The English are coming! Or..another C10 in the Motherland.

[Paul Y]

Hi Jeff!

Good to hear from you, not seen your posts for a while so thought you had grown up and gone and purchased a Tesla to become a Plaid Dad....

Woody has to get done as I am bored with having a paper weight in the garage. PLUS I haven't annoyed my own, or Grizz, neighbours in far too long.

Hopefully lots will get accomplished this weekend so stand by for another major step forward.

P.

[88Stanger]

Paul
Cannot wait sir to see your new updates!! I hope to be able to post my own updates soon. First though they will be of the "69 before the "66. sad but true....
So i will live through yours and a few others on here until then.. lol

[Paul Y]

I have bribed my good friend Jay the Spring Slasher with Brisket based Chilli in exchange for him standing behind me whilst I apply paint to Woodys underside.



Be prepared for either abject fail or soaring victory!

P.

[Paul Y]

So dear reader did my epic chilli allow the creative juices to flow?

Yes, Yes I think they did.

Let me preface this diatribe by making a confession. Painting scares me. Yes, I know, hard to believe but the thought of making a right royal cock up and having to strip something back to bare metal again fills me with dread.

Which is why my good pal Jay the Spring Slasher offered to stand behind me to make sure that if it all did go a bit Pete Tong he would be on hand to advise and correct.

Without further ado then lets open up the special mix paint and see how close it is to the panel I took as a sample.



Ahh.....

Lets hope it looks a little better when on a panel....

First job was to do a bit of masking.



Followed by loading the gun with Epoxy...



Quickly resulting in Jay making sure the gun was set up properly.



Before I was allowed to take over the reins resulting in this.



Not too bad, a few sags but nothing that couldn't be easily fixed, and a little confidence booster.

A second coat was quickly applied before turning the heater to full and retreating to the kitchen for Chilli, home made Guacamole and Salsa all washed down with a few bottle of Corona. Lovely.

An hour later everything had flashed off enough to mix up the Raptor, tint it with the GREEN and, deep breath, see how bad it actually was.

Paint, paint. Spray, spray.



Two coats later. well it is definitely GREEN!



But actually it is a pretty close match to the panels that have been hiding from the Californian sun for the past 50 years.

As we were cleaning up I stuck a bit of thinners on a rag and wiped the door over as they were very badly sprayed to reveal....



It was late by this time but was up early this morning as got all excited at the though there might be some genuine old fashioned sign writing on the doors but.....



That will be a no then.

However it is much better than before so I am still counting that as a win!

For a comparison, the drivers door.



With that I have family duties to attend to so tune in again next week when I will be putting some paint on the fire wall. What could possibly go wrong...

Until then.

ONWARDS!!!!

P.

[Grizz1963]

Excellent work Paul.

[Palf70Step]

Nice looking work there Paul.

[Paul Y]

Mid week progress? Why not I say!

With the floor done it was now time to spray the GREEN! onto the firewall.

First things first, a quick going over of the epoxy to get rid of the orange peel.



Didn't do too bad a job of that, quite pleased.

A quick mask up using the plastic film rather than the paper - a much better system.



And then time to load the gun up with the GREEN!



Yup, still looks like Kermit.

After careful consultation with my mentor it was decided that he would be in charge of the gun for this evenings activities so, without further ado....



Paint, paint. Spray, spray....



And the end result.



Pretty pleased with that.

Had a slight problem with my big heater which decided to pack up halfway through the process resulting in a small run but hopefully that will be covered by the engine. Either way this has given me a big boost to move onto the next part of the build, painting the interior.

With only 54 days to go until my date with destiny I better get my finger out.

Until the next time.

ONWARDS!

P.

[Braunschweiger]

Good job, the shop looks like it does in the horror movie "The Green Fog"
A great success.

[Grizz1963]

Excellent progress Paul.

Well done.

Looks like you are going to make the date.

[jmarkha1]

that looks great - like that colour - progress eh...

[Paul Y]

As I am still child like in my excitement over splashing a bit of paint on Woody I popped into the garage this morning to check the colour match.



I would say that is pretty good.

Interior is going to be the original fawn and silver gold. Paint ordered so as soon as I get Woody back on his feet will start to strip the interior and get prepped for paint.

