The Hillbilly Deluxe dually build

[Tx Firefighter]

My wife took good care of me. Tiny drill bit and some twisting and all the blood under pressure squirted out. Pain was instantly relieved. Now I can build trucks !

[flashed]

Its amazing how bad something like that blood pressure under your nail can hurt so damn bad ,been there ,done that ,hope not again.

[hick]

I did that to my thumb this summer.

Took me an entire day and most of the night sitting there with a drill bit spinning it back and forth. You know, being Mr. Big Tough Guy and all

When that drill bit finally broke threw it shot that drill bit about 25 feet.

Few feelings have topped the relief i got from that haha

[joe231]

Ouch
A hot needle works well also

[TheBlueBomber]

Did GM change the sway bars between the 70s-80s models? or were they different for 4X4 and 2WD models? My bushings are the same for the front but for the rear I have one large bolt that runs through it. Cant seem to squeeze the bushings out of those because they're pressed in.

[Tx Firefighter]

The sway bars on 2wd trucks interchange from way back in the 60s all the way up through the end of this style of truck like I'm building. So, basically about a 25 odd year time span.

4WD sway bars are different though, and I do not know the interchangeability of them at all. My knowledge of 4WD trucks is not terribly broad. If you go to the 4x4 section of this board and post a thread on the problem that you're having, I'm sure a bunch of the 4wd gurus would have an answer for you.

[TheBlueBomber]

I had a feeling they were different. Did a great job on it. I was going to order some parts also from rock auto but they wanted to charge me $23 worth of shipping to send 2 radiator hoses and a thermostat.

[Tx Firefighter]

Non truck related. The fingernail got much worse over night. The nail is coming off. To say its painful would be a gigantic understatement. I'm at work today. Gonna have the guys do some surgery at the kitchen table.





I've been a paramedic for 13 years now but I just don't have the fortitude to do surgery on myself. I'm more of a put my head down, close my eyes and let someone with a stronger stomach do the duty.

[flashed]

Damn Tex ,that looks mean ,hope they get you fixed up ,and thankyou to you and all emergency responders do daily to keep us safe.

[Low Elco]

That'll make ya cuss!

[cable666guy]

Hope ya feel better, buddy !!

[83GMCK2500]

*knock on wood* I have never lost a fingernail. I have mashed, hit, pinched, and otherwise tortured my fingers, but I have thankfully never lost a nail. I was driving a ground rod (5/8"x10' galvanized steel) with a post pounder and as I had it at about chest height I lifted the post pounder to high and brought it down missing the rod...rod ran up the outside of the tube to the handle and met my finger. Got 4 stitches in the end of that finger but never lost the nail.

I hope this little snafu doesn't keep you from doing anything that you enjoy or wanted to accomplish.

[Stoney]

Ouch....

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I also got this bad boy. Mother of God it hurts. I ain't skeert to do my own suturing but for some reason I'm afraid to drill hole in this one. If it's still hurting tomorrow I'll have one of the strong stomached guys at the station drill a hole in it to relieve the pressure and pain.

How is the finger doing? Do you mind if i ask how you did that???

[Tx Firefighter]

Doc said finger is broke and swelling would force my fingernail off soon. Told me to go to ER for further treatment where they'd tape it up. I told him I could tape it up several hundred dollars cheaper. My doc is real cool. He said do it, take plenty of ibuprofen, and let the fingernail stay attached as long as I could stand it before yanking it off. And don't go to work.





In truck news, my Rockauto steering column stuff arrived.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

How is the finger doing? Do you mind if i ask how you did that???

I was doing some heavy suspension work Sunday. I think it happened when I dropped a leaf spring on my finger. I didn't stop work to investigate since the damage was already done. I was wearing gloves at the time and the extent of injury wasn't apparent.

