Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

A few more pic's..Nice muffler and wire hangers!

Now a question, looking at the rear springs i assume its safe to say somebody collapsed the springs to lower the truck??? both sides look the same and its been pretty evident from the get go that this trucks stance is pretty low.. Any ideas?

How about the home made bumper brackets?? Bent up rear bumper has been removed and will also go for scrap.

[swamp rat]

And lastly, I assume this is a GM 12 bolt? haven't researched it just yet... and the first stage is done so everything is under cover..

Bed is on but not bolted. Still need to cut up the old floor soon..

On another note one of the board members "Freakshow" stopped by today, Randy it was a pleasure to finally meet you and chat for a bit, also thank you for the donations to my low buck cause, much appreciated!

[Vic1947]

Paint the wheels white and it will be ready for the 4th of July parade!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

And lastly, I assume this is a GM 12 bolt?

Yep, but the real question is whether its a single tracker or a posi.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Yep, but the real question is whether its a single tracker or a posi.

One can hope.. But I doubt it with 3 or 4 lines on the spid..

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Paint the wheels white and it will be ready for the 4th of July parade!

I am a patriotic type...

[lawest]

Rat, I finally found the time to read your entire thread. I am very impressed with what you have accomplished working out in the weather. I really have to hand it to you, I can't do that any more! Some of your pics remind me of my younger days working as an aircraft mechanic in Alaska. It makes me appreciate my shop all that much more. Great build and lots of good info. I will be referring back when I get ready to do my power brake conversion and axle work.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by lawest

Rat, I finally found the time to read your entire thread. I am very impressed with what you have accomplished working out in the weather. I really have to hand it to you, I can't do that any more! Some of your pics remind me of my younger days working as an aircraft mechanic in Alaska. It makes me appreciate my shop all that much more. Great build and lots of good info. I will be referring back when I get ready to do my power brake conversion and axle work.

Thanks lawest, i appreciate the kind words! I have 2 choices it seems, work in the driveway and get rained on or be under the portable car cover and deal with a mud fest. For the lift kit i chose the driveway.

I keep asking myself if i should rent a small dozer or back blade and scrap about 4" of top soil off and lay down some 1" crush gravel down on the side of the house. Then i ask myself if i should hire a contractor and build a nice car port over the driveway too, but if i do the car port i make it harder to to access the side of the house with a truck... But I do need to do something.

[swamp rat]

Well, i haven't gotten much done the last few days, I had my knee let loose on me again Friday right after i got the blue bed on the C10 and was putting it back under the cover, I'm still walking on it but it hurts with every step, kinda like someone is shoving a broad head arrow under my knee cap and into the side, also feels like its separating every time i lift my leg when walking, i have a Dr appt tomorrow.

I also had to work this weekend, 10 hour days, had to modify the way i do my job but was able to make things happen. Never mentioned it before but i run a Gantry Mill and my mill bed is 20' wide by 110' long with dual spindles, my parts run 65' to 100' in length, lots of climbing, crawling, stooping and bending. Sometimes i think i need to find an easier job, but when the mill is running i have lots of "surf time" for this forum LOL!

So its not much but i did hobble outside yesterday and finished roughing out the lower bed cut out and mounted the door, still need to clean it up a bit. I did mess up a little in my calculations when welding in the filler tube vent line and probably the door position, ended up having to cut the floor back a bit more than i wanted, i ended up cutting away the flange of the bed support for about 3" . The door does need a little "strong arm contouring work" but i think it will be ok. Need to work on the cover next but not too sure how far i'm gonna get.

I didn't see the pin holes around my weld before i put the epoxy primer on the bed, I think i'll have to sand the primer away and do some spot welding before i do any body filler..

[Dean'smeanmachine]

looks great, hope your knee will feel better soon

[Mustard72]

Got a bum knee myself, so I feel your pain. Bought some time for mine a few years ago with some arthroscopic (sp?) cleanup work, but it's gonna need a rebuild at some point, too, like an old truck. Hopefully it's not rebuild time yet for yours.

I didn't think that 67 looked that low in the back, actually.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Got a bum knee myself, so I feel your pain. Bought some time for mine a few years ago with some arthroscopic (sp?) cleanup work, but it's gonna need a rebuild at some point, too, like an old truck. Hopefully it's not rebuild time yet for yours.

I didn't think that 67 looked that low in the back, actually.

Well see what they say about it tomorrow. Yea looking at the truck its not that low, but i am used to my K20 so my C10 is lowwwwwwwww... LOL!

[swamp rat]

Well, i'm walking better today, still not back to normal but way better than i was thru the weekend, i played hookie after my Dr appt so i could give it a rest and sat on my butt the rest of the night, having to work the weekend sure didn't help any. The Dr put in a request for an MRI so hope to hear from them soon, i have been tired of dealing with the knee and feel its time to fix it.

On another note i have to get out there and clear the mess tomorrow and somehow get my step side bed unloaded from the trailer, i need the trailer again this weekend. that means i have to move both trucks and some bed sides and floor out from the side of the house so i can get to the trailer, sigh, i need more land!

