Those new mounts look a lot better. Plenty of room now. If it comes out that nice every time you get side tracked I wouldn't complain of those 2 steps back! Nice.

Thanks Wayne. I guess that is why I am not overly disappointed with the redo. I really like the new design. No question!

Major Milestone! (To Us)
 

It seems we started this project forever ago. We have been trying to get the new firewall in the truck. Every time we thought we were ready to put it in we found something else that should be done before we put it in. All in all I'm glad we did it right the first time. Every thing fit just as it should. Here are some pics to show how we went about it.

This is the empty hole. The floor and trans tunnel are all finished. We then went around the face of the cowl area in the dark with a light and welded up any pin holes in welds from the rust repair. The new firewall has a mounting flange that covers this area, so I don't want any moisture to get between those panels and into the cab. After all the holes were taken care of, I coated the area with Eastwood's rust encapsulator. This was to help curb any development of rust from factory seams we did not take a part.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-55_105.jpg

Before mounting the piece, we applied a bead of seam sealer to the mating face of the cowl. This is mostly to eliminate any potential vibration between the 2 sheet metal panels. We also sealed the bottom weld seam. This will be done on the inside of the wiper tray before paint as well.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-25-51_343.jpg

I also coated the back of the firewall mounting flange with self etching weld through primer for an added level of protection.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-19-16_112.jpg

We then used cleco's to hold the firewall on and braced it to hold everything flat for alignment while tacking.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-54-31_984.jpg

And FINALLY, here it is all tacked in. The fit to all the mating panels is excellent. Now it's time for me to try to weld it in and finish it with out screwing up all our hard work!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-54-45_322.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-54-36_153.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...20-54-55_4.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-55-46_583.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-55-27_130.jpg

Thanks for looking! :cheers:

Great progress!!!!!!!


--ET

You go girl!!

Looks great Chad!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

That firewall looks great Chad!

Spoken like a true gentleman!



--Eric

With friends like you guys.......................................... :rolleyes: Thanks for the kind words, RON and ERIC! :D

Looks great.

What did you use to curve the firewall to give it that capped effect onto the truck? Do you have any pics of the building of the firewall before install?

We didn't build the firewall itself. We had Direct Sheet Metal in California make it. It is actually all separate pieces welded together and finished. The outer 90 degree bend with the radius has a 45 degree roll on each piece with the seam right in the middle. This helps with distortion when welding and makes the joint a bit easier to finish. That's how I was going to do it as well, but in the interest of time and money, we got it from them. If you go back a few pages in this thread you will find more of the story. Thanks for looking! :thumbsup:

Great progress. Looking good.

SWEET ! It looks great' nice work Chad ...

More Progress!
 

I finally have some more pictures to post. I ended up putting a bunch more tacks on the firewall before we pulled it back off the chassis to do the final welding.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-59-26_725.jpg

Once we got it off the chassis, we turned it up on it's back so that I could do all horizontal welds. This also let me do alot of weld finishing on the bottom of the chassis.

Before anymore welding or grinding.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-53_168.jpg


Here is the firewall all welded in with the transition to the original cowl sheet metal initially finished. A little more touch up and it will be ready for the body man.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-02_439.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-40_893.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-17_176.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-48_579.jpg

These next couple are the new trans tunnel and floor pieces all ground and sanded. Again a little touch up and it will be ready for the body man.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-17-25_900.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-17-33_197.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-17-41_431.jpg

I've been trying very hard to make these welds "disappear", but welding new metal to this old stamped floor pan, firewall, cowl etc. is very difficult. I have been finding that the old metal shrinks and moves much easier than the new. All in all I am happy. it shouldn't take much filler to smooth all this out.

As always any comments or suggestions good or bad are welcome. Thanks for looking!

Looks great Chad! :cheers:

I like it. Once painted, I don't think those welds will be as noticeable. Looking good!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Looks great Chad ! Moving right along !!

Catch ya in Indy in a couple weeks !

Jim

It looks good to me chad, nice work.

How have I missed this thread. Looks great, like the metal work for sure, wish I could do something like that. :cool:

Holy Cow Batman, how long is this going to take?

