Johnny Cash Tribute Truck

[bundeber]

Anodizing removal tools

[bundeber]

Sandpaper and steel wool seems pretty self explanatory, so here's my buffer.

Any electric motor with a tapered threaded mandrel on it will work. Just be absolutely sure you know which way the motor spins, I suggest that you find one that will spin downward, if not you could possibly end up with a piece flung in your face, to say nothing of the debris that sprays off of it. The buffs are standard muslin buffs purchased in any jewelry working store online. You can get the mandrels and rouge there too.

[bundeber]

Forgot to mention, to get the best shine make sure to move the piece across the wheel in the direction that the wheel spins. If you go against the flow you will see minor scratches in the finish.

And lastly...
Picture of the coricone

[bundeber]

update....

The powdercoater called yesterday, he said he can't do it. He said he tried 3 times to coat the test piece with clear, apparently all three times resulted in failure.

First attempt yielded an iridescent color underneath. Seems to me he didn't clean it very well or something strange went down.

The second attempt "picture Framed" according to him the clear pulled toward the edges leaving the center thin.

Third attempt same story.

It was so bad he didn't even give me the sample piece back. Basically, I won't be seeing the sample, and he won't be powdercoating my trim. Good thing I got the coricone to work!

Sorry, no pics.

On a positive note. My secret stash of 67-72 trucks yielded some much needed pieces for my project. Found a power steering gearbox that's still tight and a 3/4 ton 4x4 pitman arm. I also found my power brake booster, bracket and proportioning valve. They guy has several doors, and several cabs that are in excellent shape. I wish I'd known that before I put floor pans in the truck I have now. A couple of them don't even need rockers. But I digress. Because I'm putting an nv4500 in the truck I need to be able to move the engine forward to the 2 wheel drive position, I found the fan shroud I needed, and a really clean set of stainless mirrors. Got it all for 140 bucks. I'll need to make another trip out there when I get back to WY to get the final pieces for my build, but I'm going to make it roadworthy in MN and finish it up out here as I get time.

Anyone know what kind of clearance issues I'll have with a 2wd exhaust system on a 4x4? I assume that there may be some passenger side driveshaft clearance issues, but then again, maybe not. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate any advice.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by bundeber

Anyone know what kind of clearance issues I'll have with a 2wd exhaust system on a 4x4? I assume that there may be some passenger side driveshaft clearance issues, but then again, maybe not. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate any advice.

There is very little room for the passenger side collector with long tube headers. The collector flange is right at where the leaf spring shackle & driveshaft pass each other. Tight squeeze. Suspension travel creates clearance issues at this point. Not much room to work with. With shorty headers or manifolds you can get by a bit easier due to the smaller pipe size as it passes this point.

The other tight area is how it passes to the passenger side of the transfer case. It ends up tucked into the frame rail to do it without losing the ground clearance that going under the transfer case would result in. Not much room to work and kind of hard to snake a longer piece with some bends in it through that area. Nothing worse than smashing your exhaust pipe flat on a rock so you can't really go under in this area.

[bundeber]

68 TT

AWESOME, I REALLY appreciate the heads up. A buddy of my dad's has a pipe bender, so I'll spend a little time over there tweaking some pieces to fit around the problem areas. I'm planning on running manifolds basically because I hate burnt off plug wires, and header leaks. Maybe some of you guys have had great luck with them, just not me. I'll stick with manifolds.

[litew8]

Just called Coricone to order and they say I need to wait and call back next Tuesday.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by bundeber

68 TT

AWESOME, I REALLY appreciate the heads up. A buddy of my dad's has a pipe bender, so I'll spend a little time over there tweaking some pieces to fit around the problem areas. I'm planning on running manifolds basically because I hate burnt off plug wires, and header leaks. Maybe some of you guys have had great luck with them, just not me. I'll stick with manifolds.

You're welcome, glad I could help.

I can never get inexpensive headers to seal and I'm too cheap to buy expensive headers with thicker flanges.

The collector & head flanges are never thick enough to keep from warping on the budget friendly headers. I'm going to put 3/8" or maybe even 1/2" thick head flanges and ball flange collectors onto the headers on my Camaro. I'm sick of the constant blown out gaskets & leaks.

[bundeber]

Litew8 I feel your pain. I called mar k to order new mounting hardware for my trim. They answered the phone but told me to call back Tuesday to order. Their website doesn't have those parts online. I need to make sure I have those when I get to mn so I can start drilling holes. I want to have it painted my first week back in mn.

68 tt

That's always been my experience with headers too. Poor fit, leaky gaskets, and burnt wires. I would rather lose h.p. than deal with headers.
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[Tinkermc]

it all looks so nice

[bundeber]

Thanks. Traveling tomorrow, and then Tuesday I will be starting on the truck. Probably just rounding up all my body pieces. Assembling, drilling alignment holes and disassembling to start bodywork and paint. Hope to have it In color by this weekend.
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[litew8]

Got my can of Coricone the other day.
How's the "Assembling, drilling alignment holes and disassembling" coming along?

