1952 Project 1433

[NeoJuice]

Not much to report this weekend. Had a little garage time between all the family Easter dinners.

On Thursday or Friday I had a chance to get the carb torn down. I soaked it in original pine sol which I found as a tick to use online and YouTube. I let it soak for a good 24 hours in full strength pine sole. I ended up changing the bucket I was using because it was not big enough to submerge all the parts and carb.

From what it started at and where it ended up I would say it was a successful rebuild and only a little rust remnant left over in the float bowls and a little staining on the carb top.

I never realized how potent pine sol is, it even ate all the yellow plating off all the linkage LOL.

I just placed it down on the manifold to see how it would look. I need to mount it and hook up the linkage still.

[NeoJuice]

Not much to udpate on the truck. After hitting a set back last week I've had to take a little bit of a side step then I wanted.

I still dont have the distributor installed because I didnt have a harmonic balancer bolt to find TDC. So I went and bought one and found out the threads are stripped in the crank. After speaking with my mechanic cousin he said the only solution is to helicoil it. So after doing alot of searching I should have the kit tomorrow or wednesday.

https://www.acklandsgrainger.com/en/...20/p/HLC5528-7

Part of yesterday was spent getting ready to rip the front end off the truck to get the helicoil rethread done. I got all the wiring organized and I hope to remove the front all in one piece. I've see people do it but not sure quite where to unblot everything so I look to your guidance people with instructions.

Anyway on with the pictures.



Installed new battery terminals and cleaned out the battery box. What type and size of batteries you guys running because I need a new battery?



Hooked up the fuel line with the new fitting adapter to the carb.



Removed rad.

[northern 49]

The carb came out nicely, good ol pine sol, smells better than solvent based cleaners too.
That sucks about the crank, but Heli coils do work great. I used one in the crank on my jeep when I pulled the threads out of the end installing my flywheel during a clutch job thanks to a cheap torque wrench.
What's the drive worth without a few bumps in the road anyway.

[NeoJuice]

Little update from the weekend.

Got the front bumper removed.



The front clip was actually really easy to remove. It was nice that all of the bolts snapped off except for 4 of them.





Picked up a Helicoil kit last week and got the crank/harmonic balancer bolt drilled out and tapped. Got the helicoil installed with some loctite and let it dry for 24 hours before installing the new balancer bolt with more loctite. Tightened it down to 60 ft lbs and now letting it dry for another 24hours. Looks like the helicoil worked because it tightened up real nice and was starting to turn the motor over. So now to let it dry for 24hours.









Also had time and some help to get the B&M shifter linkage hooked up. Shifts nice through all the gears and is adjusted properly.



I hope this week that I have time to get the distributor installed and some other parts. Thanks for checking out my build post.

[NeoJuice]

Had a little time last night to work on the truck. I needed to know if the HeliCoil was going to hold up and it looks like it did

Used a big wrench and cranked over the engine to find TDC on piston number 1. Put some grease on the distributor gear and dropped it right in. I was actually supprised I got it on the first shot with the rotor pointing at #1 cylinder. Installed the cap and hooked up the wiring.

[Desert1957]

Any Updates? Did you get it running?

[NeoJuice]

Originally Posted by Desert1957

Any Updates? Did you get it running?

No yet, I've been working on my rear brake setup and getting brake lines run. Once that's complete then I can get it back down on the ground and then get it back together. Just seems like a million little things to button up to get it on the road LOL. Also life has been busy and I haven't done much work on the truck lately. I want to work on it and it kills me to just stare at it in the garage every day

[lower50's]

Just read your build. Very nice clean truck you have!! I did not know Pine sol worked so well for cleaning a carb, I will use that next time. Also I like your cup cake tray idea for keeping all the bolts separate. Keep up the good work, it will be purring in no time now.

[NeoJuice]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Just read your build. Very nice clean truck you have!! I did not know Pine sol worked so well for cleaning a carb, I will use that next time. Also I like your cup cake tray idea for keeping all the bolts separate. Keep up the good work, it will be purring in no time now.

Thank you for the comments on the truck. Its slowly coming along. I didnt know about the pine sol trick either. I was googling and youtubeing other alternatives to hard chemicals and that I could easily source locally. I tried sourcing the other carb cleaners and I just couldnt find anything.

I just went to the local grocery store and got some ORIGINAL pine sol (it has to be original) and went to the dollar store to pickup a big bucket and let it all soak. The first bucket picture was swapped out for a medium sized tupper ware container from the dollar store that I could completely submerge all the parts in. This required a little more pine sol to submerge everything.

I used an old cupcake tray because it helped me organize all my parts and working out pretty good. Just be sure you ask the wife first LOL.

[NeoJuice]

Here is a little update. After doing a tone of research and cruising a lot of Trans Am, Camaro & Gm related sites and talking with a lot of people I was able to finally figure out my rear disc brake issue.

The main issue was trying to find the correct parts. I was able to source the Trans Am rotors no problem from my local Bumper to bumper store. I then ordered in the rear Trans Am calipers from my local NAPA location which took a couple weeks(hard to find and source). Once those came in I was disappointed because they didn’t come with all the parking brake parts I needed which they said they did.

So those went back and I found a little hint on the speedway motors site that sells the emergency brake calipers. It also helped to read through the reviews and Q&A section. Jackpot!!!

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Emerge...pers,1968.html

People were using the replacement calipers for the Trans AM/10bolt rear ends and it came with all the hardware. As you can see in the description they are 1979-1985 Cadillac Seville calipers. So I looked up 1980 Seville rear calipers on the Napa website and they had all the needed hardware. Then more research was required as well to make sure they would fit. This is before I found the chart below.

After taking the plunge and ordering in the calipers (which they had in stock) I got some rear TA brake pads and went to assemble everything. After getting everything assembled I fell into another problem. Well it wasn’t really a problem, but on the driver’s side the routing of the parking brake was going to be a problem because it pointed toward the rear of the truck and not the front like the passenger side. So, more research again was required or maybe I would need different calipers I thought.

So, I started looking up the drum to disc conversion kits and some of the kits are the same staggered setup and require different routing of the drivers side parking brake cable as mine would be. Towards the back then routed to the front. I didn’t really want it to be this way because I want to use the original in cab parking brake pedal and original linkage. So having them both pointing toward the front lines them both up to connect to the side bracket then connect to the exterior cross shaft perfectly.





And I also found this great chart someone made up of all the GM rear end caliper usage options. So hopefully this might help someone else out.




Then I came across a couple articles of guys who just rotated the bracket on the drivers side to make them both rear facing calipers. This would then rotate the parking brake in the proper direction which I wanted. This would also make it correct as shown in the chart for the 80 seville which are both rear facing calipers which I guess I kind of lucked out on.

So after removing the drivers side rear bracket and rotating it everything fit just fine. So I reattached the bracket and re-drilled two of the holes that didn’t line up from behind and it was all done. Also a nice thing was I didn’t need to pull the axel to do it either

Onto the pictures of the completed setup. Now I just need to run my brake lines and get my parking brake cables sourced.

Rear before everything


Rear After





Passenger Rear

[jkeating1]

That's great information, and a good looking installation!

I guess the bleeder still points the right way (up)? It looks right in the picture.

[NeoJuice]

Originally Posted by jkeating1

That's great information, and a good looking installation!

I guess the bleeder still points the right way (up)? It looks right in the picture.

Yes the drivers side and passenger side both point up like in the picture. So it all worked out. Now I just have to adjust the parking brake then hook up my break lines. i hope the information I found will maybe help other people out.

[lower50's]

Good job on the calipers. I have Eldorado calipers on the rear of my Jeep.

[Jesse Z]

Sigh, another build thread ruined by Photobucket.

[NeoJuice]

Just thought I would post an update to my build thread even though I haven't updated it since 2019 and all the photobucket pictures are gone.

On August 17th, 2021 it went in for out of province inspection, wheel alignment and two new rear diff seals and everything else passed. It now has insurance and registration and its road worthy. On Wednesday August 25, 2021 attended my first local meet and had some great interest in the truck. Got about 80km on the truck so far.

In the picture I parked far away from some of the other vehicles because

1. No power steering (drives great while moving but parking lots are a little bit of a challenge I'm sure I'll get used to it.)
2. Didn't want to get caught in the thick of other vehicles just in case I had any mechanical issues. I had my wife follow me in her car just in case(as I drive it more and the miles increase I'll get more confident).

Anyways here are two pictures from the meet.

[84blaze]

Hey man, cool to see you got it on the road. Can you tell me how you got it registered in Alberta? Did you have to get an inspection done?

[NeoJuice]

Hey 84Blaze,

First thing I did was take my VIN from the truck to the registry to see if it was in the system, which it wasn't so that's why I needed the out of province inspection (VIN check is free but inspection is double the cost of a normal inspection)

I called my insurance company and got insurance on the truck, they needed bill of sale and pictures and got my pink card in the mail.

I think I'm paying $120/year for the following
-Up to 10,000km/year
-2 Million liability
-Collision
-$250 deductible

Once I had insurance and I figured that everything was ready to pass on the truck I then went to the registry and got the out of province inspection form and 'in transit' sticker. You will also need to take the truck a facility that is authorized to do OPP inspections. Use the following link to find OPP inspection facilities.

http://www.transportation.alberta.ca...on/vishome.asp

If you don’t know what some of the requirements are to pass you can view the following PDF.

http://www.transportation.alberta.ca...ualdec2009.pdf

Out of the 154 page manual, pages 37-57 breaks down pass / fail criteria. Pages 81-83 is the inspection checklist

There are some things that are on there that don’t qualify because the truck didn’t come with them. But that all depends on the inspector and facility. Some things that I needed to add was a heater and wire in a neutral safety switch. You will need things like wipers (but don’t need sprayers). All the glass has to be good, all your lights need to work properly, emergency brake has to work, brake lines/fuel lines run properly. But yet if you go to some places, some inspectors will pass hot rods/rat rods with less and put them on the road. This isn’t right IMO. If any issues are found you have 14 days to return to the mechanic to show the discrepancies are resolved.

Luckily the only thing I needed was a wheel alignment, OPP and two new rear axel seals. I didn’t know I needed two new rear seals until after I got the mechanic and gear old was leaking down onto the rear rotors. What do you expect for a 40 year old GM 10 bolt rear with the original seals. For him to change them out only cost me $180. Like I'm going through all that trouble of pulling the axels and tearing everything apart for $180 lol.

Once the inspection is complete the mechanic enters in the information into the computer. He gives you a form to take back to the registry and with proof of insurance and the OPP form you can get your plate. The one thing about when you get your plate you can get an antique plate (only allows you to go from car show to car show/maintenance) or you can get a normal plate that will let you drive it anytime/place you want. You will also need to discuss this with your insurance company. I went for the normal plate because I want to drive the truck when/how I want.

If you want to chat PM me and I'll get ya my number. Hope that helps.

[Tempest67]

looks great, those Chev Rally wheels look right at home on that truck.

well done