We meet you at PSU for lunch almost 16 MONTHS ago, you start teasing me about an LS motor for Chops' truck and this is all you've got done.....you're killin' me smalls ;)

Seriously, it looks great. I can't wait to see it finished. Say Hey to Chops and Carol for me

Later, Scott

Dude, that is sweet! Major props for the work that you have already accomplished. I would love to have the skills you've got---looking forward to seeing the rest of it come together bro!

Doug

I know, Right! Slow going having to make most things. Glad you checked it out. Spend some time on this site and you will see some cool stuff. Good people too! Have a great Easter, and say hello to Mom and Dad!

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words. It helps keep us rolling. Sometimes you walk in the shop flip the lights on and say " Holy .... What did we get into? ". But, it's so cool seeing things come together. :cheers:

very nice

Still At It!
 

More progress has been made, although it has been difficult. Summer makes it tough to get in the shop and work. Several things have happened since I posted last. The transmission has been ordered. As usual we did not order what we had intended to. The truck was originally going to have a 4L80E in it. Well.......after doing some research and having discussions with Steve at Twist Machine, we decided to go with a 4L70E. Basically it comes down to control and speed at which the transmission shifts. The 60/65/70 based transmissions will execute the shift faster than the 80 according to Steve. Without getting into details here there are also differences in other parts of the control scheme. In the end it came down to what I mentioned about shift speed as well as less overall weight. In the end, we are getting a Stage 4 4L70E with Compu-Shift controller from Gearstar as well as a Shrifter Paddle Shifter and Muscle Drive Billet Converter from Steve at Twist Machine. Steve is going to handle the programming for the package as well. This thing should be a hoot! I can't say enough good so far for these 2 vendors. We have received the Shrifter and Converter and the tranny should be done in a few weeks. The tranny change allowed another addition. All along one of our primary design criteria was to not allow anything to hang below the chassis of the truck. Well, that has been a challenge since we also wanted to run 3" exhaust. The one compromise we had made was that an X or H pipe was not going to be possible in a reasonable manor. That has now changed, so we cut up a perfectly good setup to add the H pipe. Pics are below. I think it will definitely help some in performance as well as sound. We have contacted a friend of ours about doing some TIG welding for us. I have been spending too much time finish welding and not enough time designing and fabricating. Hopefully with our limited time in the shop this will help move things along. Well, this week is Columbus so we will be back at it after we bake on the asphalt a while. Thanks for Looking!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-15_269.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...6-15-11_28.jpg

Pretty dang kool Chad!!


I like your style.... it's okay to make changes! It's hot rodding!

Better to change it now then be unhappy with it later. As always nice work.

Love Crates!
 

Look what just showed up on the loading dock! :D :yes:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/Gearstar.jpg

Wow, that was fast !!!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Now bust that mother open and post some pics already !

:rofl:

Jim

X2 give um up!!

Ok, here are all the goodies that were packed in the crate!

4L70E Stage 4 Trans! Keeping the bag on for now!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...9-17-00_17.jpg

Compu Shift Trans Controller!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-18-31_521.jpg

Hayden Trans Cooler!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-17-51_316.jpg

Lokar dipstick!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-17-38_709.jpg

I have to say Gearstar did an excellent job packaging the trans for shipment! So far, a first class experience!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-42-32_719.jpg

It has been a great weekend for parts! While at the Columbus Goodguys show, we visited the Ring Brothers! They make a nice product! Check it!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-26_270.jpg

All we bought was a set of hinges and Jim and Mike both spent a half hour talking with us. That may not seem like much, but they were in the middle of winning SMOY as well. They are top notch for sure! :thumbsup:

To augment the Gearstar trans. we hooked up with Steve at Twist Machine and got one of his Shrifter Paddle Shifters and Muscle Drive Torque converters. He is also going to handle the programming of the Compu-Shift. A manual trans wasn't an option for us, but this deal should still be hot!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-54-14_903.jpg

Don't you just love new parts? :woot:

Beautiful stuff ! It's like Christmas in July !!

