Frankentruck

[cwcarpenter98]

Ok so now that I've posted up a bunch of pictures, here's the backstory of how this rusty hunk of steel became known as Frankentruck.

Frankentruck originally came from the factory as a lwb fleetside doused in the beautiful, dark green paint (code 505). At one point, the truck was rear-ended, which ruined the original bed and pushed the front of the bed into the passenger side of the cab. The previous owner replaced the bed with one from a truck that had side trim. The driver's side door was replaced as well. I believe it came from some government truck or something because the door is yellow and has some stickers on it that is covered by the green repaint. I think the rest of the sheet metal was original up until I replaced the driver's fender earlier this year. The previous owner painted a lot of the sheet metal with red oxide primer, but did a terrible job on the bed. He also painted the interior that was visible with some beige paint. I will be returning it to the original green exterior and fawn metallic interior at some point, but that will not be any time soon.

The previous owner replaced the original 292 straight 6 backed by a 3 speed with overdrive with a 283 v8 backed by a regular 3 speed. I believe the bellhousing is original to the truck because it still has the paint color that was only used on the 292 in 63 on it. I just finished up replacing that 283 with another 283, but maybe one day I'll go back to the 292 and add either a turbo or a supercharger, or both, but for now, v8 is gr8. I am confident that there was an overdrive transmission in it from the factory because the pull cable for the overdrive is still in the dash. There is also a relay located on the driver's side inner fender, below the master cylinder.

With all these different bits and pieces replaced over the years, Frankentruck was an appropriate name that described the truck perfectly in one word.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by flashed

Where did you find the old toys in back of the truck , those are pretty cool ? Did you put your phone in a bag of rice to dry it out ?

My dad and I found those old toys at the Northeast Georgia Swapmeet at the Atlanta Dragway last December. We also got the two slot mags there, so it was a pretty good trip.

The green truck is a replica of a truck manufactured by WABCO (Westinghouse Air Brake Company), also known as LeTourneau, that was used to transport earth moving equipment manufactured by WABCO in Toccoa. The yellow toy is one of the machines made in Toccoa. My great grandpa was a shift foreman at the plant in Toccoa, and during WWII, my grandma worked in WABCO's office while my grandpa made artillery casings. With all the family history, my dad wanted them as soon as he saw them.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by franken

BTW, there's a short throw shifter mod available. Advance also has a shift lever that's solid that might be a bit less risky to bend. The GM one is a tube and might be easy to buckle.

A short throw shifter for on the column? If so, I'd be interested in that. I like the column shift, so that's why I want to find the overdrive trans and return it to part of the original drivetrain setup.

[cwcarpenter98]

So I drove the truck again today, and dadgum. Upgrading to the quadrajet is the best thing I've done to the truck, aside from having an engine that is in great condition internally. It's nice and tame just running off the primaries, but when the secondaries open up, and the nice bwahhhhh sound ensues, I fall in love with it all over again. The 2 jet was nice on the old engine, but I'll never go back. Quadrajets are too much fun

Also, I decided to move the tach from where I previously had it to on the column. I originally put the tach next to the trailer brake controller for the sole purpose of I wasn't sure how to mount it to the column without ruining anything, and there was already a hole that the previous owner had. After seeing that Jacob Davis, some of you may know him because of his AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon, has had his tach ziptied to the column for three years without having to replace any zipties, I decided to do the same. I like this placement a lot better, and I don't have to look so low when I want to see the rpm.

I'm using the Equus Series 5000 2-1/2" tach. I got it from Autozone well over a year ago, and haven't had any issues since. I like that it's smaller than what most people put in. In my case, the smaller size works perfectly with the speedo, and doesn't interfere at all with gauge visibility at the new location.

