First, happy new year, second don’t worry. Work, a lot of it, in fact, has been going on while I’ve been away from the computer.

First thing’s first, as you may have seen on Instagram the truck is back from paint.

The professional paintwork was done by a local dealership painter (Al) here in Whitby that does custom work on the side at his home shop.

Al was recommended by Blair at Taylor’d Customs who’s been using him for his own personal project lately.

Considering what he started with Al did an absolutely phenomenal job on the firewall, inner fenders, doors, dash and roof.

Getting the truck back looking like a million bucks was the kick in the pants I needed to get back into the garage consistently.

Within days of the truck coming back, it didn’t take long for the urge to install the inner and outer fenders to become too great to ignore.

However, before the front end could go back on I had to figure out a rather important piece of the puzzle; the radiator.

Because of my front-end swap, a stock radiator was out of the picture. Similarly, because of my accessory drive, a mechanical fan was also out of the picture.

Thankfully, because I have Andy McJannett and Performance Improvements on my side, a solution wasn’t hard to find.

Andy suggested that I go with a ProForm Parts 1-2-3 series radiator set up for Projet Why Wait.

The 1-2-3 series or radiators are designed as a universal drop-in, save for a few minor trims that needed to be made to my already heavily modified radiator support.

The ProForm 1-2-3 kit also includes all the various relays, connectors and plugs to control the provided fan. I’ll be using my factory PCM to control my fan, but it’s nice that everything you need is included.

Just in case.

Clearly printed instructions are included as well, and it’s rated for 600hp. Quite a bit more than I need. For now.

Finally, as if everything else wasn’t enough, the radiator is also fitted with a steam port. An important feature for vehicles with LS V8 motors like mine.

Under the hood, the radiator is a snug fit, but there’s enough space for it all to work. And, being an all-in-one solution there’s no reason for me to fuss with it again.

Issyfab Speed & Engineering will be handling both the plumbing and wiring.

I’m very interested to see how Jeff (at IssyFab) manages to make it all work, but he assures me it “won’t be a problem”.

With the radiator selected and fit I could install the inner and outer fenders and loosely bolt everything together.

Because the rad will need to come in and out, I’ve left the grill off. For now.

After the front end was installed I had a local pinstriper, Stripes By Square, come by and line up the truck between the Mazda Rally White and patina blue paint.

The stripe really ties everything together. The Navy pulls from the darker blue found within my patina and provides great definition.

It’s great to see this render become closer and closer to reality.

As always, all that’s left is everything else but I’ve got a few things up my sleeve as the truck approaches road-worthy status this year.

That’s right. I said this year. I really want to drive this truck in 2022 and its foot to the floor to make it finally happen!

Thanks for the support so far and look forward to more in the land of Why Wait this year.

To help relight a fire within the project Jeff Wybrow and I hatched a plan to bring Project Why Wait to his shop IssyFab Speed & Engineering this June.

Jeff will finish off wiring and firing the truck along with a few other drivability concerns his shop specializes in. While the #siegmc is gone I will bring my bed in from the backyard and start the metal repair and refinishing needed there.

The truck will also take a little trip to the body shop while abroad, but we’ll get to those plans in a different post. Before the truck leaves however, I need to take care of the list you saw at the top of this post.

Despite looking pretty complete at times a lot of the truck has just been “put” together. Several items needed coating, torqueing, painting and so forth to really be ticked off as complete.

This includes the back half, which at last check looked like this:

Pretty ‘close’, but obviously the masking tape, protective plastic and uncoated Airlift Performance tanks had to go. I went back and forth on what color to do the tanks. I bated around a contrasting color, but the most

Simplest, but most obvious.

Color chosen, my next slight hurdle was coating. I wanted something that wasn’t too glossy or thick but a more natural finish to match the air compressors. After seeing a few items done in Cerakote at GT Custom Exhaust Oshawa I decided to give it a try.

If you’re not familiar, Cerakote is a ceramic finish. It’s much thinner than powder coat, but still provides abrasion/wear resistance, chemical protection, and it’s generally harder than paint.

Here in Durham Region Ontario Red Tower Armoury is the leader in Ceramic Coatings. If it needs coating they’ve likely done it. And if you’re not sure if it needs coating they’ll help you decided how and what it needs.

With my tanks being rather low on the complexity scale of work they’ve done they simply knocked it out of the park.

There’s also a few other items they did for me hanging in my garage. But, we’ll get to those later as I assemble the interior.

The tanks are black now, but the grain of the aluminum is still visible, as are the welds and all the craftsmanship Air Lift originally put into the pieces.

More importantly, it looks great next to all of the other black components. The RCI Fuel Cell, Viair compressors, and brake lines. Also, worth noting, in these photos the chassis is nearly completely wired.

The main rear chassis harness has been run through the frame, in addition to the Airlift main harness run in this post from 2018.

Since the photos above, I’ve been in the garage at least three nights a week sniping items from my list. Mid June is about thirty days away and I’ve got plenty of work to do!

As always follow me on Instagram for shorter updates on the progress as I move along.

Unfortunately, we’ll be hearing the first three expressions for some time coming, but with 2020 now officially the past it’s pretty clear it wasn’t supposed to be anyone’s year.

