Re: Frankentruck
 

It rained most of the morning, but this afternoon I was able to get the rag joint rebuilt and get the fresh Redhead box torqued down to the frame.

I should've done this 4 years ago when I put the disc brake kit in!

Frankentruck steers much smoother now and I don't have to saw back and forth on the wheel to keep it going in a generally straight direction. Going over bumps doesn't even pull the wheel in different directions now.

Money and time well spent for the fresh box

Re: Frankentruck
 

This crappy weather sucks. Instead of working outside on the truck this morning, I spent some time organizing my parts shelf and figuring out what I am keeping, and what I am selling. I didn't realize I had accumulated this much stuff :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

I bought a Flarestat hazard flasher switch a couple weeks ago and got a chance to install it today. It works great and looks like it was meant to be there

Re: Frankentruck
 

At some point, Frankentruck apparently had an old trailer hitch that was welded in and then torched off later. Additionally, the truck was rear ended which bent the frame a little bit. All it took was a pipe wrench and a hammer to bend the frame back enough to useable shape :lol:
Also spent some more time getting friendly with my Harbor Freight grinder to get rid of what was left from the old hitch. Taking the bumper off made all of that easier.
I finished up the install today and got the bumper back on. The truck already has trailer wiring and a trailer brake controller, so now that I've got a good hitch, I'm ready to tow some stuff :metal:

Funny story:
I left my 9/16 and 5/8 socket sitting on the wiper arm when I was working on the truck yesterday. I then forgot to grab them before I drove up to a local body shop to ask what I should do about the frame. When I pulled into the shop's driveway, my 9/16 fell off the truck. Didn't realize it was missing until today, so I drove back there and found it half way squished into the gravel. Both sockets are safe and sound in the garage tonight :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Another day, another task completed

The burlap material used to keep the springs from cutting into the foam. Well, it was no longer up to the task, so for a cheap and easy fix, I decided to throw a piece of carpet down between the foam and the springs. I was surprised to find that none of the seat springs are broken. Eventually my budget will allow me to get an original style seat done properly, but for now, this will keep my bum happy on longer trips and the seat won't look completely blown out anymore :lol:

I've been driving the truck since I got the new steering gear in and dadgum, it's so nice. That will be one of the first things I do whenever I get another project truck

Re: Frankentruck
 

Man, liking the progress!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks!
No online class until the 30th and staying at home because of the Carona means that I have plenty of time to make a bunch of progress. I've had parts accumulating since Christmas that needed to go on the truck, so might as well do it now

Re: Frankentruck
 

It took pretty much all day to do it, but I got the door hinge pins and bushings replaced. The passenger door fought me from the beginning. One of the hinge pins had broken off inside the hinge and rusted together, so I had to end up drilling through what was left of the pin and cutting it off before I finally got it hammered out. That was after several hours of trying to hammer it out beforehand :lol:

Everything is back together and the gaps are much nicer around the entire door

Re: Frankentruck
 

Took a break from working on the truck to get dad's boat out of the garage. Last time we had it out was in 2014. We got it out on the water one time that summer, and it has sat ever since. Before 2014, it hadn't been out on the water in 7 years. So since 2007, it's been out one time. At least it's been in the garage all these year.

So far, everything has worked on it, but we have not tried to start it yet. The gas we put in 6 years ago has gone bad so we have to drain the tank first.

Now that I have a trailer hitch on Frankentruck, I just might have to hook up the boat and do some social distancing out on the lake

Re: Frankentruck
 

I purchased a 67-72 door switch harness from Fred a couple months ago, and I finally had a chance to install it today. The harness had been cut up by someone else, which ended up being good for me because I picked up some floor lamps from the front dash of a Jeep XJ and spliced them in. To mount the floor lamps, I trimmed them to better fit on the speaker mounts I made a while back. Also threw some paint on the lamp brackets and got the holes drilled and tapped for the door switches.

Re: Frankentruck
 

For the driver's side, I had to drill a hole into the cab. On the passenger side, I just used the radio antenna hole.

I thought about getting two more floor lamps, but just the pair I have lights up the floor nicely. I'm not even using LED bulbs :lol:

The door switch harness plugs in between the harness for the dome lamp, so the dome and floor lamps turn on whenever the doors are open or when the dash switch is turned on.

The last two pics show the before and after. Well worth drilling more holes in my cab :metal:

Re: Frankentruck
 

I got the 60 glove box door script installed today. The truck it came off of had been sitting with the glove box door open all this time, so the script and barrel nuts are in great shape. It was easy to do and it made the passenger side less bland.

Best part is I paid $7 for the emblem :metal:

Re: Frankentruck
 

All clean with nowhere to go

Re: Frankentruck
 

Great work and progress from the beginning to now. Keep at it. Its great to see the youth take interest in these old trucks. Job well done Christian.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you for the kind words!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Unfortunately, I haven't done anything to Frankentruck since I washed it. Online school has kept me super busy for most of the day.

