Attempt/Mistake #2

[jhaymon]

the foreign female air couplers only fit the foreign male air couplers. it's a difference in metric and sae. i've been using the m-style safety push button couplers..of course i get em free so im not bothered by $9.00 price tag. i prefer the the v-style miltons because they seem to last longer, but i have to pay for thous.

[TchncnDen]

In that picture where your truck arms are in primer it looks like someone built a house inside your shop. That's fricken incredible!

[El Campo]

Haha yea that's where my parents live now after they sold their house until they build a new one. Our shop was insulated already and then they blew in insulation in all the walls and ceiling of the house (which is isolated from the shop roof by about 2 feet). It is efficient enough to give them averages of TWENTY SIX dollar electric bills even in the middle of summer. Our old house we had 3 and 400 dollar electric bills and so they went a little overkill
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[NewType72]

I can tell you for a fact that that white epoxy will brighten your tail and reverse lights like the sun I did that too mine with a sealer white and couldn't be happier with the result I really love the orange trailing arms I may just do mine red now
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[El Campo]

Thanks NewType72, glad to hear that! Hoped that it would work in actuallity instead of just in theory and happy that you have proved it. Now I just have to get some sweet headlights like you have! And Jhaymon interesting that you say that about the air fittings, I never knew that. I will probably stick with the "M" type as that is what my dad and brothers all use and what I have classically had on everything too.

[NewType72]

If you ever need any info my write up of product and install is on my build page. And I'd actually research a little longer on hids if you aren't afraid of wiring I just need something temporary to cure my constant update look mentality haha never am happy completely
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[El Campo]

Been busy with work lately so have not gotten a lot done. Did get 2 of my wheels sold to Zoomin though so I can get the narrower ones for the front. These are the ones I sold. Note to everyone that if you ship mounted tires you have to let the air out of the tires. I found out after packaging them all up and they made me let the air out of the tires. Also I got tired of never having enough air so I scored this big (for me) Devilbiss compressor off of Craigslist for a steal. It should easily power all of my air tools without super heating the air. I am trying to find an air drier off of a truck to run all the air through prior to piping it throughout my shop so that I have dry air to all my tools etc. Have not figured out how to make it purge though like they do when they are still on the truck.

[El Campo]

As I said earlier I got so frustrated with Chinese made air fittings that I went and bought some more yet. Always wanted to try the high flow fittings and now that have big compressor figured would be a great time. Researched a lot and many people said to try Coilhose Pneumatics. I had never heard of them before but since are American made and can use their high flow with standard industrial fittings also I went ahead and bought 75 dollars worth of air fittings and blow guns from them. They say that they can flow twice as much air as a standard fitting does which I thought would be helpful quite commonly. These are true one hand operated quick connects, you just push them onto the male part of the fitting and they snap on automatically. And man are they NICE! I know they cost an exorbitant amount but they operate far smoother and easier than even the Miltons do. I hope they last because they are sweet. And the Typhoon blow gun (the big silver one) uses up to something like 34 CFM so it should blow off anything that I ever need. Sure is nice looking down and seeing Made in the USA on tools

[El Campo]

Did get some more parts ordered in . The other Moser wheel studs that I had bought were too short so I ordered some longer ones. Got them installed the redneck way (which I would not recommend as you can see that the AutoZone lug nut that I tried to use to pull them into the rotors was so cheaply made that it stripped out immediately when I hit it with my big Craftsman impact. You can see it on there. So used one of the McGard lug nuts and these did the trick nicely. Summit was having a special free shipping on entire order if you order Ford Racing lug nits and had read that they were actually McGards that had Ford Racing on the box. They were correct! This is a cheaper priced but exact same lug nut and has the blue oval nowhere on them. Plus free shipping for my whole order. Also teeitup sold me some black door panels with the silver trim and they look almost perfect! Thanks Randy. Then the most astonishing thing of all happened! Figured I would just try my local GM stealership and see what they charged for the limited slip additive that you are supposed to use for the factory posi and they were actually cheaper than either Amazon or Summit!! That has never happened in history before.

