GMC-IH

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dragstews

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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
Thanks ...

Didn't want to get too far away from the stock look outside ..
The Dagmar bumper, fat fenders, 47 Ford hood ornament was a bit faraway from looking stock, but did enhanced the truck with what I had going down ... IMO

Main thing was getting rid of the skateboard look of the tires sticking out from under the fenders ..

The interior seen a world of modifications ..
Again the goal was to try to keep it looking like a old truck with having modern creature comforts mixed in ..
Bucket seats, electric windows, keyless power door locks, A/C, Caddy steering column, under dash courtesy lights and the power cowl vent was all about the comfort ..

Keeping the old truck theme going was using door armrests from 58-up Chevy trucks .. They have a polished Stainless Steel band that added some dress-up to a otherwise dull area ..

I'm working the firewall at the moment filling unused holes.
Bought a re-pop firewall mat to help keep a near stock look.
Also redoing the lower steering column mount to be more pleasing to the eye ..

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Some patching to fill the stock hole in the wall will be needed ..
 

Turbo4whl

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Location
Downingtown, PA
First Name
Wayne
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
Jimmy
Engine Size
350
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Did you figure out this switch? I have another guess. Many 1950's vehicles did not have canceling turn signals on the steering column. Pop had a 1959 MGA with the signal switch in the center of the dash.
 

dragstews

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Posts
251
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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
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Did you figure out this switch?

Oh yeah, I knew what it's for ..
Been hunting one for a year or so ..
Ran up on a NOS switch (Most likely the last one in existence)

What it does is the gas tanks (3) level gauge ..
It don't control the fuel flow only the fuel gauge ...

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Left tank, Center tank and the Right tank sending units are wired to the switch, lets you keep a eye on the fuel level on all three tanks ..
From what I've been told this setup was a special order option from the factory ..

Very few trucks had three tanks ..
I'm searching for the auxiliary right side tank for my truck ..
Have the og left side tank ... Installed a 30 ga bed tank years back ..

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_______________________________________________

Been a little busy today dealing with the firewall pad ...

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Certainly going to get busy under the dashboard for dang sure ..
 
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Turbo4whl

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Location
Downingtown, PA
First Name
Wayne
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
Jimmy
Engine Size
350
No, the IH truck only had one 16 ga tank on the driver's side ..
I added a 30 ga bed tank, using a ele. switch from a GM dual tank truck ..
Pull switch on the dash works the GM ele. fuel valve ..

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Switch on the right of the gauge switch ..

As far as the right side IH optional aux tank goes, seems to be super rare for the light duty trucks ..
Kind of looking like I'm going to have the need to hand spin one ...

Sure would like to run up on a fuel valve that controls fuel flow from three tanks ..
I was not clear on this reply that you knew it was a fuel gauge selector, or I would not have made this post:
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Did you figure out this switch? I have another guess. Many 1950's vehicles did not have canceling turn signals on the steering column. Pop had a 1959 MGA with the signal switch in the center of the dash.
Now as far as a 3 tank valve, 2 ways you can do that.

First, 3 electric fuel pumps with a flapper check valve on the outlet of each pump. Turn the pump on for the tank you want to use, check valves on the other pumps keep the fuel from moving into those tanks.

Second way, 4 port mechanical valve. On your 1975 chassis fuel system you can "T" all 3 vents together. This way you can use one mechanical engine mounted fuel pump for all 3 tanks. These are called a 4-way fuel valve.

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CLICK HERE

The 4th port on this valve is on the bottom, mount it under the cab floor with just the stem through.

Flapper check valve, 1/4" pipe thread:

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CLICK HERE
 
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dragstews

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Posts
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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
Good info ^^ Thanks ...

Looks like it's going to be difficult to attain a electric control switch that will switch fuel flow from the dash for control over all three fuel tanks ...

Like what I have on line now ... Switching between the two tanks using a dash mounted switch (A IH factory ele. switch to keep the stock look of all the knobs is in use) is easy to do ..

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It's the switch to the right of the fuel gauge switch ..

Switching to tank number two is super easy just by pulling on the dash mounted Oem knob ..

