79 C20 Silverado Camper Special-The do everything love affair

[CGT80]

Someone asked if I was going to do a build thread on painting my engine bay. I guess I might as well. This project has been like Greg's "might as well" project, and I refereed to it as that even before I saw his thread the other night. The thing is, this is my daily driver and I don't want it to be down any longer than it has to. I have my 88 K5 with 35's and a 6" lift to get me around right now. That one might get a build thread, but it isn't nearly as special as my C20.

My dad gave me the C20 when I turned 16. He bought it used, when I was four years old. I probably recognized that truck better, as a little kid, than my own pecker. We did everything in it. Camping with a boat and slide in camper, went to the shooting range many times, to the dumps, to the home construction stores, Sea World when I was very small. I rode in the camper shell on the Sea World trip (2 hours or so from home) and used a seat belt that my dad put in just for me.

The truck has been my do it all as well. I learned to drive in it and also my uncle's 93 Chevy 1500 short bed v6 picup. I drove it to school, community college, drove it to work when I was a painter for my uncle, used it for my side jobs, then got another job doing construction and property management and decked it out for that. I got a dirt bike and then a toy hauler and this truck drags around the toy hauler that weighs in at 8k pounds without the toys.

I have done many upgrades already, but will share some and the current work. Some specs:

79 C20 Camper Special 8200 GVW
It has always had 31's on the front and 33's on the rear.
I have BFG all terains and 16 and 16.5" pacer directional chrome wheels
stock height
had a sbc 350/th400/4.10 open diff.

In 2003 I had the rebuilt POS 350 turned into a 383 and added edelbrock heads, intake, water pump, and valve covers, MSD HEI, Douge Thorley tri y headers, 3" cat, 3" single pipe with 50 flowmaster, then later 40 series, then finally the super 44.

I ditched air shocks for rancho in cab adjustable shocks and I added 5k pound air bags and an on board air compressor to level loads. Now I run non adjustable gas shocks on the front. They were changed with the upper ball joints.

The other front end components were changed and aligned a couple years ago.

The 14bff has discs with 3/4 ton 4x4 front calipers and hoses that also fit the front of this 2wd truck. The rotors are powerslot, but the ones on the front are cryogenically treated. All pads are Hawk HPS. The master and front calipers are part of the original JB7 brake system. It is a one legger and the 406 will break it loose very easy on a bad surface. Good road surfaces are a bit harder to do a burn out on. It also needs a bigger carb to reach its full potential.

The trans has been rebuilt my my uncles shop. He only has one employee and they have worked together for decades. It has a 34 element sprag and good drum, along with a bunch of other goodies. It had a -2 transgo shift re-programer last time, but it was toned down a bit this time. The trans is sitting on his bench waiting to go back in the truck. The shift was very hard from 1st to 2nd. I had them bump it up from their usual firm shift. The torque converter is a TC 275 with anti balloon plate. It was used in early Allison transmissions and is the toughest converter for RV/street use in a Th400, according to my uncle. It has a secondary trans cooler.

My brother and I added the Gear Vendors overdrive unit. I have a 3 speed auto with a 2 speed hybrid behind it, and it gives me 6 gears forward. I can only use direct drive when engine braking, so 2nd direct is used down grades.

 

[CGT80]

I used some LMC carpet and lower door panels in the interior. My mom helped me fit and trim the carpet. I re-covered the headliner.......a few times.

I had Maco repaint the exterior in 2003. They royally screwed up the first time. It was a creamy FORD white and the original dark blue stripe, plus a ton of runs and overspray. I had added a Goodmark reproduction cowl induction hood. I had them respray it with the original frost white and dark blue. They got the lines, where the molding goes, perfectly straight. They got over spray on the emblems, tires, wheels, and engine. I stripped everything but the seat, glass, steering wheel, and front fender emblems. They also stole the tweeters that I had bagged and stuffed in the rear cab corners, so I wouldn't have to disconnect them. I'm surprised the paint has lasted this long. I hate waxing and polishing, so it is a single stage with no wax..........10 years later. The paint is very brittle. It chips off when the truck gets a dent.

Maco gave me some left over paint so I could shoot the inside of the truck. I prepped it and sprayed it on 4th of July weekend. It was about 105 in the sun. The paint sprayed out pretty well and looked decent. 2 hours later it was running down the dash. It should have setup. I was a professional at spraying cabinets, garage doors, trim work, etc. with that type of a paint gun. I mixed it per their directions and they knew it would be sprayed at home. The runs are at the bottom of the dash, so you have to really look for them.

I had a local guy upholster the bench seat. He added bolstering to make it look like two bucket seats. The back has a big red bowtie cut into it. He had me test the seat when it was in foam. It fit my ass perfect. It is a bit higher, but I love how easy it is to see over the wheel. I am only 5'7" and I like to sit high and not layed back. I will have to get a photo when the interior is back together.

