Something to tinker with...

[Palf70Step]

Yep.....that about describe the feelins here....400 degrees, 300 percent humidity, even without rain.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Spent a little time this afternoon pulling the bent core support so I can remove the engine and transmission next. Then it will be able to be moved inside my little shop and I won't be so restricted by weather when I get time to work on it.

Can see in the picture of the core support, the driver side headlight is not sitting straight, damage from the previous fender-bender.

[diveplane]

nice job

[Big Daddy Bear]

Thanks! Planning on getting the engine & tranny out in the next day or two as a local guy buys transmission cores, good for a $100.00 back into the truck fund when I get it pulled, so there is a little more motivation now...

[Big Daddy Bear]

Engine and transmission out and now time to start cleaning up the engine compartment. Once I get all the dirty work done, it can then be rolled into the shop so I don't have to work around weather issues...small progress, but still moving forward!!

[diveplane]

wow amazing seeing the motor out

[Big Daddy Bear]

Poor thing is starting to look a little spindly, just a cab and the fenders...

Have to find time to hit the Dollar Store up for some spray oven cleaner and get the engine bay cleaned-up.

[LT7A]

Nice project you got there. You're just down the street from me more or less, ha. If you haven't used Simple Green, you might be really surprised a little work if it takes to get the engine bay a lot cleaner. A lot of times I'll spray it down with simple green, let it soak while I'm doing something else and then hose It off. Two or three treatments like that and it starts to look pretty darn good. The paint looks pretty good in there and you might etch it with oven cleaner. Although I guess I recall that you might be changing paint colors.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Thanks, I dragged it and the parts truck home from close to your general neck of the woods, give or take. One from Tacoma and the other from Renton.

I have never tried the Simple Green, usually just grab the cheap oven cleaner. Have never noticed any paint etching, but good thing to keep in mind if I weren't going to eventually change the color.

[okndn]

I am in for the build

[Big Daddy Bear]

Pulled the fenders and started removing stuff from the firewall. Almost ready to move it inside the shop, just have to give it a good scrub down to get rid of the oil and grime.

All things considered though, I have had engine bays in much worse condition to start from.

[Big Daddy Bear]

First round of cleaning the gunk away, a little Dollar Store spray on oven cleaner and a few blasts with the pressure washer.

[Big Daddy Bear]

In the shop now and out of the weather!! YEAH!!!!

[Big Daddy Bear]

Half-price holiday weekend sale at the Pick-n-Pull....Scored!!!!

1989 grill, dual headlights & turn signals, and a pair of bucket seats to adapt inplace of the bench seat.

[mingoman]

Nice score!

[Big Daddy Bear]

Thanks, it was fun! That grill & headlights came off a 1989 shortbed, 2WD with a 5.7, so waitng for it to get picked down a liitle more because I could get the bare frame for about 1/3rd the cost of any other wrecking yards around here, and this is only if they have one, then are $1000.00 before taxes and such. This would be $275.00 before taxes, so worth trying for...if I hit on another half-off sale, then even better.

If I could do that, it would mean just swapping my rust free, clean cab & bed onto it and not having to mess with shortening the long bed frame and changing motor mounts from the V-6 ones...but it still currently has motor, tranny, and all the sheet metal still in place, so being by myself will be a big job using only what the yard allows for carry-in tools.

This was it before I grabbed the grill and stuff:

[Big Daddy Bear]

Found a short wheel base parts truck, pretty well picked over now, was a 454 SS clone....now just a cab, fenders and rolling frame...oh, and a really cool steering wheel!!

Plan for it is to finish stripping down to bare frame and scrapping the rest since it really has no value as replacement parts.

Then start cleaning it up and, probably over winter start collecting replacement suspension parts.

May still play around with shortening the LWB frame, especially now that I have something to sit side-by-side and use for measurements...will see how ambitious I get.

Haven't decided if having the bare frame blasted and powder coated or just blasted and then paint it...but that won't be likely be until next spring, so no need to rush into decisions

[Big Daddy Bear]

Got the newest one stripped down to just a "roller." Working alone, it sure is nice to have the tractor to do the heavy lifting. Makes for a quick and easy cab removal & loading of the big stuff, especially if you don't care about a few scratches or a couple (okay maybe 87) dings here and there...

Managed to save the entire front wire harness for the dual headlights, one of the few sections that hadn't been cut up and spliced into by the previous owner.

Got a few extra bits off it for the next swap meet, and the rest is headed to the scrap yard tomorrow, so a few extra dollars headed back into the project fund is always welcome.

My bride came home from work this evening, when she walked in the door, her first words were, "Is that a load coming in or going out?"

[HipToBeSquared]

Awesome build! I will be following. I had a 92 W/T1500, same color with a 4.3. It was an awesome truck, I wish I still had it. The interior was almost perfect. For here in Illinois it had very little rust but had the bad primer and the blue was flaking off. I didn't want to mess with stripping down to bare metal and repainting. I eventually sold it but wish I had it back.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Originally Posted by HipToBeSquared

Awesome build! I will be following. I had a 92 W/T1500, same color with a 4.3. It was an awesome truck, I wish I still had it. The interior was almost perfect. For here in Illinois it had very little rust but had the bad primer and the blue was flaking off. I didn't want to mess with stripping down to bare metal and repainting. I eventually sold it but wish I had it back.

Thanks!

[Big Daddy Bear]

Sold a few parts off the latest parts truck and used that to pick-up a TH400 tranny from a 70's 3/4 ton truck.

Needs some cleaning, but the fluid is good, still red and not burnt, so hopefully will be a good starting point. If not useable, I would have not had a core should I needed to buy a rebuilt one, so now I do.

May even try rebuilding it myself...

[Big Daddy Bear]

Been awhile and not a lot going on due to other things requiring my attention.

But I did sell the blue bench seat and sat the buckets in to see how they would look/work.

Other than a little adapting needed at the mounting points, I think they will work just fine.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Also had some bad news from a close family friend and, long story short, the husband is in an extended care facility and due to the seriousness of his health issues is not coming out.

So have been helping her around the house, hard part about that is it is an hour drive away, so really eats up a day.

I am taking the one-owner, 1973 K20 Chevy truck that he bought new in 1972, but has been in disrepair and sat for several years.

So it has some gray whiskers and age lines...not sure what the plans are for it right now as I have been helping with several other vehicles which are in various states of non-running condition, trailers and a boat.

But for now it is out of her driveway and tucked away here till I get time to mess with it.

But I had a small window of opportunity when a fellow wanted to buy the bench seat, so at least a little was accomplished.

Anyway, just took a few minutes for a quick update as I had actually done something in the way of progress.

[Palf70Step]

Sorry to hear about your friend. What did the bucket seats come out of? They look pretty good in the truck.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Thanks, it is a sad deal, but trying to do what I can to take care of the stuff she can't.

They are from a Honda Passport.