Finally have all rear axle parts painted (POR-15) and am beginning reassembly. Been a real uphill battle, seems Murphy has set up camp in the shop. Took a few days off of fighting him and fired up the grill. I found it's actually easier to BBQ during a torrential downpour than it is to paint truck parts. Also got my manual hubs back from Wabfab, it will be nice to see them all shiny and new and back on the truck. Rekindled some hope and motivation for me. I plan to post picks of the rear axle reassembled, that's it for now.

 

Nice! Reassembly is great. How's the body shop coming along?

I've been spending the last little bit making sure my truck will make it Phoenix next week. I'm actually pretty confident.

 

I've been contemplating the larger diameter water pump pulley from LC. I was wandering around my garage the other day trying to find something to do while it was raining and something occurred to me. It was the red 55 on the speedometer. I was thinking that in 1983 the speed limit was still 55 everywhere, so cars weren't engineered to be happy cruising at 70+ (like when I blew my head gasket). Maybe I'm a dope for just catching on to this, but it made me think about all the overheating problems and blown head gaskets folks have with these trucks. I really don't want to get into too much reengineering on mine. Mainly because I doubt my aptitude, so I really want to stay as stock as possible. Maybe I'll just experiment with not exceeding 55-60 and see if it isn't too aggravating before I go changing stuff around.

 

I've been thinking a lot about this because of my upcoming trip south. Definitely don't want to overheat. I think before looking into changing the pulley size, an aftermarket radiator or fan would be the way to go. I'll definitely upgrade my radiator before long, but unfortunately I can't afford it before this trip.

Interesting idea! I never really thought of it. I know that the faster you're going, the more air you have pushing past the radiator so that helps cool it down, but I don't know the whole physics of the thing. I would think it would be ok though. These engines are meant to run at high rpm's. Being at high rpm's/high speed seems like you would run cooler than high rpm's/low speed, because of the air flow. Kind of like starting to overheat on an uphill climb, then cooling down once you pick up speed on the downhill (although I guess on the downhill your rpm's drop, too..). I'd be interested to hear what some other people had to say about it.

 

Got the rear end put all back together. I now have a clearer understanding why people decide to convert rear drums to rotors. What a PITA it is to reassemble those drum brakes. Maybe a looooong way down the road I'll think about the conversion.



Oh and here's my newly powdercoated Aisin freewheel hub covers.



So now on to the front end.

 

Man that looks nice. Do those rear shocks have something compressing them? That looks like reaaaally nice set up.

 

Thanks, I've been walking around it now for a few hours just imagining how the whole thing will look. I'm kinda re-inspired and very happy with the way it turned out. And yes, the OME shocks came with a little hook that keeps them compressed, Although I got the soft ride so they really aren't that hard to push.

 

MAJOR disappointment this weekend. I feared that the one thing I had someone else do would unlikely meet my standards. Now it's come into fruition. I went to the body shop Friday to "inspect" the bed work as they called me to tell me that it was ready to send out for the spray-in bed liner. I have had a knot in my stomach ever since. First, their solution to the rust holes by the wheel wells was slapping a handful sized glob of bondo over them. After my previous insistence that we would not be using bondo to rebuild the thing. I was very specific about wanting new sheet metal welded in to replace rust spots. Also, again, after my specific request to remove glue beads that are chipping off and then re sealing, instead they just primered over it and told me how it wouldn't matter with the spray in bed liner. In fact the whole time he kept using terms like "it's no big deal" or "that wont matter". I was furious, it's my friggin truck, I get to decide what doesn't matter. The undercoating he sprayed on the bed is already flaking off and he's left the roof of the cab and one side of the bed bare metal for 5 months. In fact here's a list of what's been done in five months:

*cab roof ground to bare metal
*one side of bed ground to bare metal
*one 5" x 24" piece of metal welded into bed floor
*inside of bed primed (crap prep)
*underside of bed sprayed with a rattle can of undercoating

I would appreciate it if someone would set me straight and tell me if I am being unreasonable by having high expectations for a job that I agreed to pay $4600 for. I believed for that price I could expect it to be top notch show quality. Damn, I'm so friggin pissed I could just spit. This is really taking the wind out of my sail. I just don't know what to do. I could have done better in my driveway, I wanted to pay someone to do it because I wanted it to be awesome and I'm no paint and body guy. This just sucks!

 

me being in autobody class in school, could have had what they did done in a week....ya so they have many more vehicles to work with also, still shouldent take 5 months to do what they did

 

remove the truck from that chop shop asap.

 

yes, do it right, do it your self that way you know what EXACTLY is being done

 

Wow. I have no experience with body shops but that can't be right. I'm guessing you don't have the exact instructions in writing, it was just verbal, or what? There are a few people on here who know about all the laws associated with this stuff, and my guess is that you've got some rights here that would allow you to either get them to do it right for no addition cost, or get it to another shop without having to pay this shop too much.

Frustrated and pissed it fine, but don't get discouraged! They didn't do anything that can't be undone, and hopefully you don't lose out on much of that money.

 

Well.... at least I have her back now. The confrontation was worse than I could have anticipated. I arrived at the shop yesterday morning at about 0900 with 4 of my buddies from the fire department. I explained to the owner of the shop that I was not happy with the way things were going and that I felt 5 months was long enough. He responded civilly and went to get some paperwork. My buddies started loading the truck. once it was loaded we were sitting and waiting for him to return. Then the crap hit the fan, when he returned he simply flipped out. He started screaming and dragging and throwing the body parts off of the trailer. He drug the cab across the parking lot and back into the shop. Apparently he felt pretty strongly that I still owed him $800 but failed to share that part. Here's the thing, to me anyway, I had the money to give him. If I'd understood that he would thoroughly damage my truck if I didn't give him $800 I'm certain we could have worked something out. I'd rather disagree on the price like an adult, you know, in court. Fortunately one of my buddies called the police, the owner put on his childish show in front of them. Eventually I gave the police officer $800 to give to the owner and the owner drug the cab back out and we were able to load it and leave without a brawl. The guy threatened to fire his employee's if they didn't get out there and start kicking somebody's ass. I don't understand why he felt that would be necessary but it would seem that they didn't either because they refused. They all just stood there and stared at him like he was nuts. It's a shame because we could have parted ways on fairly decent terms. While I would not likely recommend him to anyone for restoration work I might have suggested him for collision repair. Now, however, my insurance company is going to assist me in suing him (yes the truck was insured). I will also report him to the chamber of commerce, the better business bureau, as well as the Air Force Base legal office (where he will likely be blacklisted by the base). All for $800 that he couldn't seem to articulate his need for like an adult. My insurance adjuster is coming today to assess the damage. All I can say is holy friggin' crap, I mean wow, really. At this point I may take yotaboy's advice and try to do it myself, I'm just terrified to go to another shop and take a chance on going through this again.

 

Are you serious?! That's crazy! Man I'm sorry to hear that. Well I hope the only bad blood is with the owner, and all the employees understand your position. Not the progress we wanted to see in this project! Well I hope things start going better. I wonder if we've got any members from here with body skills who live close to you?

 

unreal ....

keep it up though , and let us know what happens .

BTW , Nice work on the rear


.

 

WOW im speechless, im angry just sitting here, makes we wanna go out there and kick some butt

 

Good lord man it's been too long! Please tell me there's some good news?

 

Any updates on this project? Was really getting into it when I read about the mishap at the body shop.

I'm about to pick up a Retrosound Model One myself, which is how I found this thread.

 

Ahhh, I found my round tuit this morning. Got a little done and it feels good. I still have to get the steering linkage blasted and painted to get the hubs back on. Then on to the frame.