pdx-sanity66

[Shifty One]

Meh, I don't FB at all, so it may not be for me...

[pdxhall]

I have finally got Sanity running real good. I changed the break-in oil a few days ago. I went with Valvoline VR1 5/50. I'm going to a couple of events this weekend, the Pistor middle school 4th annual show on Saturday and our monthly C10 meetup at Reid Park on Sunday afternoon so I've got Sanity cleaned up and ready to go.

[pdxhall]

I had a great weekend at the meet ups. Now I'm back to work. Yesterday I installed my new jeep door checks and they work great.
Also, the big news is I will be getting my new complete Vintage Air AC system next week. I'm not going to start installing it until we get back from Oregon in August but at least I'll have it. I'll take the instructions with me to start familiarizing myself with the installation for when we get back. This is a real game changer for living in Tucson.
I took the inside door panels off to install the door checks but I am also working on the arm rest and I will repaint the panels.

[pdxhall]

WOW! The heat has arrived in Tucson. The last 3 days have been around 108 degrees. With having NO air conditioning in the shop, work has slowed down to a crawl. My AC system has shipped so that is great so I should be able to take the paperwork with me, but i have turned my attention to getting ready for our annual trip to Oregon to visit family and friends. Getting the BAT (big ass truck, 2014 Silverado 3500 4x4) ready to go has been priority 1. Got 6 new tires put on, ouch, the oil change service done, and got it cleaned up. It's ready to go. We also bought a new small camping trailer and got rid of our 12ft. Lance camper so I've been doing some things on it. It came with a solar system, but it only had 1 AGM battery. That is inadequate for our future plans. So I bought 2 12v 100ah Lipo4 Lithium batteries. I installed a battery box that fit the batteries and got everything wired up. We are almost done packing what we can before a day or so before we leave.
So there probably won't be many updates until we get back.

[pdxhall]

We're ready to leave tomorrow and I will be happy to get out of these 105+ temps for a few weeks. Sanity is tucked away in the shop for summer rest. I ended up not getting my AC. Major screw up but I'm not going to go in to it. I'll deal with it when we get back home. It will be great to see our family and friends.

[cwcarpenter98]

Bummer on not getting the a/c kit in hand, but hopefully you'll be able to enjoy the cooler weather!

[pdxhall]

We just got back home on Monday. We had a great trip to Portland, Or to visit our family and friends. We had a great time at the Waterfront Blues festival for 4 days around the 4th of July and then we went to our 4th annual Beer Festival at my son Nick's house and had about 30 of our friends and family over and everyone brought some crazy beers over for all to taste. It was a great success again.
We left Portland and headed to Utah to see our first grandniece, who is 3mo. old. What a cutie. After that it clear sailing for 3 days till we got home. It's good to be back. I hooked up the battery on Sanity, pumped the gas a couple of times and it fired right up. Like I said, It's good to be back.

[pdxhall]

I got all my cleaning up done around the yard so I'm back to working on Sanity. My wiper motor might be fried and I need to take it out for testing and possible replacement. I'm also starting to lightly sand the inside of the doors for repaint and the door panels are ready for repaint. It's still just too hot for painting. I also need to hook up my speedometer. I may need help with that one. At over 6ft tall, 215 lbs and 73 years old, I can barely fit to get under the dash. It just needs a couple of wires hooked up. Easier said than done.

[pdxhall]

Yesterday i started on getting the wiper motor removed. Of course to get it out, I had to remove the cowl. So, while I had the cowl off and removed the nut holding the linkage on the motor. I've had a seal that goes partially under the cowl. The hood on the truck has not been fitting as it should (very tight at the back) and the cowl has not fit quite right where it fits along the windshield. I decided the give the seal a try. I first loosened the cowls hold down bolts enough to slip the seal in under the cowl just far enough to raise the cowl in the front where it would fit when installed permanently. I taped it so it wouldn't fall out and carefully lowered the hood. I fits exactly how it should. So I took the cowl and put a little gasket maker on the attachment location to hold the seal in place. Next I had to put the holes in the seal. I turned the cowl over, braced it, and used one of my woodworking half-moon knives to cut the holes out. It worked out great and will be ready to reinstall when I'm done with the wipers. Today I will be taking out the wiper motor for testing and probably replacement. any way, it looks as though the cowl seal is a necessary item for fitting things up.

[pdxhall]

Just a little update. I bought a new wiper motor and installed it. I still have to wire it up but that won't take long. Also, when my signal generator for my speedo went out. I replaced it with a new one and wired it as far as the dash, but I didn't hook it up all the way. With the restrictions I mentioned before, I have been hesitant to crawl under and finish the job but I can't put it off. I've got to get these things done.

[pdxhall]

I now have wipers. I've got them all wired up and done. I put the cowl back on with the cowl to hood seal. Everything is aligned much better now using the seal. The next thing is finishing the inside of the doors. I have started on the passenger side and it has been lightly sanded, wiped down, and masked off. We're having another bit of a heat wave and we're back around 105. I don't want to try painting with it so hot, so I may have to go out at around 11pm to do it. I'm also starting to clean up and prep the driver door so it will be ready for paint. The door panels are prepped and ready for paint, also. After that, I will be ordering my new AC.

[pdxhall]

I got the door panels painted and a little touch up of the silver. Everything is all put back together, and I think they turned out pretty good. I drove Sanity down to our C10 club monthly meet up. Getting prepared for the caravan up to Dino's on Thursday. Sorry for the sideways pic. I tried to fix it.

