Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Been a while since I last posted. Lots of stuff going on, but the main thing that's kept me from CRLS was a mini vacation. Wife and I went down thru southern MO sightseeing and visiting friends. On the way back, we stopped in Sedalia and dropped off the AccuAir mounting pieces at Sure Coat. I went down yesterday and picked them up and have most of them reinstalled. I also had Jonathon blast the hammered finish off the sway bar and do it and the links in a nice shade of sliver. Tomorrow I'll shorten up the wiring, make some ground straps and get the loose wires bundled up and routed up to approximately where they enter the cab.

While on hold for the AccuAir parts, I picked back up on bodywork. Started smoothing the firewall and then switched to small parts when I had to share the workshop with my brother who was up here doing some remodeling and pre-winter maintenance for us. I'm considering having some parts dolled up with hydrographics, AKA water transfer printing. They can put almost any kind of graphics on all kinds of surfaces. I first noticed it on valve covers and other engine dress up items. They have a real nice looking carbon fiber print that I'd like to try on some interior parts. There's a shop that specializes in the process in North KC not far from here. I'll take some of the small parts I've been massaging to them and get a quote. We'll see if it's reasonable or not. Stay tuned.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Everything is looking good Vic, curious to see the graphics on the parts. Sounds pretty cool!!!

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Quick update while I take a break from working on the exhaust system. On Wednesday, I took some of my parts to the graphics shop and discussed what I wanted. Came away with a lot more to think about than when I went in, for sure. The graphics are semi-transparent so the base color has an effect on the final product. They can also do a gloss or matte finish which gives two distinct looks. I'd like the end result to look like carbon fiber but, for example, you could do silver over black, or black over silver, or even other colors like blue over any color base. Add in whether you want gloss or matte and the choices get out of hand in a hurry.

I'd hoped to do have the parts painted and ready to apply the graphics, but that's not how they prefer to do things. They have a 24 hour window to apply the material after painting, so they need to do the paint work ...which means I lose control over some of the process (quality). The cost is about what I expected. They have a pricelist on their website but it's mostly for guns and such. They do a lot of camo coatings, especially this time of year. Lead time is about two weeks.

Spent the last couple of days cutting the excess wire out of the Accuair setup. Each wire had to be tinned and soldered together with a tiny heat shrink tube covering the splice. I then rewrapped the three wires with the original covering and used heat shrink to enclose the entire spliced area. Kind of a painstaking process but I gave up trying to source the connector pins. I'm sure they have their own proprietary crimping and assembly tools anyway. My way works and it has the advantage of being really cheap.

After finishing the wiring, I recalibrated the system and tested it. Worked great, however after a couple of hours, the front bags deflated like they did before. Checked my homemade fittings and found no leaks, so I backtracked and found a leak where the driver side compressor feeds into the air tank. Fixed that and it held air overnight. So now I'm a bit puzzled about how an air tank leak could cause only the two front bags to deflate and not the rear bags. I'll give Accuair a call on Monday to see if they have an answer.

As mentioned earlier, today I've been figuring out the new exhaust routing. The air suspension screwed up my original plans, so I bought a pair of resonators and round "turbo" mufflers. Mufflers look like glass packs on the outside, but inside they have the same configuration as the turbo's. I'll probably angle the tips to exit at a 45 behind the tires. And today's lesson is... be sure you have everything out from under the truck before you dump the air and lower it all the way. ;)

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

More weight on the front taking advantage of the leak. Nothing really pushing down the rear.

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Don't think that's the case, Chip. As a test, though, I disconnected the power and opened the petcock on the tank to dump 100% of the air. When I found the leak, I just assumed the tank had emptied but you got me thinking there could be some residual tank pressure holding up the rear. With all the air out, the rear bags were still firm while the fronts had completely deflated. It appears that the solenoids controlling the rear bags are closing after the system adjusts the height but not in the front. The default solenoid position up front is open and when the air goes away, the bags exhale.

I think I'd feel safer if one bag blows out, the remaining three stay inflated. It would let you motor over to the shoulder and investigate. Or maybe not. If one corner drops suddenly, the suspension may react unpredictably like with a blowout. Except that with a blowout, the tire becomes a boat anchor which would not be the case with a bag failure. Dang!

