Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Mr Chevorlet

Swamp rat it looks like you went through hell on your suspension but it looks great. And your truck looks nice with the lift. Like the tires and wheels also. Great job nice truck.

Thanks I appreciate that!! The old stuff was rusted solid, i don't think the front was greased when it was installed, the 40 year old rear was just as bad, worse actually.

When i bought the truck and put the wheels on it back about 1993-4 i was bummed to learn that the aluminum slot mags were discontinued, but these are nice enough. 20 years later I really miss the old wheels that were on it when i got it , they were steel with 4 slots or ovals, painted white, similar to dual wheels but the dish was different, i cant find any pictures of them.

[swamp rat]

Primed and painted. I could not have rushed this so fast without this paint, it drys in 8 minutes if not applied too thick, I applied pretty thick but it still drys really fast, I got about 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint, all in about 2 hours..

http://www.krylon.com/products/rust-...tative-enamel/

One thing i wanna mention, the Muriatic acid does discolor black plastic, Yea my seat adjust knob took a hit, but i can ether paint it with black plastic paint or maybe try some Back to Black on it.. Or steal the driver side of my other seat later and paint it up.

[4eye4valve]

Nice write up. I really look forward to hearing how well the FOX shocks work out for you. Ive been looking at a set.

[swamp rat]

The fox drama continues, reference this thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...49#post6387249

Now the latest headache's, I had my brakes bleed a few weeks ago, then because another set of shock were ordered, then the order dropped, then reordered i ended up parking my truck back under the portable car cover and let it sit. When i finally got the replacement set of shocks home i pulled the truck out and popped the hood and was greeted to a brake fluid mess allover the master cylinder as well as on my fender well, closer inspection reveled the problem, the new master cylinder had the reservoir surface machined down too low and the lid was not sealing at all, it was bottoming out on thelip of the cap, the clips were nice and tight..

So you guessed it i had to pull the brand new master cylinder off and go exchange it for yet another one., its painted now and ready for reinstall after bench bleeding.

But first i have to take the shocks back to my local store and raise a little hell first.

[swamp rat]

So while I'm waiting on shocks i hire an upholstery shop to install my new seat cover and foams, This guy is a Chevy truck nut but he's quite a way's up north, i decided to let him do the install instead of trying to do it my self, so i drive up, drop it all off, he calls and said its done so i go back up to get it only to find that the cover was not made properly, the spacing on the inserts is off as well as the insert width from top to bottom and gets progressively worse from driver to passenger side.

I emailed the vender with the pictures and he said he would take care of it, but I'm pretty bummed because I'm out the money for the guy to install it, i would have rather he called and said there is a problem and stopped the install, but he finished it so i payed him, besides, i should have laid the seat cover out and inspected it first.

What can i do??? Keep pressing forward i guess but i'm really tired of setbacks, I need to get over these 3 hurdles pretty soon.

I'm to the point that i may just hire someone to repair my rust problems, the good about that is i know one guy who has a pretty good rep here in my area and this forum, and one of the local vendors also has someone he recommends too so i have a couple possible avenues to try when the time comes.

[mjensen]

Well that sucks about the latest issues. I agree, that the upholstery guy should have notified you about the issues.

[Vintage Windmills]

Good luck with the shocks. Mine don't fit well either. I agree, the upholstery guy should have called, that's lame. I did a seatcover install myself- not too hard. If you can rebuild the hubs and install a disc setup on a HO52 you can install a seatcover!

[jaros44sr]

Sorry to read about your set backs, but your truck still looks great overall. These things always pop up during renovation, just the way it is....

On another note, i was curious how long you have to soak the rusty part in muriatic solution, seems like in your thread you just brushed it on. Any thoughts or advice?

Oh BTW, congrats on working for the same company for 25 years, rare feat in todays economy

[swamp rat]

I still haven't figured out the multi reply so doing it manually.



Mjenson
>>>Well that sucks about the latest issues. I agree, that the upholstery guy should have notified you about the issues. <<<


Thanks, still waiting for a reply from the seat cover vendor, I emailed with some pic's, then he asked if i could get some better pic's last weekend so i did and sent them to him.



Vintage Windmills
>>>Good luck with the shocks. Mine don't fit well either. I agree, the upholstery guy should have called, that's lame. I did a seatcover install myself- not too hard. If you can rebuild the hubs and install a disc setup on a HO52 you can install a seat cover! <<<


I originally thought I'd install my own cover but i didn't want to throw away $200 for the cost of the cover by making a mistake, and as it turned out thats what i'm gonna be throwing away when i replace this cover, but this time its the uhpolstery guys labor.. Go figure.

