After many weeks of migraines, road trips, migraines, house work, migraines, cleaning out the storage are of the garage, migraines, rearranging the guest bedroom, migraines, and working on my father's '59 Impala project, I am finally back to work. Besides all the other stuff going on, I have also been plagued with a bunch of migraines. Did I mention that?

Anyway, without further ado, here goes the progress...

As you may recall, I had to modify the hood latch mechanism to clear the new radiator placement. I purchased a hood latch lever and cable system from Lokar and installed it. Works like a champ!

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I was able to modify the original hood latch lever assembly to use as the bracket for the new lever assembly.

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With the new heat-A/C system, there is plenty room up behind the passenger side of the dash. A few brackets, and some careful measuring, and we have a place to mount the ECM, TCM, Engine Management Fuse Panel, Auxiliary Fuse Panel, CB Radio, Remote Start Module, Keyless Entry Module, and... I think that's it... maybe...

I also mounted the passenger side defroster duct (the old style to go with the old style dash pad). I had to modify it a bit, but it works quite well now. I still need to make manifolds to connect the ducts to the Heater Box.

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Under the hood, I mounted the Fan Control Module.

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And the Auxiliary Battery Control Module

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On the roof I got the CB Antenna and Scanner Antenna mounted.

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In between migraines and other assorted distractions, I finished the radio panel. The upper hole is for the head unit w/GPS. The bottom is for the CB radio face. The toggles are for all manner of stuff. I have different labels coming as I don't like the way these look.

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As for some of the non-migraine distractions (did I mention I've been getting a lot of migraines lately?), I went to North Carolina and got some welding done on my dad's '59 Impala project.

Rocker panel repair.

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Moved the fuel tank braces to allow the tank from a '96 Caprice to be used.

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Took my wife to the butterfly house in Durham.

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And rearranged the guest bedroom... I'll repaint the pink sooner or later, but for now, at least it's more acceptable.

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And we have updates!

Behold! The Infamous 42 gallon Suburban fuel tank. So how do you put 50lbs of manure in a 25lb bag? Well, fist you remove anything that sticks up from the top of the tank. On the Suburban tank there are two vapor vents (for the charcoal canister) and a vent for the fill. The vapor vents were filled with freeze plugs (turned down to 1.22") and installed with JB Marine Weld(fuel resistant). The hole for the fill vent (it was already torn off when I bought the tank-got a deal because it was damaged) was filled with by tapping the hole to 3/8 NPT and screwing in a plug coated with the same JB weld. I then made a new vent next to the original fill by drilling a 1/4 hole and enlarging it with a tapered tap (to make an area for the tap to bite), tapping it 3/8 NPT, and installing a plug.

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As others have done, I cut the rear most crossmember off to make room. Sine the tank will block access to the nuts that hold the bumper and trailer hitch, I welded them.

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I had to trim the floor brace so I could get the tank as high as possible.

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While under the truck, I installed my new air shocks. I drilled a couple holed in the crossmember located just behind the rear axle to hang the tank mounting bolts.

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I braced the rear of the frame with an L brace (to hang the tank) and a larger brace attached to the bumper brackets. Here is the L bracket.

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A hole was cut in the floor to make easy access for the fuel sender/fuel pump unit.

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The tank, once installed doesn't hang all that low... here it is from a normal viewing height, sans trailer hitch.

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Here it is as seen from down low. again, sans trailer hitch.

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The exhaust passes between the rear shock and fuel tank with little room to spare. Currently there is about 1/4" between the exhaust and each item.

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Here is another view. Once done, I'll take it where I can get it up on a lift so I can dimple the pipe and the tank to give about 1/2" between the pipe and the shock, and a good 1" between it and the tank.

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Since we were working on the nether regions, the headpipe was next. Using the Silverado manifolds, I welded up a headpipe with crossover. The welds aren't the prettiest, mostly because I was welding stainless with a MIG. Still, I got good penetration, and that's all that matters.

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The pipe is in two pieces with a sliding clamp to ease installation. As it runs very close to the transmission pan and servo cover, I wrapped it. This will also help keep heat out of the interior.

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You can see how close it runs to the pan. There is good clearance for driveshaft movement too.

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I had to cut the original floor heat shield for clearance, so the wrap will really help.

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Here it runs down past the transmission. There is a shield that also protects the transmission from the heat.

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Passenger side clearance. Good distance between the exhaust and the starter.

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And that's all for now... sorry, no critter pictures today. We do have a couple of cool spiders just outside our bedroom window, but I haven't taken any good shots of them.

Until next time...

Nice swap it looks really good.

I like that Suburban tank. Might be able to get a few miles out of town now...or states. :D

Jeep progress!!!

Ok, it's only a small thing, but it is still real, actual progress on my Jeep! :D

I had only a short bit of time today to work on the Jeep, and rather than get everything out and crawl under the dash for wiring, I decided to get my steering wheel together.

The wheel is a recent Ebay purchase. It's not a very expensive steering wheel. Though a real wood wheel, the spokes were a bit scratched up, so I got it at a good price.

But being me, I didn't want it to look like an aftermarket wheel. It had to look like it could have come from Jeep. So...

I rummaged through some boxes in the garage attic and came up with an old Oldsmobile sport wheel horn button. I disassembled the button, discarding everything but the portion that connects the button to the actual electrical portion of the horn button (to be purchased later), and the lower escutcheon. I sanded and painted the lower escutcheon silver, then trimmed the center portion of a Jeep Cherokee horn button to fit.

After gluing these together, and while waiting for the glue to set, I sanded the steering wheel's spokes and taped off the wooden part so the spokes could be painted. In the end, I think it turned out quite nicely. The whole thing will attach to a '68-pre airbag GM sport wheel 6-screw hub, and will use the corresponding horn button (electrical portion) and so should be quite reliable.

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And more Jeepness!!

Made a place to hold the Chevy airbox. I cut a 4" hole in the bottom of the airbox, and made a tube to connect behind the front fascia.

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Modified the airbox to close off the original air intake and instead use the new 4" intake tube. By the way, the welds are Silicon Bronze. Nice stuff to work with! Not for anything structural of course, but great for working with sheet metal.

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A test fit with the lid.

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Finished, except for the last flex joint and clamps.

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I forgot to take photos of the build process, but here's the battery box (built out of the bed frame mentioned in the other thread).

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I also made a bar to hold 3 Maxi Fuse holders and 4 Bosch style relays.

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Lastly, I mounted a set of Cadillac 4-note horns (A, C, D, and F) in the old pie plate positions. They're not actually louder than the factory horns, but their tone really gets your attention!

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No critters this time, though I wish I'd taken one of the Carolina Wolf Spider I found in the kitchen sink a few weeks ago! :shock: Egad that thing was huge!

pro-touring? as long as you lower it and put some wide sticky tires on :D

Lower it and put some 18x10s on the front and 18x12s on the rear!

I had three wagoners when I was a teen (30 yrs ago) and I lowered mine but with 15s all around (largest they had back then).

I was fascinated with them and I still consider them one of my favorites.