46 pickemup in NJ "the Rebuild"

[paintman]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I've had a bunch of those inline sixes and love them to death. But, I have three letters for you.... HEI. Best thing you can do for a six cylinder. Easier starting, smoother running and idle, better economy.

Funny you brought that up Tx. Knowing that I wanted a *****in little 6 I wanted to have someone rebuild the motor that knew what they were doing. Unfortunately everyone I talked to in my area didn't have a torque plate for the over bore and just wasn't familiar with any performance combinations the 6's require.
Now I'm sure you inline guys are familiar with Santucci's book inline Power Guide. You know Santucci is the guy that has the spliced V8 head on his 292 drag motor....turns out the shop that did the work is about 3 hours from me in Connecticut., and they are about 10 minutes from one of my wife's favorite weekend getaways, Mystic Seaport and Mohegan Sun Casino, see where I'm going with this? Hmmmm pics to come perhaps??? Lets just say we went on a road trip a couple of months ago to have a look around
That's enough for tonight guys that should give you something to chew on for awhile. I have to get up early tomorrow and push a paint brush and roller around a clients bedroom.

[paintman]

OK so that chronicles the trial and tribulations of this truck up till now. From here on out it will be all current updates as to the progress I am making. Sso with the motor in place I wanted to get it completely mocked up as to not have to deal with any issues after the painting of the frame. So i got all my brackets from Davis Speed for pump and alt in. next I wanted to get some of my exhaust in however it looks as if this will be a problem.
Due to the fact that the Clifford intake will put the carb and air cleaner directly inline with where the stock master cylinder would need space it looks as if my only choice would be to go with an under cab brake booster. Well thats fine except that it would leave very little room for my 2 exhaust tubes to go under the cab on the drivers side.
So I think my solution (or at least as of now) is to make a set of custom split headers. Ones will allow me to run one set of pipes under the oil pan and down the passenger side of the truck. and the other under the drivers side. Now what I hoped for was that true dual exhaust look. I am thinking about doing something like this. either through the bed of the truck or have them come out under the running boards.

However, after talking to some guys over on inliners.org they seem to think the truck will sound like crap if I don't keep the pipes side by side. So I am still trying to decide what to do. myabe I will run both pipes under the pan to the passenger side and run the out the back. so I am kind of at a stand still on the front of the truck until I can figure out what to do with my exhaust. Any way heres the link to the company that will be doing the headers.
http://www.stainlessheaders.com/index.aspx

[paintman]

So while the front of the truck is at a stand still.I decided to remove the bed and tackle all the junk that that was thrown at it by the PO's. the one thing I noticed when I originally looked at the truck was the Hokey set up that was used for lowering blocks. Pretty much what ever was laying around on the garage floor is what they used as blocks. check it out.
drivers side

passenger side

and of course the PO didn't believe in shocks as he said the truck rode to stiff so heres how it looked when the bed came off

[paintman]

The other problem that I have to deal with is the back of the cab. Who ever did the original body work either didn't know what he was doing, was to lazy or didn't have the money to do it right. So instead of fixing the back of the cab he just went and pop riveted a piece of stainless sheet metal over the blemishes.

Now what I was hoping to find was a treasure map or something buried under the panel but no such luck. What i did find was a whole lot of bondo and some waviness.

[paintman]

oopps sorry double pic.
I guess its time to start drinking again LOL!

Now this is where I really run into trouble as I have never done any type of body work before. My dilema is, should I just go and fill in the holes with my mig, grind them down, and lay a few coats of bondo on the back or......cut out the whole piece and stitch a new one in.

[paintman]

You can't really see it from the pics but in the lower center of the cab is a pretty wavy area that is kinda of indented, you can push it in and it will come back out. I'm concerned that if I just run bondo over that area it will crack in time. Any experts out there that can give me guidance.

[old yelr]

I'm no expert on body work but I think you could try shrinking the metal where it's "oil canning" and maybe some hammer and dolly work to try to get in better shape.
I'm sure there are other experienced members who can give you better guidance.

[paintman]

Whilst I ponder what to do about the back of the cab I pulled the leaf springs in hopes of getting them rebuilt. But much to my dismay I was told it would cost about $175 per spring to get them back looking like new. And then I would still have a set of spring that were over 60 years old. So it looks as if a new TCI rear leaf kit is in order. In the meantime I decided to pull the rear diff cover off and take a look see. a simple 10 minute task turned into an all afternoon project as one of the bolts holding the cover on had a rounded head and I couldn't get a socket or wrench to get a hold of it. finally I was able to grind 2 flat spots on the head and get a pair of vise grips onto it and break it loose. I expected the worse when I got the cover off, but was pleasantly surprised to find everything looking pretty good except for oil that looked like it was from 1946. all in all everything looks good no chips or slop in the gears. 3.73's by the way

[paintman]

Originally Posted by old yelr

I'm no expert on body work but I think you could try shrinking the metal where it's "oil canning" and maybe some hammer and dolly work to try to get in better shape.
I'm sure there are other experienced members who can give you better guidance.

Can you further explain the "shrinking" yelr?

[paintman]

Anybody know the difference (if there is any other then the price), between this rear leaf kit
http://www.premierstreetrod.com/deta..._LEAF_KIT.html
and this kit
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/TCI-19...Kit,47159.html

[old yelr]

From what I've read it's a process of heating up the area you want to shrink with a torch and then cooling down rapidly with a wet cloth. I'm sure there is more to it than that but it's a starting point.

[paintman]

Well I had the chance to work on the truck Sunday for awhile. figured I try my hand at filling the little pop rivet holes with my mig. Seeing as how I've never done a lick of body work in my life I think it went fairly well.

