Hello,
I signed up for the site a while back, but have yet to post until now. I'm currently fixing up a '76 Silverado LWB heavy-half that my father ordered and purchased new. The years haven't been kind to it, so I've been tackling section by section bringing it back up to a driver again. For years when I was growing up working on project car after project car, dad would ask me if I'd like to fix up his truck. I'd always skipped it, which I deeply regret; he passed back in '09. He did get to see me start fixing it up a little before he left this earth; I put on dual-exhaust on it then and he'd remarked that it was something he'd always wanted to do.
I've done a little working on it each year since; last year I swapped the bed out with one off an early '78 (still had the flush gas cap holes - not the doors) and now have the factory dual-tank setup.
This year I've been tackling the truck pretty hard, and this summer I did a cam swap, putting in a Comp Cams 270h cam in the .060 over 350, as well as Edelbrock Performer aluminum heads. I've got an old B&M mini-blower that I'll be putting on this winter too.
The dash had the full gauge package minus the tach. I need a tach, but like keep things as low profile as possible, so after picking up a '76 correct gauge set with tach, I had this guy
http://www.tachman.com/oldsun.htm reface the tach and redo the electronics to 7000 rpm. You can't tell it's not factory unless you know the factory gauge stopped at 5000 rpm :-) Speaking of keeping things low-profile, since I quit smoking I removed the ash-tray itself, and in it's place inset a panel with my B&M blower boost/vacuum gauge. Now you fold the flip-down ash-tray up, you've got a nice factory appearance. You fold it down, and you're looking at a boost gauge with the 12v accessory plug to its side.
I'm about to put in the 77-80 inside hood release option. I've hit a wrecking yard and picked up the necessary supporting brackets and latches off the core support, bracket off of the hood, and the cable. Gotta protect that blower!
There are other options I'd like to put on it to; the 77-specific intermittent wiper setup, the 73-75 hand throttle option (would help with tuning) and am thinking about putting in a cargo lamp.
Anyways, thanks for allowing me into your community and I hope to be able to contribute!
1
