Re: Rat repair.
 

I am a patriotic type... :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

Rat, I finally found the time to read your entire thread. I am very impressed with what you have accomplished working out in the weather. I really have to hand it to you, I can't do that any more! Some of your pics remind me of my younger days working as an aircraft mechanic in Alaska. It makes me appreciate my shop all that much more. Great build and lots of good info. I will be referring back when I get ready to do my power brake conversion and axle work.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks lawest, i appreciate the kind words! I have 2 choices it seems, work in the driveway and get rained on or be under the portable car cover and deal with a mud fest. For the lift kit i chose the driveway.

I keep asking myself if i should rent a small dozer or back blade and scrap about 4" of top soil off and lay down some 1" crush gravel down on the side of the house. Then i ask myself if i should hire a contractor and build a nice car port over the driveway too, but if i do the car port i make it harder to to access the side of the house with a truck... But I do need to do something.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well, i haven't gotten much done the last few days, I had my knee let loose on me again Friday right after i got the blue bed on the C10 and was putting it back under the cover, I'm still walking on it but it hurts with every step, kinda like someone is shoving a broad head arrow under my knee cap and into the side, also feels like its separating every time i lift my leg when walking, i have a Dr appt tomorrow.

I also had to work this weekend, 10 hour days, had to modify the way i do my job but was able to make things happen. Never mentioned it before but i run a Gantry Mill and my mill bed is 20' wide by 110' long with dual spindles, my parts run 65' to 100' in length, lots of climbing, crawling, stooping and bending. Sometimes i think i need to find an easier job, but when the mill is running i have lots of "surf time" for this forum LOL!

So its not much but i did hobble outside yesterday and finished roughing out the lower bed cut out and mounted the door, still need to clean it up a bit. I did mess up a little in my calculations when welding in the filler tube vent line and probably the door position, ended up having to cut the floor back a bit more than i wanted, i ended up cutting away the flange of the bed support for about 3" . The door does need a little "strong arm contouring work" but i think it will be ok. Need to work on the cover next but not too sure how far i'm gonna get.

I didn't see the pin holes around my weld before i put the epoxy primer on the bed, I think i'll have to sand the primer away and do some spot welding before i do any body filler..

Re: Rat repair.
 

looks great, hope your knee will feel better soon

Re: Rat repair.
 

Got a bum knee myself, so I feel your pain. Bought some time for mine a few years ago with some arthroscopic (sp?) cleanup work, but it's gonna need a rebuild at some point, too, like an old truck. Hopefully it's not rebuild time yet for yours.

I didn't think that 67 looked that low in the back, actually.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well see what they say about it tomorrow. Yea looking at the truck its not that low, but i am used to my K20 so my C10 is lowwwwwwwww... LOL!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well, i'm walking better today, still not back to normal but way better than i was thru the weekend, i played hookie after my Dr appt so i could give it a rest and sat on my butt the rest of the night, having to work the weekend sure didn't help any. The Dr put in a request for an MRI so hope to hear from them soon, i have been tired of dealing with the knee and feel its time to fix it.

On another note i have to get out there and clear the mess tomorrow and somehow get my step side bed unloaded from the trailer, i need the trailer again this weekend. that means i have to move both trucks and some bed sides and floor out from the side of the house so i can get to the trailer, sigh, i need more land! :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

I feel your pain.... Had 60% of my medial meniscus remove from my left knee several yrs back. Now my right knee clicks and pops, but not bad enough to take time out of life right now for it to get fixed ! "LOL" I have a truck to finish !!!

Gary

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well the Dr said a lot of it sounds like the meniscus, I get to go in for the MRI on Tuesday so i'll find out after what is recomended. I can say that the movement is back to about 90%, still a bit achy but nothing like before.

Re: Rat repair.
 

So while i was resting up my feeble knee, my wandering fingers were doing damage on the parts for sale threads.. I have no pictures yet but i found a rear bumper for the rat, paid more for shipping than the bumper but i cant find a bumper like that around here.