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

The wiring looks so clean and organized now Vic. Great work as always.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Real nice work. If the glass packs are made by Allied i can tell you they sound nice and deep, had them on my DD for 7 years.

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Thx, Mike. Mufflers are made by Jones Exhaust and, while I'm not positive, I don't think they have glass fibers in them. Built with two chambers and offset perforated tubes. Reviews said they have a nice tone without the BRAAAPP POP POP POW BANG you get with some of the glasspacks.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Another i have not heard of before, i think a dual perforation tubes would last longer than glass packing. The Allied i had which looked like aluminum glass packs gave no "BRAAAPP POP POP POW BANG" just nice and deep tone. I never asked if they were glass packs or not, the owner of Stan's Headers in Auburn just showed them to me and took me for a drive in his truck.

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I've read that the newer designs have a much better sound than the old tech Cherry Bombs and the like. Nothing beats being able to listen to someone else's ride before making a decision. I helped a buddy restore an old Corvette many years ago when Flowmasters were first on the market. We dropped a RHS crate motor in it and hooked it up to a pair of FM's. Loudest dang car I ever rode in. No way to hold a conversation if it was running.

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Great looking work Vic! Soldering splices vs. crimping butt splices is the way to go too.

The leak thing is odd, well that it's both fronts. So, the reservoir holds it's pressure or is it leaking down too? Try pulling the exhaust silencer(s) out of the manifold and plugging the exhaust port(s). If that stops it from bleeding off, then it's a valve manifold problem. If it still goes down it's in the plumbing to or the bag itself.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Thanks, John. Talked to AccuAir tech support today and they said the poppets on the solenoids require back pressure to remain closed. So when the pressure bled off the tank due to a leak, the front bags went down. The reason the rear bags were staying up was because the pressure in them wasn't great enough to overcome the poppet. He said if I'd waited long enough, they would have probably bled down also. Good news is that if one bag fails, the other three will stay up as long as there's some air in the tank. So now I can move on to bigger and better things.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Some minor remodeling, an unscheduled trip to Sedalia to attend an impromptu birthday party (and pick up powder coated parts), as well as taking time to overhaul a backed up dishwasher has set me back on CRLS. Still working on the exhaust but only have two seams left to weld up. Discovered that the band clamps I used up front won't prevent twisting where the pipes meet, so I took the easy route and drilled thru the clamp and the pipes and put a couple of stainless rivets in to lock the entire assembly. If it doesn't hold, I'll tack weld it, but I think it should be good.

Welded out the mandrel bends, straight tubes, resonators, bullet turbos and turn downs then painted with high heat silver. I'd prefer everything to sit higher in the chassis, but had to compromise with the air spring setup. There's plenty of other parts that will hit before the exhaust pipes get knocked off. If I set the ride height low enough, you won't see any of it anyway. ;)

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

The exhaust looks great Vic.

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Super job - looks great!

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Looks great!

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A resonation report, or lack there of, would be greatly appriceative. Nice work Vic!

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Superb work Vic, exhaust looks great....

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Nice job on the exhaust, what did you use for the silver exhaust paint. I used por-15 high heat silver on mine and it worked out nicely.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Thanks, everyone. I just used high heat (1200 deg.) engine paint out of a rattle can. I have several brands... Duplicolor, Rustoleum and Krylon. Most of the tubing and the resonators are stainless, so the only reason to paint them is to match the other parts. I figure nothing short of a ceramic coating will last very long, but it will look okay for a while.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

In-laws Rick and Linda have been here the last couple of days but left this morning to continue their trip. Rick and I spent a substantial amount of time researching a fix for the 240V Voltec charger for Kathy's electric car that's been on the fritz. Also, while he was here I gave him an AccuAir demo, and wouldn't you know it, one of the relays picked that moment to weld the contacts closed. The compressor it controlled just kept chugging away till we pulled the power. Kinda worrisome since it could happen again. I'm guessing that repeatedly connecting and disconnecting the main power caused enough spikes to fry the contacts. Regardless, it points up a real need for a pop-off valve on the tank. It may also be beneficial to wire a condenser (capacitor) to one side of the points. However, I think using genuine Bosch relays (not the made in China clones) would probably be sufficient.