[bundeber]

it's coming! My dad has an auto repair shop here in SE mn. Over the years he's purchased a couple of large buildings for core storage for transmissions. These buildings also house many other misc. automotive parts, including pieces for his 2 67 trucks. He has one shortbox two wheel drive and a long box 4x4 that he plans to restore. Add to this all my parts and the other misc parts he's collected over the years and it adds up to a full day of scrounging to get all my parts found. On a side note, I can't use any of the hoists right now because of customer cars, including a 63? impala with a 409 in it. It's getting a rebuilt transmission and a new set of rear end gears.

Yesterday I started disassembly of the bed so that I could tip the cab up onto the wood bed without damaging it. I got that taken care of last night, and I'll be priming and using bedliner on the bottom of the cab today. I am definately a day behind schedule, but still hoping for color by Sunday evening. I'll throw some pictures up later today!

[bundeber]

Finally a few pictures. I busted my buns yesterday, Got the cab all cleaned up underneath and primer and bedliner sprayed on to seal it. Then I let that dry, flipped the cab back down and sanded the entire thing for primer inside and out. One forgets how much work this is right up until you start on it. Finally got it done and primed at about 8:30 last night. Should be able to start dent repair today on the cab and box sides. May also get the holes welded up on the doors. BUT I have to take a trip to the junkyard to find a transfer case passenger drop that will work, and get my nv4500 core to rebuild. I also heard that there was a box down there from this vintage so I may be switching to steel bed... Just to save time. We'll see.

Here's the picts.

[67cheby]

looks good !

[litew8]

movin right along!

[bundeber]

Took friday off from bodywork. Went to the local junkyard. Found the nv4500 I wanted with bellhousing and shifter. Also found the transfer case I need. It's a two or three year only tcase out of a suburban. It has to have the round mounting pad to mate up to the nv without using an adapter. I wanted this tcase specifically because it uses a mechanical speedometer. The only issue I'll have is that it has the small block input, which is fine. When you're dad rebuilds transmissions for a living you have all the parts you need! I got the rest of the truck in primer and anticipate having color on it soon, weather permitting. We have a thunderstorm here tonight, so if the humidity is high tomorrow, I'll hold off on anymore bodywork and get my tcase and trans torn down, washed up, painted and start assembling those. I will throw some pictures on tomorrow.

[GuyO]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

You're welcome, glad I could help.

I can never get inexpensive headers to seal and I'm too cheap to buy expensive headers with thicker flanges.

The collector & head flanges are never thick enough to keep from warping on the budget friendly headers. I'm going to put 3/8" or maybe even 1/2" thick head flanges and ball flange collectors onto the headers on my Camaro. I'm sick of the constant blown out gaskets & leaks.

Hi guys, on the leaking header discussion you have been having above, one thing that we did was went with Hedman shorty headers with 3" collectors for more room. They have a ball and socket design although the collector nuts did loosen after about 500 miles. With those we used woven spark plug wire sleeves. It was a trade off that seems to work on the bottom end. On the top end I considered cutting out some of the metal on the flange between the port tubes with a reciprocating saw. This would remove rigidity for less tension when cold and compression when they heat making a better fit and less potential for leaks like a ramhorn manifold. In the past I have bought budget headers and had a machine shop plane them flat because of gasket problems. But a Remflex gasket has taken out need to cut the headers. Everything is tight on my custom 327. Just my two cents. G.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by GuyO

Hi guys, on the leaking header discussion you have been having above, one thing that we did was went with Hedman shorty headers with 3" collectors for more room. They have a ball and socket design although the collector nuts did loosen after about 500 miles. With those we used woven spark plug wire sleeves. It was a trade off that seems to work on the bottom end. On the top end I considered cutting out some of the metal on the flange between the port tubes with a reciprocating saw. This would remove rigidity for less tension when cold and compression when they heat making a better fit and less potential for leaks like a ramhorn manifold. In the past I have bought budget headers and had a machine shop plane them flat because of gasket problems. But a Remflex gasket has taken out need to cut the headers. Everything is tight on my custom 327. Just my two cents. G.

The biggest problem is the thickness of the mount flanges not being enough to keep them from bending when you tighten down the bolts enough to seal against the gaskets. A trick I did to fix this was to weld washers to the area behind the header mount bolts and resurface the whole mount flange so the washers and raised port sealing areas were all on the same plane. It kept the flanges from bending any further and stopped the leaks I had before with the same headers.

[bundeber]

Progress!!!! Got my cab mount/radiator mount issue figured out and finally slapped some color on...

It's good old hugger orange with a twist. It's actually a tri-coat pearl. I added some gold pearl to my clear coat. It's awesome! Unless you don't like orange, and then too bad go paint your own truck!

[bundeber]

another one with flash so you can see the pearl a bit better

[bundeber]

not bad for a driveway paint job. Now if I only had a wind free, bug free, climate controlled, well lit booth to paint in, then I'd REALLY be able to lay down some paint. The pearl I used is fantastic. And cheap. 12.95 for enough to treat a whole gallon of clear. I only used it for the first coat of clear so that my later coats could be polished without cutting into the pearl... if I even bother to polish it. I'm going to be using this truck as a truck. The finish looks better than the paint on the new car my wife and I got a couple months ago.

[litew8]

Looks good!

"then too bad go paint your own truck!"

[67cheby]

Looks awesome man, and I love orange !
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[duallyjams]

I like orange.
What year nv4500 are you using , are you using a np241 , hydraulic clutch ?