Although I don't know if I did it right, or wrong. I think it will look fine once I grind them down smooth but I want to wait until I have a chance to strip off the 1/4" of bondo the last rank amateur put on the cab.

[paintman]

Forgot to mention that I am also waiting on the big brown truck this week to deliver a rear leaf spring kit I ordered from TCI. It just didn't make sense to rebuild the old leafs at $175 each, and then still need all new bushings for the hangers at another $80 per side.

[paintman]

I had a chance to get some stuff done this week at night. I made a new toe board since the original one looked like a piece of swiss cheese. A few weeks ago I bought a Flamming River column and got that in. I also got a new tin floor board but I'm not sure if i'm going to use it or make one another one out of oak veneer plywood.


I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do about my exhaust. If I go with the Clifford or Langdon exhaust I am cramped for space between my brake booster and tranny.
My original plan was to make custom headers and route both pipes under the pan to the passenger side of the truck where i have all the room in the world.
Or I can try and use an under dash brake booster and solve all my problems but I'm not sure it will fit as I think the bump out in the fire wall will be in the way.

[CHIZZLER]

lookin good.what im gonna do is run the exhaust under the frame rails till just past the back of the cab then into mufflers then 90 down.i also though about exiting through the bed to running board filler but have changed my mind.my booster is about the same and we bent the brake pedal arm over about 3" to make room for the gas pedal.

[paintman]

So I had a chance to hit her pretty hard this weekend! On Thursday the big brown truck showed up with the new TCI rear leaf kit so I had plenty to keep me busy this weekend. First up was spending all day Saturday taking all the old leaf hangers off. Wasn't as simple as it sounds because the previous owner painted over all the bolts and nuts thus not allowing me to get wrenches on them, but after a lot of hammering, grinding, and busted knuckles I had the frame all cleaned up.
I was somewhat hesitant about ordering the leaf kit because some sites had it listed as fitting 37-54 trucks and others had it only fitting 47-54..go figure. But I remember Justin telling me that all the frames are the same from the firewall back so I figured I would trust his knowledge and pop on the $550. It only made sense to buy the new kit as I was getting prices of $175 to get each spring rebuilt, and that was without new hangers, pads hardware, shocks etc. etc.
Once I started bolting the new hangers on the frame I was pleasantly suprised that everything bolted right into the existing holes just like TCI advertised!! Other then having to file a few holes to get the bolts to pass through it was a pretty straight forward job.


On Sunday I spent the better half of the day cutting and grinding the old pads and shock hangers off the rear. I got to tell ya if ya ever have absolutely nothing better to do on a Sunday I highly recommend grinding mounts of a 60 year old year end.
And yes I did cover the diff while grinding

After wrestling the rear back in place by myself this is what I ende up with at the end of 2 looong days.

The TCI kit was advertised as a 3 inch lowering kit so I wasn't sure if I was going to need additional blocks under the rear but it looks pretty close to how it was sitting with the old springs.

I guess if I want, I could make a call out to Justin and get some 2" drop spindles and then throw some 2" lowering blocks under the rear
The last thing I got done was make a new rear cross member. I still need to weld it in place for good, then I can remove the stock cross member to make room for the new fuel tank.

Next on the to do list is weld up the cross member, fill in all the holes in the frame and get the new shock cross member bolted in place. Then onto the new tank, probably a late 60's mustang tank.

[old yelr]

Great progress, looks great!
So is that the kit listed for 47-54? Looks like it also fits 39-46 then, good to know. Love the pictures

[paintman]

Originally Posted by old yelr

Great progress, looks great!
So is that the kit listed for 47-54? Looks like it also fits 39-46 then, good to know. Love the pictures

heres the kit I ordered from speedway.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/TCI-19...Kit,47159.html

[paintman]

Originally Posted by paintman

heres the kit I ordered from speedway.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/TCI-19...Kit,47159.html

The springs I took off my truck where 52" but the new ones from TCI are 48" They make up the difference in lengths by offsetting the leaf mounting hole on the hangers. Kind of hard to explain but I don't have a close up pic of the hangers. It looks like they offset the rear hangers and inch to the front. And the front hangers look to be about 3" offset to the rear. If that makes any sense. All I know is it dropped my rear right back in center where it was with the old leafs, so I'm not complaining!

[old yelr]

Looks like a nice kit. You'll have to let me know what the ride is like when you get it moving down the road again.

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm sure enjoying this thread.

I'm pretty sure you're gonna find your rearend to be out of a 73-80ish model half ton pickup. It looks to be a 12 bolt, and those 5 on 5 rally wheels are truck pattern.

[CHIZZLER]

looks real good.about your gas tank.get a universal mustang style tank it comes with a 5 hole bolt in type sending unit.dont use a real mustang tank that has a lock ring.i got my tank of flea bay with sending unit for $250 shipped.the mustang has a weird 10-75 ohm sending unit.yours is 0-30.nice progress.if you can you might be able to move that crossmember forward or flip it.

[CHIZZLER]

here you go.http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Universa...5599f4&vxp=mtr

[paintman]

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

here you go.http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Universa...5599f4&vxp=mtr

I like that tank except for the fact that the sending unit is in the top and the filler neck is not centered. With my luck the first thing that will need be replace is the sending unit. As far as the filler neck....I am one anal SOB and I'm not so sure I can live with it being out of center in the bed of my truck. I was thinking maybe a Nova tank like this. It still has the sending unit on the top, but at least the filler neck is centered.
http://www.gastanks.com/1971-72-Nova...ctinfo/GM-46C/

[CHIZZLER]

we centered the filler neck in the bed.not the tank.i also looked at nova,firebird and chevelle tanks.those tanks require a strap to hold them in place.the universal mustang can be bolted using the flange on the tank.