OK, after 3 months of quiet time for the GMC he has emerged from the garage. luckily it was an overcast day and no shadow was seen, thus predicting a pleasant spring and summer for old truck activities...
I'd have had the truck out sooner except in the meantime I bought a new engine lathe and moved my old one just inside the garage door anticipating a quick sale which hasn't happened. With a friends help and equipment we moved the lathe out, extracted the truck, and put the lathe deeper in the garage.
photos of the lathe adventures from a couple months ago.
Lathe Adventures First addressed the fuel leak as it pulled out the garage leaving a drip every couple inches. The fuel line from pump to carb instead of an original steel line was a rubber hose installed by the previous owner. It looked in pretty good condition and not old from the outside but the inside was all cracked and causing leaks at the ends. I replaced it with some better quality rubber fuel hose (that's actually 15 years old, a fleamarket find). I'll go back to the original if and when I have the front clip off and can easily get to the front of the engine.
Second I replaced the spark plugs with NGK XR5 gapped at 0.030" on the recommendation of several other bolters. Truck runs at least as good and likely better with the new plugs.
PICTURE 1 Plugs and fuel line
Now seat belts. This project turned out to be really quick and easy; much to my surprise after thinking about it and reading other tales and how to's on seat belt installs.
First I removed the seats and seat frame which revealed a very broken mount on the drivers side and some broken spot welds on the seat frame.
PICTURE 2 cracket seat mount
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture after, but imagine that as a spider web of welds and a bit of new metal.
Center seat brace was much easier, drill out failed spot welds and plug weld to repair.
PICTURE 3 seat brace before
PICTURE 4 seat brace after
These are the belts I ordered pictured complete with invoice and part numbers. They all worked out fine however I'd get the fixed end longer next time though 20" does work OK (you'll see why later).
PICTURE 5 seat belts and invoice
Where to mount them in the center?
I sat in the seat and measured/estimated that my hip was 5" from center as I'd normally sit/drive. So I installed the center anchors 10" apart and centered in the cab. They're as close to the riser as the hardware allows, 5/8".
PICTURE 6 center seat belt anchor holes
This is the only tricky part where a little head scratching comes in. If you now pass those seat belt straps up through the seat they have to take a pretty circuitous rout to get out between the cushions. Ideally the seat belt straps are straight from anchor to your lap however this is not possible in an AD truck without modification.
Here's the modification, two slots in the seat frame back for them to exit from.
PICTURE 7 belt slot layout
PICTURE 8 belt slot cutting
PICTURE 9 belt slot deburing/rounding
As you can see again 10" on center. Slots are 2.5" wide, 1/2" tall and centered about 5/8" down on the seat frame. Real easy to cut by first drilling the end holes and connect with jigsaw.
Did a good job softening the edges with file, deburing tool, and flossing with sand paper. I'll look into using a length of very small rubber hose split and fit over the sheetmetal to make a sort of grommet to further soften the edge.
PICTURE 10 center belts installed.
The outside anchors for the retractors turned out to be exceptionally easy. I would use these same locations (or nearly so) and method for plain non retractable lap belts and also for shoulder belts. Figured this out by just holding the retractor about where it made good sense, allowed straight line to hips, and where it fit and where anchor plate/nut under the cab would fit.
These ended up being 3-5/8" back from the seat riser and at that point about 2-1/8" in from the radius edge of the cab floor. Drilled a small pilot hole from the top and then under the cab to drill/enlarge to full size, 7/16".
PICTURE 11 outside belt hole locations
PICTURE 12 approx. angle/assembly of retractor and angle bracket.
PICTURE 13 Installed, same on other side.
This whole seat belt project including the weld repairs to my seat frame and mount only took a couple hours from removal to reinstalling the seats including head scratching and figuring out the plan. One of the only times I've ever completed a project in less time than I estimated.
Installing seat belts can be done without welding and without removing the gas tank!
The 20" center belts are shown at full extension, if you'd like the buckle to be at your front instead of your side then they'd need to be longer. The retractable part is plenty long to reach either way.
PICTURE 14 seat belts done
PICTURE 15 seat belt from the side
Next, prepping for the 4-5 hour drive to the Stovebolt Homecoming in a couple weeks.
Homecoming Info Grigg