When you say your shocks don't fit well can you elaborate? do you only have 4.5" of travel? can you put a tape measure in them and let me know?



jaros44sr
>>>Sorry to read about your set backs, but your truck still looks great overall. These things always pop up during renovation, just the way it is....

On another note, i was curious how long you have to soak the rusty part in muriatic solution, seems like in your thread you just brushed it on. Any thoughts or advice?

Oh BTW, congrats on working for the same company for 25 years, rare feat in todays economy<<<


Yea i don't get overly stressed by the setbacks, i just step away for a while but i always come back and i won't give up.

Thanks for the comp on the 25 year thing, yes that seems to be the trend, i feel its the constant breakdown of the middle class, NAFTA and all our bought off politicians taking bribes from the rich elitists who want to run the world. But thats another forum altogether

Per the Muratic acid, most all the surface rust was gone in about 20 minutes but i had some areas that were a bit thick, i had to scrub the thick places with a wire brush to try and speed up the process (had to get to work) but for the most part the acid did the work by it self, i just kept on brushing it on. JUST STAY DOWN WIND!!! What i did was brush on, then hose it off and dry then asap, then wipe down with some acetone and prime.

[jaros44sr]

Thanks for the info., ill think ill try it in the future....i agree with your political statements totally

As far as the multable quotes, you just have to click on the two little thingies that look like 99+ and it will turn orange, then click on the same thing on the next persons reply you want to quote, then hit post reply...good to go

Have you tried the one person speed bleeders yet?

[swamp rat]

I was gonna reinstall the master cylinder yesterday but a little voice in my head said now would be a good time to buy new brake lines that run between the master and Proportioning valve, so i called Inline Tube and ordered them. I actually ment to order them 4 days ago and forgot..

Been doing some phone calling and most places i have called, both Lift shops or manufactures all say the same thing, trying to put newer designed shock on our old trucks is kinda hit and miss, they all said about 4" of travel is pretty common, As i posted i have more than 4". I'm still a skeptic as to if i'll bottom out, my local shop reaffirmed they will stand by me with the manufactures no bull warranty.. Guess i'm gonna put the Fox shocks on and hope for the best..

No word on the seat yet. Guess the guy has been on Vacation.

Thru all the setbacks no matter how frustrated i may get i still know I'm super fortunate to even be able to do this at all so this Thanksgiving i will count my blessings and reflect on everything i have to be thankful for both with my wife, family, job, friends the truck. Then get back at the truck with renewed spirit and a stuffed tummy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

[sboris]

Just found this, hell of a job so far. Love the look of this truck.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by sboris

Just found this, hell of a job so far. Love the look of this truck.

Thanks! Still a long way to go but i love the truck.

[swamp rat]

Well, early last month when i first installed these shocks, measured the front shocks compression travel, took a pic and posted it being 4.25", the rears only gave me 2.75", took a few pics. Then took the shocks back off before i did my test drive.

After my ordeal with BDS i ended up with different rear shocks the BDS engineer came up with, then decided to keep the fronts. Fast forward to today..

With the truck back in the driveway but not exactly the same spot i installed the shocks, on the front one side was 3 7/8", the other was 4 1/8"... Go figure, the rears ended up at 4 1/4.. Guess i'm gonna just hope for the best, and hope the springs don't settle a mass amount. If i have problems and my local shop won't honor their iron clad guarantee then I'll end up filing a complaint with the attorney general.

I also posted a while back that i removed the stabilizer and was going to remount it differently, never got around to it till today, the secondary plan didn't pan out. the problem I'm having is the stabilizer has the threaded steel rods on each end instead of the eye's like the old stabilizer from Rancho. The new mounting bracket for the axle is too large to fit where the Rancho bracket was at, being between the spring and the axle's built in (welded in) stabilizer mount bracket. Every place i look at to mount it leaves a interference problem with the other end that clamps to the tie rod when at full turn. I still have a couple ideas, one being to trim the bracket down to hopefully fit where the Rancho bracket was, but before i try modifying it, i think i'll go find a piece of angle iron and mount it to the original axle stabilizer mount and drill a hole for the end of the stabilizer.

[swamp rat]

Go figure, just did some research and the 72 is suppose to be the only front Dana 44 with a stabilizer mount welded to the axle housing, if i had a 70 or 71 guess they didn't have them.. Oh well, still gonna go find a chunk of angle iron and get a bracket made to make this style stabilizer work.

[freakshow108]

I was curious about the bracket, my 72 blazer has it and I thought it was an axle from another year. Also I forgot to measure the kids shockssorry about that, I will do it today. Looks like you are plugging away so keep your head down and push through it, I think we know that this kind of work never comes easy butt it will all be worth it in the end.

