Restoring Rusty

[cochino12]

looks good

[deejaaa1]

you had some of that good luck with them seats. look s good. great job on fittin' 'em also.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by deejaaa1

you had some of that good luck with them seats. look s good. great job on fittin' 'em also.

thanks, yeah I call it my blind squirrel finding a nut sometimes moment, I learned a lot doing this I knew this was going to be my Seat Swap 1.0 and I did not expect perfection, if this was not my daily driver I would go for just two nicer wider buckets like maybe out of a van ie the middle row but since I have to take my son and daughter at times I need to be able to seat three sometimes

[Gregski]

Confessions of a Daily Driver

As you may recall last month in March my '74 became my daily driver, but since my wife had foot surgery and was off of work for most of the month, I must admit I cheated and drove her 2010 Honda Pilot instead, mea culpa

but I took that time to make a few changes to make the truck more driveable

1. I put the power steering back on, on a 4,000 pound truck it just makes sense

2. I put the Magnaflow mufflers back on since my 12 year old daughter complained the Thrush Rattlers were just too loud

3. I finished the carburetor conversion from a 4160 to a 4150 (duel fuel inlets instead of a single, and center hung float bowls instead of side hung) and I was able to tune it so it runs the best it ever had

4. and you most recently seen me replace the bench seat with buckets plus a middle jump seat

all these things make the truck more suited for daily driving, and this month (April) I drive it daily

I've been watching my MPGs and they went from 12.6 MPG to 13.8 so with a 16 gallon tank I can get 220 miles out of a tank, but I have a system where I fill it up every 200 miles and use the odometer as a guide, so at 4,200 then at 4,400, then at 4,600

one more thing, I am about to hit 5,000 miles on the newly rebuilt motor and brand new speedometer, happy days

[LT7A]

Good work on the seats and drive-ability changes.

[green72s]

Congratulations on all recent mods. It sounds like you've got it dialed in really well. I wish I could get mileage like that (13.8) out of mine. I consistently get about 12.3 out of my stock '79 with a 305, two barrel, automatic.

[Gregski]

just a quick update Rusty and I completed our first Road Trip today, a 250 mile round trip run from Sacramento California to San Jose and back.

Happen to turn over 5,000 miles on the newly rebuilt motor, brand new speedo, and new(ish) 833 GM overdrive 4 speed transmission. Truck ran strong but the tranny may be headed for a rebuild, shifts good but makes noises like the bearings are going out.

[pontgta]

Originally Posted by Gregski

just a quick update Rusty and I completed our first Road Trip today, a 250 mile round trip run from Sacramento California to San Jose and back.

Happen to turn over 5,000 miles on the newly rebuilt motor, brand new speedo, and new(ish) 833 GM overdrive 4 speed transmission. Truck ran strong but the tranny may be headed for a rebuild, shifts good but makes noises like the bearings are going out.

For a minute there, i thought you had reached 88 mph, and had gone back in time.:lol.

Nice work as always

[flashed]

Congrats on the first of many roadtrips .

[rusty76]

Congrats on the truck. Bummer on the tranny. Maybe you'll show us some magic on the rebuild.

[Gregski]

sometimes the easiest of jobs turn difficult...

so the headlight knob came off the puller rod thingie about 2 years ago, right about when I got the truck

about a year ago I found a replacement knob / rod thingie at the junkyard and spent two hours pulling it, yes I know there is a tiny button you push under the aperatus to simply pull it out (IN THEORY THAT IS) but try that on a junked 40 year old car in 102* F heat and well you get the idea

I tried to replace it but I could never get my rod out of my unit, no matter how hard I tried

well a year later I got re motivated and today I yanked the old rod out, had to take the whole headlight switch unit out of the dash, and sit in my thinking chair and fandangle with it for about an hour but finally it somehow slid out

so I install the switch back in the truck, oh had to remove the gauge bezel first to get to that silly screw on nut, anyway get the gauge bezel back on get the switch pluged back in, go to slide the new rod in and what the hewk? the new rod is too short, are you kidding me

so, well, I didn't become a Certified JB Welder for nothin' so I decided to JB weld my old headlight knob back on, but figured I would share this little escapade

[Jstock85]

I replaced my switch a few months back and they don't look like much but are difficulty to work on. Getting it out was a PIA and that little button doesn't exactly cooperate either...

[Gregski]

finally got around to installing a new coolant overflow tank, this thing is from Summit and it seems alright

I kinda mounted it low, and then read the instructions which state mount it as high as possible, so not sure if this will pose a problem, maybe some of you can comment

I hope this helps or takes care of my coolant disappearing problem as it seems every week I add a half gallon or so now that the rig is my daily

[flashed]

The only problem I can see you having is when the radiator gets low it may not suck up out of that as low as it is .

[Gregski]

it's been a while since The Greg updated so first of all thank you all for reading and commenting, sometimes the stars just align and things seem like they are meant to be, my parking tag from work is a validation of that as my buddy Mopar Seth pointed out yesterday (and yes I've had this stupid tag on there for years and never noticed that it matched the year of the truck, LOL)

YEAH, B Lot baby!!!

[Gregski]

also I am excited this morning to finally head out to Lucky's in West Sac to have my two new rear tires mounted to match the two on the front, I've been driving around with Goodyear Wrangler Radials int he front (like em) and Cooper Trendsetters (yes they actually say that) on the rear

so question is, do we go Laces Out? or white lettering in? I really like the white letters on these Wranglers because they have three words on the tire and it looks Kill-A

please lemme know what you think fellers

[Gregski]

da boys at Lucky Tire doing their thang - Safety Third, my kinda place

[Gregski]

so went Laces Out and luv it

[Smniekamp]

I love the "laces out" look, good choice!

[rgunlock]

With those solid black wheels I think you nailed it!

[rusty76]

Looks cool. Glad to see an update on rusty.

[harley87ta]

I'm really liking the white letters out. With everyone running blackwalls it's a nice change to see. Plus the goodyears have a good look. I have two different brand tires on mine so letters out may look a little funny. But I may tempted to try it out after seeing yours.

[st1]

When I was a kid that was the style white letter tires. so when I got a car that is exactly what I got. Two at a time of course. Did it on my 78 too. Looks sweet against the black wheels. NICE!!!

[GRAY GOOSE]

Updates ?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by GRAY GOOSE

Updates ?

yes, on Fathers Day my passenger side black aftermarket mirror just broke off and fell off and a few days later my driver side snapped off on the freeway when I passed a Grayhound bus, so went back to the stock 40 year old chrome mirrors, they sure dont make things like they used to