[pdxhall]

I ordered my AC system. Vintage Air Gen5 Surefit system. This is my winter project. I should be here in a couple of weeks. I've also been finishing up some small projects that need to be done along with a little touch up paint on some stuff on the frame.

[350TacoZilla]

If I haven't said it yet I love the look of those gauges! And if I have said it well there it is again. I'm in a weird spot where I don't need "performance" gauges because my truck isn't going to be performance oriented at all but I do need aftermarket gauges because it's going to be made of many different parts that no stock gauges are going to play nice with.

Speedo= 80mph is plenty, Tach= 4,000rpm is wishful thinking then all the normal temp/pressure/fuel etc but also a air pressure gauge for bags.

[pdxhall]

Thanks TZ. there are certainly a lot of gauges out there. Good luck with your quest.
As for my story, I didn't make it to Dino's with Sanity. Long story. I ended up starting a project I have been meaning to do for a while now and that is my turn signal switch. When I first put the column in, I took out the lock on the wheel and put a horn switch in its place. When I put everything together it worked but my turn signals wouldn't shut off after I made a turn and the wheel just didn't seem to be right, I didn't know at the time, part of the horn mechanism I removed is also the cancel cam for the signals. I had one so I put it back in. I also decided to change the turn signal switch while I was at it. So after getting the switch in and rewired, I hooked everything back up and I know have properly operating signals.
I also put in a new back up switch in the dash and I spent some time organizing the wiring under the dash.
The next thing is I have been working on installing my new Vintage Air Gen5 heat and Ac system. So far, I'm working on components inside the truck.
Well, I'm sure I missed something, but I'll try to get some pics up as I progress on the AC.

[TJ's Chevy]

Been while since I've been on, Sanity is looking good and glad it's a good runner!

[pdxhall]

I've been having more trouble with my cooling system. I was on my way to our meet up when the fans both stopped working and the engine immediately got very hot. I got the truck pulled over and have it towed home. I keep getting these glitches in the programming on the controller. I have a Dakota Digital controller that seems to be the problem so I'm giving up on the controller and I'm switching to a Flex-a-lite controller which seems to be simpler that the Dakota unit so I will get it installed and see what I get. I'm really tired of the other unit so wish me luck. While the truck is down I'm also working on the AC.

[350TacoZilla]

I may be just lucky or something but I ran junkyard Taurus fans with a simple relay setup in multiple projects with good luck. 1st speed is on with the key and 2nd speed is a switch on dash. I had 1 that was wired up with the little universal fan thermostat that would turn on once it got up for temp and I just wired it to the 2nd speed so truck started to get warm it kicked in and cooled it off and fan would shut back off. Ran a 180 thermostat but set the fan on at 195 i keep thinking.

[pdxhall]

I just wanted to post a quick one to update the status of life. I threw out my back a couple of weeks ago and I'm just starting to feel better. I am still fighting Sanity's cooling system (and it was working so good.) I have replaced both radiator hoses and I've got a new water pump installed. Now I just need to hook up the temp controller. I've got the AC vents in and the hoses hooked up. That's it. Still surviving
down here in Tucson and it's getting hot. We are heading up north in a few days to visit family and friends. So, the truck will be resting until our return in August.

[pdxhall]

Well, we're back from our trip up north to Portland with a stop in American fork, Utah to see family. We had some major problems on the way up but I'm not going into details at the time.
While we were in Utah, I totaled my 2014 chevy dually. nobody was hurt and the truck didn't look that bad but they totaled it. So now we had the trouble of getting a truck to pull us home. We tried all rental companies with no success, so we start looking for a used truck to get us home. We got real lucky and found a 2015 chevy half ton 4-wheel drive that was in our budget. This truck is in immaculate. One owner since it was new. We got it all hooked up and headed home. No issues at all except for this heat wave we came home to. I really want to get
Sanity put back together but it's just too hot for my garage with no AC. So things are moving real slow right now

[350TacoZilla]

Glad everyone is ok, sorry to hear about your truck.

[pdxhall]

Thanks man, luckily no one was hurt and the drive home was without any issues. I bought a new to me truck in Oregon to pull our trailer home. It's a 2015 Silverado 4x4 1500. It is in incredible shape. I'll post a couple of pics later.
I am back to work Sanity. I am reassembling the front of the engine. I've got new hoses and water pump and I'm in the process of putting the serpentine mount back on. Hopefully I will be testing later today. If it is working and hopefully no leaks I can proceed with wiring the temp control in.

[scottofksu]

What a fun romp through your build this last week has been! Sorry to hear about that beautiful dually, but so very glad you are all ok! The truck is looking amazing and giving me more inspiration to get mine wrapped up! I've been growing increasingly worried as I age that I have made a puzzle no one else will be able to put back together at all.

[AussieinNC]

When you replaced the water pump, did you buy the correct one for the serpentine style system?

The serpentine pumps rotate the other way....

[pdxhall]

Yes, the pump is correct. I took the new pump off and it looks terrible and the ports look rusty. Is there any product I can use successfully to
clean the rust in the engine. This truck was in storage for 3 1/2 years and then completed the build here in Tucson. I have been running and driving the truck for a while with no issues until the when the truck overheated. It didn't have any circulation through the block. I tried all kinds of flushing of the system but that didn't work so next was to change the water pump. And that didn't work. That's where things sit at the moment. I there a safe way I can get the rust out?