rests because the driver's side was old and cracked, and the passenger side didn't have one (sorry, don't have a picture of those).

I tightened up the valve covers and oil pan to spec, and thought I had fixed the leak. I then drove it to the Varsity in Dawsonville for the weekly cruise in. The engine ran great the whole way there and back, but was still leaking a lot of oil.

I took a break to do a little yard work, then started tracking down the leaks. Unfortunately, at this point, I lost all my pictures of the work I had done except for what I posted on my Instagram. My friend dropped my phone in the lake last Sunday, and it is still down and out.

Anyways, back to the truck. I started with the front seal of the oil pan. I had bought the wrong one piece pan gasket for the pan I was attempting to use. To fix that, I got the one piece seal that would fit the pan and timing cover from the old engine. I cleaned and painted the old pan, then threw it back underneath the truck. Drove it around again, but it was still leaking oil.

Moved to the pcv port thingy on the back of the block by the dizzy. Thought it was leaking from there, so I took that apart, cleaned it, slathered on some more RTV, and put it back together. Still leaked :fry:

At this point, I realized that what I feared most had happened. When I put the intake back on, I attempted to use the rubber end gaskets provided with the kit plus a little RTV. That didn't work and was leaking oil enough to douse the top of the bell housing with oil every time I drove it. I pulled the manifold, cleaned the mating surfaces up, and put it back on with new gaskets for the sides. On the ends, I did about a quarter inch bead of RTV only.

I finished that up last Friday, and started to pour coolant back in. Ever since I got the truck running again, I've been fighting a slight leak at the thermostat housing. At first, I had accidentally painted the mating surface, so I thought it was that. Then I noticed that the bolts I had were just a couple threads too long. Trimmed those down, and it still leaked, but this time it leaked a lot worse. I pulled it off for the 3rd time and saw what went wrong. The thermostat housing ended up being warped. Got a new housing that Friday night, but didn't get a chance to put it on until this past Monday.

Over the weekend I moved most of my furniture from my grandparent's house to my house in Milledgeville. No more gross dorm room for me! I also spent some time with friends at the lake on Sunday and Monday, so I didn't get a chance to drive the truck until today.

I still need to get up underneath and check again for leaks, but hopefully by that point I'll have this phone situation all figured out so I can post up some more pics because :wop:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Sorry for the pics being orientated weirdly. I'm not sure how to fix that.

Thanks for checking in,'
Christian

Re: Frankentruck
 

So some great news happened today. My phone was able to charge and work enough that I can call and text again. There's still some water in it because it likes to do some things on its own, but I think it will work after it completely dries out. The best part is that I didn't lose any of the pictures that I didn't have saved on my laptop, so here's the pics of trying to track down some leaks.

After I found out the front seal was leaking, I swapped from the newer pan to the older one. The new pan was an aftermarket one, so it had the thicker front seal. I did not know that was a thing until it started leaking because I originally used a thin front seal.

I decided to use the old pan and just clean it up, because I was already using the old timing cover, and I could get a new seal for it within a day instead of having to wait a couple of days.

Re: Frankentruck
 

After getting the oil pan back together, it still leaked. Pulled the intake out, put on some new gaskets, ran just a 1/4 inch of rtv on the end walls, then put it all back together. I think that ended up fixing it, but I still haven't had a chance to confirm it. It has rained pretty much all day today, so I can't drive the truck unless I want to get my feet wet.

This engine swap has not been smooth, but it has been a great learning experience. The best part about it though, is I have a truck that runs better than it did before, doesn't burn oil, and can do a burnout now (it's only a peg leg, but maybe one day I'll be able to fix that). The next thing will be to drive and enjoy it. I want to go for a few months before I have to buy anything for it again.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I love the Nissan spare tire carrier idea.
You stole my name. Waa. :)
From the looks of the grease fittings in the control arms, I think you may want to get out the grease gun and find all the zerks, then pump grease in til clean comes out. You might need a manual to tell you all the grease points.

