1965 Stepside, The LST Challenge

[aggie91]

Thanks for the replies. The color in person is much lighter than the rails. For now due to time, it will stay that way. If time permits, I will redo the rails in a satin black.

Last night I was able to get the column back together and figured out what the looseness was from. In my rush to get the truck moved to storage when we moved a few years ago, I did not put the turn signal cancelling cam in before putting on the steering wheel. That part helps put a load on the upper bearing...

Here is what was done from the other day:
Pulled the old firewall pad that was in sad shape and replace part behind fuse panel with some reflective insulation for now.

Wire wheeled the floor on the passenger side to see what's up over there:


Last night I got the steering column back together and mounted up. Put the wheel on with the cancelling cam behind it and its nice and firm now. Just need to find all the parts to make the horn work. I hope I can find my OE button, cause getting a repo would look out of place at this time...


Here is a closer look at the passenger floor area, good amount of holes there...


Getting that tar paper stuff off the floor is a PIA! I been scrapping and the loose stuff pops off, but there are parts that are stuck with some type of black goo that is nearly impossible to get off. I had the bright idea as I was calling it a night to pour some Toluene on those areas. It immediately made the stuff start to soften. So, I took some shop towels and soaked them and left them on top of the areas that where giving the most trouble. We will see tonight how much it helps...

Since I don't really want to (or have time to) do any rust repair on this area right now, How do you guys suggest I cover this up so I don't have any holes in the floor? I thought about getting some peel and seal from Lowe's and putting it over the area that I will eventually cut out and replace...

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Since I don't really want to (or have time to) do any rust repair on this area right now, How do you guys suggest I cover this up so I don't have any holes in the floor? I thought about getting some peel and seal from Lowe's and putting it over the area that I will eventually cut out and replace...

Sounds like a decent temporary solution.

[aggie91]

The last two nights was all about the floor of the cab. I still had a bunch of that factory sound deadener that I wanted to remove. So I soaked it with Toluene and that worked pretty well to soften it up and get some of it removed. I ran out the night before, so I had to get more. Stopped at Home Depot to get some. They do not carry it, so instead I tried Xylene which they had in quarts and gallons. I got a quart and a 3" wide chisel edge scrapper they had in the flooring department.

Got home and tried it out. I think it might have even worked a bit better. Got all the thick stuff off and them poured out a little more and scrubbed with a 3M stripping pad. Got it all off down to the factory paint. Went over the hole floor in front of the seat area with a wire cup wheel in my grinder. Looks pretty good for a 52 year old floor with a little rust...

What I needed to remove: That thick brown stuff...


In the middle of the process:


After the wire wheel:




I wish I had not scrapped thru the OE paint in places, but I am happy to get that stuff off. I'm not gonna paint or coat the floor now, just don't have the time before LST. I will go back to it someday...

[aggie91]

After getting the floor cleaned up, I needed to do some rust repair to the floor so I can drive it on the street without getting wet or cold from the holes in the floor...

So, since I don't have the time right now to do a proper patch and replace job, I thought of other ways to take care of the problem. Here is my solution. Korbin has challenged me to not be so detailed and do it the full blown expensive way (which I would normally do because of my OCD ways) but instead do it more the way of Matt Hapel's Sloppy Mechanics style...

So, here it is, Sloppy Style Rust Repair:

Before:


After:


It my be a bit getto, but I think it will work for now...

[aggie91]

Well last night was a no go on shop time. By the time I finally got home to stay for awhile it was after 10pm. I'm old and I need my sleep.

I did get a few parts ordered during my lunch break. I was going to use a battery mount I had from an old build, but I did not like the way it looked, so I ordered stock replacement parts from Classic Parts.

The aluminum radiator I had at one time, was MIA. After searching the WHOLE shop, Korbin and I believe that I sold it at the Pate Swap Meet last year. Like I said I'm old...So, I got on ebay and found one for a 60-62 C10 that will work and mount the way I want. It was $179 + free shipping or Best Offer. I made an offer that was accepted and it should be on its way here.
Here is the one I bought:
3 ROW ALL ALUMINUM RADIATOR 60 61 62 CHEVY TRUCK

Hope it works out the way it does in my head...

[scoot_mcgrute]

I've been keeping an eye on this build as I was planning on an LS swap in mine before too long. My buddy surprised me with the motor last weekend so now I'm getting ready for a full tilt swap very soon. You've got a great thread going, can't wait to see when it's done!

[aggie91]

My plans for this week went straight out the window on Monday night.

I finally got out to the shop at about 9 something last night. Since some of my wiring parts I have been waiting on came in yesterday, I worked on the front main harness.

Here is what I got done:
Mounted a power distribution block to the core support. This will serve as a main feed of Battery Power.


When the truck is all together, it is covered with a panel, it is easily removed for access to the block.


On the inside of the core support I mounted a 4 place terminal block. The four wires feeding it are: Pink - 12V Key On; Black - Horn Signal from Column; Tan - Low Beam Headlights from Switch; Green - High Beam Headlights from Switch.


From that block, I will run each circuit as needed to a relay for the lights and horn, the 12V Key power turns on the relay below that turns on the PCM.

