72afr's '72 Short Step

[72afr]

Update! Reached out to the FD on Facebook to follow up on the email I sent. Apparently they never got it. The person on FB said they were the Asst Chief and had been around there for a long time and while they didn't remember the truck, they were going to look to see if they had anything. Here's hoping!

[72afr]

Picked up the newly mounted BFGs on Thursday. I don't have a pic of them or even have them on the truck yet as I kept them off to ease the new fuel tank and delivery install. Pretty stoked to finally have these in my possession. Since the Carter fuel pump I ordered back at the end of January keeps getting delayed, I bit the bullet and went with the Precision brand at O'Reilly. Hopefully no issues will arise out of it.

I've long debated getting historic plates for this thing. Even when we first got it running and realized it wasn't going to be a daily driver. At this point in my life, I finally realize it's not going to be driven over the 1,000 mile yearly limit the plates impose. I've already got antique insurance on it, so I might as well fully commit. I found two separate sets of Missouri '72 plates on eBay in pretty good condition. I lucked out in that Missouri started issuing two plates in '72 and would be a requirement now (from info I've found and discussion with the DOT). I bought both sets to ensure the number availability once I finally get this truck back on the road and inspected. Both numbers were available at the time I bought them, so I'm hedging my bets that at least one will still be good when I'm ready. Looks like I can get them permanently registered for about $25-50, which would prevent needing to get renewals every two years.

[72afr]

A few weeks ago I was finally able to pick up the repo 15" black steering wheel from LMC. They'd been unavailable from essentially all online merchants due to the supplier having issues with Covid. As I had already put the upper column back together, this was the last thing missing. After I put this one and hooked the horn back on, it wouldn't stop. Great. Took the wheel back off and tried it again. Same event. Finally tried it again last night with no joy. Started taking the whole thing apart and had to get down to taking out the canceling cam to get it to stop. That's where I left it for now until I muster enough patience to tackle it again. Here's a photo of the wheel mocked up in place that I'll use for inspiration.

[1971Stepside]

I had a similar problem. Take a look at by build thread (page 31) as I posted about the little piece of metal that likes to make contact with the column shaft and make it go beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Hope that helps you.

[72afr]

Interesting! Thanks for the tip! I'll need to take a look at that. How'd you correct the tab? Coincidently, the issue didn't present itself until I tried torqueing the steering wheel down in all cases. I guess it just pulled everything tight enough to cause the short.

[1971Stepside]

The almighty dremel tool

[72afr]

So, I took a video of the issue last night as I was messing around with it. I'd take the whole upper column with cam still in place and wiggle it back and forth. I just went back and looked at it after you comment and you can see the arcing right at that location! Good call! Thanks!

[GSFMECH]

Sweet truck and a great story. It's really cool you held on to it.

[72afr]

After a pause for a few months, I re-engaged this weekend. First needing to get into the attic access directly above the currently immobile truck, I put the tires back on to push it partially out of the garage Friday night. First pic is the new tires. I'm loving the update.

Saturday, my dad came up and we started dropping the tank and striping the fuel lines and pump. Due to kinks in the hoses leading into the tank (which used to cause extremely slow fill-ups, we couldn't get a siphon hose into the tank. The next course of action was to either drill a hole in the tank and siphon or just lower with a jack. Going with option two, we started disconnecting lines and mounts only to realize the tank was mostly empty. Like 1/2 a quart of fluid in it. Knowing my gas gauge was inoperable the last time I drove it, I'm 99% certain I topped it off before I parked it (for good apparently). The gas cap seal had a crack in it, so we're assuming the fuel evaporated out. What was left in the tank was a black/green fluid. I'll post a picture later if there's any interest, but even after leaving to settle for 24hrs, the black/green mixture was still homogenous. Fairly certain the sending unit has been clogged with whatever this is, rendering it inop.

Yesterday, we got new fuel lines, pump and steel tank installed. Only needing one additional filler hose as the old ones were hard as a rock, which will be installed this evening. Installed new fender emblems, new stainless chains, new door handles and wired up the new marker light at the filler. Definitely a full weekend of truck stuff as we reminisced about working on the same things 20 years earlier.

