1970 K20 Z62 Full Restoration

[DaHos]

Originally Posted by IronCanine

I ran a die on the mirror elbow (which is an OE rechromed example) to clean up the threads. And boy that light chrome on the threads ate it! I guess that's why they put it on hydraulic cylinders.

Ran into the same with the threads and new nuts during my DG4 rebuild....i too thought it was just chrome slag until I found 1 note on the forum that the OEM studs are 3/8/20 NOT 16 or 24.....ODD pitch....

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by DaHos

Ran into the same with the threads and new nuts during my DG4 rebuild....i too thought it was just chrome slag until I found 1 note on the forum that the OEM studs are 3/8/20 NOT 16 or 24.....ODD pitch....

I thought they looked weird!!! That is a solid fact. Makes so much sense. Thanks Dave. Mine are pretty well 3/8-16 now.

[Ol Blue K20]

The seat, mat and everything else is looking fantastic!!

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

The seat, mat and everything else is looking fantastic!!

Thanks Dale.

[IronCanine]

Fuses in. First systems check, good.

Truck, like most, had a dealer installed rear bumper originally. Shoulda probably gone with some type of period step...but I'm a sucker for a rear sport bumper. This was an NOS painted bumper that I found. Chromed up nicely.

[IronCanine]

Eric got the cowl on. Like all the other paint work...looks great.

And I should have highlighted this earlier, but Pete hooked me up with an NOS parking brake handle. Thanks Pete!

[IronCanine]

I'd held off putting on the "Tacky Tape" on the expansion valve because...it's sticky and picks up stuff. They come from Old Air in 15" strips. Should be 20" IMO. I bought two rolls and used about that much.

Also, coffee can style A/C vacuum reservoir is on.

[IronCanine]

The rest of this week's updates are really just 'in progress' reports. I am waiting on a few parts. But also I got lucky and scored some.

First I am so happy to have NOS ribbed heater hose. Just having trouble with tower clamp sizes. Can't seem to come up with 3/4" or 1" tower clamps per the A/C manual. I have and can get my hands on 1-1/16" or larger. I even have a few nice originals with a workable date on them. 1-1/16" will work, but would like to get the smaller ones if possible.

Been looking for the correct NOS muffler for over 3 years. Had a replacement # NOS muffler from about '75 that was super nice, but not the factory correct finish. Unbelievably the right muffler popped up on eBay a couple of weeks ago. A little bit of shelf wear, no box. But generally cleaned up nicely and will go well with the NOS tailpipe.

I have been able to put together a nearly complete set of NOS hangers and hardware...except for the two piece hanger/clamp that goes in front of the muffler that feels effectively like unobtanium (see pic of original version below). I've got some ideas for managing it...we'll see. Again, waiting on the mail.

I also would love to put together a set of the original swing arm, one bolt exhaust clamps. So far zilch on that.

If the rest of the exhaust hardware gets here and we can get it hung...and we can get the cooling system together. We are basically at crank, put hood on, paint tailgate letters, install tailgate, high five.

[IronCanine]

A lot of really good stuff this week and one super duper crummy thing (ugh, I'll save that for last). Let's enjoy the good first.

First, I got some NOS exhaust hanger retainers in. The restored horn also arrived. Gary from Horn Works rebuilt a date code correct horn that I got from Mike Cofield. My original was long gone for some reason. I suspect my steering gear that I got from Mike and the horn came from the same truck.

And the personalized 70 tag showed up. So...good fun.

[IronCanine]

Eric got the hangers cleaned up. Some of the retainers had a light surface oxidation that came off nicely. The system went together pretty easily. The two front pipes are from Waldron. The two piece hanger that has been so hard to come by, was two piece for a reason. The assembly line muffler and tailpipe were welded together as one piece. You woundn't want to fish that clamp the length of the tailpipe to get it into position. The two piece version could just be placed on where it goes. The one piece "circumferential" clamp at the tailpipe end works well at the two part hanger position. And it's not a big deal for us because we can fish it on from the muffler end of the tailpipe. So for now that's how we'll run it.

Another note...this 70 K20 had the frame clip for the rearmost tailpipe hanger. 71 does not appear to have this frame clip.

[IronCanine]

This is definitely the highlight of the week. The hood went on yesterday before we headed out for a volleyball tournament. Eric dialed in the gaps after we hit the road. A little tougher than usual because we had to go through the three refinishes of the hinges, negating the usual prefit witness marks that makes final assembly a little more predictable.

I gotta say I am so pleased with how it turned out...fit, finish, color...the works. And even though we have the tailgate left to go yet, she looks like a finished truck.

[IronCanine]

Before we left yesterday, we also went ahead and filled her up with coolant with the anticipation that we'd crank her in the next couple of days. Cinched down all the tower clamps on the NOS ribbed heater hose that I'm so proud of, then hit the road.

About midday today Eric texted a couple of pics of the shut hood, but out of kindness he did not send a pic of the shop floor which as you can see in the second pic, absorbed some drips. That's news best delivered in person.

As noted previously in the thread, the water pump was rebuilt by the Flying Dutchman. It is leaking from the backing plate, not from the ports. His confidence in his work is very high. But that two year warranty is borderline pointless. The amount of time and effort it is going to take to try and fix this and maintain the finishes on these pieces is going to be worth a little bit more.

