New guy; 71 farm survivor Long Horn edition

[andymarkv]

Thought you guys would get a kick out of my friends farm truck!
His uncle bought it new in '72 as a left over and it never left the orchard until 2006.
My buddy Dave's father owned the orchard and now Dave owns it.
The truck came up for sale and in a total stroke of coolness, Dave's wife bought it back for him!

The truck has 49,000 miles on it, pretty rust free considering we are in north central PA. It was still wearing split rims with 7.50-16 tires on it!!

Dave wanted it updated and it looks like I have my work cut out for me....
On the wish list are....
New tires 10ply E rated. Super aggressive mud tread in the back, milder tread on the front.
Power steering conversion/smaller diameter steering wheel.
New front springs/balljoints/swaybar bushings/rear spring eye bushings
All new brake stuff.
HEI conversion recurved.
Tachometer.
Change fluids.
Rear bumper.
Fix small odds and ends like the door handle, broken tailgate strap, interior arm rests, Halogen headlights, nonworking tail lights.......

The timing chain has 8* of slack in it and it needs valve cover gaskets. I have a left over 600 Edelbrock carb so I figure it would be a perfect time for an intake and mild camshaft. (looking at this comp cam)
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-12-230-2/

The trucks basic combo is 307, unfortunately making it harder to pick a cam, 4speed with 4.10's and locking rear.
Other weird thing is it looks like it has a factory extended box? I hear its a long horn edition?

I stuck some craigs list 1980's 3/4 ton 16x6.5's under it with 33" 285's..... Kind of looks tough that way! But the tires are shot and I will be moving to the 265/75/16 10ply's soon.

The main idea is to get it in really good useable shape....and then continue to use it on the farm! Should be interesting to see how it turns out.

















Wow..... I haven't updated in a long time!!
This project was way more work than I thought it was, but its coming along.
Lets hit some of the highlights...
After 5 trips to the junkyard I finally had the correct power steering gear box, pump & bracket. After a new pressure line, fabbed up a return line and a new lower pulley from Summit, I was in buisness! The old gear box took 5 turns lock to lock, the new one only 3.25. Its nice!

Next was the front suspension tear down...

While I was waiting for parts I started fixing some stuff in the interior. Busted window crank, door handles. Lo and behold I found all of the parts in the bottom of the door to rebuild the exterior drivers door handle!!


Parts came in and it was back to the frontend. Ball joints, swaybar bushings, shocks and new springs. Plus new front calipers, and hoses.


I also found an edelbrock performer intake on CL. Some bastard sprayed it candied pepsi blue.....
Lucky for me never degreased it so most of it came off..... I ended up spraying it Al later.

With it back together I actually washed it!!! Probably the first time ever!! Still some weird gunk on the hood, but most of the grille shined back up!



I found a rear step bumper that was in pretty good shape for 20 bucks. With some cutting it fit pretty well. Step bumper really works better on the farm VS a sport bumper

With the power steering working I ditched the 17" diameter wheel for this little 13.75 I had laying around. Also added a mini tach and water temp gauge.

Next step was the motor work.
I tore it down. I added a left over Edelbrock 600 carb and this Comp Cam.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-12-230-2/



I knew the timing chain was sloppy, but check out the cracks in the nylon top gear......yikes!!!

I also am fighting a hard brake pedal..... So I changed the booster and master cylinder right while I was there. The pedal is still hard.....must be the proportioning valve? With the caliper bleeders cracked you have to stand on them to get fluid return, but they gravity bleed fine. We will see.

Mostly back together...

I ran the cam in on Saturday and now am swapping in my Skip White $52 HEI dist.
From the mixed results I figured I had better start and run in the cam on the points dist that I know works!!

I did get one little test drive and it is still very lame!!! But I think I need to recurve the dist, replace the single 2" exhaust with dual 2.25" and dyno tune it with wideband. If it still sucks after that....I guess the 307 is as lame as everyone says!!

I hope to have some video after the exhaust is done next week
Got the new tires on it.
I liked the 285's better, but ended up with 265-75-16's to get the 10 ply E rating. (he hauls 25-2600lbs)
I stuck the factory side mirrors back on after the pics.




Also redid the rear brakes and realized it doesn't have a dana 60..... It has a Eaton HO52. I had never heard of it..... With new brake parts everywhere it stops, as good as a 1971 truck stops anyway.



I also found the original NoSpin documents in the glove box! Pretty cool, a real detroit locker!



I also added a new heater core, and found the original blend door cable had been cut from another heater core repair....
So I used a choke cable and fixed it.


Just got the dual exhaust on yesterday. Sounds pretty good, but they ran 2" pipe instead of the 2 1/4" that I asked for. It doesn't really matter for the 307, and its nice and mild. But I'm tired of paying top dollar for crush bent mild steel exhaust systems and having them not even do it right!!!!! Guess I need to get a pipe bender and start doing it myself.

I got the advance curve close to right and that helped the power. It runs about the same with the duals vs the single exhaust, but I expected that.
It has a nice mid range torque, but the small bore and displacement means its no rocket! Kind of feels like my 2006 4.8 truck without the topend pull.

I took it on a nice shake down cruise yesterday and stopped in to show Dave. He was very happy with the results! He said it isn't the same truck he drove all those years. Which is a good thing!

I should have it ready to give it back on Sunday.


Farm Truck is finished and back home!
I did find a really nice bench seat out of a 70 GMC. Someone pulled the seat to get the gas tank, so I didn't even have to pull it myself!!

I took it over for Dave to check it out and he was very happy! Brakes that work, power steering and enough of an increase in power that you don't have to down shift on small hills makes this thing a lot more fun to drive!
I was pissed at myself on the way home that I had wimped out and not found a light switched power source for the gauges. So I manned up and got it done before I gave it back....

One last crappy over exposed pic with the Dumbo mirrors on!
Form follows function on this truck!!


I found a late model jump seat cup holder like this one.

With a couple of extention mount rods and four holes in the bottom of the seat frame it mounted right up! Never thought a cup holder was that big of a deal until you don't have one!