I’m not sure who threw what black cat into which mirror, while two stepping on every crack in the sidewalk, but I’ll be damned if we didn’t all get tripped up in immense levels of tomfoolery last year.

Thankfully as of today that year is finally behind us, not that what the calendar says is likely to make much of a difference…but I digress.

Actually, scratch that I don’t entirely digress. Forgive me (or don’t, my site my rules) if this update is more an update on my 2020 than it is what, and how, I’ve been working on my 1951 GMC pickup.

Near the tail end of 2019 I made an extremely exciting life decision to move away from my previous vocation and step into the General Manager position of Canada’s largest Indoor Bike Park, Joyride 150.

The opportunity to work at Joyride wasn’t something I could pass up, it allowed life long passions to become both my day job and side hustle. A reality I am very thankful and fortunate to still enjoy.

Taking such a risk was an uncharacteristically bold move on my part.

Fortune of course favors the bold and I made both mental and physical lists of all the things I’d have to learn in my new role. That list essentially quadrupled when COVID-19 hit. Suddenly nothing made sense, to anyone.

Kids were out of school, facilities were shut down, and worst of all family and friends were mandated to exist at a distance.

Even the best Dyson couldn’t handle the amount of shit that suddenly rained from the heavens. I learned an incredible amount in 2020, and while I welcome my new found perspective it came at a relentless pace.

My garage has always been an escape of sorts and in the past 365 days it was practically invaluable.

Anything that happened in the real world could be temporarily escaped within a modest structure of uninsulated concrete.

Inside those four walls there were no government talking heads to watch, non-sensical public health regulations to decipher, doubts to consider or spiky annoying virus to worry about.

The garage was as normal as it had ever been.

So I found myself in there a lot, perhaps too much at times crossing items off my famous windshield list.

More of my interior was coated, my inner and outer cab corners were repaired, door hinges rebuilt, and patina matched.

Almost nightly challenged myself to accomplish as much as I could with the skills and tools I had available. An approach I used toward whatever challenges would await the next morning in the real world.

However, one thing I couldn’t really bring myself to do was document much of the progress. By the time I hit the garage I just needed to go. Flick on the lights, turn up the music and let everything else fade out.

Luckily, you didn’t miss much that hasn’t already been covered before. Weld, grind, sand (sand again) and paint.

The cab now is just about (hint: even more wet sanding to reveal patina) ready to be sent to a body shop where the firewall will be finished the roof white flaked.

This truck has been many things in the five years I’ve had it; a goal to aspire to, an upside-down money storage device, point of frustration, and most recently an extremely welcome distraction.

If I’m to be honest, I’m still going to need as many garage nights in 2021 as I did in 2020 but I think I’m in a space now where I can at least do a better job of documentation.

The world has changed, and for better or worse we’ll all need to change with it. Happy New year, all the best to you and yours and here’s to coming out the other side of 2021.

Recently however it feels like I’ve rounded a bend. Rust repair is finally complete and lately the truck has spent more time together than apart.

This is going to change shortly, because I do need to take it apart once more, but this time I will be doing so with intent.

That intent will be final preparations for paint. I’ll be touching up the door jambs and panels I replaced myself, but the firewall, roof and dash will be done professionally.

For all it’s trouble COVID-19 has produced several productive garage sessions simply because there wasn’t much outside my garage that was acceptable or safe given the circumstances. Garage nights provided a secluded escape from a world that was spinning itself off axis.

Bumpers, doors, and hoods were put on and removed several times over in the name of test fitting.

This means the truck, has looked like a truck for longer than it ever has in my ownership.

A rather pleasant result of Project Why Wait looking like a truck is that my son Ash has started to express a real interest in it.

I mean it’s been around for the majority of his life, but it’s always been just an idea. An abstract thought yet to be proven.

As a conceptual pile collection of parts Ash never formed much of a connection with the it.

When the front end, doors and steering wheel came into play however he really started to come around and realize what I was doing in the garage, besides making a mess.

A few weekends ago he suggested we go in the garage and take a few pictures. The last time his work appeared on this site was two years ago, so I was all for it.

Seeing the project through his eyes was really quite interesting. Things I stress over every time I shoot the truck (like dust) he paid no mind.

Components I take for granted he found intriguing. Take my water pump. There’s nothing inherently special about it, but Ash took several photos of it.

He wasn’t able to really express why he liked the water pump, just that he did. Water pumps are pretty important so who am I to tell him they’re not particularly interesting?

In general he spent a lot of time poking his camera around under hood. But, again, not having any of the preconceived notions we have about what’s ‘cool’ within an engine bay, he took photos of anything that caught his eye.

To him the Hooker cast manifolds looked like spider legs, so there you go, a photo of the manifold. Glad I got new hardware.

He also took a photo under the (just above the transmission tunnel) because “I can’t see it too well”.

The photo above was staring back at him in the view finder and his curiosity seemed satisfied, at least for now.

Bolting up the steering wheel had the largest impact on how he interacted with the truck. He’ll now happily spend a few minutes pretending to drive while I tinker away at a minor tasks.

Ash’s new found interest in the project really cements in my mind that this project was the right project for my family.

