What did you do to your truck today? Chapter II

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by BugzC10

...snips....Hey..I'm over 65, I get a pass now and then.

X2

[matthamby]

Originally Posted by BenC/10

Spent today trying to figure out why my seat felt so "lumpy"...Answer found! looks like the perimeter frame has broken off on the driver side, two of the flat looking springs are loose at the coiled end,one has been replace by simple wire, and the side support springs are broken on the passenger side

If you were in NC, I have a decent bench seat that I'll be replacing soon!

[VWNate1]

I looked at it again ;

I RETIRED (yippee) Friday after 32 years of eating bovine excrement and now I'll have some time to hopefully get back to it....

Reading and looking at all the good hard works you alls do is motivating me

[sawyerrm]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

I looked at it again ;

I RETIRED (yippee) Friday after 32 years of eating bovine excrement and now I'll have some time to hopefully get back to it....

Reading and looking at all the good hard works you alls do is motivating me

congrats

[rsgt]

I painted the inside today! I am pretty excited.

[PaddyO2053]

Had some pics taken today for classic truck magazine

[Mator]

[QUOTE=PaddyO2053;7595561]Had some pics taken today for classic truck magazine Attachment 1533723[/QUOT
Great looking truck

[tlman]

I finished mechanical repairs ,one wheel bearing ,speedi sleeve for seal ,paint rotors ,now im waiting patiently for body shop to finish box and paint this thing so I can carry on with assembly

[Fat Lip Fab]

Dimpled my door panels over the weekend.

[midniteblues]

Congrats nate im sure its been a long time coming.

Finished smoothing and painting set of rams for my k.
What a dirty job that iron dust is nasty stuff.
I still gotta terminate the wires at the cap and get a new clutch but besides that the 400ci is ready to drop in.
now to get the truck ready for it...scrape clean and paint another dirty job.

I don't think I'll be reusing this brake line banjo bolt...looks like it's trying to set me up for a bad evening.

Also made a oil primer out of a old distributor. I was thinking of mounting a extra oil pressure Guage to it.

[saskman02]

Originally Posted by midniteblues

Congrats nate im sure its been a long time coming.

Finished smoothing and painting set of rams for my k.
What a dirty job that iron dust is nasty stuff.
I still gotta terminate the wires at the cap and get a new clutch but besides that the 400ci is ready to drop in.
now to get the truck ready for it...scrape clean and paint another dirty job.

I don't think I'll be reusing this brake line banjo bolt...looks like it's trying to set me up for a bad evening.

Also made a oil primer out of a old distributor. I was thinking of mounting a extra oil pressure Guage to it.

Motor is looking really good, those parts cleaned up real nice! What are you using to keep the four plug wires away from the exhaust manifold where the wires come off the cap and make the turn to the plugs? I just noticed mine were almost resting on the manifold and would like to get some space between the wires and the manifold.

[VWNate1]

Thanx Blues ~ 32 years of eating you know what..... .

Gotta get my truck road worthy again .

Your engine really looks sharp ~ I'm sure many here would enjoy seeing the details up close and personal along with descriptions ~ I too am fanatical about how I dress engines and assemble things , I'm no painted but I really enjoy the details .

Did you wire brush those manifolds or what ? they're aftermarket or you ground them smooth ? .

NAPA sells them brandy new , Chinese I *think* .

[Rich69shortfleet]

Installing some HEI tune up parts when I get home from work. I've replaced everything on this HEI except for the coil, so I might as well replace that too....

[74baggedbug]

Got the call from the chrome shop that the grill is ready for my truck.. No more polishing my grill

[kx57]

Originally Posted by rsgt

I painted the inside today! I am pretty excited.

Do you have any close ups of how you masked off the column? Just curious what parts you felt required protection.

Thanks.

[BugzC10]

Originally Posted by 74baggedbug

Got the call from the chrome shop that the grill is ready for my truck.. No more polishing my grill

That's sweet...that must of cost a chunk of change. Was it cheaper than having it professionally polished? I inquired about polishing mine polished and they wanted $600 bucks....so I passed and cleaned up myself, but it still looks so so.

[ole dollor]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

I looked at it again ;

I RETIRED (yippee) Friday after 32 years of eating bovine excrement and now I'll have some time to hopefully get back to it....

Reading and looking at all the good hard works you alls do is motivating me

congrats on the retirement ......its great , best job I ever had . hope you have as much fun as ive have , hope the truck is coming along good .....Don

[74baggedbug]

Originally Posted by BugzC10

That's sweet...that must of cost a chunk of change. Was it cheaper than having it professionally polished? I inquired about polishing mine polished and they wanted $600 bucks....so I passed and cleaned up myself, but it still looks so so.

