Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Xeen]

Vic I'm so jealous of your cab, you worked your ass off on it and it shows man it looks great!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Vic I'm so jealous of your cab, you worked your ass off on it and it shows man it looks great!

Thanks, Brian! I know weather is holding you up, but I look forward to seeing progress on yours soon.

[snipescastle2]

Vic,
I was wondering if you have done your brake lines on your chassis yet? I am doing that right now, and I have the factory assembly manual, but it doesn't show the routing of the front brake lines for the power disc brakes setup, only the drum brake single master cylinder. Would you happen to have any pictures showing the routing of the brake lines from the equalization valve to the frame- to T-fittings and so on and so forth? I know the rear brake line is all by it's lonesome, but I need to see where the lines tie into the tee fittings, etc..... thanks in advance!
Ben Smith
p.s. my truck is a 71 swb fleet, power disc fronts and drum rears.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by snipescastle2

Vic,
I was wondering if you have done your brake lines on your chassis yet? I am doing that right now, and I have the factory assembly manual, but it doesn't show the routing of the front brake lines for the power disc brakes setup, only the drum brake single master cylinder. Would you happen to have any pictures showing the routing of the brake lines from the equalization valve to the frame- to T-fittings and so on and so forth? I know the rear brake line is all by it's lonesome, but I need to see where the lines tie into the tee fittings, etc..... thanks in advance!
Ben Smith
p.s. my truck is a 71 swb fleet, power disc fronts and drum rears.

Yes, I've routed the lower lines but haven't done the lines running from the tee to the prop valve and m/c. Apparently I haven't taken any detailed photos so far. However, I got the same lines from Inline Tube that I did for the silver truck and below are some photos of them. As I recall, the original lines were routed to the front of the crossmember and I had to drill out the factory tabs on the rear to attach the lines where the hard line transitions to the flex line. The line to the prop valve went up from the brass tee in the picture. The single line looking up got a union to connect the line going to the rear. I did a major overhaul up near the booster and m/c. Moved the prop valve to the inside of the m/c which made for a cleaner look. If you're using stock booster, not much of what I did will help. I either built new lines out of stainless tube or modified the ones from Inline. I can take some shots of the lines I have in right now, but the engine is sort of in the way, plus I'm keeping the drum brakes for now.

[Vic1947]

A little more done on the cab today. Did the final fit-up of the rocker panel and prepped it for welding. Finished welding out the front and rear door pillars and around the curve of the cab corner. Previously, after adjusting the door, I marked where the lower edge of the door projects onto the cab. That way, I could see how close the rocker panel fit. Looks like it should work, but I plan to only tack the rocker in place tomorrow and then put the door up again. If all goes well, I'll weld in the rocker and move on to the other side. WooHoo!

[sduckworth13]

Yahoo! Vic that looks awesome! Nice work!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Yahoo! Vic that looks awesome! Nice work!

Thanks, Scott, that door pattern has worked out great!

[sduckworth13]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, Scott, that door pattern has worked out great!

Whew, that's awesome news. I'm glad you said that. I was worried, because your door gap was initially a little wider than you would of liked it to be.

[swamp rat]

Nice fit! Wanna do mine next LOL!

[Low Elco]

That came out really nice. Watch the inner curve of the rocker/door shell interface, it's REALLY tight on Yeller's Pass. side. But, we've got a repro door, which I think is most of the problem. Looks fantastic, Vic.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Nice fit! Wanna do mine next LOL!

I'd consider it if I hadn't already exhausted my lexicon of swear words.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

That came out really nice. Watch the inner curve of the rocker/door shell interface, it's REALLY tight on Yeller's Pass. side. But, we've got a repro door, which I think is most of the problem. Looks fantastic, Vic.

There was quite a bit of hammer and dolly work on the door as well as using the shrinker/stretcher to get the rocker curve to match. The rest will have to be done with filler.

[Vic1947]

As I worked on the door gaps, I was concerned that I'd skin up the plated hardware ($$$) as I removed, reinstalled and adjusted the hinges. I first searched online for Teflon lined sockets until I found out a half dozen of them could easily cost over $200. Someone on another forum mentioned he'd cut up a sandwich bag and laid it over the bolt head to keep from ruining painted or plated fasteners. Said it worked better than you'd believe. I'm here to say he was right - whoever the heck he was. Instead of a freezer bag, I cut off a piece of the 3 mil contractor bag lining my trash can. I folded it over and pressed the socket onto the head of the bolt while tightening and loosening the fastener. The bolts in the photos have been cycled at least a half dozen times with no bare metal showing yet.

[swamp rat]

Are the bolts with washers shown shown actually direct replacements? where do ya get them? is the same source good for other bolts used under the hood too? Thanks.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Are the bolts with washers shown shown actually direct replacements? where do ya get them? is the same source good for other bolts used under the hood too? Thanks.

No, they're the OEM fasteners that came with the truck. After removing all the hardware from the truck, I used a chemical paint stripper to get rid of the multiple layers of crust. Then I soaked them in muriatic acid to remove the rust and did final prep in the glass bead cabinet. At that point, I hauled them to a local shop and had them yellow cad plated. If you say it real fast, it doesn't sound like much work.

I reckon you've run into the same issue I have with fasteners. The parts outlets I deal with have a few reproduction fasteners identical to OEM but not many. When it comes to the really obscure stuff, they aren't any better than Ace Hardware. Hence the painful resto process.

[swamp rat]

Absolutely a lot of work but i guess if you have a place that can do Cad plating then its worth the effort. I have see the black plating that i think Eastwood sells, thought about getting that.

With that much effort involved i think i'd be prone to just using some standard grade 5 hardware until final install.

