In preparation for the Manson Rat Rod Show on May 19-20th I started trying to wrap up all the electrical bugs and get some highway tests in. The rear lights are turning out to be very temperamental and after blowing fuses, tearing apart and re-soldering plugs and replace half the wires I’ve decided it’s as good as it’s going to get; both taillights, both blinkers but only if the taillights aren’t on, and driver’s side brake light. I also replaced the thermostat with a 180 degree one and drilled the 1/16” hole that everyone says to do.
I haven’t had any overheating issues, but since the trip was going to be about 4 hours and the weather report was calling for sun and 80+ temps I decided to build a fan shroud. Using 14’ wide galvanized roof flashing I was able to bend, cut, fold and crimp a sturdy box with a giant hole in the middle. To ease installation I fabricated it in two pieces. The first attempt was a “top and bottom” design that failed because I could slide it under the radiator hose and over the fan. I wanted the ability to remove the shroud without any other disassembly, so I went back to the drawing board. The second design halved the shroud down the middle and allowed each side to be dropped into the engine bay from above and then slide together around the fan. Another advantage of doing the whole thing over was that I was able to make better cuts and folds in the sheet metal. There are no raw edges to cut yourself on. With the shroud on and motor running there is a fairly strong air flow felt in front of the grill. It evens sucks in piece of paper from 6” away!
Living in the great Pacific Northwest has a few unique requirements for all vehicles. One of those is windshield wipers. Mine didn’t do anything when I turned the switch, but I knew it was getting power. So I took out the motor and tore it apart. The copper bushing that the gear shaft spins in was completely rusted to the shaft. After hammering it apart, wire brushing the crap off and a good scotch pad cleaning everything was back to work order. Even picked up new wiper blades to replace the cracked and dusty old ones.
My travel partner, Hot Rod Erik, was bringing his boy Daniel along for the trip. That meant I needed a third seat belt. I figured while I had the bench seat out to install the third seatbelt it would be a good time for a more comfortable seat cover. Future plans include rebuilding the seat completely but there wasn’t time for that now. I convinced the wife to help in fashioning some Mexican blankets into temporary covers. She used tarp grommets and rope to get a really nice, snug fit that held the blankets in place while sliding in and out of the truck.
The evening before the trip I was finally able to get out on a little highway near our house. Getting up to 65-70 mph I was feeling pretty good about the build, until a giant white smoke cloud appeared behind me! I immediately pulled off at the next exit and found a safe place to park and take a look. The cause was transmission fluid puking all over the exhaust on the passenger side. With some more test drives it only seemed to be happening at higher RPMs, around 3000 if I was pushing to 70 mph. This led me to believe that I may have over filled the trans fluid and the excess was be forced out of the vent tube. The splattered pattern was consistent with the theory, so I sucked out some fluid and attached a drain hose from the vent tube to a catch bottle. I didn’t have time to test it out that night, but I planned on doing some more drive tests with Erik the next day. Having “solved” the trans problem and wrapped up a bunch of little tasks , I was getting excited for the trip to Manson.