It was $800 to chrome it and with a lifetime warranty.. Most shops would only give me the tail light warranty when it came to chroming a aluminum grill

[rsgt]

Originally Posted by kx57

Do you have any close ups of how you masked off the column? Just curious what parts you felt required protection.

Thanks.

I masked all of the turn signal switch and upper shaft. I left the tilt lever on there and just masked it so I could adjust the tilt while painting to get complete coverage.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

rsgt..........Don't know what color that is, but I'd be excited too.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

I looked at it again ;

I RETIRED (yippee) Friday after 32 years of eating bovine excrement and now I'll have some time to hopefully get back to it....

Reading and looking at all the good hard works you alls do is motivating me

I'm out December 31st...........I'll be working on my truck, and then I'm going to work on my truck. And then I'm going to stare at it.

[midniteblues]

[QUOTE=VWNate1;7597243]Thanx Blues ~ 32 years of eating you know what..... and after all those meals I still wouldn't say your full of $hit.

Did you wire brush those manifolds or what ? they're aftermarket or you ground them smooth ? .

In my first pic I included the tools I used to smooth them.

These are oe manifolds i have a few layin around so i figured i could ruin a set.
Grinding disc first then a lil' burr work, flap disc, roloc sanding disc and finally roloc scotch Brite discs to finish them out.
I also used a few of these other "wheels/discs" but I don't know the name of them...like a rough hard scotch brite.

And before all that I drilled and tapped for all the new studs.

Saskman, I used all the looms/dressings off the oe 307 that was in the truck. See pics of the rear looms. I had to drill and tap bolt holes for them also.
I don't like how the 4 front wires are routed behind the motor mount. I would have to cut the wire or loosen the motor mount to get them back out. Hence the reason I didn't terminate them yet.

This is a low mileage 400 from a box van that was used for storage and rotted into the ground.

I had to drill and tap the block for the z bar ball stud.
I did both holes aligned with a oe ball stud bracket so it's like every other sbc out there.

Smoothed all the casting lines on the block heads and water pump.

Slightly polished the distributor base.
Port matched intake.
Usually I would smooth out the edges on all the brackets but I had most of these painted up way before hand so I didnt.



Here's a few more pics.

[midniteblues]

Here is a few more.
I had to replace the oil pan as it was pretty rusty.
I used the oil dip stick from the van and cut it down some but kept it longer than the oe one so it's a easy reach in the 4x4 engine bay.
I have the block set up for the idiot lite dash and for a set of autometers.
Gotta find 2 more heat shields for the front plugs.
The only breather I had that would fit the smaller valve cover gromit had a dent in the top. So in a way of paying homage to a 400 I added the cheesy caprice emblem too the dented breather.

I have a metal tube(on the air cleaner)that goes into the crossover in the intake next too the choke tube.
I think the tube went to a valve at the outlet of the ps exhaust manifold witch I no longer have. So I'm not quite sure if I need it or not will my choke still work right if I plug the hole?

The ups guy dropped off My 400ci flywheel this morning

And this brush guard followed me home from cl last nite
I couldn't find another like it on my Google search it could be home made but for the $25. I paid for it its good enough for me and it fits great and bolted rite up....more dirty work.

Then on the way home we come across a gas powered ez go
Golf cart we Offered 2 beans for it...they excepted and we loaded it up.
My bud said let's come back with the trailer. Oh heal no its a hour drive to get here I'll make it fit NOW!
Holey cow if I had pics of all the crap I've ever had loaded in this lil' truck...the piano and a skid of pavers were the worst.

[palallin]

Well, my truck woke up on the wrong side of the bed and ran crappy all day. Felt and sounded like it was running on maybe 6 cylinders or less. Exhaust smelled of less-than-fully-burnt gas.

So, when I got home from work, I started pulling things apart to see what was amiss. I noticed that the hose on the breather line from the air cleaner to the valve cover was separated from the steel elbow, so I pulled the cleaner off and then tried to pull the fitting out of the valve cover. It pulled the top half of the grommet off with it, so I had to pull the valve cover to fish the bottom pieces of the grommet out of the baffle. (I discovered in the process that I need new valve cover gaskets, but that's a project for another day.) I need to get a new grommet, obviously.

Then I pulled the distributer cap off (HEI). The center contact is burned, and the 8 wire contacts are pretty nasty, too. The center contact and the rotating contact on the rotor are also in bad shape. PITButt getting the cap off so close to the firewall.

So the next step is to buy a new cap and rotor. I don't know how much a coil is, but I think I might get one of those, too. These parts have bee there at least since 2003, maybe longer.

I am hopeful that this will cure the problem, but, even if it doesn't, it needed to happen anyway.

[palallin]

Midniteblues: THAT is a pretty Mouse!