Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I started working on my turn signals and cruise for my 53. The turn signal mech is from a tri five apache. The cruise is Dakota Digital. I had a slight fitment problem on the cruise control handle. I practiced on an old one I had to see if it would work. I milled it square and flat. I then filed groves in the mech 1 molecule at a time. I sliced a 1/4-20 bolt to fill the void at the bottom and installed a screw in the top. It works amazingly well. Tight fit and no slop. Sometimes I get lucky. The hardest part was turning my mill upside down.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Front springs installed. I may need to change shocks as they are close to the compression limit. Bump stops removed as they were very close.
Rides nice. Next to install the rear and align my steering wheel.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

mikebte: what steering box are you using?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Steering wheel alignment should be easy with that turnbuckle on the drag link!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Adjusted the wiper linkage so the transmissions wouldn’t go over center and dismantled the passenger side door to diagnose the short in the solenoid for the shaved door handle. Discovered the solenoid has a dead short. I ordered a new one and put the door back together so I can use my truck in the meantime...

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Duplicate post

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

CPP steering box. Had to make the stock steering box hole a small amount bigger for it to clear. Works nice!

One more leaf down and one to go, plus the parts I ordered for some other stuff found along the way. But almost have the springs done.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I finished rebuilding my turn signal mech. and installed the cruise control handle I altered. I blasted it with a fine Garnet. I'm still surprised at how well the handle fits.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Finished the drop springs. Had to remove the bump stops all the way around. Rear seems to clear but I'll need to change the sway bar location a bit. Front kits the frame if not careful, I'll most likely make a front shackle that's a little longer and it should resolve the issue.
Loaded up all my scrap in the back and it squats a bit. Ride is much better and that was the goal.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Damn you guys are getting some cool stuff done, can't wait to get back to mine!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I can't wait for you to get back to yours ether, I have enjoyed watching your 5 minutes a day. After all, your build convinced me to stay leaf spring and It does ride nice.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

[QUOTE=mikebte;8729252]I can't wait for you to get back to yours ether, I have enjoyed watching your 5 minutes a day. After all, your build convinced me to stay leaf spring and It does ride nice.[
I'm also keeping my leaf springs. Check this guy out on leaf springs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7rCGda4Ab8

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

[quote=mick53;8729578]That is very cool, even running the inline 6 and straight up killing the LS runners on the track. Always. Enjoy stuff like this, people using creativity and enjoying the car.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

[quote=mikebte;8729733]I love the sound of an angry inline 6.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Well I had ordered new shackles with my leaf springs from the usual scum bags only to find out they were unable to get shackles from the supplier. Since I am a rather impatient person I installed the new springs without them only to find out the original shackles were in fantastic shape. Asides from 7 of the 16 original seals had gone MIA, the new bushings in the leafs fit the old pins nice.
As they are in such good shape I ordered 16 replacement seals and just installed them on the old shackles.

Since I was at it I also started taking off the tie rods for new boots as the 6 year old boots are gone from the Arizona heat. Poly will be filling the void.

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Haven't got much done this weekend, a few hours of polishing. I have a 12" X 36" lathe coming tomorrow So I have to make room and run 220v over there.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Last week the wife wanted to go for a ride in the 56, so we started driving and the front fenders started dragging on the tires, (77 nova front clip) so I took it home and went down and picked up some 1" spacers to put in the coils, it didn't help at all. So I dug out the new 1 1/2" lowering springs that came with tubular control arms I bought, and installed them, the front end sat even lower then when I started, so I took off my 2" drop spindles and put the stock one back on. Now it rides great without rubbing!

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Looks pretty darn good too!

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x2

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

nice stance. looks like it should be a great driver. especially with this weekend's weather in Seattle.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

so today I made some great progress on my power drum brake conversion. for those of you who have helped with ideas, thanks much.
I was talking with a friend who owns, at last count, 38 Buicks of all models, classics and hot rods. Anyway, he suggested that I check the clearance between the push rod from the brake pedal to the booster & said it should be about 1/8 - 1/4" just so there was no pressure on the shoes. I checked & mine was almost 1". adjusted that & got a big improvement. he also said that on manual brakes the pedal ratio should be 6:1 and on power it should be 4:1. I checked mine and it was at 6:1. I was able to drill another hole in the lower arm & get 5:1 which again helped pedal travel. at this point the pedal travel feels much better but may need more work. tomorrow I will test drive it. wish me luck.

