Project No-buck!

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

dude you are awesome! How do you get so much done!

Thanks

I was thinking that I don't get much done

[Ackattack]

I got the engine fired up last night. I have more work to do on it. Need to set the timing a little better, make sure the coolant system is topped off, and fix a nasty exhaust leak. I'm gonna have to pull off the passenger side exhaust manifold and chase the threads. Kinda a pain, but should fix the leak.

[bigguy69]

what color of red you using? i like this truck!

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by bigguy69

what color of red you using? i like this truck!

I don't remember the exact name, but its a satin red (maybe "American Red") that I got at Lowes. Its Valspar brand. I'm also spraying down 2 coats of white primer under neath of it. The white really makes the red pop.

[bigguy69]

spray can or through a gun?

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by bigguy69

spray can or through a gun?

rattle can style!

[bigguy69]

awesome! thanks i have been thinkin of going this route on my truck.

[Ackattack]

I only got about an hour to work on the truck tonight. I took off the one manifold, and cleaned up the threads on the studs and put it back on. While I was putting the bolts back onto the thread a portion of the old gasket kind of flaked off. I figured what the heck and just continued. Well it's leaking from that spot, so I'll have to take it back off and clean up the gasket surface.

So since I had it running, I did a little tuning on it. I let it warm up for awhile, bumped up the idle to 600 RPMs, then set the timing. Also, I let it get warm enough that the thermostat opened up to get any air out of the system.

Also, I picked up a fan shroud at the salvage yard, and boy it makes a difference. On the front of the radiator, the fan was sucking my pants up against the the front of the radiator. So I'm sure it will cool much better than with no shroud.

Oh, I also topped off the power steering fluid.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some time to take that manifold off again, clean it up and get it reinstalled. Then I'll start working on getting the doors, fenders and the rest of the front sheet metal installed.

[Ackattack]

Last weekend I made a trip to LMC and got the parts needed to properly mount the radiator core support. It was a long trip, about 1600 miles one way but worth it OK, so I was in town already, so it was convienent just to stop by.

I got the front sheet metal all hung.









Then I took the truck for its "initial" 1/2 ton voyage. I just drove down the driveway. Its a little bumpy without the rear shocks hooked up, but it drove. The brakes worked well.

Then I went to the place where I get metal and got a piece of square tubing to make it easier to use my engine hoist to remove the bed. I'll do that tomorrow to get the cross member installed that the shocks mount too. Also got some welding gas while I was there.

[mcbassin]

Sounds like a long road trip! You are making some killer progress on this bad boy. Awesome!

[68 TT]

Great progress.

I wish the local yards on my side of the state had more 67-72's in them. They are few and far between and well abused when the do show up.

[Ackattack]

A little more progress today. I got the shock cross member installed and the shocks hooked up. I had to drill a couple of holes in the frame, but no big deal.

I also got the back of the cab taped off and painted. So tomorrow I'll get the front of the bed painted and put the bed back on for good.

I'm also going to go by harbor freight and get a slide hammer dent puller. The back corner of the bed has been smashed in a little by the bumper. It looks like I should be able to pull it out and back into shap pretty easily.

I also need to tear the drivers side brake drum apart. The parking break cable is shredded and I have a replacement. Then hopefully I'll have working parking brakes!

[67cheby]

looking cool

[Ackattack]

I got the parking brake re-assembled, and the bed on.

I had to rebuild the carb too. When I fired it up after getting the engine in, I could only get it to idle at about 1400 rpms. I took the carb off and there was a gel like substance in the fuel bowls. I tried doing a quickie clean by spraying out the bowls and idle circuit, but that didn't work. So I rebuilt the whole thing. I also added some gas. I was nearly empty and must have sucked some crap up into the carb.

I also got the front and rear bumpers on, as well as headlights installed.

