'Hay Burner' 69 LWB Frame Off Restore

[Qknf4u69]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Thanks for contributing your story and build to the board! I'd bet most builds don't go exactly to plan in general. It seems the at the start of a build everything is just simple job, I was even blind enough to think I would have an LS swap in and done within a couple of weeks. That was nearly 4 years ago. If it were only as easy to put them back together all shiny and new as it is to tear them down when they're all greasy!

Clearly you do nicer work now than when you were 16! I look back at some of my 16 year old "repairs" and have to laugh at myself as well. Like the time I riveted a street sign over the giant hole in the floor board and called it rust repair.

What other plans are in store for the truck? You've already got a super nice set up with a big block and coil overs, but what color do you want?

It sounds like you have an interesting job... care to share what you do in the entertainment industry?

Yeah, back in the day if the bolt fit in the hole that was it. Who needs washers or a piece of plate to hold in the bucket seats I took out of a blazer and then gave away when I started this tear down. Those would be worth something now!

Haven't settled on the color yet. Originally I had picked out the LeMans Polynesian Green, it is what is on the engine valve cover pictures. Then Atomic Orange was new and exciting but that has been done a few times. Recently it has been charcoal grey or a two tone red morphing to black...now I am just confused and can not pick a color. So permanent of a choice, do not want to ever second guess myself once its on there.

As far as the entertainment.... have you ever seen Magic Mike......

Well, that is not me...

If you can remember back when there was a show out front of the Treasure Island with Ships, Water & Fire. It was changed 10 years later to the Siren's of ti (more like new Coke, not as good). I was head of the team that kept it all going every day for nearly 20 years. After 'they' shut it down in 2013 me and my co-workers (friends really after that long) all went out in search of work. I ended up at the Le Reve show at the Wynn. Was part of the team that worked on all of the automation equipment and flew people on high speed winches. Unfortunately now that is no more... it was permanently closed as of September due to COVID19.

Good news... Now I can devote more of my time to the project, until the money runs out. Only time will tell if Entertainment recovers to what once was.

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by Qknf4u69

Haven't settled on the color yet. Originally I had picked out the LeMans Polynesian Green, it is what is on the engine valve cover pictures. Then Atomic Orange was new and exciting but that has been done a few times. Recently it has been charcoal grey or a two tone red morphing to black...now I am just confused and can not pick a color. So permanent of a choice, do not want to ever second guess myself once its on there.

Same here! For the better part of 10 years, mine was going to be a red and white truck.... then went to hugger orange and white, but sometime this last spring I told myself I was changing for the last time since I always seem to gravitate toward the medium blue and white trucks at a show, so I went ahead and bought the paint so I would quit thinking about it! Part of my decision making was thinking how the color made me feel. I really like the look of the reds and oranges as far as show trucks, but if it were my truck, I wanted a bit more relaxed look, and to me that was the blue. Black is really my favorite, but I've already owned a new black truck and trying to keep that clean with my 1/4 mile gravel driveway proved to be way too much work.

Keep the pictures comin!

[Qknf4u69]

Who could think putting on a power steering hose could be so tough. I do now.

The power steering I added to the build was off a 71 donor, found way back in the 1900's when you could sometimes find one of these 67-72 pickups in the wrecking yard, if you have read previous posts you'll know when. All of these parts were rebuilt but I had never put either of the power steering lines on my big block. Hours of searching on the inter-web led me to believe that I needed a Gates 355230 Pressure Hose and 6" or so of 3/8" rubber line. Well, the 3/8 line was easy to grab out of my stock and I ordered up the hose as no one keeps this in stock near me. I will add that all of the accessories were from a 73 truck with the long water pump. I could not find a hose that was inverted flare for that year from the auto parts store so I figured I would try the stock for my year and engine.

Enter today... my new line was delivered and I tried every conceivable way I could imagine to make the line fit but it my headers or inner fender seemed to get in the way. I know I am not the only person that has put headers on a big block with power steering, what gives, must be the 73 brackets that is causing my issue.

