47-55.1 Project "Bickle" 1948 1/2 ton 4.3 4l60e

[olcarguy]

Originally Posted by doowoppwer

thanks. I was pretty sure it wasn't a bra size

Now that's funny......Trucks looking good joedoe

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by doowoppwer

thanks. I was pretty sure it wasn't a bra size

a 1 DD would be pretty underwhelming

[joedoh]

dan called for some gauge pieces so I popped them out. i put the tabs on them in the right spot to screw in like factory after he bends them a little, he is going for a quad gauge and a 3 3/8 speedometer. he has his truck running, 5.3 swap, honestly i need to do one because to quote trick daddy, it hit em in the CHEST with it.




to the left you can see I made the insert for the stock gauges to put the s10 senders in the stock quad gauge too. I built the piece to do the speedometer too, with the cutout for the vacuum fluorescent odometer.



I wanted to have the "prindle" in there (the PRNDL display) but on the s10 with a tach there is one side that is the odo, and the other that is the PRNDL. I have been thinking, maybe put it at the top of the speedo? I dunno, its a LOT of wiring to move it. I cant put it in the quad gauge because it will be blocked by the cross thingy in the quad gauge. maybe put it behind the speaker grille so you see it when its on, not when its off.

my wife helped me string the dash harness, twice. I put it in the first time, then realized I went on the wrong side of the wiper motor brace. if you have a harness with a lot of breakouts like these, man they suck to string through monuments.



this is how nicely the harness came out of the firewall, I think the best one yet for placement.




more in next post

[joedoh]

while I was cutting I popped out a PCM tray. on past trucks I have just, *ahem*, TAPPED on the inner to make room for the pcm, but this is nicer, recesses it enough to miss the s10 HVAC box that mounts on the firewall and looks super clean.




I cut the battery box too, but I need the HVAC box installed and the rad mounted to know where best placement is. I took the AC out charged, so tomorrow morning I will wrestle that snake and recess the battery box.



I also could get the stock steering wheel off because the column was finally mounted. you can use a wheel puller sure, but mine was at the new shop in the workbench, so I did it the way I usually do, loosen (but dont remove) the center nut and give some firm tugs at 12 3 6 and 9. eventually the wheel will just come off. if you plan to run an old wheel like I am, be aware with the 98 column you will need a lot of dish to the wheel (16" chevelle wheel has like 2 3/4 dish so no worries there) and you will also need to pull the airbag clockspring. but after doing that, no probbbbbs.



the color matches the dash perfect.

I am shooting for 4th of july fire w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ up!

I tried out the che

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ it's looking good!

This one is a super clean execution all around!

[8man]

Nice work. The PCM tray is a real upgrade.

[28TudorAZ]

Looking great!!! The CNC stuff is nice. I am surprised you havent made a custom column cover for the bottom yet.

[joedoh]

thanks guys!


with the PCM in I could cut the blower off the still charged AC and wrestle it into the enginie compartment.



started tacking in the distribution box bracket and the welder was acting weird, sputtering and popping.



oh!



better get some of that today before the holiday.


switched gears to mount the rad then I guess. drilled holes for the s10 rad bushings, dont go to deep!



you can see the power steering line under the hole, its about an inch away.

rad in the mounts and there is just enough clearance, about 3/8" at the bottom.





this rearward engine move is perfect, everything fits better than last time when I was trying to get the engine back as far as possible, almost 9.5inches. this is 7.25 and its easier to work on for sure.


more in next post

[joedoh]

daughter had the car so no welding wire yet, ok, work on blower.



doesnt line up with the original hole but still plenty of room for the 4" pipe.

I flipped the cut piece to fill the old hole.




blower is quite a bit bigger, but still fits, crookedly haha.




trimmed for the battery box too, plenty of room! the trans lines line up, there is room under it for the lower rad hose, and the ac lines go behind and around it.



my daughter showed up at this point so we ran to get the welding wire and the 3/4 tube for the rad mount and some other odds and ends.

more coming!

[28TudorAZ]

It amazing how much you have this down. I forgot to ask. How well did the A/c work on the last truck you did? Freeze you out?

[joedoh]

everything worked from the factory controls but the airflow was a little slow because of all the twists and turns, I am trying a new scroll blower this time. my next cab is missing the upper cowl vent so I think I may see if I can move the hvac over a little and keep the stock blower on. its the upper cowl vent mechanism that keeps it from coming over more


happy 4th of july, one of my favorite holidays and defintely my favorite country! I love my country and I would die to defend your freedom! TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP!

YouTube

[8man]

Happy 4TH to you and everyone else as well.

[OutlawDrifter]

Happy 4th Russ! I feel the same way about our country and freedom!

[oldman3]

Happy 4th to you also...Jim

[joedoh]

thanks guys!

what a great 4th with my daughter, and the rest of the fam. I sandbagged work on the truck and we sat on moms new deck which gave a nice elevation to see EVERYONES fireworks even the ones at the local city hall a mile away. my daughter left today so I popped out in the garage for some work.

I got the battery tray trimmed and fitted, has less than a gnat hair clearance to the (-) terminal, but it clears!




the only thing left to fit that corner is the fusible link to the distribution box! dialing in on a solution for that too.

bent up some sheet to direct the air into the evaporator, just taped it up to check airflow.



the two heat spots you see are a director I welded in to funnel air through the sharp left turn. tried out the blower and whaddayaknow, it blows just fine, lots of airflow! so I sealed up the inside and outside and now the HVAC is finished too except the wires for the fan.



you can see my little air director on the right, the half moon.

blower fits perfect too! I thought I would need to tilt it but it fits perfectly straight! woop!