[Low Elco]

Shoot, if you wanna REALLY get crazy, they have kits to do the cad at home. Can be found online. They say it doesn't last as long, but with the comfy life our trucks live, it probably wouldn't be an issue. Really wanted to do that on ours, but it didn't work out.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I have seen the black plating that i think Eastwood sells, thought about getting that.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Shoot, if you wanna REALLY get crazy, they have kits to do the cad at home. Can be found online. They say it doesn't last as long...

I have both of these systems (from Eastwood) and only use them in an emergency. To get the black finish, you dip a bare fastener into a blue colored solution and leave it there for a few moments until you see it turn pitch black. Rinse it off and spray a WD-40 type chemical on to help seal it. The cad system is a bit more involved. You connect one polarity of a 12V source to a sacrificial metal strip and the other to the fastener and dip both into a solution. As the current flows between the pieces, a thin layer of cad is deposited on the steel. Time and amperage have an effect on the finished product. The end result is dull silver in color. If you leave it in the solution a bit too long, it may have a powdery gray look. However, you can polish it with Simichrome and a soft rag to shine it up.

As Chip observed, with the light duty most of these trucks see, the plating will last a reasonable time, but not as long as when done by a professional shop.

[Vic1947]

Here's a few shots of the door fitment after welding out the rocker panel. Gaps are decent and await filler and minor adjustments. In retrospect, I believe the front post had moved forward somewhat, perhaps due to some long ago incident. To get the window frame in the ballpark, I ended up welding 1/8" spacers on the hinges to move the door further back. The hinge mounting holes on the front post are meant to allow adjustment up/down and front/back. I'd run out of adjustment and didn't want to widen the slots. So the spacers were a compromise solution to fix the problem.

[Vic1947]

Repositioned the cab today and began to prep the area for the cab corner when I realized I'd never bought one for the driver side. This led to a panic trip to Riverside in a light snowstorm to pick one up. With even worse weather supposed to move in tonight, I was afraid I'd be unable to get one tomorrow. I could have worked on lots of other stuff, but I'm in the zone right now on cab patches. The driver side door has a bit of gap-osis but looks like it will close up better than the passenger side did. The PO hacked the cab corner so badly I'll have to scab on about a half inch of the old panel I salvaged. Double the welding, but to get the body line correct, you gotta do it.

[sduckworth13]

Nice work Vic, everything looks real nice. Passenger door gap looks perfect.

[Troy Sr]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

The rest of the parts for the steering linkage came in today and once I got the pieces trial assembled, I began to torque the fasteners. Started with the steering sector and on the fourth bolt as I was drawing it up, the head sheared off. You can see from the photo that there must have been a fracture thru half of it. Hazards of reusing hardware I guess, although this particular bolt was grade 8 which makes the fail a bit more surprising.

Engine assembly is next.

Hello Vic,

Lovin the build just keep tellin' yourself it's a "Daily Driver" .

I noticed that you had a Grade * high strength bolt snap on you. I've delt with this in the past and it's called Hydrogen Embrittlement and occurs mostly in higher strength bolts it can be taken care of by doing some baking of the fasteners. I'm attaching some links for your reading pleasure. I'm not saying that this what's your problem but I'd hate to not say something and have one break at an bad time. Anyway great build!!!

http://www.greensladeandcompany.com/...oks%20like.pdf

http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public/PubFu...AVT-140-20.pdf

[mcbassin]

Very nice progress on the cab. I just finished restoring my hinge bolts as well as all my other fasteners. I blasted them, acid dipped them blued them with Casey's gun blue. This was just to protect the threads. Then blasted the heads again, then epoxy primered, top coated the black ones, all my door bolts will be painted just like the truck. LINK. I will end soaking the threads in oil before I can install them.
Very time consuming to say the least. I will be using your plastic bag liner to protect the heads on mine too. Thanks for sharing it.

[Low Elco]

Thanks x2, that's a good trick. Went back and reviewed from the beginning, man this has come a long way. It really looks good, Vic. If this is just for your beater truck, I can't wait to see the Ford. I hope you start a thread for it in Alt. Tink. 'cuz that thing is Baaaaaad!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Troy Sr

Hello Vic,

Lovin the build just keep tellin' yourself it's a "Daily Driver" .

I noticed that you had a Grade * high strength bolt snap on you. I've delt with this in the past and it's called Hydrogen Embrittlement and occurs mostly in higher strength bolts it can be taken care of by doing some baking of the fasteners. I'm attaching some links for your reading pleasure. I'm not saying that this what's your problem but I'd hate to not say something and have one break at an bad time. Anyway great build!!!

Thanks for the info, Troy. Certainly looks like HE could be the culprit. Based on the research, it sounds like any failure would happen within a week or two, so at least that gives a guy the chance to recheck the integrity. Fortunately, I have very little Grade 8 hardware left that came off the truck. Any more of it will be purchased new.

Thanks again for the tech articles. For some reason, I'd always associated hydrogen embrittlement with stainless. Funny how some things get set in your way of thinking.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Thanks x2, that's a good trick. Went back and reviewed from the beginning, man this has come a long way. It really looks good, Vic. If this is just for your beater truck, I can't wait to see the Ford. I hope you start a thread for it in Alt. Tink. 'cuz that thing is Baaaaaad!

Thanks, Chip, weird that you would mention the Ford. Long ago I'd planned to create my own website for it and had done some of the write-up as well as scanned in the analog photos. Ran across the ramblings this past week while transferring data off our old Mac onto the new PC. One of these days I'll freshen it up and post to Alt. as you suggested. Meanwhile, back to the salt mine.