Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

Thank you all for the good words and following along. I don't remember if I posted the link to the thread that got me started down the caster modification path so forgive me if I did. Besides Chevyrestoguy needs the credit.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=501241

[HO455]

Did some air line plumbing today. Actually it was more running back and forth to the parts store than anything. Since my dash is a truck dash it has the air pressure guage where the vacuum guage usually is. I teed into the supply hose to the bag controls (Photo 1) and then forward under the carpet to the dash. At the dash is where it got complicated as I had to convert from the steel 1/8" ferule fitting coming out of the guage to the 1/8" push on tubing. I was able to get some 1/8" copper line and a new ferule for the guage at Napa along with new fittings to connect it all together. (Photo 2 makes it clearer) My first try failed and had to get a second set of ferules. I had inserted the copper tubing too deep in the fitting and as I tightened it the tubing bottomed out and distorted resulting in a leak. When working with ferule fittings this small you just have to snug them up or you can crush the tubing. Napa sells the tubing by the foot which was nice. While I was there I installed a desiccant filter (orange cylinder in photo 1) in the supply line to the valves. Now that the guage works I see it is crooked in the bezel. Fracking wonderful. I guess it will only bother me when I look at it. Grrr..

[HO455]

After lots of thought and forum searches I came up with a plan for bump stops for the front suspension. I didn't want to rely on the internal bump stops that the air bags have as Slam's instructions state not to drive on them. And since you just never know what might fail I wanted a back up. My solution was too take two steel blocks 2" x 2" x 3/4" and drill and tap a hole in each one for a 3/8" NC bolt. I totally forgot to get a photo of the blocks, but the holes were centered on the 2" direction and offset on the 3/4" direction. Then I welded the blocks to the modified factory bump stop/ steering stop. (I circled the block in the second photo) I then threaded in a pair of Energy Suspension low Profile snubbers. ( 9-9102G). The snubbers are 2" in diameter and touched the bags so I ground them down for clearance. I am happy with them especially since they were so simple to do.
After I was done installing them I aired up and dropped the suspension several times to test them and just as I was finishing that I realized that the compressor wasn't running. After ten minutes of screwing around I found that the relay that OP installed with the pressure switch to control the compressor had failed. Tomorrow another trip to the parts store for two relays. Got to have a spare.

[HO455]

While I had the welder out I installed a couple of Oxygen sensor bungs in the exhaust pipes so I can hook up my Innovate A/F guage. Today's shopping tip is if you need to by a plug for a O2 sensor bung buy a oil pan drain plug with 18 1.5 mm threads. They are cheaper and often the exact same part in a different package. I get a copper seal ring with them and install with high temp anti-seize.

[kevinstephen]

Thank you HO455. I did buy an oil pan drain plug with 18 1.5 mm threads and it worked.
___________________________________
Towing Springfield VA

[HO455]

You are welcome. Glad to be of help.

[HO455]

It was do over day yesterday. I have put about 250 miles on the WMB and started hearing a clunk from the back going over bumps. I crawled underneath for a look and found three of the sound isolation mounts I had used had broke apart. They were rated for 7 pounds apiece and I figured they would be fine but apparently they were not happy with the bouncing of the truck. I was able to get replacement mounts with the same fastener size but rated for 20 pounds apiece. (Photo 1) So I will see how these last. I had figured they would transfer more of the compressor noise to the interior but I really can't tell the difference.
After that was done I noticed the compressor wasn't running. So after 20 minutes of troubleshooting I find the ground wires for the gas guage and the compressor relay use the same bolt. Which is fine but the gas guage ground lug was the most corroded lug I have ever found that still worked. (Photo 2) I have no explanation as to how the gas gauge still worked. The compressor relay ground was stacked on top of the corroded lug and I must have bumped it while replacing the mounts and ended the small bit of conductivity it had. So a new bolt for the grounding connection, buff the frame shiny, new connectors, and some copper anti-seize for the mating surfaces, and magically it works again. Then I thought it would be a good idea to replace the relay with brand new sealed one. Jet to the parts house and return with a new 40 amp rated relay. I decided to slightly reroute the harness which took five minutes and then replaced the relay. Now no compressor operation. Twenty minutes later I figure out the new relay is bad. Grrrrrr! Back to the old relay for now and I will have to clean all the copper-seize off the relay so I can return it. Double grrrr!!
Now all was working I reset the pressure set point from the 175 psi the PO had it at to 130 psi. Should be less wear on the compressor and it won't peg my new pressure guage. After a bunch of cycling of the bags to test everything one of the air valves started leaking past and inflating the right front bag. I removed the valve set and pulled the air line out of the bad channel. Looking through the fitting I was able to see what looks like part of and O-ring stuck in the valve seat. I called the folks at AireJax for some information on how to tear the valves down and what size of O-rings to get. They said no problem and they would send me some new ones out before the end of the day. The best news of the day. Some times you just can't get ahead.

