The old spruce moose build

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Yeah, I'm quickly learning to see when people don't get it and I steer the conversation elsewhere. These trucks are cool no matter what shape theyre in, but some people cant see that.

You are peeling away the layers of mistakes and neglect. Rewarding when it gets handled but frustrating when you see mistakes made like the split intake.

Yea, when i talk to my girlfriend about them its the same way

When i peal away the layers it just seems to be hack job within hack job haha

[lkfldredneck]

Got the Intake somewhat figured out. JB Weld to the rescue!

You can see here where it split. As of now it is sitting with the STUDS keeping it in place.



And just a few shots of the intake







Hopefully this should hold for the intake until i can get a nice new one. But thatll probably be when the truck is done.

[lkfldredneck]

A day in the all season garage, New battery terminals on, Soldered up and everything. Carb back on. The JB weld doesnt seem to want to set up in 5 degrees celcius, or the 10 year old hardener wasnt able to, well, harden.. So 3 studs will hold for now to get it running. JB weld will come in the warmer season some day.

Doesnt seem to be sparking while turning over, but im currently out of help and dont have a fancy remote start thing, so i cant check by myself. waiting for the cavalry to come. Will update later.

[lkfldredneck]

Found out why it didnt spark. The Ignition wire wasnt pushing enough to "hit" the coil, so i hooked it straight up to the battery and its sparking now! itll bump, but im just going over the firing order now.

[lkfldredneck]

She lives! The plugs weren't correctly gapped. Theyd just get soaked in gas and foul, so i cleaned them and gapped them semi correctly and it runs like a top after fooling with the timing a little

[lkfldredneck]

EXCITING NEWS!!

Not really. Winter storm warning on the first of March. 35 CM (Thats about a foot and 2 inches) of snow to fall tonight. Hopefully a day off work tomorrow is called!

Things i got done today:

1- Went and Passed my Truck license this morning. At the age of 18, i am the youngest in the company to be driving a vac truck almost full time.

2- Went and bought new spark plugs, a gapping tool, and plug wires (Old ones are crusty-ish)

3- Sipped on a coffee at 9PM and gapped the new AC Delco R44T plugs to .035 thous.

Turns out, when your family started the local auto parts store back in the 80s, and you grew up around it until you were 10, You have a better knowledge of parts that are stocked than the one bright minded individual behind the counter. and that bright minded individual tells you he'll order the plug wires and deliver them to the shop our trucks park in, but doesnt. So another day of waiting for the plug wires.

[lkfldredneck]

Why oh why do people screw with wiring that dont know how to do wiring (Smash head against the dash) Looks like ill be wiring my own radio when the time comes.

Update for the last few days:

New plugs and wires in. Runs like its brand new. Drove it around the yard, feels good, speedometer works good.

Video of the purr she makes

https://youtu.be/UIyYfIoqanI

Tried to get the dash figured out. oh how i hate cracked dashes. Looks like ill be buying a new one someday. For now itll sit with the dash bezel on and nothing else. Still have to replace all dash lights. Didnt know they were orange??

Also havent figured out the Fuel gauge or oil pressure gauge. thinking im just going to run a new wire all the way instead of searchin for a broke section.

My headache continues. to be updated tomorrow probably

[lkfldredneck]

You know that pain when you start peeling pieces apart getting ready for some work to be done to your truck? The feeling of (Insert many curse words here).

Well im havin that feeling. Years and years of neglect have turned this truck into a piece of crap. theres pretty much no saving it now.







I could fix it, but it would be poorly. Just to get the truck on the road, then a cab swap would probably be down the road. Or go full out and cab swap it now.

Im somewhat on a budget build, so ill fix it poorly now, just to get it driving and so on.

[Matt Man]

OUCH, do you know how to weld?

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by Matt Man

OUCH, do you know how to weld?

Ever since i was a young pup. Father taught me at 6 how to weld. I knew the floor was rotted but i didnt think it was this bad. gladly ordered a new floor pan for the DS on friday.

[lkfldredneck]

Well, wielding a grinder, hammer, Dolly's and a welder i got to it. Passenger side floor was a tough competitor, but seemed to give in after a big fight

The grinder made short work of this rusty POS, cutting out a big hole in the floor. The crowd cringes in agony.



(I dont want to keep talking like a fight announcer, so back to the real life)

Made up and shaped a sheet metal patch for the passenger side. Thought i did pretty good for my first floor patch! Tacked it in and took a pic.



Finally. Done this agonizing job.

Insert Billy Mays Catch phrase here

BUT WAIT! THERES MORE!

Another hole appeared out of no where as i dropped my 2 lb sledge on the floor. GREAT.