I went to go out for a drive, but I guess the starter had other ideas. Every time I turn the key, the dash lights just dim down. No clicks or sounds from the starter at all. Oh well, I guess I'll look into it in 2 weeks when I'm done with this semester.

I hope y'all are staying safe out there!

Re: Frankentruck
 

How old is the battery?

Re: Frankentruck
 

Not sure, but I think the glove box door light that I had installed got pushed back far enough where it ended up staying on and I didn't notice it. The battery in the truck has 7.74 volts because of that, but I had no issues at all until I missed that light. I hooked it up with jumper cables to a battery with 11.5 volts. No noise or anything from the starter on either battery. Just dims the lights lol

Re: Frankentruck
 

Do you have a charger ? If not you can borrow mine or my jump box . Neither of your batteries have full voltage .

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks John. My dad still has his charger that's older than me and I have the one my grandpa had. I know the truck has started on batteries with less than 12 volts, so I'm thinking it is something other than the battery.

Remember when we went to the swap meet at Paradise dragway last year? I think it might be doing the same thing that it was doing then. I don't remember what we did to fix it though

Re: Frankentruck
 

11.5 volts should be enough to at least make some clicking noises I would think.
Be sure to check all your connections!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Having voltage, and having current, are two different things.

Charge that battery up, and then try.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks guys, I will hopefully get a chance to look at it some time later this week, but my main focus right now is doing well on my audit exam on Wednesday and the 4 final exams I have next week.

This is the starter that was on the truck when I bought it, so I wouldn't be surprised if it finally gave up. I have been having issues of the bendix spinning but not shooting out, and since December it seems to have been getting worse.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Sounds like those Bronze bushings need to be replaced on both ends.
You can clean the commutator bars off and replace the brushes.
If that stuff is still available? I sure it is;)

Re: Frankentruck
 

Hmmm, I just might have to try it.

When I did the engine swap, I used the reman starter that came with it. Since then, it failed, so I put the starter from the old engine back on. It was on borrowed time when I put it back on :lol:
Anyways, since I probably have two cores, I can send the reman one back as a core for another parts store reman if I can't rebuild the older one myself.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I agree with getting a full battery charge and trying again, My truck does nothing if the voltage gets down to 11.5 volts. Good luck.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Well, I was just being silly trying to start it with a drained battery. Stuck the battery on a charger today then poof, started right up.

Also fiddled with the driver's door striker and finally got the door to close without having to slam it. I had to adjust the striker down much more than where it was before.

Finding where the draw on the system is coming from will be a task for a day when I don't have the impending doom of final exams

Re: Frankentruck
 

So apparently what caused the drain on my battery was from when my dad pushed the glove box door closed too far and bent the flange for the glove box light back just enough to where the light stayed on. I fixed that when I first noticed it a couple days ago. Have not had a drain on the battery since. Yay!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Glad it was an easy fix , good luck on the Exams , but I know you will do fine , you are smarter than the average Bear .

Re: Frankentruck
 

I'm glad too! I've already got 1 A this semester, so off to a good start. Just have 4 exams next week, and I should be done by Thursday. Whoop whoop!

Re: Frankentruck
 

I had installed some new headlight adjusters back during spring break, but didn't have a need to actually line up the headlights until tonight. Hopefully I got them close enough!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Frankentruck and I went junkyarding today. Got some great stuff! :chevy:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Great finds Christian! Wish there were yards like that here.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Is that the trim piece that goes under the back window between the sail panels on a '60-'61? If so guard that with your life. That piece alone is worth a lot of money. Extremely rare. Did that truck have any of the side trim?

Nice score on the fender too.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thanks Andy! I discovered this yard one day when I was going up to Athens for a UGA football game. It is still a bit of a drive from both my house in Milledgeville and my parent's home in Woodstock. It's a private yard with stuff that has been there longer than I've been alive :lol:
I do wish that there was a yard close to my parent's home, but I haven't found one yet

Re: Frankentruck
 

Yes sir, it is. When I first saw the truck, the paint divider trim was missing. It just had the sail panels on it, so I didn't think much about it. Went back again and was digging through the pine straw to see what I could find and poof, there it was. Unfortunately, it is bent up, but there's no splits in it. It came off a 60 that I also grabbed the glovebox script from. The other set of sail panels came from another 60 that the guy has in his yard, but the paint divider trim piece was nowhere to be found.
There was some side trim left, but not a complete set. Should I go back and grab what is left of the side trim even if some of the pieces have some dents, dings, or bends?

Re: Frankentruck
 

That's also a heavy bumper! 494 LBS HAHA

Re: Frankentruck
 

Oh man, I didn't even notice that until you just mentioned it! That's great! :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Christian , if you happen across a good cheap front bumper I know someone in need of one .

Re: Frankentruck
 

I'll be on the lookout!