Tales,Trails and Trials of a (wet) Dream Machine

[RUSH55]

That whole axle assembly and springs and tie-rod may need to come out in order to get as cleaned as possible and rightly painted up
Fresh spring bushings, fresh u-bolts - it’ll be so nice.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Fresh spring bushings

Very true, betting those are shot.

 

[Gordobe]

If I were 10 years younger ( or even 10 minutes) I would attack it with a more vigorous approach. Alas, the last 10 minutes lasted about an hour. Besides, I hate when the piglet just sits there waiting to go somewhere. Like seeing my dogs faces looking out the window at me when I leave for work. I find it frustrating to sit behind the steering going vroom vroom with my lips.

I applaud those of you that have the fortitude to spend months or even years creating a work of art.

I need to be honking the horn and yelling at people to get out of my way.

After cleaning all the plaque of the pigs gold teeth, I noticed the steering knuckle grease bladders are in excellent condition. I also noticed there is no slop in the steering.

 

[Gordobe]

That whole axle assembly and springs and tie-rod may need to come out in order to get as cleaned as possible and rightly painted up
Fresh spring bushings, fresh u-bolts - it’ll be so nice.

continued:

I also notice that the spacing between the two front bump stops are even and still over 3 inches.

It handles extremely well considering it’s 50 years old.

The best I will have time to do is lay under her and lick her clean. And add some shiny new cock absorbers [shock absorbers.

Cuddus to all who go the extra dozen egg timers

 

[PabloCruise]

Not much new to post as work has had a bit of a grip on my time.

On pleasant thing interesting. In preparing for PP Zion, beside getting new tires I had to have the infamous California 2 year smog check. Since the pig has 9.5 compression I have to have my mechanic fuss with the carburetor before it gets checked. He saw that some of the 10 miles of vacuum lines needed replacing. In the process he also found that a couple of the vacuum lines were mixed up and corrected the issue. Passed smog and off I go to PP 2023, yafnhoo.

Surprise, surprise, on the highway at 70+mph I'm getting 12 1/2 miles to the gallon consistently [prior was 10 mpg]. On top of that, going up grades up to 3% if I push the accelerator down to where my air mixture meter reads in the 12 range, the pig starts picking up speed. 2 1/2 mpg doesn't seem like much, but it adds 55 miles to a tank of gas. Another yahoo.

That leads me to a gas shortage close call. As Nick mentioned in the PP post, regarding crossing the 4 deserts from Cedar City to highway 395, the gas stops are few and far between. At one point I misjudged where best to fill up. At the sign that said 40 miles to gas, a light bulb went on. I reviewed my gas usage and what my tank has and figured I would be lucky to have 1/2 gal left when pulling into the gas station. In know that going downhill to a gas station is great, but uphill to a gas station with 1/2 gal is not a good plan. The area I was in was between deserts with steep uphill grades and steep downhill descents.

I was in the middle of a 460 mile run through no where land hoping to make it to a town named Rachel. I coasted down every decent totaling of about 20 miles and made it to Rachel with 3 gals to spare. My mamas name was Rachel, god rest her sole.

I know, I know, eye candy not sob stories.

In the process of cleaning up the engine bay to my 71 pig. Had splash shields, skid plate, spare tire holder parts and fan shroud powder coated. Did test cleaning on several areas of the wheel wells with a good result. A bit more de-greasing and remove the battery tray will give me room to polish the engine bay.

View attachment 3363067View attachment 3363068View attachment 3363069View attachment 3363070

Glad you made it to Rachel!
And glad you got your vacuum lines in order!

 

[PabloCruise]

There's a great story behind every ache and pain I have.

I went to pull out of a gas station today and this women is sitting in the roadway messing with her phone. For some reason my horn did not work. I know it did yesterday. I get out and give a firm 3 knocks on the passenger window and indicate for her to move, scares the @##%$# out of her. She opens the passenger window, flips me off and is screaming that I'm a creeper and she's calling 911 [this is a 60 plus year old women]. This is downtown Ojai, and the tourists are getting a good show. I said ok, and sat there waiting. I got tired of waiting and told her I'm going to the police station and she's welcome to follow. Our tiny town has a large police presence and the station is only 3 blocks away. I happen to pass a sheriff and flag him to let him know whats up. He may have been on his way there for this very important criminal event. I explain the circumstances and then show him a photo of her situation. Seeing the photo he asks me to wait while he gives the women a call, the last I say the women she was in flames so I would have loved to hear that conversation. He comes back five minutes later and said I can be on my way but not to knock on women's windows so hard.