I also did some planning and parts shopping for the Rusty project, still need a better name for that one LOL! Working on getting an original inline 250 power steering setup, should have it on the way around Tuesday. Found a really nice set of aluminum slot mags that are in route. Found a good used front bumper and an automatic cross member, both in route. a host of items from Teeitup, heater control, sway bar, (rear bumper for the rat) and a few other items. Found a set of disk conversion spindles locally, still need to get them.

And lastly, I already knew that the cab on the red rusty truck was in super bad shape, i pretty much new when i bought it that the only good parts on it were the frame and drive train and maybe a little more.. On the cab i basically had a good rear back window and rear cab sheet metal, and the inner panels, that's about it.. enter the parts forum again, I found a guy parting a 67 camper conversion and made a deal for the cab, Its an AC cab, with ac dash and heater controls, it still has the AC box and hoses ect. it has a rust free drip rail and window frame, it does need a little rust repair on the floor and inner kick panel but the rockers and cab corners look to be solid, i figure i'll probably have to remove the outer rockers anyway to search and destroy any hidden rust.. Of course being a camper conversion it had a portion of the rear of the cab cut out, leaving about 5" of the small window frame on each side, so i figured for the $200 it was worth the risk of trying to section out the remaining good metal from the red cab and welding it into the other cab, i figure the worst that could happen is i'm out the $200 for the cab if it doesn't work. And an unexpected bonus is for another $45 i also got the hood, both fenders and a bunch of little parts to go along with it.

Oh, the kicker was this cab was in Eastern Oregon, but i figured life is suppose to be an adventure and i like doing stuff on weekends like bike trips anyway, so 7.5 hours there, loaded up, and loaded up some parts from the same part out to bring back to Wes at Classic Heartbeat in Olympia, we rested and chatted a little, then once loaded i headed to Bend Or. for the night. I made the remaining trek home today and still had enough time to take the wife to the Spring Fair downtown, long weekend.

There was a small car show in one of the buildings at the fair, here's a couple of my fav's.

Next week i really need to get things cleaned up and organized as my front yard and driveway is beginning to look like a wrecking yard... :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

nice cars, cant wait to see the bumper

Re: Rat repair.
 

Ok, heres a couple pic's of the cab, when i do get to doing that its going to be an interesting project, i just hope it works as well as i think it will, but i know i need to get back working on my rat pretty soon.

Re: Rat repair.
 

cool you bought that cab off the camper. i happened to see that in the parts board a while back

Re: Rat repair.
 

Yea the price was right so i decided to make the road trip, 7.5 hours to get there, a bit longer on the way home but i had a good time. I figured that if this idea fails i can still part out the remaining pieces of the cab and recoop my money.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well yesterday i had to go get an MRI on the knee, tomorrow i see my Dr to discuss the results, i'm already back to 90% of where i was before this happened. again, skeptical of moving any further surgery wise.

In the mean time i have pretty much run out of storage space, i have 3 10X20 car covers on the side of my house, anytime i need to get something from the back car cover i have to pull the trucks out of the front 2 covers and park them in the front yard, its a pita..

I still have the step side bed sitting in the driveway and it needs to be stored away so i started to dismantle it, its put together with button head Phillips head screws and don't think you can put a #3 Phillips in one end and crank off the nut, its not happening, don't think you can hold the screwdriver and impact the nut off, its not gonna happen.

Having to drill the head off of every button head screw, and of course the rain is back LOL! Once i get this thing apart i'm gonna treat the rusty areas with some acid then put a coat of self etching primer on the rusty areas and store it away in the back of the bed of the C10 till i'm ready for it.

Then i can get back to the rat..

Re: Rat repair.
 

Hope the Doc gives you some good news on your knee. I blew my right knee out in 2000. Had 3 meniscus tears and a partially torn ACL. Had it scoped a couple of weeks later and it's good as new now.