Time to take make some adjustments, first thought, maybe making the almost 90º at the pump a bit more 90ish, maybe 10º or so more. That helped but I needed to have a shorter end after the new 100º plus angle at the Inverted flare fitting.

I took out my inverted flare tool and moved the fitting nut as far on to the angle I had just bent and marked out where I need to cut. I was either going to make this hose work or it would be going in the trash. I don't think they would have taken back after the adjustments I was making. I ended up removed 3/4" and then reflared the piece. It now fits with 3/8" away from the header. If someone has encountered a better hose number I would love to know what would fit as a stock replacement. Hopefully I will find a better replacement before this hose gets old and leaky. I do not really want to have to create one offs.

Moral of today; a 10 minute job can turn in to over 3 hours with luck. Never give up!

[Qknf4u69]

Hey all,

The last few months I have been way too busy with everything else then to spend time on the Hay Burner. Heck, I wasn't even home for one of the months.

I did get the body partially assembled on to the frame to check the fit. It was the first time I had most of the sheet metal assembled since 2001 when I started tearing her down. This was the last check I wanted to see if after the tweaking to the frame, I think we are good.

Before

[Qknf4u69]

Like my weights in the bed? 200 pounds of dog food should help with what the actual ride height should be with a full tank and the rest of the wood and hardware.

And Now!

[Qknf4u69]

What you do when you do not want to go pull weeds in the back yard or go clean up the garage mess from sorting through all the Christmas decoration that had to be done before going back in storage.

Well, you try your skills in AutoCad. Measure your truck a few hundred time and draw up the next expensive part. A custom piece drive line will someday make her go back and forth... at least for now until a steering column is installed.

Over thinking is my specialty...

[Qknf4u69]

Had the local shop tack weld up my new driveline from my CAD drawing. Went with the heavy duty carrier bearing, not that I needed it, bullet proof is what I asked for from the shop. Measurements were pretty close to the drawing when I mocked it up under the truck. I could have had them add about 1/8" more on the rear shaft but the slip joint has 1-1/2" from center in/out. I figured there was really no reason to have them cut a new piece of tube to get the 1/8" back when there really isn't much change in full travel of the rear end.

Gave it back to shop to finish welding, balancing and paint, should see it in a few days.

[Qknf4u69]

Well today I picked up the finished driveline. Smells of black paint in the garage, never a bad thing if you ask me. Cost a bit, but as I have seen on many other posts, "Good work isn’t cheap, Cheap work isn’t good".

Family is in town this week so unfortunately it will have to wait on the floor a few days before I drill the spacer and the bolt holes in the cross member.

[Qknf4u69]

The engine can finally exert some of its influence to the wheels. I made it out to the garage to install the new 2 piece driveshafts. It looks great and is a giant milestone. After I bolted everything down I zeroed out the frame and checked the Front shaft to see if it followed the frame. It was running up hill to the carrier bearing by 0.2º so I made a shim to move the transmission up by an 1/8" and that made me just under 0.1º the other way. I doubt that there would have been any vibration from it but the shop guru didn't like it when I told him so I followed his advice and shimmed the tranny up.

Of course I had to start the engine up and let the transmission spin the new parts. It was the first time that the transmission has ever been tested since it was built by 'R.W.' with TCI in 4-11-1994 and tested by 'S.D.' (Maybe Scoobi Doo) 3 days later. Good job guys, it worked as intended, one of those purchases from so long ago, glad it worked!

FYI
I did remember to take my string line off before spinning the shaft...

[cj847]

What color are your valve covers? Is it available in a spray can? Thanks.

[Qknf4u69]

Originally Posted by cj847

What color are your valve covers? Is it available in a spray can? Thanks.

I don't know if this info will help since this color was mixed for me in the late 90's, but here ya go.

It is a single stage Centari color by DuPont. "GM Le Mans Polynesian Green". I don't remember what year this color was offered but the paint code is #N9711A. I am sure if you go to a DuPont paint supply store they could probably use this info to get the color. It probably could be put in to spray can too but I shot it with a DeVilbiss spraygun.

A pack-rat never throws anything away. Even an old paint can with a rock of old dried up paint...

