Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

It's eligible for return which is why I was thinking about the classic kit. But mine was only $300 ish and it has all the same connections yours has for GM stuff like dash and steering column but it stops at fuse panel on inside firewall. You have to run the engine bay wires your own custom way. Which would have been fine if I had thought about that and shaved the big hole to begin with.... This thing is nickel and diming me to death though so I'm probably gonna end up closing the hole and running the wires out the cowl or something...

Edit:. Does your kit have the OEM connector for windshield wiper and washer connectors?

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

It does have those connectors.. I know what you mean about the nickel and diming. What I've learned is that you can pay a little more and save a lot of trouble. Making something universal work takes more time and may not yield the best result. Avoiding replacing something due to cost won't be any easier down the road when things are together. Just my lessons learned. Many more to come I'm sure haha.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Thats a nice upgrade to the bulkhead bolts. I remember that being an area I wasnt overly impressed with on mine.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Did you use some kind of grommet where the wires come through the hump?

I want to do the same thing. I'm behind you and TA. I have Most of the metalwork done to my cab. Still need to weld on the rockers. I had to do outer floors, cab corners, cab supports, etc...It was 8 patch panels per side. With a sprinkling of other patches on the floor. My floor also had most of the welds broken at the front like yours. I say now...it would have been easier to do a whole floor, but much more money.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I have one, just haven't installed it yet. My engine came with the harness that goes from the TAC module to the gas pedal and it had a grommet on it which was huge for such a small bundle of wire. So I cut the middle out of it and also cut it in one spot so I could get it in place after pulling the wires through the hump. It turned out to be the perfect diameter after cutting the middle out.

And yes, if the floor was cheaper, I may have gone for it. The only mistake I made was not paying close enough attention in mocking up my driver side outer rocker. The inner floor section ended up further outboard than it should have, so the inner lip of the outer rocker and that ridge in the outer floor come pretty close and it made it hard to install weatherstrip and I'll probably have to trim the sill plate to make it lay down. Hopefully yours came out better than mine!

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Did you use some kind of grommet where the wires come through the hump?

I want to do the same thing. I'm behind you and TA. I have Most of the metalwork done to my cab. Still need to weld on the rockers. I had to do outer floors, cab corners, cab supports, etc...It was 8 patch panels per side. With a sprinkling of other patches on the floor. My floor also had most of the welds broken at the front like yours. I say now...it would have been easier to do a whole floor, but much more money.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I screwed up the outer floor on the drivers side even though it was the second one I did.

I ended up with the other floor too far in where the rocker and cab corner wouldn't meet up to it.

I discovered it early and was able to cut it out, but had to add a thin 1/8 - 1/2 inch tapered strip of metal back in. Which meant I had to do twice much welding and grinding.

Do you have a part number for the grommet you are going to use? I haven't really looked for one yet. I was hoping I could cut a 'notch' in the back edge of the hump, so the hump could be removed/installed with the wiring still in place.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I don't know the part number and the internet wasn't very helpful. I know it's a 2.5" diameter hole though because it's the same diameter as the holes I drilled on both sides of the dash for the Vintage Air vents. It was a little bit of a struggle to get the LS trunkline through that hole. I actually had to depin the TAC module plug to get those wires through because that connector was too big. But I was able to work both PCM connectors through (one at a time) with the wires on. If I had to do it again, I would recommend leaving all the wires depinned from all connectors and pulling them through, then repinning.

Here's a picture of the harness that connects the throttle pedal to the TAC module - you can see the grommet on it.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I've been messing with power steering/hydroboost lines for the past couple weeks and waiting for parts - more on the hydro lines soon.

I only had a few hours this weekend to work on it but that was enough to get the instrument cluster assembled and wired up. It was a pleasant surprise when the gauges showed up just in time for the weekend and that the minor gauges (temp, oil, volts, fuel) just plugged into the major gauges (speed & tach). I should have taken a picture of the back of the cluster, but it was pretty easy. What I like about New Vintage is that you don't have another box to connect everything to, it all goes to (2) pigtails which plug into the back of the gauges. I mated those wires up with the (2) gauge cluster disconnects on the American Autowire harness so it's pretty clean.

Also got the brake lines finished. From looking at the donor vehicle and my research, the front port goes to the rear brakes and the rear port goes to the front brakes. This is the Astro hydroboost/master cylinder/prop valve. The donor vehicle was disc/drum so I'm hoping it works. The brake line that goes to the rear brakes threaded right in, but I had to get a reducer bushing for the front brake lines. I didn't cut or reflare anything on these lines, just made minor bends to clear everything and line up with the prop valve.

