pdx-sanity66

[Bomp]

Wow and congrats on your epic trip.
Envious as all get out about your new place down in AZ.
Glad to see the update.

[Oregon 1967 GMC]

I was wondering what happened to you, glad you're back! Sounds like a great plan and I'm jealous as hell. Safe travels.

[clemdaddy]

Welcome back… wow, has it really been 2 years? Time do fly…
Sounds like a great plan, establish a base and branch out your travels from there. Rock-on Bro...

[Average Joe]

Good for you!!!

I love hearing stories like this. Gives me hope for my own retirement some day.

[pdxhall]

Wow! It's been a year since my last post.I first want to apologize to you guys that responded to my last thread that I didn't answer back. Let me explain a few of the hurdles of the last year. As I said before, we now reside in Tucson. We moved in to our home the 1st of March with the things we had in the camper. The previous owners left a dinette, a couch and some other stuff. We bought a mattress set to sleep on and we were temporarily set for the time.
I immediately began shopping for a shop to have built. I decided on a 30' by 30' steel building. Permits were going to take a while so we decided to go to Portland and move our stuff back to Tucson.
We blasted up to Portland emptied the storage into a rented moving truck and made arrangements to have Sanity shipped.
I drove the truck and camper and Joanne drove the moving truck. It was a boring long drive but with no incidents.
The 2 of us got the truck unloaded and the shipper got Sanity delivered and in to the carport temporarily.
I had a lot of delays in getting permits from the county for the shop so we were waiting to leave to go back north before the monsoon season.
Finally the shop was finished. I got Sanity put away and all of my shop equipment locked up tight and we were ready to head north to Portland for the summer.
We got back to Tucson the end of September. I started unpacking and finding places for all of my equipment ,tools ,and truck parts.
It has taken me a while to reacquaint myself with everything. I am really glad that I've taken pictures and made progress notes along the way.
I've got the shop wired with more outlets and power than I'll ever use.
The compressor is up and running and I've got my bead blaster set up.
I've been working on Sanity. Update tomorrow.

[Oregon 1967 GMC]

Right on dude~~! Glad to see you're settling down after all the moving around. Best of luck and please stay in touch.

[rusty76]

Glad to have you back.

[Bomp]

Glad to see Sanity has a 30'x30' place to live.

Waiting intently for updates.

[pdxhall]

Thanks you guys. I've been working hard for the last few weeks on getting the engine ready to attempt starting. If you look back in the thread, you'll see how long I've been waiting. I'll be honest, I was worried. But I've been very careful to keep it sealed up and there are 0 signs of corrosion.
I have finished up the trans cooling lines, the fuel line from the tank to the carburetor, permanently installed the radiator and trans cooler and connected all hoses, checked the distributor,plugs,and wires, and wired the starter, dist., and ignition temporarily for first firing
I have also modified the stock gas pedal/throttle arm to position the pedal assembly so it will go to full throttle when floored, which is imperative when setting up the TV system on the 700r4 trans.
I bought and installed new pwr steering hoses, filled the pump and bled the gear.
All needed fluids have been added.
I bought and installed a new serpentine belt.
I bought a new battery.
So I'm pretty sure it's ready.
Tomorrow is the day.
Here are a few pics during the process

[Jferrante]

living the life keep it up!!!

[tune_1]

Good to see you back. How did the startup go?

Dwight

[pdxhall]

Well I'd like to say that I was able to be just like the guys on TV and Sanity fired on the first try, but you know as well as I do that it just doesn't happen that way. The first battery I tried was too far gone to give me enough cranking power to turn the engine over enough to get the fuel pump to get gas to the carb. Okay, I get a new battery. Now the engine is cranking and I'm getting fuel (positive note: only one small drip of a leak in one connection that just needed a little more wrenching.
Next I check all electrical and make sure I have spark. all is OK.
Here we go again. acts like she wants to start but just getting a couple of pops and sputters. Messing with the dist. doesn't help.
It appears that the dist. must be off a gear or so.
So I find cylinder 1 compression stroke and the timing is way off. Pulled and reset it correctly.
Trying again.
SANITY LIVES
https://youtu.be/llYXbJP62m0

[northern 85]

Awesome ,what a feeling when they fire up!!!!!!!!

[bj383ss]

Awesome thanks for the update. Truck is looking good. Missed following along on your adventures.

Bret

[Bomp]

Sounds great

[Captainfab]

Hopefully you already ran the cam breakin before you made that video.

[pdxhall]

Originally Posted by northern 85

Awesome ,what a feeling when they fire up!!!!!!!!

Thanks, I'm still doing my happy dance.

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Awesome thanks for the update. Truck is looking good. Missed following along on your adventures.

Bret

I've been just itching to get back to work and I'm motivated.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Sounds great

Thanks Greg. put that sewing machine down and get to work on Steiner.

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Hopefully you already ran the cam breakin before you made that video.

Hi Cap, thanks for looking in. This video was mimicking TV. They always fire on the first time but rest assured all procedures were followed previously.

[pdxhall]

I'm switching gears right now. Before going much further with the engine I need to do a couple of other projects first. I need to start thinking seriously about the exhaust and I need to finish painting under the dash area and the inner firewall area. I am not using a firewall pad so I'm working on an alternative. I also want to get the dashboard painted. This way I can get the fuse panel and gauge cluster installed and finish the engine wiring.
I have roughed up the under dash area with some scotch brite, which has been media blasted and epoxy primed before storage. I pulled the seats and the steering column back out and cleaned things up a bit.

[pdxhall]

So my solution to the inner firewall was I found some spray sound insulation from Boom Mat that I used on the upper firewall above the carpet line. Then I sprayed the entire inner firewall, the kick panels, the floor, and halfway up the rear of the cab with Lizard Skin heat insulation. I should have enough to do the doors when ready. The dash has been sanded and primed a couple of times and is about ready to paint. I've got all the other dash, steering column, and other stuff ready to start assembly.

[Duncan K]

That looks fantastic!! I think I might just have to do the same to mine.

[bj383ss]

That looks really good. Great idea on the Lizard Skin.

Bret

[pdxhall]

Originally Posted by Duncan K

That looks fantastic!! I think I might just have to do the same to mine.

Thanks for looking in. I did a ton of research on the Lizardskin and I'm very pleased with the results so far. I just checked out your build. You have done some very nice work in a short time. Very Nice.

Originally Posted by bj383ss

That looks really good. Great idea on the Lizard Skin.

Bret

Thanks, Bret, it seems to be very durable.

I painted the dash yesterday and sprayed some epoxy primer on some small parts that I bead blasted.

[pdxhall]

Yesterday I started putting things back together under the dash. I got the brake pedal mounted, made a mount for the fuse box and got that installed, and started sorting through the wire harnesses and stuff. Let the fun begin.

I'm using the American Autowire classic update wiring and it comes with a pretty good mount for the fuse box but it didn't leave enough room to mount my Dakota digital fan controller that I wanted to have next to it. I had a piece of aluminum so I made a new one.

[pdxhall]

I haven't posted for a while because Joanne and I are off on another adventure.
We were starting to get ready for our summer migration to the NW when we got word that my mom died. She was 89 and was able to live in her own home. She died peacefully.
So we headed up to Utah ahead of schedule. We've spent the time up until now in Oregon.
We plan on returning home the 1st of August and making it home in a couple of weeks. Then it's back to wiring, exhaust.
Also, I'll be looking for a good, reasonably priced upholster to finally get my bucket seats upholstered.

[Captainfab]

Sorry to hear about your Mom.......