I drove the truck on the road last night (now that it is legal and registered again). It has a pretty bad vibration about 25. I think the main cause of that is I used the same rear driveshshaft from the dana 60 with the "new" 12 bolt. The 12 bolt isn't as long, so it pulls the driveshaft back, so there isn't as much engagement with the front driveshaft. Plus since I cut the front driveshaft for the shortbed coversion, that doesn't help either, so it will need a new driveshaft (I'll just go with a 1 piece)

I'm supposed to be selling the truck, since we are moving in 10 days, but I don't see that happening (especially since I won't be here for a weekend in that time) so I'm not sure what I'm doing with this truck. I really want to keep it, but my wife isn't too hip on that idea.

[Trailrider95]

sorry to here, i was lookin forward to seein this truck round town one day! Whatta shame..Any new/updated pics?

[sbc383rulz]

whats the word!?!? i really like this build wishin it would get done one day! hope everything went well with your move.

[mcbassin]

Where you at Ack? I thought there ws an update for a minute..........

[Ackattack]

I'll update the thread a little.

We got moved to KS in December. I pulled "Bruiser" from WA with my suburban and promptly parked it in the garage.

No Buck, on the other hand got dropped off at a friends house. At the time I didn't know what was going to happen to it. As it turned out, my new employer shipped No Buck to me.

So my buddy gets it loaded up and all is well....until the shipping company drops it off at my house.

Basically somewhere along the route the exhaust got caught on something as they were loading/unloading. The passenger side got completely ripped off the manifold and the driver side muffler got bent 150 degrees backwards.





Here's the kicker....when the shipping company dropped off the truck, they just rolled it off their flatbed truck (didn't start it) and told my wife "sign this...saying we delivered the truck". She didn't know she was supposed to inspect the truck.

The truck was delivered at the end of January. I'm still dealing with this company trying to get them to pay for the damage they caused. They claim that they can't determine that the exhaust was damaged during shipping. Uh...hello...look at the pictures. Further, they made my buddy clean EVERYTHING out of the bed before they picked it up (there was some small misc trash in there). And then it shows up with the exhaust in the bed. And yeah, that muffler is dragging on the ground.

So hopefully I will get these guys to pay. But yesterday I got fed up waiting for them and went ahead an ordered an exhaust kit. I figure it needs new exhaust whether they pay or not. And I'm currently paying insurance on the truck and need it.

So the truck will be getting some new exhaust shortly. Then I'll have to figure out the vibration issue. I drove the truck once in Washington after I got all the suspension put together. Hopefully it's just the u-joint or something simple.

Oh yeah, now we're in the process of buying another house so I'll need the truck to move. This house has a 24x30 attached two car garage and then a 30x30 detached garage. So I'll have plenty of room to actually work on my trucks! Pretty pumped about that!

[mcbassin]

Wow, Ack I thought you were just joking about moving to Kansas. I hope to see the bruiser in person some day since your closer now. Sorry to hear about the shipping misfortune. I know how hard the moving companies are to deal with on a claim. Update a little more often

[Ackattack]

The old exhaust has been removed, and I started installing the new exhaust tonight. I got a hooker exhaust kit (http://www.jegs.com/i/Hooker+Headers/520/16621/10002/-1) and a set of cherry bomb turbo mufflers. 2-1/4"



I started installing it, and it's kinda a tight fit snaking it up between the trailing arms and what not, as to be expected.

For now the passenger side will not have the tail pipe section. The rearend that is in the truck now is out of a 73+ (I believe) and the panhard bar is attached right in the middle of the passeger side axle and blocks to space where the pipe needs to go. Eventually I'll probably get the ECE super track bar and cut off current panhard bar bracket.

Hope to have the install finished tomorrow night.

[Ackattack]

I got the exhaust installed the other day. It sounds pretty nice, and when I get the pass. side tail pipe installed, hopefully the interior volume will go down a little more too.

As I was working on it, I also realized that I had forgotten to hook up the vacuum advance tube to the dist. back when I put the engine back in. Alls I can say is it seems to run better with vaccuum advance

I also figured out that I had the rear u-joint installed backwards so the grease zirk buldge was hitting the pinion, not allowing the u-joint to fully seat. Flipping this around eliminated about 90% of the driveshaft vibrations I was having. I still ordered a longer drive shaft slip yoke since there is some movement there, and only about 2 inches of engagement. That should be here next week.

