Danny Boy's '59 4 Eyes Project

[Gator Alum]

Hello all! Thank you to everyone's kind words throughout my searching and the actual acquisition of the truck. She is a beauty and I can't wait to get her back home. She'll be in my driveway in about a week. Almost completely stock except for a paint job 15 years ago and the wood in the bed. Truck is in great shape as it was stored in a garage for 10 years. Only significant rust areas I have seen were the cab corners and lower hinge pockets on both doors.

Plan for the truck:
First steps would be to get her in to a reliable driver.

• Brake line fix - rear brakes currently not working as the line is kinked or rusted or broken
• Replace all fluids (transmission, rear end, oil, coolant, brakes)
• New spark plugs
• Purchase some used tires as current ones are dry rotted
• New battery

Future for the truck:
I want to keep her as a driver but begin working on adding those modern day creature comforts. No plans to drop the truck excessively or c-notching, I like the nostalgic look.

• Power steering
• Modern radio
• Disc brakes
• Air conditioning
• Maybe IFS someday

For the first round, can anyone else provide suggestions on what else to go through to make her safe and reliable before I start taking her out on the road? I attempted to search for lists, but ran out of ideas for search strings.

As always, thanks guys! Oh and I know you love pics! I think I posted most of these already in other threads, but might as well get the official build thread going.

[Rude Dude]

Nice I like the color!

[Sin7]

one more week and she's home !

[_Ogre]

good looking truck, nice unmolested original survivor

personally, i'd go thru the whole brake system to make sure.
if the lines are rusty replace them all, bending new lines is easy
it's only a single piston and reservoir, if anything goes, so do the brakes

other than that? enjoy it

[shadow1967]

Nice!! I said the samething 4 years ago when I bought mine. Now it's under the knive.

[Kim57]

Nice looking truck.
Kim

[_Ogre]

you should have changed your name to danny boy with this new thread too
war eagle

[Gator Alum]

@Ogre-I'm actually attending Auburn as a distant student for my MBA. So I'll definitely go with War Eagle. My loyalty, of course, is with Florida. I bleed orange and blue. Go Gators.
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[Gator Alum]

Good morning all. Happy Memorial Weekend!

I decided to fore go the Pensacola stop and just went up Tuesday night to Alabama and drove back Wednesday. It was a long trip, but uneventful and completely worth it. She's home in Florida now!

Now my focus is getting her to be a reliable driver before I dive in and handle the really fun stuff. Few things from a newbie:

1. I do not believe my temperature gauge is working on the instrument cluster. I have read the engine should be around 180 F. Where should the needle be on the gauge under normal operation? Dead center 12 o'clock?

2. I have a radiator leak in the very top. Cheaper to braze/repair, or should I consider a new one?

I have already repaired the brakes, the soft line over the rear axle was clogged, and I had to run a new hardline from T up by master cylinder to rear soft line. I also got a new battery to get rid of the 2x4 and ratchet strap tie down. LOL. I know, pretty elementary things, but because I just got her, need to get her to be a little reliable.

[Kim57]

That's great you got it home so you can start having fun.
Kim

[Sin7]

glad you, and the truck, made it home safe.

[_Ogre]

gator: glad the truck is home safely

temp gauge: depends on what thermostat is in it. if you have a infrared thermometer, warm it up and check the temperature at the top of the thermostat housing. that should tell you what thermostat you have.
as far as the gauge... if it's reading, then it's right. no set point for degrees on these gauges. if your thermostat is working right then where it reads is good, higher is overheating, lower is warming up or stuck open.
this is my gauge at operating temp with a 180 thermostat.
straight up is overheating. i've had the same truck with straight up is good, a little to the right is hot.



as far as the radiator: if it's the original and has white dust (lead rust) at the top and bottom seam, then buy a new one.
brothers has a good desert cooler radiator, 4 core with auto trans cooler (if your going automatic trans)
it is a us radiator unit.

[Gator Alum]

@Sin7 - Thanks man. The more I look at your truck, the more jealous I get of your back window!

@Ogre - Thanks for the picture, very much needed. I bought a new 180 degree thermostat and gasket last night. Planning on replacing it tonight. When I drive home with the truck I will use the IR thermometer. My guess is that it does not have a thermostat or it is simply stuck open. God only knows the condition of it after being stored for 10 years. RE: Radiator... It is most likely the original and I will check on the white dust. Can they not reseal it easily?

[darkgable79]

Nice truck.

[Kabwe]

That is a really nice truck you got there.

[Gator Alum]

@darkgable79 & @kabwe - Thanks guys! I'm pretty excited.

