Chevy 3600 into a daily driver

Spent some time today cleaning up the frame for paint.

63 years of grease, oil and dirt covered the drivers side. Between a wire wheel on my 4-1/2" grinder, a putty knife and a healthy combination of degreaser and some hot water I got it clean.

I fought rain showers all day....



After the degreasing and cleaning I sprayed the frame down with KBS Rust Blaster and rinsed it again with hot water.
I rolled it into the shop and let it dry for a couple hours and brushed on a coat of KBS Coatings Satin Black. Turned out pretty good. I will follow up with a couple more coats over the weekend.



All my gaskets and misc parts showed up for the 350, so I hope to start buttoning that up this weekend as well. Maybe even get it painted!!

 

Motor is now orange......



And my Lokar shifter showed up.......whoohoooo

 

Sweet!

 

I took the day off work and got some stuff accomplished.

I ended up damaging the rear brake line when I put in the tranny cross member, so I re did that. The passenger front brake line was routed next to the old tranny cross member, so that had to be redone as well.

I drilled the holes and bolted in the new transmission cross member. I bolted on the new aluminum intake to the SBC, as well as installed a new oil pan gasket.







I installed the stall converter on the TH350, and was ready to bolt the flex plate to the engine when I realized the bolts are 7/16" fine thread. None of those in my bolt bin.

Oh well.......I will get it done tomorrow and toss the motor and tranny in.

My HEI Distributor and plug wires showed up from Speedway. Sure nice having those guys only 1 shipping day away.



I am running an aluminum water pump, measures like a short pump. I picked up a pulley today at the junkyard, but it looks like I would need to space out the pulley 5/8" to match the crank pulley. Does not make sense. The pulley came off a mid 70's GMC truck with a SBC.

Any advice on mufflers? I plan on piecing together the exhaust myself. The local muffler guy wants almost $500. I can weld and bend pipe.......only concerned about flaring.

 

Pretty good day despite distractions and multiple trips to the hardware store.

Got the bolts to mount up the flex plate and got the tranny attached to the motor.

Everything went together fairly smooth.



I did overlook during mockup that the fuel pump would hit the frame. A quick cut with the jig saw and some grinding and it was fixed.







Off the jack stands and pushed outside so I could clean out the shop!!

 

Spent the last couple nights in the garage trying to get tings buttoned up.

Last night I got most of the wiring done.

I mounted the Lokar shifter. Looks I will need to buy the additional kit to ket the shifter a little further away from the seat. I have 3 people in the cab fairly often......the leg room can be an issue.

Today after work I crawled under 20+ mid 70's 2 x 4 chevy and gmc trucks looking for a driveshaft and yoke for my TH350. Found the yoke, but no driveshafts.

Also found a good donor for a long pump and alternator brackets!!



When I got home I cleaned everything up and gave it a rattle can facelift.



I mocked up my throttle linkage, along with bolted up the bracket for the TH350 kickdown cable. The cable itself is short. Not the housing, it reaches fine, but the physical cable seems to short even after adjusting it.
I assume they come in different lengths?



I am pretty happy with the linkage, although the pedal sure feels different than compared to the old 6 cyl carb. Pedal travel is minimal.....

 

WE HAVE A RUNNER!!!

Today was the day.....fired it up!!

Work has been a real bitch lately.....so time to work on Henry has been tough to come by. Slowly but surely, I was able to button it all up and do a test fire today.







Fired right up and we were able to time it and do some tuning on the carb.



Punch list items:
Exhaust
Driveshaft (need to locate a 64" long one)
Hook up Lokar shifter (waiting for forward mount kit)
Air filter spacer
bleed brakes
Breathers for valve covers



The stock valve covers have 7/8" holes. Any ideas on breathers for them?

 

Another solid day on the conversion.



Got my Lokar with Bell Crank kit all installed. Pretty slick set up. Happy with the install. Pumped it all fit through the stock floor hole.





Ordered a custom driveshaft on Thursday. It was supposed to be done on Friday at noon. Drove 85 miles to Fargo and the guy forgot to build it.......UGGHHH. Supposed to be done on Monday now.

 

Nice! You've been kickin ass!