Time for a coffee. Back at er.

Made up a patch for the middle after chasing the threads for the body mount. And finally. From 1 PM to 5 PM, the passenger side floor is DONE!!



Phew.. Cant wait for next weekends fight night. Cab corners, Driver side floor, should be fun. Oh how i hate body work

[lkfldredneck]

Its christmas for the spruce moose! New parts, and a fair few of them.

Floor pan for the driver side, cab corners, mufflers, bumper brackets, and header reducers!

[lkfldredneck]

Another day in the all seasons garage!

Started the day with a coffee, ok maybe two. Brought the truck up top to my tool space and started going at it.

wire wheel to remove the existing paint.. and apparently bondo from the previous cab corner.

Ok, now to cut the rust out. Forgot to take a picture.. D'oh!

Fit cab corner.
Wont fit.
Work the metal for about 5 minutes..
Almost fits.
Grind the existing cab corner down a bit.
Ok finally fits.

Tacked on, in place correctly.. Forgot to take another picture.

Might aswell just skip to the first picture.

Fully welded on after about 1.5 hours of tack, tack, tack, tack..



And onto the Rocker panel. Semi full welded all the way around. That was easy.

Welds grinded down for a semi smooth finish.. forgot to take another picture.. Jeez

Now primer. oh how i love primer.





And i also got the bumper brackets on.. Driver side is a little dopey lookin, have to adjust the brackets accordingly.



And hopefully tomorrow i will be getting the driver side floor done!

Signing off. time for another coffee

[lkfldredneck]

And we have returned to the exciting episode of fun with floors.

We have not had a very successful day in the yard.

The floor is in. But kept having problems. Hole after hole.

Welded in and everything, patch hole, and another, and another.

Now onto the rocker panel. Welded in. Door doesn't close right, jams up on the rocker. And the rocker is crooked.

But ya know what? Screw it. Its not meant to be a show truck. As much as id like to have a nice 85, with this cab it isn't possible. So, crooked rocker it is.

Went and agreed to buy a mint box, no rust whatsoever.

Guy sells it. (insert as many curse words you can think of) that was my feeling.

Search for another box i guess or fix the current one..

[LT7A]

Hang in there man. I just had a similar experience with a craigslist seller. The clown sold the part to someone else but kept me on the line saying he'd meet me at a swap meet. No-showed but kept up the charade, just because he didn't have the guts to admit he screwed me over. Anyway, I will be working my way through similar rust issues and I don't know how to weld. Just keep moving your truck toward useable and driveable so you can enjoy it. I fully realize that I may fix things one way now, and replace or fix it later as the truck improves. Lots of guys here are 'do it right the first time' guys and I completely respect that. I'm a 'keep the big picture in mind' guy. If my truck runs and I can enjoy it then I'm doing it right for me. That's gonna mean some ugly patches that keep the rust from getting any worse for now, but keep the truck on the road.

I noticed that the manifold is an Edelbrock Torker. IIRC, thats a high RPM manifold (single plane as shown in your picture). Seems like your epoxy fix worked well, but if it gives way, you may benefit by replacing that with an Edelbrock performer or something similar. Give you the low end power that trucks like.

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Hang in there man. I just had a similar experience with a craigslist seller. The clown sold the part to someone else but kept me on the line saying he'd meet me at a swap meet. No-showed but kept up the charade, just because he didn't have the guts to admit he screwed me over. Anyway, I will be working my way through similar rust issues and I don't know how to weld. Just keep moving your truck toward useable and driveable so you can enjoy it. I fully realize that I may fix things one way now, and replace or fix it later as the truck improves. Lots of guys here are 'do it right the first time' guys and I completely respect that. I'm a 'keep the big picture in mind' guy. If my truck runs and I can enjoy it then I'm doing it right for me. That's gonna mean some ugly patches that keep the rust from getting any worse for now, but keep the truck on the road.

I noticed that the manifold is an Edelbrock Torker. IIRC, thats a high RPM manifold (single plane as shown in your picture). Seems like your epoxy fix worked well, but if it gives way, you may benefit by replacing that with an Edelbrock performer or something similar. Give you the low end power that trucks like.

Thats exactly what im doin, get it done so i can enjoy it then fix it properly later.

Yea i plan on getting a performer intake later, just going to keep the torker for now to have it running

[lkfldredneck]

Went out and bought $200 worth of gauges.

Tach, water temp, volt, and oil psi.

Everything looks good, matches too.

But the oil pressure gauge..

IS MECHANICAL.

Who woulda thought the company wouldn't put any info on the package. Just says "Oil pressure gauge"

Woulda been lovely if it said something so i wouldn't have wasted my time in the city getting it..

