What Did You Do With Your Truck Today ?

[mobileortho]

Spent the weekend doing bodywork. Decided I wanted to get rid of the vents.

[AD51]

Thanks waybad and mknittle.... All I got with my truck when I bought it was cab, front fenders, hood and Bed sides only. I had the s10 bed laying around the side of the shop trying to sell it. Ive seen the bottom of the s10 beds put in but never including the front piece, decided to try it.....

[OrrieG]

Got the cables but working on tailgate requires opening the garage door so I can't fire up the stove. Its in the low mid 30's (or 20's by the time I get home) so it is going to be slow progress.

[waybad]

changed a flat tire AGAIN... valve stems are bad... urg...

[Maximus]

Bolted the front end together, need a little adjustment but I can finally open my doors without banging the flappy fenders!!! also, drove the truck 10 feet to realize my brake pedal is sticking, so I need to fab a return spring to pull the pedal back

[mknittle]

I fixed a striped loose rusted stud on my top speaker grille molding.

[lt155ruck]

Well, I pushed the frame out to take some pictures. Its the first time its seen the daylight in awhile. After I took some pictures and looked at them, I realized how much of a mess the garage is. Uhuh. Started cleaning up, got distracted by shiney things and decided to pull the motor from the rolling cradle and put it on the stand to continue assembly.

[55metalmonkey]

spent the night getting my engine ready to fire up for the first time since the rebuild, installed temp wiring, temp gauges, filled with oil & primed, double checked everything.... then the moment of truth, hit the starter button it struggled to turn over a few times and tried to fire, then nothing, thats when I realized I overlooked a minor detail ...... dohhh I forgot to put the battery on charge last night.

guess I'm waiting one more night

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by 55metalmonkey

spent the night getting my engine ready to fire up for the first time since the rebuild, installed temp wiring, temp gauges, filled with oil & primed, double checked everything.... then the moment of truth, hit the starter button it struggled to turn over a few times and tried to fire, then nothing, thats when I realized I overlooked a minor detail ...... dohhh I forgot to put the battery on charge last night.

guess I'm waiting one more night

Gotta watch out for Murphy!
That is the Murphy's law Murphy.

[55metalmonkey]

Originally Posted by mknittle

Gotta watch out for Murphy!
That is the Murphy's law Murphy.

yep, one day I'm going to find this Murphy guy and kick the crap out of him

besides, there always has to something to overcome. I'm just glad it's minor

[chrisg_ky]

well i spent the last two days sorting out the wiring for the brake lights, tail lights and head lights. i got them all working but i pretty sure i need to buy a new wiring harness one that isnt pieced together. I believe i had to add about 15 splice just to run the wires where the needed to go and by pass some old wires all together with new ones. overall im happy i have lights just in case i need them. lol even if when i hit a bump the flash and flicker.

[OrrieG]

Got the upper tailgate cable figured out, here it is so far. Also figured out that the taillight assembly does not have enough room to pivot out to put the filler behind it like later models.

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by chrisg_ky

well i spent the last two days sorting out the wiring for the brake lights, tail lights and head lights. i got them all working but i pretty sure i need to buy a new wiring harness one that isnt pieced together. I believe i had to add about 15 splice just to run the wires where the needed to go and by pass some old wires all together with new ones. overall im happy i have lights just in case i need them. lol even if when i hit a bump the flash and flicker.

Don't ya just love it when a wire goes in one end blue and comes out green and in the middle it is yellow?
I am well known for getting a vehicle and within a short time the wiring will be laying in a pile next to it.

[itstheshu]

Put the 54 in her new garage.

[FFredo]

Finnaly removed two leafs from the front corners. Came up with a 2 1/2 inch drop. Now the truck sits level again. Added new shocks to match the new shocks I put on when I did the rear c-notch. I have not noticed any real softness but wont know till I put it on the freeway tomorow.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Fredo,
What's going on with your flat bed, or have I missed it? Last I heard you said you buggered up the fenders you bought and were gonna buy new. That happen? Installed? How about pictures?

[1956chevtruck]

I went out for a drive. Can you believe it? It's Dec 11th and I was out ripping around in the old boy today. That may not sound like a big deal for anyone from California but it's a big deal when you live in Canada. Beautiful sunny day of about 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) and dry clear roads that haven't been salted for at least a week. Life is Good!
Byron

[FFredo]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Fredo,
What's going on with your flat bed, or have I missed it? Last I heard you said you buggered up the fenders you bought and were gonna buy new. That happen? Installed? How about pictures?

Hey Dan, yeah I messed up the fenders I bought. Have not bought the new ones yet. I have been so busy with leather orders that I haven't had time to get out and make a cardboard template. I finnaly took a cpl of days to get the front end lowered and new shocks on. I'll get pics of the new stance as soon as this little bit of rain goes away. Whats happening with your truck?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by FFredo

... Whats happening with your truck?