[Qknf4u69]

Of course there are many reasons to turn back time...

Mine isn't just to be younger and invest in Amazon or Tesla when they first offered their IPO. No this one was when I hacked up the dash in my truck at 16 to but a Power Booster with a 8 band EQ with LED Meter where the ashtray used to be. I am sure it was a whole 50 Watts of power probably with a lot of distortion not to mention the hack job was horrible. It was one of those bad moves you wish you never did. So when I was 19 and a guy I worked with had a old cab that had a decent dash I took jigsaw and went to town. I got 2 of the 3 bolts on each side of the dash, because I couldn't get the upper bolt holes lined up and cross threaded the bolt holes. And the way I cut the dash I overlapped the new to the old dash and the dash pad covered it all. Nobody could tell unless you knew the ashtray from the donor was from newer truck.

So today I started to repair the damage of those long ago days. I took the donor dash back out and tapped out the holes and I welded up a 1/2" hole in the center of the dash where a stereo installer put a LED for a Alarm system back in those early days. Was a lot easier to take it out and patch and grind the unwanted holes. It wasn't much but it was a start.

I also have some rust issues below the passenger side vent above the standard patch panel are. This weekend I will prep for those repairs and maybe a new cut line so I can properly marry the two dashes together.

More pictures to come when all that happens.

[Kronald_70GMC]

That's a nice easy way to fix your dash. Nice!

[Qknf4u69]

Well its been some time since I have updated. I have been busy with everything but the truck it seems. I did make a trip to my Mom's ranch to help out around there and had a great time doing that kind of work. Funny I moved away from there originally to get away from those chores and go on a kind of vacation to get away from here to a simpler life to do those chores.... .

Patched up some holes that have been needed to be repaired on the cab. I should have done the cowl rot differently but it turned out good enough and will never be seen.

Really doesn't look like much, but its progress none the less.

[Qknf4u69]

That wasn't all that got filled up...

This rot around the passenger foot well has been known problem since 2002. I fabricated a patch piece for the vent air box welded that back together. I had previously cut out what I thought was the bad area of the foot well... but welding and hidden rust got things got out of hand quickly. After welding the 2 larger patch pieces I ended up adding 3 more smaller pieces of sheet metal to repair hidden rusted areas that just opened up a can of worms. The A-pillar area was nothing but rust once exposed further up the side. Media blasted what I exposed and painted it up with Zero-Rust before I welded it all back up. After hours of work it is al sealed up and strong. May I'll add a little filler here and there later to conceal some waves... when that time comes.

Lets just say I am not a good welder but I stayed in a Holiday Inn.....

[Kronald_70GMC]

Looking good 👍🏻

[Qknf4u69]

How much can body and paint hide? I hope a lot.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Kronald_70GMC]

Originally Posted by Qknf4u69

How much can body and paint hide?

They have some fiberglass reinforced bondo these days that I believe can take care of some pretty deep defects. Maybe 1/4" I could be wrong here....maybe someone else has some better info.

[Qknf4u69]

Luckily that much won't be needed. I had it almost perfect but I kept trying to weld up any pin holes that showed up then got angry and cut the area back out and started over with a piece of sheet metal. Then a few more would show up and I did that process over 3 times. Each patch a little bigger that the previous. If I had all the cool big boy tools, a real shop and maybe some sheet metal guys... who knows how good it could be... Come on Motor Trend TV rescue me, fix it in a hour so I can drive it tomorrow. LOL

[Kronald_70GMC]

Haha yeah I remember having that problem earlier in my build as well. It will get better with practice.

[Qknf4u69]

Well, well, well... No longer in Nevada, moved back to my old stomping grounds in Southern Oregon. New house, new garages and a lot of stuff to unpack and to do to the house before I even get to work on the truck. But the hard part is complete, getting moved.

I had to bolt it together and add a plywood bed so I haul even more junk to the new home. Hopefully I will have some time in the near future to get back on the truck with more consistency. Might actually play retirement guy and make the wife pay all the bills, LOL.

Here is the new home for the truck and I guess the wife's Chevelle too.