With school around the corner he asked if, when finished, I could take him to school in the truck like I occasionally do in my “regular” car.

When I said yes his face instantly lit up.

If that’s not motivation I don’t know what is.

Here’s to being able to live up to my son’s goals for 2021. 2020 certainly isn’t making it easy but I’ll try my gosh darn best.

But before we get to that, as promised, I am going to introduce the motor for the truck.

Or perhaps more accurately re-introduce the motor. I’ve dropped a few hints here and there about the power plant I’ve chosen, but yes the truck will be powered by the widely used and super dependable Chevrolet LS V8.

More specifically, a 4.8L LS lifted from a 2002 Silverado.

Originally the motor, and transmission, were destined for an S-chassis, but the previous owner abandoned that project. As they say; one man’s trash another’s treasure.

I chose an LS motor for the truck simply because of cost and simplicity. I’ve bitten off quite a bit with this build and an exotic engine swap simply wasn’t in the cards.

By pretty much every definition this is your typical ‘junk yard LS swap’. The standard ‘yard drop out the motor came with everything required to be dropped into another vehicle.

Unfortunately, while it was a ran great when parked sort of deal, it also looked like it came from the bottom of the ocean.

Not wanting to drop the motor under the hood in such a state, I sent it to IssyFab Speed & Engineering for some sprucing up.

Never one to leave well enough alone I also had IssyFab perform a few minor performance upgrades. A small cam, new heads, valve springs, and seals all made their way onto the motor while it was at the spa.

The combination of parts should net around 300 to the wheels all said and done. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s more than enough for my application.

It’s also a conservative power number that should keep the 4L60 from becoming a glass house full of neutrals.

Originally my plan was to run a Trail Blazer SS intake manifold atop the motor. The TBSS intake manifold widly reported the best performing of the factory made LS manifolds.

However being a factory part, meant to live under an engine cover, it doesn’t look very good at all.

Enter FiTech. FiTech offers several different options for those dropping LS motors into their projects. But their most popular is their line of Ultimate LS products.

It comes in two flavors, the complete system and the loaded manifold.

I ended up going with FiTech’s loaded, 500HP, truck manifold kit. This kit includes all of the components that would be included in the standard Ultimate LS packaged (tig welded manifold, 92mm throttle body, billet aluminum fuel rails, AN fittings, fuel crossover hose, and 36lb injectors) minus the FiTech ECU and handheld harness.

I opted not to go with the computer only because IssyFab has already started building me one.

So while IssyFab is coming through with everything hidden, FiTech is taking care of all that is visible.

The truck intake manifold, which is taller than the car model, was absolutely perfect for my needs.

Not only would it allow me to run my factory accessory drive, it would also help fill up some of the cavernous GM Advanced Design engine bay.

With my motor sitting so low I needed as much help as I could get in that department.

Installing the FiTech intake manifold was pretty straight forward. All the hardware you need is provided and the instructions come with clear, color, pictures.

It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to install an intake manifold on any vehicle, and I managed to knock this one off nearly entirely in a single night without much fuss.

The kit comes with almost everything you need to have a fully functioning LS induction set up.

Curiously the throttle cable bracket doesn’t come with, but it is readily available at FiTechefi.com at a fairly low cost.

The bracket is on the left of the photo above and discreetly sits between the throttle body and the manifold.

I’m going to make sure to run my throttle cable under the intake manifold so that it is as invisible as possible.

From a visual perspective, the FiTech manifold versus the Trailblazer SS manifold is night and day. Sure covers can be put on the TBSS manifold, but with a budget friendly option as attractive as FiTech’s available, why go that route?

With the motor and firewall coming right along, I wasted as little time as possible mocking up the rad support as well as fenders (both inner and outer).

The front sheet metal of my truck has never been on this chassis so it was really exciting to see it come to life.

I’m happy to say that after quite a bit of trim work — there’s still a little bit left if I am to be honest — the inner fenders fit the truck very well.

In another stroke of luck. The inner fenders also fit well enough that I don’t need to modify further to be able to ride low, or lay running board.

Big thanks to GM designers from the 50s for making the wheel wells as big as they did.

At this point I really wanted to wheel the truck out of the garage and get a good look at it this far along but I might save that for after I fabricate some bumper mounts.

This is the year I really want the truck to move under its own power so it’s time to focus my vision to 2020.

See what I did there?

Terrible Dad jokes aside, I’m going to say it publicly so I have to do it, this truck will move as a unit in 2020.

The cover photo of this post is a bit of a spoiler, but regardless plenty has happened since we last left my humble ’51 GMC project.

Picking up where we last left, things were looking pretty good on the engine side of the firewall after a healthy amount of grinding and metal finish work.

The bulk of the work that went into the firewall was covered in the post before this. But, one area I said I’d dive a little bit deeper into was how I crafted the lower mount for my Ididit steering column.

If you guys remember from my un-boxing post Ididit supplied a very awesome steering column and installation kit for the project. As nice as the column looked on my kitchen island, that couldn’t be it’s permanent home.

The 1947-54 Ididit Chevy Truck Tilt Column shift kit comes with both an under dash mount and a 2 1/2″ drop mount.

