The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline SBC T5 in a 47?

Thanks you sir. Can't wait to give er a whirl.

Planning to put the motor and trans back in permanently between Christmas and New Years.

I shifted the steering over an inch, but I lost the two top bolts in the process. They now are on the edge of of the frame. I'm leaving it for now, but I'm planning on doing something like welding a 1/2 inch plate to the top of the frame and bolting the steering box to that. We'll see. I was considering a power steering kit, but Mar-K had a sale on tailgates, then they had a sale on bed wood and strips, so I gladly gave them all my money.

As it currently sits.

I have been collecting necessary parts. Drive shaft, exhaust manifolds, etc.

Your shop is way too clean.

Thanks Jay. The 47 is currently sitting in my garage. When I bought my new GMC a couple years ago it didn't quite fit where the Yukon used to be. So I notched out the wall and built the hokey box at the back of where the 47 is in that pic. My wife shakes her head calling it just one more of the redneck things around here. Haha. But my GMC fits in the garage now.

Here's a few pics of my actual work shop. The kid that used to keep the place clean left more than a year ago for college and I haven't replaced him. Now there's crap everywhere and it'll never be this clean again. Oh well.

Ok, now thaaaaat is way cool.

OK, so these are from today. Haha! I literally shove the debris aside so I can use the mill. Hardly a horizontal surface without piles of crap on it. Oh well, I've got more work than I can do and the bills are getting paid. I realize this isn't driveline related but good fun anyway.

My buddy Mike came over Sat to permanently weld in the new motor mounts. I had a minute yesterday to slap some paint on the area. The mounts are Chassis Engineering AKA Heidts. They're supposed to be bolt in, but I'd really not go that route. It'll still be a few weeks before we can put the motor and trans back in to stay.

So I made a lot of progress since Christmas with the help of a few good buddies. Got the motor and trans "permanently" mounted. Ignition wired. New fuel line, drive shaft etc etc. I can now turn the key on the dash and it starts. Today I mounted the gas pedal (79 Chevy truck, and I might move it). Still tons to do. Seems like I get three things done and create one new one.

Took it for a test ride. Using literally a shoestring for a throttle, I got a ways down the industrial street in Warren Mi. where we were working on it in second gear and decided to pull into a large factory parking lot to turn around. Then I discovered two things at once. First, that there was a gate blocking the parking lot and second that I had no brakes at all. DOH! the brake pedal lever now hits the exhaust manifold that wasn't in the truck when I was pushing it around. Was able to get it stopped by trashing my trans and backing up. Then I carefully drove back to my buddy's shop.

I made up a new clutch rod. The fork now sits a couple inches closer to the front of the truck than the original. It works OK, but I'll probably make another one that's a little stronger at some point.

Keep the updates coming. We are watching.

Cool, Thanks!
I spent a few hours working on it today. The brake pedal hits the exhaust manifold. I cleared part of both, thought I had it figured out but it still hits. It'll be a problem for another day. I've got a ton going on the next couple weeks so I probably won't be able to get to it.

My buddy made up a new center floor piece and a couple quickie patches. Got those in too. Painted em with truck bed paint. I'll add another small one near the gas pedal later.
Got the gas pedal working too.

Looks good.

Got my grill back from chrome. They did an amazing job on it. It was pretty tweaked and twisted. It was damaged at some point in the past and an amateur attempt to fix it. Took me 3 1/2 hours to put together but I'm pretty happy with the results. I had the front bumper re-chromed too since the grill and front bumper are unique to 47-48. I was going to set it in place and take a pic, but it's really friggin cold outside.

Eventually, probably next fall, the truck is going to get painted dark hunter green. Pretty much everyone, including myself, have said to leave it as it is. The bottom line is that it's my wife's truck and she hates the color.

I do realize this isn't "driveline" related at this point, but this thread seems to have some interest so I'll keep posting as I go unless I get some negative feedback from the admin.

I like the grille. Just pulled my T5 for the 3rd time in 2 months. Kept getting an intermittent growl when the clutch pedal was depressed. First 2 times was to double check and re-grease the release bearing. Everything pointed to that as the problem but I kept hearing the growl.
Pulled and opened the T5 for inspection this time. Everything checked out.
Growl is gone. I’ll hold my tongue as to what caused the growl for now since my test drive was only 5 minutes. But I think it’s gone.

You just jinxed yourself!

Hmmm, I'd be asking you about that type of thing. How's the weather down there for taking it out for a spin?

Weather in SC is rather mild. We’ve dipped below 32* a few nights. Most days are in the 50s. I would be driving it today but my right rear tire keeps loosing air and I really don’t want to struggle with a flat when at work. Once that is solved, I’ll install front and rear anti-roll bars and drive the snot out of my 65.

