Good progress today.
CK5
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Duuuuude!!! #schwing
That grille though! Looks killer man!
That grille though! Looks killer man!
Very well done man.
Bad Ass! Nice work dude!
Totally different look from where it started!
I bought a bowtie for the 73 grill and it's already losing color after a little more than a year. I'm either going to make my own with vinyl and aluminum or put a later model bowtie on it. I kinda like the early 2000s bowtie; I've put those on the crew cab and the K5 before that.
I bought a bowtie for the 73 grill and it's already losing color after a little more than a year. I'm either going to make my own with vinyl and aluminum or put a later model bowtie on it. I kinda like the early 2000s bowtie; I've put those on the crew cab and the K5 before that.
@mrk5 those $70+ foiled stickers fade? I’ve seen some knockoffs and GM licensed versions.
https://www.brotherstrucks.com/1973-74-CHEVY_GMC-TRUCK-BOWTIE-GRILLE-EMBLEM/productinfo/GEB7374/
https://www.brotherstrucks.com/1973-74-CHEVY_GMC-TRUCK-BOWTIE-GRILLE-EMBLEM/productinfo/GEB7374/
Interesting, I got mine from Square Body Syndicate but I don't see them on their site now. It was like a thin metal that was stamped with a shallow embossing.
They should be foiled but they shouldn’t fade like that.
Installed December 2018
This pic was taken July of this year.
This pic was taken July of this year.
do you remember the rough cost? Makes me wonder if they were reselling some cheap Imported crap.
I can't find the transaction anywhere in my email which is odd because I save that kind of stuff. I'm thinking it was around $50.
Lookin good! Nice and clean. You need to paint your wheel wells though.
Thanks. Are you talking about the front wheel wells (inside the engine bay)? I kinda like them in the natural look and I didn't want to mess up the RPO sticker on the drivers fender. However the inside of the rear wheel wells looks like crap in the brown color from the donor bed floor. I'm going to scuff and spray those for sure.
I think it looks cool with the frame and engine all painted nice and the body patina looking.
I didn't snap any pics or videos from yesterday's progress but I was able to get a few more things checked off the list.
1) Battery tray, battery, chassis and block grounds added.
2) Radiator installed after a couple trips around town to find the right damn hoses (454 hoses should be easy to find right?).
3) Added coolant, fuel & PS fluid, still short some coolant that I'll pickup today.
4) Extended the bro flo battery feeds and connected them to the battery.
5) Installed the autometer oil psi & coolant temp gauges since I've abandoned the factory gauges for now.
6) Installed the bro flow app on the donor tablet and paired that with the ECU. I realized I forgot the ignition feed for the EFI so I had a little delay on that. I went through the EFI setup and downloaded the tables based on those settings.
I went to fire the engine and the starter wasn't moving so I hooked up my remote starter and the starter spun but wasn't engaging the flywheel. After a quick look I noticed the starter gear was hitting the surface of the flywheel so the alignment was out of wack. The starter has 4 different positions and the motor can be clocked so after some playing around I got it to line up. Went to fire it again and got a solid backfire, scared the $hit out my brother and his kids
. I knew the firing order was either wrong and/or I had the distributor 180 out. We verified the firing order was correct and then pulled the #1 plug to verify I was on the compression stroke, pulled the cap and saw it was 180 out. Quick fix....and one quick pull of the trigger remote it fired up. It actually fired up so quick it startled me a bit because I expected some cranking would be required however I cycled the system enough that fuel pressure was clearly built up. With the darkness setting in last evening and the system being low on coolant I had already decided that I wouldn't run it long so it was shut off after running for about 10 seconds. When it was running I also heard some noise that I didn't like, almost sounded like a mild gear drive noise. Not sure what the noise was however I'll probably eliminate the accessories from the equation with a belt removal and see if the noise goes away. Oil pressure was good btw.....
1) Battery tray, battery, chassis and block grounds added.
2) Radiator installed after a couple trips around town to find the right damn hoses (454 hoses should be easy to find right?).
3) Added coolant, fuel & PS fluid, still short some coolant that I'll pickup today.
4) Extended the bro flo battery feeds and connected them to the battery.
5) Installed the autometer oil psi & coolant temp gauges since I've abandoned the factory gauges for now.
6) Installed the bro flow app on the donor tablet and paired that with the ECU. I realized I forgot the ignition feed for the EFI so I had a little delay on that. I went through the EFI setup and downloaded the tables based on those settings.
I went to fire the engine and the starter wasn't moving so I hooked up my remote starter and the starter spun but wasn't engaging the flywheel. After a quick look I noticed the starter gear was hitting the surface of the flywheel so the alignment was out of wack. The starter has 4 different positions and the motor can be clocked so after some playing around I got it to line up. Went to fire it again and got a solid backfire, scared the $hit out my brother and his kids
. I knew the firing order was either wrong and/or I had the distributor 180 out. We verified the firing order was correct and then pulled the #1 plug to verify I was on the compression stroke, pulled the cap and saw it was 180 out. Quick fix....and one quick pull of the trigger remote it fired up. It actually fired up so quick it startled me a bit because I expected some cranking would be required however I cycled the system enough that fuel pressure was clearly built up. With the darkness setting in last evening and the system being low on coolant I had already decided that I wouldn't run it long so it was shut off after running for about 10 seconds. When it was running I also heard some noise that I didn't like, almost sounded like a mild gear drive noise. Not sure what the noise was however I'll probably eliminate the accessories from the equation with a belt removal and see if the noise goes away. Oil pressure was good btw.....
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Yeah front ones under the hood need a coat of satin black but I guess you live in rust free CA so they will be fine like they are. Neat trick I learned if you have a surface you don't want to paint and can't or don't want to tape it off is to coat it with a thin layer of Lubriplate then paint it then wipe of the overspray and Lubriplate. Works good for stickers.
The battery tray and the wheel well under the tray is pretty well rotted including some rust on the lower front fender. I debated fixing all that however I decided to leave it and just replace the battery tray and battery tray support. I don’t have any plans to paint this truck and I like the contrast of the fresh drivetrain under a pretty well preserved and original body. A spray in bed liner will be going in though, I need to hide that brown bed floor.
Confirmed the light “gear drive” noise I was hearing is in fact the accessories. I’m pretty sure it’s the alternator since the plastic fan blades were a little mangled from the engine removal. There’s also a little lighter rocker noise so I’ll go through those again and adjust as necessary.
I set the timing and took a quick video but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to post videos on here.
I set the timing and took a quick video but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to post videos on here.
upload videos on to your media, then post from there.
