Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

lots of useful info for my truck...subd for sure

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks

I took a shot of the can and the wand labels

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Saw this & tagging in. Nice work thus far. Getting the young-guns involved is awesome & the memories will always remain as time passes.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks Scoti. The kids are asking when it will be driving. Haha that’s a good one kids.
I haven’t gotten any truck stuff done lately, been working in the house on a kitchen remodel. I’m doing demolition and some of the finish work. Hired out the big stuff, it would take me a year of Sunday’s to get this done. The garage is taking the overflow of house items.
I hope to get back on it after the holidays.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I finally got back out into the garage today after work. It’s been killing me to not have at least a little progress at home, so I pulled my intake, valley cover, and valve covers to see what’s what.
Now, I bought this LQ4 already pulled, so I took the guys word that it was low mile. Looks good so far!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The little bit of cam I can see looks good too.
The knock sensors not so much, but the harness is ok.
Half of the valley cover bolts were hand tight. This thing was pretty dirty when I first got it. I’m sure it was seeping a bit.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Looks clean & promising. If you can, pull the plugs & put a scope in the cylinders for a peek @ the walls + piston tops.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Yeah, I need to grab the scope from work and do that. I've looked in there with my little Streamlight pocket LED and what I could see looked good. The plugs looked nice too.

I'm planning on pulling the pan this weekend so I'll see what the bottom end looks like and put on my CTS-V pan if it's as good as the top end.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

That engine looks great! Do you have any plans for mods like cam, springs, intake, heads, etc?

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I'll do cam/springs eventually, maybe get to 400ish HP

First I want to try my hand at tuning it and getting it to drive right with the manual trans and make the AC compressor and fans work correctly thru the PCM.

Really, it's not in the budget right now either.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I got the pan off and took a peek, still looking good! Pulled #3 main and the bearing journal and thrust surfaces are fine as can be. The lower portion of all the bores look great too.
That is nice to see.
Just waiting on gaskets and I’ll put it back together with my V oil pan.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I've been lazy about updating. I got the V pan on and everything back on a couple of weeks ago.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I've been eyeing the thread about the Hooker swap setup and I think I want to switch over to the F-body style mounts from the truck style.
Maybe I'll use those Hooker frame stands and maybe I'll make something of my own. That is down the road a bit, but first I wanted to see how those mounts clear the Speed Engineering headers.
The right side looks great, plenty of room to the tubes and no interference with the compressor.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

On the left side it was a little closer, but it will work there too.
Maybe there will be a 1/16" at the top corner of the mount that interferes with the header tube, but I can live with trimming or dimpling to make that work. As it sits mocked up it isn't touching but it's feeler gauge close to the metal flange.
The pics make it look tighter than it really is.

Also, there must be a slight difference in the block webbing between the 6.0 and car 5.7. There are tabs on the back side of the mounts that you have to bend flat for these to fit right side up. They will go on upside down no problem, but not right side up. I had heard mention of this once, but just wanted to throw it out there for anyone else. Maybe it's different for OEM mounts also, these are re-pops.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Last weekend I really wanted to turn the cab around and start working on the other side. Before I could do that tho, the filler hole had to be taken care of.
I had looked into getting the patch for it, but didn't want to wait. So I just got after it and made one.
It wasn't too hard, and I'm just a guy with a set of HF body hammers.
I followed the advice of good old Dave (body guy) and set it in so it would be just a hair low. Easier to blend it with a skim coat than hammer it down and have to skim coat it anyway.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Helpful tip for all us cheap folks;
The handy magnets are Ford headliner magnets. Look for 13+ Explorers. There are 2 at the rear of the headliner (and more further forward). Very easy to grab. Bust out the plastic clip part and add a machine screw to create some fancy panel holders.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I got the braces in and took some before measurements. A bunch of before measurements.
When I hang the tape, I sharpie where it is on the drip rail AND where it goes over the lower brace. That way my after measurements are in the same vertical line. It worked really well on the other side. I also make a quick sketch or description of how I determine the end point; like is it to the wire channel, or the top of the weather strip flange, or the top bend curve of the rocker where it gaps up to the door skin. Really, it scares the crap out of me to cut all this out and not have some sort of reference for putting it back together.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

