Project TN 20

[R_W]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Nice score! Millshakes...Mmmmmm!
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I've had a couple lucky ones lately. The board member is 5150. He was really helpful, he's working on a 70's bagged burb with an LS swap that is going to be incredible...
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[R_W]

I knew better. When I rebuilt my brakes in the back, I put a new wheel cylinder on the driver's side, new tube on driver's side, new hose, new line half way up the frame. I didn't replace the wheel cylinder on the passenger side because I got it to bleed and "saved some time."

Never leave a weak link on an old brake system. After a night of taking boy to baseball practice and some ice cream, the next morning I found a new puddle on the floor....

What is that...

It's not gas, oil, trans fluid, rear gear oil...

It's...



Brake fluid.

So I pulled the wheel cylinder, took a torch and got the bleader and old line loose, honed it, and rebuilt it.



While I was at it I bent and replaced the passenger brake line.

For those that wonder what it looks like to drive with a leaky wheel cylinder, here you go:


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[R_W]

One of the issues I want to address before winter is fixing the big holes in the floor pan. The truck had reasonable carpet, and I wouldn't have found them except for the brown recluse sighting when I first brought her home. 7 years in a barn brings unwanted guests.

Mostly bad toward the hump:


The normal rust spot by the rockers has been repaired in the past with some plates of steel and silly putty. It's good enough I can put a floor pan in, go almost to the rocker, and next summer pull the normal parts and replace them. I hope to have more than normal stability when I do this by not having to do it all at once. I know it duplicates work....but I don't have much of a shop, and driving season is fast on us...

Past the point of no return:

That was the initial first cut, then I'll get closer. I'm hoping all those videos I watched on youtube have me ready for this

Like some of the other floor pans out there, the bolt hole for the cab support was off by 3/4" diagonal. Odd. I think my front cross member looks original, so who knows.

A little fingernail polish on the end of the pointy bolt up from the bottom, and a nice mark for how far off it is:

Looks better on my wife on a Friday night...

A little geometry and a plasma cutter


Flip it on the axis and bingo


Mostly cut in and ready for a fabbed piece under the pedal


I hope I can weld.
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[R_W]

OK so this metal repair thing is a bit addictive, even though I'm not so good at it. Disclaimer before sharing, my welding stinks. My welds are fat and ugly. But my grinder worked, so I suppose I'll get better...

From this:


To this:


I smoothed the welds on the seat side, but not on the firewall side. That will have to come later.

Had to fab up an under gas pedal piece, didn't seem so simple since it had multiple compound angles. I used some cardboard to figure the shape, then bent and welded it. It actually turned out okay.







So I'm back rolling, just in time for driving season...Passenger's side isn't quite as bad, and will have to wait for next summer.

DNR=0
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[Grizz1963]

Complex pieces keep it interesting.

Well done.
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[R_W]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Complex pieces keep it interesting.

Well done.
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Thanks Rian. My geometry is better than my welding...

[R_W]

I thought I could get by for a year or so listening to the sound of the engine until I could do a proper stereo. Plans are for a Kenwood touchscreen in a custom modified dash, amp, subwoofers, custom kick panels. But no, I can't wait.

So I rummaged through the closet and pulled out a vintage 90's CD player, and some 6x9's in a box. Working in an electronics factory I'm a bit particular about my wiring. I like to put in a disconnect, solder all wires, and heat shrink. Also I tend to put strain reliefs in so the wires don't fatigue at the solder joint (ask me how I learned that).


Kenwood stereo connector and vehicle side connector. This allows changing stereos without cutting and soldering inside the vehicle, quite a pain.


Connected to vehicle side connector, ground wire to right, speaker wires snaked under carpet to left, old school.


Dash was already hacked for some krappy kraco I threw away day 1, so no foul putting this guy in.


That is so redneck, but my doors are not cut, and I'm not ready to build kick panels yet.

2 hours and I have tunes. A bit redneck, but worth it.


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[R_W]

I take this to mean the family is not quite ready for a slick paint job...


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[R_W]

Ah dang. I guess it's time to fix the other windshield wiper...

[TJ's Chevy]

LOL! Be careful! When I bought NEW windshield wipers for my truck the wiper motor quit working! HAHAHAHA!! Nice truck!

[R_W]

Originally Posted by T.J. MCCAULEY

LOL! Be careful! When I bought NEW windshield wipers for my truck the wiper motor quit working! HAHAHAHA!! Nice truck!

No good deed goes unpunished!

[rusty76]

Cool truck. Funny about the windshield wipers. Years ago I was headed up to Wytheville VA for a dirt race. Was dark as crap and raining to beat the band. We got into the mountains and the windshield wiper on the passenger side took a dump and left. Used an old sock and some tape to keep it from scratching up the windshield. Crazy times. That was jus the beginning.

[R_W]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Cool truck.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rusty76

Years ago I was headed up to Wytheville VA for a dirt race...

Wytheville is just another section of God's Country, I love it up that way.

[R_W]

Steering has been sloppy with about 30 degrees of slop since I've had her. So I set out to right that a few weeks ago. When one of the wee ones was jerking about on the steering wheel I notice the pitman arm was shot. I assumed that would fix it. Not so much. So I decided to work on tightening down on the steering box, no luck. Then I checked the rag joint. The nut wasn't tightened down and it was just slipping til it caught.

