It's sad to say but it's been over a year and a half since I last posted any work on my truck. I wish it was because I was too busy building it that I had no time to post, but it's really because I have had no time to build it, therefore nothing new to post. I have been involved in a bunch of other things that have kept me from my C10.... including a major home renovation that I am about finished with now. Once I clear the dust of my DIY home improvement project and find what's stuffed in the back of my garage again (my truck!) I hope to be back at it. Here's my 1979 parts truck that I am still parting out. It still has a good front end with disc brakes, a complete rear axle and very good doors and perfect glass all around.
0 Comments
Since the weather makes it difficult to continue work on the body of my truck, I thought I might get working on the engine I plan to plant into it. I pulled the 350 V8 out of my parts truck last Fall and have had it sitting on my engine stand just waiting for my attention. I decided it was time to attempt a rebuild.... Watching a number of YouTube videos got me all excited about tearing this thing down and seeing if I could put it all back together again in a way that would give me a solid power plant for my project. I enjoyed tearing it down and inspecting all the pieces and it appears to be in amazing condition considering the odometer on the parts truck said it had 188,000 miles on it. I took my time on it, but after a few sessions I had the whole block disassembled. Nothing looked bad to me, but I'm no expert. I just didn't see any major damage to anything and I wondered if the motor had previously been rebuilt already. I posted a few photos online in some of the truck Facebook groups and got some opinions on that. My conclusion is that it had not been rebuilt before because it showed no indication of it but only seems to be original GM components throughout... at least the internals. While taking it apart I knew from watching Youtube videos that it is important to keep track of where each part came from and should be returned to. I marked all the rod and main caps with marks to be sure they go back together correctly and I placed all the pushrods, lifters and main caps into a board I made up to organize them. The pistons have new identifying marks on their connecting rods and I placed them in a box in the same order as there were in the engine. Eventually I got the whole motor disassembled and loaded up the block, crank and heads and took them to a machine shop I found locally. The owner there said the engine had never been rebuilt before and that the crank would need polishing, the block boring and the heads would need a valve job. I'm hoping to negotiate some barter in exchange for the machine work... more to come on that.
Wow. I haven't posted anything since last May. I guess that only reflects the fact that my C10 project has stalled, stalled big-time. My long bed truck sits in the yard missing it's long bed, but still running great. The bed is in pieces and stashed away in my temporary garage-in-a-box shelter for the winter. So is my fully restored 65 shortbed frame with it's new front end with dropped spindles and disc brakes. My 79 parts truck is sitting outside too minus it's front grille, radiator, 350 engine and auto transmission. The engine quietly awaits attention on my engine stand inside my real garage. My work situation has changed and my fun money has dried up. Future progress looks a long way off, if ever. I am starting to wonder if I need to abandon the whole thing. I'd hate to have to.... guess I'll try to hold out longer and see what I can do right now, during the winter for little or no money.
After giving LMC numerous opportunities to correct the mistakes they made with my little order of control arm shaft seals and finally being forced to simply return the wrong items to them for a refund (which they still insisted were the right parts), I found a new supplier. Classic Parts of America had the correct seals and got them to me in just a couple of days. While looking through their online catalog I discovered a brand new product they say is "Coming Soon" too. Freshly stamped SHORT BOX FLEETSIDE BED SIDES! Now I really am unsure of what I want to do with my project! They are a tad pricey....$600 each plus shipping.... but if I add up what it might cost to get my sides resurrected...who knows!
My Still Plays with Trucks T-shirts have been selling well and I continue to get requests for more designs. Here's some of the ones I have available currently at www.tabbdesign.com. It seems when I design a fleetside, someone asks for a stepside, or when I present a shortbed, someone wants a longbed. My original art was for my 65 Fleetside and from that I was able to also offer long and short versions as well as stock height and slammed versions. Same for flavors of stepside trucks. Then I recently added a 63 knee knocker version and my first GMC variety. I hope to add more all the time and I continue to have guys sending me photos of their trucks to use as a basis of a new design.
While waiting for the correct control arm shaft seals to come, I had time to install my new control arm bumpers on both the upper and lower control arms. The new bumpers were a bear to figure out how to install them. The round ones for the upper CAs were not too difficult... only applied a little grease to them and push-screwed them into place. The rectangular bumpers for the lower CAs were much more difficult. Guys on the Facebook groups suggested greasing them and "sliding" them into place, tying a cord around the base and pulling them in, and even hammering them into the slot they go into. I had no success with any of these methods. Then a guy suggested boiling them first and installing them while still hot. So I tried that too and with some grease on the slot and a wide bladed screwdriver I was able to get them in. Maybe a tad gouged up by the screwdriver, but finally into correct position on the control arms.