So dad (who lives right down the street) is in Italy for 2 weeks, I stole his garage to work on the truck. Going through the cooling system and the horn (2 people tried to share a lane with my truck today). I drove the truck home, let it sit maybe 30 min. Coolant draining from the bottom was room temperature but topside was extremely warm... I think a large portion of my radiator may be clogged.

Pulled the radiator out... Should I bother repair/trying to salvage?

[_Ogre]

get a price to re-core it. chances are it will be almost as much as a new one.
mine looked like that but didn't leak, i replaced it with this one from brothers current price is $390

[Gator Alum]

Finally got around to ordering a new radiator. Went with a Griffin one that ended up being cheaper than Brothers, only problem is I have to wait 2-4 weeks. Not that big of a deal considering how much I saved by waiting.

I had my steering wheel off to diagnose the horn problem. Found out the PO messed up the threads a little on the steering column. Does anyone know the thread pitch of the steering wheel bolt? I took the old one to the hardware store, but it is pretty far gone and couldn't come up with anything besides a 12mm-1.75 extra fine thread. Figured a metric nut wasn't correct being it's an antique Chevy. 1/2 fine thread was close so I picked one of those up. Didn't really go on that well so I didn't force it. I think I need to use a tap/die set to clean it up before getting the wheel back on.

[Gator Alum]

My oh my how time flies, hard to imagine that it's been nearly 4 months since I got this truck. Other commitments have just taken too much of my time. I got the radiator installed and just ordered the Retro Sound head unit today from Crutchfield. It's really hard driving around with only the rumble of the truck.

I took the truck out the other day and it has miraculously developed a serious death wobble. I've read about King Pins, could it be them? The tires are old and a little dry-rotted, but the wobble developed almost overnight. I mean the steer wheel jerks back and forth rather substantially. I was planning on getting newer tires anyways, but I find it difficult to believe that will solve the problem considering it crept up so fast.

[Kim57]

I would inspect the tires to make sure you didn't lose a chunk of tread from the inside of one. You could have thrown a wheel weight also.
Kim

[_Ogre]

i'd look at other issues first like kim said
king pin issues usually don't pop up suddenly
but they do need grease and often
if you haven't greased them you should do that now

[BC Toy chest]

Nice project you got there , looking forward to seeing more photos. What's next on your to do list?

[Gator Alum]

Thanks BC... It's coming along. Since I'm in Florida, I haven't driven it all that much during the summer bc it was so flipping hot out.

I looked into the death wobble. The tires have a serious flat spot and a bulge out of the side, so new tires are a must. The seal in the master cylinder failed too, so no brakes. The wheels also wobble top to bottom a whole bunch so I need to work on the king pins... Need to do some serious research on that. Perhaps I could just shim them...

For brakes I want a dual reservoir MC for safety. Ultimately I would like discs, so I'm thinking of just getting the whole CPP kit for $750... I posted in the main forum too on the subject. I may just get some dual MC and make it work (anyone have any suggestions?). I don't mind the manual brakes and don't really need the power booster. I'd like to keep the stock brake pedal.

I also removed the stereo as I have a RetroSound unit arriving tomorrow and a new speaker. Turns out the speaker wasn't hooked up at all so the unit may be good and I just needed to hook up the speaker. We'll see. It'd be nice to resell a working original HU to recoup some $$.

What a night though... some simple problem turned into so much more. I want to get her back on the road as fall is quickly approaching.

[blue57]

Originally Posted by Gator Alum

Thanks BC... It's coming along. Since I'm in Florida, I haven't driven it all that much during the summer bc it was so flipping hot out.

I looked into the death wobble. The tires have a serious flat spot and a bulge out of the side, so new tires are a must. The seal in the master cylinder failed too, so no brakes. The wheels also wobble top to bottom a whole bunch so I need to work on the king pins... Need to do some serious research on that. Perhaps I could just shim them...

For brakes I want a dual reservoir MC for safety. Ultimately I would like discs, so I'm thinking of just getting the whole CPP kit for $750... I posted in the main forum too on the subject. I may just get some dual MC and make it work (anyone have any suggestions?). I don't mind the manual brakes and don't really need the power booster. I'd like to keep the stock brake pedal.

I also removed the stereo as I have a RetroSound unit arriving tomorrow and a new speaker. Turns out the speaker wasn't hooked up at all so the unit may be good and I just needed to hook up the speaker. We'll see. It'd be nice to resell a working original HU to recoup some $$.

What a night though... some simple problem turned into so much more. I want to get her back on the road as fall is quickly approaching.

Upgrading to a brake booster wont hinder you from using your stock pedal. I actually have CPP's master, brake booster, remote reservoir and am using TCI's pedal assembly that the stock pedal i believe will bolt right up to it from what i was told.

[Gator Alum]

Blue57-
Did you have any issues with the brake booster clearing the transmission cross member? What kind of transmission are you running??
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