Re: Penny
 

I know you like a Stick shift Transmission.;)

Your best route will be a T350 rebuild or replace.

You have built the old over drive in Frankenstein.

To rebuild a T350 will be a Cake walk.

I just suggest build or buy a arm to hold the Tranmission on an engine stand.

I have rolled these arond on a Tailgate and built them.
Clean / Clean / Clean is the main thing.;)

This is just my old But Typing out loud:lol:

Attachment 2267977

Re: Penny
 

You're right, I love my manuals, especially in old trucks. I still haven't finished the rebuild on Frankentruck's transmission. I really don't want to rebuild another transmission, especially an automatic. There's some wizardry going on inside those :lol:

I have decided that there's way too many things that need to be fixed on Penny to be able to take her on Power Tour this year, so I'm going to be taking my time to fix things the right way and do them how I want instead of just cobbling something together as a stop-gap and hoping it lasts long enough

Re: Penny
 

Good to see penny moving under her own power. To bad about the tranny but you'll get it sorted out.

Re: Penny
 

It’s still kinda working at the moment, but not the greatest. Kinda funky the way Penny has been acting lately.

I spread some pea gravel on the parking spot for my trucks this evening. Had to move Penny to do it, so took her for a spin around the neighborhood again. The engine is still not happy, but I haven’t had a chance to really dig in and find out. Sometimes, the engine will not run without throttle input to make it idle, other times it will idle good enough to go for a drive around the neighborhood. Once I get the a/c installed on Frankentruck, I’ll be getting back to work on Penny.

Re: Penny
 

Have you got a bottle of HEET around?

That will eliminate if its water in the gas.

Re: Penny
 

It's a new tank with fresh gas, so I don't think any water has gotten in. Didn't have any problems with the gas pumped at the same time into my 63. Also put the new tank in before I reinstalled the rebuilt carb

Re: Penny
 

I know, it’s been awhile since I worked on Penny, but Frankentruck’s A/C install took priority. While waiting for the a/c to be evacuated and charged, I finally decided to throw some new spark plugs at Penny. All the old ones were wayyyyy too rich. The engine runs nicely now, so now I need to track down some replacements for all the wiring under the hood that turned into rodent delicacies. Once I get that figured out, all the exterior lights should start working again. I’ll get a tag and insurance on her once that happens

Re: Penny
 

Finally decided to give Penny a bath this morning. She cleans up pretty decent for 42 year old paint!

The next thing I need to work on is getting the chewed up wiring harness repaired. Once all that is fixed, I’ll get her tagged and insured and start really putting some miles on her.

Check out a video my friend put together: https://youtu.be/oyOjabnCY-I

Re: Penny
 

It cleaned up pretty nice Christian.

Re: Penny
 

Cleaned up way better than I was expecting, so I’m pleased with how it is for now. At some point I’ll have to try my hand at doing some polishing

Re: Penny
 

Made a quick trip to Sally’s Speed Shop in Newman, GA, today to pick up a new wiring harness. The harness came out of the 82 in front of the shop when the truck got an LS swap and a complete rewire. Should have what I need now to get Penny road legal again!

Re: Penny
 

That is a Great deal:metal:

Re: Penny
 

I’m taking a similar path to get Penny back on the road as I did with Frankentruck, but slightly different in certain areas. Now that Penny runs well, I decided to start fresh in the suspension, steering, and brakes department. I started the tear down today. Hopefully I’ll finish that tomorrow before heading to the beach with friends for the rest of the week.

Anybody heard of the original upper ball joints lasting 150k miles and still being tight? The rivets don’t lie on these control arms. Makes me lean more towards the idea that the odometer hasn’t rolled over yet.

I had plenty of caked on dirt to scrape off. Prepping the original parts for paint is not going to be a good time.

Re: Penny
 

Nice truck! I like how you are making things right again and doing all the maintenance work that is needed on an old truck. Cleaning up the front suspension parts was definitely one of the least enjoyable parts of my build. I had to attack it multiple times before I finally started to get down to metal that wasn't greasy anymore.

Re: Penny
 

Yeah, I'm going to end up getting covered in dirt and mud after spending some quality time with a pressure washer :lol:

I didn't clean and paint the suspension bits when I originally did the disc brake swap on Frankentruck, and ended up doing it several years later. Definitely don't want to do that with Penny this go around.

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Got the rest of the front suspension removed, so next up will be lots of cleaning and a little bit of painting

Re: Penny
 

If I had an extra set of 63-72 control arms, I would be swapping those in. Removing these bushings sucks!

The uppers weren’t the worst, but dadgum, these lowers are an absolute pain. I’ve spent over two hours just getting one bushing out… and the outer shell is still in place.

I’m real tempted to abandon these control arms and switch to something else. Would love some tubular arms and coil overs, but those are prohibitively expensive right now.

I guess I’ll keep on hammering and drilling these old bushings

Re: Penny
 

The struggle was real with those bushings. They gave me a lack of motivation to work on Penny, but finally got them out by drilling out the rubber, slicing the outer shell in two, and an ample amount of hammering. Also had to cut the upper ball joints out. Those original rivets were in there good.