[swamp rat]

Well today was a good day to do a little in the garage fab work so i tried making a bracket today out of some 2 X 2 x 3/16 angle, i don't know if its gonna be ok or not, I really needed a 2 X 2 1/2 X 1/4" angle but didn't have any.

Looking at the pic's, the forward bolt is the stock location for the stabilizer, on the bottom you can see how close the stabilizer is to the outside U Bolt with the wheels straight, if i had a longer leg i would have been able to move the hole for the stabilizer down and away from the axle so it would be in line with the forward bolt. I thought about making a longer bracket out of the same material but i think it will interfere with the tie rod at full turn.

Naturally the weather is flat dumpin buckets today so just remounting it i got soaked, next time i get a dry moment I'll fire the truck up and check the clearance.. If it don't work then I'll probably give in and cut the new bracket. But for now, Football will suffice.

One thing is for certain, when i realized this stabilizer was a different design i should have just returned it and just ordered a replacement stabilizer with the eyes and reused the same Rancho brackets of which i still have the whole assembly, i didn't think i was gonna have such a time making the new setup work..

All this mounting and unmounting trying different ways to get this thing mounted is taking a toll on my fresh paint, Gonna have to do some touch up when it gets warm again.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by freakshow108

I was curious about the bracket, my 72 blazer has it and I thought it was an axle from another year. Also I forgot to measure the kids shockssorry about that, I will do it today. Looks like you are plugging away so keep your head down and push through it, I think we know that this kind of work never comes easy butt it will all be worth it in the end.

Thanks for the push!

[DeadheadNM]

Nice work on the bracket! You're correct in that 72 only 4wds came from GM w the steering damper. I've chased the correct tie rod bracket and got lucky for my K10 and K20. Just as a reference, here's an example of the OEM style steering damper that bolts to the axle bracket as is with no fab needed: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/more...937&cc=1051445

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Nice work on the bracket! You're correct in that 72 only 4wds came from GM w the steering damper. I've chased the correct tie rod bracket and got lucky for my K10 and K20. Just as a reference, here's an example of the OEM style steering damper that bolts to the axle bracket as is with no fab needed: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/more...937&cc=1051445

Thanks for the link!

I fired my truck up today and the damper clears the U bolt fine so i'm gonna run it for now.

I found a truck for sale i'm trying to go look at its a 68 C10, 6 lug LWB with a straight 6 and 4 speed, its still in original paint, pretty straight but maybe a couple small dings, from what i can tell it looks like a pretty good buy.

NADA and Kelly arn't being much help...

[swamp rat]

If i have learned anything in this build its that Inline tube is slow in processing and they apparently use the slowest shipping possible too.. Oh well its been cold outside so i have been enjoying a little break.

[Vintage Windmills]

Just referring back to your thread before I slip my eaton back together. Sure is a good thread to reference with your detailed notes.

Quick notes/questions:
In post 63, you show 4 caliper plates painted, but the front axle was together already- what were the extra ones for?

Were your caliper plates flat or with an offset?

Did you reuse the dustsheilds on the backside?

Also, FYI was able to remove those big rings that hold the inner bearing race without removing the outer race first.

[Vintage Windmills]

Also, did I read right that your rotors were tight on the eaton hubs? Since I ordered front D44 rotors, mine are lug centric, not hub centric. Maybe the 72 hubs are larger on the backside...

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

Just referring back to your thread before I slip my eaton back together. Sure is a good thread to reference with your detailed notes.

Quick notes/questions:
In post 63, you show 4 caliper plates painted, but the front axle was together already- what were the extra ones for?

Were your caliper plates flat or with an offset?

Did you reuse the dustsheilds on the backside?

Also, FYI was able to remove those big rings that hold the inner bearing race without removing the outer race first.

On the Dana 44 i reused the stock caliper mounts/dust shields.

The black caliper plates are for the rear disk conversion on the Eaton, you cannot reuse the drum backing plates. I did reuse the stock dust shields, they go on after the conversion plates are in place, just have to tap them on far enough not to touch the hub assy when its slid into place..

My conversion brackets are flat with an added spacer, if i had to do it allover again i'd consider trying these:

http://diy4x.com/cart/index.php?rout...&product_id=35

The rotors are Lug centric.

[Vintage Windmills]

ok, got it. the extra items in post 62 are the spacers (since you have flat plates). With the exception of having to grind the center larger, I'm liking these offset plates from NW fabworks. Those DIY ones look ok, but they allude to having to be ground as well, since they talk about leaving material in the bore.