The Hillbilly Deluxe dually build

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by 77ChevySharkBite

Your truck is coming along really great i'm loving it!!

Thank you

Originally Posted by ryanroo

That does look 100% better. i am glad you went back over it and filled that groove. makes it look totally gucci! the button heads were worth the wait as well

"Gucci". Valerie got a kick out of that.

Originally Posted by bigblock73

Love the fuel filler update...great job!!

Thank you

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Yes sir. Just let me know a Sat/Sun when you get things swapped as you want them & I'll drive out to the station like before. The Mrs was correct.... the 'revised' filler area is better.

They've got your name on them. You can see the glacial pace I am working at here so it might be a little bit before I get them swapped out, but never fear, I will save them for you until we can put together a day for me to bring them to work.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

They've got your name on them. You can see the glacial pace I am working at here so it might be a little bit before I get them swapped out, but never fear, I will save them for you until we can put together a day for me to bring them to work.

No worries.

[Stoney]

Truck looks awesome.

[joe231]

Originally Posted by squaredaway

Somebody call me??? j/k

Great build as usual, Keith. I am watching this, but miss the Ayer's Garage Facebook page with all of the powdercoating shots! Has the 78 sold?

Who is Keith?


Looks very nice Tex!!
I'm so very proud of you for moving over to the "Square Side"

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by joe231

Who is Keith?


Looks very nice Tex!!
I'm so very proud of you for moving over to the "Square Side"

Wait till I start on the 4 wheel drive. I'll be over there annoying the guys on the 88-98 section. Plus my build I did in the 60-66 section, and all the builds I did in the 67-72 section. I'm a universal annoyer.

[squaredaway]

Originally Posted by joe231

Who is Keith?


Looks very nice Tex!!
I'm so very proud of you for moving over to the "Square Side"

In my haste I misspoke. I am very sorry, Kevin aka Tex. In my defense, there are a ton of Keiths and Kevins on this board, but I did get the last name right... I think. Again, my apologies...

[83GMCK2500]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Wait till I start on the 4 wheel drive. I'll be over there annoying the guys on the 88-98 section. Plus my build I did in the 60-66 section, and all the builds I did in the 67-72 section. I'm a universal annoyer.

I should have known with 12,000+ posts that you would have more build threads. I am going to have to dig them up, I thoroughly enjoy following your projects. Between your old German boss and father in law, it is a pleasure to see the level of detail and attention you put into your vehicles.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by squaredaway

In my haste I misspoke. I am very sorry, Kevin aka Tex. In my defense, there are a ton of Keiths and Kevins on this board, but I did get the last name right... I think. Again, my apologies...

No apologies needed. I actually went back recently and put my name in my signature for this reason. I've met about 8 dozen board members in person and always struggle to know their real name. You hate to meet someone at a show or swapmeet and refer to them as "superdooperCheyenne" or whatever he goes by on here. With threads like this, it's a nice deal to get to know who you're talking with. I wish everyone was required to put their name in their signature on this board.

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

I should have known with 12,000+ posts that you would have more build threads. I am going to have to dig them up, I thoroughly enjoy following your projects. Between your old German boss and father in law, it is a pleasure to see the level of detail and attention you put into your vehicles.

Here the the two most recent build threads before this one.

My 89 short bed.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=520633

My 63. This was a pretty cool little truck. I was honored to have it chosen for TOTM.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=373970

[83GMCK2500]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Here the the two most recent build threads before this one.

My 89 short bed.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=520633

My 63. This was a pretty cool little truck. I was honored to have it chosen for TOTM.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=373970

Thank you, I will bookmark them. I just briefly checked out the '89, very nice. I feel that I have this knack for sticking my foot in my mouth...I misread your PM to me when you asked me about the 4x4, somehow I got the impression you hadn't worked on GMT-400s much. Oops. Going to go back to lurking a bit.

[Palf70Step]

I had forgotten about your 89 SWB. I loved the looks/color scheme on it!

[darkhorse970]

I really liked that '63! I wish I had it in my stable!!