The two components combined make a pretty slick set up. Though I must admit that it took me more than one attempt to get it installed in a way that seemed natural.

I started in the way you see above, before switching to the method below which looked significantly better.

The orientation above also aligned the steering column perfectly with the OEM firewall pass through. In a standard configuration I’m sure this would have been fine, but in my case, the OEM location was looking pretty sorry for itself.

With some of the factory hole lost to the LS Fabrication firewall fillers, and the rest lost to time and mother nature, something had to be done.

Ididit does offer solutions of their own to this problem. Either the standard adjustable mount, or swivel mount, shown above. But I had some metal kicking around, and a bit of built up confidence, so I decided to fabricate something of my own.

Using metal left over from the floor repairs I cut out a quick rectangle to fill the factory pass through. I then bored that piece of sheet metal out to accept some 2.75″ ID round tube.

I slid the combination over the steering column then clamped it into the firewall. My ultimate plan was to mimic the basic floor mount Ididit supplied below.

If my firewall wasn’t so different from factory that piece would have bolted to it. Affixed with two bolts the column would have then been clamped to it providing two mounting points. The upper, which would support most of the load, while the lower mount keeps things in place.

Again, great solution if your firewall is in ship shape.

After a bit of fiddling and persuasion I was able to mock up a similar solution that could be welded in instead of bolted in. Don’t worry all the welds, extra metal, rust and crud you see in the photos above.

That all got cleaned up as you’ll see in a few paragraphs below this one.

The round tube creates quite a nice look on the engine side of the firewall while providing built-in support cabin side. I debated cutting the tube flush but I left a little lip because, personally, I thought it looked better.

The tube was cut in half on the interior side so the clamp would still work to keep things mounted solid.

I zapped the round tube to the rectangle on my work bench before final test fit. Everything still looking as it should I burned it all together.

After spending so much time working with sheet metal I’ve become pretty comfortable not blowing holes in my work. But I still have not been able to ‘stack dimes’ like the rest of the internet. One day…

Through the magic of internet we’re able to go from rough metal work to rough filler work in a few bytes. In reality the above transition was many more hours than I care to count.

After metal finishing the firewall to the best of my ability, I hit it with some two part epoxy primer in a can. Once the primer dried the welds were covered in fiberglass filler. The waterproof fiberglass filler was then followed with standard polyester filler.

The final (well final for now) product is exactly what I wanted. A column pass through shouldn’t be a focal point, and here it isn’t. However it also doesn’t look like an afterthought.

Can’t wait to finish blocking it out and see it painted… once I get there of course.

Before I blocked out the outside of the firewall I did clean up the inside and floor. I used the same epoxy primer I did on the firewall, followed by Tremclad and rubberized undercoating.

Remember what I said about cleaning up my work? I trimmed down all the unnecessary sheet metal overlap, blasted away the crud and seam sealed over the welds before coating the floor.

It’s not a concourse type repair, but because I do plan to carpet the floor some day I put most of my hours into the opposite side of the firewall.

I don’t think it turned out all that bad and more importantly it’s solid and rust free. Finally!

With the cab ready for mock up the next steps were pretty obvious. Take delivery of the motor and call a few friends over to lift the cab onto the chassis.

Putting the cab in it’s place would allow me to continue mocking up the steering system in its entirety, save for the steering wheel.

I know, I know, the photo above jumps forward in time very significantly. Don’t worry I’ll provide an update on the motor, where those wheels came from, and my clearly aftermarket intake manifold in a future post.

For now let’s just focus on rounding out the steering.

One of the things I was heavily sweating about the steering installation was running the shaft between the column and steering box.

Typically this is where people run into all manner of clearance issues. These issues can be resolved by running the shaft out and around the header but I really didn’t want to get into any of that.

Thanks to rather low profile Hooker manifolds, recommended by Andy at Performance Improvements, I managed to completely avoid all that hassle.

Two universal joints at either end –one 1″ to 3/8″ DD and another 3/8″ DD to 3/8″ 30 spline–, and some 3/8″ DD shaft got the job done.

I honestly couldn’t be happier with how the steering turned out as an entire unit. I am going to leave it all mocked up in the truck while I sort out a few other things ahead of the cab coming off for final bodywork and paint.

I plan to get right back out in the garage this weekend and pull the front end out of the crawl space so I can continue mocking things up.

Fingers crossed this winter will be as productive as the summer!

Then, I thought it would be smart to enter a 30+ BMX contest. One unintentional 360 to flat later and I was left with a ruptured Achilles Tendon. Shit. If you’ve ever recovered from a significant, disabling, injury then you know how much it changes, well, everything.

Not only could I not go in the garage physically, mentally, I had to focus a serious amount of time on recovery. But with every gray cloud there’s a silver lining.

Once I was finally able to drop the crutches, and sort out how to work without setting my walking boot on fire, I actually wound up in the garage more than I would have had I been on two good working legs.

Thank god for stools. I can walk now, but still can’t ride so working on the truck is what has kept me sane.

The last time I showed the cab I had just wrapped up zapping in the panels for the passenger side of the vehicle. That post was pretty in-depth so I’ll spare you the detailed play-by-play this time around.

