Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Do you have a build thread?

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

The closest I have is the thread I started asking questions about it...

Power Steering Help

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

After all the family left this afternoon, I went out and got the Suburban fired up. It hasn't run since last fall. I had to clean the battery terminals, and give her a jump, but she fired up as soon as gas got up to the carb. Hopefully I can find the time to make the necessary repairs and start driving it again.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Got the mechanical fan removed and mounted the electric fan. Bought the wrong bolts to put the water pump pulley back on so I have to get those tomorrow.

The engine compartment is really cleaning up good! Can't wait to pull the front clip and the engine and start stripping and painting all of it.

Steven

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

A quick trip to the coin-op car wash blew all the winter crud off the engine compartment, after which the truck received its first bath in about 6 months. After setting several new records for bad winter weather, it was a real treat to be outside washing the truck in 50 degree sunshine temps.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

You sure aint kiddin.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I pulled the engine and tranny back out so I can paint the firewall. I am just going to do it in my garage. Hopfully sometime this week or this weekend.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

It was 64 deg here in Seattle, usually you are having better weather on the other side of the state there Markeb01...

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I put mine up for sale today. I had to put a tow strap on it to extract it from the shop to get a few pictures. To get it back inside I had to pull a drum and mess around with the brakes. It's time....

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Painted the engine bay :metal:
http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/...5_HDRfixed.jpg

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Looks real good Vic...

I cranked up the '63....been sitting for a couple months due to me givin' all my attention to the '66.
Drove it to my Mother-in-laws for Easter dinner.
Damn I love drivin that thing.
I snapped a couple shots thinkin I need to change my avitar pic....Don't know if I will change it....but here are a couple candidates if I do..

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

old trucks are fun(repeat until you believe) - Easter Edition!

----

There I am in my big blue 1965 chevy truck... riding out to my buddy's place, about 17 miles away.

Nice Easter Sunday afternoon... vroooom.

Perfect driving weather except for all the crazy church drivers going fast and cutting me off!

*truth*

However, I digress...

I get to my buddy's place... 'hey man, how ya doing? What's the latest... hey, we hungry or what, ok... pizza? let's do it.. yers or mine? let's take mine, the winders are already open...'

Get in truck... crank... vrooom.... engine dies. Hrmmn? crank it again, it's fine... 'well, that was weird.' We ride about 300 yards away and it dies.

Now, after 9 years of owning this frankenstein(different years of parts cobbled together) of a Chevy truck, I know a few things or four about it... so we check this, that... and I think 'ya know, last time it acted like this, the power to the electric fuel pump was the culprit... ' and because of that incident, I have a backup positive wire running from the battery down to the pump... I jump the wires over and the fuel pump makes a very slight death 'ker-plunk' and then no-thing. NOTHING.

ooopsies.

Great.

Fun times ahead for me!

We roll it backwards down the hill and into a now thankfully vacant church parking lot... (thank ya lawd for not letting it die out on the main road!) .

Now the fun begins...

Folks, I'm here to tell ya that this newfangled gasoline with the ethanol in it... burns on the skin like you would not believe possible. hooooooo eeeeeee, I was lit up and I still have some nice red spots on me, ow!kwitit!

My buddy walked back to his place, grabbed his tools and his truck, we went to parts store, buy new pump, go back to truck... start to take off pump, gas goes everywhere all over me. I can report that this new ethanol gas tastes worse than old gas too. Now, naturally, the new fuel pump won't fit into the already existing and mounted bracket band which my mechanic or his crew put on a few years ago.

Wonderful.

So, I'm fussing with the hoses to get 'em off and get 'em on and gas is spewing and running out, and I'm on fire cuz it's irritating the snot out of me(serious understatement) and then I get the hoses on. Yay. Then... I notice... the rubber hose from the tank to the new electric fuel pump is dry rotted, has a nice slit in it and it is in fact, leaking.

I had to laugh, of course... mr. murphy is my co-pilot today.

Now... my buddy goes back to his place, grabs some fuel hose and some hose clamps he had lying around from a past project(he's a recovering old car guy, he has go-fast motorcycles now) and comes back. I'm laying under my truck trying to be philosophical about this and ponder : well, at least it is a awful pretty day, I'm right by my buddies house and it isn't raining.

hah!

Buddy comes back, I get back to work - new hose, new clamps, done.

My pal brought his wire stripper/crimping tool and some connecters, yay... get that done... now, will it crank, or was it something else?

crank... VROOM.

hallelujah!

Throw tools in the trucks, clean up our mess in the parking lot and off we roll back to his place for further inspection.

Now, how are we gonna mount this thing? Hmn... the bolts that came with new mini micro pump (mr. gasket - mini micro #12s for you gearheads out there) are too short to go through the plastic mount of the pump housing and the frame itself through the already existing hole.

Mr. Murphy had not yet left us, you see?

My buddy scrounges around and like a true gear head, he has some bolts, nuts and lock washers lying around.

*smirk*

Now I'm looking at this issue... fuel pump mounting is about a inch and a half away from the already existing hole in the frame... but, I have rubber fuel line on each side of the fuel line, so I can wiggle it side to side.

Aw dang it, I'mma take another ethanol bath.

%*&#&!$*@!!!

O.K., so I took my man pill and explained my predicament to my pal and he says: oh, ok, now we are being picky.

I say: that's right, my OCD is now fully active... got any more fuel line?

So, I did the other side of the fuel pump and had more adjusting room. Taking yet another bath in gasoline, this time with a straight shot to the mouth, luckily I have ridden in this kinda rodeo before and learned from my dad to keep my mouth closed when dealing with gas lines on cars and you are underneath the thing.