Could have easily ended up wrapped around a tree...



I decided to also replace the steering box, as it was leaking. It took a lot of searching, but the replacement part I found was at O'Reilly's, part # 27-7501. Now she is nice and tight.

[R_W]

A bit past chilly these days in Tennessee, and don't want DHS called with me taking the little ones to school with no heat...Heat exchanger was leaking, and motor blown. Hoses were not even attached. So time for a rebuild.

I did the vinegar soak in a big Walmart tub, took 5 days and nicely ate the rust off the heater box. Don't put the middle piece in, or not in for long...don't ask me how I know, but it's not all steel and vinegar will eat more than the rust away. So I had to contact Tony at 4-5-6 trucks and he shipped me a replacement for $45, and in a rush so I had it for Thanksgiving weekend to rebuild.

Here are the parts soaked, cleaned, primed, and painted:


Used some gasket material I bought at Autozone for the gaskets:




Oldest boy helped me put it together.


Replacement motor and fan from LMC.

[jamesrussell26]

Working on same parts you are here .middle son got aggregated with heater box and fan did not come out fast enough for him bahahahah

[R_W]

Way underwhelmed with the quality of the blower fan...



Look at the warp. It was so bad it rubbed either on top or bottom depending on how I centered it. I had to trim the fins on the the top to get it to stop.

[R_W]

I flushed the system and put in a new 185 F thermostat. For the lower heater hose, the hose specified for a '66 fit, though I did have to cut about 6" off of it. It is a Gates part 20345, a good American based company. For the upper I had to use a Gates 18" flexi. One hose was made in USA the other in Mexico.



Tridon brand hose clamps, made here in Tennessee, were available at Home Depot. Stainless Steel no less.



This thread helps with hose routing:
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...r+hose+routing

I got it all together and....no heat.

I'll save the full dialog, as that was discussed in this thread:
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=608492

But the punchline is I routed the input hose off of the top of the thermostat housing, not the intake.



Once I got the input hose to the right place, I burped the core by loosening the intake hose at the core and pulled it almost all the way back. Started the engine (cold so as not to spill hot coolant) pulled the hose off for a second until there was a steady flow, and popped it back on. If you do this hot you can get burned.

Now the heat is smoking hot. I remember now why back in high school I never bothered to fix the broken fan motor on my first truck...

[R_W]

Originally Posted by jamesrussell26

Working on same parts you are here .middle son got aggregated with heater box and fan did not come out fast enough for him bahahahah

Nothing teaches patience like an old truck!

[rusty76]

Originally Posted by R_W

Thanks!



Wytheville is just another section of God's Country, I love it up that way.

Yeah that's a beautiful place. Great progress on the truck.!

[R_W]

My ultimate idea for a glove box is to build a metal one like Rian, but I got tired of waiting for myself to do it. So I thought I would try my hand at a cardboard reproduction, seeing that the wife had bought herself something nice in a box, I thought the box could be a glove box for me so I could get my money's worth....

I started with what was left of the one that came with it


Then I traced it


A box cutter and a hot glue gun


I picked up some rugged fabric at W*lm*rt and some spray tac. Good old duct tape to re-inforce around the attachment points, and I began to glue pieces in


This part is a lot harder than I expected, I began to tac in a small section, then peel back the fabric and spray once it was in place.

The final product is not bad at all, the pic makes it look wrinkled, though it only has a few "not perfect" bits. I think if I did a second one it would be more close to professional, but it is quite usable and up to most folks standards. The light on the left is an LED board that we make at my work, I'll have to find a circuit to tie it in to so it lights up at an appropriate time. I also poked a hole for an iP*d wire to go through

[R_W]

Been a while. Mostly for the last two years I've been driving the truck, no projects. Then a few weeks ago on the way down the (steep) driveway, I realized my front brakes were out completely, and my rear brakes couldn't hold the truck. Oh - and I hadn't hooked up that e-brake thing yet. One has to keep calm, so I managed to get her to a stop after getting down the drive and onto the flat.

Here is what I found when I got her on the lift, the proportioning valve had been mounted at the frame below the master cylinder. Unfortunately the PO mounted it where one of the front lines was laying on the frame, and with time it rubbed through:

[northern 85]

Good save, glad to see you back!!!

[rusty76]

Glad to see you made it safe.

[R_W]

My plan is to replace booster/master cylinder, all lines that have not already been replaced, and replace front calipers. After some research, it looks like the current booster/master cylinder is from a '72 Impala, which is a decent choice. A rebuild unit was available from O'Reilly's for a decent price, so I grabbed one of those.

PO chose to drill out 4 large sloppy holes to mount the booster:

The 4 clean looking holes in the middle are the original threaded holes.

I plan a hydraulic clutch setup in the future, and would like a cleaner mounting method, so I purchased a bracket and clutch master cylinder setup from CaptainFab http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=651200

It's a very well engineered and fabricated kit, I highly recommend it for the time savings and professional finished product you will have. I rough mounted it:


Then have 3 holes to drill. Due to the tight fit of the clutch master cylinder to the inner fender, you need an extension for your drill: