Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

haha im sure she would really appreciate that. probably better worry about getting them to work before i worry how they look :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

:lol: I hear that! I did make sure the tach and speedo worked, so I'm a 1/4 of the way there. :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

sounds like we are in the same boat haha i got oil pressure and fuel level but nothing else

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

yea if you could get some measurements that would be great. i'm using 73+ springs as well, just a swb instead of lwb. Thanks!

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

What about 73+ stock 52" rear springs for the front?

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

You could use them, but I already had 4" factory length 73 up springs, and I didn't want to purchase new spring mounts I already had bolted on. :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Haha alright, well i guess coggonobrien could use them.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Good score on the tach cluster..thats a hard one to come by! Your build is really starting to come together.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

So glad I clicked on your build. I have an 02' Dodge as my DD, and wonder'd how the seat would look in my 67', because I really like the storage space, and that the middle section folds down to an arm rest. How do you like the headrest on there, do they seem like they are in the way? Also are you planning to recover them? Sorry for all the Q's, it's just kind of exciting to see something that you want to do will actually work. :D

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

I like how the seat fits in there with the gas tank in, but I liked it better with the tank not in there. 2 things that suck about the tank in there with these. I positioned the seat as far back as I could so I can try to get the maximum leg room because I am 6'2" tall. The head rests rub the rear window, and the console won't flip up all the way. The lid will open with ease, the whole base won't flip up. But for me this is ok because I will be getting a cup holder that attaches on the front of the console and I won't really be flipping it up a lot any how. I do plan to recover these seats at some point, and I actually thought about removing the head rests. I was thinking about having these recovered to mimic a Cheyenne super rig, but if I ever get a suburban shell, it will be a crew project so IDK for sure what I will do at that point. The head rests don't seem to be in the way and I might actually like them once I start driving the truck. I have a 97 dodge front seat set up in my 95 F-350, and the brackets are going to be more involved in that than this.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

i will be doing this this weekend and had a few ??? for ya

what paint did u use and where did u get the paint

did u brush it on

thanks

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Did I miss a post or thread where you talked about that tach? That's not a standard tach right? Does it run off a crank trigger, or the alternator signal? I'm putting a 6.5T in mine and am trying to figure out the tach situation. I don't want to scab some goofy looking bolt on tach in there. I like things to sort of look like they came that way
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Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Joe, I got orange model paint, testors brand I believe from Hobby Lobby. Yes, my wife used a brush of hers and brushed it on. She is way better at painting small things than I, so I let her have at it. :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

No, it isn't a standard tach. It is a cable operated tach ran off usually the injection pump on the older diesel engines. I have a tach drive that goes on my front cover and drives the cable for this tach. These things are pretty rare and hard to find. There are 2 different red lines on them as well. I feel the same way you do. I didn't want to scab some auto meter tach in there at all. Especially when I fund out about these factory diesel tachs. Here are some better pics of the front of it. This one is a 3200 red line. I believe the other style is a 2700 or 2600.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

What is the cable drive unit like? Is it a cummins thing, or could I adapt it to my 6.5?
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Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Man that's cool! I wish 73-87's had mech tacks, I've been trying to figure out how im going to hook a stock tach up to a cummins :\

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

we need progress ryan!

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

we need some updates! :chevy:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

um... we need some updates PLEASE? :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

S & S Classics Automotive Supply in Oldtown, Idaho snsclassics@frontier.com can get you the instrument cluster below for a Diesel it has boost & engine/trans temp as well as EGT gauges.

http://www.snsclassics.com/images/Ne...-panel_700.jpg
http://www.snsclassics.com/new_gauges.html

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

No progress on this at all guys. I had to go out of town for work again so this truck has been placed back in the yard ornamet phase..............:(

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! I hate it when an original idea shows up before I'm done with it!!!! Well that will save me time...

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

I wonder how many pesos that thing brings? I'm guessing not real cheap.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

$1600 as you said not cheap.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Son of a beach! That is a cool look, but for $1600 I can do some cool stuff plus new gauges. Thanks for the idea though. I do like how close those gauges match up to factry units.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Yeah, you are right on that $1600 is quite a bit of coin I would use an instrument cluster like your's if I could find one and dash mount gauges, what vehicle did that instrument cluster and tach come out of? Mosesburb makes another good point that instrument cluster that I posted a photo of mounts the most critical gauges on the bottom whereas on a dash mount they are in line of sight.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

No real progress, but plans have changed again. :lol: I decided in this economy we don't need to spend 4 grand on a pulling truck. One drag car will be enough to eat up the pesos. I told my brother to put his money in his dodge he is buying. So now it's back to a driver. After a couple other projects get done my friend and I are going to tag team the Longhorn so he can take it to Good Guy's in July. I have another core 47rh so now I just need to finish buying the parts to build my p-pumped 24v. I will try to get a pic of my new wood grain bezel on the diesel tach cluster as well.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Guess what? Nope, it's not done. But I did get rear drums and most of the hardware for the D80. Hopefully the transmission will get assembled soon and we can get the truck up and start on it. I'm trying to figure out how I want to do the battery trays and have them appear close to original. That idea might just go away. :lol: Function over look will probably have to work. I thought I scored a nice steel 8' bed floor but it was holy crap bad. Some people and their idea of "rust free"!