[C10matt]

Nice build

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by C10matt

Nice build

Thanks man

[cwcarpenter98]

Drove the truck to work this evening, and I'm happy to report that there is no longer a giant puddle under the truck. There were some small drops, but I think that is just residue dripping off from when it was first leaking. It's been raining so much that I haven't gotten a chance to crawl under and clean all the oil off. I'm just happy there isn't a giant puddle anymore

[cwcarpenter98]

Drove up to the Varsity in Dawsonville this evening for their weekly cruise in, and the truck ran great the whole way there and back I also didn't see any drops of oil under the truck at the Varsity, so I'm going to say it's fixed and just drive the crap out of it

Always gotta rep the C10Club Georgia chapter

[RDrancher]

Very cool truck.

The WABCO toys are very cool too. The WABCO / LeTourneau name is legendary in heavy equipment history.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Very cool truck.

The WABCO toys are very cool too. The WABCO / LeTourneau name is legendary in heavy equipment history.

Thanks! The toys were a really cool find. I think we are going to leave them just as they are

[cwcarpenter98]

I haven't done much with Frankentruck, other than drive her around a bunch. Everything seems good, and I'm not seeing a giant oil spot on the ground anymore. Classes start on Monday, so I'm driving down to Milledgeville today. It's too hot down there still for no a/c, so I'm taking the Dakota down for the first couple of weeks. Once it cools off some, I'll take Frankentruck down there with me.

[jhrusk]

Good luck and be safe

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Good luck and be safe

Thanks man. Made it down with no issues. The Dakota is a great highway cruiser. Does 75 mph all day long

[cwcarpenter98]

I think I need some more license plates

[cwcarpenter98]

Now that the engine is running great and the truck is back on the road, I need to turn to adding a little more safety. The old lap belts are extremely hard to adjust, and I want a 3 point harness so I don't eat the dash if some idiot ever pulls out in front of me.

I was thinking about finding a color to match the seat and arm rests, but not sure what I should do. I'm leaning more towards black, but still don't know yet.

[cwcarpenter98]

I finally got a chance today to clean up the hood I bought. Take a look back at post 42 to see how dirty it was before 2 rounds of Purple Power and a brush. It cleaned up really well, so I decided to swap hoods.

I swapped over all the turn signals and the hood latch from the old hood, and in the process, snapped off the two bolts holding on the passenger turn signal assembly. I then proceeded to snap off an extractor in one of the holes. Instead of continuing to struggle with that, I just drilled two new holes and used the screws to cut new threads into the sheet metal. It isn't the sturdiest, but I think it will hold for now, and if I have to, I can secure it with bolts instead of just the screws.

When I did the engine swap earlier, I had not read through Markeb01's build thread, so my parents and I removed and reinstalled the hood by ourselves. It was only after we had done it, that I saw he used his engine hoist to hold the weight of the hood. We used the engine hoist this time, and it was a breeze getting the old one off and the new one on. Thanks, Mark, for that awesome idea!

[cwcarpenter98]

After spending about 10 minutes adjusting the gaps as best as I could, the swap was complete and everything is working good. I like this hood a lot better than the old one, and the best part is that it is less rusty. The worst part is the front eyebrow, but there's a patch panel for it, so I'm not too worried about it.

[cwcarpenter98]

Well, it's been a while since I've done anything with Frankentruck. That's because I wanted a/c down in Milledgeville since it's still way to hot outside.

My fall break started today, so I drove home this morning, went to start Frankentruck, and darn, dead battery. I think the 90s or so radio I have in it is draining the battery a good bit after a month, so at some point I'm going to add a battery disconnect.

Last week, my good buddy was going to the junkyard to look for some parts for his Jeep. I read a thread about sway bars and decided that I wanted one to. While he was there, he found a bar out of a c20. Didn't have the right tools with him at the time, so while I was driving home today, he went back and pulled it for me. The yard only wanted 20 bucks for the bar, so for 35 bucks, I had the bar pulled and delivered to me by the time I got home. Big thanks to my friend for doing that for me.
I also needed the stock height frame brackets, and luckily, my friend who sold me the engine and hood had a set he didn't need. Got those today and got new grade 8 bolts at Tractor Supply for 5 and change, so now all I need to get is some new bushings. Bushings are going to be around 25 bucks, so it's looking like it'll only be around 65 bucks to really improve the handling of this ol gal.