[El Campo]

Also bought off of a member here a factory tilt gear indicator. He sent it certified mail! Then I ordered from dealer GM sidemarkers!! Did not know that you could still get these from the dealer but you can. Apparently they came on vans until the mid 80s so you can still get factory original GM sidemarkers which do NOT lose the chrome piece like the imported ones. Made in the USA too. I am tired of how my old truck was shaved and how difficult it is to get inspected without them as well as the truck looked too plain I eventually decided. Got all the sidemarkers for around 120 bucks total. Not bad I didn't think.

[El Campo]

Amber sidemarker. I needed some heat shrink and thought that if heat shrink was good enough for salt water boats it will be good enough for my street driven only/never in the rain/always garaged truck. Did some research and lots of people were saying that this Ancor adhesive lined tubing was every bit as good and maybe even better than the 3M marine grade so I bought some to try. It is still outrageously expensive but in our humidity I thought it would be wise. Will update as to how well it works.

[El Campo]

Now for some actual work progress: I mounted the radiator core support and my present 4 core radiator to check my clearance from the long water pump again. There is almost 5 inches so should be plenty for my electric fans. I finally broke down and bought some fans! After doing tons of research about the Taurus fans and every other fan ever made it seemed like I bought these Derale fans from Summit. They came with relays including AC and all the wiring as well as having Bosch (mexican made) motors. Not bad for a 200 dollar setup. Also they have the very open backs instead of the spider web looking cage that you normally see. Up to a true 4000 CFM air flow even with higher static pressure (this is significantly more than the Taurus fan puts out). Now they DO draw almost 50 amps while both running but putting a big alternator on anyways so not overly concerned about that. Plus are only 3.5 inches thick at the deepest point. Fit my scenario perfectly! They are only 11 inch fans but the cover over 85% of the core which from what I understand is adequate. Also the 3rd time was a charm on my radiator hose. Finally got one the correct length: 27.5 inches long. Also finally got my crank pulley completed. Never could get my friend to finish it so I went over to his shop and finished turning it down myself. Do not make fun of it too much as it was my first time ever using a lathe. It does fit well now though. I am almost ready to run the engine on the frame.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Whats the eta on fire up?

[El Campo]

Well I'm coming up to Crater Lake for vacation the day after tomorrow so will be there for a while. Right around October 1 is the plan. I have my video camera all ready don't worry. Videos will definitely be happening and posted. It's kind of a pain beause of the electric fuel pump. I had it running already on the engine stand but it is hard keeping it running when you have to fill the bowls with a squirt can! As of right now all I have to do is add coolant and gas and it will run. Had to put some new spark plugs in to replace the cracked ones and torqued them for first time in my life. Was suprised how tight 20 lb ft actually is when it's a spark plug turning inside a 1200 dollar aluminum head haha
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[El Campo]

So I have not been working on the truck as I went on vacation and did a lot of other stuff that would bore you all to hear about. I did finally get my battery box welded up using the old side supports and the new bottom piece that I made. This shouldn't rust through considering it is 1/4 inch plate plus I have the sealed Optima in there too. Also got the transmission bolted on and the engine secured for a test fire before I paint everything on the engine. Everything fits well, Thank God.

[El Campo]

And I found some old pictures for the first attempt at building this truck which was an epic fail. Figured people might like to see it.. Don't laugh too hard at these because I was young and dumb and wasteful. Plus I did not have a shop like I do now. This is the 427 that dropped a valve because the cam walked over a lobe as the bolts came loose on the cam gear. Will never again build an engine without the locking plate there.