 

Another huge hurdle has been crossed!! Henry is BACK on the road.

I bolted on the brand new driveshaft. I double and triple checked everything and dropped him down on all 4 wheels.

Fired right up and I checked the tranny fluid. After adding some I backed him out of the garage!! Huge smiles!!!

A couple spins around the neighborhood and more checking of nuts and bolts and I advanced the timing to get rid of a pesky miss right off idle. By the end of the night I had it running really good......I am hitting up my local repair shop tomorrow and check the timing and take a look at the carb. They specialize in hot rods and race cars.

Still not 100% sold on the exhaust.......It is a little loud and I get a resonation at certain RPM's that will drive me nuts. Hoping some dynamat on the floor will help.....other wise new mufflers.

 

Still tinkering and cruising daily.

Spent some time at the local repair shop. My timing was right on, but I had the vacuum line to my HEI on the wrong port on my carb, so I had no vacuum advance except at high rpm. That woke it up.......runs like a scalded cat now!!

 

Which lokar shifter did you did you go with? Do you have a pic of how it turned out inside?

I am getting ready to order one and have been thinking of going with a double bend 32".

 

Awesome progress. Totally worth it!

 

Wow! It is turning out great! This is one of the better long beds I have seen. Keep up the great work.

 

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Lokar-ATS6350AN-GM-TH350-Nostalgia-Shifter-w-Free-boot,522.html
This is the shifter I got, except mine is black. I will have to look if I have a picture!!

 

Thanks!!

 

Thank you!!!

 

So I have some miles on the old guy now. Runs like a champ.

I think I need another set of wheels with some cheap tires on them. The wide whites are taking a beating!! I taught my oldest son the better points of a smokey burnout today...........turns out my 3.43 rear end is limited slip.

Next step is going through the suspension. Front springs are sagging and I am sure all the shackles and bolts are shot. Lots of rattles and rough ride. Probably going to lose some of the low stance, but it will be worth it for a little better ride.

Then start tracking down rattles and cab noise.......

I will also be looking for a little better gearing for the highway. I do not have a tach, but I am guessing I am pulling 3K at 65 right now. Would like to drop that a bit.

Speedo is off about 15mph at 65mph. Need to fix that........

If I could do the whole conversion again about all I would do differently is change from hugger headers to ram horns to make fitment a bit easier. Other than that......the whole experience was pretty painless!!

Thanks for all the input......made it all pretty easy for a newbie!!

 

Walked right past my company truck and hoped in Henry for my 15 mile commute to work.

Henry's step brother "Gene" was here too!!



Gene is a baddass '49 GMC owned by a coworker. Sweet build done about the same time as Henry!!

383 stroker, tubed with narrowed 9", over the frame headers..........dream build list!!





Cool thing is "Gene" is also a Family truck It was Casey's Grampa's truck.

Both trucks live 4 blocks apart!!

 

Nothing new to post.

Got the timing dialed. Somehow it was very retarded. Set perfect now. Runs even better now. Carb is dialed in as well.



Lots of little stuff to do, but I am enjoying driving it to much. If I go more than a couple days without at least a short cruise I get crabby!!

 

Awesome man! Henry looks awesome still and it sounds like he runs great too, congrats brother!

 

Beautiful truck I am working on mine and right now figure out how I am going to place the rear end I have a 79 trans am rear end in it and think I might just put it above the springs.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Finally got started on the wiring. First things I did was gut all the old wiring out!! It did not take too long.



After that I laid the new wiring and removed circuits and wires I would not be using. I installed the fuse block under the dash and starting pulling wires to the appropriate areas.





After the wires were in the area's I tackled the dash. It is always nice to get the toughest stuff out the of the way first.

 

Sorry I have not updated this in awhile.....been to busy driving. Almost project time since winter is on the way. IFS and IRS combo on bags is the upcoming project.

 

Truck looks great Coach.

 

Thanks.......sure having fun with it!!

 

Love everything about your truck, best to you and yours! Have a blast with her!

 

That's how I like to see a truck being used! It's nice to have a pretty truck, but you miss out on so much fun if you don't want to do that to it. Well done.