I also got my wife to help me, and I got the brake lights and blinkers working. One of the wires had a bad butt connector that I replaced. I also installed a different headlight switch that I had on hand. The reverse lights don't work. It seems that the interior wiring harness is set up for an automatic, so the wiring that goes down to the transmission (granny 4 speed) doesn't connect to anything. Should be an easy fix.

So I took it for a spin. The first time really driving it at any speed above 20mph. I was pretty impressed with how it road and the interior volume. There were a lot of squeaks, as the front sheet metal is just bolted in with a minimum of bolts. I took my GPS along with me and calculated out that the rearend is a 3.08. That's good in my opinion since I'm considering using this truck as a daily driver in the future, and gas mileage will be important. (my company will pay me mileage for driving, which should more than cover the cost of fuel....and there for can pay for some other stuff for the truck like tires, shocks, brakes, etc that will be replaced in the near future anyways). Hopefully the mileage will be decent, though I've started looking into a TBI swap (shouldn't be hard for me considering I've done a TPI swap and LS swap)

[Ackattack]

Got the drive shaft slip yoke installed (and a new u-joint since I was tearing it apart anyways). Took it for another spin up to 65 and no vibration!!

Though, it did develop a high pitched whine. It's either the alternator or power steering pump. I'll have to look into it more later.

[Ackattack]

I installed some new copper exhaust manifold gaskets (head to manifold that is) and that didn't take care of the little ticking noise that I was hearing, so I popped the valve cover off and adjusted one of the rocker arms, and that got it.

Also, while I was at it, I listened to the alternator and power steering pump, and sure enough it is the alternator making the whining noise. So I will need to something with that. Getting back to the root of this project, I should rebuild it myself, but I have never rebuilt an alternator (not that that has ever stopped me from rebuilding anything else) However, I will have to check into prices for a new one vs. rebuilt.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Ackattack

I installed some new copper exhaust manifold gaskets (head to manifold that is) and that didn't take care of the little ticking noise that I was hearing, so I popped the valve cover off and adjusted one of the rocker arms, and that got it.

Also, while I was at it, I listened to the alternator and power steering pump, and sure enough it is the alternator making the whining noise. So I will need to something with that. Getting back to the root of this project, I should rebuild it myself, but I have never rebuilt an alternator (not that that has ever stopped me from rebuilding anything else) However, I will have to check into prices for a new one vs. rebuilt.

Hey Ack,
Glad to hear about all the progress. This is such a cool project. I would love to tackle one like if I didn't have so many irons in my fire.

Anyway, I have rebuilt a few alternators in my time. I know you can handle it for sure. The only real kicker is the brushes. You will need a small pin to compress them and the spring from the access hole in the rear. The bearings are pretty straight forward. The ball bearing(s) on the armature will require a puller or maybe an arbor press. The needle bearing on the cover is a little tricky too, I have had to cut them out because of corrosion. If it is still charging properly, it will be a good candidate for overhaul. I bet there is a FAQ on here somewhere.

How about some pics of the progress in the new shop.......

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Hey Ack,
Glad to hear about all the progress. This is such a cool project. I would love to tackle one like if I didn't have so many irons in my fire.

Anyway, I have rebuilt a few alternators in my time. I know you can handle it for sure. The only real kicker is the brushes. You will need a small pin to compress them and the spring from the access hole in the rear. The bearings are pretty straight forward. The ball bearing(s) on the armature will require a puller or maybe an arbor press. The needle bearing on the cover is a little tricky too, I have had to cut them out because of corrosion. If it is still charging properly, it will be a good candidate for overhaul. I bet there is a FAQ on here somewhere.

How about some pics of the progress in the new shop.......

New shop IF the bank pulls their head out of their butt. They're giving us "problems" because we haven't been in our current house for a year and we're keeping it as a rental. Even though the bank of our current house says its fine as long as we meet a few (no brainer) conditios. So its still up in the air at this point, 12 days from when we're supposed to close. Inspection is tomorrow!