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

making some underfloor battery boxes behind the cab under the bad might look good too it gets a bit harder to get to them with jumpercables but other than that i dont see why i would want those bulky heavy bits in the front of the truck .
some of the newer vans here have the batteries under the drivers seat along with a lot of the electronics

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

That is a nice idea, but I work on semis and medium duty trucks with them hidden like that and I much rather have them under the hood where they are easily accessible. They stay cleaner and it's not as easy to forgetting about maintaining them that way. :lol: I could mount them under the bed and run jump posts for no start situations, but I doubt I'll do that.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

my first idea was making sunk in boxes intoo the bedfloor itself but then you drive around with two small swimmingpools after the first sight of rain and you need some sort of doors to cover them run the chance of those metal doors caving in and making a short across the poles etc etc just hanging them of the frame like in a truck would be eazier might even be able to use the covers and batteryrack from a small boxtruck

you know theres a lot of empty space between the cab abd the rearwheels you could build a door in the bottompart of the bedside on both sides and make a bagage-space under there ... its kindah like as the older vw pickups , they had those too only from one end to the other

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Good to hear you'll be back on this saddle! Any way to mount one in stock location and the second behind the seat or under the bed?

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

You know what would be cool? If I could find a side box tool box door and install the batteries there and access them via that tool box door. That is an idea. :lol:

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Finally here are pics of the new wood grain bezel and installed. I'm not too happy with the wood grain decal's fit. It's kind of a joke. I had to stretch it to fit how it is now.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/IMG_2522.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/IMG_2521.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/IMG_2523.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/IMG_2524.jpg

Here is a pic of the spare core 47RH I just got in case my 2nd one has a lot of bad parts. And another D80 rear axle.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/IMG_2527.jpg

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

so as a recap, what did you end up using (model and year) for each of the following and what difficulties did you run into? Dad told me to use his 82 1 ton dodge 4x4 to convert my 68 chevy to 4x4.
Thanks!
front axle:
front spring perches/mounts:
front springs:
rear axle:
rear axle spring perches/mounts:
rear springs"

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

youre going to need the transferbox too , dont know if it will fit on the gearbox/automatic you have now and the driveaxles (are they the propper length)
i think the best thing to do is make a regtangle using the wheels as corners and measure height and x y axis on the driveaxles diffpumpkins and trasfercase and use drainpipe and some pieces of styrofoam or sumting bend out of weldingwire to a simulair size of the parts you want to build over to place those parts somewat under the chevy sitting inside the same square on the ground

it should give you some 3 dimensional idea of wat needs to move out of the way , raizing the truck at the springs would help it moves the front diff away from the oilpan ............ i actually seen people weld a complete 4x4 chassis under the stripped 2wd chassis with square tube plugs and plates slapped on the sides to fill the gaps
you can put the chevy tranny and transferbox in the lower chassis wish would put less stress on the knuclejoints but give less groundclearance between oilpan and ground the steering definetely on the bottom chassis ... no bumpsteer , no problems as long as you can connect to the steeringwheel , i doubt that would be legal but if done right its verry strong

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

Front Axle
1992 Dodge D350 Dana 60
Front spring perches/mounts
1972 K5 Blazer but they are the same for all 1967-72 4x4's.
Front springs
4" rough country springs for 73-87's
Rear axle
2001 Dodge Dana 80 drum brake however this axle is wider and you may not like how the rear tires sit in the wheel well
Rear axle spring perch mounts
I am going to build a set and set the ride height to where I want it.
Rear springs
73-87 2wd 1 ton springs fit right on it. I mat change to 56" rears later. This is just what I had laying around. Plus they were brand new and I couldn't sell them. :lol:

As far as difficulties, mainly just the time to work on the truck. The only real issue I had was I used the steering box brace from the K10 and the frames were a little different in that area behind the steering box and I had to modify the brace. Other than that, no real issues. Other than I was bummed I couldn't put my ford D60 front in so I could use a dodge 241DHD transfer case.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

gotcha the dodge i may use appears to have a dana 44 front with apparently dana 40 knuckles?!?!? that's what dad had to use when he rebuilt it, guess dodge got real cheap in the 80's. the rear is dana 70. hopefully i can find the correct chevy spring perches and use the 73 and up chevy lift springs.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

There is a 70 chevy on Des Moines craigslist for $800 and that would be perfect for you. It is a 3/4 ton 4 speed with 205 and 350 engine.

Re: Finally starting my Longhorn 4x4 conversion
 

found it thanks!