My approach for the driver’s side was slightly different second time through. This time around I used as much of the replacement floor panel as possible rather than retain most of the OEM floor.

However when it came to external panels I tried my hardest to preserve as much original metal as possible. The upper panel above was a pretty good candidate for an entire panel replacement.

But, as good as these replacement panels are they are not perfect. They’re made in China based on some truck that isn’t my truck. Ergo the fitment leaves some to be desired.

Because I want the cowl vent to seal as much as possible when closed, leaving the factory door and opening in place made the most sense.

Scabbing around the vent was a little tricky, but I think I got it licked. We’ll know for sure down the road when I test fit the front end. If not I’ll cut it out and start again…

Rotten areas squared away, I turned my attention back to the firewall. If you recall the firewall is where I cut my teeth on panel replacement. I opted to follow up the LS Fabrication firewall fillers with their matching upper cowl filler.

Much like the firewall fillers the installation of this piece wasn’t too complicated. Test fitting, welding, grinding, all things I’m well familiar with at this point.

I also took the opportunity to fill the holes for the original main harness, and a few other odds and ends while I had the welding torch out. I was able to use a lot of my off cuts from various other panels for this which was great.

After tidying up the firewall I needed to address the now haggard area where the factory column came out. This meant I had to grab my Ididit steering column and whip up a lower mount. I’ll hop back in time and document that process at a later date but it all shook out fairly well.

Happy –more or less– with my work thus far I decided to try my hand at some metal finishing. Make no mistake this firewall will see it’s fair of filler, but using as little as necessary is the goal.

In a previous update I mentioned my garage is fairly humble and lacking what some might consider essential tooling. One of the things the SIE garage lacks is a proper sized air compressor.

I only mention the lack of compressor because die grinders seem to be they way to go for metal finishing. But, I don’t have the space nor cash for a compressor to power an air powered grinder, and electric ones are pretty pricey, so I had to improvise.

In the end I used grinding discs attached to both a drill and a Dremel to knock down the welds and blend things together.

It was a bit slow and tedious but it worked in the end. Most of the visible transitions from original metal to new metal are at an acceptable level.

My plan of attack, outside, is to use short strand filler initially to level out the low spots, then move on to traditional lighter weight filler. I’ve run this idea by a few panel beaters I know and it seems like a reasonable enough approach.

Inside the truck, I’ll be a little less picky about how far down I knock down the welds because I plan to cover them in seam sealer before coating the floor with rust encapsulator then hitting in in rocker guard. The floor will also eventually be carpeted to hide my sins.

Before all of that I am going to seal up my work in epoxy primer to ensure that rust can’t form underneath the bodywork.

Progress is such a hard thing to see while you’re head down but take a look at the before and after above. I’d say I did plenty right by the truck wouldn’t you?

Happy…ish… with the outside I took to cleaning up the inside. I’ve knocked down most of the scale everywhere I could fit a wire wheel and ground down a few areas I wasn’t quite happy with.

Then I pulled everything from the dash. I won’t be painting the dash myself, but it was something I could do while I waited for the humidity to break before I could paint.

My goal this week is to finish cleaning up a few niggling items before I lay the primer down and work towards getting the floor properly squared away.

Until the next update, and as an apology for the lack of 2019 updates so far, I’m doing a giveaway.

The first person to accurately guess the weight of this box of rusty sheet metal in the comments below will win a prize pack from Stance Is Everything and Project Why Wait sponsors.

The box represents everything cut out and replaced in this post, and the one previous to it. That includes what was left of two outer cowls, inner cowls, firewall, and floor.

Guesses can be made within the half pound and the contest will run until July 15th 2019. Good Luck!

But a functioning vehicle is so much more than the big-ticket items. With all of my previous ‘projects’ I’ve been able to heavily rely on factory engineering. To be honest I’ve historically taken said engineering for granted. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent researching things like accessory drives or parking brakes. Neither items are glamorous by any means, but both quite important.

One area of the truck I thought I had nailed down, until I really started thinking about it was steering.

When I removed the cab from the original chassis in update five, I took a Sawzall to the factory column right above the steering box and kept disassembly thundering along. I figured I’d be a bearing, a bit of double ‘D’ shaft, and a couple U-joints away from a functional steering system sometime in the future.

Using the factory column would be the best fit for my truck right? After all it’s what GM spec’d it with.

Well, as fitting as the original column might be it’s not without its faults. Most notably it’s not a tilt column which means though the column fit the truck, it might not fit me. At the end of the day I’d like to be comfortable behind the wheel of this truck. Or at least as comfortable as possible in a farm truck that’s nearly 70 years old.

With my seating still up in the air –I’m going bench, but not sure if original or late-model– any adjustment at the wheel will be beneficial down the line.

It is possible to change the angle of a fixed column but there’s no guarantee that angle would fit my wife or son. Never mind the potential issues adjusting a fixed angle column might introduce on the motor side of the firewall.

With an Advanced Design truck the tilt problem can be solved a few ways. One of the most common is to use a column from a late-model GM vehicle. Van columns are usually the go to because often they don’t have an ignition directly on the column. There are also a number of generic tilt columns available from mail orders and performance shops all across North America.

