How to view this blog.

Unfortunatly Blogspot will not allow for me to have my most recent posts show up at the bottom of the page. My newest posts always appear at the top. So, you may need to scroll down to the first unread post and work your way back up. Or, use the archive. It is a bit combersome, but it will have to do.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Radiator fab work.

Time to install the radiator. First test fit. I knew I would have issues using a gasser/non-intercooled core support, but as yet, I did not know what those issues would be. The first problem was the flange set-up for the radiator support. The v-8 gas engines are not as long as the cummins so the radiator was mounted toward the engine on these flanges. The radiator that goes with the cummins and intercooler needs to go between the flanges and fit almost flush with the core support. But alas, the gap is too narrow.
The cross-flow radiator is 30 inches wide. I marked out the cut lines with duct tape. Using the cut-off wheel, I will cut along the edge of the tape.
I am taking off about 2 1/4 inces from each side.
This will leave a 30 inch gap between the flanges.
This is what it looked like after cutting off the driver's side flange. The arrow and the lower red lines indicat additional cutting I need to do. Prior to the additional cutting, the radiator sat up about a half inch too high.
Same issue on the pass. side.
This is a shot before I did the additional cutting. It was the secod test fit, if you will.
This is the drain plug on the drive side befor a cut the clearance below it.
This is the lower outlet on the pass. side with marks indicating the additional cuts mentioned before.
Once finished with all the additional trimming, I was able to test fit the radiator for the third time. This time it fir well, I just need to trim a little on the side by the lower outlet so it does nor rub on the flange. At this point I was able to see that the radiator was right at 1 inch above the bottom of the core support. After scratching my head for a while, I cam up with the plan to cut some brackets out of some scrap frame channel I had lying around. The radiator has two pins on the bottom that fir into rubber bushings that in turn fit into holes that are just under 1 inch in diameter. Since I do not have a drill that big, I wil utilize the hole in the frame channel. Once again, I marked off my cuts with tape. This time I will use the porta-band in the background.
Here are my two brackets almost ready for test fit 4.
This pic shows one of my fabbed lower radiator brackets with the rubber bushing and a burr in a die grinder. The hole was not quite big enough, so a couple of round-i-rounds with the burr were in order.
This is looking straight down between the engine and the core support. You can see the two brackets with bushings sitting doun there. Eventually, I will weld the brackets to the bottom of the core support.
The 4th trial fit put the radiator in almost perfect location but the picture seems to be lost.


Core Support

I was thinking the next step was the doors, but changed my mind and went to work on the core support. I am using a core support out of an '89 gasser (the one that donated its firewall and dash/heater). The only mod I had to make to put the '89 core support on the '77 frame was drilling two holes for the mounts. The holes in the frame were about 2 inches farther apart than the holes in the core support. I chose to drill the frame rather than the support. I figured it did not matter and the frame would stay put while I drilled. In this picture you can see the 1 1/2 in. spacers for the body lift below the support.
In this shot you can see that I still have work to do on the brake booster/master cylinder. I thought I was going to use the booster out of the '89 so I left it on the firewall, but as it turns out, I need to use the one that came on my cummins donor because the port size is different and I need to use the bigger plug to plumb in the heater controls. I considered tapping into the vacuum system elswhere, but I am not sure if the vacuum pump on the cummins needs a special booster or not. Anyway, five bolts and it will be changed. It is easy to get to with the dash out.
On the passenger side, I wnt ahead and put in the inner fender. Other than someday replacing the turbo housing and/or upgrading the exhaust, very little work will need to go on on this side of the engine. I will most likely need to move the radiatoor overflow bottle toward the headlight in order to run the intercooler pipes.
Next up, radiator.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Heater box install.

Now that the firewall work is done, I installed the diesel heat/noise blanket.
And the heater box.
Engine side of heater box.
Another shot.
Heter hoses hooked up. Not sure I got the controler on the right hose, but no worries. Sombody will set me straight.
Next, I will replace the door hinges. This is a tough thing once the dash is in. I am changing the higes to newer because the newer have replacable bushings. This rig will have summer doors and winter doors. The summer doors will not have any glass or mechanism in them, and they will be cut down to armrest height. I plan to rig up a door lock button to work the latch. It should be cool. The idea is to get rid of the frame around the side windows when the top is off. I will set it up so that I can change the doors by driving out the hinge pins. My hope is that I can change out the doors twice a year without having to adjust them each time. We'll see.

Firewall finished

I finished welding in the new firewall today. After grinding the high spots off the welds, I spread seam sealer over the joint. This is the outside driver's side. I had already touched up the paint at the windshield flange.

This is also the driver's side, but on the inside. Everywhere that you see sealer here, there was factory sealer. I also seam sealed the outside only to ensure that water does not get in.
The stitch welding took a while, but, now that it is done, I am glad that I did it. This newer style firewall will make everything else about my conversion go slick.
Here are the same shots, after I touched up the paint. I know the seam sealer looks cruddy, but that is the way the original came out of the factory. I am not going to worry about it. I am not building this one for show, and once it is all together, nobody will notice it unless they are looking for it anyway.
The inside looks pretty much factory.
Looks pretty good. I will roll out some bedliner material on the floor at a later time.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Firewall Replacement Part 2

This shot is looking into the part of the vent cowell that is still on the truck. The triangle metal flap with the reflecting shine on it is a water deflector. It keeps rainwater from running down the inner wall and coming through the vent under the heater and, on the other side, under the parking brake pedal. On my initial build of my crewcab, I patched some rust in the cowell and forgot to replace the deflector. When it rained or when I washed the car, my floor always got soaked. Here, I painted the surface with POR15. I forgot to replace the seam sealer in this area. I will have to sneak it in there later because...
...I started welding in the new part. So, that little hole is now all I have for access for the sealer. This is the outside below the windshield. It will be covered by the cowell grill panel that goes between the hood and windshield. The threaded stud and the threaded hole support the top of the driver's fenderThis is the inside below the windshield, driver's side. The bracket supports the parking brake assembly.
This is the outside on the driver's side looking at the area next to the wiring harness plug. This pic must be upside down, which would make the stamped-in numbers upside down if I turned it over. I decided not to change the picture because it is a pain in the butt to do so.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Maybe I will keep it this way so I can view the Cummins.