[HO455]

Today was the start of the headliner installation. I went with FRP from the big box store. I looked into sheet ABS but I wasn't overwhelmed with it and I was able to get FRP cheaper. There are some nice FRP options out there, both in color and texture but an additional 3-500 hundred dollars for delivery put them out of my budget. After picking up five sheets and some joining H strips. (If all goes well I will only need three sheets but just in case.)
The first thing to do was to install the bows that the support trim snap on to. My Burban did not come with any installed. I believe the PO had removed them and after covering the factory perforated panels with a grey felt material they screwed the panels in place. Fortunately I was able to get two of the bows from a wrecking yard with three of plastic support trim pieces. After cleaning them up I noticed that the bows are slightly different in size and shape with the one in the back being longer and taller. I didn't have the center bow so I don't if there are three sizes or if the back two are the same. ( I believe there are three sizes.) The first 3 photos show the bows and how they attach. The red X is where the center bow would have been installed at the factory.
Using one of the old panels I laid out the cut lines on the back of the FRP. I decided to start with the back of the truck first hoping that by the time I got to the front I would have a better idea of what I was doing and it is easier to access the back. As this was the first panel I cut I didn't take any chances and laid it out slightly oversize. To keep things as true as possible I marked a centerline on the pattern and on the FRP then aligned them before marking the cut line. Before cutting anything I remeasured the area inside to make sure that it all made sense and would fit as expected.

[HO455]

Once I was satisfied with the lay out I cut the panel. Staying outside of the lines (just in case) I made the cuts using a jig saw with a metal cutting blade with the orbit setting at zero. After cutting I cleaned up the cuts with a long sanding block(with 80 grit) to remove any wandering of the free hand cuts. I also rounded the corners to prevent chipping and beveled each edge so it would slide easier. Before trying to install the panel I took a small screw driver and went made sure the inside of the channel the panels sit in was clean. It took several attempts to get the panel in place. Each time I had to make the panel smaller. Basically going 1/8" at a time getting the panel to fit correctly. You don't want to get it too narrow or it will be held up out of the side channels by the plastic support trim. As the side channels on my Burban end at different points from the rear hatch header I had to just get it so it looked good across the header and ignore the bit of FRP hanging past the end of the channel on the one side. Once I got it to look reasonable across the back, I then concentrated on getting the front edge to match the dimension of the support bow.
By now I have installed and removed the panel at least eight times. When I needed to reduce the size in small amounts (1/8" or less) I found that sanding the material away worked better than trying to cut it. As I had the rear of the panel to size each cut was a long wedge. When installing the panel you have to let the center droop while you put the edges into the channel then push the center up until it pops in place. If the size is too large the center won't stay up so you need help to hold it up while you measure and mark. I didn't have an extra human around so I used the piece of PVC you see in the picture to hold it. (Photo 1) ( It was about 8' long and I recommend covering it with masking tape it where it contacts the FRP.)
Before installing the panel for the last time mark the center line of the roof stiffeners. I did three screws on each stiffener. (You know, more is better!) I only marked the ends and didn't think to check the center and it came back and bit me. On the rear most stiffener it was bent and the center was at least a 1/4" closer to the back than the ends were. Which in turn caused me to miss the stiffener when I drilled it for the screw. Of course none of the rest were bent but I had measurements for all the rest.
Once I felt confident about the size I carefully fitted the support trim in place and snapped it down. I started at on end but that turned out to be a mistake as the center must be in place so the support trim will push the FRP up and follow the bow. Photo #2 shows what happens when you don't start in the center. Once the trim is snapped down I was unable to get the FRP to slide side to side and so I had to carefully unsnap the trim. Fortunately it has been in the 88 to 93 degree temperatures here so that helped as I just had to set the pieces out on the asphalt for five minutes to heat them up. The down side was using the heat gun inside the Burban to help with the support trim. Hot hot hot!
Just for clarification I drilled and screwed the panel after the support trim was installed.