Re: Rat repair.
 

That's encouraging, thanks!

Re: Rat repair.
 

It's all looking real good. Hope your able to get back at it soon. Damn rain lol

Re: Rat repair.
 

Fun build! Love the 67.
That Randy is a pretty good guy. Did a nice job on heating my house.

Keep up the progress!

Re: Rat repair.
 

It looks like you are doing everything right. yea the 40 plus years of wear and grim will take a lot out of you. I clean and sand blasted until I was tried of doing it. But that is all behind me now. I worked on the old girl all today and only had to wash my hands not scrub them. it was nice not working in all that grease for a change. Now I am enjoying putting it back together. Good luck and happy building.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks NONHOG, would you by chance be the body man Randy told me about?

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks for stopping by! I have been debating on a larger air compressor and a sand blaster, or just hiring the shop down the street for the messy stuff.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well, it dumped rain all day Thursday and i messed up, my Dr appt is actually Friday and i'm up late again. LOL!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Nope not me. I'm just a "hack" of all trades. Yet to find the one I excel at. :lol:

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well its official i have a tear in my meniscus, I've had my knee lock up on my a number of times too so what i thought may be ripped or warn tendons was not the case, turns out the torn portion of the meniscus is moving put of place and getting lodged between the joint surface, she didn't seem too concerned about having surgery at this point but agreed i could use a better knee brace designed to take pressure off the inside of the knee so i will be checking that out on Tuesday. In the mean time i am up and active but just using caution and if it starts to get sore i ease up on it, pretty much life as usual now.

I spent today getting the rest of the step side bed taken apart and stored away. Used my SawZall to cut the rusted floor bolts so i could take the sides and header apart, still need to cut the bolts to separate the bed strips and bed supports.

Then dragged out my plasma cutter to the edge of the garage door and proceeded cutting the bed supports out of the original bed floor of the rust bucket, i wanted to save them just in case one may be needed later. Then I cut the mounting plates off my old K20 bumper to use them on the new /used rear bumper i just got, that was a pita because my plasma cutter is good up to 1/4" but the mount brackets were 3/8", got it but it wasn't pretty.. Anybody ever use a Plasma cutter in the rain? Hope i'm not tempting fate.

A trip to the scrap metal recycler is in my near future, probably have a couple hundred lbs of scrap laying around now.

Of course this is what i was working with again... Rain!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well its official i have a tear in my meniscus, I've had my knee lock up on my a number of times too so what i thought may be ripped or warn tendons was not the case, turns out the torn portion of the meniscus is moving put of place and getting lodged between the joint surface

This is exactly what was happening to my left knee. Every time the torn piece gets in-between the joint and it locks up, your damaging the meniscus more. I was told it will not go away on it's own, it was either live with it or have surgery. I chose the surgery, because every time it happened my knee would swell up like a balloon and I would be out of commission for a few days. Mine was so torn up they removed 60% of it. It took a couple months to feel good, and about a yr for it to feel completely normal again. That was 15 yrs ago. I ski, bike ride, hike, I just don't run any more. If yours isn't torn to bad they can repair it, stitch it together or staple it, but cartilage heals sloooow. Now they can also take some of your cartilage, grow more from that and inject it into your knee and it forms a new meniscus.

Gary

Re: Rat repair.
 

Man is that ever a familiar sight! We lived in Woodinville (east of Seattle / Lake Washington) for almost two years. It always amazed us how folks would forge ahead with their plans regardless of the weather. Went to several well attended car shows taking place in a steady drizzle. People even showed up in convertibles with the tops down. Crazy!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks Gary, they didn't say anything about stitching it back together or growing new tissue, just using the arthroscopic surgery to remove the piece that is now a flap. I have decided at this point not to pursue surgery and see how things go with a brace for now. No more follow up appts scheduled.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well i guess you kinda have a taste of how badly i would like to move away from the rain don't ya! I didn't grow up here but my career keeps me here for now, i think i need to work on finding a place i can build a shop. :)

My front yard was starting to look like a junk yard and no work this weekend so had to start the clean up process.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well, got all the scrap hauled away today, about 385ibs of it.

