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- #1,221
It's funny - every time I think I'm about ready to put it back together, I find an excuse to tear it down further. I'm plugging away but it will certainly feel good to start putting things back together.
Build The Clustertruck Rides Again - Refurbishing a 1975 Chevota
- Thread starter RWBeringer4x4
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It's funny - every time I think I'm about ready to put it back together, I find an excuse to tear it down further. I'm plugging away but it will certainly feel good to start putting things back together.
I’ve seen frame offs happen from 40’s that were less apart than yours.
Looks like brake lines, steering and tub mounts now.
I've been finding that the things that should be quick, simple and straightforward... have a tendency to snowball and take forever. Oh to be young and carefree when you can get jobs done over a weekend.
And not having your body telling you it was to much.
Unfortunately my body tells me I'm doing to much before I hobble out of bed in the morning. I've been trading my mechanical knowledge to with a friend for his physical ability to do things. That way both our vehicles have been fixed or are at least will be.
I'm just hoping to have the Scout II Saginaw P/S conversion done before I can no longer turn the wheel.
I'm just hoping to have the Scout II Saginaw P/S conversion done before I can no longer turn the wheel.
I just need to find the balance between moving enough to stay mobile and not overdoing it and suffer for several day’s or more.
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- #1,227
I’ve seen frame offs happen from 40’s that were less apart than yours.
Looks like brake lines, steering and tub mounts now.
Well, brake lines and steering were done within the last 4 years, so aside from the one line I cut with a grinder accidentally when removing my old engine mounts, I should be able to skip those parts - but the body mounts are definitely toast, and the thought did cross my mind to replace them!
I knew this project was going to take a while, but when I pulled the engine back in July of last year, I had every intention of having it back together by June of this year so I could drive it all summer. Well, now it's October...the engine is going to need replacing, the transfercase still needs to be rebuilt, and I just lost 2 weeks of free weeknights and a few layers of skin to abrasives. The goal is now to have the painting done before I run out of warm weather, and then I'll focus on getting the engine back in by NEXT June so I can drive it all NEXT summer.
After all, there are still radiator mounts to build, a fan shroud to fab, a transmission tunnel to repair, and two heaters to rebuild.
After a couple weeks pretzeled under my truck sitting cross-legged and doing a lot of overhead grinding, heat gunning, and scraping, I'm starting to feel your pain. I'm not quite 32...but I'm feeling the burn from this stuff - especially the molten bedliner raining on my face.
Just an observation. Do you realize that front frame cross member wasn't welded to the sides from the factory? I have heard stories of this sort of thing cracking over time because the riveted connection has some give built in. Yours looks plenty stout at this point. Putting any more time into patching it up might be wasted if it ends up cracking elsewhere later.
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- #1,229
Yeah, I think I've pretty much decided to leave it alone at this point. It's not pretty but I don't think it will be a structural issue. I look forward to the day that this truck sees enough action to actually crack something!
What I meant to say was you only need to take the steerin column and a few brake lines off and you can take the tub off the frame. Would have saved you a lot of crawling on the floor and makes paining the underside and frame a lot easyer and better.
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- #1,231
For lack of a better excuse - I had to draw the line somewhere or this truck would be in 8,000 pieces and I'd be doing a full frame-off. Trying to avoid that and get it back together. Body work will be further down the road. The body is in surprisingly good shape - it's definitely at a crossroads, but no rust-through in the rear yet. The rust is very much "in progress" in the usual places, but it's not something I'm going to tackle just yet.
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- #1,232
I removed the fuel system spaghetti monster. For the time being, I'm just going to run one fuel line from tank - fuel pump - filter - carb and keep it simple. A lot more simple than all this plumbing for the auxiliary tank that I pulled years ago.
I also finally got done grinding rust and cleaning (at least as much as I was going to with the body on. A couple of days ago, I hit the hard-to-grind areas with rust converter and let it cure. Then, everything got cleaned with acetone, followed by Eastwood Pre - this stuff is expensive but I'm always shocked at how much more crap gets picked up off a part when cleaning with Pre vs. acetone.
Then, I taped everything off to avoid overspray where it would matter. I don't really care about the bottom of the run since it's out of sight and will ultimate get stripped and painted too.
Then, I laid down the paint (finally). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - a few runs from my own heavy hand but definitely an improvement.
Now I just have my fingers crossed that it will cure - the fall weather finally set in and the weather is in the mid 60's during the day. The paint can recommends not painting below 70...
Now I'm just waiting for some new hi/low bushings from Gerog at Valley Hybrids. These gear bushings come "hone to fit," and my first effort at honing them was a disaster:
Two bushings, honed with a brake hone, with the same results. Not entirely sure what's causing the edges to wear faster than the center, but at $20 a pop, this was a pricey mistake.
I also finally got done grinding rust and cleaning (at least as much as I was going to with the body on. A couple of days ago, I hit the hard-to-grind areas with rust converter and let it cure. Then, everything got cleaned with acetone, followed by Eastwood Pre - this stuff is expensive but I'm always shocked at how much more crap gets picked up off a part when cleaning with Pre vs. acetone.
Then, I taped everything off to avoid overspray where it would matter. I don't really care about the bottom of the run since it's out of sight and will ultimate get stripped and painted too.
Then, I laid down the paint (finally). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - a few runs from my own heavy hand but definitely an improvement.