I finally got the hang of it. After a lot of burn-throughs and frustration I got some advice from other enthusiasts about my welding and tried some of their advice. Once I got my settings right on my welder and made use of a copper welding spoon I figured out welding sheet metal! And it's a blast! Here's some shots of the progress I've made...
I finally got around to begin re-assembling my frame only to find that there was an error made when LMC sent me my new parts. I was all ready to build my new front suspension but discovered that the control arm shaft seals were wrong. I put on the upper control arm shafts along with the seals and noticed they were very very loose.... way too loose to contain the grease that would be going in to them. I wondered if I had them in backwards too.... but they only "seemed" to fit one way that made some kind of sense. Still, they seemed wrong. I decided to post a video of how loose they were to a couple of pages of groups on Facebook that are for old chevy truck lovers. A lot of people responded... mostly telling me that they WERE too loose. One even said he had encountered the same problem with LMC. Then, I remembered that I had kept the old seals and when I compared the old and new it was obvious that I had been sent the wrong parts. They also sent me the wrong lower control arm shaft seals. Not only that, but they sent only 3 of the wrong ones and 1 of the other wrong upper seals in the bag! Bummer. That postpones my suspension work for a while now. I was able to get my crossmember installed with the help hand of my engine hoist that is now holding up the front of the frame and enabling me to install components more easily... kind of a poor man's lift of sorts! Since I was stalled on the re-assembly, I thought I would practice my mig welding more in order to get ready to shorten my longbed sides. I cut a slice into one of the short sides I have and tried to tack weld it back together. Not much luck there as these photos show. I've got a long way to go in the process of learning how to weld, so I thought I would post these images to the FB Truck Groups too. I received a ton of responses and tips to try and I am anxious to get back to the garage and try them out. I'm not there yet, but I am beginning to understand the technique and settings required....just need to practice more. The most posted remark was that I was running too hot with the voltage. I was trying all sorts of settings but I guess I was starting out way too high on the power and wire speed.
Not everyone is a fleetside fan. So, I've added a few stepside versions to the truck lovers collection! 15% OFF anything until 4/15/15.... so act fast! http://284078.spreadshirt.com/
Because for my work I am a commercial artist I thought I would create a new Tee Shirt design to show my interest in my truck hobby. I have an old sweatshirt that says "still plays with cars" that I often wear when getting greasy in the garage and so I thought I would update my wrenching wardrobe with a more appropriate design. I used a photo of my long bed C10 for the basis of my drawing... but of course I shortened the bed to resemble what I hope mine will look like eventually! I am making these Tee Shirts and Sweat Shirts available in my spreadshirt shop if you'd like one too. I have a link to it on my website at www.tabbdesign.com. I think I will add a step side version soon too and maybe some other years of trucks. I like how the design turned out, but I only wish a Tee Shirt color that matched my truck was available!
Since I ran out of welding gas, I decided to get back to work on the front suspension components. Because of the nice weather I was able to final prep all the parts... de-greasing and metal prepping them per the POR15 directions. Because the directions say the parts must be "bone dry" prior to applying the POR15 I thought I would just clean them up and allow them to dry until next weekend when I would paint them. But, the very sunny and slightly windy day did an amazing job of quick-drying everything and I was then able to put on the first coat of POR15 to the pieces on Saturday and then turn them over and do the other side on Sunday.
Chemical paint stripper, a putty knife and my angle grinder got one of my bed sides down to bare metal and allowed me to see better what I am up against in attempting to rebuild it. There are quite a few areas of rust-through and lots of dented areas that had been filled with bondo. Those areas were first drilled full of holes to either pull dents or to anchor the bondo, so the panel looks like swiss cheese there. I also realized that in some areas, the sides had previously been patched with new metal....rebuilding rusty components. It was fun to get the panel down to clean steel... but it is daunting to think about all that needs to be done to these things in order to make them work. I pulled out my new MIG welder and started making repairs.... it would more accurately be described as "started learning how to use the welder in order to make repairs". Lot's of burn-throughs, heavy weld build-ups and a ton of after-grinding! If nothing else, I think the process is going to teach me what I need to know about sheet metal welding. I really enjoy the welding work and look forward to doing more of it. This past weekend I was ready to continue only to realize my ArgonCO2 gas was all gone! Too late on Saturday to find a refill too, so I decided to do something else on the truck.....
