The Hillbilly Deluxe dually build

[Tx Firefighter]

If you're a country music fan, the name Hillbilly Deluxe will make sense.

Brooks & Dunn - Hillbilly Deluxe - YouTube

I'm a very small town guy so in my world there are a lot of guys who build duallys and other heavy duty trucks.

I needed a heavy truck to pull my trailers and haul hay for my animals with so I spent a long time looking for just the right truck. I wanted simple, cheap and strong. I finally found this truck local for cheap. Real cheap.

My criteria were
-Heavy duty cab and chassis with a nice flat bed
-Big block
-Fuel injected
-Proper color (I'm a white truck guy)
-Standard transmission

And it was real cheap.

It's an 88 model R30 with a 454 TBI engine, Muncie SM465 transmission and 4.56 geared locker rear end. As soon as my buddy saw all of that he said "You don't often need to pull a church off it's foundation, but when you do, you won't even have to break off idle". It's pulls like all of my old diesel pickups used to, up to about 60 miles per hour, when it gets gear bound. But, let me say it again, it was cheap. I bought it for what the engine core alone would be worth.





It's a local Texas truck with very few miles on it so it's mostly solid already...


I've never owned a heavier spec'd truck than this one. Heavy springs, big brakes, 4.56 gears, heavy cooling system, all of that. It surprised me that it even has air bags in the front coil springs.

Glove box sticker for the air bag option....



That will be the last time I use the words "air bags" in this thread. If that's your thing, along with semi wheels and all of that, you're in the wrong thread, just hit the back button right now. As far as I'll be going with this is to lower it statically and add some 16 inch Alcoas. That's as trick as it will be.

What this thread will be is very heavy of basic nuts and bolts tech stuff. I refuse to own a vehicle that leaks, drips or seeps any fluid at all, so that's first step on this build. There has been a whole lot of pressure washing and leak fixing going on first thing.

I'm a normal guy with a very normal income who has two daughters in private school, so the budget is the main factor that controls progress. But, that said, I have been attempting to use as many Made in USA parts as possible (and have been doing very well in that area), and will only use the best part available on the market. There is very little local parts store generic stuff on this build. I have been ordering most everything so I can get premium stuff like Gates, Felpro, Moog etc for the best prices.

Much, much more to come.

[lolife99]

Signing up!
I'd like to have this same truck, except with a dually bed.

[cochino12]

Nice truck! Signed up

[darkhorse970]

Sounds cool, I'm in!
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[ryanroo]

Ill watch!

[Tx Firefighter]

First step, like all journeys, is to do your homework and get your ducks in a row.

I bought these from a guy here on the parts board. He cut me a real solid deal and shipped
them within minutes of getting my paypal.

[72BlckButy]

Glad to see you back on TF!

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm fortunate to own a pretty decent pressure washer. Over the course of the first week of owning this truck, I went through 3 full tanks of gas in the washer trying to get the goop off this thing so I could see what I had to work with. I'd pressure wash the engine bay and chassis very thoroughly, then let it dry for a day and do it again. Finally after a week, it got down to where I could get under there and take stock of what I had to work with and not have grease on everything.

First thing I noticed was that some yay-hoo had pulled this thing with a chain some time in the past and used the sway bar bracket as an anchor point.

This picture is taken after removing the sway bar obviously.





I am lucky to have a good buddy that is a very long time parts guy at a local dealership. Having his help makes building these old trucks so much easier. Looking up annoying little parts for me doesn't bother him.





I wrote a sway bar article years ago which is an FAQ here on the board. At that time, I recommended getting Moog brand sway bar bushings locally when you need them. Well, over the years, that has changed. I have a shop account at my local O Reilly Auto Parts so I get a decent discount, but Rock Auto still beat the local guy's price by 20 bucks on these things, including delivery charges. They are urethane just like the Moog, but are black instead of blue. Rock Auto sells tons of different brands and colors of these, all of them cheaper than local parts houses. Pick your favorite flavor.

While I was waiting on my bushings to arrive, I detailed and powdercoated all of the sway bar and clamps. I use this silver vein texture powder with a coat of clear on top. Some folks may not like it, but the textured powder really obscures any pits and gouges in the parts.

Bushings....








Much more progress to come. I'm slow but very steady on my work ethic. I only spend truck money as I earn it too, so there's no pulling from my bank account or using a credit card to get a bunch of nice stuff all at once. I gave up the credit card deal years ago. It sucks to build your truck one part at a time, but it works best for me and keeps me sleeping soundly at night without worry.

[72BlckButy]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Much more progress to come. I'm slow but very steady on my work ethic. I only spend truck money as I earn it too, so there's no pulling from my bank account or using a credit card to get a bunch of nice stuff all at once. I gave up the credit card deal years ago. It sucks to build your truck one part at a time, but it works best for me and keeps me sleeping soundly at night without worry.

Unfortunately it takes many to long to learn that and it can cause a world of hurt to a family.

I was just about to ask if you were still powdercoating and the first update to the thread shows a pc'd sway bar. Ha!

So how's the PC business?

[Tx Firefighter]

After getting everything cleaned up, I spent some time evaluating the under hood stuff as to what needed attention. The engine itself is solid but most of the stuff around it needed attention.