[El Campo]

I had terrible luck with paint and body men on this truck. Most of the body work on the cab got done 3 times because everyone half a$$ed it. And then the last time most was done by a guy who had worked in a collision shop for 17 years and it still looked like hell. He never test fit the doors apparently and you can see about how well that turned out. That body line annoys me even today. This is why I am junking this entire cab and starting over with a different one entirely. When I finally cut into it this is what it looked like

[El Campo]

And the rocker was crap too. I did the drivers side and it was the first time I had ever done one and it turned out 10 times better than the one that the alleged "pros" did. (and I am not that good, they were just that bad!) This is what I got charged a lot of money for:

[El Campo]

From 100 feet away the truck looked ok but I learned a valuable lesson about backspacing wheels... I also decided that I will never own another silver vehicle again. Got tired of people asking "So what color are you going to paint it?" because they thought it was primered. And impossible to get to match when we tried to touch up spots on it! Also on the second attempt I am going to UNSHAVE the sidemarkers.

[mcbassin]

Very nice!

[67c10rustbuket]

Lots of nice new goodies, I like the new derale fan setup. Was that a dual fan kit or 2 singles put together? Man the pros sure used plenty of mud on your cab corner. It's amazing to see some of the junk " real professionals" do. Can't wait for the start up vid.
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[El Campo]

I went with this setup from Summit:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/der-16928

This was after agonizing for months over what to go with. I know that alot of people use the Jeep fan or the Ford Taurus fan but independent tests have shown those to actually not move nearly as much air as many people think, around 3200CFM max. These are only 13 inch (two of them) fans but have 10 blades each and are very narrow. Since I have the long water pump on my BBC I was very concerned about fitting anything in there. According to what I have read the CFM numbers quoted are often times with no static pressure and that vastly affects CFM. Also some fans claim to move 3600 CFM of air while only drawing 10 amps. I am not knocking design as I know that design is super important in efficiency but these fans pull 50 (!) amps AND have 10 blades each, seems more plausible that they would actually move the 4000CFM rating. Especially since Derale addresses the static pressure factor. Also I read that the fans that have the spider web appearing cage cut down dramatically on airflow while fans such as the taurus have the very open cage such as these. These fans have Bosch motors on them and include the temp senders, all wiring AND relays. That alone is over 100 bucks. Total price was 225 bucks plus totally free shipping. Hell I could be all washed out though and they may be a huge disappointment!!!! I will be putting a huge alternator on here anyways as I have a big electric fuel pump and MSD too. It is a very tight fit but there is adequate clearance, barely. Do you all think that since it is so close to the engine that it will adversely affect the cooling?

[TchncnDen]

Attemp 1 doesn't look too bad in the pictures, but you aren't kidding about that cab corner. That's nasty! The sad part is that it was all bondo and if they'd spent another five minutes sanding they could have had it looking good. And your cam walked a lobe? I've never seen that before but I have dropped a valve by overrevving and trashed a nice/expensive motor. It makes a mess. This attempt is much better all around, keep it up.

[El Campo]

My biggest pet peeve of anything is when something leaks. Since 12 bolts leak sometimes and there are quite a few horses in front of this one I decided to weld the axle tubes onto the center housing. I had welded some cast iron before but it had been a while so I did a TON of research on how to do it correctly. This is how I did it. Stripped the rearend totally down (was going to do this anyways to put the Posi in and replace all the bearings after I sandblast it). Rearend had previously been painted after some shoddy rust removal that was largely unsuccessful. Clean the inside of the housing out well. Ground the axle joints with a heavy hand. It is imperative to get all the way to virgin metal on both the axle tube as well as the cast iron housing. Wrapped up the center piece with 6 layers of radiant barrier insulation. With a torch started heating about an inch inboard of joint until reached temp of 600 degrees. I do not have a TIG so had to use arc welder with 3/32" 99% nickel rods ($$$$$$). Welded in short bursts while keeping area 600 degrees. Took numerous cycles of welding and then the torch to maintain it. Peened the welds (it hurts peening good looking welds but do what you have to do ). Then wrapped the entire rearend was an additional 6 layers of insulation in an attempt to slow the cooling process down to about 100 degrees per hour. After was cool hit it quick with a flap disc and here it is! Did not use a jig as some some that it is not absolutely necessary if you are careful and did not have one available. Checked it out afterwards and no warpage

[El Campo]

More pics coming up, Internet is not cooperating right now...
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