[HO455]

The factory headliners had four panels in them. I didn't have enough bows for four panels and I had read that other folks had done with three so that was my plan too. It was pretty much the same steps as the first one I did. The panels get narrower as you go forward. I made sure the back edge was the exact same measurement as the front edge of the previous panel. And then I measured the next bow for the width of the front edge. It seemed straight forward but the joint between the two panels was not square. As there is really nothing to measure from so I had no reference from the get go. Fortunately I had given myself an extra 1/2" in length on my original cut out. So I scribed the panel to the bow and cut it. Then as the front bow was so much shorter it took several more tries to get it cut to size. I believe that GM's choice of making it four panels had to do with installation costs and not design concept. Of the three panels I made the center one was by far the most difficult. It was difficult to get up into place and to remove after marking the next trim. I was able to slide the FRP in and out from under the plastic support trim. But I was very worried about damaging it. Which I did at one point when a 2" sliver snapped off of the front edge of the support trim.
Until I had trimmed the panel to the correct width there was no way for me to put a panel in place by myself. It was a two man job to get it into place then both of us would have to slap the panel to get it to slide back into position and the same to remove it.
Just a heads up if you have a choice of how many panels to install. Do four. If I were to do another one I would do four equal sized panels. After I was satisfied with the fit of the center panel I did not install the plastic support trim piece. As that would have prevented me from being able to install the front piece. It will need to slide forward into the channel across the front and to do that it will have to overlap the bow to start. I taped the back side of the panel (Photo 3) to the bow to hold it in place while I fitted up the front piece.
After I had finished the headliner I realized the factory probably started with the front piece and worked their way too the back . I did it backwards as I hoped my mistakes would be out of sight in the back and I would have a much better idea as to what I was doing by the time I was up front. Which was the case. Starting up front means you can snap the plastic trim in place as you go and not have to do it after the next panel is in place.

[HO455]

For the front panel I used a different process. I made a 7" long full width template of the front edge. My two original front panels were either pretty distorted (Photo 1) or had missing pieces and I wasn't confident in getting a good pattern. After getting it trimmed to size it was simple to measure from the back edge of the template to the bow and then lay out the cut lines on the back side of the next panel. This ended up being the easiest panel as I had the correct width for the back edge and the template for the front. It only took two fittings and it was done. Snapping the plastic support trim was difficult with both panels in place and no way to access the back of the bow. Once that was done it was just a matter of laying out the last three screws and installing them.
The one screw in the back that was so far off that the hole wasn't covered by the finish washer I filled in with some white bathroom caulk. The sliver that broke off the rear bow I used heavy clear packing tape and carefully taped it back in place. You have to look to find it. Now if I only had the rest of the missing slivers.
I was surprised that the FRP shows a kind of diamond pattern when installed that you don't see when it is on the bench or leaning on the wall.
I had set up a work bench using a large cardboard box. I had a fair amount of ink from the printing on the box transfer to the FRP during the cutting process. I recommend using cardboard that has no printing on it. The printing on the PVC pipe I used as a support did the same until I taped it up.
And the best part of the whole project is I have two pieces of FRP and the H channel strips to return.
Well I did try to use one of the H striped to make a more finished look across the back by having it hook on the sheet metal in the center as well as the FRP. But on each side I would have had to cut half back off the rear and then heat the channel and form it on a pattern to match the curve of the rear panel. But for a working Burban I decided it was way too much work. It took me an hour just to hand form a prototype let alone the finished product, but I think it is entirely doable.

[Average Joe]

Nice work!
Great headliner how to. Folks will benefit from this thread for years to come.

[HO455]

Thanks Joe. That's really nice to hear. I just hope I didn't leave something important out.


The O-rings for the air bag control valve arrived yesterday. Yeah! Three and a half days at no charge. Great service!!!!
So I pulled the valve set out and gathered some tools and supplies on the bench and started in. I took a silver Sharpie and marked the 3 pieces of the valve body to make sure I reassembed it in the correct way, but it wasn't necessary as it will only go together one way. Took a small box and cut a slit in the bottom to set the valve set on during disassembly.
First things to remove are the finger pads (?) from the control levers. They have two small Allen screws that have to be loosened, then grab the pad and turn while pulling off. Then remove the four screws that hold the front plate on and set it aside. Now set the valve body on the box with the controls through the slit. There are 11 screws in the back that hold the valve body pieces together. (Photo 1) Ten of them go through all three pieces. The one on the short side, between the supply and exhaust ports, only goes through one of the pieces. It can be removed first. To remove the other 10 you have to take them out together. This will prevent binding and or stripping of the threads as two of the pieces are spring loaded. I used a Tee handle Allen wrench and went 1/2 turn on each screw and worked my way around and around until all the screws were completely loose. Then I finished removing each bolt individually. As you remove the screws the front piece of the body will separate from the center part due to the springs. There is no danger of the springs launching themselves into never never land. You know that place where small parts go when you really need them but somehow manage to drop them anyway. And no matter how much you swear or pray you never, never see them again. But when separating the center and back pieces there are six O-rings that are more than willing to jump off. So be aware and limit handling of that piece.
Photo 2 shows the front and center pieces apart notice one of the spools in the center piece is not in the same position as the rest.
Photo 3 shows all three pieces.
Photo 4 is a close up showing the O-rings in the back 4 larger oval ones and the two pesky round ones that will try to escape. You can also see the cool little rollers that ride on the spools to prevent wear when pushing on the brass spools.
Photo 5 shows the problem I was having which is an O-ring is stuck in the valve seat. Somehow the O- ring has popped off the spool and is trapped holding the spool open.

