Not Another Rebuild Thread....

[bluecollarron]

Ur making good progress on your truck! I wish i could have found that truck before you did! Where did u get it and where do u get your parts from?! Let me know if u need help getting your pitman arm off i got the tool. same with your gear ratio. I can show u how to count the ratio its very easy!

Ron from Fairbanks

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by bluecollarron

Ur making good progress on your truck! I wish i could have found that truck before you did! Where did u get it and where do u get your parts from?! Let me know if u need help getting your pitman arm off i got the tool. same with your gear ratio. I can show u how to count the ratio its very easy!

Ron from Fairbanks

Oh thank God, finally someone from this area!!!

It was sitting in the lot behind Alaska Electric Rebuilders off Cushman and VanHorne. I know where there are a few more in the area. Are you looking for a fleet or step side?

Shoot me a PM with a phone number or you can call me at the Bassett Army Hospital Operating Room Monday thru Friday. Would love to meet you and talk classics shop one day over coffee or beers!

[McMurphy]

So....
My weekend was, and was not....

Thursday I met a fellow for a 1985 GMC Sierra and we settled on a price. I pick it up on the 1st and it will be a donor rig for my 66. Kinda sad to part out such a good looking truck, but I am willing to bet there are more of them around than there are 66s.

Then the rest of the Thanksgiving day was spent putzing around with my heater box.

Pic #1 is my heater core retainer bracket. It had been wrapped with duct tape, which padded the core, but also retained water and rusted the snot out of my retainers. This photo is after I had wire wheeled it down to shiney metal, primer, and painted.

#2 is my adaptation to provide the cushioning, but not trap so much moisture. I hope this works better. It is vacuum/wiper fluid hose with a slit down the side and then just seated on the bracket. If you do this, remember to cut the hose along the outside of the natural curl of the hose or it will fight you to seat right.

#3 is all my heater parts after I had tinkered with them. Who knew that a ATV battery was perfect for testing electrical stuff like the blower motor? I cut gaskets for the cold air intake and heater box assembly, as well as one for the blower to the bottom of the heater box. I have to check for either some 1/8" thick gasket materiel, or some smaller hose to make seating gaskets for the fresh/recirculation vent flapper so that they sit tight and diminish as much cold air infiltration as possible.

#4 is all assembled. I will have to tear it all apart again to do the second set of gaskets I mentioned above, and to replace the delux heater core. Not sure if I broke it, or if I just made an existing leak more noticable...none the less it leaks now where the large pipe meets the heater core body. So far prices seem to range between $75 and $110 for replacements.

[McMurphy]

So then came Friday...

I had no clue the metal that is the back of the cab was so thin.

Pic #1 is the upper fuel tank strap anchor points.
#2 is after I air chiseled one off and cut the crap out of the backside of my cab.
#3 is what it looks like from the outside after I polished it up for a better look.

I should have either left them alone, or just cut the threaded part off like I did on the d-side. They are going to be covered with sound deadner anyways, but now the back side of my cab needs repair.

#4 is what looks like an old CB atenna mounting hole in the dead center of the top of my cab grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Time to learn how to weld this stuff up I guess....

[McMurphy]

Saturday reminded me of a quote:

Q: "How do you sculpt a horse?"
A: "You start with a large block of marble, and chisel off everything that does not look like a horse"

So in reality, How do you sculpt a truck?
A: You start with a slab of bondo and chisel off everything that does not look like metal....

Gentlemen I present you with my rear p-side cab corner;

[McMurphy]

I have a stud welder gun coming from Harbor Freight I am hoping to learn how to pull this corner out some more and not have to find some way of cutting a corner from a junk yard donor. I was able to get to some of it with a hammer and dolly (before I took the pics if you can believe it) and smoothed some of the mess out surprisingly well.

I wish Alan or Stodder were closer to teach me how to be a auto body masseuse and show me how they massage this stuff into behaving!

I know I will cut the bottom corners out and replace them, already looked those parts up. They are rust rotted anyways, but the upper half up to the body line I am concerned about. It doesnt have to be show quality, but nice would be.... well ..... nice!