[raggedjim]

Nice stepper. I have a 68 stepper that was a government truck. Do you have any pics of how you routed the gas filler and what you did to the marker light to hinge it?

Thanks, Rg

[72afr]

I do! I'm not sure how far along you are on the tank install, but we used a piece of C-channel iron instead of the stock bed crossmember. Welded two extensions on it to allow for proper height. The first pic shows the old tank mounted and the lines running out of it. We still had to grind out a few small sections of the new member to account for rubbing on the plastic tank.

In the second pic (looking rear), you can see the filler lines run up to a older Jeep fill spout that is then mounted to an S-10 surround. The spout in tied to a new support bracket via hose clamps and the surround is attached to the fender via a new hole in fender marker mount. The marker "cup" has been removed. Pay no attention to the kinks in the lines as those have been corrected with the new tank having better/reworkable inlets.

At the time, the stock marker socket was too deep to allow for the gas cap to be installed and everything sit flush, so we cut it off and the light was just inoperable. I just recently found a 90deg socket, which I was able to wire in and everything fits.

There was another gentleman on this site years ago who rigged his up a different way and had a flip-open panel that held the marker. Very slick setup and was something we were talking about doing, but alas didn't get around to it. Whenever I fill up, I just take the marker off and set it in the bed. Has worked well enough not to worry about the "door".

Very much a homegrown solution, and I'm sure there are other cleaner ways to do, but this works for me.

[72afr]

The truck is back on the ground! Got everything plumbed in last night and tried firing it up. Got fuel from the tank, through the new "hidden" in-line filter and to the pump. The truck will run with the gas in the carb, but not get anything from the pump as the needle appears to be sticking. I'd previously ordered a rebuilt kit from Cliff Ruggles as I was anticipating a carb rebuild. Carb is out, just needs to be gone through. A little bit of while smoke at initial startup, but quickly diminished. All in all, a successful 3 days!

[raggedjim]

Thanks for posting the pics, the BF Goodrich's look good, one of my favorite tires. I have them on my Firebird.

Rg

[Low Elco]

Not for nothin' but if you go here-

https://www.fillernecksupply.com/

They have fill hoses in all diameters with formed 45's and 90's. These will take the sag/kink out of your setup, making it fill much better. Diggin' your truck!

[72afr]

Appreciate the link! The new tank allowed us to us 45's and really rework the lines to eliminate the kinks. We were talking about how when we installed this the first time, it was a "we just need to get this done" scenario due to our timeline. Everything is looking much better this go around.

[72afr]

Opened up the old tank last night before disposal to check what the sending unit looked like. As somewhat expected, this thing was nasty. The sock on the inlet tube was all busted up as well. Good thing we replaced the whole setup.

[72afr]

We're back on the road! Dad got the carb reworked on Saturday and came up yesterday to see if we could get the truck running. Got everything reinstalled and after some preliminary tweaks, we're moving. Took the truck to it's favorite restaurant and even though we reworked the filler lines, it's still pretty slow to fill. Maybe some additional rework is necessary. Regardless, I'm pretty stoked to have it back out again. Although I've redone some things since it was last driven, it still feels like wearing an old hat. The truck is definitely long overdue for a deep cleaning, and I need to get the blue off of the tires, but we were dodging storms yesterday, so it'll do for now.

[72afr]

Did some cleanup work today. First bath in a solid 5 years. Also put on new front rotors and pads. We'd swapped the pads years ago (and they looked almost new when I took them off), but only turned the factory rotors. On the drive last week, it was readily apparent those had warped. Huge improvement!

[72afr]

While I told my oldest that I would have the truck running again this year, my ultimate goal was to be able to take the kids to school. Today was the first day they head back, and this was their morning bus. Success!

[cornerstone]

Job well done! They will never forget that ride!

[72afr]

Right after the brake job a few weeks back, I gave it a good cleanup and ran out for a quick photoshoot. While I'm not the best photographer, I think a few of these turned out pretty good. All of these were taken over the course of 45 minutes on my phone. Some minor color tweaking is the only changes.

[72afr]

A few more.

[72afr]

And the last ones for now.

[67C10Step]

Really, really, REALLY nice. Love it.

[cornerstone]

Your truck looks incredible, and those pictures would make a great Chevrolet commercial.