*thanks for the tip dad!*

Now we got new old stock fuel line on each side with the screw in adjustable manly hose clamps and I have it lined up with the already existing mounting hole on the frame.

YAY.

new bolt and hardware and done.

yay.

But... but... hey... wait... it's... leaking?

from...

fuel line to engine compartment ---> fuel pump ---> in line fuel filter ---> gas line to fuel tank pickup

that came with fuel pump that we already screwed in and snugged down!!!

Hrmmn.

Mr. Murphy must be on the porch now in the rocking chair.

Now we snug it some more... driiiiiip.

A little more.

drii ii iii pp.

A lil, lil more.

dripppp.

**aaahh. we are gonna break it!**

I double check directions to see if maybe we were supposed to use some kinda sealing tape or a gasket, something... nope, nada.

So, we tighten it a little more and it's really in there...

I'll check it tomorrow and see if it requires further attention.

Now, put up tools... I've been sprayed in gas from my head to my belly and laying in it all over my back(my shirt has long since been tossed cuz the gas sitting soaked on my skin was making me insane, yes it hurt that much)... and my hands and fore arms are filthy with old truck grime and I'm covered with that sand that accumulates on roads and driveways.

For you Jerry Clower fans, my pal starts making jokes about going into town with me in this condition, no shirt, big fat jelly belly hanging out and dirt and grease all over... and making like Marcel Ledbetter wanting a bellywasher at the beer joint... I told him : " but, I don't have a chain saw... " he says: we'll just drag the door off with a chain.

*hah.*

So, Cuz finds me some clothes to borrow(luckily we are both big boys! - hah), I take a scrub/rub down/shower/change clothes and we finally go eat pizza.

sheesh.

old trucks are fun.

repeat until you believe.

Ya'll have a good week!

--end--

-W

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Finished installing the steering column on my 60 truck....Found a 32" universal GM Hot Rod chrome tilt column on Ebay for only $199.00 shipped to my door... The columns I have seen by diff vendors in the price range from $499.00 - $800.00 is to rich for my blood.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

It was actully yesterday, but got the first coat of color on. Did not go as good as I was hoping so had to stop that until next week. I also got the new door weatherstrips installed and some wiring done.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Had to cut the passenger door open from the 61 donar truck that had been t-boned to remove the glass and internals. Surprisingly, the only thing broke was the door latch. The glass has the metal frame around it, is in the factory finish and looks like it was installed a week ago. Was a good score. The driver door was rust free and will be installed this weekend. I wanted to upgrade my 63 from the standard glass to the metal lined option. Mike (k1rodeoboater)came over and did the dirty work and I did the removal.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Before shot of passenger door

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I finished painting my sway bar (opted not to shell out for the powdercoating). I also removed the old cut and heated coils.

While I was doing that, the Mrs. used her steamer to remove the old glue from the center section of the GMC buddy buckets that I picked up. I said it before and I'll say it again..."She's definitely a keeper!"

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I went and picked up the new 383/T400 that'll be going into the truck. :D

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Very lucky fella MisterC.....Vernski:agree:

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I started cleaning the old 230 six cylinder on the engine stand. I plan on making sure it's solid (it ran really well) and running it for at least a year or two. Man this thing is nasty. A scraper taking junks of 40+ year old grease and dirt is always fun work.

Also looks like my exhaust manifold has a crack or two where it bolts up. Nice.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I went back through and snugged everything up on the fuel lines, pulled the line after the pump and before the next filter, going to the carb. to check for junk in the line. The gas was nice and purty, no mess in it, nothing fell out of the filter. I changed the fuel filter while I was at it and buttoned everything back up.

gotta keep wrenchin' to keep rollin'.

-W

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

I welded and drilled a tab where the stealth latches seat and made it part of the mount for the gate link assembly.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Will you be doing anything with this area?

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Ha. I only had time to form and tack in the patches, so I was going to wait till I was done to post them. Since you asked...

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Very nice. :metal:

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

laid down some adhesive flashing to cut down on some sound... fitted my carpet
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7126/7...65fe95ec_b.jpg

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

hey coulter, what shifter you running there?

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

finished wiring with the AAW kit... sorta.:lol: its driveable tho. went for a short drive to make sure everything was functional.. so far its looking good :metal:

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Yeah Mister C and she isn't too tough to look at either there lucky fella...
My wife doesn't even like seeing my trucks in the driveway let alone help me work on them. Yeah, consider yourself blessed.... :metal:

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

After what seemed like forever, my painting from the Czech Republic came today. Thanks V! So awesome.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...4-12172028.jpg

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Thanks Chris. I appreciate the comment. She'd kill me if she knew I'd posted that pic. lol

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

its a lokar 23 inch tranny mounted shifter for th350
http://www.lokar.com/product-pgs/shi...s-shifter.html

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

wrapped my door panels
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/6...0b807a90_b.jpg

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Very nice! I like the contrast of the black, chrome, and white.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

We got our engine back last night; will probably start putting together the bottom end this week.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Those doors look great! What did you use?

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

The brown truck came by today and dropped off some lower ball joints!! I will be heading to my friends house tomorrow morning to install them.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Well.......
I found this project on CL yesterday and couldnt resist buying it. Drove it 65 miles home last night and it drove great for what I paid for it. Spent the day today with my two young sons cleaning out the "new" toy and tinkering with little things so I could start my To-Do list. Gonna be a fun project!

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

Stood at the window and looked at the 62, wondering what else I wanted to do before finishing the paint. Thats all I could do since its been raining, cold and windy.

Re: What did you do to your truck today?
 

man that is really bright and shiny--looks really good