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I'll attach photos later, but I got the fuel lines made from the tank to the hard lines, and got my sender to work in the tank finally. I also did the vent line setup for the tank. The only parts I'll need to buy are the rubber hose and an evap canister (from an S10 at the junkyard). I also wired the header panel and rear bumper lights. If I split the wiring up it's gotta be a lot easier and will hopefully be a bit more modular. Then I started the air box for the intake. I'll probably be kicking myself when I end up painting in the near future on all this stuff I've built or modified but I'll worry about that later.
Jessica
What did you use for a tank vent? I'm confused on mine, not sure if I need a check valve or a breather or what.
I used a sender from a 22gal Blazer and it has a 5/8" hole in the top for a vent, and a small EVAP line for that. So I put a 5/8" fitting on the neck of the tank so I can run a rubber hose to it for the tank vent (so it'll fill ok).
Blazer sender, modified to fit in the El Camino tank and use -6AN lines I used a steel fitting with a brass 5/8" barb fitting to go on the neck I kind of tacked and welded it onto the hole I drilled into the top of the neck. I'll be sealing it with sealant in case my weld isn't the water tight Air box sides I made it shorter and a bit smaller than the cardboard cutout I had made I may do something to the top to make it a little less plain
I got the tank in the car, and I made up all the fuel lines to the engine. I also wired the back of the car (lights, fuel pump, and sender).
I got a bunch of stuff all squared away on the car thats not really important but it was progress. Tank is in place, wired, and plumbed
This thing is taking up all my time Then this all happened
I lowered it a lot with the springs just to get the front down and looking level. Unfortunately, now its too low to really drive so I've decided to stop wasting time with that kind of junk and just throw the bags on it that have been in my garage since I bought the truck.
I'm using the parts I have, and trying not to spend a ton (its still stupid expensive, and a steep learning curve). I'm not going to install an e-level control, so it'll be all done with gauges and a switch box. Its very 90s but I think it'll be a lot of fun and if I like it I can upgrade it in the future. I'm also going to just do a bag over axle on the rear for now, but in the future a 4 link might happen. My goal is to get the truck on bags by the end of July so that'll still leave me most of the summer to work on the El Camino.
Kinda in your situation with the el camino & air ride. Got a lot of parts that's been sitting around, but not everything. Gonna just start out with plastic manual control valves. Will do an engine driven york compressor. Plumbing will still be a pain & I never found !/4" line tees with one 1/8" out for my gauges. More connectors is more potential leaks. Plumbing ain't rocket science, but geez. It can drive you nuts & piece mill you to death. So I feel your pain there.
One electric compressor may work, but I think most people trying to air tanks to lift a tow pig would run 2. I think unless you go all the way to the ride height position sensor systems, then you may as well just have manual control.
Kinda in your situation with the el camino & air ride. Got a lot of parts that's been sitting around, but not everything. Gonna just start out with plastic manual control valves. Will do an engine driven york compressor. Plumbing will still be a pain & I never found !/4" line tees with one 1/8" out for my gauges. More connectors is more potential leaks. Plumbing ain't rocket science, but geez. It can drive you nuts & piece mill you to death. So I feel your pain there.
One electric compressor may work, but I think most people trying to air tanks to lift a tow pig would run 2. I think unless you go all the way to the ride height position sensor systems, then you may as well just have manual control.
YUP! All good points! I think I'll need 2 compressors at least or do a Sanden or York on the engine. I'm going to get it all hooked up with the single pump for now and make it so I can add the second one later (I really don't want to spend the money on the electric if I'm going to do one on the engine in the future)
As for the 1/8" line to the gauges here is what I found. You'll have to run a separate T and use a bushing to get down to 1/8" and then Fastenal has 1/8" quick connect fittings. I had some really neat T fittings that are machined and not cast, so I tapped them for a 1/8" NPT port.
My Supply line will go down and that valve on the top is just a dump and I'll get my gauge reading right off the T If it doesn't work I'm back to needing 8 Tees but if it does work I've saved a bit of money and headache.