Feel rather pleased to say the least....

P.

[Duncan K]

Looks good! always exciting to get some colour down

[Paul Y]

In between cutting up fallen trees and convincing my father that it was really not a good idea to go and cut the tops off the trees that hadn't fallen - it has been a bit 'Windy' in the UK over the past few days to say the least.... - I did manage to find a few hours on Saturday to play Tetris in my garage and get the front clip onto the lawn for cleaning and prep ahead of a coat of Raptor.

What should have been an hours job tops ended up being a 3 hour marathon as my petrol pressure washer decided that it didn't want to play ball and I spent an inordinate amount of time stripping the carb and cleaning it - who said this e10 stuff was harmless....

Anyway. Spray spray. Wash, wash.

Ta DA!



Clean. Then reverse Tetris to get it back in the garage, rough up the surface, throw some rust converter on it and mask up.



30 seconds to type, 2 hours to achieve. Which is where I left it as I was in danger of loosing vital parts of my anatomy if I did not spend some time with Lady P.

Up early this morning and mixed up the Raptor for my first solo flight. Must admit I stood there for a good 10 minutes going over how I was going to spray this in my head and then another 10 procrastinating until I thought, Sod It, added the paint and harder to the pot and Pssshhhh. PPPPssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Two coats later.







Think I have just become 'dangerous' with a gun....



That now concludes the painting element of our story - well until the inside - next, back to mechanical, building an exhaust working out what the hell to do with the gearbox and plonking the body back on the chassis.

47 days and counting. Can see some late nights in my future.

With that I will leave you to your Sunday roast.

Until the next time....

Onwards!!!!

P.

[jmarkha1]

nice work - so you add paint to the raptor and spray away?
looks like the perfect product for underneath these trucks...

[Grizz1963]

Excellent work Paul

That looks great.

Wish I was that far on mine.

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by jmarkha1

nice work - so you add paint to the raptor and spray away?
looks like the perfect product for underneath these trucks...

Pretty much.

There is a tintable version as well as black, and I think white. If you get the tintable basically add the colour to the first rib of the bottle. Add the hardener to the second rib.

Shake like a Polaroid picture and spray.

P.

[Paul Y]

So, on a day of pretty dismal international news I thought I would share what some would call Karma, or paying it forward according to @grizz and why I have this in my hand...



Without going into huge detail I am fortunate enough to be reasonably well known in my industry which means I occasionally get asked to present at conferences, sit on panels and, a first for me, give lectures to university's.

The later resulted in another opportunity which in turn lead to a conversation that culminated in "well if you don't want to be paid what do you want?"

This all happened back on October and, to be very honest I didn't think what I asked for as a joke would actually turn up until a rather cold February morning found me in Southampton with this in the boot of my wife's car.



For those keeping up with the story you will probably remember that I had resigned myself to using the SM420 that came with Woody so had already ordered a flywheel and was going to reuse the clutch but, on the off chance that this stupid story was actually turn into reality I had ordered a clutch kit and various other components to fit the T56 as, at some time, I would have use for them.

So what was in the box then Baldy?



I still cant believe that this actually happened.

Anyway, my aim has been to spend an hour per night in the shed - it always ends up being more like 2 - as I try to get Woody ready for the 9th April.

I had already decided to upgrade the dog bone in the oiling system and replace the RMS so that was one nights work.

For those that don't know the dog bone resides behind here.



And is the beige plastic thing on the lower left of the picture.



Extraction is a bit of a faff but nothing a wood screw can't overcome...



So why do you replace it then. Quite simply it diverts the oil from the main oil gallery through the filter and is a little 'weak' when compared to the aftermarket alternatives. Plus for $20 it is cheap insurance.

Observe.



And installed.



Next job on the list was to install this little Johny.



Pretty simple operation once I had cleaned out the end of the crank and deployed my assortment of Tonya Hardings...



Aannnnndddd... in.



Flywheel next after I spent 2 hours calling around all of the local motor factors looking for blue loctite. I mean you would think I had asked for Vlad's telephone number....