I should get my replacement carpet tomorrow so I can put that in.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Nice work man!

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

The correct carpet showed up yesterday and I got it installed. This will make interior work much more comfortable.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I hear they make a carpet for our trucks that extends to back if you remove the cab gas tank. You have other plans for that space?

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

They do, but I'm planning on building speaker boxes that attach to the gas tank mounting holes so I left it open. A lot like sprint's! I'll just have a slim 10" sub on each side with a 1000W amp I've had laying around in the console. I don't want to shake the truck apart, but I want equal feel side to side and the speakers alone driven by the deck have essentially no bass.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I'm planning the same thing for subs. Interested to see what/how you build your box.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I'll post some good pictures when I get into it in a couple months. It'll just be MDF wrapped in some kind of fabric. What will take the most time is figuring out how to cut and assemble the pieces.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

@MDPotter what wheels are you gonna use?

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

For now, the wheels that came on it when I bought it. One day I'd like to get a set of 18" Vision 143's though.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Not much eye candy in this update. I spent all day Saturday wiring the interior. Still working on the power steering/hydroboost lines saga too.

I ran a bunch of wires between the tunnel and the carpet - seat power, amp turn on signal wire, amp sound wire, tach signal wire, speed signal wire, power wires to the PCM, PCM ground. I forgot to add in a couple switched power wires since I'm installing relays in my console for the check engine and brake warning indicator lights on my cluster though.

Having my dad to help me on this is huge. He and I combine our skills and experience and come up with solutions to things that we wouldn't come up with on our own. For instance, I knew from our experience on his truck that it would be nice to have a ground buss because we kept coming up with more ground wires to be connected and kept having to find another spot for them. So I bought a ground buss and a switched power buss for mine and we installed them in the dash. Now I have plenty of ground and switched power room.

I also took a picture while the sun was hitting the fender. The pictures just don't quite show how vivid this blue is.

I'm continuing to work on my pressure line from the hydroboost to the gear. The issue I'm having is that there is very little clearance between the gear and the inner fender, so it has to be a very tight bend to make it work. I've gone through two iterations of the line so far and ordered another stock line yesterday to see if it has a tighter bend than the one NAPA gave me. One of our local NAPA's has a guy that makes brake and power steering lines and I'm sure he's tired of seeing me in there by now.

I'm also taking my door locks and ignition core to a local locksmith to see if they can re-key the locks so I can use the new keys from the American Autowire kit.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Looking awesome Potter! Good to see that wiring started. What kind of busses did you get?

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I got them on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They're not cheap, but they seem to be high quality.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Y'all are killin it! Looks very clean! I'm in to see how long this wiring job takes. No pressure. :lol: A lot of guys want a custom setup with the wiring and that becomes a huge project in and of itself. At this point it appears like you will be doing a fairly stock set up, which is all I hope to accomplish. Rock on!
Brian

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I am so looking forward to getting to wiring, but I'm sure about 20 minutes in I will be fed up with it :)

Looking good. Can't wait to see the speaker box.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Thanks guys.

The classic update kit is great. Most of the connections are already made up and you have plenty of wire in most cases. It's also nice because it has the accessory circuits which I'm using to power the LS harness, power seats, and a couple relays. Things that have made this easier and more flexible are the busses I installed and cutting a hole in the carpet to run wires from the dash to the console area. What really made the difference is all the time I spent researching ahead of time. I looked at the American Autowire diagrams, the gauge cluster diagrams, and how to wire up the LS harness. There are still surprises and things that don't make sense at first, but all the pre-planning has made this go really fast.

We should have just about all of the wiring done in the next couple weeks so we can test circuits and see things light up. I'm also getting close to pulling the trigger on a radiator. Once that and my column show up, I'll have all the parts I need to fire it up!

A little eye candy - I installed the plug wires the other night. Got them from Speed Engineering - these are the 12" wires. They have a choice of 10" or 12" and I didn't want to be short so I went with the 12".

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

My $200 (delivered) radiator/fans setup showed up yesterday and I installed it last night. I have to say I am very happy with the fit and finish for $200. It fit perfectly in my factory 3-row mounts. It was packaged very well. The radiator is painted a silver/aluminum color but the shroud is bare aluminum.