[McMurphy]

Sunday was a short day...
While I was dinking around in the back with the heater, and the bondo art lesson, my lovely wife was up front stripping the mud, undercoating, and paint down to the metal on my firewall so I could come along on Sunday and paint it.
We still need to get the splash pan part of it, but I fear that once I get started, I will just undo those last few bolts and go ahead and tilt my cab back to do the whole thing.

Guess this is the pre-test for my total frame off I will do about 10 years from now....

[daverod]

Thats some funny stuff.

[daverod]

Seems like you could just beat it out from the back side. Least you get some good practice at welding up holes. Guess the PO did'nt have a welder.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by daverod

Thats some funny stuff.

Hah, Bumhugs....

Too many times in life I have to stop and laugh, especially when it is the suck.
My wife doesnt understand when I look at her and say "You know, this really sucks right now. But, if this were happening to someone else, it would be funnier than hell!"
Since being with me, she dont burst into tears any more.

Oddly though, she has learned how to glare pretty good.......

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Saturday reminded me of a quote:

Q: "How do you sculpt a horse?"
A: "You start with a large block of marble, and chisel off everything that does not look like a horse"

So in reality, How do you sculpt a truck?
A: You start with a slab of bondo and chisel off everything that does not look like metal....

Gentlemen I present you with my rear p-side cab corner;

That's the same area that was smashed on my 66.
I found a junk cab with that area that was still straight. I'll be patching it in this spring.
Posted via Mobile Device

[LostMy65]

You did do a good job with yours though.
Posted via Mobile Device

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

You did do a good job with yours though.
Posted via Mobile Device

I may play with it some more, but eventually I will probably cut it out and replace it like you are doing.
That is a bad spot.

[flips72]

if you were closer, alot closer, i would give you one i have a junk cab laying around,by the way whats the temp there now?

[57truckguy]

Oddly though, she has learned how to glare pretty good.......

Yes 43 years of practice have made mine a professionall glareer... LOL

Oh I get the "you really don't need that " a lot of the time... LMAO

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by flips72

if you were closer, alot closer, i would give you one i have a junk cab laying around,by the way whats the temp there now?

10* above and snowing at the moment. Thanks for the donation thought too, but really my cab isnt all that bad. The normal floor rot and cab corners... just this p-side back of the cab thing is the only bummer really.

Not complaining tho, once I fix this I will be alo smarter than I am right now.

Yes 43 years of practice have made mine a professionall glareer... LOL

Oh I get the "you really don't need that " a lot of the time... LMAO

We are coming up on 14 years this Christmas. So far we seem to be good for each other. She just doesnt always think I am as funny as I think I am.

[williamsboys]

I know what you mean when you said only four bolts to the cab. I didnt plan on taking mine to the frame at all but once i got the front off then the bed my dad just kept saying o come on its only four bolts. So finally i broke in and we pulled it. Its gana take longer then expected now but at least i shouldnt have to go back on much of anything. But keep up the good work man. Looking good.
Posted via Mobile Device

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by williamsboys

I know what you mean when you said only four bolts to the cab. I didnt plan on taking mine to the frame at all but once i got the front off then the bed my dad just kept saying o come on its only four bolts. So finally i broke in and we pulled it. Its gana take longer then expected now but at least i shouldnt have to go back on much of anything. But keep up the good work man. Looking good.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks man, though for the record you are doing a heck of a better job on yours than I am on mine!!
Mine is a rattle can resto.... something to hold me over for the next 10 years or so until I can send my frame off to be powder coated like so many of the others here!

Just sealed the deal on a 1985 GMC Sierra yesterday for $1,200.00
Young guy I got it from picked it up last summer and was told it has 20k on a new crate engine. Odometer only reads 70k.
I dunno but engine looks clean enough, starts right up and does not ping, rattle, lope, or any of the other things that make you go Hmmmmmmm.......

