72 C20 "Old Mustard"

[Mustard72]

.....and yesterday, I managed to get the place cleaned up to the "working garage" level. Got all of the horse stuff out of there and into the horse trailer for storage, fixed up the el-cheapo cabinet and got the stuff picked up off the floor and put back into it, cleaned up the workbenches, put away camping stuff, etc.


and look, there's the truck frame I thought I left in there somewhere.....

[Mustard72]

.....and then, I proceeded to actually make some progress on the Mustard project, and started disassembling the newer of the two beds. I was hoping that between the two beds, there'd be enough decent parts to make one good one. I'm not so sure about that at this point. The front panel looks better on this one than on the one that was on Mustard when I tore it apart, but the tail gates on both are pretty beat up, the bed sides are pretty rusty on one and beat up on the other, etc., etc. The floor support rails are pretty rough on each, although the rear main piece under the tail gate looks pretty decent on the one I'm tearing apart now. For now, I'm going to get them torn apart so I have pieces to pick through and come up with a plan, but mainly I need to get this bed out of the way so I can pick the cab and get it back onto the frame, finish it up the body work on it, and get some paint on it before the weather gets cold again. I'm trying to get the other stall of the garage open for my wifes car for winter, and to be able to maintain the our daily drivers in the garage rather than out in the driveway.

Feels good to be working on Old Mustard again.

[sduckworth13]

No problem Nick, looks like you had a fun busy summer by looking at everything sitting on the chassis.
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[gdavis]

I see why the cabinet fell too much inside. You need to split up the weight some. I am just as guilty as you. But mine did not fall off the wall. I notice it was coming away from the wall and fixed the problem. thoes cabinets are made every where I have the same ones in my shop.

[Mustard72]

Yep, the chassis made a good drying rack for wet camping stuff and for saddles most of the summer. RC races have already been cancelled for this weekend due to rain, so I think I'll have more time to spend on Mustard again this weekend. Might even try to rope my Dad into coming over again for part of it.

[gdavis]

good luck man. There is nothing like having a Dad to call up on Take care of him. George

[Mustard72]

Well, I didn't get Pop over to help this weekend. Something about being busy with his job or something. I'll get him over here some other time.

Got the second bed all torn apart and out of the way on Saturday. I was more careful with this one, as the rear cross brace that goes under the tail gate is salvageable on this one, along with two or three of the intermediate floor cross braces. Not much else was. I'll end up mixing and matching patch panels from all 4 of the bedsides I have to make two decent ones, I think.

Enough blabbering, here are some pics of the destruction...

[Mustard72]

.......and today, I GOT THE CAB ON THE FRAME!!!!!

Pretty stoked about it, even if it is being done a bit earlier than maybe it should so I can get the other stall of the garage open for winter. Still a pretty big milestone. Went well, although LMC didn't provide any nuts for the tops of the rear cab mount bolts. They don't show any in the catalog, either. This is the replacement floor, so maybe the original floor had nuts welded to the floor???? Mine was beyond recognition, as loyal reader can recall from the first few pages of the thread. Feels good to have it back on the frame.

[sduckworth13]

Nice job Nick. Glad to see your making progress.

[mjensen]

Looks good Nick! Nice to see the cab back on the frame! Hell, I'm just going to be happy to have my cab and frame in the same zip code

[Mustard72]

Geez. How is it that a fella with an unheated garage living in NW Wisconsin works feverishly in his cold garage on his pickup all winter long, but as soon as the weather gets nice out, he suddenly has no time to spend in the garage and almost nothing gets done until the weather gets cold again? When I look back at all the stuff I was looking forward to doing with the truck once it warmed up last winter......argh....

Thus is life, though.

Anybody interested in a dirt cheap 4.57 Eaton rear end or a three speed manual tranny with floor shifter? Figured I'd mention that here before posting it somewhere else. Obviously, it's not delivery type stuff, and requires somebody to come get it or meet me somewhere "close".

[swamp rat]

Great project!

>>> fit problem was cured by many low frequency high amplitude force applications.<<<

Cant wait to read the whole thread! This did make my day tho..

[Low Elco]

Congrats on the progress! The rear mounts have a captured nut from the factory. Glad to see this movin' again!

