Trying to make Junky perhaps just a little bit Funky...

[DD1]

Very quick update:

The weather reports keep lying to us; it was supposed to be 61 and sunny today, instead it was 50 and cloudy. Got a bit more blasting done last weekend as I was testing out the blaster.

Tonight I removed the top plate of the carburetor and cleaned out around the float. It was pretty dirty; hopefully that will fix the problem of gas overflowing from the carb. I will start it up in the morning and see if it works properly. I will also be more careful and make sure it's covered from when not in use from now on. I don't think I need a new float; hopefully that will be the case.

[DD1]

I actually had a pretty productive weekend.

Saturday morning I started the engine and it flooded pretty quickly. After taking the top of the carb again and examining the float and needle, as I started to reassemble it I noticed I had forgotten to tighten two of the screws on the front of the carb. By " forgot to tighten," I mean I did not screw them in at all.

After removing and reassembling the top plate about two more times due to my making stupid mistakes, I finally got it done right and the engine now starts up and runs nicely.

These are the screws that I forgot to tighten.


Then I went outside and blasted the primer off the new trailing arms and crossmember, and Saturday night I painted them and some other parts with Chassis Saver since the temperature was in the mid-to-high fifties most of the night.


On Sunday I got creative and used an oversized tarp to create a blasting tent inside the garage; I got most of the areas that I wanted to blast completed, although even with the lights I used it's hard to see what I am doing while blasting under the tarp.

[DD1]

I messed around with the rocker panel today while I was waiting for someone, then I went back to some more indoor blasting.

I hung a 3.5 mil plastic sheet in the back of my garage, laid down another tarp, and blasted away. I used the handheld spot blaster for where the axle U-Bolt goes. There will be plenty of dust towards the front, but a lot of it went out the open garage door. so it's not that big of a deal.

Tomorrow it should be in the low 60's so I can paint the rest of the small parts and the blasted areas of the frame, and maybe get those trailing arms back on next week.

[DD1]

Last weekend after painting the areas I blasted and thinking I was done blasting indoors, I was ready to install the new trailing arms and I ran into two problems:

1. I had no idea where my wife put them in the basement.
2. I discovered I had missed an important spot with the blasting. The area under the frame where the shock plate goes was not fully blasted and was pretty nasty.

This weekend I resolved both problems and came up with a new one, which I fortunately found a solution too.

On Friday night I blasted the remaining part of the frame, and installed the cross-member for the back of the frame.
Saturday morning I painted Chassis Saver on the above mentioned part I blasted. I also found the U-Bolts, but one of the U-Bolts was bent inwards too much and there was only 3" of clearance at the end.

I did try to correct it myself but had no luck, and the place I bought them from was less than helpful. A friend who works in a body shop offered to go over there with me tonight to try to straighten it out. We put the U-Bolt in a Big-Ass Vise (probably the largest I have ever seen) and used a Big-Ass pipe to straighten out one side of the U-Bolt.

Here is the pics of the too-bent U-bolt compared to the correct one:


Here are some of the areas I blasted and painted with Chassis Saver, and the new frame cross-member I installed.

[72 tigger]

Nice attention to detail

[DD1]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Nice attention to detail

Thanks!

[DD1]

Today worked out pretty well. Wish I had more time to work in the garage, but my friend was going to HF so I went along because I had a box of glass media to return. I also had to go back to his shop for some U-Bolt adjustment, and of course visit the in-laws for Easter.

The U-Bolt we adjusted last night worked great. The other one seemed to be a bit too wide, so we stuck it in the Big-Ass Vise and squeezed it in a bit. Then I put it back in the trailing arm, but was still having the same problem - when I tried to add the shock plate, it would not fit on the bolt. After wasting time trying a few different tricks, the smart move finally occurred to me; I banged the U-Bolt up about halfway, slipped on the shock mount plate, and banged it back down. This worked; I guess something about the way the trailing arm was squeezing the U-Bolt prevented the shock plate from fitting.

The goal is to have the rear reassembled by next weekend. I don't see any reason why that won't happen.



Also installed the spring plate and the frame reinforcement plate on the right side. Need to get some more bolts to finish the job on the left side, plus need to get two bolts about 1/2" longer where it goes through the frame reinforcement and the shock plate. Will tighten and torque everything in the next couple of days, and install the springs / shocks.