The next step was pressure washing everything. Took me awhile to do because I had no desire to break out the pressure washer and make a mess. Finally got to it last week.

Had a nice evening tonight weather wise. The control arms have now been “restored”.

Still plenty of parts to paint, but I need more paint and it’s dark now anyways.

The muffler was toast. It’s no longer attached :lol:

Re: Penny
 

I haven't been on the site for a year, so I took a little time and got caught up on your build. Lots of cool progress. You should flip back through the photos and see how your engine bay evolves from a creature habitat to a propulsion system. It's cool to see.

Piece by piece, you're getting the whole rig back into shape. These are my favorite kind of builds both that I do and watch other people do. Where it's not about making something perfect, but catching up on the maintenance, fixing what's wrong, and getting it back on the road. And then other modifications can happen after that.

I've had old paint like that respond really well to a gentle process of iron fallout removal, clay bar, meguiar's number 7, light compound, light polish, and cleaner wax. You don't get that mirror shine that a lot of people go for, but I do it all by hand and it preserves as much paint as possible and brings out the luster.

I vote getting the turbo 350 rebuilt since they're basically bulletproof and not very expensive as far as rebuilds go.

If you were closer, I would be happy to lend you another jack stand. This makes for a cool picture but made me nervous just looking at it, haha. And thanks for keeping this up-to-date, I'll enjoy following along.

Re: Penny
 

Thanks for reading through the thread and for the advice on the paint. I would like to make the paint look a little better once I get the truck back on the road, so just might have to give that a try.
I pulled a sneaky on y'all. There's 2 more black jack stands supporting the truck, but they're just behind the front cab mounts, so I wanted the single one under the front cross member to help support the full weight of the engine and front end. I would not trust just one jack stand to balance the truck like that :lol:

I'm slowly working through a rattle can restoration on the rest of the suspension parts. Figured I should make it look a little better than just leaving everything rusty. That is one thing I didn't do the first time on my 63 and later regretted. Sure it'll take a bit longer to complete, but the truck will look a little bit nicer underneath than just rusty

Re: Penny
 

I see the other jackstands now :lol:

PM me if you want more info on my semi-patented (not at all : ) paint rejuvenation process. It's not that unusual, just geared to save as much of the remaining paint as I can, while adding clarity and some shine.

I like your idea of getting the suspension parts painted. It occurred to me that it doesn't just look nice, it'll help preserve them too.

Re: Penny
 

On Saturday, I got some steering parts painted.

Did I take today off work to work on Penny? Yes, yes I did.
The control arms are back together with new bushings and balljoints. Probably should’ve painted them after I installed everything, but that’s why I use a rattle can. Touch ups are easy.

All those chips came from the lower control arm shafts. Yup, I drilled a new locating hole for the caster mod.

Finished off the day by washing a bunch of the small suspension parts in the kitchen sink. I cleaned up the mess, so mom wasn't upset about it :lol:

More progress coming soon!

Re: Penny
 

Made some good progress this evening. The driver’s side upper and lower control arms and spindle are torqued to spec. I put the shims back in the same spot as removal, so hopefully the alignment will be close. If you look at the picture of just the LCA installed, you can see how the caster mod moves the arm forward on the frame. I only moved the arm the typical 3/4”.

Also got the rotors turned today at my local tire shop. They charge $15 per rotor for rotors off the vehicle while O’Reilly charges $30 per rotor for truck rotors, $25 per for car rotors. Always nice to get a better deal and support local businesses at the same time!


Edit to add:
A day later and the passenger side matches the driver’s side. I did coat the spindle in some fresh grease to keep it from rusting until I can get the rotors on.

I’m planning on going back to repaint the frame and such, but want to get the truck back on the road so I can figure out what all really needs to be done engine and transmission wise sooner rather than later. Easier to repaint the frame while the engine is out for a rebuild if needed.

Re: Penny
 

Steering parts are back together and torqued down.
Had to use an unconventional method to remove the outer bearing race from the rotor. The punches and chisels I have were not able to grab on to the race from the back, so I had to use a pulley puller and a piece of flat steel that used to be a trailer hitch on my 63 to pull the race out enough for the punch to bite. Worked surprisingly well actually. Time to go toss the new races in the freezer overnight, brrr

Re: Penny
 

So ever since I got the carb back together, I’ve struggled with keeping the engine idling. The fast idle screw was not adjusted properly at all, so it was keeping the throttle blades open way too far at idle. The guy who rebuilt that carb oughta be fired for that one :lol:
After playing with the adjustment, I finally got the engine running decent enough to take a spin around the neighborhood. Of course, it would be a more pleasurable experience if you don’t run out of gas, but at least there was a decent picture spot.

I took the tailgate off in preparation to start pulling the bed. I want all the space to be able to clean up the rear frame rails, suspension pieces, and whatever else I find

Re: Penny
 

Some good progress was made over the past two days. I started to pull the bed yesterday morning and proceeded to spin the first bolt I touched without loosening it a bit. Decided to fight with that another day and pulled the leaf springs instead. Got the old bushings removed today, new ones should be here tomorrow.

I think I will still pull the bed off, but I’m going to get the rear suspension back together first.