Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by y5mgisi

Still one of my favorite threads.

thank you so much, the feedback died down a bit so Rusty was all like am I dumpin' all this oil on your driveway for nothin'? and I was like no bro, keep those leaks going so you can git a new enjin - If we build it they will come!

[rusty76]

Glad to see you got rusty back together. Sometimes we take a few steps back just to leap forward. New engine would be cool.

[Gregski]

WHEN YOUR FAMILY KNOWS YOU DRIVE A CHEVY... lol

[Gregski]

somehow I got off Santa's Naughty List this year, notice I didn't say I was nice... exactly, lol

[Gregski]

a couple years back I replaced my original '74 old and tired gauges with '78 style (electric oil pressure rather than mechanical, etc.) brand new ones. Yet it was still 40 year old technology, so there is no time like the present, (get it I said "present" ha ha) I mean electronics work makes for a great winter project, as there is no crawling on your back (usually) or getting coolant or oil all over yourself during winter time

so we will be replacing the brand new OEM Speedo and Tach with the brand new DIGITAL [pronounced] "super awesome and incredibly easy to tune, with additional goodies"

join me why don't you

[Gregski]

a parting look at the ol' setup

honestly the straw that finally broke the camels toe on these gauges was that one of the turn indicator lights went out, I forget which side, but I was running a brand new circuit board and I spent $7.5 million dollars on all new bulbs, and it did me dirty like that, so I'll show you Rusty...

[Palf70Step]

Love the tach. But yeah, these gauge pods sometimes will try your patience, especially that circuit board thingie.

[Gregski]

Mandatory Stare and Compare

Old Gauges vs The New "Summit" aka Intellitronix ones

man I totally forgot the new ones are that much smaller, but hey, why in the world would we expect an exact fit (it's like buying replacement shower tiles at Home Depot 10 years after your house was built, ain't gonna happen) lol

[Gregski]

note the Speedo on the left requires this Gizmotron to convert mechanical speedo gear output into electronic current

it's also funny how Summit is like all, yeah digital speedo $5.00 dollars, special drive unit... $100.00 dollars, ha ha

[Gregski]

so let's see if we can make these Intellitronix gauges work, man so close...

[Gregski]

... and then this happened,

what? you didn't expect this to be easy?

I swear I didn't drop it or nothin' it just came apart in my hand, and it looks like the back of that plexi glass still has the backing paper so they didn't finish building / gluing it, I guess some factory worker was late on his Christmas shopping and decided to leave early that Friday afternoon, lol

Q/A be dammned!

[Gregski]

alright, you guys didn't really buy that story that I tore the dash apart due to a faulty turn signal light did you?, sure that was the final straw, but the bigger issue was the most annoying clutch pedal squeaking sound ever, that's right we fix the transmission, and Rusty says OMG, must make other annoying noise, and oh boy did he deliver

and once again DORMAN lets me down, if you recall we rebuilt the entire pedal assembly real nice painted it and all and even shoved new plastic bushings in it no more than two years ago, even greased it up with white lightning grease (I'm looking at you Hatzie) that took two weeks to ship cross country, ha ha, and once again the original bushings lasted 40 years the new flimzy ones two!!!

and of course Rusty drew blood on that garage door like spring removal off the clutch pedal, those of you with manual transmission are nodding your heads right now I bet, that spring could kill a medium sized horse

[hatzie]

That's miserable... What did Dorman use to make the bushings?
Can you turn some new ones out of bronze or brass?

[Palf70Step]

Those springs definitely keep you on your toes. I had a very similar mark from my 64 when I did the clutch and tranny.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Those springs definitely keep you on your toes. I had a very similar mark from my 64 when I did the clutch and tranny.

it seems the trick is to allow the pedal to come all the way forward, but to do that I had to remove that long pivot bolt, so who knows what gives in that contraption

[Gregski]

so I picked up some [ahem] "Direct Replacement" (yeah right) bushings from NAPA for $10 bucks. I think I know where I went wrong with these last time. It appears this is one of 'em variety assortment packs where you get one good fit pair of bushings and the other two pairs don't fit right, but it's late at night and you need your project done so you put the good pair on the brake pedal and the junk on the clutch pedal, ha ha

well this time we will put the good fit on the clutch pedal

You know what they say: "If you ain't doing it over, you ain't Hot Roddin'" OK, maybe I just made that up

[Gregski]

alright now let's get back to the fun stuff, it was time to fab the Digital Gauge Mounting Plate, aka the DGMP

so we start off with some cardboard like they do on TV

[Gregski]

then we transfer that template to our carefully selected piece of scrap metal, (ie the first one we saw from the corner of our eye) cause we run what we brong

then over to our organic outdoor metal brake station facility

[Gregski]

then we remember Rule #1. Don't Get Dead

... so we bust out our precision instrument the protractor like thingie and decide to round the corners

and we give it some sandy paper love

[Gregski]

a quick test fit, that should work

[Schroedum]

Man I found this thread a few weeks ago and have been chipping away at it a little every day. Mr. The-Greg you motivated me to rev up my work on my truck and I went to my local pick and pull, got a tailgate, some trim, and had all sorts of :not: fun with spray can aircraft stripper.

I fully blame you. Haha

Thanks for your years of sharing here, it makes a difference out there it really does.

Rock on brother

[Palf70Step]

Liking how the gauge fit is going. Looking to see the rest.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Schroedum

Man I found this thread a few weeks ago and have been chipping away at it a little every day. Mr. The-Greg you motivated me to rev up my work on my truck and I went to my local pick and pull, got a tailgate, some trim, and had all sorts of :not: fun with spray can aircraft stripper.

I fully blame you. Haha

Thanks for your years of sharing here, it makes a difference out there it really does.

Rock on brother

Awesum, everyone needs a little motivation, what got me off the couch five years ago or so was a little amateur video (at the time) called ROADKILL on Motortrend a channel of YouTube later on Velocity, the boys have sold out since then but I still recommend you give them a looksie

thanks for the great feedback and enjoy yourself, you will have set backs, you will strip a few bolts and not all your cuts will be straight, but chics love a guy with grease under his fingers, that or a really big bank account, one of the two

peace n chicken grease
The Greg

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Liking how the gauge fit is going. Looking to see the rest.

thanks, well let's do it

at first I drilled two small holes just large enuff for the screws and one big one to feed the wires through...

[Gregski]

then I realized them gauges have nipples and if I wanted them to sit flush with the backing plate I would have to open up them holes sum

we adjust and overcome people!