Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on everything as always Vic.

[Low Elco]

Great work as always, Vic! Hope Scott's Motor goes well.

John, I've gone through a Bunch of Festo fittings in a former life.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Vic you never cease to amaze me... I am about to load up Class Act and Bring Her to you... LOL

Hey Dan, if anything else shows up in my driveway, I may be out on the stoop with my clothes and tools scattered all around me.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice work on everything as always Vic.

Thanks, Mike.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great work as always, Vic! Hope Scott's Motor goes well.

John, I've gone through a Bunch of Festo fittings in a former life.

As you're well aware, Chip, the moment of truth will soon be upon us. All you can do is remind yourself you've been here before and sweating doesn't help.

[Elliot949]

LOL. Vic...

[Low Elco]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Hey Dan, if anything else shows up in my driveway, I may be out on the stoop with my clothes and tools scattered all around me.

Sounds Familiar.....

[Vic1947]

Been a while since I last posted. Lots of stuff going on, but the main thing that's kept me from CRLS was a mini vacation. Wife and I went down thru southern MO sightseeing and visiting friends. On the way back, we stopped in Sedalia and dropped off the AccuAir mounting pieces at Sure Coat. I went down yesterday and picked them up and have most of them reinstalled. I also had Jonathon blast the hammered finish off the sway bar and do it and the links in a nice shade of sliver. Tomorrow I'll shorten up the wiring, make some ground straps and get the loose wires bundled up and routed up to approximately where they enter the cab.

While on hold for the AccuAir parts, I picked back up on bodywork. Started smoothing the firewall and then switched to small parts when I had to share the workshop with my brother who was up here doing some remodeling and pre-winter maintenance for us. I'm considering having some parts dolled up with hydrographics, AKA water transfer printing. They can put almost any kind of graphics on all kinds of surfaces. I first noticed it on valve covers and other engine dress up items. They have a real nice looking carbon fiber print that I'd like to try on some interior parts. There's a shop that specializes in the process in North KC not far from here. I'll take some of the small parts I've been massaging to them and get a quote. We'll see if it's reasonable or not. Stay tuned.

[jeh]

Everything is looking good Vic, curious to see the graphics on the parts. Sounds pretty cool!!!

[Vic1947]

Quick update while I take a break from working on the exhaust system. On Wednesday, I took some of my parts to the graphics shop and discussed what I wanted. Came away with a lot more to think about than when I went in, for sure. The graphics are semi-transparent so the base color has an effect on the final product. They can also do a gloss or matte finish which gives two distinct looks. I'd like the end result to look like carbon fiber but, for example, you could do silver over black, or black over silver, or even other colors like blue over any color base. Add in whether you want gloss or matte and the choices get out of hand in a hurry.

I'd hoped to do have the parts painted and ready to apply the graphics, but that's not how they prefer to do things. They have a 24 hour window to apply the material after painting, so they need to do the paint work ...which means I lose control over some of the process (quality). The cost is about what I expected. They have a pricelist on their website but it's mostly for guns and such. They do a lot of camo coatings, especially this time of year. Lead time is about two weeks.

Spent the last couple of days cutting the excess wire out of the Accuair setup. Each wire had to be tinned and soldered together with a tiny heat shrink tube covering the splice. I then rewrapped the three wires with the original covering and used heat shrink to enclose the entire spliced area. Kind of a painstaking process but I gave up trying to source the connector pins. I'm sure they have their own proprietary crimping and assembly tools anyway. My way works and it has the advantage of being really cheap.

After finishing the wiring, I recalibrated the system and tested it. Worked great, however after a couple of hours, the front bags deflated like they did before. Checked my homemade fittings and found no leaks, so I backtracked and found a leak where the driver side compressor feeds into the air tank. Fixed that and it held air overnight. So now I'm a bit puzzled about how an air tank leak could cause only the two front bags to deflate and not the rear bags. I'll give Accuair a call on Monday to see if they have an answer.

As mentioned earlier, today I've been figuring out the new exhaust routing. The air suspension screwed up my original plans, so I bought a pair of resonators and round "turbo" mufflers. Mufflers look like glass packs on the outside, but inside they have the same configuration as the turbo's. I'll probably angle the tips to exit at a 45 behind the tires. And today's lesson is... be sure you have everything out from under the truck before you dump the air and lower it all the way.

[Low Elco]

More weight on the front taking advantage of the leak. Nothing really pushing down the rear.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

More weight on the front taking advantage of the leak. Nothing really pushing down the rear.

Don't think that's the case, Chip. As a test, though, I disconnected the power and opened the petcock on the tank to dump 100% of the air. When I found the leak, I just assumed the tank had emptied but you got me thinking there could be some residual tank pressure holding up the rear. With all the air out, the rear bags were still firm while the fronts had completely deflated. It appears that the solenoids controlling the rear bags are closing after the system adjusts the height but not in the front. The default solenoid position up front is open and when the air goes away, the bags exhale.