Hmmm. Might just get 4 heavy 90 degree !/4" fittings like you got there & tap them for 1/8". Had a York on a company truck for years & kept it when we got rid of the truck. Got it all polished up & mounted running off v-bet pulley I fit to steel tensioner wheel. Filled crankcase with oil & it was spitting it out like crazy. Researched date & the York was from 1967. Rebuilt (or new china pump)from oreilly's was about 200 without clutch. Never got back to it. If you get a used one, make sure it's not wore out like mine was.
One electric pump will work & you can always make a connection to fill up tank with home compressor in case needed...
I was going to use goodyear rubber air hose like I plumbed some work truck onboard air tanks & connectors with, but too many leak issues. Not from the hose, but the poor quality of the current homestore & or harbor freight brass air fittings.
Well this summer really took a turn! I also haven't updated this poor thread in months so here we go folks!
I have been doing a lot of work on my house and having a little bit of work done on it, plus I've been all over for work it seams and I haven't had much time for my projects. One of those things was windows and even though I have years of experience working in construction I was surprised a 4 day estimate turned into 4 months of having my house torn apart.
Somewhere in there my S10 broke its harmonic balancer and the crank bolt stripped so that was a fairly stressful fix to retap the crank on the truck and get it back together. I sold it shortly after. Then I sold my Blazer I'd gotten for winter use and had planned to put a Bravad AWD T-case in. So I needed a daily and I was very fortunate to find a Silverado SS!
I lowered it the week I got it, and it basically ticks all the boxes my Blazer build was going to have. big disc brakes, V-8, AWD, comfy (not a single cab), and reliable. So yeah, that killed the budget and the windows killed my time because I was cleaning and fixing stuff all summer.
I did get a York compressor for free from a friend who works on semis and that prompted me to go to the junkyard and grab a crap load of parts. I'm converting the 454 in the dually over to an S10 serpentine setup and adding the York to that (Kwik Performance has a nice adapter setup).
I also snagged a charcoal canister off of an S10 at the junkyard and added that to the El Camino (and one to the dually) to help deal with the tanks just venting to atmosphere and stinking. I took them off of the early second gen trucks 94-96 or so I think.
I've been working on getting the stuff under the hood all figured out, and honestly I've been working on getting my fab skills better.
The air box is finally mounted and it holds the radiator overflow now. So thats good and clears up what I was going to do with all that.
Lately all I've been doing is dealing with the air ride on the dually and wiring the El Camino. The dually also decided to blow out the seals on the carb so its getting a bunch of new parts in the next week before its too crappy outside to work on it.
I mounted the old fuse box for the El Camino (just in a different way/spot this time and I should have the car wired soon. It doesn't mean it'll run, but I should be able to hook up a battery and make sure everything works.
I'm also going to finally get around to running the cable for the shifter and the e-brake so that'll be figured out before the car is ready to go anywhere.
Like usually I'm optimistic I'll get stuff done but I'm guessing I'll get pulled away on business or something and get less finished than I'd like.
Jessica
Well once again I disappear for a bit and come back with a bit more done! This time I actually got a lot accomplished, and with all this new found free time I have with not traveling for work and only going to the office when I have to physically work on some tool I can get a lot done.
I got the dually up and running and other than little stuff that crops up after driving a vehicle thats been sitting for so long its doing great. With that mostly sorted I turned my attention back to the El Camino and decided to get a lot of the parts I'd been hoarding installed.