I have started making a cover for my fill tube but no pictures yet.

I made today a body supply run for fillers, primer ect.

Have been spending the last 5 days or so trying to settle differences on a misrepresented purchase i made on the forums for sale threads, i think concessions have been made finally, hope to put it behind and move forward.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Finally had the time this morning to go through your thread. Too bad about the knee, I tore my right meniscus a few years ago. Sucked to say the least....
You have done some great work on your truck. 4 x 4 trucks have so many more moving parts than 2 wd. But they look so good too. It seems all the extra effort will pay off. Looking forward to following along.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Hey Swamp Rat. Bummer about the knee. Hang in there. I just had a chunk of my back taken out so that shut me down for a bit as well. You have done a great job on the truck. Read thru most of your build today. Your work on the gas filler door is excellent. had I fabbed mine I would have done it the same way. Unfortunately, when mine was done they took a huge chunk out of the bed side. May have to use a patch panel and redo the whole mess. we'll see if the body guy has any suggestions,

Chris

Re: Rat repair.
 

Hey cmabolt thanks for the comp's on my thread, i wish i had a shop so i could do the build the right way like you are, frame off is the way to go, but i need to keep this truck on the road as much as possible.

Whats wrong with your filler? is it a couture problem or is it oil canning? or just flexing too much? whatever it is i'm sure it can be fixed.

My knee is back to normal now, gets a little sore off and on, waiting for a custom knee brace designed to keep pressure off the inside of the joint, hope its worth it. I would have been posting more thru this weekend but i pulled a bone headed move and gave myself a case of food poisoning last Wednesday, I'm finally over it now.

Yesterday i took a little road trip up north and purchased another set of bedsides for the stepper 67 project. the price was real good and i figured that with one of the top rails being a little bent on the bed i bought then maybe i can use the best of the 4 to make the stepper when the time comes.

I have passed the state of denial and its time to take my intake off and replace the gaskets, don't know why but it seem every 3-5 years i have to do this, don't know why, maybe its the Worlds products heads? but I cant put it off any longer, got some gaskets yesterday, going to start on that today.

The filler cover is a work in progress. i'm planning on using some bed scraps to make flanges on the bottom as i discovered that the bottom of the scrap pieces follow the couture of the top of the bed nicely, it will take more time but if it works the way i think it should be nice.

I'm trying to locate a nice single unit RIV-NUT tool for 10-32 and some nuts to attach the cover to the bedside.

Re: Rat repair.
 

too bad about the rain but it could be worse.... you could live here and have snow flakes in the air, as we do today here. I like the 67 project, I am a fan of taking a break sometimes from the main project as well. good work all round.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Whats that saying? Variety is the spice of life.... :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

Today's progress:

First things first, i had 4 packages to open from my seemingly endless parts buying, one of the boxes contained a stock power steering unit for the inline 250 with mount brackets pulley ect. I'm too old for armstrong steering. :)

Back to the 72 i got the engine bay just about ready to pull the intake. today, and here's a shot of the filler tube bed cover on progress.

I guess i should have done something about my antenna when i parked my truck, the 3 year old car cover roof couldn't take it, LOL! I have a new cover to put on sometime this summer.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Had an inch of snow sunday morning here. today, t-shirt weather... variety, whatever... haha

lookin good!

Re: Rat repair.
 

looking good. hope your knee will heal up soon. the nice weather is here

Re: Rat repair.
 

So tell me about your PVC system. Looks like you are sucking from both valve covers. Where is air entry point? For a PVC sytem to work properly, there has to be air in as well as out.

The reason I ask is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. And I am looking for ideas to help solve a problem of of my own.