I have trans cooler fittings on the way (made a guess that they are 5/16" inverted flare). The upper hose is a Gates 22436 and I cut about 2" off the radiator end. I heated up that end and used some soapy water and it wasn't hard to stretch over the inlet. The lower hose is a Gates 22437 and I cut about 3.5" off the thermostat end. Same thing as the upper - I heated up the radiator end and used some soapy water and it wasn't hard to slip it on.

I won't have feedback on initial function until I have my truck running in the next month and won't have long term testing feedback for quite a while, but I'm impressed so far.

Here is the eBay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3Row-Alumin....c101112.m1982

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

More pictures

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

My rebuilt tilt van conversion column also showed up. Shout out to 70shortfleet for an awesome product. It was packaged very well - I actually had to use a hammer to open up the wood packaging.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Radiator looks good, especially for the price. Column looks even better. I may have to contact 70shortfleet to see what he has.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Dude his packaging was the best lol. It took forever to get the column out lol. He has that packing down to an art.

I like the radiator and fans dude. It's different. I'm assuming the fans and shroud all in $200?


I also highly recommend his columns. He is quick to respond and quickly builds the column and ships it to you. I think whole process for me was 2 weeks. I had him shorten my column 2 inches, add tilt, add the auto indicator, add wiring for cruise control, and painted it. Boom. Don't have any safety issues like you would with a cheap unit and less expensive than the ididits :thumbs:

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Yep, delivered to my door for $200. All I need are fittings, hoses, overflow, and to make up connectors so I can disconnect the fans easily. I'm sure they're cheap fans, but even if they fail I still have the radiator and shroud.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

@MDPotter, I'm looking at thesame radiator/fan shroud combo you purchased. i love the way wat the build is coming together.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Thanks! I should have some pretty good visual updates after this weekend. I'm planning to install the column, gauges, finish my power steering plumbing, and tie up some engine bay wiring.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

We are getting dangerously close to being able to see if this thing will run. This weekend we got the coolant overflow tank mounted, trans cooler mounted, the intake is mostly done, and the steering column is in. I got a nice rebuilt conversion van tilt column from 70shortfleet. We mocked it up and decided it was too long so we shortened the intermediate shaft. I had no idea that these indents in the shaft were filled with plastic - we heated it up and melted it out so that we could pull it apart, shorten it, drill holes, and bolt it back together. We took 1.5" out of it and didn't have to move the safety switch and it was perfect.

To end the day, we made up the battery cables, put in a few fuses, turned the key and I was happy to see that everything I put in a fuse for, worked. The gauges light up, the check engine light works, high beam indicator works, dome lights work, courtesy lights work, the PCM has power, cigarette lighter works, and the wipers work.

With the long weekend coming up we might just be able to finish up a fairly long list of tasks in order to fire it up. I get so excited and want to make the most of the day so I forget to stop and take pictures. But I'll have the trans cooler, overflow, and intake finished next weekend for good pictures.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Looking great man! Your making good progress! I'm glad your ahead of me, I can take notes ;) Do you think the 10 inch plug wires from Speed Engineering would have been long enough? I need to order some.

Had family in this weekend so I am falling farther behind. But plan to really get a lot done this weekend. What are you doing for power steering lines and will you be using an adapter on the pump?

.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Also, the power steering/hydroboost plumbing odyssey has come to an end. I will put a lot of detail into this post for others to reference.

The hydroboost is off a 95 Astro. I took it apart to put in a new o-ring where the two cases come together since it is a common leak. The master cylinder and prop valve are off the Astro as well. The brake warning switch wire runs to a relay. My understanding is that this is a brake pressure differential switch. So if a leak occurs at the front or rear brakes, the cylinder inside the prop valve moves and the pin on the switch drops and grounds out. This ground is what triggers the relay and turns on the warning light on the dash. From looking at the Astro donor, the rear line goes to the front brakes and front line goes to the rear brakes. The brake line that runs from the master cylinder threaded right in, but I had to get a reducer bushing for the brake front lines. I threw out the old backing plate and made a new one and drilled holes to match up with the brake pedal bracket. In one of my previous posts I show how I matched up the push rods inside the cab.

The pressure lines is where I had the most trouble. I looked at 4 different hydroboost posts from different members and decided I didn't want to spend the money on custom braided lines so I went with mostly OEM lines. One post I had looked at showed pressure lines from a 2004 1500HD worked, but that post didn't include the inner fender which is the cause of most of the struggle as well as the fact that the high pressure and low pressure fittings are not the same size. The fact is, there is very little clearance between the top of the steering gearbox and the inner fender. So through several renditions of this setup, here is what I ended up with:

Hydroboost/master cylinder/prop valve: 95 Astro (rear drums, front disc)

Pressure line from pump to hydro: Sunsong 3401292. I had to make a minor bend to keep the line from touching the pump.

