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

Nice job. :metal:

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

Thanks man, hopefully I can get you motivated enough to get your truck done. I know for me the most important part is keeping myself motivated so I actually keep the progress going and get the truck finished. Good luck with yours :chevy:
Thanks buddy

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

Yesterday was the start of a 4 day long weekend, and I already got a good bit done. I removed the heater assembly from the firewall and took it all apart, cleaned and sanded and then got some practice with the paint gun and sprayed it gloss black. It turned out pretty good.

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

I also removed the old steering box and started to mock up the 78 box, plus removed the cowl panel and started to get the firewall cleaned. Today I went out and bought a different rear end that's from a 71-72. I was going to use the rear end from the 78 but I didn't think it would work to well since it has 3.07 gears and the 261 doesn't have much power. The new rear end has 3.73 gears which should work nicely with the t5 and six. I am going to take the backing plates and brakes from the 78 12 bolt and use them on the 71-72 12 bolt so I can have the wider brake pads and larger diameter drums (the 78 had a towing package with heavy duty brakes)

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

Mocked up the ps box on the frame with some spacers and clamps, this is exactly how it'll sit. Oh and some bad news, that rear end I just bought from my buddy turned out to be another 3.07! Just my luck, He was almost positive that it was a 3.73, but it's all good as he has a 3.73 gear set sitting around so I'm going to pull out the 3.73's and trade him gears

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

Looking good, my friend!

Seeing your heater assembly all cleaned up really makes me want to do the same to mine. Looks like there are bolts at the cowl and then some coming from inside the cab to take it off?

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

Yup, definitely watching this one, maybe itl give me hope in finishing my '69 before i graduate! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

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

Thanks Scott, and yes to remove it there are bolts coming from the firewall and some little ones coming from the cowl area.

Just keep on cranking away at it, I don't know if mine will be fully painted before I graduate but at least it will be a nice daily driver. I've still got more than a year left

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

Yup mine just needed a starter and a grill but it snowballed big time :lol:

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

Yeah trust me I know about snowballing, if I wanted I could have replaced the clutch slave and a few brake parts and then been a daily driver, but no I felt the need to start modifying everything and adding more and more onto the list. Now it's turned into a full resto-mod

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

Ikr! Itts like nah if I'm doing it I'm doing this this this this and this. Like i was checking wires because i had a gauge light fault. now my dash is all apart. i was seeing if my carb was good. Ended up pulling the intake. just because

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

Yep, it's all fueled by the saying "while I'm doing this I might as well do that"

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

I don't think I've shown this old school gun rack I bought a while back, it'll be mounted in front of the back window just like all the trucks used to have years ago. I'll be using it for my guns while hunting, but mostly things such as fishing rods plus using it as a hook for say jackets etc.

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

Perfect example of "While I am doing this I may as well....." is my 305 v6. What started as a basic reseal and repaint turned into a almost full rebuild. lol

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

I haven't seen a 3 gun rack before, cool!

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

Yep lol, there's no such thing as a small project
Yep it's cool for sure, I bought it out of Oklahoma

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

On the weekend I got a second coat of gloss black on the heater and then I buffed and polished it today with some very fine buffing compound. Turned out really nice.

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

You can do mine to while your at it. lol! :metal:

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

Hey 62, read all through your build and really appreciate your skill and focus. Been quietly tagging along and look forward to the rest of the journey.

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

Haha sure, if you can pay for my plane ticket down there lol

Thanks for the complements Doug, I try to engineer and build my own stuff rather than buying it so I can continue to learn and improve at being a better builder, plus I'm cheap :lol:, keep on following and I'll try to keep all you guys entertained.

So lots going on at the time with the truck, making tons of progress, I have the rear axle at the auto shop at my school and just today I pulled the axle shafts out, removed the backing plates, removed the carrier and then removed the ring gear, I should have the pinion out in the next couple days and be able to trade gears. I'm also taking a huge advantage of the metal shop at my school with all the great equipment, tomorrow I'll be working on making an adapter for the power steering box and possibly building new axle perches. Also just yesterday I cut my frame open and removed the internal bracing that interferes with the ps box bolts, plus started sanding the firewall to get it ready for paint. I'll do an update in a day or two with pictures of all of this.

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

Heater box is looking nice! Are you going to change out any of the seals? Looking forward to seeing some pictures of the rear end coming together. Keep up the good work!

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

Thanks Anthony, the seals were actually in really good shape so I just cleaned them up and put them back in, I should have an update on the rear end later Today

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

Over the past few days I've been working hard on the rear end, I got the backing plates off, pulled the axle shafts out, measured backlash, pulled the carrier, removed the ring gear, measured pinion depth, measured pinion bearing preload, removed pinion yoke and pulled out the pinion. The axle housing is now completely empty, I'm going to replace seals and likely the carrier bearings. Over the weekend I'm going to trade the 3.07 ring and pinion for the 3.73. Then before I put it all back together I'm going to clean it up, move the trailing arm mounting pads, put on the later backing plates with larger brakes and then paint it

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

The housing

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

I also made some progress yesterday on the power steering conversion, I cut out this section of the frame to reveal the internal bracing behind the steering box, the problem with this is that one of the bolt holes for the new ps box lined up right on the bracing