The stereo head unit is a pioneer premier in the factory location. I cut 4" coaxials into the left and right of the dash, right where they sit in my 88 K5. There is another set of 4" coaxials in the doors. They are toward the firewall so that the seat doesn't block them. Behind the seat is a sub box that my best friend helped me build. The Polk/Momo amp is recessed in the middle and there are 8" aluminum Polk/Momo subs mounted on the sides of the amp. It is sleek and sounds damn good for 8" subs.

I put in electric locks from the junkyard, and later replaced some of the components. I installed an electric window kit from a place in Gardenia, Ca. I also had to add rubber boot to the doors. I cut and ground the 2" holes into the body and doors. The boots came from the rear of a Chevy station wagon.

The ceiling and drivers' door have dynomat extreme on them. I still need to do the floor, behind the seat, and the passenger door.

I recently changed the seatbelts. The fabric was old and torn. I went to the junk yard and got dark blue belts out of the back of a mid 80's dually 3+3. They had hardly been used. The retractors were different. I had to turn down the axles on the lathe so the new belt would lock in to them properly. I rewound the springs and reassembled them. The interior of the truck is painted in Tahoe metallic blue from sem paint. I had to sand, prime, texture, and paint the door panels. I have the original Silverado trim, but I did have to get the little chrome covers for the ends of the pull straps on the doors. They were $15 each at the Truck shop in Orange, Ca. The armrests are also new. The LMC lower door carpet panels didn't hold up worth a crap. The cardboard backing is warped.

I changed out the weather stripping around the doors and windows. I haven't done the wing windows yet, but I have repainted the metal divider strip. The weather stripping is top notch and was bought at J & J auto upholstery in Rialto, Ca.

The rear window is a tinted beer can window (you know, the kind my dad and neighbor used to throw their beer cans through so they would be in the bed if they got pulled over).

I went through at least three windshields. They glued the last one in and it has held up pretty well.

The gauge bezel is an aftermarket plsatic unit that looks like brushed aluminum. It looks better than stock but is a POS. I had to tweak all the dash controls, vents, etc. to better line up with the panel. The lower steering column cover doesn't even fit close to the bezel. I still need to massage it with a grinder. I have LED's for turn indicators, ebrake, high beams, and my gear vendors signal lights. The gauges are Autometer Ultra light pro comp. 5" tach and electronic speedo, with the smaller oil, water, volts, and fuel. I opted for the full sweep gauges. Voltage is in increments of 2/10's of a volt. Oil is 2psi per bar and 0-100 psi. My 406 ran up to 95 psi oil pressure when it was cold and I got on it (30 weight). Temp is in 2 degree increments. The voltage, oil, and water will also record the maximum that they reach and they have warning lights that can be set to where I want. The shift indicator is a Lokar aluminum LED unit.

The throttle cables and kickdown switch are also stainless and aluminum Lokar equipment.

The alternator is a powermaster 140 amp but it dynoed at 160 according to the tag. The ac has been upgraded and rebuilt to run 134a gas. The dizzy is an MSD HEI but it runs through a timing retard control box and has a knob in the ash tray (I hate smoking) to retard the timing if needed for heat and towing. The wires are Taylor.

 

[y5mgisi]

Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[CGT80]

Here is a shot of the engine before it went back into my truck, two years ago.

I lost a head gasket on my 383 and had over 100k miles on it. I figured it needed rings and bearings at the minimum. I was talked into having my heads and intake ported while it was down. The head guy talked me into going to a 400 bock to recreate the 406 Impersonator article from Chevy High Performance Magazine.

Here is what I ended up with:

70's 400 sbc bored 30 over
scat 9000 cast crank
scat forged rods
hyper flat top pistons 5 thousandths out of the hole for a 0.035" quench
10:1 CR
comp 270h magnum cam (224/224 470) advanced 4 degrees
roller tipped rockers and chrome-molly push-rods from 383
Edelbrock heads and intake needed major porting. The intake flowed like stock on half the runners but like a performance manifold on the other half. The heads are actually huge now, but it beats the restrictions they had.
Heads and intake were coated with thermal barrier coatings to keep heat from soaking into the incoming fuel/air mix. Exhaust cross over was blocked on one side to keep hot air from circulating from side to side. One side was left open for the EGR valve. Steam holes were drilled for 400 block.
Edelbrock street fuel pump and edelbrock 600 cfm carb.

The truck had an engine oil cooler from the factory.

I got 10 mpg while driving this truck like it was a corvette. It wasn't a radical idle, but you could tell it wasn't smooth and wasn't even close to stock. The 406 put the 383 to shame. The magazine article showed 420 hp and 525 tq. My exhaust shows 1-2 psi max, but my manifold vacuum will stay as high as 5-7 inches when towing my trailer at 3500 rpm and WOT. 2-5 inches at WOT and 5500 rpm in first gear when getting on the freeway. It ran best from 2500 to 4700 rpm. It still had power to 5500 but it flattened out and didn't keep you in the seat as hard above 4700. It was torquey even off an idle, but it didn't really get going until 2500. 65 mph and 2200 rpm was ok, but at 70 mph and 2300-2400 it got very quiet and didn't seem to work the engine at all.