[CUSTOM/10]

I feel your pain.... Had 60% of my medial meniscus remove from my left knee several yrs back. Now my right knee clicks and pops, but not bad enough to take time out of life right now for it to get fixed ! "LOL" I have a truck to finish !!!

Gary

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

I feel your pain.... Had 60% of my medial meniscus remove from my left knee several yrs back. Now my right knee clicks and pops, but not bad enough to take time out of life right now for it to get fixed ! "LOL" I have a truck to finish !!!

Gary

Well the Dr said a lot of it sounds like the meniscus, I get to go in for the MRI on Tuesday so i'll find out after what is recomended. I can say that the movement is back to about 90%, still a bit achy but nothing like before.

[swamp rat]

So while i was resting up my feeble knee, my wandering fingers were doing damage on the parts for sale threads.. I have no pictures yet but i found a rear bumper for the rat, paid more for shipping than the bumper but i cant find a bumper like that around here.

I also did some planning and parts shopping for the Rusty project, still need a better name for that one LOL! Working on getting an original inline 250 power steering setup, should have it on the way around Tuesday. Found a really nice set of aluminum slot mags that are in route. Found a good used front bumper and an automatic cross member, both in route. a host of items from Teeitup, heater control, sway bar, (rear bumper for the rat) and a few other items. Found a set of disk conversion spindles locally, still need to get them.

And lastly, I already knew that the cab on the red rusty truck was in super bad shape, i pretty much new when i bought it that the only good parts on it were the frame and drive train and maybe a little more.. On the cab i basically had a good rear back window and rear cab sheet metal, and the inner panels, that's about it.. enter the parts forum again, I found a guy parting a 67 camper conversion and made a deal for the cab, Its an AC cab, with ac dash and heater controls, it still has the AC box and hoses ect. it has a rust free drip rail and window frame, it does need a little rust repair on the floor and inner kick panel but the rockers and cab corners look to be solid, i figure i'll probably have to remove the outer rockers anyway to search and destroy any hidden rust.. Of course being a camper conversion it had a portion of the rear of the cab cut out, leaving about 5" of the small window frame on each side, so i figured for the $200 it was worth the risk of trying to section out the remaining good metal from the red cab and welding it into the other cab, i figure the worst that could happen is i'm out the $200 for the cab if it doesn't work. And an unexpected bonus is for another $45 i also got the hood, both fenders and a bunch of little parts to go along with it.

Oh, the kicker was this cab was in Eastern Oregon, but i figured life is suppose to be an adventure and i like doing stuff on weekends like bike trips anyway, so 7.5 hours there, loaded up, and loaded up some parts from the same part out to bring back to Wes at Classic Heartbeat in Olympia, we rested and chatted a little, then once loaded i headed to Bend Or. for the night. I made the remaining trek home today and still had enough time to take the wife to the Spring Fair downtown, long weekend.

There was a small car show in one of the buildings at the fair, here's a couple of my fav's.

Next week i really need to get things cleaned up and organized as my front yard and driveway is beginning to look like a wrecking yard...

[Dean'smeanmachine]

nice cars, cant wait to see the bumper

[swamp rat]

Ok, heres a couple pic's of the cab, when i do get to doing that its going to be an interesting project, i just hope it works as well as i think it will, but i know i need to get back working on my rat pretty soon.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

cool you bought that cab off the camper. i happened to see that in the parts board a while back

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Dean'smeanmachine

cool you bought that cab off the camper. i happened to see that in the parts board a while back

Yea the price was right so i decided to make the road trip, 7.5 hours to get there, a bit longer on the way home but i had a good time. I figured that if this idea fails i can still part out the remaining pieces of the cab and recoop my money.

[swamp rat]

Well yesterday i had to go get an MRI on the knee, tomorrow i see my Dr to discuss the results, i'm already back to 90% of where i was before this happened. again, skeptical of moving any further surgery wise.

In the mean time i have pretty much run out of storage space, i have 3 10X20 car covers on the side of my house, anytime i need to get something from the back car cover i have to pull the trucks out of the front 2 covers and park them in the front yard, its a pita..

I still have the step side bed sitting in the driveway and it needs to be stored away so i started to dismantle it, its put together with button head Phillips head screws and don't think you can put a #3 Phillips in one end and crank off the nut, its not happening, don't think you can hold the screwdriver and impact the nut off, its not gonna happen.

Having to drill the head off of every button head screw, and of course the rain is back LOL! Once i get this thing apart i'm gonna treat the rusty areas with some acid then put a coat of self etching primer on the rusty areas and store it away in the back of the bed of the C10 till i'm ready for it.

Then i can get back to the rat..

[JayB331]

Hope the Doc gives you some good news on your knee. I blew my right knee out in 2000. Had 3 meniscus tears and a partially torn ACL. Had it scoped a couple of weeks later and it's good as new now.

[swamp rat]

That's encouraging, thanks!

[sboris]

It's all looking real good. Hope your able to get back at it soon. Damn rain lol

[NONHOG]

Fun build! Love the 67.
That Randy is a pretty good guy. Did a nice job on heating my house.

Keep up the progress!