[lkfldredneck]

Got the tach hooked up. Looks awesome! Works awesome!

Also got some new flashers for the 4 ways and turn sigs.

Got some adapters to weld to the header reducers, since they dont tell you its 2-1/2 OD not ID.

Welded them together today, turned out great. Just need header bolts and to get some exhaust on there so its quieter.

Picking up a new dash pad tomorrow and possibly getting the DS cab corner done as long as i can get some metal in there for the inner rocker and finish the floors.

Hoping it's warm ish tomorrow, i think they were sayin 4 degrees or something. Grr

[lkfldredneck]

(Insert tons of cursing)

Headers are screwed..

Got one on, on the other the tube for cylinder 1 was cracked. welded it, and it was too screwed. So im down a set of headers. Just ordered a set off summit..

$200 i didnt want to spend..

[lkfldredneck]

Oh, whats this fine lookin box doin here. nice gentleman from FedEx i think his name was Juan dropped it off. Cool guy.



Thanks for dropping off my beautiful new headers Juan! (I think)



Came with:
Gaskets for block
Gaskets for Reducers
Reducers
3/8 bolts with a 7/16 head (Handier than pockets in your undy pants)
3/8 regular bolts, lock washers and nuts

Great kit, would definitely buy again.

Summit # SUM-G9006

Fit perfectly passed the starter, not too close to the drive shaft. Slid right in like prom night. Doesnt interfere with the Coolant sensor either





The only thing i am not a fan of is the angle they come off at the fame..
As you can see in the pic below



But if i did the reducers after i installed i could have improved the angle they come off instead of just straight off.

The Reducer to Pre-bent pipe adapter weld. Glad i spent the money on my lincoln!



And the crappy looking pipe to get around the crossmember. But it works!




The moose got another new part today.. a $230 new part. Not delivered by Juan, but brought to you by the woman i see more than my girlfriend, the parts store lady!

Got the ol girl a new rad support seeing as the current was kinda.. lacking half of itself..

[lkfldredneck]

Rad support replacement not going so well. old one is off. and thanks to hidden bolts, now bent the complete s*** out of the fender. nothing a hammer wont fix.

Also, thanks to the old rad support, it felt like poking a hole in the radiator.. new one will be ordered tomorrow.. oh how im starting to hate this more and more.

Not to mention, its oh so very lovely working on a soaking wet floor thanks to the ice storm we just had. there was about 3/4 of an inch of ice on everything possible.

I will update later

[lkfldredneck]

The rad support mounts i got came with lovely bolts that dont protrude past the actual mount more than an inch. What the heck is the use of that? Cant get a nut on, seeing as its half an inch inside of the actual mount.

Sometimes, you want to smack whoever made those mounts, with a cinder block. Now on Good Friday, almost done the damn rad suppport and i need bolts. Nothing is open.

Thank you engineer who designed the mounts. thank you so kindly

Now to even more and more

[lkfldredneck]

So, got new bolts today. rad support is mounted and passenger side fender is bolted on. Problem with the driver side.. I need a new fender.. Will get a new fender and some inner fenders. Hopefully a guy i got the dash pad off of still has the fenders and inners he tried to sell me but i said no because at the time i assumed i didnt need fenders and he wanted to sell them as a set.

Also, ordered a new rad and signal lights. New rad to go with my Subaru electric fans im installing haha

Hopefully can get most of the rad support back together tomorrow so i can get the truck running tomorrow and out of my main parking spot in the driveway haha

[lkfldredneck]

Well on sunday, i finished up with putting the headlights on the rad support, running the wiring back through, and have yet to get a new fender for the driver side.

Went and got the driver side floor done too, and thanks to my stupidity, i ended up getting welders flash later that night. Awesome. anyone else ever have it? It Sucks!

But the floor is finally done, rockers finally done, just to do the driver side cab corner, the inner fenders, the driver side fender and the final touch up body work and the cab will be ready to paint. Then onto the box after that.

Anyways, i started with the front corner. Shaped the metal, grinded everything down, and tacked it in. then started onto the lower half. And that went quite well.



Then i did the little change finder, or what ever else that falls out of your pocket. shaped the steal into a U, shoved it in, and seam welded it.



I didnt get a picture of the final section, which was right behind the seat, but it turned out pretty good. The whole cab is pretty solid and im really happy with it!

I bedlinered the finished sections, and its looking semi new!



Hoping next weekend will be nice, or if i get another day off work this week on a nice day ill be able to do the cab corner and a bit more.

[WE B CRUZN]

Great thread keep up the good work, just think when you get her all done you can Roll with pride and say you did the work yourself.