My last run was up Cajon pass (7-8% grade) on I15 North. I had the truck and trailer loaded down. No toys in the trailer but it was full of gear for three of us to camp for a week. The truck weighs 5500-6k pounds with the boxes empty. The trailer weighs 8k pounds with full water, propane, and gas, but no camping gear. My dune buggy weighs 1320, but we didn't have it. The trailer tongue weighs 1180 pounds. It is a 21' bumper pull and is 24.5 feet tongue to back. The height on the back of the trailer is 11'. It sits higher than most travel trailers.

I had pinging issues with running a 10:1 engine in a heavy truck at 12 degrees initial and 34 total with another 16 degrees when the vacuum advance allows it. I had all my centrifugal advance in at 2900 rpm. When it was hot out or I towed, it pinged. It also lost power when the coolant temp got above 200 degrees. When this motor first went in, it ran warm and pinged more. I found out that even though I used the springs to set my msd to have timing all in at 3000 rpm, it was really all in by 1800 rpm. Someone here from MSD got me hooked up with a new shaft and weight/spring kit. That helped big time.

I set my springs to the slowest setting before the trip. It was all in at 4k rpm. It didn't ping at all this time. I pulled the steepest part of the grade at 50 mph in 2nd and 2nd over at 3500-4000 rpm. Engine temp was 190-200 degrees IIRC. I could have gone faster if the damn trucks had not slowed me down. This trailer is at the limit for my truck, but I have done at least 7 trips with it. The height and lack of aerodynamics really makes it worse. I usually average 5.5-6 mpg when towing. I had a vacuum gauge hooked up while towing up the grade. At WOT and 7 inches of vacuum, I knew it was looking for more air. The guy that did my heads is known to build engines at 100% VE or higher. I don't know where mine landed. It was never dynoed. I think even a 90% VE would require more than 600 cfm, and carbs don't seem to flow what they are rated. I have a qjet 795 cfm to try once the engine is broken in again.

 

[CGT80]

This truck has been very fun!

My parents and I were taking a week off from the family business and were going to go fishing at Lake Convict (location of a nature valley granola bar commercial, but we have gone there since the 80's).

I shot this photo on this trip. The lake is at 7,850 elevation and one of the mountains in the picture is Mt. Morrison and rises to 12,241 feet.

It is 300 miles or so from my house to Convict Lake. There are many grades to pull and the wind can be terible. We drove to Virginia Lake which is past Lake Mono, Ca, with this truck and trailer, but with the 383 engine.

On this trip, we had pulled Cajon pass better than ever. I was happy to do well and run cool, but I still feared the wind and additional grades that lied ahead. The 3" super 44 was a bit annoying as well. It is nice when the truck is not pulling, and the windows are up, but the extra load really worked the engine and made some noise.

At the top of Cajon, we hit the wind. I had to exit a couple miles after the top of Cajon to catch the 395 North. The wind was so bad that I was having to drag the trailer brakes to keep me straight, when the gusts would hit. I need a sway bar for my WD hitch. I hadn't felt the wind that bad before, even going through the Indio area to Ocotillo Wells OHV area.

I stopped at the first main intersection on 395. The light was red and we were just passing the truck stop. The long 2 lane road started here and the freeway was behind us. I had downshifted when coming up to the light, as usual. I started in first direct when the light turned green. I got half way through the intersection and it wasn't gaining speed. I rolled over to the side of the road. Luckily it was down hill. That is where my luck ended........That, or I just have **** for luck.

I didn't have forward or reverse. The cross wind on the desert was so bad that I thought I was going to have to put down the trailer levelers to keep from tipping over. It is common for semi trucks to tip over in our area when the Santa Ana's blow.

I called my uncle who built the trans. He was booked for a week. My mom's truck is a Chevy 1500 with about 200k on the original trans. The trailer is at least 3k pounds overweight for that truck, according to the book. The PO of the trailer used the same truck to tow that my mom has, but I think it's a bad idea, especially with a worn trans. My brother used a 1500 to move the trailer and he was amazed at how heavy it is.

I had the trailer towed to a shop nearby. My grandparents use their 2005 F word F350 dually 6.0 diesel to move our trailers to the truck stop. We were going camping as a group. The next morning, the trans shop said it needed a rebuild but it would take a few days. They said the sprag was laying in the pan and the fluid was burnt. I talked to my uncle. He secures the spray so that they can not come loose even if they fail. I didn't smell burnt fluid on the dipstick. They wanted to sell a slightly upgraded th400 off the shelf for the same price my uncle charged to build my th400. The off the shelf unit didn't have the 34 element sprag or shift re-programer. The owner was a very nice guy, but I didn't trust him.

I had the truck towed home and we moved all our gear to my grandparent's 5th wheel. My grandfather towed my trailer home and then returned to the truck stop for his. We had called the campground and rented a trailer. My dad and I got my mom's truck to head up in, and my mom rode with my grandparents. My grandfather's 5th wheel is 25' long and weighs 3500 pounds empty. He was surprised at how heavy my trailer felt even empty, but his diesel pulled it like a dream. He was really surprised when he picked his trailer back up with all of our crap. I didn't realize how much stuff we had. When we left the campground, we had to put all our stuff in my mom's truck. It barely fit. The cab and bed were full, and it is a 4 door.

A week after we got home, my uncle had an opening in the shop. They pulled the gearvendors and trans in less than 30 minutes. The fluid was burnt and there was metal in the pan, but it wasn't the sprag. The pan gasket didn't even show signs of being removed at the other shop, but I wasn't there to see the other guys do their job.

The torque converter sheared off some teeth at the front of the trans pump. That metal filled the valve body and internals of the trans. 60-80% of the lugs in the case were sheared. The case was trash. The pump was locked up. The separator plate had a check ball shoved through a port due to extreme pressures. The valve body was jacked up and the drumb was damaged. Of course the TC was trash due to having metal in it as well.

I hoped it was just a pump or TC. I knew it might need a full rebuild. My uncle also said that we needed to check the thrust on the crankshaft of the engine. He said it might have pushed the TC into the pump. He mentioned this when I called from the side of the road.

Here is where the light bulb had gone off. My starter had been grinding for a year or more. The engine was only two years old with 27k on it. I thought it was the shims, or just miss match in parts due to a different block. It rubbed when I got on the loud pedal, but not at an idle or cruising. I had to grind relief into the starter gear. My uncle knew about it, but it didn't dawn on him. He said it could be from a mix of high performance parts and a mini starter. My clearance looked good when the starter was bolted up.

My uncle walked up the the truck and pried on the back of the crank with a pry bar. The crank moved 3/16's of an inch. No, not 3 thousandths, not 10 thousandths like it probably should have been, but 187 thousandths. My heart sank.

He said to pull the engine. I have swapped my engines at home, but with the trans out, the engine was not supported on the back. I don't have a engine hoist at home. I also hoped to get the engine back quick and maybe leave the truck at the shop.

It took a few hours to pull the engine:

I ran that edelbrock water pump on my 383. It didn't leak when I pulled the 383 but I had edelbrock rebuild it anyway. It had over 100k miles on it. I saw stains on the pump this time. The rebuild leaked in 27k miles or less. POS edelbrock stuff and what did I say about **** for luck? this is what I think of my luck.

Everyone was surprised to hear that the trans was trash and the engine was jacked too. I take very good care of my vehicles.

 

[CGT80]

I could have gone back to the engine builder, but I was out of warranty as far as I knew and I didn't want him messing it up a second time, if it was his fault. My uncles right hand man, Von, is the one who actually builds my transmissions. His best friend owns and engine shop and also races a land speed record car. He runs a 268 cu. in. V8 and shifts at 8400 rpm. Von says it sounds like a rapped ape.

My uncle has used this engine builder for a few customer cars. They had the crank replaced for an old Camaro. The engine guy freshened up the engine and chose a new cam. It was a bit smaller cam, but they said the increase in torque was surprising. Von has an engine that his buddy built, installed in his son's Chevy square body, but it's a Pontiac engine.

Von offered to go to his buddie's shop to tear down my engine so we could see how fast it could be turned around. The cam was worn from the metal floating around. The crank was chewed up and needed turned 10/10. Cylinders had shadows possibly from being honed with the wrong torque plate. The roller tipped rockers had been floating around on the valves rather than staying in one position, and the push-rods were not aligned properly. It had ARP fasteners throughout the engine and I was told that it has to be honed with the arp bolts and the proper torque plate. There was crap built up in the water jacket of the block as well. Someone did not clean it out completely. I had to punch through that crap with a screwdriver when I pulled the drain plugs just above the oil pan.

I am now two months into this build. Then engine is almost done..........yep I've heard that on every engine build I have done. At least this builder is very detailed. Just talking to him and going over different points in my engine has been cool. He explains his way of doing different parts of the build. He checks everything for quality control.

This engine is being blue printed and balanced with great detail. The new crank is forged. I don't know the brand, but the engine guy has his preferences. The new crank was checked by a crank grinder. He had to grind to 10/10 and then it was re-heat treated. Yep the crank was off from the factory. They find this with Eagle, Scatt, and others.

My old crank was a scat 9000 cast. The crank grinding guy has seen many of those with bad grinds in the last few years. This may have caused part of the thrust bearing failure on my engine. Some cranks are not cut square, some the wrong size, some with the wrong stroke, or a mismatched stroke between cylinders. The last engine builder also used P bearings rather than H bearings. The shape is different and so is the quality. This is another failure point. The clearance at the radius of the journal is critical. A trans with too much pressure or not enough clearance to the crank can also take out a thrust bearing. My uncle is good about checking all of that and the anti balloon plate on the TC is just one more step he takes. He recalls putting some shims in between the trans and engine to get extra clearance, when he had it out last. He would cop to a mistake if he thought he made one, at least to me.

The old parts are so mangled that it is impossible to see where the thrust failure originated from. We are just trying to cover all the bases with the new build.

I decided to upgrade to a full roller valve train this time. I have short valve covers so finding decent roller rockers isn't easy, but the engine guy seems to have found some. They are import vs. US made but he is confident they will get me 100-200k miles out of this engine for what I do with it. We talked about forged pistons. He likes them better than hypers. Forged pistons have overcome some of the drawbacks that they used to have, such as needing more clearance and being noisy. He ultimately said that even though he likes forged, it won't gain me any noticeable benefits, and my pistons are still good. The block just needs honed.

The cam is a comp:

It has less duration but more lift than my flat tappet cam. The engine guy said that the porting is so big in the heads that the smaller cam will help with the low end torque. He contacted Comp and talked to one of the engineers that he has dealt with before, to pick the right profile. Comp told me that a roller cam can be about 10 degrees less in duration and still make the same power and have similar characteristics.

Did I mention that this is a Komnifornia smog truck? It passed with below average numbers last time. The engine builder would have gone with a bigger cam if it wasn't a smog truck. He had a cam he really likes for a high torque 400, but he said there is no way it would pass smog.

The engine will get a Melling select oil pump, weiand water pump, a cast aluminum timing cover to help with the cam thrust movement, new timing set, good gaskets, and adjustable pushrod guide plates. I have to ask if the harmonic dampener is getting replaced.

The CR should be right around 10:1 again and the cam may be advanced when installed to help the low end torque.

 

[CGT80]

Last time the engine was out, I painted the engine bay with POR15 and POR chassis black. It didn't turn out great and part of it went flat from the UV rays of the sun. I'm pretty sure I coated all of it with the chassis black.

I was just going to rattle can the engine bay while it was empty, but I started to sand the texture from the old paint.

This is where it turned into a build like Greg's "might as well" project.

I'll update later with some of my "might as well's".

Chris

 

[y5mgisi]

Sweet! Really enjoying the read!

 

[77k5blz]

Really nice great story too its cool youve had it so long

 

[Greg72]

Last time the engine was out, I painted the engine bay with POR15 and POR chassis black. It didn't turn out great and part of it went flat from the UV rays of the sun. I'm pretty sure I coated all of it with the chassis black.

I was just going to rattle can the engine bay while it was empty, but I started to sand the texture from the old paint.

This is where it turned into a build like Greg's "might as well" project.

I'll update later with some of my "might as well's".

Chris

Subscribed!

I may have been first to coin the phrase "Might As Well" (and trademark it! ) on a build thread.... But the might as wells are hiding in everyone's builds just waiting to spring out and mess up your timeline.

It all part of the fun when you start messing around with 40-year old trucks.

-G

 

[CGT80]

I don't think I mentioned this last yet, so.................I heard from the engine builder a week ago Friday. He was setting up the main bearings and doing the blueprinting on the engine and ran into bearing clearance issues. One set of bearings was too tight and the next size was too big. He is using his preferred bearing which he has found to be reliable and consistent in quality, well until now, that is. He started measuring the bearings closer and checking the block, caps, and crank, and found the bearings were not manufactured correctly. He contacted the manufacturer to let them know they had quality control issues and he ordered up another set in hopes that they will be correct.

Some builders will just throw parts in and assume that they are good quality and will work properly out of the box. Luckily, this guy seems to question every little detail as he goes. I have heard of a number of cases where new parts were not right, some of them from people here.

I haven't heard from the engine guy in the last week. It doesn't really matter as I am still working on the paint for the engine bay.

 

[76zimmer]

sounds like you've been through it....a few times now....I like the attn to detail your new engine guy has....that is everything in engine building...some get away with throwing an engine together and say it runs great, never better, etc...but how long do they really last?

I love the old C20-30 trucks for towing, pretty good rides I think.

good luck, and "might as well" keep that snowball rolling!

 

[CGT80]

The paint in the engine bay looked like crap and my wiring, fuse blocks, and relays for my accessories, which was on the inner fender, looked like crap and was exposed to the weather. My uncle gives me **** all of the time about the wiring. I had a bunch of individual fused buried under the dash, so I cleaned all that up when I put in the new gauge cluster and I moved everything under the hood where it would be easy to diagnose if.............well, when.......something went wrong. I had put most of the wiring in split loom, but not all of it. It was not done all that bad (I am pretty good with wiring) but it was not all that neat either.

