Project Orange Crush (57 3100)

[Russell Ashley]

Congratulations on the engagement. Sounds like she is on board with your car and truck hobby so that is good.

Don't want to hi-jack, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that ignition switch looks like a car switch, not for a truck. Did 57 trucks with factory automatic come with that style? Since the original owner said it was original to his truck I was just wondering why it was that style.

[Advanced Design]

Congratulations on getting engaged and having the green light to speed forward on a project is always a good thing.

[ptc]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Congratulations on the engagement. Sounds like she is on board with your car and truck hobby so that is good.

Don't want to hi-jack, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that ignition switch looks like a car switch, not for a truck. Did 57 trucks with factory automatic come with that style? Since the original owner said it was original to his truck I was just wondering why it was that style.

Congrats on the Ingagement that is wonderful!



The ignition came out of 57 3600 series 3/4 ton truck with a 6 cyl and 4 speed manual transmission. If that helps your knowledge think tank? The VIN says it was built in the Oakland CA plant and it was purchased from an Oakland dealership in 57, driven to Acampo, CA and spent its entire life as a farm truck here in the central valley.

Were cars built in Oakland? or was it a truck only plant?

[lower50's]

Congrats on getting the truck in your wedding.

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Congrats on getting the truck in your wedding.

My fiance has said in the past that I spend to much time with cars and should marry them so this is as close as it will get I think

And thanks for the congrats guys

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Tonight I worked on my ford 8.8 stripped,drained and started to remove the axles when the retaining bolt for the gear pin sheared off about a half inch below the head needless to say the pin is in place and it turned into a "tomorrow job" any thoughts though?

I'm thinking of drilling it a little past the pin threads to get the pin out and try to save the pin later or should I try to extract the bolt as is?

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Once again I am reaping the benefits of working at a dealership one of my techs has just the solution for me link below of the kit

That combined with the bolt through my ford store only costs me 1.40 on top of that the axle seals are only 4 bucks a side I can see a happy ending to this would be disaster

http://www.fabbriassociates.com/kitinfo.html

[Valarius_Starchaser]

And voila just like that problem solved I didn't get many pictures because who on here hasn't seen a torn down axle and it got dark but I did take of few of the surgery to save the carrier I am for sure getting one of these kits made a would be nightmare into a 5 minute fix


all masked to go under the knife

Guide bolt and the 12" long drill bit

SUCCESS!!!

[Kim57]

Pretty slick.
Kim

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Pretty slick.
Kim

Thanks I thought the same thing I spent most of the afternoon looking at new carriers thinking the worst glad my tech had one

Last night I got the rest of the parking brakes off and started to grind the brackets when the axle shifted feel and crushed a finger of mine so work stopped early

Tonight I finished the grinding after some 3lb sled persuasion I got the job done measured a bit to compare what I was seeing online for lengths

Then took the pan off the transmission not much metal or clutch material in the trans so I will look at the reverse band and sprag to see their conditions and put in my shift kit and be ready to rock and roll in no time

at this rate I may get to drive it a few days before the wedding even

[65sub]

Nice progress Starchaser. I like the look of the chop top

[Valarius_Starchaser]

This weekend was beautiful 50-60 degrees made for some good work time (30 and windy again today:/) so I had a friend come over and we removed the cam bearings from the block washed out the engine with soap and water and bagged it up for later assembly

Also got the harness out of the trans and the pump and planetary all came out in one so that made for a heavy needle to thread past the stand but we got it done ordering the HD2 Trans-go shift kit this next paycheck as well as a few other small things for the engine

Last thing that got done was I went to the steel yard and got 81lbs of sheet for plating the frame fore only 16bucks gotta love that .20 cent drop steel price!

[Valarius_Starchaser]

A few pictures of the trans

[Kim57]

Nice progress.
Kim

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Nice progress.
Kim

Thanks glad someones listening to my ramblings still

Ordered Valve springs, retainers and keepers from Alex Parts for a good price now for valve train I need to get valve spring rotator eliminators and should be good to go on the engine assembly other than a light hone to remove cylinder glaze and a bottom end balance at the machine shop

money money money hopefully I get far enough along before the fiance figures out just how expensive it will all be

[Advanced Design]

Moving right along!

[lower50's]

Nice. Putting the shift kit in my trans was the most stressful part of my build.

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Made a few phone calls today on getting the bottom end balanced and the general consensus around town at the few machine shops that we have is that I would be looking at $225 minimum does that seem like a fair price I know it is what it is just curious.

BEGIN RANT
However when I asked how long they all said "two months" WHAT?! Not to mention the fact that they all thought it was insane that I intended to put it together on my own... Does nobody do that or something? The time frame just baffles me though as if they cant squeeze it in somewhere......
END RANT

Well I guess that just means I better get it to the machine shop sooner rather than later

[Valarius_Starchaser]

This weekend was one of my more productive ones so much so I didnt take but one picture of some engine parts while doing some inventory

I started removing the metal the PO installed in the bed floor what a hot mess that was ended up taking the passenger side boxside off and needing to chase around carraige bolts in random spots that were holding it down not much fun and didnt get it all the way off either a fight for tomorrow

Other than that I working on cutting my inner fender skirts to clear the subframe

If anybody has a lead on some doors that I wont feel bad about chopping in my area let me know I'm having a heck of a time finding anything under 500 for a pair and they are far to nice to justify chopping

Still waiting to start any real body work even though we were in the 60s today it could still snow anytime between now and april

[Valarius_Starchaser]

I couldn't help myself but to look at the nice new parts after they had been boxed up for an entire year

[Coupeguy2001]

looks good

[Kim57]

New parts are always nice.
Kim

[ptc]

Originally Posted by Valarius_Starchaser

I couldn't help myself but to look at the nice new parts after they had been boxed up for an entire year

Nice.... Are you trying to get your rotating assembly internally balanced, is that what the machine shop will be doing? Becasue if your crank is already externally balanced then just leave it like that, save yourself the headache, time and costs.

My block has been at the shop for going on 3 months now... I told my builder today to either get them on it, or pick it up and send it to another shop. Im done with these so-called "great shops" that have too much work for racers that regular customers just dont matter anymore. (my rant over!)

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Called another shop a little further from home and got quoted 180 and a 2-3 week window that I can live with will get it down there sometime this week

[lower50's]

MMM new parts