Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Time to remove all the pieces, flip the frame, and make tank straps

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

With fall coming, it was time to do the last big dirty job. Strip and POR15 the frame. I need warm temps for it to cure in a reasonable time.
I didn’t take pics of the wire wheel session, it was loud and dirty. BTDT
The first pic is using trash bags to keep the etch damp for 10 minutes minimum.
Next is post etch and rinse.
Last is my high tech way to move the frame. Yeah, it’s hokey but it worked great. My son and I were able to roll it up the driveway and back in the garage.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now for the exciting part. Painting the frame, which is the first step toward reassembling this thing.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Looks good from here.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks, I'm happy how it turned out considering I brushed it on and my overnight temps made it cure pretty slowly.

I meant to add some detail for anyone that wants to use POR to do theirs. You'll need a whole day to do 3 coats. I broke mine up into 2 days. I had to wait to start till about 10am for the temp to come up.
Day 1 was the top and side surfaces. Day 2 was the bottom surfaces.
Tack time between the coats was 2.5 to 3ish hours.
Two coats almost covered it. I used the painter trick of shining a flashlight at it with the lights out to find the thin coverage areas and just did those for round 3. It worked well.
My ambient temp was about 80, humidity was <20%
My night temps dropped to 60ish in the garage.
It took about 1 week to really cure.
The sheen is "variable". This is the semigloss version and the gloss has some variance. It's definitely not Ridler award winning, but very acceptable for a nice driver.
It has been durable so far. I've been reassembling and it hasn't scratched yet.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Yeah! Finally putting bolts back in to assemble clean parts is a nice motivator.
Capt. Underpants got the honor of putting in the first bolts. Then he got cold :lol:

I spent a few more hours happily putting parts back on.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Capt.Underpants :lol:

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Great build with a lot of good tips/advice. Awesome that you got the younger kids involved with the truck.

Looking forward to following the rest of this build. It's gotta feel good to be bolting clean/new parts back together.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

He loves those books, they're pretty funny.

Yes, it's really nice. Long time coming

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now for the update on the oily exhaust.
My leak down is 30-40% on all the cylinders. No surprise there.
Happily all the wear surfaces inside look great. The crank is in great shape and the bores are clean with no scratches.
Standard size parts will be going back in: bearings, LQ9 style flat tops, and rings.
As a bonus, Rock Auto got the LQ9 Enginetech rebuild kit back in stock today after being out for 6 months.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It’s been a bit, but I’m chipping away at things.
Engine-wise I had hoped to get away with a quick valve lapping with new seals and springs to match my cam choice.
The valve guides felt a little loose, but I don’t do a ton of engine work so I got out the dial indicator and actually did a quickie valve guide clearance check. I came up with .010 on some of the exhaust valves so I stopped there. The max is somewhere less than .005 as I recall.
Time to call the machine shops. It’s around $800 to start with and goes up from there depending on what parts you may need.
I started looking at other options just to see.
There’s a lot of reman heads out there for under $800, but I don’t like going that fleaBay route for this kind of stuff.
I lucked out and found a set of ported 317s thru LS1 tech. New in the boxes for the same money as getting mine redone.
https://frankensteined.net/product/f...rting-service/
Done!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Are they overkill?
Maybe.
Are they too much for what my build is?
Probably not.
These heads flow the same as the stock rectangle ports on the gen4 motors. That will work for me. I may want to upgrade my throttle body at some point. Or not, we shall see how it runs.
I’ll probably need bigger injectors, but the was a possibility as soon as I went with more cam.
These heads came with some mongo .700 lift springs (second pic) that were actually overkill. I swapped them out for my Summit springs. That gave me a chance to check out the guide clearances. Night and day. Mission accomplished.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Nice score.

The benefit of Frankenstein ported 317's is better lower lift flow vs the OE rectangular ports. More power through-out the curve vs just a similar top end number. They should work well w/the LQ9 flat-tops.

What cam?

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Yes, I was very happy to find a deal on these heads.
The flow numbers are impressive, very comparable with LS3's. They should be a solid performer all the way up to .600 lift.
I'll be running the Summit 8728R1. I like torque and don't want to have to rev it to the sky.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I wanting that same torque w/some popcorn-popping exhaust music LoL (FED rebuilt/ported 243's on a 6.0/4l80e combo).

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Cool. The work on their heads is really top notch. All the edges are deburred and the surfaces are true.
What cam are you running?

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Still sorting through things on the cam although leaning toward the TruckNorris grind (or a grind close to it) after seeing several dyno tests. It beats out stock-smaller cams on the low end & nearly matches bigger/rowdier cams (that underperform the smaller stuff on the low end) on the top.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The Summit cam I picked has about the same spec as the TN. Holdener tested 3-4 cams with those specs and they all performed very similarly. It's leaps and bounds beyond the old SBC flat tappets.
I'm excited to see how it runs (and tunes).