That grill looks great. The chrome grill on my 49 GMC is in the same condition you described yours was. I may address it some day.

The good news is that they reproduce the 49-54 GMC grill. The bad news is that once you start down the new chrome path you pretty much have to go all the way. One new chrome doodad makes all the rest of it look bad.

Jay, It's currently -3 here in mid Michigan. Why on earth would anyone live here?

I was east of Louisville on Monday- - - - -12 degrees! I'm so glad my ancestors had the good sense to move from South Carolina to Tennessee in the 1820's!
Jerry

Enjoying 40F weather today in Alaska. Not sure enjoying is correct though, as the frozen roads are slicker than snot.

Seems like forever since I had a couple hours to work on my truck. Had to fix the Jeep firsts. Major project. Literally moved the 47 out of the way. Now that that's done, and we had a warm 33* day last week I got a few hours of work done. Mostly small stuff, but it felt good to be going on it again. Had the radiator fixed, put it back in and mounted it in place. mounted the second bracket and taillight, changed a couple hood bolts, finished my quickie patches in the floor and mounted, but didn't attach, the guages. Eventually I want to get the original guages working properly. Perhaps more importantly I put the truck back in the position where I can work on it. The best news for me is that the lady that's going to re-upholster the seat is going to stop by today or tomorrow and pick it up. Woohoo! Can't wait for that!

I need to get my 1963 seat done. I’m curious if the seat back could be shaped differently to make it more comfy. Guess I’ll ask the upholstery shop.

Take some pics of before and after.

Kinda like this? My Insta-Resto Video

HAHAHA!!!! Best video ever! Made my day.

So I've been carving out a few hours of time here and there. Mostly going thru the endless lists of miscellaneous stuff that needs to get done. I didn't think the cumulative total was note worth enough to post anything here until today. I got the tires on. Woohoo. Seems like real progress. My insurance company needed a photo so I set the grill in place, wiped the crud off the body and took a couple photos. Still lots to do. For those interested, the tires are 215-85-16 (painted the rims yesterday)

That's looking awesome Just Mark!

Thanks!

Just so I don't feel TOO bad, tell me that's not the original paint....please. It looks great!

Not original, but really old. The doors are 52-53 and they match to perfectly. Under the nicks and scratches is blue. When I pulled the gas filler tube out there's some tan and at the base dark green. It's a petty solid truck tho. Actually nicer than I expected. I know the previous owner died more than 20 years ago. I wish I could get some history of it. Thinking about writing a note to the daughter, she sold it to my buddy, who got it for me.

Started buffing the paint a couple days ago. Just the grill surround and emblem.

Started digging into the interior. The seat was missing a lot of parts! Had a David Copperfield vibe. Floating in thin air. Until I can find the "subframe" parts on the cheap. This will have to do. I made up some legs and bolted them to the seat and the floor. The upholstery is going to be brown, so I spray bombed the frame brown. Eventually the interior is going to be painted dark green when the rest of the truck gets painted, so I'm really not sure what to do with it at the moment. Hate to put more paint on the dash etc, only to have to remove it later. Also, I see the headliner bows are missing. Oh well...

Just Mark, since you moved on from the T-5 issue many many posts ago, for search purposes it might be wise to rename your thread. Maybe ‘47 Hotrod build or ‘47 Restomod build.

I've been thinking the same thing for quite a while, but wasn't sure what to do about it. I sent a couple PM's up the food chain and John gave me the thumbs up to proceed as is.
Thanks for the input! My next post may get me barred for life tho....

Yesterday I had a few minutes to tackle a couple projects on the 47. I pulled the pitman arm off to send it to Nostalgia Sid to be adjusted back to compensate for my moved steering box. I'll pull the steering arms off soon too. Sid is going to set them up for modern ball joints. In the process I checked the wear on the king pins and bushings and there is more wear on the drivers side than I'm comfortable with. I'm going to pull both sides apart as soon as I have time, and learn all about disassembling the king pin assemblies.

On a much more exciting note I made up a temporary seat so I can move this thing around while the seat is getting re-upholstered. I'm pretty sure this is how Brian Kindig would do it. (apologies to Brian Kindig, love that show) Or maybe how Jeff Foxworthy would do it. Anyway, I'm not planning to drive this on an actual road this way...or am I? Hmmm...

Looking at your last two photos I had to recheck your profile. I thought (from the photos) you were from Arkansas. 😁 BTW, I’m from Oklahoma so we are allowed to pick on Arkansas folks.😁 Seriously, a mans got to do what a mans got to do. You must be way skinnier than me. I couldn’t get behind the wheel. Keep on plugging away at it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^That does give new meaning to a bench seat. ^^^^^^^^^^^^

I drove my truck 500 miles sitting on a milk crate, before I had a seat for it.