As I'm driving home I was frustrated the my horn didn't work!!! It did yesterday. What the heck, I push the buttons and it works fine. Go figure.

The good news is my burger was still warm when I got home three blocks away.View attachment 3363969

Uh-oh, Tesla driver alert!

 

[Gordobe]

So, finished front under carriage clean and paint. Not exactly a frame off resto, a bit of rust pitting, but a far cry better than what it was. Rust neutralized.

Since a frame off job costs $5,000, i figure this is a 25 cent improvement. At least I can recognize bolt heads and see the grease nipples. Always nice to see nipples.

 

[bobm]

Oooohhhhh you said Nipples . You gettin cancelled

 

[scrapdaddy]

Takes a lot of elbow grease to get it that clean, good job !

 

[RUSH55]

Dayum! That turned out nice

 

[Gordobe]

So, yesterday a very very irritating noise arrived under the hood of the silver 77. Using a 3/4” wood dowel as a stethoscope I determined it to be the “demonic smog pump”.

Searching some past smog pump discussion’, I came across “Eric of A-Z rebuilder” in Canoga Park. Gave Eric a call first thing this morning and he said he needs about 2 to 3 hours to repair it. I asked if I came in today would that work and got the thumbs up.

I Abandoned work, drove 45 minutes home, (pig doctoring way way more important then work) and extracted dead pump, drove another 75 minutes to deliver dead pump to doctor Eric. Visited my daughter for lunch ( lives in that area). Dropped of the pump at 11:30am, Eric called 90 minutes later ( during my lunch) and said pump was done!

Picked up pump, drove 75 minutes home, pump installed by 4:00 pm. Quiet as a mouse.

Thats what I call a hard days work. Sorry, this was way more talk then the pictures show.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Wow that was service, normally a shop would say, three weeks out because they're booked up and can't hire anyone.

 

[Pigeaten]

Service guy probably has seen Gordon in the internet, had to take care of him

 

[Gordobe]

104 degrees yesterday when I got home from work ( working 1/2 days this week cuz I can) training upgrade to be a pig Doctor more important than work. (Sometimes )

Giant oaks trees cover most of our property and over the garage drive way. Garage has A/C so I take breaks inside.

Made some headway for some before and after pics

One small step for mankind, one huge step for getting my arss behind the steering wheel of my red devil.

 

[Gordobe]

Gave a rusty lug wrench to someone who said they can clean it up for me.

Shazaaaam???

Im putin it wit meye fine china in the silver serving set drawer.

Shazaaaam???

Sazaaam???

 

[Gordobe]

Mebi give him my jak an but on my hood. (uv my pig)

 

[Pigeaten]

Gave a rusty lug wrench to someone who said they can clean it up for me.

Shazaaaam???

Im putin it wit meye fine china in the silver serving set drawer.

Shazaaaam???

View attachment 3384506
Sazaaam???

where did you find that?

 

[Gordobe]

where did you find that?

Gotta give credit where credit is due.

Visited Don’s pig and walnut farm a while back and did some “piken” as scavengers might say. Besides great walnuts Don grows pig parts to supplement his thirst during walnut off season. If there was a term “pig part drunk”, that’s what happens when you visit his farm. His hospitality is overwhelming.

Thank you Don for being you and an asset to us drunks.

 

[Gordobe]

I’m coming to the conclusion that this fan vent boot no longer in existence?

I did find this at Grainger for the tailgate window bottom track clamp rubber. Haven’t tried it yet but dimensions are exact

 

[RUSH55]

I did find this at Grainger for the tailgate window bottom track clamp rubber. Haven’t tried it yet but dimensions are exact

Sounds like a good one to add to the weatherstripping resource thread

The FJ55 Weatherstrip Guide

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