I hope to get a ton of stuff off this;
350 cid engine with all the attachments (alt, starter, ps pump,)
Power steering
Power Disc Brakes
tilt column (gotta look to see)
door locks
tail gate latch assembly (hopefully I can figure some way to mod it into my stock one)
Transmission if I absolutely need it (hope not, want manual OD 4speed)
donor sheet metal for body work and giggles...
some of the wiring harness
radiator ( I misspelled that didnt I?)
And whatever odds and ends I decide I want or need from it...

Right now I have lent it to one of my soldiers to drive until I can work a deal with my neighbors for their side of the garage. Still a tad too chilly out there to be doing much of anything other than running inside from the car!

With any luck the front cross member will bolt right up to my 66 frame, and save me from messing with steering linkage and motor mounts. More to follow on that.

A couple pics of the sacrificial lamb chop..

[57truckguy]

Hey mcmurphy, I just picked up a deal on an 86 just turned 50000 miles and garaged since day one... no rust at all v8 auto air power sterring power brakes deluxe cab.. real sweet heart of a deal.. Litterly is owned by a little old lady. truck was her husbands who died in 88.. she still drives it every once in a while.. The only thing I see that is a problem is it is BROWN butt ugle brown.. LOL I'll live with it.

[flips72]

good score on the truck, should have alot of good parts for your truck

[McMurphy]

Ok...
So yesterday I took my read diff cover off again and shot these pics of the gear ratio.
So far so good eh?
Then I took off the gasket that was on there, and started working out that curl you get on the bottom of your pumpkin cover from.... Ohhhh lets say, jacking the rig up by the rear diff..... And though I was super careful taking the gasket off, chances are it is the original and since I have it off I may as well change it.
With old gasket in hand, and a small shopping list, off to the local parts store I go. Then I stand at the counter for 45 minutes while the old guy tries to look it up on the computer...then in the books...then takes the gasket in the back and tries an open-the-box comparison... only to return and tell me they dont have it.
I would not be so frustrated with this, if it wasnt for the stupid (or at least seemingly stupid to me) questions involved.
Me: I need a 12bolt posi rear diff cover gasket for a 66 C10 half ton, and the gear oil for that please.
Steven Hawkings of Auto Parts: What size engine is that?
Me: ???? in line-6 250 or 292
Him: Power Steering?
Me: WTF ????

Could anyone explain to me what difference anything forward of the drive shaft has to do with the rear diff gasket?
Please?

[66ChevyMax]

Been there done that, just went through the same thing for wheel studs. grrrrr

[allaboutchevelles]

LOL at those silly ???s. I normally only go to carquest or napa for my auto parts. The guys that work there around here know what I need and if they dont have it they order it and have it by 1:00 oclock the next day. The parts they sell are most the time just like the origional parts and fit right the first time.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by 66ChevyMax

Been there done that, just went through the same thing for wheel studs. grrrrr

I feel for you...

The guys that work there around here know what I need and if they dont have it they order it and have it by 1:00 oclock the next day. The parts they sell are most the time just like the origional parts and fit right the first time.

By the time I get a parts store familer with me enough to get like that, the Army moves me half way around the world

Today was not much photogenic progress.
The wife finished up the bottom half of the firewall for me and got that painted. She also started cleaning up the front clip area of the frame, but we gotta pull that front cross member to get much more progress in that area. I think I will make one of those 2x6 with inflated caster wheels like someone else did on this board, and go ahead and pull that front x-member next weekend so we can get that all cleaned up.
I got the boo-boos in the back of my cab welded up today. Far from pretty but after some filler and paint, only we few will know !!

I also modified the original sending unit cap of the Blazer fuel cell to accept the original sending unit from the truck. A little bend and flex of the float and fuel inlet and that will be done so I can use the original fuel guage.

My welding is starting to improve. Shining a bright light on the area I want to weld helps alot since I can see what it is I am trying to do that way. Not sure if I want to try a auto darkening lens on my hood tho.... Any thoughts on that?

[57truckguy]

I switched to an auto lens a couple of years ago and it sure helps to be able to see where you are starting... LOL these old eyes aren't what they used to be. LOL
curious what gear is that.. can't seem to make out the numbers on my screen.. ????