[Primered_69]

i liked the green truck best

[joe231]

Haha!

[Sodell]

So what ever happened to your step boy?

[Tx Firefighter]

You fellas review my old build threads all you want. I'm pretty much done. I'm gonna finish this dually and get the 4 wheel drive squared up some to make it reliable and then I'm done. I'm getting older (middle aged now!) and don't want to spend much more of my life going down the same old road with Chevy trucks. I doubt I'll ever build another short bed truck. I think a dozen or whatever is enough for one man.

Why drive down the same street over and over when there's so many other streets in the world to explore.

Last year, I invited another board member over to my shop and filled up the bed of his 14 foot flatbed with parts I gave him. You name, I gave it away. Transmissions, body parts, engines, wheels, grilles, all of it.

The other day my buddy Mike was at my shop and he told me he believed me when I said I was tired and getting near the end since he saw my trailer piled up with stuff I'm scrapping.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Sodell

So what ever happened to your step boy?

As far as we know he's in the Army. He had a rough spell. Because of that my wife had a rough spell. There's been some bumps in the road. I hope he's growing and figuring himself and life out. They say the Army is pretty good at that stuff for guys who need guidance and growth.

[Sodell]

Kevin, you never know what holds for the future. I retired from the military in 06 and started a new career- probably in your future for a Firefighter. I used to race cars in the 80's and early 90's switched over to 4x4 wheeling, and now I have a lowered square along with my LWB 88. I have a few more cars including my wife's 81 spider (I hate that car BTW). Anyway, can't figure you being older than me, or most of the people who read this, but once your kids grow old and are gone you will get board and find something to do. Don't think some body as busy as you is just going to sit around. Whatever it is you might find yourself getting into....

Somebody should start a knuckleheaded show called "back yard garage" or some crap. Heck they have shows about guys cleaning trash out of garages these days...LOL

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Sodell

Kevin, you never know what holds for the future. I retired from the military in 06 and started a new career- probably in your future for a Firefighter. I used to race cars in the 80's and early 90's switched over to 4x4 wheeling, and now I have a lowered square along with my LWB 88. I have a few more cars including my wife's 81 spider (I hate that car BTW). Anyway, can't figure you being older than me, or most of the people who read this, but once your kids grow old and are gone you will get board and find something to do. Don't think some body as busy as you is just going to sit around. Whatever it is you might find yourself getting into....

Somebody should start a knuckleheaded show called "back yard garage" or some crap. Heck they have shows about guys cleaning trash out of garages these days...LOL

I don't want to lend the impression that I'm gonna sit around collecting stamps. Actually the opposite. These old trucks have taken so much of my time, effort, and money that I've neglected a lot of other areas of my life. I've got 11 acres that need tending to. Heck, I need to build a carport in front of my shop so I have some shade to work in. My tractor never starts without fussing with it for half a day. My lawnmower has had an eternally flat tire for 5 years, I just air it up on mowing day. I've got a gate in my barn that wont stay closed so when I put my cow in the stall I use one of Valerie's old belts around the post to hold it shut. Pure ghetto living there. I've got a million things to do aside from old trucks. I figure if I never touched another old truck, it will take me five years just to get caught up.

All the while, I'm doing crap like powdercoating brake drums on a dually or fussing over wire routing unnecessarily. It's just time to finish up what I've started and tend to some other business.

[Low Elco]

Well, thanks for throwing up the links. I enjoyed reading them. You do really nice work.

[Tx Firefighter]

Small update for today, no pictures though. I'll grab some tomorrow.

I decided to work on my exhaust today. There was one little thing that wasn't quite finished. When I built the exhaust, I used a band clamp to connect the y pipe to the rest of the system. The band clamp leaked from the beginning.



So, today I took the clamp off and used a 3"-3" connector and welded it all up permanent with no clamps. That turned into quite a challenge. The bottom two-thirds of the joints were very easy welding. The top third, I had to use a mirror to see what I was welding. That's quite a challenge obviously because everything in the mirror is opposite of actual so I had to try and....well it was tough but I got it done fairly sanitary. Its leak free and I'm not ashamed of it.

