Project "My Happy Mess"

[litew8]

The entire field broke at once, in a mad dash for position, ...it's "My Happy Mess" out front!

Video: Before Dynomax mufflers and After, with. The camera picks up higher pitches easier than my ears - in person the sound is more soft than the video's audio, not to mention it's facing a back wall vs. being outdoors. Installing 2.5" pipes will def. tone it down nicely. Sounds great in person! Even better after it warms up.

the ending is kind of quiet but The Fixer is reving
the engine, you can see the cab jump a little

mufflers.wmv - YouTube

I prob. won't be updating for a while but will post when I can.

[litew8]

fyi

Video's audio - the chattering sound coming from the engine is coming from the roller rockers. The camera picks up on their sound but it isn't as loud in person.

[litew8]

One last video. Wish I could edit out the noise, but listen carefully and you can hear The Fixer revving the engine. Like how the mufflers softens the sound. I'll be able to punch it and not draw too much attention - at idle, it'll be heard nice. Not sure when I'll update the exhaust, but I'm not in any rush.

MVC 841W - YouTube

Who wants to race?

[litew8]

Just a few pics to cap the segment off.

Tapped up defrost vent -




Old timing gun -






New temp. sending unit -




New mufflers installed -






Behind the shop, spot the deer -

[bundeber]

subscribed. Nice build

[litew8]

Thanks. Going to bleed the brakes, put the transmission through the motions (w/o moving, go through the gears) to circulate fluid. Then replace the trailing arms and pumpkin's gasket. Prob. repack with grease and check rear brakes. Then paint differential with Zero Rust.

[litew8]

Got the brakes bleed. Ran into an issue with a rear bleeder valve being stripped out. Went to the auto store (you know, what I hate) to get a replacement. Wow, what a racket they got going on. I couldn't buy what I needed individually or as a pair, so I had to buy an entire assortment of 10. What a rip-off. Donated what I didn't use to The Fixer's shop. Glad my trips to the auto store are near an end, entirely.

Anyway, brakes bleed good. Tomorrow we'll run the transmission through its gears and then probably take the truck out into the driveway to spin it around - if the weather is good.

[bollybib]

Mostly sunny and high of 42 according to forecast so you should be good to go.

[litew8]

The weather was nice enough, but my schedule and The Fixer's didn't work out. I greased the front suspension, will run the transmission through gears (a couple of times), before actually moving the truck - tomorrow. We'll see.

[litew8]

Decided not to take the truck out just yet (it snowed some earlier too). Didn't circulate transmission fluids either. Instead, we're tackling the trailing arms. Ending up having to cut the U bolts off to remove. Rusted up nice. The bottom brackets where the U bolts go through looked to be rusted some. Not sure, but it looks like there are two holes where water would drain?, next to where the U bolts go through. Well, if they were for the draining of water - they've rusted away a little, making the opening larger. We'll weld up some plates to the bottom side of the brackets for better security when we cross that road. Have pics, will post when I have time.

[litew8]

Status Report - Update

We've been working diligently on the rear suspension/brakes. Got the trailing arms, shocks,
new pre-bent brake lines and track (panhard) bar bushings all installed. Painted afterward.
Here are some pics:

Before:




The trailing arm U bolts were severely rusted, hard to remove.
We had to use a little elbow grease to get them both off.
Cutting torch, pry bar and the use of a sledge hammer did the trick.


















For sale, a slightly bent trailing arm j/k - not for sale




U-bolts after:




Original spiral shock, condition:




Lower shock mount and lower coil cups/clamps, painted (Zero Rust):






Then started to paint other pieces:








Haven't taken the truck out for the first drive because of...






Took off the differential cover, cleaned up, painted, installed new gasket -












The pre-bent rear brake lines arrived from LMC. These are a different bend
than what was currently on there. The old ones weren't really bent like factory,
guessing it's because they were regular lines installed when they switched out
the rear axle/differential 20+ years ago.

One of the lines got smashed when we were taking off a trailing arm (thanks sledgehammer) -
so I replaced them both. We had to modify the bracket though, by relocating/welding it to
the right. The bracket that goes onto the differential cover was also bent upwards to hold
the line steady. The Fixer fabricated a bracket for the rubber lines, and welded in place.







Next up, the panhard (track) bar bushings, replaced w/new polyurethan.


















Putting the cover back on -











...refilled w/gear oil.

New trailing arms installed, finished painting -












And finally (older pic, track bar has been painted), After:




Took the vent doors out of the cab. Not good. Need new seals for both.
We decided to invest in a new toy. It had to be good quality - so we got a blast cabinet.














Bench seat rails, now NOS!










And finally, we're beginning to move forward -




Also, I found 2 OEM lighters for 6 bucks on fleabay.
I blasted them clean and will paint soon. I'll post pics when finished.

