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Lons, I'm not doubting your skills or knowledge here because clearly you do some cool work, but be careful with those stripping disc. The metal on these trucks is retarded thin and those pads on a high speed right angle grinder can heat up quick and cause some warping that you will not get out. Make sure you are moving around plenty and often on your panels. Another approach that you may want to try (assuming that you are trying to avoid media blasting) is to use aircraft stripper (Zars worked great on my stuff) and then hit it with the stripping disc. Saves time and money because I know you know how cheap those discs are NOT! LOL
Also, want a trick for getting that cab on the dolly without friends? Flip the cab up like it was when you sprayed the bottom and flip the dolly on it's side. Drill some holes in the dolly corresponding to the body mount holes on the cab and bolt the dolly to the cab. Then you can literally tip the cab upright with the dolly attached by yourself. I did it dozens of times (even after body work) and never had any issues or damage. I'm the king of flying solo and having to figure things out on my own. Funny how friends are conveniently unavailable to help out when you really need it.
Thanks for the info Dave.
I think I will try the bolts in the cart, great idea. If I had supporting beam in my shop instead of C purlins, I could use a hoist. In your build I saw you have straps in the cab to a hoist (I assume ), so that was an idea. Then I saw you used concrete blocks and 2x's in another pic. Being out in the country, pretty hard to get enough help at the same time to lift the cab, but still trying.
Yeah I know that the sheet metal is very thin, learned that in repairing rust in the floor. PIA and bad welding skills, but got it done. The disc do strip pretty fast, and kept it moving all the time. I lost an aftermarket hood, to a guy who said he knew how to blast it without warping. Not, but he did help me find an OEM replacement, which was good.
Yeah, the cinder block thing was a quick idea that I had when I was trying to mock up my cab on the frame after fabricating the new body mounts. Very sketchy and no way in hell I would ever do it again and certainly wouldn't even think about doing it after body work! LOL The ratchet strap hoist thing worked really well, but if I had to do it again, I would have used some pulleys and a winch to lift it up evenly. It was only a bunch of ratchet straps hooked to eye hooks in the ceiling and the other end bolted to the body mounts. I'd also make a "hanger" system to mount to the inside of the body mounts so that I could have the pulley system strung out wider than the cab and not have straps rubbing on fresh paint.
It's amazing how creative you can get when you really need to...
Been puttering around getting more parts sandblasted and epoxy primed since my last post. Been working to get the engine bay ready to prime, so had to do a couple of mods.
Removed the old rusted/pitted battery tray, cleaned up the inner fender area. Going to install the new tray purchased from Slacker
Going to bond the new tray like such. Great product Corey. Thanks for having replacement parts like this available.
Located and drilled the mounting holes for the new firewall fitting that will plumb the water heater and A/C hoses. Planning to plug off the old heater piping holes, plenum chamber and vents, as they will not be needed
Since I'm installing aftermarket heater/A/C into the cab, I cut out the vents in the cowl, do do a smooth cowl look. Still have to make patch panels and weld in. Before that, I will have to do some body work on the cowl to get some hail dents out. Really rough rusty metal.
Still a lot of cleaning, scrubbing and sanding before I get the front end ready to epoxy prime and paint. Maybe awhile before my next post, sorry to say.
Awesome build! That dash look immaculate, love the setup!