For the person who asked about bed wood dimensions see the link for some info. Bed Wood Dimensions - Cutting wood to fit MAR-K bed strips
http://www.mar-k.com/index.php?p=tips-and-tricks
Found another.
http://www.gmcpauls.com/47-72_BedWood_Info.htm

Re: Frankentruck
 

I got the idea from someone on here, but I don't remember exactly who.
Lol I guess I did. Oops
Also, I think pretty much every thing that has a grease fitting has been replaced, except for the control arm bushings. Thank's for the reminder though, I'll need to do it this week.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Where did you find the old toys in back of the truck , those are pretty cool ? Did you put your phone in a bag of rice to dry it out ?

Re: Frankentruck
 

BTW, there's a short throw shifter mod available. Advance also has a shift lever that's solid that might be a bit less risky to bend. The GM one is a tube and might be easy to buckle.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Ok so now that I've posted up a bunch of pictures, here's the backstory of how this rusty hunk of steel became known as Frankentruck.

Frankentruck originally came from the factory as a lwb fleetside doused in the beautiful, dark green paint (code 505). At one point, the truck was rear-ended, which ruined the original bed and pushed the front of the bed into the passenger side of the cab. The previous owner replaced the bed with one from a truck that had side trim. The driver's side door was replaced as well. I believe it came from some government truck or something because the door is yellow and has some stickers on it that is covered by the green repaint. I think the rest of the sheet metal was original up until I replaced the driver's fender earlier this year. The previous owner painted a lot of the sheet metal with red oxide primer, but did a terrible job on the bed. He also painted the interior that was visible with some beige paint. I will be returning it to the original green exterior and fawn metallic interior at some point, but that will not be any time soon.

The previous owner replaced the original 292 straight 6 backed by a 3 speed with overdrive with a 283 v8 backed by a regular 3 speed. I believe the bellhousing is original to the truck because it still has the paint color that was only used on the 292 in 63 on it. I just finished up replacing that 283 with another 283, but maybe one day I'll go back to the 292 and add either a turbo or a supercharger, or both, but for now, v8 is gr8. I am confident that there was an overdrive transmission in it from the factory because the pull cable for the overdrive is still in the dash. There is also a relay located on the driver's side inner fender, below the master cylinder.

With all these different bits and pieces replaced over the years, Frankentruck was an appropriate name that described the truck perfectly in one word.

Re: Frankentruck
 

My dad and I found those old toys at the Northeast Georgia Swapmeet at the Atlanta Dragway last December. We also got the two slot mags there, so it was a pretty good trip.

The green truck is a replica of a truck manufactured by WABCO (Westinghouse Air Brake Company), also known as LeTourneau, that was used to transport earth moving equipment manufactured by WABCO in Toccoa. The yellow toy is one of the machines made in Toccoa. My great grandpa was a shift foreman at the plant in Toccoa, and during WWII, my grandma worked in WABCO's office while my grandpa made artillery casings. With all the family history, my dad wanted them as soon as he saw them.

Re: Frankentruck
 

A short throw shifter for on the column? If so, I'd be interested in that. I like the column shift, so that's why I want to find the overdrive trans and return it to part of the original drivetrain setup.

Re: Frankentruck
 

So I drove the truck again today, and dadgum. Upgrading to the quadrajet is the best thing I've done to the truck, aside from having an engine that is in great condition internally. It's nice and tame just running off the primaries, but when the secondaries open up, and the nice bwahhhhh sound ensues, I fall in love with it all over again. The 2 jet was nice on the old engine, but I'll never go back. Quadrajets are too much fun :lol::bann:

Also, I decided to move the tach from where I previously had it to on the column. I originally put the tach next to the trailer brake controller for the sole purpose of I wasn't sure how to mount it to the column without ruining anything, and there was already a hole that the previous owner had. After seeing that Jacob Davis, some of you may know him because of his AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon, has had his tach ziptied to the column for three years without having to replace any zipties, I decided to do the same. I like this placement a lot better, and I don't have to look so low when I want to see the rpm.

I'm using the Equus Series 5000 2-1/2" tach. I got it from Autozone well over a year ago, and haven't had any issues since. I like that it's smaller than what most people put in. In my case, the smaller size works perfectly with the speedo, and doesn't interfere at all with gauge visibility at the new location.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Nice build

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks man

Re: Frankentruck
 

Drove the truck to work this evening, and I'm happy to report that there is no longer a giant puddle under the truck. There were some small drops, but I think that is just residue dripping off from when it was first leaking. It's been raining so much that I haven't gotten a chance to crawl under and clean all the oil off. I'm just happy there isn't a giant puddle anymore :bann:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Drove up to the Varsity in Dawsonville this evening for their weekly cruise in, and the truck ran great the whole way there and back :bann: I also didn't see any drops of oil under the truck at the Varsity, so I'm going to say it's fixed and just drive the crap out of it :metal:

Always gotta rep the C10Club Georgia chapter

Re: Frankentruck
 

Very cool truck.

