Ethel: The Legend Continues...

[Alvin]

Well after a ridiculous amount of driving, Ethel is back home with me. I have lots of little things to finish up and a few big things I haven't even started yet. It will be a little while before I get to do much as we also have a storage unit of stuff to sort through and do a garage sale.

At any rate, here are some shots from the drive home:





More updates will be coming! I promise to make progress this time

[smbrouss70]

Glad you got it back home! I know you've been waiting for this for a while now!

[n2billet]

Ethel has seen some country in her days........another one I wished I had kept!

[bigguy69]

subscribed!!!

[72BlckButy]

Glad to see she is finally home... can't wait to see the updates begin.

[Alvin]

We finally got all our stuff unloaded last night. Geez am I sore! Seeing all the truck parts that I have has me pretty excited to get back to work on her.

Originally Posted by n2billet

Ethel has seen some country in her days........another one I wished I had kept!

Just since I've had her she's been through 13 states.. unfortunately, all of those have been on a trailer!

And thanks guys, I'm going to try my best to have at least a little progress update every week or so. A lot of it is going to be the little stuff until my wallet recovers from the move.

[SOON2BLAZE]

Good to see her back, still one beautiful truck. Ever get your gauges in?

[oldblue1968chevy]

one sweet truck i wish i still had orig. paint on mine...love it man!!

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by SOON2BLAZE

Good to see her back, still one beautiful truck. Ever get your gauges in?

Not yet. I had some problems with the Covans Classic panel lining up with the factory holes. I'm still not sure what I'll do to fix it, but one way or another it will get mounted.

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

one sweet truck i wish i still had orig. paint on mine...love it man!!

Thanks! I love the original paint and it makes it a lot easier to work on not having to be too careful about things

Here's a list of things I have to wrap up:

• Brake system (rebuild passenger front calilper, bench bleed master cyl, run lines from master cyl. to frame)
  
• Cooling system (radiator, electric fan, belts & hoses)
  
• Fuel system (fuel line from pump to carb, hole in bed floor to access fuel filler)
  
• Transmission (shift linkage, tranny cooler lines, driveshaft)
  
• Air Ride (mount compressors, tanks, valves and eliminate leaks)
  
• Interior (gauges, carpet, three-point belts)
  
• Electrical (air ride, headlight relay, fan relay, general clean-up)
  
• Exhaust
  
• Body (bumpers, inner fenders, panel alignment, door weather stripping, and window felts)

I have rear discs, a painless wiring harness, vortec heads, and a narrow 6 lug axle (to convert to 5 lug), a york compressor, etc. but I think all those things will have to wait at this point.

[33shooter]

Please tell me about your wheels. I want to put those on my truck. Are they Torque Thrusts? 17x8?

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by 33shooter

Please tell me about your wheels. I want to put those on my truck. Are they Torque Thrusts? 17x8?

American Racing Torq-thrust Originals (Series VN309 according to the American Racing website). Purchased from http://myworld.ebay.com/eliteswheels. 17x8 all the way around, 4.5" backspacing, 255/50 on front, 275/60 on rear. Rear tires are a little too wide and rub on the inside of the bedside when aired out, so I have the narrower 6 lug axle to convert to 5 lug and install rear discs that will hopefully pull them "in" enough to fix the rubbing.

[33shooter]

Originally Posted by Alvin

American Racing Torq-thrust Originals (Series VN309 according to the American Racing website). Purchased from http://myworld.ebay.com/eliteswheels. 17x8 all the way around, 4.5" backspacing, 255/50 on front, 275/60 on rear. Rear tires are a little too wide and rub on the inside of the bedside when aired out, so I have the narrower 6 lug axle to convert to 5 lug and install rear discs that will hopefully pull them "in" enough to fix the rubbing.

Awesome! Thx, looks great.

[Tahoe72]

Originally Posted by Alvin

American Racing Torq-thrust Originals (Series VN309 according to the American Racing website). Purchased from http://myworld.ebay.com/eliteswheels. 17x8 all the way around, 4.5" backspacing, 255/50 on front, 275/60 on rear. Rear tires are a little too wide and rub on the inside of the bedside when aired out, so I have the narrower 6 lug axle to convert to 5 lug and install rear discs that will hopefully pull them "in" enough to fix the rubbing.

Those wheels are really nice. But I was curious are they 5 on 5 or did you switch yours to 5x4.75 . Beautiful truck BTW.
Thanks

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Tahoe72

Those wheels are really nice. But I was curious are they 5 on 5 or did you switch yours to 5x4.75 . Beautiful truck BTW.
Thanks

Thanks! They are 5x5. I'm pretty sure they are available in 5x4.75 as well.

Worked on the truck all day Saturday. Didn't get the brakes completely hooked up, but did get the inner fenders loosely bolted in and the hard lines run completely wrong. I need to switch the lines from the prop valve to the frame so they run inside the frame. Also the caliper I had for the driver side is rusted in the bore, so I'll be getting a reman for that side too. Once that's done I can bench bleed and get it all hooked up. Weather is going to be way too hot this week, and I'll probably be spending the next day or two getting new a/c installed on the house.

[lowdownstar]

Love the truck! those wheels fit that truck to a tee. Do you know what size they are and the BS on them? Good luck with her

Thanks Ray

[Alvin]

No real progress yet, but I did find the brake lines that have been missing for over a year! If it's not too hot tomorrow I would like to get the front bumper on, and maybe see if my old driveshaft is going to work (it's off a TH400, I have a short tailshaft TH350 now). Here are some pics from yesterday.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Glad to finally see her back home..

[VA72C10]

subscribed to check out the progress...

[Alvin]

No mechanical progress, but progress none the less. I decided to put her "face" back on. So on Monday I installed the front bumper. I'm not completely happy with the fit, but it has to come back off to put the filler panel in (which goes in whenever I do the inner fenders).


So to continue with the theme of putting her "face" back on, today I installed the drivers headlight, and both headlight bezels.




I know it isn't much, but I did have to dig through boxes to find everything. While I was at it I got other parts organized so that future installs might go easier.

Just trying to stay on it!

[franky69c10]

Love the last pic

[bigguy69]

looks good to me!!

[BP68]

Cool truck. Keep up the good work.

[Alvin]

I got all the brake parts together tonight. All I need is a caliper kit for the passenger side, or just buy a rebuilt caliper for that side ($12 after core return). Hoping to get the brakes buttoned up this weekend. Hoping everything goes smoothly, cause I don't have a lot of spare money to throw at this thing anymore.

After the brakes it will be the cooling system, then the fuel system. After those it's shift linkage and a driveshaft. I'm gonna wait on hooking up the compressors and valves until I get it moving and stopping... first things first!

[STOCKISH]

Love it. Truck looks awesome with the original paint. Looking forward to progress pics!

[68Stepbed]

What drop is on it in the pics on the trailer bringing her home? Do you have any shots of it aired up to ride height? Id like to see how those wheels would look with a static drop. I really like them but would rather run 17x9.5's in the rear of mine.