The AC box seals were failing and I wanted to get that damn texture off the firewall, so I figured I might as well pull the AC box. I have sanded most of that texture off in this pic. You can see some major bad rust/cancer to the right of where the blower motor goes. There is probably an entire square inch of sheet metal missing from rust. My baby is rotting away!!!

That is about the worst of the rust on my truck. I have one small bubble like that on the lower passenger door. I know, it is rust free according to you guys in the rust belt. We luckily don't have to deal with rust all that much, here.

My Autozone fuse blocks:

The back one is for the autometer gauges, the next one is 1st battery ignition hot or accessories so it is only on with the key, then a block for the second battery (the batteries are isolated), and the front one is the first battery. I moved my original fuse block power leads from the starter to the lower fuse block. I didn't like the wires being near all the heat from the headers. All my main battery cables are 4 gauge wire. I also have a couple 150 amp breakers on the main cables.

On the left is a relay and fuse for my auxillary electric fan and also the sensor for my column shifter to go with the Lokar LED shift indicator that sits above the gauges. I also have another aluminum billet block which is the Lokar th400 downshift switch.

My relays sit on the inside of the outer fender:

You can also see the fuse for the amp that drives the subwoofers behind my seat.

Another shot of the electrical tied up so I can work on the sheet metal:

 

[CGT80]

sounds like you've been through it....a few times now....I like the attn to detail your new engine guy has....that is everything in engine building...some get away with throwing an engine together and say it runs great, never better, etc...but how long do they really last?

I love the old C20-30 trucks for towing, pretty good rides I think.

good luck, and "might as well" keep that snowball rolling!

I got over 100k miles out of the 383 but it failed due to a head gasket and that may have been due to the machinist not decking the block. It is a gamble. I did ok with the 383 but not very good with the 406, lets hope this time is better. The new guy can talk the talk and put on a good show, but the proof is in the pudding. It will take time to find out if he did what he said he would, or if he is blowing any smoke up my ass.

My truck tows quite well and rides pretty well too. The wind can be an issue, but I haven't added sway bars yet and the trailer is pushing it for an old 3/4 ton. I can't afford a 2000 or later year diesel dually, so this one will have to do for now.

Thanks for the good luck. Sometimes I think if I had any luck at all, it would be **** for luck.

 

[76zimmer]

hmmmm, pulling 16-18K total for my load, I was thinking 550tq BBC, but after towing with it...I'm FINALLY going Cummins....
The sway control is huge I believe....have only needed it a few times, but man when you tow without one and need it, they are priceless....I use a simple friction pad type....and it makes a big difference.

 

[CGT80]

Here is some old etch primer that I used on my inner fenders, after they were sand blasted. My uncle and his father own a blasting company. Their normal work is blasting multi-million dollar turbines at power plants, and the associated equipment that also needs cleaned or blasted with steel shot to reduce stress. They blasted my inner fenders. It cost me a case of Miller, in bottles and I only had to wait one day for them to be done.

I sanded the old POR 15 and chassis coat with 220 sand paper, by hand. It was slow. I borrowed my neighbors DA sander. I have used an electric orbital sander for woodwork and drywall for years as a pro. The orbital sucks for auto work. I tried the DA for the first time and was in love. I am glad my compressor is a Sanborn 5hp 60 gallon single stage, but bigger would be even better. I got the compressor for free from a building that I cleaned up and rehabbed for work. It was left by the old tenant because the motor broke off it's base. I can weld, and now it runs. It just barely kept up, especially when I locked the sander head to do more aggressive sanding.

The paint was getting smoother, but I eventually made the POR 15 thin. Then it started to lift. My 5" makita disc sander seemed to agressive for removing the paint, especially on a curved surface. Lower grit paper for the DA was an option, but it still wouldn't take care of the rust where the batteries had leaked onto the inner fender. It would have taken a lot of paper and time. Paint stripper was slow and messy. I called up the blasting shop and they said bring it on down.

The etch was left over from painting my original hood, back in 1999 or 2000. It mixed up ok, but it came out like string as I sprayed it. I was able to sand the texture out. I didn't want to waste the primer so this was a good use for it. It seems to have bonded well. Hopefully it won't all sheet off a few months down the road

I bought some new etch primer for the rest of the engine bay and small parts. I used a black fill primer with a hardener, over the etch.

Here is the fill primer sanded out:

As you can see, it won't be smooth as a babies but or show quality. I am not a professional auto paint guy, I didn't strip everything down, I don't have the time and money to go extreme, and the daily driver status of the truck doesn't warrant the effort. Still, my OCD wants it to look perfect. I try to not listen to those OCD voices in my head, but rather the voices that tell me to get that 406 beast back in , so I can stomp on the skinny pedal and hear the music that the little modest mouse will make.

The paint and engine bay will look much better than in the past and it will look better than many of the classic engine bays out there, especially the non show, daily drivers. That will have to be good enough, I guess.