I wonder if they make a mirrored version because it woould be super great to pull fresh air from the cowl.


more tomorrow, once I bundle up some wire and bracket the rad and pick up a lower hose, I will push it out for a start.

[8man]

Very nice fitting that together.

[twinshadows]

Hi Russ (a late Happy 4th too you) ……..
and, I really like "your A/C re-cycling" ; using the fire-wall plate
and factory unit. 'Smart cookie' . . . . as with your "CNC build
brackets" . Great job (makes me want too go find an early truck).
Having fun with the "new bracket - building / planning & using that new
tool is even fun for us too watch all those 'changes .. then, better
changes .. then , that finished product .

Makes us (helps us) , think about how we can build our projects
better . . . . .

"Killer build --- Bickle" .

Thanks . . . & still watching . . . . . jim

[joedoh]

rain in the forecast, cant pull it out. spent yesterday getting all the various things a startup would need, like coolant and oh I DONT KNOW MAYBE SOME OIL? my hubris was almost my downfall, starting an empty motor may have sounded like shaking a bag of hammers.

look at the crowd in here.



in that corner are: TWO AC lines, a lower rad hose, two trans cooler lines, a battery and cables, and the fusible link for the drivers side power distribution. everything is accessible and easy to work on.

spectre sells an air cleaner that uses adapters and fits the s10 AFM, but I noticed a 3" air cleaner last time and used it instead. the s10 AFM is 3.25" but with a little flap disc it fits nice. best part is the price, the air cleaner with all the adapters is 37 bucks and this one is 22. they even started selling a black one in case you dont need the extra horsepower of the red one.




if you use an s10 4.3 pay attention to that nipple right here.



it innocuous enough, but that vacuum line runs to the HVAC inside and is ALWAYS rotten. always. it will give you a rough idle you will likely never find.

finished up the HVAC blower pass through, good enough for the girls I go out with!



also bolted on the 2.5" hubcentric spacers, you have to grind the bearing hub just slightly where the hub cover is, but they fit great after that. I need hubcentric on this truck because of the wheels, coys, need the centering hub.




and finally! no muss no fuss, just turned it on and away it went! (click to play)

IMG_7498 by Rooty Tooty, on Flickr


with everything almost done underhood, I can do glass and interior inside. still need to weld up that floppy door. but everything else is just bolts.

[mongocanfly]

Looks good Russ...it seams like I always run out of mig wire or gas at the worst times possible..so I started buying extra wire..solved that part, but I only have one gas bottle so now I only run outta gas at the worst time posssible...I need to get a 2nd gas bottle...

[joedoh]

mongo if I walk past my bottle I make sure its turned off, lost a lotta gas that way never think to check the wire till its gone though.

Originally Posted by twinshadows

Hi Russ (a late Happy 4th too you) ……..
and, I really like "your A/C re-cycling" ; using the fire-wall plate
and factory unit. 'Smart cookie' . . . . as with your "CNC build
brackets" . Great job (makes me want too go find an early truck).
Having fun with the "new bracket - building / planning & using that new
tool is even fun for us too watch all those 'changes .. then, better
changes .. then , that finished product .

Makes us (helps us) , think about how we can build our projects
better . . . . .

"Killer build --- Bickle" .

Thanks . . . & still watching . . . . . jim

thanks jim! I actually got made fun of for that "round" pipe I made for the pass through. I wasnt super proud of its pumkin shape, but it worked!

[mongocanfly]

Haha...I'm a knob twister also..ever time I go by my torch and welder I grab em

[joedoh]

not much progress, I stopped by dans to help put in his windshield, the steele rubber is a real upgrade, I am glad I ordered it for mine too. took about 12 minutes!


he got his interior done and then later, his bumper.



I have sold a few more sets of mounts to local guys, one guy wanted a set of 14x6 staggered steel wheels I had sitting out front and traded me a reasonable 54 grille for it. I did the deal without seeing it, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a 1/2 ton, I was honestly expecting a 2 ton wall hanger. so now I have a whole 54 front clip, maybe I will use it on the baby coe I am always one project away from starting. . I also got a nice 57 grille for my 56, which didnt have a grille and had a 57 hood with it anyway.




and I bought a mafia staff car



the great gal selling us the NEWnew property (should I start referring to them the way silverado guys do bodystles? NBS, NNBS) had a surprise repair bill and was just going to let it go as trade in value for the diagnostic bill. being handy, I said I would love to fix it and drive it, for the price difference, and she agreed. thats next on the agenda!


more work tomorrow, I promise!

[edgeleycanuck]

"Baby COE" , you have me intrigued, what might you have in mind?

[joedoh]

oh I have talked it before a little. I dont like how tall and wide coes are, I want to make one that fits in a standard garage. I have it worked out in my mind, just need to get to it already.

I dropped off the seat for upholstery, my guys prices have gone up and his overhead down, he is in his home shop. but he came up with a good match for the pewter. ordered dolphin gauges in case I dont feel like doing the stocks. ordered carpet and more stuff

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ, I think you could fall in a pile of manure and come out smelling like roses!

There is an International COE and motorhome frame for sale about 30 miles from me...if it was a GMC I would have already brought it home.