[crakarjax]

Looks like those bolts are giving you enough room for some drop blocks!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

Looks like those bolts are giving you enough room for some drop blocks!

Even if I wanted to lower the truck, which I don't, the last thing I need right now is to change plans and create more work for myself. You did make me laugh though, thanks.

[DD1]

Today with the help of a friend, I got the springs and struts installed. Still need to torque all the bolts. I will install the rear sway bar either Tuesday or Wednesday and torque everything at the same time. Will need to borrow a torque wrench that reaches 100 lbs for the U-Bolt nuts; mine only goes to 150.

Decided I will probably just clean the frame and paint Chassis Saver right over the rust. I am not going to bother blasting the entire frame. I'll save the time, money, and media for the body panels.

[crakarjax]

Careful with those cinder blocks, they aren't meant to carry load on their sides like that!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

Careful with those cinder blocks, they aren't meant to carry load on their sides like that!

Thanks for the tip! I did not know that. The truck has been sitting on those blocks for almost a year now. It won't be on there much longer though; once I get the wheels on, it's going back on the ground.

[DD1]

I could use some advice. I guess I should have installed the sway bar first. Now I can't get it to reach far enough into the top bracket. Any suggestions that don't involve taking everything apart?

[crakarjax]

You just need to shove your rearend over to get the panhard bar to engage. It may take some force but it will go.

[DD1]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

You just need to shove your rearend over to get the panhard bar to engage. It may take some force but it will go.

Thanks, Crakarjax. We got the bar in place today. Took quite a bit of force; we ended up using a come-a-long to pull the rear end to the frame, and a bunch of banging.

I am wondering if I need to rotate the differential up a bit? Maybe I had it pointed too low when I installed the trailing arms. I never disconnected it from the driveshaft, but I don't think the diff cover should be pointed downwards.

I don't know if you can tell it's not straight in these pics.

WAIT: EDIT - I forgot about the bracket for the U-Bolts. It's not possible to mount the differential in the wrong position because of that. I had a major brain fart.

[DD1]

I also just realized from looking at an old picture, that I mounted the shocks on the inside of the shock plates, and they were originally installed on the outside. At least I have not put everything back together yet.

[DD1]

After I got back from the Mac n Cheese Fest today, I went back to the truck.

The goal was to torque the trailing arm, shocks, springs, and U-Bolts. Also wanted to cut the U-Bolts a bit shorter since I couldn't even get a deep socket to take the nuts all the way up to the top, and these nuts are 1 inch long.

Had to borrow a torque wrench from Autozone because mine only goes to 150 and the U-Bolts torque at 200. Torquing at 200 is not easy; ended up using my heavy duty impact gun to probably over-torque it, then confirmed with the torque wrench it was at least 200.

We put the wheels back on and dropped it to the ground. I have had it raised for so long, I forgot what the actual height was for the truck. It looked really small after I put it back on all four wheels.

Going to work on the front end next; ordered new everything from Rock Auto including the springs, ball joints, control arm bushings, and tie rods. Will also change the brake pads, and hoping to get the rotors cut and sabe some coin.

[DD1]

Started tearing apart the front end today. This has always been out of my comfort zone, but I had a friend around to help out. Took off the wheel, caliper, & rotor. Grinded down the rivets on the top of the ball joint and removed the upper ball joint, which got destroyed in the process. Still have to pound out the rivets, which I wish I had done while it was still attached to the frame. Then removed the upper control arm.

Washed the arm and the dust shield in degreaser, then will blast and paint the parts.

The new parts from Rock Auto will be here on Tuesday, and my goal is to have everything done by May 9, because after that my help won't be around.

Removing the spring was a comedy of trials. First I went to borrow a friends spring compressor, but it was not the right type for these springs; then I borrowed one from Autozone, but it would not fit inside the access hole on the lower control arm. Finally, we put the jack under the lower arm and jacked it up a bit, then removed the shock, then lowered the jack slowly.

I don't know if the original springs are in decent shape or not; I'll compare them to the new ones when they come in. But for $75 for the pair, it was worth getting new springs along with everything else.




This is after I cleaned it up a bit. Still have some work to do.

[cornerstone]

Making progress always feels good!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Making progress always feels good!

Yes, it does! Thanks! Hopefully I can get everything back together!