Then, the mail came and I got two packages from Rockauto. One was brake hose crush washers and the other was a rear brake hose.

So, I started to change the front brake hoses. Any old hands at 73-87 trucks know what a challenge that is. The connections are inside of the frame near the sides of the engine. I finally got frustrated because my Craftsman flare nut wrench opens up when I really put pressure on it. I could see the potential of rounding off the brake line fitting so I just stopped. My flare nut wrenches are a mis match of Craftsman, MAC and SnapOn. Unfortunately, my 3/8 is a fairly crappy Craftsman. So, I bought a pretty sweet used SnapOn off of eBay. The guy said he'd ship it Monday morning and he's only about 100 miles from me so I should have it Tuesday when I get home from work.

For those who aren't familiar, SnapOn makes uber high quality tube wrenches. They're about 36 bucks each new or 12 bucks used on eBay. Money well spent. I'm going to make it a point to go ahead and pick up the remainders that I need onto finish my set completely and do away with the lesser quality ones. Using poor tools and ruining a brake line unnecessarily is false economy.

[rusty76]

Been there done that. Had so much trouble with the front driver side brake line years ago. I thought I was going to have to cut it and put a union in. What a pain.....grrrrrr. And I really hate exhaust leaks.

[squaredaway]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

No apologies needed. I actually went back recently and put my name in my signature for this reason. I've met about 8 dozen board members in person and always struggle to know their real name. You hate to meet someone at a show or swapmeet and refer to them as "superdooperCheyenne" or whatever he goes by on here. With threads like this, it's a nice deal to get to know who you're talking with. I wish everyone was required to put their name in their signature on this board.

Despite your best efforts I still failed to identify you correctly! lol I do know what you are saying, though. It would be nice to get to know folks by their first name, but with all the weirdos out there I understand why some prefer to use screen names.

Are there any updates on the truck?

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Small update for today, no pictures though. I'll grab some tomorrow.

I decided to work on my exhaust today. There was one little thing that wasn't quite finished. When I built the exhaust, I used a band clamp to connect the y pipe to the rest of the system. The band clamp leaked from the beginning.

Not that it matters now that you have it welded up nice, but for future use, when using those band clamps, first take a bit of aluminum foil, double it over then wrap the joint before putting the band clamp on. The foil will act as packing, and will completely seal the joint. The first time I used those band clamps it leaked, I pulled them both and did that, have never had a leak since.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by squaredaway

Despite your best efforts I still failed to identify you correctly! lol I do know what you are saying, though. It would be nice to get to know folks by their first name, but with all the weirdos out there I understand why some prefer to use screen names.

Are there any updates on the truck?

Not much. I'm waiting until Tuesday for my tie rod ends and adjuster sleeves to arrive. After that, along with installing the front brake hoses, the front end of the truck will be completely finished.

At that point, it's time to start swapping the rearend and the bell housing. At the pace I'm working, that will probably take about a month. After that though, the truck will be on the road and running. Then it will be a matter of addressing the interior and paint and body. I'm having a hard time keeping a steady course though since that 4wd is calling to me every time I see it.

Originally Posted by GCncsuHD

Not that it matters now that you have it welded up nice, but for future use, when using those band clamps, first take a bit of aluminum foil, double it over then wrap the joint before putting the band clamp on. The foil will act as packing, and will completely seal the joint. The first time I used those band clamps it leaked, I pulled them both and did that, have never had a leak since.

Damn, why didn't I know about that ? That is so simple I never even thought about it. I sure wish I'd have kept the band clamp for future service so I could separate the system for ease of removal. Lesson learned. You can rest assured I won't forget that trick.

[rusty76]

You know I used aluminum foil to help seal the exhaust on my '87 when the guys who did my exhaust didn't know what they were doing either. I found it to work great on the exhaust manifold donut, I think that was what it is. At the collector.....and you can cook with it too if you like..