Another view of that area:


In that last picture, you can see that I branched out the 12ga Red wire that provides Battery Power to the trucks fuse block. You can see the pick wire connected to the terminal strip that feeds the fuse/relay block below it.

Here you can see that I branched out the GEN light feed wire, this will go to the alternator, you can also see how I am attaching the harness to the inner fender.


Not sure what I will work on tonight, I made a list to keep track of what needs to be done. I guess I will pick something off of that to complete and get marked off...

[aggie91]

Got two items crossed off my list. I hooked up some taillights along with a license plate bracket. I don't like these lights, but do to time and money and the fact that I had these brand new for a trailer, I used them for now.

I also installed a tailgate that was reclaimed from Sunburn after its unfortunate end. Now part of that project will live on for now on my truck. I will sport the red paint for now since exterior cosmetics are being avoided for LST. The tailgate has link supports from Mar-K that support it like a fleetside tailgate in the down position. I just need to come up with a better solution for keeping it shut while in the up position.



I also working on the PCM wiring that goes into the cab. I extended the Tach, MIL, and Serial Data wires and put them in loom to run into the cab. I started on the wires for the Fuel Pump Relay Control and the Fan 1 & 2 wires, but did not have enough wire to finish those. I will get what I need today and finish up that section tonight.

[aggie91]

Last night I was rocking along getting some small items knocked out. Got the transmission crossmember finished up and ready to go back in. Got the battery tray bolted to the core support, marked the flanges of the radiator to drill the needed mounting holes and got two of the bed mounts repaired.

Moved on to soldering wires together for the injectors. Got Injectors 1, 3, 5, & 7 done and heat shrink applied. Tie wrapped that section together and moved the harness around to get to the other 4 sets of wires.




I had unplugged my soldering iron to plug in my heat gun for the heat shrink. So while I was moving the harness around, I had plugged in the iron to let it heat up. I got the first set of wire ready to solder with the control wire twisted together, grabbed the iron and it was still not hot. Looks like my soldering iron died on me...well crap. So much for finishing that part of my project.




Well, I moved on to fuel lines. I had bent up the two metal lines that go thru the bed floor and got those installed. Measured out the line length to cut the supply line to length. But my idea of pushing in the fittings did not work, so I called it a night. I found a thread on a homemade way of pressing the fittings into the line, so I will copy that and get some pics of what I'm doing with the fuel lines...It kinda took the wind out of my sail...maybe tonight will go better.

[aggie91]

Got a replacement soldering iron yesterday, so I completed the wires that I could last night. I also worked on routing the harness a bit more.





After the wiring, I mounted the radiator to the core support and mocked it back up to check a few things. I also mounted the power distribution block and the power wire from the battery into the core support. Since the CS has to come back out, I did not mount the terminal block or run the wires thru it yet. Getting closer...




After that, I laid under the truck to study the drive line. I believe that I can make a 3" dia. one piece driveshaft work and clear the trailing arm cross member. I will get a couple more measurements and mock ups this weekend, but plan to get the DS local and have them build it Monday or Tuesday.

After I called in a night in the shop, Korbin came home and surprised me with a load of engine parts. I have almost everything I need to get the engine together this weekend. Plans now are to get the mock up done and finalize my DS layout on Saturday so that I can pull out the engine mock up Saturday night. Korbin and I hope to get the short block together on Sunday. Maybe even the long block if everything falls into place.

7 days left...

[aggie91]

I wish I could pull some all nighters, but I have a job and 3 kids so that's not going to happen...lol.

I still think I can make my goal. This weekend was productive...and expensive...

This weekend, I got the block all cleaned up and installed new cam bearings with my homemade bearing installer for LS engines. Worked pretty good.




Got the short block all together, some of you might not agree with this, but I am trying Mat Hapel's way of Sloppy Mechanics. Reused all the 240k mile bearings on this assembly. I won't call it a rebuild since we just cleaned and reassembled with the old parts...I think the bearings look pretty good for that many miles, another reason that I am sold on LS engines.

Here are the main bearings:



Could not put on the heads, because the dowel pins in the deck are MIA. So, maybe I can find some today and get the long block finished up tonight. After that, I just need my new gaskets to put all the cover's back on. They should be here tomorrow. Korbin and Owen both helped me out putting it all together and we had a bit of father/son time and had some fun doing it. Hard to believe that this is my FIRST V8 I have put together...In the past I was the detail, paint and body and general mechanic work guy and had others do my engine work if involved more than external gaskets and cleaning.

Short Block:




Since I am waiting on my seals for the rest of the engine, I will finish up the trans seals, flex plate modifications, and some other small items that need attention during tonight's shop time.

The expensive part of the weekend, was late yesterday. I had to go buy a new refrigerator. Ours died some time during the night before. I cleaned the coils and that seamed to help, but by 6:30 last night it was running, but not cooling at all. So I had to run the Lowe's and drop a cool grand on a new one for the house. Oh Well that's life.


I have 4 shop days left...

[scoot_mcgrute]

I was talking to my dad about your build while we pulled the 292 out of mine this afternoon. I'm rootin for ya bud!