Palf's 1970 Custom/10

[Palf70Step]

Nothing big today, just a bath and cruising the neighborhood. Love driving the ole dude.

[Palf70Step]

Started passenger side door today. Thought it would just be scuffing and painting, but had do do some patching. I coated the inside of the drivers door with Eastwood encapsulating paint today and will do the passenger side tomorrow or Saturday. Then it is scuffing them both down for primer and color change.

[OutlawDrifter]

Looking good!

[chewychevy67]

It's hard to believe that door rusted like that being how clean the folded skin edge looks. Nice job.

[Palf70Step]

Spent last couple day redoing all the engine/chassis/body grounds, new battery cable, ignition switch and repaired some wiring inside the cab. Finally it starts again. No pictures, so sorry bout that. Was too happy to have it start again after 2 months. I may get back to it again tomorrow on some of the winter stuff I want to do it.

[Palf70Step]

Beautiful day for driving the ole guy around. So glad to have it back rolling again. Some of our cool (ok 55 degrees) winter weather and nice sunshine made it an enjoyable morning/afternoon checking out some of the local attractions. Guess I should clean the dirt off it, but it is much more fun to drive than wash.

[RCbowtie69]

Keep on Truckin''

[Palf70Step]

Cruising around with the with old guy today.

[Palf70Step]

Well, when it's good it can go bad. Truck ran great yesterday, started up today to look at adjusting the carb and noticed that all of a sudden the Holley was leaking near where the throttle rod goes into /thru the carb. Pulled it off and was thinking of rebuild, but noticed what looked like a small crack in housing where the rod enters. I decided to say nope, and pulled the old Edelbrock 1406 off the shelf. Checked it out and it same 600 CFM, so on she went. She fired up and is running smooth with no leaks. Guess we will see how this one runs as I get it on the road for some longer run times and loads.

One day I am going to get to start the Vintage Air install.

[Palf70Step]

I've always had issues with getting wiper blade replacements that would work well for the original arms. I found this on the board and did my old 64 by using the original bottom/mounting part of the arm and get a newer style upper arm. In my case I had a set of 2002 Silverado arms lying around that had the j-hook style clips. So, I separated both set of arms. Then I oriented the newer J-hook arms into the older style base. Adjusted them for proper length, then drilled some holes and used some stall stainless screws to hold the in place. Cleaned them up and put on a coat of black paint. Add new 15" blades and mounted them up. Everything works great and I can get reasonably priced blade refills/replacements just about anywhere now that stay in place. Then seemed to work great today in the rain, so onto whatever the next project is. Sorry for the lack of pictures during the actual building. Didn't have a phone or camera in the shop at the time.

[Palf70Step]

Between yesterday and today I took off front bumper and prepared it for installation of my NOS painted bumper guards. Why this truck has an almond top and bumper, I dunno, but that is what things got painted to fit in with what was there. I'm glad I found a set of the painted ones. I really didn't want to go with chrome to get the guards.

I also started on setting up the new dash. I had all this stuff, so rather than buying one of the new digikal things, I decided I will put my own together. The empty lower gauge is for the secondary tank's gauge which is still in the current gauge panel. Got the tins painted chrome to better reflect lights. I have new bulb sockets and LEDs to better light things up. I'll be using factory fuel and speedo. I'm wiring up my own harness so I can eliminate the plastic circuit board thingie. Slowly but surely. Trying to do as much prep work so it won't be down long when actually do the AC and rewiring.

[cornerstone]

I believe those bumper guards qualify as just plain ol' sexy!

[GSFMECH]

Looks good Bill. I think I owned those at one time.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by GSFMECH

Looks good Bill. I think I owned those at one time.

I believe Keith said he had gotten them from you.

[Palf70Step]

Finally finished some tasks on the ole guy. I have been working on putting in an 84 Suburban 31 gallon tank under the bed since first of April and finally got it finished today. Between trips to Texas, caring for someone on hospice and waiting on parts really made it drag out.

First thing I had to do was relocate the spare tire mount in the bed from driver's to passenger side. I wanted to have the gas fill on driver's side. Never cared for fills on the drinkers side.

The Tank is new so I wouldn't have any rust or gunk issues.

Spare tire brackets were removed a while ago, but still need to take out one bar and slide another one rearward After saying many "strong adjectives" while using air chisel and drill to get the rivets out I finally had success. The opne bar slid back into some factory holes (on the bottom) and cleared everything for the rear bumper. Just had to remove the rear wiring harness plug and it's now held in place with zip ties

[Palf70Step]

The fill neck will pass between the top of the frame rail and bed floor. I made some isolation pads out of some old floor tiles and glued them together then glued/RTV'd/screwed them to the bed cross rails. The thickness was the perfect spacing to clear the tank bump and space the filler neck correctly.

The HF transmission jack came in very handy for the extra hands need to lift and hold the tank in place while stuff was being prepared. I used the 84 Tank straps, but I had to remove one of the bolts and go with J-hooks to give me enough reach.