I considered both routes, but with a used column there’s simply no true guarantee it will be any good, which is always the problem with used hardware.

With the offshore steering columns, reviews are split 50/50. Some people have no problems while others are plagued with excessive rattles and ever-increasing wheel slop.

After asking friends, both professional builders and non, for a do it once, do it right, product one name repeatedly came up as a sure bet; Ididit.

Ididit has been manufacturing aftermarket columns since 1986. They’ve built their business on providing a quality product for builders like myself. Proof of this is their ‘I did it with Ididit‘ tour that searches out grass-roots builders all across America.

So –pardon the pun– I did it. I gave Ididit a ring, we chatted about the project and both agreed that an Ididit column would be perfect for Project Why Wait.

Their tech department suggested an application specific 1947 – 1955 GMC retrofit column. Shipping was quick and the column arrived late last year. But, with all the rust repair I’ve been doing it was tucked safely away within the current chaos of my garage.

This weekend temperatures here in Ontario plummeted. Twenty degrees Celsius below zero without the windchill. I’m dedicated to my project but that’s just far too cold to be productive. With idle hands free I decided to crack open my Ididit box and take a look at what I’d ordered.

If you’re wondering, yes these photos were taken in my kitchen and no I didn’t wind up sleeping on the couch.

Ididit offers a few different options for all of their columns and in the end I selected an unpainted tilt, shift, column without an ignition.

Column shift was chosen over a floor shift simply because the cab really isn’t that big. Any floor space I can gain back will make all the difference during long summer cruises. I went with unpainted, because I’ve yet to narrow down my interior color scheme. However I have a sneaking suspicion I will want the roof, firewall, dash, door jambs, and steering column to all be the same color.

Finally I chose no ignition because I’d like to use the factory one.

Pulling the column out of the protective packaging, the first thing I noticed was its weight. The column is an incredibly sturdy unit that makes the original seem quite dainty in construction.

Looks wise, well, it’s a no brainer, the Ididit column is a beautiful piece. However being of mostly metal construction it doesn’t look too modern for a 50s truck.

Ididit proudly manufacturers all of their columns in Michigan. North American construction is a nice reassurance for something as important as a steering column. Offshore products can be more than adequate, but it’s nice to know that should any problems arise I can get a replacement part within a few days after a conversation with someone just across the border.

Even more reassuring was the fact that the Ididit logo could be found on all the key components. Almost everywhere I looked I found an Ididit embossing or an Ididit sticker.

Again, company specific, application specific, components result in better service, every time.

The various additional packages inside the retrofit box contain all of the parts necessary to mount the column, and shifter.

Ididit also offers a number of add ons for both their universal and retro fit units. I’ll probably be purchasing their swivel floor mount, and column mounted shift indicator sooner rather than later.

Despite, realistically, being a few months away from needing the instructions I quickly flipped through them. Being my first go round I live and die by manufacturers instructions and these were thorough yet to the point.

I’m looking forward to putting the column in the truck later this year, and of course I’ll follow-up with an installation post. Until then it’s back to waiting for the weather to break a bit so I can finish up some more rust repair.

Lots more to come in 2019 from Project Why Wait! Be sure to follow the progress both here and on Instagram under the #siegmc hashtag.

After all my truck is a western truck and they don’t use salt in the west. I can hear some of you chuckling at my lack of experience already.

Curious how I made out? Read on. But before you do, please note that significant rust, amateur welds and copious grinding exist herein.

Fabricators discretion is advised.

Before getting out the cutting discs, I took a trip to Bill’s Truck Shop in Courtice Ontario. Bill is two exits up the highway from my house and trips to the shop became quite frequent during the summer.

Pictured above are the panels I originally thought I needed. In reality I needed all of the above along with a cab support, lower hinge pocket, inner fender and outer cowl.

Thinking ahead I’ve bought the same for the driver’s side because there’s little worse than running out of material mid job.

As a starting point I chose the bottom of the hinge pocket on the passenger side. The metal in that area was pretty thick which meant I’d have a hard time blowing through while I learned the intricisices of patching panels.

There were also plenty of body lines to aid in panel line up.

A grinding wheel made short work of the affected area, though the tight quarters made it a little hard to cut cleanly.

An air powered cut off wheel, with a small disc attached would have worked better. Unfortunately my current compressor is far to small to run air tools for any length of time.

This is an issue I hope to resolve in the near future, but for now a grinder does the trick. I even used my Dremel a few times, equipped with the quick cut, thicker, discs.

Lower hinge pocket tossed in the scrap pile I continued into the cowl. As I worked I made mental note of how bad the floor, kick panel and inner fender were and tried not to get discouraged.

While I was in the area I cut out the lower outer cowl as well. Compared to the new panel you can see just how much was missing.

I’ve since learned this area is known for poor drainage and nearly all Advanced Design trucks are rotted out here. The driver’s side shows similar damage though not quite as significant.

I masked up the new piece, traced what I could, and transferred it to the new panel. I did the same with the lower hinge pocket.

A bit finessing, and I manged to get both pieces in reasonably well.

In the photo above you’ve probably noticed a multitude of sins but one stands out; the double weld line.

I made the mistake of being too conservative with my cuts resulting in not enough solid metal to weld to. I’d love to say that was the only time this happened.

For this panel I tried connecting small tacks instead of running beads. It  looked horror show before the grinder came out, but cleaned up reasonably well.

Later I adopted a half-inch pass method alternating from spot to spot while using an air blower to cool the panel down.

I preferred the later method because it was easier to get into a groove.

There’s plenty of mud work ahead but a grinder knocked down everything fairly well.

Gassed up on my success I turned my attention to the bulk of the metal repair for the passenger side. The toe board and floor area.

This area had been patched before and I knew some manner of tragedy lay beneath, but I was a little taken aback by just how bad things had become.

If you look at the work above (this photo is after I removed a kick patch) you can see that the patch panel was little more than scabbed into place.

Considering what was left underneath I’m surprised the cab didn’t collapse or buckle inter its own weight.

I cut all of it back leaving as much good metal as possible, even if it made the cuts a little unorthodox.

Cancer removed the rest of the floor looked good save for the fact I could see right through the cab support. Crap.

Another run to Bill’s later and I had a new cab support. I think took the OEM one out only to have some of the rocker come with it.

Bamboozled again.

This happened early in a garage session on a Saturday night before a fairly busy week.

Not wanting to give up I rummaged through my cut offs hoping to find something suitable for a patch.

In a rare stroke of luck the previous floor patches were surprisingly thick gauge. Slightly overkill for the floor but perfect for a new rocker, and part of a floor support.

Grind, cut, hammer, smash and I was able to make the patch panels I needed. I finished them early into the next morning leaving just enough time to tack them into place before calling it quits for the night.

Satisfied with the way everything was fitting up, I saved final welding for later that same week, before hitting the new panels with some primer and the armatures best friend, Rocker Guard.

No lie  (this is a safe space right?) I was really relieved that the cab support didn’t separate from the rocker the minute I let it down on my jack stands.

With not a lot of space to work on my back it was penetration before beauty got this work.

The next step was to mark the replacement floor panel. As mentioned I chose to retain as much factory metal as possible. Particularly I wanted to retain as many corners of the battery cover as possible as the oem cover didn’t fit the new floor.

As good as replacement panels might be, nothing fits quite like the factory metal. If it survived a hammer and punch test it stayed.

To line up where my spot welds needed to be I did a little artwork on underside of the replacement panel.

I tacked the floor to the cab support first to keep things from shifting while I did the rest.

Weld, grind, weld –you’ve seen me do this before–and the floor was in. Yep, the double weld line appears again. I got a little over zealous removing the factory floor. Luckily I kept what I cut out.
Rookie.

Before closing in the kick panel area for good, I gave all the original metal a coat of rust primer and more rocker guard. I couldn’t just leave it as it was, even though the bulk of the rust here was just surface.

I’ll also be spraying some rust proof in the panels once everything is complete.

I ended up putting the inner fender in, before the kick panel, and it made fit up a little challenging.

To make my life easier I made a cardboard template I could cut up and manipulate at will to figure out how to get the kick installed.

Eventually I ended up cutting it into three pieces so that it met up with the floor properly.

Not the end of the world, but, it did eat a few hours.

Out came the grinder once more and things were complete enough to remove my cab bracing and reposition then cab for side two.

Putting the door back on and having it close was one hell of a relief. Even though I had braced the cab while doing my work a large part of the front corner of the truck was missing for months.

For my first time, the gaps turned out fairly reasonable, and should only get a bit better once I put a bit of filler on there and clean it all up.

However before I do that, I ought to complete the passenger side.

So if you’re looking for me all winter, chances are I will be right where you see me above. At least I won’t have to sweat through anymore 30+ days with the humidity!

The chassis is currently on the cusp of being a proper roller. Seeing it lay running board once more would be super motivating, but before that happens there’s a few things I need to strike off the list first.

One of those ‘to do’ items was installing the Air Lift Performance 3H ride height sensors.

If you remember from the un-boxing post I went with 3H Managment so neither my wife or I have to worry about the truck riding too low, or more importantly too high, at any given time.

To be able to accurately monitor ride height, once different loads are introduced, the 3H system requires the installation of the ride height sensors pictured above.

Depending on who you ask height sensors are either fairly easy to install, or quite complex.

We’ve all heard the “hard to install” height sensor schpeal of companies who’ve opted not to release a sensor based system.

Aware of the existing stigma Air Lift Performance produced an excellent set of instructions to accompany their kit. As someone who spent years assembling model cars, I really appreciate a good set of numbered directions.

That said, Air Lift Performance does warn installing the sensors is a time-consuming process. Luckily with this truck I have all the time in the world.

Looking back at my installation experience, one of the best things Air Lift included in the documentation were the sensor range templates. These are used to make sure the sensors articulation is within operating limits when no power is run to the system.

I used these extensively during my install.

Quick tip: you can make them a lot more durable by affixing them to thin cardboard. Cereal boxes work a treat.

I chose to start the job at the front of the truck. I reasoned this would be where most of the complications would lie.