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Yeppers. Watched a few of the tests 😉👍
It will ultimately come down to what's in stock w/the range of specs desired.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks for all of the detail you've put into your thread. Especially your rust repair and approach to that were helpful. Here in the PNW, we don't always have to deal with that, but I have a truck that will eventually probably need it. It's cool that you got Angus Young to help you out, I was surprised to see that :lol:

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

He's really quite the builder/fabricator, as well as a great player!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

For any of you guys with paint stripping in your future:
That HF stripping tool is on sale now for $99 if you're a member of their inside track club.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks for the heads up on the SCT!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Happy to help someone save a buck.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Let’s talk about interior door bottom patches.
There’s a few places to get them from, and I’ve heard that they need work.
Mine came from Summit, and it definitely needed some “fitting”.
Maybe other ones are better, I don’t know.
Here’s the before and after shots

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I’ll call these next ones “beat to fit” or “man my hands are tired”

The procedure I used is explained in the next post.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

There was a lot learned during this patching.
If the contours don’t match, do a little pre beating to get it sorta close. The curved bodyline at the bottom that you see when the door is shut was a good example. I actually flattened it out some because it just wasn’t in the right place.
You won’t get too far though. The whole piece wants to start moving around without any support.
This is when you get the gaps close and just start welding the parts that do match up. It may only be 2 tacks worth, but that’s ok. You just need a starting point.
Ideally this needs to be high points so you can hammer them down to match the existing contours. You can’t really get in behind them, so hammering down is the only option.


The red line is the spot I hammered fairly flat. I welded the high spot and then used a dulled chisel to make the shape. As the contour was getting close, I added tacks until it was right. So beat as needed, tack, beat some more, tack, etc.
This pic was taken just before I welded up the Y area on the left and the top of the curve on the right. It only took a couple more taps the get the deep part of the V right and then it got tacked up too.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Nice work overcoming the poor 'starting point' of a panel. These things matter when it's done.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks. It was a lot of work. My bodywork buddy Dave led me thru it. I really wasn’t sure what to do.
One other thing he told me was how to not damage the door skin. Cut off the bent over flange. Do not try to un-flange it. Come in straight at it with a cut off wheel. Then it just gets welded back on after.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Here’s another area I had to use the beat down technique.
I hammered down the circled area and welded it to the door skin flange. Then I used the dull chisel to push the corner down (arrows) to the line where the new corner would end up. The old corner straightened out as I put pressure in the new corner. I tacked along the vertical seam on the left as the metal got parallel.
The drilled hole is so I can rosette weld to mimic the spot weld that ties into the door reinforcement.
I had to do a similar corner method on the hinge side. It’s like the patch isn’t tall enough on the bottom but it is towards the hinge. That part needed the corner to be pushed in to sharpen it. I also tacked it at the skin side and filled in tacks as it shaped up.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Excellent work sir! I was having the same problems with my panels. Keep up the great work! :metal:

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I actually wondered about that.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks fellas. I figured this info might help someone else who doesn’t have anyone to ask.
It was nice having Dave’s advice. This was very different from my cab repairs.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Happy New Years!
Time for some cam bearings (actually did this last week)
These are really pretty easy to install. The window for indexing the oil passage is pretty big.
The passage is drilled along the side of the bearing bore. Like the vertical part of the letter P.
I used the Summit install tool. I would definitely recommend it. It’s less than a lot of shops charge to do the job.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-900131

You can double check the install by shining light thru the oil gallery from the main side and viewing the bearing side and also shining light thru the cam bearing oil hole and viewing it from the main side.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I love your build . Wish I could have built with my father. Something your kids will always remember. I bought my truck when I was fifteen. Had a friend give me a model of a 72 c10 and fell in love with the body lines when I was 12 . And told myself I was going to have one. It was my first car. And I still have it . I'm 53 now. My daughter has already claimed it. First picture I'm 15 when I bought it. And the other one is after I found a short wheel base frame and changed it. Still a work in progress. Love these trucks.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Great work and thanks for sharing your welding tricks.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I remember your build thread from a while back. Nice work.
I definitely envy your starting point.

Thanks. Lots of those things aren’t intuitive, and I’m happy to pass on the knowledge I’ve obtained from others and figured out myself.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Meanwhile, back at the house…
Time to figure out the fuel filler plumbing. Which requires reassembly of the bed for the first time in a few years.
Again, motivational to see this partly assembled.
Hopefully the ride height comes down some more with all the parts back on. We shall see.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

There’s a fair distance between the tank neck and the filler. Also there’s 2 crossmembers thru that area since it’s a cut down long bed floor.
Initially I planned on an S shape with 2 tubing 90s. The more i thought about it, a straight shot seemed like the best way to go. Having a slow fill isn’t fun and the S might give me a backup.
I ordered an assortment of hose and tubing from that big online place named after a big river in Brazil. I would have liked to go with the fuel neck site, but they didn’t have much in stock. Also the other place has easy returns. I knew I would need to send something back as I got it figured out.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The tank neck is 1.75” and the filler is 1.5”. I decided to run thru the crossmember with 1.5” for a smaller hole.
There was a 1.75” elbow that fit well and got me pointed in the right direction to the filler. It’s about 30deg.
The part is Spectra Premium FNH006 Fuel Tank Filler Neck Hose. It’s for a GM application, but don’t remember which.
From there it took a reducer, a section of straight hose, a section of straight tube, and a 90deg to get there.