Next I took an old squarebody stepside fill door I've had lying around for 20 years and modified it to holder the suburban filler neck. Once I got it to the shape and placement I wanted I cleaned it up and painted it, then added some bed-liner to the sides hoping for it to take a little more abuse than paint.

[Palf70Step]

Once I got the filler cover done I made my marks and drilled 3 holes in the bed floor (I hope EdB doesn't haunt me for it). Put some grommets to protect the filler neck , filler neck vent hose and tank vent hose from getting cuts or rubbing against metal.

I used a factor 84 stepside filler hose sine it had the 90 degree bend built int. Then I joined it to a length of 1.75 in fuel hose to the filler neck. I did thee same for the filler neck vent hose. Used a factor one with 90 degees in it, then a 90 degree coupler to the hose to the tank. I also ran a tank vent and have it mounted in the back of the filler box.

I didn't trust my welding skills on round pipes, as I always seem to screw up rounding pipes like muffles and stuff, so I felt safer doing it with the factory rubber components

I ran a steel 3/8" fuel line done passenger frame rail and mated it to the factory one that was fed by the in cab tank. I then the fuel sender wire from the in cab tank to the new tank. All wires and lies are secured and rubber isolated

One of the things I decided to do was take the some header heat and cover the tail pipes where the exhaust runs nearish to the tank. It probably wasn't necessary, but I felt better about it.

Used a spare clicky-clack pump and got all the gas out of the in cab tank and into the new tank.

Went to start truck and found the battery had a dead short in it (only in there since October). Run to O'Riellys to get the battery replaced and then put the new one in. Filled carb bowl manually to help it pull fuel. Cranked her up and she runs and has no leaks.

So good to have the ole guy running again.

Next big job is finish up the new dash bezel and gauges, then get it wired in. But, I think I will get some driving enjoyment in for a bit first.

[72c20customcamper]

Nice work . I’m thinking of putting back in one of the two saddle tanks the 72 had. Gets a little old stopping as often as I have to with the stock tank

[OutlawDrifter]

Looks good Bill! That Suburban tank will add some travel time between fill-ups.

[Palf70Step]

Not much time for the 70 lately. EdB's wife just passed away, so been dealing with all that. But did get mama in her new ride to replace the 12 year old CR-V. She is happy, and I fit comfortably, so all is good there. 2022 Hyundai Tuscon Limited. Man she has some buttons (well touch screen stuff)

[cornerstone]

I'm in the same boat as you now. Wife's ride needing attention or replacement is keeping me from my toys. I suppose we need to keep them happy as well. I hope it provides you the next 12 years without issue.

[Palf70Step]

Drove to and from the surface of the Sun today (ie...Baton Rouge) for a breakfast meet. Great to meet up with some good folks. 7 real trucks showed up and 1 Rice-a-Roni showed up too. Although I was glad to have it today as on the way back all the craziest were out and got stuck in traffic. No AC (ie, the 70) would have been brutal. AC solves a lot of road rage issues

[Palf70Step]

Been working on this on and off for a week. Since in the last 20+ years, could never get the factory tach to be consistently accurate, I decided to do a sorta custom dash out of things I had around the shop. Just did not want to invest in the high dollar digital stuff right now. Don't worry the factory tach dash is unharmed, I started with a regular gauge dash and modified it.

I thought I took pictures of the back with it wired up, but I guess I didn't (or I stored them in a special place I can't find)

I use the factory speedo and Fuel gauge, just wired it in, not plastic circuit board. I used side marker light sockets and LED bulbs to replace all the dash lights. I also painted the inside of the housing chrome so it would reflect the light better.

Replaced all the gauges and added a clock where the extra (no longer needed) non-functioning gas gauge (All gauges on bottom were dead) was. I am happy how it came out. Took a while to color coordinate the wiring. I cleaned up the inside wiring a lot and everything was soldered in place. All the gauges seem to work accurately.

[OutlawDrifter]

Functioning gauges are important, looks good Bill!

[Palf70Step]

Some more tinkering over the weekend. My backup lights were not functional because of multiple reasons. Rear sockets were corroded all to heck and the part that goes into the 3-speed was all messed up. Since I did not want to tear into the tranny to fix that piece, I decided to do like I did on my old 64 and put in a manual toggle

First thing I did was removed the corroded up bulb sockets from the housing, then paint in in chrome paint. I had some round LED's that fit perfectly into the hole. Wired up grounds for the LEDs. Then where the stock harness wire runs inside the cab at the firewall to the I guess neutral safety switch, I hooked it to a lighted toggle. Don't worry the hole was already in the dash for the switch to change between the in cab and bed fuel tanks. At least the hole is covered now. The toggle draws power from switch ignition connection. If I accidentally leave them on, they go out when I turn off the key. They are WAY brighter than the stock ones.