Got a idea on how to get number three tank fuel to flow to the motor .
Using a electric pump and another dash mounted Oem switch, pump the fuel from tank number three into tank number two ..
Won't be any mechanical valves to mess around with ..
 

dragstews

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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
Well, going to have pretty much a brand new 1954 truck when done with the critter ..
Thought why not start with 0 miles on the clock .. Again ..

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This be the second time I've rolled it back to 0 ..
Rolled it back to 0 miles when I did the body swap 30+ years ago ..

Adding a bit more shiny stuff to the dash ...

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This will come in handy on long road trips ...
 
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dragstews

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Posts
251
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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
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A/C water drain went though the wall super well as did the disconnect switch ..

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Routing all the A/C and defrost hoses sure will take up some under dash room ...
This work is a test fit .. Kind of getting the ducks in a row at the moment ...
Firewall will see some holes welded up once all test fits are done ..
Work is ongoing with the steering column, the lower custom mount most likely will see the firewall needing modifications for a clean install ..
It's being delivered tomorrow ..
 
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waterpirate

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delaware
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Eric
Truck Year
1987
Truck Model
v10
Engine Size
5.7 tbi
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Dang, that wrecker looks familiar !!

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The gig with the truck in the above photo ..
(S-Series)

My truck is a R-Series .. L-Series was the first of the Comfort Vision Cabs ..Made from 1950 to 52, then came the R's in 53 production ran to 55 with those bad boys .. Same cab as the L's then in 56 the S Series (Same cab as the L's and R's) Interesting bout the R Series tucks.. IH built them into the late 60's in the Heavy Duty version ..

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Tidbit of useless information :
The dash that is going in my 54 R-100 Light Duty truck came out of a 1967 R-190 over the road truck ...
Love me some R 190! lol
Memories.
Eric
 

dragstews

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Mar 27, 2024
Posts
251
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Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
Speaking of turning ...

Might see this today ..

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It was designed for use with aftermarket steering columns ..

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I'm using a 1975 Cadillac that I modified to fit ..
We'll soon see how well the custom firewall mount works out ..

Cool, got it in hand ..
Looking like the GM column will need some modifying in order to install the ball over the tube ..

Didn't need much ....

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Those two lugs sticking up had to go ..

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Slid right up on the column's tube ..

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That's going to be a much better install than what I had before ...

Was hoping it would go back together with most all of the take-off parts that had to be removed in order to do the work ...
 
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dragstews

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2024
Posts
251
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831
Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
That wasn't in the cards !!

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50 year old plastic part gave up the ghost ..
Have no idea when it broke ??
Didn't seem to affect driving none, but I found a new replacement ...

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Could had reused the old cracked bearing, probably wouldn't have cause any problems ... But I'm here now in the belly of the beast .. !!

Got it together enough to do a mockup ...

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Patching the stock hole and then drill a new one ..
 
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dragstews

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2024
Posts
251
Reaction score
831
Location
Belleview Florida US of A
First Name
Jesse
Truck Year
Body 1954, frame 1975
Truck Model
R-100
Engine Size
406 ci SBC
Back to working on the dashboard ..

Parts came from the closed up chrome shop ..
Great people, really going to miss their talents for chroming.
Been 40+ years they been doing my plating ...

Here's the VDO bezel, going to run it as it is ...

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Got a bit of copper bleed though showing in one place, still going to continue the search for a better bezel ..

Getting a bit fancy with the tach & vacuum gauges ..
Since the Oem speedo & gauge cluster have convex glass, I found convex glass that will work on the two smaller gauges.

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We'll soon see how that works out ...

One other item that was going to be plated was a switch nut (Bezel) ... Bought it from a Fellow unseen, had him to dropped ship it to the chrome shop .. They plated all of the other switch nuts on the dash ..

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It had 70 years of crud built up, with a bit of TLC I found good chrome ... Hard to tell which bezel is the new to me one
..

----------------------------------------------------------

Do want to finish the woodgraining on the dash real soon ...

Slight holdup with the tools that does the job, will be getting back on it in due time ...
 
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