In reviewing my project plans of a few months ago, I ran across a link to an episode on "TRUCKS!" that features a project just like mine....turning a long bed into a short bed. It even has a truck that looks just like mine. I am now considering doing the same kind of bedsides chopping as shown in their video. The long bed sides that are currently on my truck are in excellent shape and making them shorter would be a ton less work than resurrecting my purchased short sides. So now my plan is to continue repairing my short sides for now.... mainly to improve my welding skills, so when I do cut down my long bed sides I will be able to do a better job of welding them. (Why didn't I think of doing this in the first place?) Well, the warmer March temperature is giving me a chance to clean off my bed sides today so I pulled them out of the molasses to see how they were looking. After blasting them with hot water via my pressure washer I got a better idea of what they need. The rust has begun to come off in many areas and I plan to sink them back in the bath soon, but first I would like to see about stripping the old paint and bondo off both. I was able to shoot off a lot of the undercoating on the one, but will need to address that more later. I thought I might use a wheel on my angle grinder to remove the paint but I think a chemical strip might get more off more quickly. I know there are a number of areas that are holding bondo and I want to clean the things to bare metal and do my own re-repairs of any areas. At this point the sides both look pretty bad and make me wonder if I'm not crazy for attempting to rebuild them. But, then again, that is the challenge, right? To see if I can do it! Just like when I first was cleaning up the frame and removing all the road dirt and grease from that and was finally able to see exactly what I was dealing with, these sides too I would like to get to a point where I can plainly see what they need. If I can get them down to bare metal I can feel better about what I need to do with them. Another reason I wanted to pull these sides out of the molasses bath is that with them out I now have room to soak the remaining components of my front suspension and my trans crossmember. Then, after I clean those parts off I am ready to POR15 a whole bunch of parts at once.
Quick update. After a few more weeks in the molasses bath, I pulled out a lower control arm and scrubbed it off with water and then hit it with Eastwoods After Blast. It's kind of a metal-etch acid that leaves behind a coating thats supposed to keep the fresh metal from flash rusting. You can see in the photo on the right how gray the metal seems to be staying now. So, therefore now I think this part can rest aside without rusting until I get to POR15 coating it with other parts. The photo on the left shows the arm before the molasses sessions.
Since I have already purchased new end caps (Top Banana) for both bedsides, I needed to remove the old rusty originals before soaking the rest of the panels in the soup. I used my angle grinder with a cutting wheel to saw off the old pieces. They appeared to have been spot welded on to the sides when new. I will need to figure out how to attach the new pieces when I get to that point. The photo below shows the amount of rust on this panel. It actually appears to have been repaired once before with some new metal welded into the structure. I removed that too. I will need to re-create some of the pieces when I get around to adding the new end caps. First, let's see what the molasses can do for me.
Since all my work so far has been centered on the short box frame I'm preparing, my long bed has seen little attention. So, with the wife's happy approval I've assigned my truck Christmas decoration duties. (Some snow might help the look a bit..... but who wants that? Right?)
Will it work? I don't know, but I thought I would give it a try. Molasses to remove rust.... we shall see. Ordered two gallons of Molasses on eBay. Found a suitable container for the bath... a Rubbermade storage container with a locking cover. Not sure how many gallons it holds... I put in about 15 to 20 gallons of water and about 1 and a half gallons of Molasses. The images shown here will serve as our "before" shots and then in a couple weeks I will hopefully be adding some less rusty "after" shots. The parts are actually pretty clean already since I just recently sandblasted them a bit. But some rust still remains on a few because I ran out of time to complete the blasting... and wanted to try the molasses method on them anyway. I twisted some wires onto the smaller pieces so I can pull them out for inspection without having to stick my hand in to find them. Some small sections from my bed sides will make great experiment pieces for this (the things with the orange wire on them). So, I submerged one lower control arm, two upper control arms and the bed side sections. Then I locked the cover on and recorded the date. Can't wait to see what happens!
So, now I have the front end parts I need to clean, sand-blast and POR15 just like the frame....
Finally found a bit of time to get my frame painted with POR15 today. Top half, one coat, anyway. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to flip it over and cover the remaining areas on the underside. Looking good already though. The smooth black finish is so great to see after having seen it as one big greasy, rusty hulk just a few weeks ago. Now I need to decide if I want to cover it with a 2nd coat before painting it with semi-gloss black enamel. 2 coats are recommended.... have to see how it looks after 1st coat is finished and dried. The POR15 brushed on easily and achieved a very nice smooth level finish...just as promised. I am very happy with it so far. Only now wish I had the frame on some kind of rotisserie so I could flip it over easily and paint the other side instead of waiting. Oh well, there's always got to be something more I want, right?
|
ChevyEddieA guy just having fun fiddlin' in his garage Archives
May 2016
Categories |