[litew8]

Here are the two OEM cigar lighters I bought. I made one good one out of two.
The face on one was pitting bad, so I used parts from it to use on the good one.

Before:




After (I've never had this cigar lighter during ownership).
Sand blasted and painted. Polished aluminum (?) button was masked off.








Found another color code. This time on the gas tank, 441:




Pictures of parts being sand blasted (in our new blast cabinet) and painted (ZR):












Some "how it was done" shots, before and after:

Before:























After:












No more "windows being jacked up, rolling up/down"!
All my original door guts are now NOS!

---------------------
Next up, I tackled the cab floor.
Installed Hushmat and placed the jute pad and rubber mat.
We'll be repairing pass. door (top/inside), assembling the doors guts, painting door jams
and kick panels next.

Before installing the Hushmat, I wanted to prep (clean) the surface some.
I blew it clean with air hose, then wiped it down with degreaser.
After, I spot sprayed areas with ZR just for peace of mind.






Not really necessary, but I used a paint pen to mark where holes are beneath.











Turned out sweet!
Considering going to the local auto store and have them match/mix up some
sandalwood paint in an aresol can - to paint the rubber floor mat to match the dash pad
and steering column. My old mat is a light beige (factory Color Keyed mat).
Then I'll probably put another (different size/black) mat on top of this one for better protection.

-------------
Picture puzzle for the Pit Boss. Name this area.

[litew8]

Took my old rubber mat to the car wash. De-greased with the tire spray then soap/water to rinse. Aside from the two tears on the inner corners, it still looks great! For sure they don't make this style/quality any longer (I've looked). This is the rubber mat that will lay on top of the rubber floor cover.

Went to the auto store and took a chunk of the old rubber floor cover to try and match paint. Might be hard to do since the good colored portions are small and not so flat. They'll figure something out, and we'll shoot it with a gun instead of it being in spray cans. The black mat below will sit on top, so I'll end up having Sandalwood (bottom/outline) with black on top.

Full floor mat with Chevy truck on it! How COOL is that!!








Also, today I stuck the door panels into the blasting cabinet and shot both sides!
Painted the metal back w/ZR and I'll paint the front w/fresh white.

[litew8]

Previous owner from 1991 mentioned this full width floor mat when I spoke to him the one time. That makes this [real] rubber floor mat 21yrs old! There's no shoe wear!

[litew8]

[litew8]

A ps rendition of what it should look like -





Pics below, my original mat was kept even though torn up.
De-greased and matched a piece against the dash and steering column.
The only known [by me] imagery of an authentic OEM [elusive] Sandalwood Rubber Floor Cover/Mat






Colors made up at the auto store.
The red outlines are failed attempts.
Green is what I settled for (may want a hint darker).
Everything else is true Sandalwood vinyl paint from the factory.






Unmasked the OEM vent windows and wiped clean
The chrome is nearly perfect still, 41 year old QUALITY
The rubber is still dark black and pliable! wow

[72KAY20]

Very very nice job litew8!! Can tell this one will be awesome.

[litew8]

Thanks man! A couple hours a day, things are looking better.
Funny how you don't realize something is nice, until you sandblast, paint and clean it.
Proud of my 41 year old chrome vent windows
Here's what today brought -






This is the "Ivory" paint sample (right side) for door panels, etc...
A dash of White (to brighten it up) was added -




And a couple more shots of my vent windows, sorry - I'm impressed too

[red69ss]

Very nice build....... I like the new blast cabinet, I use mine all the time it's one of the best tools I own.

[litew8]

Thanks red69ss. Growing up, we had pretty cool shop classes/teachers [mid-late 80's] in high school - [auto shop] included a blast cabinet similar to the one we got. Cleaning (parts cleaner) and blasting parts was just the normal course of work whenever we wrenched in class. We had some pretty cool teachers back in the day that taught us great work ethics.

Have you ever found a solution to the inner protective screen (replacing)?
We're looking for something to use besides the clear plastic sheets.

[red69ss]

No, I use the clear plastic sheets I can't think of any other way. I replaced the glass in mine last year and have been using the sheets since, but they don't last very long before having to be replaced.

[litew8]

We "think" we've found a "solution". If it works well, we won't have to replace the inner plastic nearly as much (or maybe at all). We'll test it out and I'll post the results.

What brand cabinet do you have? Is the window size on yours 1'x2' or close?

[red69ss]

cool can't wait to hear the results. Mine is a infa-blast, I bought it used from a machine shop. It is built almost identical to yours. The glass is close to 1'x2' I can't remember the exact size.

[litew8]

Not much of an update other than we're starting to work on the cab.
We're not going to bring the whole thing down to bare metal, but maybe some.
Here's a pic of the entire floor covered with Hushmat, and today did some
wire wheeling to remove the old weatherstrip adhesive. Looks good underneath!









Should be able to get a lot more done this weekend.

[hgs_notes]

Those vent windows looked great. Nice progress on the cab.