The WABCO toys are very cool too. The WABCO / LeTourneau name is legendary in heavy equipment history.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks! The toys were a really cool find. I think we are going to leave them just as they are

Re: Frankentruck
 

I haven't done much with Frankentruck, other than drive her around a bunch. Everything seems good, and I'm not seeing a giant oil spot on the ground anymore. Classes start on Monday, so I'm driving down to Milledgeville today. It's too hot down there still for no a/c, so I'm taking the Dakota down for the first couple of weeks. Once it cools off some, I'll take Frankentruck down there with me.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Good luck and be safe

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks man. Made it down with no issues. The Dakota is a great highway cruiser. Does 75 mph all day long :metal:

Re: Frankentruck
 

I think I need some more license plates

Re: Frankentruck
 

Now that the engine is running great and the truck is back on the road, I need to turn to adding a little more safety. The old lap belts are extremely hard to adjust, and I want a 3 point harness so I don't eat the dash if some idiot ever pulls out in front of me.

I was thinking about finding a color to match the seat and arm rests, but not sure what I should do. I'm leaning more towards black, but still don't know yet.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I finally got a chance today to clean up the hood I bought. Take a look back at post 42 to see how dirty it was before 2 rounds of Purple Power and a brush. It cleaned up really well, so I decided to swap hoods.

I swapped over all the turn signals and the hood latch from the old hood, and in the process, snapped off the two bolts holding on the passenger turn signal assembly. I then proceeded to snap off an extractor in one of the holes. Instead of continuing to struggle with that, I just drilled two new holes and used the screws to cut new threads into the sheet metal. It isn't the sturdiest, but I think it will hold for now, and if I have to, I can secure it with bolts instead of just the screws.

When I did the engine swap earlier, I had not read through Markeb01's build thread, so my parents and I removed and reinstalled the hood by ourselves. It was only after we had done it, that I saw he used his engine hoist to hold the weight of the hood. We used the engine hoist this time, and it was a breeze getting the old one off and the new one on. Thanks, Mark, for that awesome idea!

Re: Frankentruck
 

After spending about 10 minutes adjusting the gaps as best as I could, the swap was complete and everything is working good. I like this hood a lot better than the old one, and the best part is that it is less rusty. The worst part is the front eyebrow, but there's a patch panel for it, so I'm not too worried about it.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Well, it's been a while since I've done anything with Frankentruck. That's because I wanted a/c down in Milledgeville since it's still way to hot outside.

My fall break started today, so I drove home this morning, went to start Frankentruck, and darn, dead battery. I think the 90s or so radio I have in it is draining the battery a good bit after a month, so at some point I'm going to add a battery disconnect.

Last week, my good buddy was going to the junkyard to look for some parts for his Jeep. I read a thread about sway bars and decided that I wanted one to. While he was there, he found a bar out of a c20. Didn't have the right tools with him at the time, so while I was driving home today, he went back and pulled it for me. The yard only wanted 20 bucks for the bar, so for 35 bucks, I had the bar pulled and delivered to me by the time I got home. Big thanks to my friend for doing that for me.
I also needed the stock height frame brackets, and luckily, my friend who sold me the engine and hood had a set he didn't need. Got those today and got new grade 8 bolts at Tractor Supply for 5 and change, so now all I need to get is some new bushings. Bushings are going to be around 25 bucks, so it's looking like it'll only be around 65 bucks to really improve the handling of this ol gal.