Obviously I'm sick, mad, frustrated, disappointed, all of the above. I am certain we will sort this, but I can't even right now. I'm trying to tell myself it's like Rocky says, it's not how hard you can hit...it's how hard you can get hit and still keep moving forward.

Geez, this is a hard hit.

[72 tigger]

Everything is looking great! Glad you’ve been able to find most of the small pieces you need.
The water pump is a total bummer- sorry to hear that

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking great and good progress. The water pump sure is a bummer though.

[yuccales]

That truck is beautiful!

[Louisvillekytruck]

Everything looks perfect. Great job Brad beautiful truck.

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Everything is looking great! Glad you’ve been able to find most of the small pieces you need.
The water pump is a total bummer- sorry to hear that

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking great and good progress. The water pump sure is a bummer though.

Originally Posted by yuccales

That truck is beautiful!

Originally Posted by Louisvillekytruck

Everything looks perfect. Great job Brad beautiful truck.

Thanks guys. I sure do appreciate the kind words.

[IronCanine]

It took me about 12 hours to fully accept what we were going to have to do to fix the water pump problem. Probably hadn't even gotten there as I was posting about it last Sunday. And we had other things to consider. Pollen was about to drop and the tailgate hadn't been finished. I was also heading out of town for a meeting. So we talked about it early Monday and decided to go ahead and move the truck home. It cleared the shop so Eric could finish the tailgate and it gave us a chance to get everything home and inside ahead of the pollen. Eric finished up a few details, got her turned around and I met the rollback when I got off work that evening.

I'll start breaking things back down in the coming days to address the leak. But it was exciting to have her back here. It's only about a 7 minute ride...maybe a little longer on the rollback. But I don't think we hit any bugs.

[IronCanine]

I really wanted to try and achieve the factory soft paint edge on the painted tailgate letters. We experimented with a couple of techniques. In the end I had some PVC stencils cut. Eric positioned and secured them with magnets and taped and masked everything else. I am certainly happy with the result, but I think we are slightly on the plus side with respect to the edge overspray because this two stage required so many passes for coverage. Maybe if we'd done it with single stage, it would have been different. But I think this approach is nice, gives us a factory appearance and it definitely offered us more contingency options if it hadn't gone well.

[IronCanine]

Eric came over today and we got the tailgate on. I've got a set of NOS straps, but they don't have the same finish. I'd already had the straps that came on the truck replated, so I'm going to go with those for now. I think I will swap them down the road if I can get the NOS ones satisfactorily replated.

Note the single painted bolt on the driver's side tailgate strap/latch. All the other three are unpainted. All the trunnion bolts are painted. I think this is factory correct. I believe they had a tailgate rack that clipped in the holes in the bed and the gate and held it so the gate and bed were painted together (but apart). And this one bolt cinched that "jig". I don't know that for sure. Just trying to make sense of what I've seen on other original Fremont trucks.

Just a few barely mentionable punch list items to get through. I gotta eat the elephant in the room first. It is possible there may not be an update on that next week.

It has to run and move under its own power before I can do my big 'Thank Yous' post that I love so much and change my avatar. Hopefully I can do those things soon.

[IronCanine]

After posting this I was texting Larry and realized I oughta bring some receipts. Here's Joe's 10K mile Fremont original with the single painted bolt. Larry also sent me a pic of his very original Fremont K20 with TWO painted bolts. One on each side. That makes sense to me, cuz if it is a jig situation, wouldn't you want it holding both sides of this heavy gate. But also, this green truck could have had two painted bolts and one got dropped when they were installing the straps. A lot of human-y things could have happened. I straight up copied Joe's arrangement. All fun to think about.

[72Cheyenne454]

How goes the water pump swap out? Looking forward to an update.

Miles

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by 72cheyenne454

how goes the water pump swap out? Looking forward to an update.

Miles

x2

[IronCanine]

You boys are kind to check in.

I got it all apart. Removed and re-sealed the backing plate and bench tested it. It is all back together and holding fluid. It was as frustrating as expected. Taking that compressor (and everything else) off cleanly is a challenge.

Unfortunately due to work, family commitments and weather...there hasn't be a good day to start it. I am hopeful for this weekend. The engine ran on the dyno, but never in the truck. We haven't had a day where I've been in town, off work while the sun was up, and not raining since I got it back together.

Also, it needs to sync up with Eric's schedule. It's a minimum of a "two sets of eyes" situation. Always worried about fuel line leaks or the like.

The minute we've got a resolution...I'll be posting.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by IronCanine

You boys are kind to check in.

I got it all apart. Removed and re-sealed the backing plate and bench tested it. It is all back together and holding fluid. It was as frustrating as expected. Taking that compressor (and everything else) off cleanly is a challenge.

Unfortunately due to work, family commitments and weather...there hasn't be a good day to start it. I am hopeful for this weekend. The engine ran on the dyno, but never in the truck. We haven't had a day where I've been in town, off work while the sun was up, and not raining since I got it back together.

Also, it needs to sync up with Eric's schedule. It's a minimum of a "two sets of eyes" situation. Always worried about fuel line leaks or the like.

The minute we've got a resolution...I'll be posting.

Sounds great, looking forward to seeing the post.