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I had a busy weekend doing car stuff just not all of it was for my truck. First, myself and my neighbor spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon at a local car show. It was a great time! I have a coworker who just finished a 3 year build on a LS swapped 1946 Studebaker truck and he was showing it for the first time at that show! He gave us the grand tour of the truck and I must say it is awesome. He actually ended up winning the whole show!
It was nice to be at a car show after Covid shut down most everything last year. And I was happy for my coworker.
After that we went to a junkyard looking for various stuff for my neighbors 1973 Pontiac Lemans Sport build. As it turns out we found a 1971 Pontiac Bonneville with a 455 in it. We could turn the crank, so it seemed like a viable engine. We went to the front and questioned about it and negotiated a price. The yard boss told us to come back with a battery so we could turn it over then they would lift it out for us with their front loader. Well when we came back with proper tools and battery we not only got it turn over we got it to run!!! And it was smooth!! So we spent a few hours pulling the motor out of the old Bonneville and we got it loaded into my truck.
If you look underneath the engine at my bed liner you can see the liner is flexing a lot, that because the center of the bed has lost most of its structure and strength. The bedliner is probably stronger than my metal bed right now.
Here you can see the bed has been moving up and down so much that it has rubbed the paint off the cab and is down to bare metal in some spots. And you can see the low spot in my bed where the pool of fluids are sitting. All of this just confirms that I need to begin building that flatbed very soon.
Good job on interior. Did your truck have that hard mat that's perma-tached to the floor? Did you bust it out before you put the sound mat down?
thank you for the compliment. Yes my truck had a hard plastic like mat that was attached to the floor and yes I busted it out. Most of mine came out pretty easily, I used a flat pry bar and light taps of a hammer and was able to get under it. Big sections came out all at once using this method. I'm not sure that everyone will have the same experience as I did but hopefully so. The Kilmat is definitely worth the time and effort if you are redoing your interior.
On the way home from from last night I hit a bump and my exhaust got very loud all of the sudden. Upon further investigation, one of my exhaust hangers broke, which caused the muffler section to swing rearward and the 2 y pipes to pull out of the y pipe. Some better clamps and more hangers and it should be good as new
Last edited by bone collector; 03-30-2021 at 01:53 AM.
I've got the exhaust put back together and in the process I found some leaking rear wheel cylinders. I figured that once I got the brake booster fixed it added enough pressure that the original cylinders couldn't handle it. I had the day off work so I spent time changing the oil and fixing squeaking brakes on my daughter's car and fixing my bad wheel cylinders. While I had the wheels off I would spray them black. So I did with plasti-dip.
I think i like them!! I will finish the rest of them up and take a picture.
I have a coworker that makes stickers of whatever you want and in whatever size and font you want. So I had him make me one. It seems fitting for my truck.
I have a day to work on my truck tomorrow as well. So I plan to finish the paint on the wheels and start working on the flatbed. Should be a good day of fabrication
I haven't gotten as much done on the flatbed as I wanted lately. I've been busy with a family trip to Tennessee for a few days and some preparations for it. But alas, I did get some work done.
Here's the current state of the frame.
I also ordered some tail lights and a license plate light for the truck.
The tail lights were 33 dollars on Amazon on the license plate light was 10. I hope to be installing them soon.
I have a coworker who is interested in helping me with building my flatbed. So I have decided to transport everything to our place of employment so we can work on it for a few hours after work every night I also bought 1/8 inch plate steel from a resale place on Facebook marketplace. So yesterday I bought 2 sheets of used 4ft x 10 ft 1/8" steel for $211 dollars. There was 3 sheets left I picked the 2 best ones. The 3rd one had a large hole and cutout for a beam. They decided to give me that sheet for free, so they don't have to relist it or deal with it. But basically I will take free steel!
Sorry I haven't updated anything in awhile, but progress is happening. I am just going to post a bunch of pictures for now.
As you can see, I added corner gussets,, and plate on top, a tail skirt and the start of a headache rack. I'm hoping to get it painted and mounted soon
I got some more work done on the flatbed this weekend. Still a lot of work to do but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here's the latest pictures.
I'm working on the drivers side stake side. And finish up some welding. I'm hoping to get it mounted today, and wire up the lights.
Thanks for the kind words. The flatbed is officially mounted into place. The bottom is painted with an oil based flat black enamel paint. Hopefully it will last. I still have to scrub the top. Paint it with 2 coats, instal and wire the taillights, and mount the filler neck for the gas tank. Then last but not least and certainly the most important thing is to drive it!! Here's the latest pics
as you can see it's 1100 at night when I took these pictures. I will get some tomorrow in the daylight when I make more progress
03-29-2021, 02:21 AM