I'll be starting to work on her tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see how much improvement there will be :metal:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Install has been going really well. Got everything mocked up, drilled the holes in the frame, thankfully didn't have to remove any rivets, and started on locating where I want to drill the holes in the LCAs. I'm going to have to drill them out from the bottom because I don't have a right angle drill, and I don't want to pop the tie rod end off. Going to finish drilling holes tomorrow, because it's about time to leave for the UGA game.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Cool truck. I’ll be following along.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Went to the UGA game last night and didn't get home till 2 in the morning. Slept in a good bit, and started finishing up the sway bar install around noon. After looking at it, I didn't want to drill the LCAs from the underside, and I'm glad I didn't because I would've drilled the holes in the wrong spot :lol: My dad and I went to Home Depot to pick up this Milwaukee adapter so I could drill a pilot hole without taking the tie rod loose. It worked really well, and was well worth the 20 bucks for it. I finished drilling the hole from the underside once the pilot holes were done.

After the holes were done, the bushings bolted in real nice, and everything looked good. Torqued down all the bolts, went for a test drive, and was grinning from ear to ear so much that my face started to hurt :bann: This bar is such an improvement from stock even with the original bushings from the truck it was pulled from. The new bushings show up tomorrow, but I don't know when I will put them in. Frankentruck actually corners really well now, so it was well worth the 65 bucks.

On our way back from the store, we stopped at a yard sale and picked up 6 of these rally wheel center caps. 4 of them have this Chevy logo, 2 of them are open in the center. They look really good on Frankentruck, but I'm not sure how to mount them. I don't know what they came off of either, but they were cheap so I figured I would try it. Anybody know just by looking at it what this cap came off of?

Re: Frankentruck
 

Looking good. Sway bar is one of the best/cheapest things u could have done for driving improvement.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks man! The lack of body roll makes it feel like a totally different truck :lol:

I'm bringing the truck down this weekend to Milledgeville for the Deep Roots car show.

Re: Frankentruck
 

After installing the sway bar on Sunday with the old bushings from the junkyard truck, I had to wait until Monday to get new Moog bushings. Amazon had the best price and shipping combo since I have Amazon Prime.

On Monday the 8th, I met my friend from my old job and rambled around some forestry roads in his XJ and my Dakota. The plan was to hit some trails in the morning and grab some lunch somewhere. We didn't have any issues on the dirt, but the last trail was downhill for a good bit and had plenty of curves. We were both slinging the back end out as much as possible with open diffs :lol: Once we got back on dirt, it was still very curvy, and spirited driving ensued, until his Jeep started to pull real hard to the left under braking. The passenger front caliper locked up on him, so he pulled it off on the side of the road, then we drove to Blue Ridge, GA to get a new caliper since that was the closest town with a parts store to us. Ate lunch there, then drove back to fix the Heep. Got it fixed and all was good.

I then drove to Helen to meet up with my friends from college to go camping at a friend's river property. It would have been my first time camping, except for the bottom falling out of the clouds and soaking everything. We decided to spend the night at her house instead of camping with wet sleeping bags. It was a great time that got even better on Tuesday when we all found out that Georgia College decided to cancel class for the rest of the week because of Hurricane Michael. We hung out in Helen for a bit longer, then started to house hop. We went to my roommate's house which is only 5 minuets from my house, so I spent 30 minuets to swap out the sway bar bushings. Yesterday, we left his house and went to my other roommate's house because why not? Got back home today to plan for a relaxing day tomorrow.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I had forgotten to take a picture of the new sway bar bushings when I put them on on Tuesday. The project was well worth the money, and there has been a major improvement in driveability. I would highly recommend anyone to get a sway bar if their truck doesn't have one

Re: Frankentruck
 

On Friday, in preparation for the Deep Roots car show in downtown Milledgeville on October 20th, I finally gave Frankentruck a bath after 3 years of ownership. Cleaned up decent for the sponge that I was using. If you are in the area, and don't have any plans for next Saturday, come on out to the show. It was a really good show last year, and there's always lots of people

Yesterday, I drove up to Gainesville for a family reunion. Found out that several of my family members had 60-66 c10s back in the day.
After the reunion, I drove straight down to Milledgeville. Had no issues the entire trip, and I only burned about 5/8 a tank of gas for the whole day. I say that's pretty good considering that the old engine burned almost a whole tank just from Hickory Flat to Milledgeville

Re: Frankentruck
 

Looking to check it out Saturday if the rain will stay away.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Man I hope it doesn't rain, I really want to see your truck in person. It's a lot nicer than mine :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

It's looking to be like some good weather tomorrow morning. Just have 2 more classes today, a little bit if studying to do, clean my wheels, and I'll be ready for the show.