Project: Rufus Restoration

[shearjs]

Update.

The new radiator from Entropy showed up. Unfortunately, the fan shroud from the Griffin set up wouldn't fit, so I just put something together with a piece of alum. sheet. It's not perfect, but it's functional. I put about 40 or so miles on her yesterday with no leaks and nice low temps. Success! This ol heap is so much fun to drive.

[rwade]

Was the radiator pretty pricy? What thermostat (temp setting) you running? What upper radiator hose you running with both radiator hoses on passenger side. By the way, I love your "old heap". Be very proud! Looks great

Wade

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by rwade

Was the radiator pretty pricy? What thermostat (temp setting) you running? What upper radiator hose you running with both radiator hoses on passenger side. By the way, I love your "old heap". Be very proud! Looks great

Wade

Thanks Wade. The new radiator was pricey at $550, but I was skeptical about going back with another Griffin, or a Chinese knock off. I really think that the Griffin would have been fine had I not had some electrolysis issues. The thermostat is the stock temp (186 I think). It runs pretty consistent at 200 degrees right now. I used a Gates 21439 on top and a Gates 22437 on the bottom for coolant hoses. Both fit really well and I only needed to trim a couple inches off of each to get the right length. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

[JRANGER]

looking good man

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by JRANGER

looking good man

Thanks buddy. How's that Mustang of your's coming along?

[JRANGER]

Havent progressed. Been working on the ole ford f100 and with no garage not much getting done at all. I need to suck it up and just do work to it lol

[shearjs]

While my old man was in town for Christmas, he helped me fix an issue that has been bugging me for several months now. The body lines on the cab and bed were about 3/8-1/2" out of line, so we made some spacers out of 3/16" plate and shimmed the cab up to match. What a world of difference this made.

[Hart_Rod]

Nice!

[shearjs]

Update: I've been battling what I thought was air in my power steering/hydroboost lines. After multiple bleeds and even vacuum bleeding, I reached out to Hydratech and they pointed me to a forum post with similar symptoms. From what I understand, the truck PS pump was putting out too much volume, causing cavitation of my fluid, thus making it foam and whine. I picked up this new little output fitting for the power steering pump to cut the pump volume output from 3 gal/min to 2 gal/min. So far, the problem seems to be solved. You can definitely see a size difference looking through the two fittings.

[rwade]

I assume that's on the rear of the pump? Was it very expensive? Would you share their contact info?

Thanks, Wade

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by rwade

I assume that's on the rear of the pump? Was it very expensive? Would you share their contact info?

Thanks, Wade

The output fitting is on the back of the pump where the pressure hose mounts to the pump. It's made by Detroit Speed, found here. The forum topic that Hydratech recommended was here. Hope this helps.

[mcbassin]

Nice work on the spacers, I know how the little things can drive us nuts. I had to remove both of my trim pieces on my driver side door and re drill the mounting holes (GM was way off from the factory). That's all I could see when I looked at my driver side.
Nice score on that smaller orifice fitting. I hope that get's you fixed up.

[mcbassin]

How's your truck doing Jason? You get to drive it much? Pictures?

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

How's your truck doing Jason? You get to drive it much? Pictures?

Hey Mike. The truck is running well. I haven't had much chance to drive it with the amount of rain we've had this spring. With a little luck I hope to make it out to cars and coffee this weekend in Nashville. I'll try to get some current pictures then. Looks as if you've been getting to drive your's a little more often. Glad you're enjoying it! It looks awesome!

[shearjs]

Looks like a healthy shower of rain is in the forecast for tomorrow morning, so I doubt I'll be making the trip to cars and coffee. However, I did at least drive the old truck to work today. It's awful dirty, but we're at least out of the garage.

[Rusbuilt]

still looking good though!

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by shearjs

Looks like a healthy shower of rain is in the forecast for tomorrow morning, so I doubt I'll be making the trip to cars and coffee. However, I did at least drive the old truck to work today. It's awful dirty, but we're at least out of the garage.

I hear you about dirty... I know what you mean, mine has 4 weeks dust on it.
Very cool driving a classic to work any time. Great looking truck!
You should be a proud papa

[shearjs]

I took my co-pilot for her first voyage in the truck this weekend to Nashville Cars and Coffee. Overall it was a success. I had several people stop by to check it out and chat. Good times!

[GAc10boy]

Just read this entire thread. Beautiful truck! Very tastefully done. Hope my GMC turns out this nice.

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by GAc10boy

Just read this entire thread. Beautiful truck! Very tastefully done. Hope my GMC turns out this nice.

Thanks Robbie, I appreciate the kind words. Look forward to seeing where you go with your GMC.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by shearjs

I took my co-pilot for her first voyage in the truck this weekend to Nashville Cars and Coffee. Overall it was a success. I had several people stop by to check it out and chat. Good times!

Very nice looking co-pilot! It's cool you got to take it out for a little show and tell.

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice looking co-pilot! It's cool you got to take it out for a little show and tell.

Thanks buddy. It doesn't happen often with the growing family. I should probably start looking for a Burb to haul everyone around in. I might get to enjoy my toys a little more often then.

[slowcpe]

Just went through your thread, not sure how I missed it over the last couple of years. Truck looks great and even better in person. It's definitely motivating me to work on mine. Nice meeting you the other day.

[shearjs]

Originally Posted by slowcpe

Just went through your thread, not sure how I missed it over the last couple of years. Truck looks great and even better in person. It's definitely motivating me to work on mine. Nice meeting you the other day.

Thanks buddy. It was good meeting you as well. Look forward to seeing the progress with your truck.

[shearjs]

I took the truck out on Saturday morning for a little fun. First stop, Cars and Coffee in Nashville. There was a better turnout than I expected to see being mid month and all. Then I decided to head north up to White House for the Southeastern Truck Nationals. It was also a good turnout with about 125 trucks or so. I ended up leaving before the awards ceremony, but Bryan(5150) let me know later in the day that Rufus brought home a Top 25 award. There were a lot of nice trucks there so I was pretty happy with that. Here's a picture that I found from the show from www.hovermotorco.com. He took plenty of pictures if anyone wants to check it out.