Side project for today was to start whittling out some spark plug wire looms. As usual, I can't find exactly what I'm looking for so I'm building them. In progress photo is attached.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Those are going to be cool pieces Vic!

Surprised the compressors don't have built in reliefs? Maybe look at OEM radiator fan relays, or even *ord style starter relays if the Accuair controller can drive a coil that big. I'd bet it's just the high motor current that's smoking the contacts as opposed to a collapsing field or "kick-back". On the control side, it wouldn't hurt to use diodes across the relay coils to help protect the outputs of the Accuair controller.

Edit... Assume the Accuair is calling the compressors to run based on a pressure switch input OR is the pressure switch hard wired to the pump relays?

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Hey John, thanks for the feedback. There's a 150 psi pressure switch on the tank that that sends a signal to the ECU which then toggles 12V to the relay coil to run the compressors. You may be right that the compressors have a built in relief, but I think they can pump up to 250 psi. When the relay contacts stuck, the compressor continued to run even though the ECU had dropped the coil voltage. I finally got concerned and disconnected the main power before finding out if there's a built in safety. I've ordered a 165 psi pop off valve just to be safe. I may wire in the diodes, though. They'll clamp the coil hysteresis. Still gonna get Bosch relays and ditch the made in China ones.

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Glad you guys know what the hell you're talking about. I can hit things with hammers, does that help?

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Good to know, Chip, I'll give you a call when it's "Hammer Time". ;)

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

:lol:, me too! This is half of my mess

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5605/...35b5e23f_c.jpg
20141011_141033 by [url=https://

Nice work, as always Vic. enjoy reading your posts

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Dang, Jim! That looks like a handy six mess for sure. No doubt you'll whip it into shape, though.

Wire looms are done and installed. Before anyone asks about the purple wires, they're a concession to Kathy's sister. As the build progressed, when she'd look it over, invariably she'd ask, "Where's the purple?" Kinda like that lady on the old Wendy's commercial asking, "Where's the beef?" Finally told her I'd put purple wires on it. The silver truck had purple lettering on the floor mats, so if this is too much, I may go that route later on.

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Very nice machine work, gotta get me one of those rounding over bits. Always like to see someone put their own handiwork into a build, nothing like a counter bored hole filled with a ss bolt

Yeah Vic, starting to get my head wrapped around electrical stuff
You re build is really slick
The V/Cs, headers, and engine paint really work well together. Just classic....

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It's the attention to detail that sets Vic's builds apart from the rest.
Outstanding!

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I like custom made Cook wire looms, those look nice and compact. The wires look good too Vic.

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Very nice Vic, always curious to see what's next!!

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Neat and tidy. Nice!

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Vic, thank you again for taking time away from your project to rebuild my engine and help me out getting the engine fired up today. The trucks runs awesome, I am very thankful for everything you did for me.

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With Scott's engine project transformed from junk to jewel, I've been forced back into bondo bondage. Picked up where I left off on the firewall. A month or so ago, I troweled some 3M seam sealer in the f/w rain gutter to even out the step created by the pinchweld. Most folks would have called it good but instead, I went all Foose on it and laid down some filler to smooth it out. Getting fingers and sandpaper into a one inch wide, 3/4 inch deep groove is a tester. I'm sure it will look great a year from now and no one will give it a second glance.

Good friend and metal man extraordinaire, Keith Daleen, requested an updated shop flat rate sign from our mutual best bud, Steve Smith. Lucky me ended up with an extra. Great addition to the wall art even if it's wishful thinking...

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Firewall looks great Vic. I thought it was perfect the last time I seen before you reworked it.
That's a pretty cool sign Vic. I'm just glad we got done before the rates went into effect :).
With the superb work you do I think someone would be getting more than there money's worth if those were actual rates.

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

:lol: Vic I thought this wasn't going to be a show truck, what's with the perfect firewall?

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Vic... This is looking Great... I should be getting Class Act back about the middle of November then hopefully I can start getting it straight as a arrow... I love what you have done with the firewall is awesome... Keep it rolling dude...

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Still no plans for a show truck, but the firewall is easy to work on right now (except for the #$%* rain gutter) so I figured what the heck. ;)

Re: Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step
 

Glad you're not spending a lot of time on this new beater truck. ;) good lookin stuff!

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Well, some folks have set a pretty high bar for daily drivers....:rolleyes: