Re: My 1970 GMC Project
To my shame I have never started a thread. I've wanted to but just haven't done it. I sure have learned a ton from other guys work. I really haven't done much of anything that's truly original... it's all been done before. That's probably a poor excuse though. I'll give it a think again.;)
A good reason to do it is for others to help keep me motivated, and also to be able to show anyone that asks me about it in the future, when I am daily driving it. |
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Firewall update
I managed to get some grinding and a bit more welding accomplished in the last week. It was slow going as I was working a side job almost every evening over the last week. This week will hopfully see some quicker progress. I got the expansion that I had done to the engine recess ground down and complete. It will definatly be needing a coat of filler.:lol: After that was complete, I welded up a couple more holes in that area of the firewall. I have one left to fill and then I have to come up with a plan for where the accelerator pedal mounts. I want to eliminate the three captive nuts for a cleaner look. Probably just going to weld some studs to the inner firewall. |
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Your firewall is going to look killer all evened out like that. I notice that you got rid of the little bump that was on the top of the passenger side heater delete panel. I did that also. I do plan on "permanently borrowing" your idea on the drivers side. I've never seen that done and it's a huge improvement.
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I've got the center of the firewall all buttoned up now except for the accelerator pedal mounting nuts. I need to come up with a plan for getting rid of those but I figure I better get the pedal first. Being that this is a 72 cab and my truck is a 70, the pedal is diffrent but luckily enough my dad thinks he's got a pedal for me. Just have to go over there and see if we can find it lol. I'm also going to be attempting some more crazy ideas on the drivers side of the firewall and wanted some opinions on it. In the picture, I've drawn a line where I would like to extend my raised portion. My question is, what do you guys think I should do about the park brake mounting location. I figure I could incorporate it into my section but after all this firewall smoothing, I'm wondering if that would just look lazy leaving one cable coming through. Would it be worth my while to look into some sort of electric park brake or something if it even exists?
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Re: My 1970 GMC Project
Oh it exists, but be prepared to drop 500 USD. I think its called E-stop. Whether or not to go through the extra work? Well that's on you. Do you plan on showing the truck or driving the snot out of it? I plan on the latter so I'm only making changes that will satisfy my desire to have what I think is a cool truck.
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I would raise what you have drawn so it's symmetrical with the other side. It will look more detailed with the e brake area bumped up but i would have the threads welded on the Inside of the firewall so you can't see the bolt /nut. Just the grommet and cable viable on the outer firewall.
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Cornerstone, just curious what you did here in the red circle? I know there are supposed to be 2 holes for the steering column clamp. I only see 1. Just curious how you plan for this area to clamp the column and look smooth?
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And here we have it folks. One symmetrical section from side to side. Well other than the lower piece that I still have to do. Then after that, only 10 or so more holes to fill in. :metal:
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Looks great!
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I'm sure glad I didn't weld it up!:lol: Sorry for the hijack Kyle... |
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Looks great Kyle! I'm scratchin' my head trying to figure out how that was done... Care to share anymore pictures?
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About your Accelerator mounting nuts. For Rigidity purposes, I would suggest , Put a piece of cardboard over them to make a template. Mark the location of the holes. You could even use the pedal mounting pad. Make a triangle plate to your Specifications. 1/2" to 3/4" thick (Bolts in plate /holes in plate ) Then you can weld that plate inside the floor. Grind your weld nuts off once your sure of your located. Just a suggestion;) Great work I like the symmetry of the Fire-wall:metal: . |
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Now that I'm done with all my firewall work except for the park brake mount and accelerator mount, I figure I better show what the whole thing looks like. So I've moved some things around in my super messy garage (which I will clean when it warms up a bit more:lol:) and got the cab turned so I had enough room to take a proper picture. I really like how its turned out. Little bit of filler down the road and it will be better than new.;)
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That looks nice
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One more piece of the puzzle wrapped up tonight. Although we never found the complete accelerator pedal at my dad's, we did find the mounting base which is all I needed for the time being. I took a piece of 1/4" flat steel I had and cut it down to be just slightly smaller than the pedal base itself. Then I drilled the three holes for the mounting studs. After I had that figured out, I drilled about 3/4 of the depth of the plate with progressively larger drill bits so that I had a place for the weld to sit. Then I cut off the heads from some bolts for the studs which I tac welded into the holes. I did not fully weld at this point because i did not want the heat from my welds to pull the studs out of alignment. So I put the studs into the original captive nuts in the firewall and then welded it home. From there it was just some grinding to remove the captive nuts and spot welding the plate into position using the original holes!:metal: Sorry for the long winded explanation but I forgot to take enough pictures to show how I actually did it. Here are the few I did take.
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Nice work I like that a lot better than stock. So I assume your going back with stock pedal and a cable TB?
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I think that about wraps up the sheet metal work on the outside of the firewall. Tonight I got the E-Brake all figured out. What i ended up doing was I cut the studs out of the E-Brake so that i could reverse them and have everything except obviously the cable on the inside.:lol: Then I used an idea that I read about somewhere on this forum but I cant remember where. Thanks to whomever had posted it, I cut the two mounting holes so that they would be slotted, this allowed me to still be able to install the thing. After that, I made up another plate out of some thicker gauge metal than the firewall. I did not trust just welding the studs directly to the firewall. It probably would have been fine but I didn't want to take any chances. So after I had the plate all made up, it was just a matter of plug welding it into position.
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It is amazing what a guy will go through to have a clean firewall! More nice work man. You better watch out or your gonna have a trailer queen on your hands. :lol:
What kind of hooch is this??? |
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Now that my firewall is done for the time being, I have been working at getting my cowl panel back on. Alot of the spot welds I drilled out went a little deep so I had to weld them up. I also got the paint stripped off the inner cowl so that I can re paint before installing the cowl. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with the pull vents in the kick panels. I think I'm going to delete them as I will not need them with the vintage air. My only concern is that I have heard of other guys having issues with getting fresh air. I was thinking about having some sort of opening in the delete plates I plan to make just so a little bit of air can flow through.
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I also have been working on welding up the seams in the corners of the windshield opening. It's crazy how diffrent these are from one side to the other. The lower drivers side and upper passenger side took far more work to get them right than the other two. I guess that's what you get when all the work is done by people instead of robots. :lol: I forgot to take a picture of the other top side but you get the idea.
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Now that's not only a sexy upgrade, but a smart one too! I'll bet you've totally improved your chances in having a leak free cab. :chevy:
What king of tool are you using to clean up your welds? Love the way you store your wrenches... gotta steal that one too. |
Re: My 1970 GMC Project
I'm keeping my kick panel vents for that same reason. I don't want to have issues, and sometimes it's beneficial to have fresh air come in.
Windshield looks great. I should have done that one too since it's going to be my DD and I'm a little worried about windshield leaks. |
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As for the windshield, as long as you get those seams filled up nicely with some sort of seam sealer, I think you would be fine. I didn't even think to much on that, I was more motivated to have my drip rail appear seamless all the way around. I suppose it probably would be helpful in the leak department as well. |
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Well I guess that answer that question. I spent the morning making a die for hammering out some louvers. I think if I was to have three louvers in each side, it should be able to pull enough fresh air through for everything to remain happy. I'm hoping that it will also double as a pressure relief for closing the doors as this would allow me to remove the one in the drivers door jamb for a cleaner look.
Oh and cornerstone, I've included pics of my grinding arsenal if your interested. |
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I have figured out how I'm getting my wiring into the engine bay as well. Thanks to TA C10 for linking me to a thread about these. I'm just unsure if I will need all 3 or just the two. I guess I'm going to have to order a wiring harness soon so I will know for sure.
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I love those louvers! Nice work. And I'm excited to see how your wiring turns out. It's gonna be sweet hidden like that :thumbs:
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