I'll be starting to work on her tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see how much improvement there will be

[cwcarpenter98]

Install has been going really well. Got everything mocked up, drilled the holes in the frame, thankfully didn't have to remove any rivets, and started on locating where I want to drill the holes in the LCAs. I'm going to have to drill them out from the bottom because I don't have a right angle drill, and I don't want to pop the tie rod end off. Going to finish drilling holes tomorrow, because it's about time to leave for the UGA game.

[rusty76]

Cool truck. I’ll be following along.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Cool truck. I’ll be following along.

Thanks!

[cwcarpenter98]

Went to the UGA game last night and didn't get home till 2 in the morning. Slept in a good bit, and started finishing up the sway bar install around noon. After looking at it, I didn't want to drill the LCAs from the underside, and I'm glad I didn't because I would've drilled the holes in the wrong spot My dad and I went to Home Depot to pick up this Milwaukee adapter so I could drill a pilot hole without taking the tie rod loose. It worked really well, and was well worth the 20 bucks for it. I finished drilling the hole from the underside once the pilot holes were done.

After the holes were done, the bushings bolted in real nice, and everything looked good. Torqued down all the bolts, went for a test drive, and was grinning from ear to ear so much that my face started to hurt This bar is such an improvement from stock even with the original bushings from the truck it was pulled from. The new bushings show up tomorrow, but I don't know when I will put them in. Frankentruck actually corners really well now, so it was well worth the 65 bucks.

On our way back from the store, we stopped at a yard sale and picked up 6 of these rally wheel center caps. 4 of them have this Chevy logo, 2 of them are open in the center. They look really good on Frankentruck, but I'm not sure how to mount them. I don't know what they came off of either, but they were cheap so I figured I would try it. Anybody know just by looking at it what this cap came off of?

[jhrusk]

Looking good. Sway bar is one of the best/cheapest things u could have done for driving improvement.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Looking good. Sway bar is one of the best/cheapest things u could have done for driving improvement.

Thanks man! The lack of body roll makes it feel like a totally different truck

I'm bringing the truck down this weekend to Milledgeville for the Deep Roots car show.

[cwcarpenter98]

After installing the sway bar on Sunday with the old bushings from the junkyard truck, I had to wait until Monday to get new Moog bushings. Amazon had the best price and shipping combo since I have Amazon Prime.

On Monday the 8th, I met my friend from my old job and rambled around some forestry roads in his XJ and my Dakota. The plan was to hit some trails in the morning and grab some lunch somewhere. We didn't have any issues on the dirt, but the last trail was downhill for a good bit and had plenty of curves. We were both slinging the back end out as much as possible with open diffs Once we got back on dirt, it was still very curvy, and spirited driving ensued, until his Jeep started to pull real hard to the left under braking. The passenger front caliper locked up on him, so he pulled it off on the side of the road, then we drove to Blue Ridge, GA to get a new caliper since that was the closest town with a parts store to us. Ate lunch there, then drove back to fix the Heep. Got it fixed and all was good.

I then drove to Helen to meet up with my friends from college to go camping at a friend's river property. It would have been my first time camping, except for the bottom falling out of the clouds and soaking everything. We decided to spend the night at her house instead of camping with wet sleeping bags. It was a great time that got even better on Tuesday when we all found out that Georgia College decided to cancel class for the rest of the week because of Hurricane Michael. We hung out in Helen for a bit longer, then started to house hop. We went to my roommate's house which is only 5 minuets from my house, so I spent 30 minuets to swap out the sway bar bushings. Yesterday, we left his house and went to my other roommate's house because why not? Got back home today to plan for a relaxing day tomorrow.