-Hydroboost unit leaking
-Steering box leaking
-Power steering pump squalls even when full of fluid. Suspect the two leaks above caused it to be run dry too many times.
-Radiator leaks
-Water pump wobbles and is nosiy
-Hoses are oil soaked and swollen
-Wiring harness needs a lot of attention. Lots of bare wires, messed up connectors, missing looming
-Battery cables junk. Nice big new battery but it doesn't fit the battery box properly

I combined the leaky power steering box, leaky hydroboost unit and noisy PS pump into one big project since it's all one connected system. The plan is to reseal the steering box input shaft and pitman shaft seals and replace the p/s pump and hydroboost unit with rebuilt ones from Rock Auto.

[Stoney]

Didn't you have a red truck,too?

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Stoney

Didn't you have a red truck,too?

Good memory. Yes, I had a 78 dually. I never built it though, and wound up giving it to another member on here. The cab was so rusty that it needed a full swap and it had some suspension issues. I just couldn't make the money work in my head to build that truck.

[Tx Firefighter]

Another update while I'm here....

While doing the power steering pump, I also did the full cooling system at the same time and did a bunch of cleaning and powdercoating of all the front end engine stuff while I had it off.

-Had the radiator done at my local shop. Leak repaired, cleaned and resealed
-New water pump
-FelPro Printoseal t-stat gasket (Made in USA)
-All new hoses, heater, radiator, and bypass (Gates Made in USA)
-Thermostat (Made is USA)

The truck had some kind of goofy little fan that the fan shroud just swallowed up. I wound up taking it off and replacing it with a full size fan from one of my parts trucks.











Heater shut off valve I used. It's actually a PEX ball valve from Home Depot.



Restored the fan shroud.





All new hydroboost hoses to replace the old cracked leakers (Gates made is USA).







New hardware for the fan shroud.

[Tx Firefighter]

The fan and accessory brackets are semi gloss black powdercoat and the other stuff is full gloss powdercoat. I like the contrast between the two to give it a hint of detail. The water pump is just painted though. Even I'm not OCD enough to disassemble a brand new water pump just to powdercoat it.







Still to come is the top end of the engine, resealing, rebuilding the EFI harness and throttle body, and building my own exhaust system with some neat parts.

[manimal]

Nice job! Love the truck.

[Tx Firefighter]

At this point, the cooling system is all better than new and all of the nagging leaks have been fixed. New power steering stuff and hydroboost etc...

So, on to the top of the engine.

-TBI rebuild
-Wiring harness repair
-Reseal valve covers

Even though the truck ran well enough, I suspected the throttle body could use some attention. I was not wrong. Made in USA rebuild kit





The victim...



I found my fast idle issue (cracked baseplate gasket)


This thing was horrible inside. Easily the worst one I have ever seen.









Notice the goop on the injector that was inside the screen area.



Much cleaning to get it all proper again...

[Tx Firefighter]

Wiring harness was a mess everywhere. I had to do a whole lot of wire replacement, terminal replacement, soldering and heatshrinking.







I had to un-pin the injector connectors and build an entire new injector harness.







Old battery cables were pure trash so I converted to boat type of terminal ends and had new cables made.



The new cables aren't cheap, but they're 2 ought welding cable and copper prices aren't cheap anymore. You got to have garden hoses to get the electricity to that big block starter. I hate hard to start trucks,





Also rebuilt the battery tray. It's kind of ghetto really. The truck came with a nice new battery that was too big for the box. Plus the tray was rusty also. So, I grabbed a scrap piece of plate steel and just built a new base for the battery to sit on. Afterwards powdercoated it gloss black.



Boat battery terminals.



Ghetto fab work

[ryanroo]

Looks really good, what did you use to make that TB looks so nice? is there a product you use on the AL to make it look fresh again?

Ryan

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

Looks really good, what did you use to make that TB looks so nice? is there a product you use on the AL to make it look fresh again?

Ryan

I have an old crock pot with Yamalube carburetor cleaner in it. I boil it for an hour or so to get the goop off the parts, then rinse it off and soda blast all of the aluminum to get the clean bright look.

[cory d]

yamalube huh? thats what i run in my honda

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm mainly a motorcycle restore guy so Yamalube stuff is what I'm comfortable with. You mix it 1:1 with water in a crock pot. Dunk your parts and boil for a while and they come out astonishingly clean. When you get done, put the lid on the crock pot and slide it back under the workbench for next time you need it. I do a lot of motorcycle carbs in my shop and get about a year out of a bottle before replacing. If you keep it covered to cut down on evaporation, you can use it for a long time.

http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/...22/detail.aspx

You'll never use that Berryman's gallon dip stuff from the auto parts store again after you use Yamalube.

[darkhorse970]

Very nice work! Your builds always teach me new methods and products.
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[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

Very nice work! Your builds always teach me new methods and products.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thank you for the kind words.

I'll be looking forward to drinking coffee with you fellows at Pate this year.

[darkhorse970]

Sounds like a plan...maybe we can get together for supper one night too.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Tx Firefighter]

While I was doing the top end of the engine I went ahead and detailed the air cleaner and all of the little brackets that bolt to the manifold.

The base is semi gloss black powdercoat and the lid is full gloss. I think the contrast between the two really makes it look nice.





The valve covers were looking pretty bad too so I cleaned them up. New Felpro Printoseal permadry gaskets and rubber grommets too.











Notice the exhaust manifolds are off the truck in those pictures. That's a painful story and will unfold in the next update.