[gdavis]

I am glad to see you back working on the old girl. As you have seen I have done a little on my ride. Rockford is on my list of travel. Is it snowing there yet? Don't like the snow I hope to get out of there before it gets to bad.

[Mustard72]

Thanks, Swamp Rat. Glad I could make you chuckle for a bit. Doesn't seem like a guy should have to beat the crap out of his shiny new parts to get them to fit, but apparently it's a requirement and a right of passage. I'm gonna have to check out your build thread, too. I've got a thing for K20s.

Thanks, Low Elco. Apparently the Chinese decided they could put a bunch of other captured nuts in and not do the mounts, eh? Whatever. Thanks for clarifying. Either way, it'll be tons better than it was before. It isn't moving too much, yet, but I'm hoping (again) to get rolling. Actually have some time scheduled with my Dad again in a few weeks to do some work on Mustard while the ladie's are making Christmas cookies (rosettes) in the house. Gotta get working on a list for us to try to get done. Stoked

Thanks, George. PM'd you, too. Pretty much anything in Illinois is 5+ miles south of here. Probably better to just wave to the North when you are in Illinois and call it good. We do have a little snow on the ground right now, but I'm not sure about down there. Hopefully you'll have clear roads.

It has been good having the extra stall of the garage open so far this year, as it has kept my wife from having to scrape frost and snow off the van before heading in to work. Hopefully I can keep the Mustard project contained to 1/2 of the garage from here on out. It'll be a bit of a challenge, but what isn't?

[Mustard72]

Hey, a progress report!

My dad came over Sunday, and while my wife and mother made rosettes and lefse in the house, Pop and I worked a bit on Mustard. We reinstalled the front stabilizer mounting brackets and got the stabilizer mounted up to the frame with the new bushings. I still need two more stabilizer clamps for the a-arm mounts at some point. We also got the lower front shock bolts installed Pretty impressive, eh? You bet! So I'm a couple of steps closer to having the front suspension done.

We also got the dome light harness installed. The bad news is that we broke the dome lamp lens removing it (brittle 41 year old plastic, not surprising). The good news is that this landmark occasion marks the first bit of new electrical wiring to be installed in Mustard.

Yah, I know its a pretty lame update, but its still progress, which is more than I've been able to show for a while now!

[mjensen]

Hey...glad to see you working on it again. Oh, and let me tell you...nothing with electrical is small This wiring project in my garage is taking it's toll on me

[Mustard72]

Well keep swinging, Mike. That buggy looks awesome, by the way.

Been tough getting out to work on Mustard. First it was really snowy, which required some work on the driveway, etc. Then it turned really cold. Not really good excuses, but excuses nonetheless. Now the snowblower needs some more work after burning up a belt moving heavy wet snow.

Geez, what a lame post again. I gotta get something done this weekend. I did bring my salvageable inner fender into the garage the other day so as to not have to dig it out of the snow later. Pretty impressive, huh? You bet!

[gdavis]

Just one bolt is better than yesterday. and not as good as tomorrow. keep working there my friend

[Dean'smeanmachine]

this is cool

[gdavis]

hey get outside and brush the snow away and start doing something again. Waiting and watching.

[Mustard72]

Thanks, Dean.

No real progress to report, but I did watch a couple of YouTube videos on sharpening drill bits yesterday. Is that good enough, George?

[Dean'smeanmachine]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Thanks, Dean.

No real progress to report, but I did watch a couple of YouTube videos on sharpening drill bits yesterday. Is that good enough, George?

i cant wait for more on your truck

[Mustard72]

Sorry to disappoint you, Dean, but I still don't have any progress to report, making this another really lame post. I did end up robbing all if Mustard's tires to put them on Blue Bell this winter due to slow leaks that popped up in all of the expensive new tires we put on it last summer (I'm thinking crappy rusty wheel beads). Started saving my pennies for a set of leaf springs, too.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Sorry to disappoint you, Dean, but I still don't have any progress to report, making this another really lame post. I did end up robbing all if Mustard's tires to put them on Blue Bell this winter due to slow leaks that popped up in all of the expensive new tires we put on it last summer (I'm thinking crappy rusty wheel beads). Started saving my pennies for a set of leaf springs, too.

thats good enough