[HO455]

The spools can be removed by pulling them out but the spring side. I don't have a reason why the O-ring came off. The spools have been lubed with a silicone grease which is very sticky I don't know if that was contributing to the failure or not. I had prelubed the valve set as per the manufacturer's instructions with some air tool lube and it is possible the two different kinds of lube didn't play well together. I have never seen a silicone grease in an air valve so I removed as much of it as I possibly could. (I have rebuilt untold numbers of air control valves in a previous life as a tug boat repairman.). Under careful examination I could see no defect on the problem O-ring, the spool, or in the valve body. I replaced both O-rings on the problem spool. They fit very tight as expected. After lubing I installed the spool . Then I inspected the rest of the spools one by one and lubed them all with Pink Grease from Systems Engineering. It is a special grease developed especially for use in air controls.
Photo 1 shows the spool with the O-rings installed. After the O-rings are in place you have to carefully slide the spring over the O-rings and seat it against the lip on the spool. I initially thought this may have been the cause of the failure, but I didn't find any burrs on the springs and they are barely snug as they pass over the O-rings. The last thing I did was to remove the extra grease on the rollers and reapply it where it seemed to be lacking.
For reassembly I lined the back and center pieces up and put the #11 short bolt in to hold them together. Then in reverse of disassembly I inserted the other ten screws and snugged them down and then in half turn increments I tightened them in a circular pattern until all were "Tee handle tight". Don't use a long Allen wrench or socket to tighten these down as they would strip easily. Use a Tee handle or the turn with the short end of the Allen wrench. I plan on calling Aire Jax this coming week to discuss what I have seen and to thank them for the quick service on the O-ring delivery. If there are any insights I will share them.

[HO455]

The list of "must do" things is pretty much done so on to the "it would be nice if" list. On the pot of that list is music. I am not a fan of new radios in old vehicles. I located a stock AM radio at the NWDRA swap meet in January. I sent it off to Gary Tayman for the AM/FM/USB upgrade last month and it has returned looking nice and new. I didn't expect it to be repainted. That was a nice surprise.
The PO had hacked a hole in the dash for the din style radio so 20 minutes with a file got that cleaned up. My plan was to make a plate and glue to the dash to make a new cut out for the radio. At the same swap meet I picked up a center section of a dash for a pattern. I have a friend with a CNC laser cutter so we got together and made a CAD drawing, cut a few test units out of card stock until we were happy with the fit and then cut two steel plates. I picked up a pair of speakers for the doors. The PO had already cut holes in them so I'll use them. I had prewired the doors when I did the door switch installation.

[HO455]

Okay sorry for the delay. Life got in the way. Now where was I? First I hooked the new radio harness into the truck, then I snaked the radio into place under the dash and got the rear bracket fasteners snugged up. Now the original plan was to glue the plate in place with some panel adhesive, but there isn't a tube to be had in the shop now. (They installed a new roof in a big sprinter type van this morning.) So I will try using some top quality double sided tape (not the foam style) instead. After cleaning with prepsolv I applied tape on the entire back side of the plate, then painted the plate. While it dried I installed the 6x9 speakers in the doors. They got installed with foam baffles behind them. I know that lots of people say that baffles affect the speakers sound in a bad way but I am looking for them to help keep the speakers dry on the back side. Having seen the how MUCH water runs down inside the doors I am willing to take the trade off. Maybe down the road I will build some kind of enclosure in the door if the sound is just too poor.
Okay catch up photos from the previous post.

[HO455]

More catch up photos.
# 1 face plate.
#2 face plate with tape ready for installation.
#3 radio in place behind the dash.
#4 existing holes in doors.
#5 holes with filler pieces. Sorry no photos of the actual speaker install. Got busy and forgot all about getting them.