It didn’t take long to find challenge #1. Because Project Why Wait runs Allstar performance tubular upper control arms, there wasn’t a great spot to mount the sensor linkage.

I could have tapped, or welded to the control arm, but I really didn’t feel comfortable with either option.

The solution for this problem came by way of Amazon, where I grabbed a pair of 1″ spit collars. Drilled and tapped these solved my problem perfectly.

Additionally not being permanently fixed, this mounting point allows for further adjustment down the road. I paid about $20 shipped for the collars, though it took me awhile to find a vendor that would ship to Canada.

Truth be told I think my set was used, but no big deal in the end.

Next came mounting the sensor itself. Usually the sensor is mounted above the suspension mounting point. In my instance doing so would be a little complicated so I called Air Lift’s support to see if it could be avoided. They confirmed that it while the manual prescribes one way, it will work the other.

The configuration you see above was take one. It worked mechanically, but ultimately it had a pretty big flaw.

I can be a little slow at times so, it took mounting the sensors completely before I put a wheel on and realized things were no bueno.

Had I left the sensor where it was, the first time I turned it would have been history.

Looking back I’m not 100% sure what I was thinking the night I thought that spot was a good idea. I must have under estimated how close the wheel gets to the frame when steering lock-to-lock.

Using a sensor mounting bracket I got from Air Assisted (thanks Kevin!) I was able to find an alternate position on top of the frame rail. I kept everything as tight to the control arm as possible to lower the chance it would interfere with any other components.

Above was a range test, hence the duct tape holding the two rod ends together, and the quick clamp mounting solution with random home hardware.

Once I was satisfied that position two would work, I set out shortening and re clocking the sensor arm.

This falls within Air Lift’s permissible system modifications and they cover how to do it throuougly in the instructions.

In a nutshell there’s an extruded point on the arm that you have to make sure is oriented correctly. As long as that is correct you can pretty well do whatever you like.

A bit of paint on the collar, and sensor mounting bracket, and you end up with the set up below. It’s worth noting that I cut down the threaded rod that connects the two rod ends significantly to make this work.

That is another permissible modification illustrated in the 3H instructions.

After doing the front twice, the rear was fairly straight forward. Not having to account for steering and having two flat surfaces to mount to really helps speed things along.

I mounted the sensor to the frame rail, and used the lower link bar as my suspension point.

Mounting to the lower link bar was acheived with a simple right angle bracket purchased from Home Depot.

Much like the front, I clamped everything in position before running the suspension through it’s full up and down range.

With no bind present, and everything falling inside of the red, I again trimmed the sensor arm.

I also slotted the mount on the lower link bar ever so slightly. Again this was done to allow for further finagling down the line.

The final trick to calling this job done was running the wiring for both the sensors and managment ecu/manifold combination.

Though the illustration above might make it look a little involved the wiring really is straight forward.

The controller connection cord (USB), trigger wire, and power and negative go to the front of the vehicle. A relay, and the main plug for the harness remain in the rear.

I’m sure there were a few quicker ways I could have gone about running the wiring the entire system but the cleanest way was through the frame.

Up front the driver’s side sensor enters the frame almost immediatly, crosses over to the passenger side via the engine crossmember, and joins the passenger side sensor on its trip to the rear.

At this point it goes through the rear crossmember, where a power and negative wire are going the opposite direction up to the battery, as part of the second compressor harness.

The rear sensors are done very similarily to the front, though they start behind rear cross member.

Everything is loomed and grommeted to ensure that it works for years to come. Running these wires isn’t exactly something I want to do on any sort of regular basis.

With all of the connections made I wrapped the harness tightly in electrical tape before snaking it back through the frame.

I also at this point drilled holes from the compressor wiring that also runs through the frame.

The main harness was fed through the frame up to the point where the relay and main plug branch off from each other.

Theoretically I could have modified the harness so this junction was closer to where I was going to be terminating my connections. But, this would have voided my warranty and added another ten or so points on failure.

In comparison living with the extra wiring is much easier.

Viewed from under neath the truck this is what all of the wiring looks like. There’s an extra loop of wiring in the middle there for the main sensor plug.

I could call it a service loop, but really I’m not 100% sure the tidiest way to deal with it.

That being said it isn’t really viewable from the angle below which is where most people will be looking at the back half.

While the photos above look nearly identical, the bottom has the management mounted, and wired, and brake lines run. Neither of which can really be seen which is exactly what I wanted.

Next up, probably few months of metal work on the cab before the motor comes back.

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If you're at all curious what the next little while of #projectwhywait will entail, the answer is metal work. Grabbed these panels from Bill's Truck shop to replace my farmer patched panels. #siegmc #projectwhywait#taylordcustoms #performanceimprovements #piscitellidesign #strippingtech#kreativestreetdesignz #detroitsteelwheels #mobsteel #lsfabrication #airliftperformance #taskforcetruck #taskforceera #billstruckshop #morethanjustaggressivefitment #stanceiseverything

A post shared by Dave (@stanceiseverythingcom) on May 6, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT

It’s finally double digits in the garage now so I am super motivated to tear through as much as possible. You can follow the updates between the updates on Instagram but there’s more to come here on the site as well.

Stay tuned.