Those brakes have DEFINITELY seen better days.

New brakes will feel much better!

 

My bud just bought an 81 4x4 from some teenager for like 500 bucks and it's seriously the most rigged up, abused, and rotten truck I've ever seen, but... It's still a first gen!!! lol they had the distributor advance lines ran to the choke breaker and some random port on the intake.. shocks are all disconnected, there's shoe goo for gaskets everywhere, cluster is spray painted monster green... hahaha you have to really love these things to still see potential in them. Can't wait to see what you do with this one.

 

Haha sounds like the same guy I got this one from. When I got to his property he took me over to the truck and a deer head was still in the bed. When your buddy is ready to sell hit me up. I've got a nice trailer now to come get it. Heading up to eastern nc this week to look at more

 

These days you either pay 500 or 5000 lol... The 500 dollar ones are so fun though if you like working on something every day

 

I got the rear brakes buttoned up today or so I thought. When I pressurized the system, the line running on the inside of the frame rail near the fuel tank was spraying like a lawn sprinkler. I was confident in my abilities when I inspected this truck prior to purchase but it has fought me every step of the way. Full resto is off the table. I'm just going to repair what needs repaired and keep it as a weekend parts running truck or to take out into the woods once in a while. Tony

 

My buddy caved in and doesn't want the 81 that he bought. If you still have my number shoot me a text. I have a video of it "running"... lol

 

Found a few minutes to work on the truck today. Started taking the brake lines off to make new ones and decided to pull the bed to make things easier. Luckily all the bed bolts came off fairly easy as soon as I was able to chisel the clay off of them. I'm hoping to get the bed removed tomorrow but since I'm by myself I will have to find a sturdy tree nearby to lift the bed off. I did find that the right front bed mount is non existent and will be having to fab one of those up. I'll post some pics tomorrow of my progress or lack thereof. Tony

 

Right rear was gravy taking the bed bolt off

The missing gusset
Here's a shot thru the pigeon hole on the drivers side. PO used some galvanized pipe to shore up the front of the bed floor
Also replaced the carb plates with LCE. No vac leaks any longer
It was installed previously with door and window caulk for gaskets

 

Got my five steelies dug out today. I have to break them down and then sandblast and powder coat them the factory off white as soon as my Eastwood powder coater gets here Tony


I guess a bonus bonus pic of my old doors?

 

Well, the weather is crap today so I'm confined to working indoors. Snow is blowing in around 3" per hour. I decided to begin restoring my old steering wheel. I'm going to refoam the wheel itself and then have it leather wrapped. I was thinking on the aluminum inserts painting them the factory yellow of the truck. I believe it's 541. Here are some pics thus far. I picked this wheel up about 7 years ago to use for my 81 but never got it done.
Luckily all the plastic is in reasonable condition.
The wires themselves are a little crunchy so I will rewire them.

Without taking the wheel apart and probably ruining the rubber, I will hand sand the metal and por15.
The center cap before....
Horn buttons before...

And after. I was thinking about taking some 1500 grit sandpaper to the horn buttons to get a cleaner finish but then I would lose the horn logo as it is not raised and I wouldn't be able to recreate the graphic. Still undecided.

 

Better than new. Well, almost.

Turtle wax has a great plastic reconditioning product called Ice. When it dries it's not slimy and also resistant to water.

 

Getting some "work" done. I'm restoring a 1973 Pontiac Gran Ville for a private owners personal collection. Laying down a few coats of POR15 on the core support.

 

In other news, I got my 20/22r freed up. It's a fresh motor with less than a half hour on it but it had been in a shipping container for the last five years. It's a great day!
Now I can put on all the new to me parts I have; distributor, fuel pump, PS pump, VC gasket, and new pulleys. Lots to do this weekend. On the 80 I've got to pull the bed, install new brake lines, MC, slave, and new springs front and rear. Also a valve adjustment. Whew!

 

That steering wheel has seen better days...

Definitely post pictures when you finish putting the leather wrap on. It will be better than factory fresh.

There is always something to do to eat away at your weekends. Most of the time it is fun though!

Good luck getting everything done!

 

Thanks man. I'm dropping the wheel off this week to an old guy that used to make racing suits for our track weekends. I hope I'm still as talented as him when I'm 80. I'll post up the results. As long as nothing goes sideways, (something always does) I've got the whole place to myself this weekend as my wife has to work.

 

Looks like I spoke to soon. This may be my only update this weekend as I got a call from my brother. His furniture building biz has fallen behind and I've been recruited to paint Saturday and Sunday. I knew I shouldn't have answered my phone!

 

My new front leafs came in along with new rear helpers from fedex

 

What brand / size is this and how much?

 

This always seems to happen.
I guess it is better to have too much work than not enough.

I have been wanting to rebuild my carburetor but my school work has other plans.
Maybe I will get to it during Spring Break...

 

I went with pro comps. I've used these on a number of trucks and they ridden well. Granted I don't do any heavy off roading but for my purpose and the cost is A+. What's pictured was less than $150 shipped. The front spring pack is a three leaf but it is overall a 1/16 of an inch thicker than factory. I've also never had an issue with fitment. The down side is, the bushings suck but I'm throwing Daystar's in there and the paint on them sucks.