The past few weeks has been spent cleaning, washing, sand blasting, priming, and painting all the various parts in preparation for final assembly of my '87 Xtra cab. I am officially sick of cleaning and painting. My goal is to have everything ready for the big assembly when I finally push the chassis into the garage. The bed is done being painted, looks amazing, much better than I expected. The cab is at the paint shop now with the doors, cowl, fenders, and hood.
The engine is 100% done and ready to drop in, as is the tranny/transfer. I pulled off the t-case e-brake, cleaned it up and re-installed. My plan is once the cab is done and back here, I'm gonna push the rolling chassis (previously sand blasted and painted) into the garage, drop the engine and trans in, and start putting small parts on that I can. Then plop the cab over the engine (with lots of help of course), and then it's on, getting all the clean parts installed. I really want this thing moving under it's own power ASAP.
A few observations:
* a truck that is completely disassembled takes up a LOT of room. I have parts all over my house and outside, really sick of this stuff being in the way. Fortunately my wife has been extremely patient and has never complained.
* cleaning and painting takes waaay more time than you'd think, more than I anticipated. This is why frame-off restorations are sooo expensive. Lots of labor.
* I got the OCD bug a few weeks ago and sent some brackets and stuff off to a guy down in NJ for re-plating with yellow zinc. Looking forward to that coming back. It was more $$$ than I thought, but I think it will be worth it.
I'll update this thread as questions/observations come up. I need to post some photos.
The engine is 100% done and ready to drop in, as is the tranny/transfer. I pulled off the t-case e-brake, cleaned it up and re-installed. My plan is once the cab is done and back here, I'm gonna push the rolling chassis (previously sand blasted and painted) into the garage, drop the engine and trans in, and start putting small parts on that I can. Then plop the cab over the engine (with lots of help of course), and then it's on, getting all the clean parts installed. I really want this thing moving under it's own power ASAP.
A few observations:
* a truck that is completely disassembled takes up a LOT of room. I have parts all over my house and outside, really sick of this stuff being in the way. Fortunately my wife has been extremely patient and has never complained.
* cleaning and painting takes waaay more time than you'd think, more than I anticipated. This is why frame-off restorations are sooo expensive. Lots of labor.
* I got the OCD bug a few weeks ago and sent some brackets and stuff off to a guy down in NJ for re-plating with yellow zinc. Looking forward to that coming back. It was more $$$ than I thought, but I think it will be worth it.
I'll update this thread as questions/observations come up. I need to post some photos.