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I managed to make boxing plates and weld them into the rear area of my frame where my 4 link will be.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I spent most of the day making a place for the new lathe but I received the rest of my fasteners for the thermostat housing on the 292.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

While ot thought i'd mention that if many lathes of that size need ample access behind them. Some with rear electrical controls need a foot or so. Many realize it too late.

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test drove the truck today & brakes feel better, but still not 100%. pedal has more travel than I would like. feels like there is still air in the brake lines so Friday im taking it to a friend's shop for a look see and to bleed the brakes. so at least im making progress

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Hey mains is that what they call an open diff, lol.

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lol For sure it came with a shop rag bolted on it and instead of ordering a cheap cover I keep buying other things ha

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Good point. I'll leave enough room to walk behind it. I will also run dedicated 220v circuits to it and the mill.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Worked on installing my heidts IFS bolt in kit on my 53 Chevy 1/2 ton panel truck , going to remove again to have it powder coated .

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You will like the heidts. I have had mine on the 57 for five years now.

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I got my parts back from the one machinist that doesn't hate seeing me yet and ordered the fasteners. This is how it all stacks up. I was quite a task getting all of this stuff to play together. other than the blower pulley, ooil pump pulley and the crank trigger everything is a one off. The SFI damper is on the left. They made me a slip fit hub for mock up. All and all about $2K there. A little aerodynamic polishing and its done. Now I can do the water pump pulley, alt. mount and oil pump mount. The good news is I bought a lathe. Edit. Sorry this goes on my 292 going in my 53 3100.

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That's some pile of jewelry!

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ive been slowly working on the alignment of my front sheet metal. it was "okay" but im always impressed with the trucks that have really tight fender and hood gaps. decided to put the time in and try to get mine there. its a tedious process. im also taking to top down to bare metal and that is also a ton of work. trucks running great.

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Big project going down to metal. Be careful not to go overboard and make the gaps too narrow, sometimes the parts rub later, taking paint off, because the bodies move around some.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

so far the "virus vacation" has been great for working on the truck.
Got the power brake conversion done. its good but not perfect. still needs some fine tuning.
Got the stereo mounted behind the center grill & speaker boxes built that fit next to the seat.
Got the 3 point belts in & the back panel around the window painted. next is the sliding rear window install.
Got all the fluids & filters changed. greased all fittings & packed the front wheel bearings.
Still need to figure out why the gas gauge shows full & hook up the oil pressure gauge.
There are still many little things to do, but its been fun driving it every day in the last 3 weeks.
And still getting projects done around the house. Just a bit of time every day sure makes a difference.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

so far the "virus vacation" has been great for working on the truck.
Got the power brake conversion done. its good but not perfect. still needs some fine tuning.
Got the stereo mounted behind the center grill & speaker boxes built that fit next to the seat.
Got the 3 point belts in & the back panel around the window painted. next is the sliding rear window install.
Got all the fluids & filters changed. greased all fittings & packed the front wheel bearings.
Still need to figure out why the gas gauge shows full & hook up the oil pressure gauge.
There are still many little things to do, but its been fun driving it every day in the last 3 weeks.
And still getting projects done around the house. Just a bit of time every day sure makes a difference.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

That's very impressive! Between closing down and reopening my businesses I can't seem to get much done.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I have a rear fuel tank in my '51 Panel so I had to devise somewhere else to locate the spare tire. This simple mounting bracket from American Van Equipment secures it solidly, and helps counterbalance the loss of the original side tank to prevent the notorious "Chevy Lean" that our trucks always seem to develop.

Sorry, you can tell that the cargo compartment is the last thing on my truck to receive any detailing...eventually it will all be painted black and the wood refinished.

https://www.americanvan.com/spare-ti...g-bracket.html

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Wow, no entries for a full week in this thread. It gets decidedly fewer visits since the format change lumping it into the FAQ heading.

Today I installed the original windshield wiper system in my truck. I normally use the electric conversion kits but those typically use the cowl vent framework as a bottom brace and some previous owner removed my cowl vent and related hardware so nothing to brace the big, heavy electric motor against (the electric motors are about three times the size and weight of the OEM vacuum motor). I don't mind using the old vacuum system; after all, it's not like I'm going to drive my truck in the rain much anyway. The next step will be to route the vacuum line to the engine and hope the 70-year-old wiper motor still works.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I spent a rainy Saturday in the garage giving the '58 a much needed spring cleaning. About 3:00 the rain moved out and some sun poked through, so off I went to the Coon Rapids Saturday Night Cruise...