Restoring Rusty

[rusty76]

If you saw the motor in my old truck you'd think you saw a twin. It was super grimy. So grimy my buddy refused to help me pull the motor, till I cleaned. He manned up and did it anyway. My crossmember had no rust on it thanks to the oil and sludge.

[Gregski]

Decided to also replace the lower radiator hose after I took it off to clean it and realized there is a rusty spring inside of it, time to go. The replacement hose did not come with an internal spring yet it was molded to fit, nice.

Contemplating why the upper radiator hose costs $18 yet the lower radiator hose only costs $13 (same brand) both from AutoZone, LOL

Regardless parts are cheap and in abundance, that's another reason to love these trucks!

[Gregski]

Due to the family oriented nature of this site, lets just say we have experienced our first MINOR SETBACK!

So after I sprayed the Undercoat on the belly of the inner fender I noticed it was still super wet to the touch 4 hours later, than 8 hours later. I read the instructions and they said to not use when below 50* degrees, well it was over 60* when I shot it. I also shook the heck out of the can before spraying and in between squirts and the two coats.

Put the fender inside the house over night (the wife didn't take too well to that, love that woman and evicted it the first thing in the morning back to the garage - I was already at work)

Anywho in the morning there was a puddle of about quarter cup of liquid in the valley of the upside down inner fender.

What did I do wrong?

[pontgta]

Probably the cold weather. Too thick not enough time to "flash" in cold weather

[xbanone]

Love the build! what is the name of the color you painted the inner fender?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by xbanone

Love the build! what is the name of the color you painted the inner fender?

Thank you, Lime Green GM code 517

[Gregski]

so Christmas came a little early this year, my refurbished Holley carb arrived today, and I just want to share my excitement, I know to some of you this may be old hat, but this is the first new(ish) carb I ever bought, my first Holley!

Or as my daughter put it "Is that a robot daddy? I know it's something for your truck for sure!"

[rusty76]

Good looking carb

[Gregski]

I hope this broken oil dipstick tube is responsible for at least some of the leakage. Got this "Performance" (pronounced made in China) chrome part at AutoZone for like $8 bucks cause not even NAPA had the proper OEM part.

I did not know there were two pieces to this beast, so I dropped the oil pan and hammered it out from the bottom, only to have a 1.5 inch piece fall out followed by this long tube which I assume is some sort of guide tube.

[Gregski]

Normally one of the first things I do on a newly acquired used vehicle is an oil change but knowing I would be dropping off the pan to do a proper one on Rusty I procrastinated a lil bit

[Gregski]

Rusty, why did you have to wait a day after I just put brand new coolant in you to tell me about this rusty freeze plug?

I tried to pry it out with a flat screw driver that didn't work. So I tried to pull it out with my trusty vice grips, yeah right, the plug just laughed at me. So I punched it all the way in and pried it out that way. The pic show it pushed all the way in.

I also used a magnet on an antena stick to pull out any metal flakes that may have fallen in.

[y5mgisi]

What fun!

[rusty76]

The 400 sbc in my '76 had four freeze plugs to rust out. I replace three and gave up on the fourth. They're a PIB.

[77 350 Shorty Wide]

Make sure you get that lower guide tube back in. Otherwise the dipstick could end up in the crankshaft. I'm sure many people have reassembled engines withour them and have never had any trouble but the factory put one in there for a reason. Just my two cents.
I've been following this thread and you're doing a great job, keep up the good work and updates coming

God Bless, Terry

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 77 350 Shorty Wide

Make sure you get that lower guide tube back in.

Yes sir, totally agree, I gave up trying to pretend I am smarter than the GM army of engineers long time ago, LOL.

The anal-yst in me couldn't live with the chrome tube so I went to a junk yard and pulled an original. I know this is a small thing, but if it doesn't read the oil level proper cause the dip stick doesn't go deep enough or goes down too far that's not right.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 77 350 Shorty Wide

I've been following this thread and you're doing a great job, keep up the good work and updates coming

thank you very much, feedback keeps me going

[Gregski]

Made another trip to the junkyard and picked up a few little things, including a proper left taillight lense.

If you look at them side by side my old one is missing about an inch of red plastic down the right side in addition to the busted corner, etc.

job done

[Gregski]

also picked up these black door sill plates for the simple fact that they are black and that they run the length of my door unlike my shorty aluminum ones

one junkyard called one Moulding (per foot) and charged me $7 bucks the other location (same company) wanted $10 for the same part but then matched the price, new ones at LMC Truck are $30 plus shipping

usually I don't haggle on prices but I was getting the exact same part

[Gregski]

FACT: Hard to find manual transmission trucks at the junkyard all of them seem to be automatic.

[Gregski]

Engine Casting Number: 3970010 four bolt main - confirmed

Could GM make it more difficult to read the casting number, I mean to put it by the bell housing under the firewall, I had to get my Contortionist License just to read the darn thing

Anyway, did I mention it's a four bolt main? Heck maybe all the trucks were like that I don't know but four is better than two in my book.

[Gregski]

more crud scraped off just the cross member

[Gregski]

The Oil Pan needed some minor repairs, can you see the dent in the valley of the drain plug, not sure if you can in these pics

... luckily I have my Mobile Oil Pan Flattening Station - MOPFS, so I busted out the ProMark 3000 (a very versatile piece of equipment) and banged it out

[Gregski]

another reason I like to meticulously clean parts is that sometimes you get rewarded and see numbers, sometimes they are part numbers and sometimes they are helpful

this is on the oil pan

[rusty76]

Nice work.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Nice work.

Thanks