I think I'd feel safer if one bag blows out, the remaining three stay inflated. It would let you motor over to the shoulder and investigate. Or maybe not. If one corner drops suddenly, the suspension may react unpredictably like with a blowout. Except that with a blowout, the tire becomes a boat anchor which would not be the case with a bag failure. Dang!

[sduckworth13]

The wiring looks so clean and organized now Vic. Great work as always.

[swamp rat]

Real nice work. If the glass packs are made by Allied i can tell you they sound nice and deep, had them on my DD for 7 years.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Real nice work. If the glass packs are made by Allied i can tell you they sound nice and deep, had them on my DD for 7 years.

Thx, Mike. Mufflers are made by Jones Exhaust and, while I'm not positive, I don't think they have glass fibers in them. Built with two chambers and offset perforated tubes. Reviews said they have a nice tone without the BRAAAPP POP POP POW BANG you get with some of the glasspacks.

[swamp rat]

Another i have not heard of before, i think a dual perforation tubes would last longer than glass packing. The Allied i had which looked like aluminum glass packs gave no "BRAAAPP POP POP POW BANG" just nice and deep tone. I never asked if they were glass packs or not, the owner of Stan's Headers in Auburn just showed them to me and took me for a drive in his truck.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Another i have not heard of before, i think a dual perforation tubes would last longer than glass packing. The Allied i had which looked like aluminum glass packs gave no "BRAAAPP POP POP POW BANG" just nice and deep tone. I never asked if they were glass packs or not, the owner of Stan's Headers in Auburn just showed them to me and took me for a drive in his truck.

I've read that the newer designs have a much better sound than the old tech Cherry Bombs and the like. Nothing beats being able to listen to someone else's ride before making a decision. I helped a buddy restore an old Corvette many years ago when Flowmasters were first on the market. We dropped a RHS crate motor in it and hooked it up to a pair of FM's. Loudest dang car I ever rode in. No way to hold a conversation if it was running.

[jlsanborn]

Great looking work Vic! Soldering splices vs. crimping butt splices is the way to go too.

The leak thing is odd, well that it's both fronts. So, the reservoir holds it's pressure or is it leaking down too? Try pulling the exhaust silencer(s) out of the manifold and plugging the exhaust port(s). If that stops it from bleeding off, then it's a valve manifold problem. If it still goes down it's in the plumbing to or the bag itself.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Great looking work Vic! Soldering splices vs. crimping butt splices is the way to go too.
The leak thing is odd, well that it's both fronts. So, the reservoir holds it's pressure or is it leaking down too? Try pulling the exhaust silencer(s) out of the manifold and plugging the exhaust port(s). If that stops it from bleeding off, then it's a valve manifold problem. If it still goes down it's in the plumbing to or the bag itself.

Thanks, John. Talked to AccuAir tech support today and they said the poppets on the solenoids require back pressure to remain closed. So when the pressure bled off the tank due to a leak, the front bags went down. The reason the rear bags were staying up was because the pressure in them wasn't great enough to overcome the poppet. He said if I'd waited long enough, they would have probably bled down also. Good news is that if one bag fails, the other three will stay up as long as there's some air in the tank. So now I can move on to bigger and better things.

[Vic1947]

Some minor remodeling, an unscheduled trip to Sedalia to attend an impromptu birthday party (and pick up powder coated parts), as well as taking time to overhaul a backed up dishwasher has set me back on CRLS. Still working on the exhaust but only have two seams left to weld up. Discovered that the band clamps I used up front won't prevent twisting where the pipes meet, so I took the easy route and drilled thru the clamp and the pipes and put a couple of stainless rivets in to lock the entire assembly. If it doesn't hold, I'll tack weld it, but I think it should be good.

Welded out the mandrel bends, straight tubes, resonators, bullet turbos and turn downs then painted with high heat silver. I'd prefer everything to sit higher in the chassis, but had to compromise with the air spring setup. There's plenty of other parts that will hit before the exhaust pipes get knocked off. If I set the ride height low enough, you won't see any of it anyway.

[Xeen]

The exhaust looks great Vic.

[jlsanborn]

Super job - looks great!

[Low Elco]

Looks great!

[swamp rat]

A resonation report, or lack there of, would be greatly appriceative. Nice work Vic!

[jeh]

Superb work Vic, exhaust looks great....

[Bennett68C10]

Nice job on the exhaust, what did you use for the silver exhaust paint. I used por-15 high heat silver on mine and it worked out nicely.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Nice job on the exhaust, what did you use for the silver exhaust paint. I used por-15 high heat silver on mine and it worked out nicely.

Thanks, everyone. I just used high heat (1200 deg.) engine paint out of a rattle can. I have several brands... Duplicolor, Rustoleum and Krylon. Most of the tubing and the resonators are stainless, so the only reason to paint them is to match the other parts. I figure nothing short of a ceramic coating will last very long, but it will look okay for a while.