[Low Elco]

They've just put a cap splint on mine and turned me loose. It's fun when your cuticle gets shiny like that. Cap splint helps with the occasional bump that'll make ya pee yourself. I've broken 3 fingertips. Last one, I literally looked at the wife and said "Well, I just broke that." " What?" " My finger." " WHAT?" Good luck, just something else to cuss about.

[Tx Firefighter]

It's unnerving to me. In my job, every call I have to put on a pair of gloves. Some calls its rubber EMS gloves, others its leather extrication gloves, and still others it's insulated firefighting gloves. With this finger that's just not an option. So I'll be off for a while until I can comfortably don a pair of gloves and have enough strength in my hands without pain to couple fire hoses, raise ladders and other stuff.

It's no big deal really, I have 2200 hours of sick leave built up. I'm just not used to the idea. I like driving a fire truck every third day.

[68Timber]

I foresee a steering column being rebuilt with thumb and bird finger.

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

...And don't go to work for two weeks.

Yea right, like thats gonna happen! That also means no working on the truck. Btw, my brother lives in newark. I told him about your bikes. He said he has seen them. Do you take stuff to the pate swap meet? He fools with honda minis too.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

I foresee a steering column being rebuilt with thumb and bird finger.

We shall see.

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

Yea right, like thats gonna happen! That also means no working on the truck. Btw, my brother lives in newark. I told him about your bikes. He said he has seen them. Do you take stuff to the pate swap meet? He fools with honda minis too.

Likely so. I make all the swap meets. I had one of my bikes at the last Pate.

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

We shall see.



Likely so. I make all the swap meets. I had one of my bikes at the last Pate.

He said you do work for his friend David (?)

I have a yellow 67 trail 90 that was our uncles. I have the owners manual and title. I need to do something with it. No compression but not stuck. my brother Gary has a trail 70 with hand clutch and first yr z50 two han brakes no foot brake no rear shocks original paint. I had a nice 78 XT500 i sold when i got married. Didnt ride it much and we had a nice wedding and no debt Sorry to turn your build thread into a bike discussion.

[Tx Firefighter]

I couldn't sleep last night because of the finger so I went out to the shop to keep from waking Valerie up.

I must have looked like an idiot out there. Picture this, I'm working with my right hand while holding my left hand straight up in the air to keep it from throbbing so much. Problem is, I'm left handed, so all the work I'm doing is with my weak/wrong/awkward hand. I looked like that idiot kid in the back of the classroom who eats glue and always has his hand up in the air to get the teachers attention.

Turn signal switch. Basic tech here. Those of you with advanced knowledge, skip ahead. Anyway, notice the funny little curly spring there ? That's the cancel spring. There should be two of them, one for left, one for right. If one of those springs breaks and falls out (very common) your turn signals won't cancel in that direction. The solution is to just replace the spring. They are 79 cents each and available anywhere. There is no reason to change the entire switch for a cancel issue.

Broke missing spring...



Two new springs...



Steering column all rebuilt and assembled. New key and tumbler, turn signal lever, and both cancel springs. Everything else cleaned, lubricated, painted, and powdercoated.

[Low Elco]

Looks nice! That powder has to be nice in the shop in the winter! (I'm a big cold sissy.)

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm a huge fan of powdercoat. Its so fast and inexpensive. A pound of powder is 12 bucks and I could do probably two dozen steering columns with it. To use spray paint, you'd be looking at half a can per column. Not cheap.

It's also very fast to do. I know your work ethic, and you'd likely sandblast a part before painting it. If we both had sandblasted steering columns, you paint and I coat, I'm ready to install mine within 25 minutes. Paint would take hours to fully harden, maybe even days depending on the weather. Powder is two minutes to spray, 20 to cook, and then let it cool down in front of the shop fan. Total time under half an hour and maybe 50 cents worth of powder.

Everyone should be doing it. Sure, it takes a big oven to do big parts, but brackets, pulleys, nick jacks, etc, a fifty dollar Craigslist oven is all it takes.