Not. This is a tough look. I keep telling myself that I did not just destroy my truck. I also wonder if it would have been easier to haf just cut the A-pillars and the floor and grafted the new on that way. It's a toss-up. If I had done that, then the front cab mounts would hav been utilized and the quality of my welds ay become a safety issue. Huh, sounds like a serious lack of confidence.

Kind of empty looking.
Hey look, twins.
Here is the firewall out of the donor. I left the wiper motor and linkage and the brake booster onit. Why not. It is newer than the original stuff, and, sticking with the theme, the wiper motor will, guaranteed, be compatible with the delay system built into the wiring and tilt column I will be using.
Here is the driver's side clamped into place and trimmed to fit with about 1/16" gap in most places.
The passenger side.
My worst fitment issue. Som filler will be needed, but at least it is out in the open, instead of burried down in the hole like the patches. All-in-all, I feel much better about this repair than a bunch of cruddy patches.


Patches? We don't need no stinking patches.

Unconfortable with and, frankly, sick of the patches, I ventured down a new path today. I made the decision to give up the patching and replace the whole firewall. After grinding away all the gobbed on seam sealer with a wire bruch on the 4" angle grinder, I exposed this seam that runs all the way accross the cab where the floor panels meet the firewall. I plan to cut the firewall just above the seam about a quarter of an inch.
Since my donor firewall is out of an '89 pick-up, I am not only eliminating the rust, but I am also prepping the ramcharger to accept the newr style wiring harness and heater box. The harness and heater bow will make the transition ti the '92 style dash a matter of screws and bolts. To the untrained eye, it will liiok like the '92 dash and instruments were in the truck since 1977.

I also exposed this seam next to the kick panel. I will also cut 1/4 inch into the firewall with the cut-off wheel in the air grinder.
Here I have made my initial cuts. The key-hole shaped hole is where the parking brake cable passes through the floor.
An hour and three cut-off wheels later, the firewall is loose,
Another shot from the other side. Prior to cutting this out, I "practiced" on a 1989 half ton gasser that I bought last summer. I bought it to supply a transmission for my 1989 ramcharger that is now for sale, for the cool, super-heavy-duty bumpers that were on it, and to be a sheet metal donor. Eventually, I will make a utility trailor out of the bed and frame. Currently the engine and transfer case are up for sale.

Trouble with the patching.

Wow, I am glad this photo is blurry. I know people who can weld. Apparently I am not one of them. The face of this patch was not too bad. It had easy enough access, but the patch extends behind the brake pedal/steering collumn bracket. Inside the cowel the surface is rusty and access is limited.
This shot shows some of what I am dealing with. What the shot does not show is that the camera is peaking theous a 1 1/2 by 3 inch hole. It also shows how bad my patch fit was in the hard to reach places.
Some of the welding had to be done through the 1 inch wiper post hole. Not enough light got out of the box to darken my welding lense. Flashed the old eyballs a few times. Got to get beyond this frustration.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

To deal with the cowel rust, I needed donor sheet metal to graft in in place og the metal I cut out. I could have shaped new steel to form patches, but I have part of a cab from the '93 donor vehicle that gave up the power train for this project. This half cab is the full extent of the sheet metal that was on the truck when I got it.
Looking over the shape of the metal, the '77 and the '92 are virtually identicle, so I will use pieces of this red cab to make patch panels for the Ramcharger.
Using the sawzall and way too coarse of a blade, I hacked a big chunk of the firewall and cowel out. I debated removing the whole firewall and replacing the one in the rc with it. That would give me the correct hole for the style heater box that would fit the style dash I am using. Specifically, I am talking about the heater controls and ducting. I have not yet looked to see if the newer style controlls will work with the old heater box. Nor have I looked at how the ducting will work. If I need to, I will cut the firewall to fit the new style heater and be done with that issue.
I did not take any pics of the precess of laying out and cutting the patch panel. I basically just took some rough measurements and cut it out a litle too big, on purpose. Then i held it in place and marked where aditional cutting needed to be done. i did the cutting that I could reach with a cutt-off wheel on a die-grinder. The parts in behind the column/brake pedel hanger, I did with a 12" blade in the sawzall. This final pic is the finished panel in place. Since, I have welded the top edge and the hard to get parts behind the bracketry. Some of the welding I had to do through the hole where the wiper post comes through the cowel. It is not easy to get to. For the welding, I started by stitching at about 3/4" intervals, then, since I am not worried about warpage, I filled the space between the stitch welds all at once. Hopefully, I will finish this and the small patch tomorrow and I can start putting the dash in. Along with the heater issues, I will also need to change the rectangular hole where the harness plug passes through the firewall. And, yet to be resolved is the compatibility between the old style fuel guage sending unit and the new guage. I am guessing it will be a non-issue. Famous last words.