About this time, my daughter came out and started asking about patching holes and things.
Sounds like practice time to me. I had her run the grinder and wire brush on a particularly crusty part of the floor, and then practice some tacks on my bracing.
Then she got to have the fun experience of blowing thru thin metal and trying to fill the holes. It was cool seeing her first fail and then succeed. Also she learned that sometimes the metal is just too thin to bother with.
The last pic is the practice tacs, and some cool "worms" she made.
It was a fun afternoon.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I've been making some more slow progress this past few weeks. Cutting out the old rust is probably my least favorite part. Mainly because the more you do, the more you find and the more you'll have to fix. Oh well, that's the nature of the game.
I took my time on this side and took it apart gradually. I didn't know what was damaged under the outer rocker since it was in better shape than the driver side and I didn't want to cut out anything good. The other side was easier since it was really trashed.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Time to tip the cab back up and take a closer look.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The base of the pillar was fine on the other side, but all the rocker was totally rotten. This side was the opposite. Thankfully I had the whole kit, so that covers it all. I only used what I really needed since the shapes aren't really spot on.
Anyway, here it is.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

At some point, this truck got a de-luxe house carpet install. No glue was used, but about 40 little screws. That was fun.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Here's something I've found helpful when cutting out metal in corners. A Dremel with a flex attachment can get in the corners way better than the 4" cut wheel. It takes a while, but you don't have all the extra cut damage from the big blade.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

And finally, the rot is out. Time for some fresh metal fitting.
I like to creep up on fitment, so I cut the pieces slightly oversize and use a flap wheel to get it really close. I tack when the gaps are looking pretty good. It seems there are always some tight gap spots, and I open them up with the cut off wheel, either the 4" or the Dremel.
Now we'll see if my daughter wants to do some tacks this weekend. There's definitely no shortage of opportunities.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Great progress, looking good.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Mad props for keeping the young-guns inluded. I sure wish I did more w/my step daughter.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Rust repair on the cab is a time-consuming process, I didn't particularly enjoy it. But it's satisfying when you're done to know that your cab is rust free and solid.

And great that your daughter wants to get involved. How many girls her age learn to weld? Or even boys her age?

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I'm in Scrbd!!!!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks all, I keep plugging away at it when time allows.
The kids think it's interesting but in the 11 & 7 year old way. Once it looks more like a truck and/or their driving years are on the horizon it will probably be a different story.
I try to expose them to non-screen activities as much as possible. You can "build" all sorts of cool things in Minecraft, but it's not real. That's a distinction that I think a lot of younger kids don't quite get, mine included sometimes.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Here's some of the last couple weeks progress.
In the above floor pics, you can see a thin triangle gap. Yes that is a total screw up on my part. I eyeballed that portion of the floor when I cut it, instead of measuring it. DOH
So I got to reinstall the portion I cut out. I generally keep my cut out pieces just for reference. This time it came in handy.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The kids were around and came to check it out. My son preferred to play with some cool sticks he found that look like guns (I remember those days). My daughter decided she wanted to do some tacks for about 20 minutes. That was enough for her at that point. I get it, a zillion tack welds do get old.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

She did a pretty good job and I finished up the rest.
Next up was the last floor portion. Nice to see it coming together finally.
I started with some scrap and used a hammer and sandbag to get the shape close enough to work. Get the gaps close and then tack tack tack.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

As a helpful side note, during the fitting and welding the gaps don't always stay consistent. I keep that dremel tool handy and use the cut-off wheel on it to get the gaps opened back up. I prefer to creep up on the dimension of my patch so it doesn't turn out too small. I can always open up the welding gap if I need to. Closing up a too-large gap isn't much fun.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I did the same exact thing. Gave myself a stiff slap to the forehead upon realization.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

^^I hate it when I do that. I created at least an hour more work for myself.

Here's an example of my fitment technique with the floor support. I kept the old one I cut out and used it for a template. I cut the new one a little big and flap-wheeled it to the right size. As it got closer to the right size, each time I fitted it I bolted it in. It shifts around a fair bit when you tighten up the fasteners and that can give you the too-big gap problem. This is what I wanted to avoid.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

And here it is done. I drilled the little hole in it for my wax application afterwards.
Speaking of drilling, you have to drill the bolt holes. I'm ok with that since it's a re-pop and I doubt they would be in the right place.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

At this point, all that's left underneath is the fender tab, rear floor brace, and some misc. tacs in the couple of thin spots here and there along the long floor seam. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I got this far last night and called it beer:30. The rear brace was a little harder to fit but the gaps are decent. Nothing I can't work with.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I don't go thru the 67-72 section much because theres so much going on here that I cant keep up with it all...but your doing some good work,,,and kudos for having the kids involved...I vividly remember as a kid helping my Dad work on his trucks, tractors and cars

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks Mongo, it's a long process but fun and challenging.

I got a little more done here and there. The floor is pretty much done!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It's sitting back right side up on the casters!

Of course, the motivational shot of the panels just set on it.

And a back side shot of the corner. I chose to cut it here so I could get to the back side of the weld and make sure it doesn't have any pinholes. It wasn't real crusty up this high, but I'd rather be able to get to both sides of the weld seam.