Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Also finished the other side of the tailgate cable bolt hole by using a hole saw and welding a nut to the back of a washer the same size as the hole and welded it in Flush then Cleaned the welds off. And I did some bodywork on the modified fender but nothing post-worthy.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

take your tires off your wheels when you sand blast them. you can manipulate the wheel in a cabinet alot better then you can a wheel with the tire on plus you dont want to accidently hit your rubber then your sol on the tires. plus when you paint them it will make it that much easier to paint the whole wheel or powder coat or what have you. the truck looks awesome im tuned in!

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Thanks, I didn't paint them before I mounted them because the machine at my school has scratched lots of rims and I didn't want that to happen to mine. And I don't have to worry about sandblasting as I decided to just sand them as it didn't actually take that long. When I paint them I'll just tape them up.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

your fender looks great , I need to do my truck like that too .
I like the tailgate cables too . the drive shaft cut looks good .

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Thanks Jim, I plan on welding the yoke on today using the instructions you gave me, I'll check that its square many times then I'll put a couple tack welds and if it's still perfectly square I'll keep welding and checking.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Welded my driveshaft up today. Checked over and over to make sure it was square and tack welded it, checked more and finished up the weld. I'll pick up a new ujoint and put the driveshaft in tomorrow or the next day. I think it'll work just fine.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Also did some more work on the tailgate. I shortened the cables about 3". The bottom one hadn't been done when I took the pic

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Then I made some little brackets out of angle iron and drilled a hole in them and welded them to the gate. I then bolted the cables to the bracket with a bolt and two nuts and tightened them together so the cable can spin freely.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Here's the gate down

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

The chains have been retired of their duty
And here's a video of the gate cables. http://youtu.be/fMepTpBTR7w

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

keep up the good work !!

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Thanks Jim

I just went out and got a new u joint and installed it and put the driveshaft in, I should be on the road soon:chevy:

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

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Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

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Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Tryed starting the old beast up today and it started easily enough but I didn't get to warm it up as it was leaking gas badly from the intake manifold. This made no sense to me as first because I put a new gasket in and made sure both surfaces were clean the tightened it up. When I took it all off I found that it was a problem with the new gasket. It wasn't the correct shape and the metal sleeves on the manifold were jamming on the gasket and not seating properly.

Is it normal to have this much carbon on a gasket with tops 15 minutes of running time on them (Most of that time was with the choke on)???

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Hi everyone here's an update on the 261. its Starting now but still not running right I just can't take the choke off even if it's warmed up and it's super loud. Here's a video to explain http://youtu.be/tsGegjKaos8 thanks

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Looking good Nik. That carbon is likely from an exhaust leak

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Exhaust sounds like its leaking from the sound and if the intake is too that would explain the choke needing to be on. I would say you have a leaking intake and exhaust manifold gasket

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

My thoughts exactly, some sort of manifold or vacuum leak.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Thanks Dale


Ok so it seems that it is the manifold gasket leaking but it is brand new and is not jamming or anything when being installed and the bolts are pretty tight. I cannot think of anything other than the two surfaces are not clean.(but I did sand and clean them) I'll pull it all of again tomorrow and see what's up

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Time to check for manifold flange warpage and a new gasket. I remember changing it on mine and it ran real good afterward.

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Tj the gasket is brand new, it has maybe 10-15 mins of use on it. I will check for warpage tomorrow

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

This motor is really starting to make me frustrated. I pulled the manifold again this morning. First I cleaned the surfaces off and made sure they were perfectly flat, then I trimmed the gasket so it fit perfectly and then cleaned it up and used some hight heat gasket maker to help seal everything. I then bolted it on carefully and torqued it to the correct specs and then waited so the gasket maker could dry. Then I fired it up and got the same result, bad vaccum leak and exhaust leak. Any suggestions on what to do now? Thanks

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

My guess is that gasket is toast. It has been too long for me, but is that a factory gasket or an aftermarket one> I used a hi-performance gasket on my old 250 when I had to replace an exhaust manifold. It was thicker than factory and seemed tougher. Now whether I really needed it or not , I don't know. I just got one cause it looked better than the stock one. (from Summit Racing)

Re: A 15 year old's project. Rusty 62 stepside
 

Here's a bit of an update for everyone. Been doing lots of bodywork so nothing too picture worthy. Here's the fender with almost all the bodywork finished.