I used product from a local family owned paint store. I used to buy house/commercial paint from them, but they deal in auto paint also. They have been great with giving me advice on how to use the product.

The base is black:

The clear coat is a satin sheen. Thanks to those who answered my poll, in the other thread, asking what sheen they liked on engine bays. Last time I checked, around 60% of people liked satin. I found some pics on the net and I agree. Gloss was easy to keep up, but it showed every flaw and looked kind of cheap. I may do the engine brackets in gloss high heat engine spray cans, I have a half dozen of them, since I was going to rattle can the engine bay.

Here are some photos of my first attempt at base/clear:

The base coat was like water, and was forgiving and easy to work with. It smelled like the lacquer that I used on cabinets in the past. It dried fast so I didn't have to worry about runs or backing into it as I was standing in the engine bay. The clear was harder. I was trying to get a wet coat but not get runs. My spray gun is an old model 18 Binks 1qt siphon cup gun with a 66 sk tip and air cap.

I didn't get enough clear on the bottom of the MC and I got a lot on the top of the brake booster. The vertical sheet metal looks nice. It has some orange peel, but that gives it a slight textured look, which is nice and will hide some imperfections. It is better than I could have done with a spray can. I am hoping that when it is all together, the imperfections in the paint will take a back seat to the overall clean look of the engine and the bay it sits in. Much of the metal in the photos will be partially hidden by
components.

I resisted the urge to remove the brake booster and do more prep on the firewall. I have to draw the line somewhere.............I don't have to, but.........I might as well.

 

[CGT80]

hmmmm, pulling 16-18K total for my load, I was thinking 550tq BBC, but after towing with it...I'm FINALLY going Cummins....
The sway control is huge I believe....have only needed it a few times, but man when you tow without one and need it, they are priceless....I use a simple friction pad type....and it makes a big difference.

I figure I am at 14-15k total for my load. It is possible to get 525 tq out of my 406 with an ideal tune and a bigger carb. I want to put the bigger 795 q jet on the engine once I get it broke in with the current 600 performer carb. I am curious to see how much power I am missing out on by running a carb that is too small.

I thought about a killer big block, but they are just as expensive, if not more so, to make big numbers. I would have gone for 650+ tq if I had done it. I already have all the components for the small block and big block will still get horible mileage and has to be spun faster than a diesel to make power. If I still had a stock engine, I might have considered a cummins, although I have to stay smog legal.

My parents are looking for a dually diesel, so I may just borrow their truck for longer trips. We often vacation together and use my trailer anyway. The modern diesels just put the gas engines to shame.

 

[CGT80]

Here are some of the smaller parts that I sprayed with etch and fill primer today. It is almost 100 degrees out there now, so finish will have to wait until morning, if I get them all sanded today.

You can see my work area. I have a single car garage (with a low roof) and a storage room to the left, which housed some of my parts and is used for some of my ammo reloading. I like to shoot pistol and 3 gun competitions. I cast boolits for some of my rifles and my Smith 460 mag XVR revolver. My air compressor sits outside due to noise and lack of room.

The look of the fill primer is great. It has a slight texture and just the right amount of sheen. It also lays out with a very consistent look. If only I could get my base/clear to look so consistent.

My dune buggy/sand rail is also visible. I bought this a few years ago, after breaking my leg while riding my 01 Yamaha WR426F dirt bike. I figure a roll cage and 4 wheels is a bit safer. The rail has a 1914 or 1915 vw that is built. It is an ongoing project as well.

Here is a photo of the gauge cluster that my brother and I built for it. The PO had a generic aluminum switch panel and no gauges. The gauges are set behind a clear sheet of acrylic to weather proof them. Unfortunately the needles have faded a bit from being in the sun. I keep a drop cloth over them now. I stored the car in the trailer, but I had to pull it out to use the trailer for my failed trip, and I needed to rebuild the carbs on the car.

 

[76zimmer]

my BIL has a VW Barrien buggy chassis, and he beats the snot out of it...just keeps taking it....ONLY thing I don't like is eating the sand!

Nice job on the paint work!

 

[CGT80]

I looked at fuse panels online, to use in my engine bay. None of them are fully weather tight. Even the marine panels aren't really made to go in an engine bay that gets dirty and wet from splashed water. Painless had waterproof panels, but they are small and very expensive. I thought about a under hood fuse panel from the junk yard. The problem is that it would look like poo on a curved inner fender, and I needed 3 different power sources for the fuses.

Well, how about if I just shove all that electrical crap into a nearly weather proof box? I could easily buy or build a rectangular box, but it would still look like poo and waste space. I have sheet metal, a mig welder, and a tig welder.......

The box is 16ga steel sheet that I had left from another project. I cut, drilled, and tapped the tabs for 10-24 machine screws. The box better fits the contour of the fender, when the fender is bolted in the truck. I made cardboard templates of the curves and then transferred them to the sheet and cut them out with my plasma cutter. I can't draw a straight or curved line to save my life, so I used my 13 year old, USA made, 5" Milwaukee angle grinder to clean up the cuts and fine tune the pieces. It is the magnum version that is variable speed and rated at 2.1 hp and something like 11 amps. It rocks with a flap wheel.