So without anymore time talking lets get to some pics of the dually, I had to go back and see what all I hadn't updated in here, its really been too long! I want to kind of put a nice close on this part of the thread, just so people know I can finish a project I suppose and to show it off a bit. I'm pretty proud of it, considering I've never built a bagged anything before. I got the serp setup all installed on the dually with the york for my air bags. Couldn't be happier! Also finished the interior, and it actually feels comfy to cruise around in, not like a rattling old project car anymore. Finally got the bed panels finished! Its like a rolling Christmas tree at night haha It doesn't exactly lay frame (it kind of lays exhaust at this point) but I'm pretty happy with it
Now for the main course! The El Camino Its a good thing wiring doesn't bother me, because this looks insane... Basically I wanted to get the Vintage Air unit installed so I could get it out of the box and out of my way in the garage, plus all their stuff is so pretty and fancy I wanted to do it for motivation! We had some great early spring weather and I was able to get a lot of parts painted and bed lined, otherwise I'd still be waiting to get a lot of this done. In case anyone is concerned with the wiring on their swap, just take it a piece at a time. Do one system or run and then go to the next, slowly. You'll get there! I tried to keep the majority of the panel free of holes, but this is where the PCM, main power, and HVAC stuff has to come through the firewall Inside the panel I mounted the PCM fuse box and relays. The big hole in the firewall is for the PCM wiring, but I made a slick little two piece cover that slips around a 1.5" grommet. This way I can remove the wires and plugs in the future easily and didn't have to buy a cannon plug. The interior is basically wired. The only pieces left to integrate are the Wipers with the later model stalk mounted switch, the brake pedal TCC stuff, and the cruise control wires from the stalk.
Basically I've been making lemonade out of this lemon of a situation we're all in right now. Hopefully all of you are safe and healthy and can have some fun wrenching too! Hopefully it won't be much longer till my next upload (especially if this progress keeps up!)
Still have a lot of time on my hands so things are coming together quickly on the truck/car.
I "finished" the wiring for the PCM and chassis the other day, and the trick little cover/grommet holder I made for the firewall worked great. I still need to go to the junkyard and get a cruise module and plug so I can integrate that. I also haven't looked at how to make the turn signal switch mounted wipers work with my older non-delay motor. I may need to get a later model motor and things like that but both of those are easy enough to deal with on their own while I still continue to put the interior back together.
I also installed the accessories and brackets from KWIK performance, it really cleaned things up and fixed two major issues I was having with the setup I had there before. One was the power steering pump/pulley was hitting the steering box. Two there was no way to mount an A/C compressor. This is new setup fixes that and it gives me more hood clearance, and it looks a lot nicer and weighs less.
Lastly I've started on sound deadener...what a chore, but after installing it in my dually I couldn't skip it on this car (it does make a tremendous difference, but the paper cuts from the foil are pretty horrible)
The plan is to continue to get the stuff I've started finished up, pull a few parts to get ready for blasting and paint, and continue to get the body/shell back to a point that this is an engine/transmission swap and have the restoration finished. I'm not likely to get it on the road this year but its already a lot further along with this extra time I've had to work on it.
Jessica
So I haven't slowed down much on the project, but its getting to a point I needed more parts and had to wait for some things to get delivered.
I managed to figure out the wiring for the dome lights, trinary switch, cruise and a couple other things that needed their polarity reversed to operate properly.
I still haven't come up with a way to make the newer wiper switch operate the old wipers and upgrade them to delay; so I've basically abandoned that and figure I'll come back to it later.
A really good friend of mine needed a few things blasted and painted so that kind of got me back into that mode. It was nice to actually get a few parts completely finished and installed. Plus his subframe went from having an inch of crud on it to looking brand new. I will never understand why he's restoring a Citation X-11 but I'm happy to help him. That meant I wanted to get my core support done and figured out so I could blast at then paint it at the same time.
The G-body condenser puts the ports on the drivers side, and my AC box, compressor and everything else is on the passenger side so I found a 3rd gen Condenser is about the same size and can be made to fit. 1989 Camaro A/C condenser in a G Body It needed brackets made and welded to the core support and a few things trimmed but it does fit
I've since started working on crimping A/C lines, installing carpet, building new seat brackets for the new seats I got, and assembling the core support completely. My goal is to have the interior done this year and the front inner fenders and anything else that needs paint done this summer so I can reassemble the car when the drivetrain goes in and I don't have to wait for days to paint or cut up anything after I've already painted it.