Hey, I have a question about your suspension setup, not sure if this should go in a separate (already existing?) thread. How smooth/comfortable does your pickup drive on bumpy roads or even old highways? My Dual cab is an absolute back breaker, you feel every single tiny bump and get thrown around like crazy on larger bumps. I just wanna know if this is a common complaint given the archaic suspension or if it's just my setup
I have the Old Man Emu leaf spring package, and found that they are a good replacement for stock. There is so many different variables that go into ride comfort. I am the second owner, but the guy I bought it from was a desert racer. So after I got my truck back in the 80's, it was riding great with the spring/shock packages installed. Then it was stolen and the insurance company installed the same size tires, but different brand. Rode like a POS, hard on the back on the highway and hard to keep on a straight line. Had them put the same brand tires back on, problems went away. Shocks will make a big difference, get some with adjustable spring rate or valving. My daily driver is a 1/2 ton Chevy long bed. It rides pretty good empty, but rides a whole lot better with just 2 bags of sand over the axle. Just those little adjustments make a big difference. I guess you will have to inquire with other people on their experiences, shock/leaf rates, etc, to figure out what is best for you
I have the Old Man Emu leaf spring package, and found that they are a good replacement for stock. There is so many different variables that go into ride comfort. I am the second owner, but the guy I bought it from was a desert racer. So after I got my truck back in the 80's, it was riding great with the spring/shock packages installed. Then it was stolen and the insurance company installed the same size tires, but different brand. Rode like a POS, hard on the back on the highway and hard to keep on a straight line. Had them put the same brand tires back on, problems went away. Shocks will make a big difference, get some with adjustable spring rate or valving. My daily driver is a 1/2 ton Chevy long bed. It rides pretty good empty, but rides a whole lot better with just 2 bags of sand over the axle. Just those little adjustments make a big difference. I guess you will have to inquire with other people on their experiences, shock/leaf rates, etc, to figure out what is best for you
Oh right. Interesting. I've got no idea what brand springs are under mine, but they're fairly lifted. Cheers for the info!
Hello again, sorry to be remiss in posting how my build is going, but due to some health problems, it has been slow going. I've got some more pics to post, will do as I can.
If you have had problems in removing the transmission pilot bearing, I ran across this method that worked for me. All you need is couple pieces of bread and a bolt close to the diameter of the inner race. Just cram the bread in the bearing and compress it with the bolt using a hammer, continue until the bearing pops out.
Since I put in new gauges, I decide to put in an AutoMeter fuel level sender. I to do a little fab work to make it fit, since the screw hole pattern were different. Made an adapter from aluminum, drilled, counter sunk, cut a hole in the middle to allow the sender to fall into tank. Haven't calibrated the gauge, but the sender is installed
Finally got the engine/tranny package installed into the frame. Fabbed up and installed a new exhaust system. Things are starting to come together, from all the little projects into one, after this long period. Everything is so dusty from setting in the breezeway for so long.
Took my storage container (bed) off the frame to work more on the rolling frame. Just love having some big oaks to use as an A-frame.
Did some mock up and fab'ing the new brake master cylinder. I decided not to go with power brakes, so installed a Mustang 1 1/8" M/C. Should have a solid feel under my foot with more brake power
Had to make a new mount adapter because of the different bolt pattern
Had to come up with an adapter plate to mount the heater box to the firewall. The plate has three holes for the unit and three holes that match the original heater mount tabs. The green tape indicates where the front of the original box pertruded out from firewall, so wanted to stay within that vertical line.
Working on the inside of the cab, I wanted to remove the old sound dampening coating. Heard that dry ice would take it off with little or no elbow grease being wasted. Went down to local supplier and bought 10 pounds. Busted it up while inside the bag to small pieces, opened the bag and poured it out over a section. Waited a few minutes, then the snap, crackle and pop starts, so you can tell it's working. Using a rubber mallet and hit the floorboard and the stuff starts popping loose in chunks, down to bare metal. I just did the floor pan, so this process does work.
After painting the engine bay with a John Deere Blitz Black paint, I started plumbing new brake and clutch lines. I used 5mm metric lines from Nicopp, which are a nickel/copper composite. They are easier to form that S/S and were recommended by a hot rod friend.
With the new master cylinder installed, I added a Wilwood proportioning valve. Figured that will come in handy, if I decide to go with disc brakes all around
Thanks. I decided to go with a package from Old air Products out of Ft Worth, TX. One, because of costs and two, they are close to me. There are a couple of things that I couldn't use in their package, the condenser was too large for the opening and the compressor mount. So I built a compressor mount, and bought a different condenser from a local vender.
The defrost vents had to be modified so the tubing could be routing like I wanted. I needed the tube opening to be more horizontal than vertical. I bought an Y adapter form Old Air, cut the openings off with my band saw, opened up a hole in the side of the original vent to fit the new inlet tube. Used plastic adhesive to fill and it came out solid, just what I wanted.
Before
After, still got to fab a plug for the original opening and paint
Compressor mounted with all new belts
Looks great man! Can you post up the part #'s when you have time or PM me? I checked their site. I think I bought a system from them for my old 55 Chevy moons ago
09-15-2015, 09:11 AM