Pressure line from hydro to steering gear: Fitting/end out of hydro is Sunsong 3401299, fitting/end out of gear is Edelmann 71065. There is a guy at one of my local NAPA's that makes custom brake lines and hydraulic hoses. He took the ends I gave him (hard lines) and brazed fittings on them so he could crimp a piece of flexible hose to put the whole thing together. He gave me the hose with the ends attached (uncrimped) so I could mock it up to get the clocking right, then I took it back to him to crimp.

Low pressure return from gear: also custom from NAPA. I ordered a return line end fitting from Rock Auto, but the bend was not tight enough to work. So I had my guy make up a new one and I actually had to bend it a little tighter to fit.

Low pressure return from hydro: 3/8" trans oil line (3/8" barb on hydro and pump)

Pump: 2004 Escalade EXT 6.0 (with hydroboost, so came with 2 return barbs)

I probably have close to $100 into this hodge podge hose now. So if anyone wants to go this route, here is my info. Feel free to ask questions.

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Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Yes, the 10 inch wires would have been long enough. It looks a little silly, but not worth it to me to buy another set.

Funny you mention that, I was typing up my novel on that subject before I saw your post.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Post a pic of the engine bay where I can see the power steering hoses and how the lay in the engine bay. Very good write up. I spent big dollars on the braided lines and I am not sure I like them. It would be hard to swap them out now since I spent the money. I'm afraid they are going to be in the way of my shift linkage. Thanks,

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

yes please post pics. I was able to make stock PS lines from a 2005, 2500HD truck work with my hydroboost setup but i havent put my inner fender liners or steering column in yet. Thinking at this point it would be easier to modify the inner fender.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

I will take some pictures tomorrow or Friday for sure. Cutting the inner fender would have saved me a lot of time and money, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We got quite a bit done, not as much as I wanted but still a good amount.

The steering wheel is on and actually went about 10X faster and easier than I expected. On my dad's, used a Grant wheel and install kit and ended up having to use a horn contact ring and the cheesy foil stickers and it was just a really lame installation and it took a few tries to get it right. But mine was so much easier. Forever Sharp steering wheel and horn button with a Grant install kit. I literally used maybe 25% of the parts that came with the column, wheel, horn button, and install kit. I didn't know that the horn button was a switch itself which is nice because I only had to take one wire to ground out the button and hook up the other wire coming out of the column.

Also got my DBW pedal done. I had cut off the adjustable pedal assembly because there was no way it would work. There was already an almost 3/8" hole in the arm of the pedal itself so I bent up a piece of 3/8" rod and welded it to the pedal. I had a pedal pad, spring, and pin for the later style pedal that I made work and it came out pretty clean.

Re: 1968 GMC - Ol' Blue
 

Also got my fans and fuel pump wired up and running. I used the GM 3-relay setup for the fans so they both run half speed when the PCM calls for low-speed and they both run full speed when the PCM calls for high-speed. This is a fuse block/relay setup I got from Amazon for $30. I looked at the Bussmann setup and it's nice because it has internal bussing to make wiring a little easier, but I would have spent over $100 because there is a minimum quantity of seals and terminals so I would have ended up with hundreds of them that you don't use. This block worked pretty well - I soldered the 10 ga wires to the terminals since they weren't big enough to crimp. Other than that, the seals fit tight and I'm pretty happy with it. Don't mind the labeling on the wires, we just used leftover wiring from my AAW harness to match the colors used in the GM diagram.

And the intake is done. I used the Spectre 9900B (B for blue filter) kit along with a straight piece of 4" tubing and another coupler to get the clearance from the alternator coming out of the throttle body. I cut off the long mounting arm from the long section of tubing and fabbed up a custom aluminum bracket to firm up the tube to the alternator bracket. Just a heads up for anyone using this kit, it utilizes a clamp from the stock 99-06 intake. It could be done without it, but fortunately we had the part we needed from my dad's 06 leftover as he has a K&N system on it.

I went to prime the fuel system and I've got a couple leaks that I need to figure out. One is the single outlet from the fuel filter/regulator and the other is somewhere at the pump. So here I am regretting the Tanks Inc setup again.

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