Which lead me onto the the first challenge of the proceedings. The instructions/warranty that come with the gearbox are very specific that you must index the bell housing. What they don't tell you is that you need an index plate to accomplish this which I only realised after spending 2 hours with a dial indicator thinking I must be some sort of numpty... Needless to say I realised my mistake and the plate is making its way across the ocean as we speak.

Problem is I really wanted to fit the gearbox for two reasons.

A) I wanted to make the exhaust over the weekend and wanted to make sure that everything lined up with the box in place

and

B) I wanted to make Brumm Brumm noises.

So, lets break out the trusty Chinesium engine crane

Use a stap as a sling



And hoink this bad boy out of its box...



Oooooohhhh....She Thiccccccc

And in!



Believe me, the struggle was real hence the lack of actual instal pictures.

Annnnndddddd... The money shot....



BRUUUUMMMMM, BRRRRRUUUUUUUMMMMMM, BBBBRRRRUUUUUMMMMMMM etc.

In closing, sometimes it pays to invest time, give of your self and 'pay it forward' . I think that this is especially important given the events of today.

Stay safe people and until the next time......

ONWARDS!!!!!

P.

[MusicMan70]

Just too funny and a great read too! Thanks for the laugh

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by MusicMan70

Just too funny and a great read too! Thanks for the laugh

Thank you Sir. I am too please.

P.

[The Rocknrod]

You know we've all done it.

[Paul Y]

Evening all,

After spending an hour looking at a pair of Flowmaster 40's and a bunch of 2 1/2" pipe I have given up and returned to the sanctity of curse word tv and some sort of Rhubarb beer. Which tastes a bit pants.

Two options open to me.

1) Sulk

2) Ask you lot for your thoughts.

I will take 2 for curse word beer please Paul.

Right. So what is the problem...

Let me illustrate through the medium of a few rubbish pictures.

From the down pipes to the trailing arm crossmember I have a pretty straight run.

Behold!





There is enough room between the braces to run a 4" pipe so plenty of room for activities.

My initial thought was to put the flow masters there standing vertically but after a quick mock up they hang too far below the chassis rail. Not what I am really after.

I could mount them in front of the axle, again standing vertically to get the exit from the box over the top of the axle. Ok that would work on the passenger side



But on the drivers side we run into clearance problems....



Over the axle is fine bit we then have the challenge of the tank and Panhard bar mount.



I can get a 2 1/2" pipe between the mount and tank but there is no room for movement of any kind. So probably not going to work.

Cant snake it outside the chassis rail as there is not enough room between the axle and frame rail.

I could be lazy and just dump the exhaust in front of the axle but not a big fan of that.

Second option is to get a pair of bullets or Cherry bombs - if anybody has a pair in the shed in 2 1/2" flavour please let me know - and place them between the frame rail and brace.



Here.

Thinking then is to run the exits out each side in front of the wheels,

3rd option is the same as above but merged the two 2 1/2" pipes into the spare bit of 4" straight I have and run it through here to the back bumper.



In time I will probably get the exhaust done professionally but, for the interim, just looking for something that works, is reasonably low cost and will sound OK.

How would you tackle the problem?

Have I missed something, is there another way to do this?

Let me know as my plans of getting this done over the weekend have been dashed - due to lack of material (thought I could use the old exhaust) so have time to collect bits and get it done during the week.

Thanks?

P.

[Grizz1963]

You still popping over?


Remember the strap on.


What else?

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by The Rocknrod

You know we've all done it.

On more than one occasion.....

P.

[jmarkha1]

Cherry Bombs :-) - that takes me back...

I would go with the cherry bomb (or modern equiv) and dump before the axle (for now).
Once the truck is up and running get a fancy stainless one made to fit (if you go turbo things will likely change too...

paint looks great by the way

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by jmarkha1

Cherry Bombs :-) - that takes me back...

I would go with the cherry bomb (or modern equiv) and dump before the axle (for now).
Once the truck is up and running get a fancy stainless one made to fit (if you go turbo things will likely change too...

paint looks great by the way

Until I saw how expensive they now are that was my thinking as well!

I am going to use the Flowmasters and work out where to put the exit once I have got the pipes to them.

As you say, a temporary solution as the Turbooooo set up will be a single pipe on the drivers side so don't want to invest huge funds.

P.