I tack welded the tabs on the first side (in the truck) and screwed them down, then tack welded the next side. After a few days of on and off work, I had a box with 4 contoured sides. As some of you know, there isn't any thing straight on a square body. I had to eyeball everything to make sure it looked like it was sitting straight on the inner fender. The only real base I had, was the edge of the fender where the hood sits. Even then, the middle of the fender has a straight spot for the wiring that goes around the front clip. Well, it doesn't match the hood line either, so I had to just pick a line to follow.

The lid was originally made of 1/8" angle iron that I made a frame out of, with 45 degree corners. I welded a piece of 16 gauge in the middle. I was going to bondo the top to make it smooth. Did I mention that I have **** for luck? When I tig welded the seams on the sheet metal, it warped the angle iron frame. I tried to cut and realign it, but it wasn't happening. I did it this way because I don't have a sheet metal brake to bend it all from sheet.

Since that plan failed, it was time for plan B. Have a shop bend a lid, right? HELL NO!!! I am on a low budget and it is built not bought!

I thought of buying a cheap brake, but I am on a budget. I sat in front of youtube for 30 minutes and then came up with this:

I had all the parts on hand. It isn't fancy, and it took a few hours rather than 30 minutes to build, but I figured it was my best shot at making a decent lid without trashing a bunch of sheet. The little 3/8" thick welding table came with my 1965 Miller 330 ab/p 460 amp tig welder.

The clamp bar was clamped directly to the table and sheet, by bolts that went into holes in the table that I drilled and tapped. I had to use another piece of steel to do the final two bends. I wish I had a decent finger brake. The material is 20 gauge sheet aluminum. I had it, it was just the right size, and the thin material is easier to bend.

I tried annealing the aluminum with an acetylene torch. I had never done that before and I don't think it really worked. It still was very stiff and had a twang to it when you bend it around by hand. It started to warp a bit when I heated it with the torch. Yep, **** for luck!

I used the piece anyway. I would rather make my first bend on a brake with a sheet of metal that might be trash. I could always remake it with non-warped sheet if my brake worked well.

I bent the sheet while cold. It turned out pretty good. The corners were tig welded. 20 gauge aluminum is a bitch to weld with a sine wave tig machine and ac current. It wants to melt before the metal flows together, and the arc is a big ball. My joints weren't all tight, and tig isn't ideal for filling in gaps on thin material. It took a couple hours of skipping around to weld the corners. I didn't want to warp this panel too. Luckily it didn't seem too warped from the torch. After being bent, the top was a tad convex, but it looked even. I'll take it.

I filled a couple spots on the corners with bondo and then laid down etch and fill primer. The top will be held on with thumb screw that have black plastic knobs and a 10-24 metal thread.

I was hoping to put a false bottom in this box so I could just secure my fuses and relays to the bottom with sheet metal screws. I did't want to penetrate...ohh I said penetrate.....

I didn't want to run screws down through the wheel well where the tire might hit them, and water may travel up the threads. It just wasn't feasible to use a false bottom, so I will run machine screws from the bottom of the fender and put nuts on top. I have some washers with rubber on them, to seal out the water. I may use some silllyyycone too.

I wanted to paint the inner fender and electrical box out of the truck. Plus the lack of sheet metal allowed me to get into the engine bay to paint that. I had a hard enough time getting the inner fenders in and out without the box, so I knew it was a no go with the box attached. After paint, I will run a small bead of sealant on the inside of the box to keep water out. I may leave the lower corner unsealed so it can drain, if water does happen to get in. I think it will look clean when it is done. I know it is just still a big rectangular box, but at least it matches the contour of the fender like it somewhat belongs. It's a square body anyway.

My kickdown switch and shift indicator cables will go in the box from the firewall side. I will use rubber grommets. A bunch of other wires will enter the rear also. The front side should only have 2 4ga battery cables going in. I don't know if I will put the stereo amp fuse in the box or just mount it to the fender or outside of the box.

I am considering running my engine wiring harness with the AC wiring across the top of the firewall. The engine harness was below that and ran under the brake booster. It was hard to get to and it added more clutter. I also have a couple harnesses that run from the dizzy to the control box on the other inner fender and the control inside the truck. I will try to clean that up as much as possible.

The passenger fender is where the big battery isolator and MSD timing box is mounted, along with 2 150 amp circuit breakers.

I had the original junction block on the firewall and the alternator sensing wire goes there, from what I remember. I was considering using the 1st battery fuse block for that junction instead. that is where my battery cable and original fuse block wires lead to. I just don't know if it will throw of my charging. I loose 1-1.5 volts due to the battery isolator anyway.