Jim

Huge Disappointment!!!!
 

Well, what was supposed to be a cool milestone in the project has turned into one of the biggest disappointments. It is time to move on to the fabrication of the front end of the truck. Mount the Rad, coolers, make close out panels etc, etc... So we un-box all the new Tri-Plus panels and bolt it on. Everything was fitting OK (As far as repop stuff goes) until we got to the hood. It is a brand new 2" Cowl Induction hood from Tri-Plus. It is JUNK! Completely the wrong contour on the leading edge. We are contacting the vendor today (not from this site) to see if he will help out. The problem is we bought it over 2 years ago. This is the first time it's been out of the box other than opening the flap when we picked it up to make sure there was no shipping damage. Needless to say, we are dejected. I don't mind cutting and slicing, but this would be rebuilding 1/4 of the hood. Anyone had any better luck with another brand hood! Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...1-26-57_95.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-15_999.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-30_790.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...1-24-50_19.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-37_805.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-49_459.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-34_996.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-26_303.jpg

Bummer Chad!!:mad: :mad: Truck is looking good though!! Keep us posted on the hood issue.

Nothing a cut off wheel and some TIG won't fix....

Just sayin' --- thas hot roddin' man....

That's what happens when you buy kit cars/trucks!


--Eric

I'm going to try some other options first, I think! :willy:

Oh, you're a laugh riot! :yes:

So while we ponder the hood puzzle, we decided to move on to getting the radiator mounted so that we can mount the rad support and leave it there for a while. As we started looking and measuring the REPRODUCTION rad support, you guessed it, things just don't fit. The vertical rails that the rad lays against were different heights. Out comes the body saw and off they come. Bend up some new ones and here yah go!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...0-09-45_49.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-09-29_245.jpg

The factory lower saddles are too narrow for the new PRC dual pass LS radiator. Off they came and I fabbed up these new saddles and installed them on the rad support.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-29-18_745.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-45_584.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-52_622.jpg

These saddles and the new vertical rails will be lined with shore 50 rubber so we use paint sticks to get the fits.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-40-01_354.jpg

Here is the rad sitting in the new mounts.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...21-52-06_9.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-51-32_431.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-51_414.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-58-00_275.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-51-53_548.jpg

So, the next trip to the shop will be devoted to making the upper retainers. I'm trying to decide between steel and aluminum. They will be covered in the end so we will see.

Thanks for looking!

Update!
 

All the mounts are now complete for the rad. It seems I forgot to take pics of the upper mounts. I will fix that this week. We added some lower tabs to retain the rad laterally. All this will be lined with rubber to protect the aluminum rad.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-01-03_747.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-00-48_579.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-00-40_523.jpg

:lateral:

Update!
 

We are in the process of getting a new hood for the truck. After talking with several shops that have used these aftermarket cowl induction hoods, they all say none fit right but ours is terrible compared to those. The next one we get is going to be checked on a truck before we get it.

While this is going on we decided to move back to the bed and take care of something that has bothered us for a while. When we modified the factory REPRODUCTION wheel tubs to widen them, we noticed that the vertical flat side of the tubs were significantly distorted from the stamping process. At first we were going to leave it, but things are turning out too nice to do that. So here is what we started with:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...0-20-30_45.jpg

Those shims are just over 1/8" each. First we tried to shrink the center of the panel with heat to lift it. FAIL Then we tried a shrinking hammer and dolly. FAIL Then out came the cutoff wheel! No turning back now!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...21-41-17_4.jpg

As soon as I made those cuts the pie shapes sprung out 3/8". After quite a bit of hammer and dolly work, I clamped it all down and started to weld it back together.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-59-01_915.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-45-53_997.jpg

After quite a bit of grinding and more hammer and dolly work with some heat shrinking thrown in we now have tub sides that can be easily body worked with minimal filler. I gotta say this was a first for me. Flat panels are definitely a challenge to weld and keep flat. All in all I am pleased and best of all my Dad (The Owner) is very happy!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-36-50_713.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-37-14_858.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-41-26_883.jpg

Now time to go enjoy a Labor Day Picnic with the family!