[DD1]

Today I made a failed attempt at removing the lower ball joint from the spindle. Decided I will have to borrow or buy a tool tomorrow or Wednesday. Since my work trip got canceled, I am taking Wednesday off to work on the truck.

Cleaned up the bracket the A-Arm attaches too. Removed the rivets from the A-Arm, cleaned and blasted it, removed the shaft and bushings, cleaned and blasted again.

The bushings came out way easier than I expected. After I used a vise, pipe wrench, and a large pipe to unscrew the caps, the rubber was intact and the entire shaft came right out.

Top is the shaft and bushings, bottom is the bracket and shims. I took this pic to keep track of how many shims were on each side.


The A-Arm before and after. Still needs some more cleaning and blasting.


Close up of the shaft and bushings.

[mattfranklin]

Wow! You are flying on this thing. Nice quality workmanship, and great pictures, too.

[DD1]

Originally Posted by mattfranklin

Wow! You are flying on this thing. Nice quality workmanship, and great pictures, too.

Thanks, Matt! Getting the cab finished is going to be the real challenge!

Decided last night to order from Amazon the seals for the Calipers, replacement U-Bolts for the lower A-Arm, and the Disc Brake hardware kit.

My parts came in from Rock Auto today. I noticed something interesting when looking at the Outer Tie Rod Ends. I ordered all AC Delco parts; I did not want to spend a fortune on this and as much as I would have liked to get MOOG, it was not in the budget. So here is my observation:

- Each Tie Rod Ends came in an AC Delco box with the same part number on each box.
- One of the Tie Rod Ends has "MOOG" stamped on the rubber boot and on the back of the Tie Rod.
- The MOOG Tie Rod has longer threading than the AC Delco Tie Rod. Other than this (and the stamps), they are exactly identical.

Makes me wonder if MOOG and AC Delco are manufactured at the same place and just branded differently.

[DD1]

Another productive evening. Went to Advance Auto and borrowed the Ball Joint Install/Removal kit.

The new sleeves I bought for the tie rods are tight on 3 sides of the 2 sleeves. The tie rods won't fit into them properly. Not sure if I should try spreading them on my own or returning them.

The spindle was stuck on the BJ bolt for the lower Arm; I had to rig the kit to press it out a bit. Once it got loose, I had to cut the top of the bolt off; I had pounded on it with a hammer and it flattened out a bit. I cleaned the arm with some degreaser and will blast it tomorrow. This pic is before I cleaned it.



Removed the tie rods and half of the Idler Arm. The other side of the idler arm would not come out no matter how much I banged it with a sledge hammer. Decided to deal with it tomorrow.



Removed the piston and blasted the caliper a bit. Not perfect, but good enough to paint.

[DD1]

I did not get a lot done today as I found some home projects that needed to be done like getting the car inspected and mowing the lawn. But I did make a lot of progress anyway.

My goal was to blast and clean the lower control arm and the spindle.

- I got the idler arm off the truck by removing the bracket from the frame, putting it in a vise, pounding the bolt with a sledge hammer which loosened it up, then using the fork to pop it off the rest of the way.

- A friend of mine showed me what I was doing wrong with the tie rod sleeves. I did not know that one side has a reverse thread, and he showed me some weird trick that involved first turning the tie rod the wrong way, and after hearing a click turning it the proper way.

- Blasted the lower arm pretty well. Not done yet, but getting there. I blasted it outside with the portable blaster. It's faster than the cabinet and I did not think it would fit it the cabinet, but it does fit.

- Started blasting/cleaning the spindle.

- I can't remember if I mentioned that I broke the glass lens on my blasting hood, but the new one came in from China today.

- I also changed the glass protector on my blasting cabinet, which helped me see a lot better (go figure). I really need to setup some a dust vacuum system. I probably need to change the media, but I figured if I am blasting grease, dirt, and grime off the part, I might as well contaminate old media.

Here are pics of the somewhat cleaned parts. I was using the blaster to remove dirt as well as rust. Some of the areas I had to scrape dirt off was a game of "is this metal or dirt?"



I removed the shaft and bushings from the arm. After finally getting the nuts to break, the bushings were pretty easy. I just had to slice one of them to get it out.


I taped the actual spindle to prevent accidentally blasting it. I blasted this in the cabinet so it's a slower process. Will work on it again tomorrow night. Blasting it made it easier to find the spots with dirt built up. You can see the dirt pile below from scraping with a screwdriver.