[HO455]

With the radio in position I pealed the backing off the tape and carefully put the plate into position. Then install the factory nut baskets and the nuts to hold the plate down. Then I used a little roller to press the plate down around the edges. The tape method is certainly less messy but you have no second chance to reposition things. One one thing I did notice about using a plate to repair the hole is that I have no extra threads on the nuts that hold the front in place. As imagineered I would have used the second plate on the inside to sandwich the dash but GM did not give me enough threads to put the extra 1/16" plate on. Those cheap %$&@%#$! The other down side is the chrome knobs don't stick out enough from the plate. They don't rub but it makes them less user friendly. Using panel adhesive would have made the knobs stick out about 1/16" further as the tape is slightly thicker than that. One more thing I may change down the road.
Once all that was done I plugged it in and turned it on. Surprisingly good FM reception with no antenna and i was even able to get a couple of AM stations. It will take some time for me to get all the control sequences memorized. It sounds pretty good and I still have to put some speakers in the dash. Which will be tomorrows adventure. With the radio in place I can figure out how much real estate I have available under there and fabricate up something to mount them in the stock location. Now the gapping hole is gone the paint on the rest of the dash really shows its age. I may paint the ashtray black to clean it up.
Here is there link to Gary Tayman who come to think of it is in Florida and Irma is headed his way. I hope all goes well for them. Now I have to learn how to get my records and tapes on to some kind of USB storage drive so I can cruise commercial free.

http://www.garytayman.com

And to finish today projects I installed this little compass that I found at the April swap meet. Some more double sided tape and a shared screw with the mirror. I ran I wire for the light which I tried to photograph but it didn't come out very well. Now all I need is the flashlight on the steering column and my old man truck will be complete.

[HO455]

Update on the radio. I installed two 3 x 6 speakers in the dash location. I tried to make an enclosure for them but with the stock radio and the speakers I had there just was not enough room. If if I had a radio that was 3/8" farther away from the bottom of the dash my enclosure (photo1) would have worked. On paper it worked, but in reality the dash has shape to it and there was no getting around that. So I ended up mounting them on a plate. Once again I got busy and forgot to get photos so none of the plate and speakers at this point. The other down side is I used three of the dash pad bolts to support the speaker plate and now I have three low spots in the dash pad.
As i mentioned previously when I mounted the radio with the adapter plate it caused the chrome part of the radio knobs to rub to the plate. My fix was to remove the chrome face of the radio and mill 1/16" off of the "C" shaped casting on each side where it contacts the back of the dash around the control shafts. (Photo2) This allows the radio's knobs to have clearance like they did from the factory. The last two photos do a poor job of showing the before and after milling clearance.
I am really digging the USB function and have about 250 songs at this point on it. I believe I have a bunch more to learn about the recording process as some of tracks didn't record with the same quality as the rest.
I have been driving the WMB daily now for several weeks and had a radio crisis two days ago. For the first time since the dash speakers were installed I used the windshield washer. And several minutes later I realized my leg was wet. Long story short. When I was floundering around under the dash with the speaker plate I partially disconnected one of the hoses from the pump and now it was spraying water under the dash. So just after I realized my leg was wet the radio quit playing and just made cracks and pops. Quickly I turned off and found a place to park and removed the fuse. After wiping everything down as best as possible and disconnecting the driver side defrost hose at the heater box I went for a cruise on the freeway for 90 minutes with the heater cranked and got everything nice and warm under the dash. I then reinstalled the fuse and turned the radio back on. It has worked flawlessly since. Wheeeww! Bullet dodged!

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work once again! I would like to add some more speakers to my truck. You can't hear the 6x9's behind the seats near the cab corners.

[Hart_Rod]

The headliner came out nice!

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice work once again! I would like to add some more speakers to my truck. You can't hear the 6x9's behind the seats near the cab corners.

Thanks! If you're interested and your DIN radio has the room you are welcome to the enclosure I wasn't able to use.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

The headliner came out nice!

Thanks! After a couple of hundred miles the back edge started sagging ( There was nothing supporting it). So I put five screws across the back edge to suck it up tight.

The WMB has been well accepted by the neighborhood insects. Every evening there are hundreds of gnat like bugs on the white parts ( The odd part is sometimes most of them are facing the same direction) and I had to eradicate an ant colony from under the carpet in the back.

[Advanced Design]

Really good work and sharing of details. I agree, headliner came out nice! Wish mine looked as good.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Really good work and sharing of details. I agree, headliner came out nice! Wish mine looked as good.

Thank you!
You guys are great!