I don't have great pictures of all of it, but its finally coming together! I need to dye the interior all one color or have it covered in fabric, but its all there and my window switch panel ended up working perfectly in the ashtray location Seats are Procar/Scat ones. I hadn't build brackets for them in this picture so its just sitting without rails in this pic The painted core support before I started putting the rad/condenser in it
Looks great. That newer console (F-body?) really works well there. I stuck with a reproduction of the original. I'm busy piecing my interior together. It was in pretty bad shape when I got it, and I'm figuring our how the new replacement interior pieces go in.
What will you do below the rear window interior trim? I thought I would leave it bare, but the sound deadening doesn't look good with the interior. I guess the choices are carpet, or an aftermarket plastic panel that fits in there.
For the condenser I used a 4th-gen F-body condenser which fit right onto the 4th-gen fan shroud and radiator used. Now I'm trying to integrate a Nostalgia Air unit with the stock ducts. My car came with the AC removed.
I'm hoping to have mine running so I can drive to LS Fest in September.
Looks great. That newer console (F-body?) really works well there. I stuck with a reproduction of the original. I'm busy piecing my interior together. It was in pretty bad shape when I got it, and I'm figuring our how the new replacement interior pieces go in.
What will you do below the rear window interior trim? I thought I would leave it bare, but the sound deadening doesn't look good with the interior. I guess the choices are carpet, or an aftermarket plastic panel that fits in there.
For the condenser I used a 4th-gen F-body condenser which fit right onto the 4th-gen fan shroud and radiator used. Now I'm trying to integrate a Nostalgia Air unit with the stock ducts. My car came with the AC removed.
I'm hoping to have mine running so I can drive to LS Fest in September.
Thanks! Yeah the console is from a 4th gen. I had a heavily modified 3rd gen in it before and it worked really well with the original El Camino dash. If you have any questions about the interior let me know, I've had this car for 20 years and know how they went together like the back of my hand. I took the A/C out of it years ago and put a heater only box and now I'm doing the Vintage air so there are a ton of options. I ended up using panel bond to close off the factory duct work behind the vents then I bonded ABS pipe fittings to it that the flex duct attaches to. Sort of goofy looking but its behind the dash so I'm not too worried about how it looks
As for the back panel, I used to leave it bare after the carpet finally fell apart too much to use. Then I added a pair of 10" subs in boxes in the rear floor pan area, and I've got a set of 6.5" speakers below where the shoulder belts come out in the rear kick panels. So I'll probably have someone who can sew make me a carpet that doesn't sit on all my speakers but for now I'm not sure. I could put black vinyl wrap over the foil sound deadener just to hide it a little I suppose. I don't know if those ABS (fancy premade) aftermarket panels will work with the speakers and I hate to buy something like that for that kind of money and then cut it apart right away. You could just buy ABS from a place like TAP Plastic and cut it to fit and accomplish the same thing for a lot less.
It sounds like you're on a great track to have it up and running! Hopefully I'm not too far behind.
Jessica
They needed new covers, the straps underneath were missing, and the foam was pretty destroyed. They don't really have a recline function, they're more designed to just sit against something. It wasn't ideal in the El Camino. Basically the cost to repair them was more than these new seats, like a few hundred dollars more than the new seats. So I still have them, but I decided not to use them, I'm not sure what I will do with them long term.
Jessica
Still a decent amount of progress, but I've been running out of parts I already had and shipping has been slightly delayed. I also have been doing maintenance on the daily so thats eaten into the project time. The steering wheel came in, and I can't lie I sat in the car for at least half an hour just seeing how it all felt. Its pretty cool and super comfy. Making up the A/C lines for the vintage air has turned out to be very rewarding and I'm glad I got the crimper because its a lot better than taking them to a shop. I should have the HVAC and cooling systems all buttoned up this week Started laying up the gauge pod with paper and I think I can make it all work.
Once I mount the power steering reservoir I should be done with almost all the stuff that needs to bolt to the inner fenders. I'll pull them off and finish up the metal work and get those painted to match everything else under the hood.
Its making me really happy how easy these inner fenders have turned out, because the dually is getting trailer fender tubs under the hood and that is a huge undertaking.
06-17-2019, 10:12 AM