Copious amountof NOTHING!

I've had a series of issues get in my way - the latest being "The Great Pasadena Tornedo of 2011"! My backyard block wall blew over crushing all sorts of stuff, had a really large palm tree fall on my patio shade structure - screwing it up. Clean up & temporary board-up was done this weekend but there's still a lot of work to be done. Right before that, our forced air heating system died so bottomline is its gonna be HUGE $$ to have the entire thing swapped out including the AC, get rid of the asbestos wrapped ducting and get all new put in - probably gonna use space heaters til after Christmas is over then deal with that. The only quasi "good" thing about it is I wil get a new roll up garage door out of the deal. My ancient tilt up was a POS BEFORE the windstorm so getting a big tree limg blown right thru the sheet metal door was kind of a blessing....sorta!

Anyway, my truck is not running, steering wheel off while I've been sanding and painting the interior but one thing leads to another and it is further apart (and for a lot longer) than I ever intended for it to be.

I suppose its a good thing you are very busy with your leather work, huh?!

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by FFredo

Hey Dan, yeah I messed up the fenders I bought. Have not bought the new ones yet. I have been so busy with leather orders that I haven't had time to get out and make a cardboard template. I finnaly took a cpl of days to get the front end lowered and new shocks on. I'll get pics of the new stance as soon as this little bit of rain goes away. Whats happening with your truck?

Gotta watch out for Murphy!

[FFredo]

WOW Dan, sorry to hear about the wind damage. We got lucky here in San Diego it never got as bad as they thought it would. But like you said there is a bright side, roll up doors rule!! Will your home owners cover any of the damage?
The leather work is keeping me busy, unfortunately it is not keeping me in the money.
I'm almost finished with my 78 shovel head (harley), when I finish I can pull the new cab I have into the garage and start on the body work for that. Right now I'm hoping for a finished truck around early spring of 2012.

[1959 Apache 3600]

Finally got the front body-clip removed. Next out are the motor and trans. (poor phone pic...sorry)
Before:


After

[Dan in Pasadena]

Well that looks like a helluva lot more progress than I'm making. I want to pull my front body work just for a thorough cleaning and detailing. "While-I'm-in-There" I want to pull the headers and paint/ceramic coat/or replace them, I want an excuse to try my hand at some painting since I bought some TPI HVLP guns and a new (to me) big compressor. Knowing how I am, I'll probably use the access as an excuse to do a lot more stuff too, if money allows. C'mon tax return!

As to my garage door: I hope it doesn't look like a "diamond in a goat's azz" -Ha Ha. I've got a 80+ year old house so it may. Again, I'll probably use it as an excuse to do a lot of other stuff I've wanted, like fix my badly cracked concrete floor, expose the oil change pits in it I've never seen to see if they're usable. etc. It never ends huh?! What are your engine plans? V8 or a rebuild/detail on the six? Will your engine compartment be body color or are you thinking of original black? Enquiring minds (aka nosy people) want to know!

[AD51]

Working on some engine mounts. This is what I am doing. A 1/2" plate 5"x8" Holes drilled to the factory 4.3 mount locations and use the back hole to place the frame mount. Then I will drill and tap for the other two holes. It measures out to give me about a two inch gap at the firewall for distributor clearance. Then just use a set of 4.3 mounts for the small block.

[1959 Apache 3600]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Well that looks like a helluva lot more progress than I'm making. I want to pull my front body work just for a thorough cleaning and detailing. "While-I'm-in-There" I want to pull the headers and paint/ceramic coat/or replace them, I want an excuse to try my hand at some painting since I bought some TPI HVLP guns and a new (to me) big compressor. Knowing how I am, I'll probably use the access as an excuse to do a lot more stuff too, if money allows. C'mon tax return!

As to my garage door: I hope it doesn't look like a "diamond in a goat's azz" -Ha Ha. I've got a 80+ year old house so it may. Again, I'll probably use it as an excuse to do a lot of other stuff I've wanted, like fix my badly cracked concrete floor, expose the oil change pits in it I've never seen to see if they're usable. etc. It never ends huh?! What are your engine plans? V8 or a rebuild/detail on the six? Will your engine compartment be body color or are you thinking of original black? Enquiring minds (aka nosy people) want to know!

I hear ya... C'mon tax return! One purchase I plan to make before the end of the year however is an Eastwood welder while they still offer free shipping. Compressor is planned for January.

Regarding the truck, if you look beyond the front frame rails in the "After" picture, you'll see the Chevy 454 big block sitting on the floor that's going to replace the 6. Not really going to jazz this truck up too much aside from that. May lose the box and flatbed the thing, converting to a dually. Afterall, it's a 3/4 ton. This is my 1st project, so I want to use this lab rat to learn before attempting anything real nice...