Now I just have my fingers crossed that it will cure - the fall weather finally set in and the weather is in the mid 60's during the day. The paint can recommends not painting below 70...
Now I'm just waiting for some new hi/low bushings from Gerog at Valley Hybrids. These gear bushings come "hone to fit," and my first effort at honing them was a disaster:
Two bushings, honed with a brake hone, with the same results. Not entirely sure what's causing the edges to wear faster than the center, but at $20 a pop, this was a pricey mistake.
So damn glad I did this 4 years ago!!! You go boy!!!
Regarding the last two comments in this quote, the wear could have been caused by using a brake hone and allowing the hone to travel too close to the end of the bushings, and too much clearance between the bushings and shaft.
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- #1,235
Scott! Good to see you're still prowling, and working on Smokey! I'm strongly considering a transmission rebuild too - just because it's the only think I haven't messed with yet...but I remember your struggle with the bearings so I'm hesitant.
Thanks for chiming in, Dick - that's exactly what I thought I had done wrong on the first one, so I was more careful on the second to try and keep the stones inside the bore. That said, the stones are a little over an inch long and the bore is a little under an inch and a half, so it's really hard to get any kind of "back and forth" motion on the hone. It's also pretty tough to keep the hone straight in the bore with a hand drill - I'm wondering if a press would do better...
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- #1,236
I gave up on the bushings, gears, and input shaft for the time being and shipped them off to Georg. He confirmed that he is running into the same issues. He is going to mic my input shaft and gears, and try a new input shaft to see if that resolves the issue. Pretty odd, but the mystery isn't solved yet.
In the meantime, I'm taking care of some little things, and teaching myself how to weld.
First small victory - my brake booster boot was toast. Thanks to JohnnyC, I was pointed in the direction of a 1967-1972 Chevrolet truck booster boot. He hadn't tried it, but it looked close. Turns out he was spot on!
The little air filter element from the Toyota boot fit right in:
And the boot installs a touch loose, but should do the trick:
Worst case scenario I'll use some gasket maker to take up the slack if it works itself off the booster, but I don't think it will be an issue.
Next up, after a few practice runs with the MIG sticking random things together with varying degrees of success, I moved my clutch hard-to-soft line bracket back over to its rightful place on the passenger side of the truck:
I also built myself a bench vice metal bender, to be used next....it's ugly, but it works!
In the meantime, I'm taking care of some little things, and teaching myself how to weld.
First small victory - my brake booster boot was toast. Thanks to JohnnyC, I was pointed in the direction of a 1967-1972 Chevrolet truck booster boot. He hadn't tried it, but it looked close. Turns out he was spot on!
The little air filter element from the Toyota boot fit right in:
And the boot installs a touch loose, but should do the trick:
Worst case scenario I'll use some gasket maker to take up the slack if it works itself off the booster, but I don't think it will be an issue.
Next up, after a few practice runs with the MIG sticking random things together with varying degrees of success, I moved my clutch hard-to-soft line bracket back over to its rightful place on the passenger side of the truck:
I also built myself a bench vice metal bender, to be used next....it's ugly, but it works!
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- #1,237
Next up, I started "modifying" my my radiator mount.
There was quite a bit of open space between the radiator tank and the base of the mount. I'll need every inch of that gap. My radiator is going to need to be moved down to get it more close to center on the V8. This puts the mount in direct conflict with the Saginaw power steering shaft. I decided to cut out the corner of the "U" shaped mount (which had a huge hole in it anyway) and clearance it for the steering shaft.
I made a pattern from cardboard, then transferred to 1/8" steel:
Then cut it out with the angle grinder and put my metal bender to work:
Then started fitting, tweaking, and grinding, and immideiately got a new appreciation for why everyone hates body work so much.
There was quite a bit of open space between the radiator tank and the base of the mount. I'll need every inch of that gap. My radiator is going to need to be moved down to get it more close to center on the V8. This puts the mount in direct conflict with the Saginaw power steering shaft. I decided to cut out the corner of the "U" shaped mount (which had a huge hole in it anyway) and clearance it for the steering shaft.
I made a pattern from cardboard, then transferred to 1/8" steel:
Then cut it out with the angle grinder and put my metal bender to work:
Then started fitting, tweaking, and grinding, and immideiately got a new appreciation for why everyone hates body work so much.
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- #1,238
A few hours later, I tacked it in and fit it up to the new CSF 4-core radiator that will be going in in place of the old, heavily repaired and modified stock radiator that I had been using for fitment, just to ensure "OEM fit" really meant "OEM fit."
Everything lined up without conflict, so I burned in the modified corner, and ground down the welds to pretty it up a bit. It's no concourse-quality modification, but it's sturdy, and will absolutely get the job done! It should gain me about 1.5 - 1.75" of downward fitment to clear the steering shaft. Not sure how much space I will need to give it to account for flex...
Next up, I need to figure out how to get the old mount bolts out -
They aren't in great shape - but I'm not entirely sure how they are attached. Anyone know? I will probably replace them with some tacked-in bolts of the same (metric) size, and a length TBD based on the final mounting situation of the radiator in the engine bay.
Everything lined up without conflict, so I burned in the modified corner, and ground down the welds to pretty it up a bit. It's no concourse-quality modification, but it's sturdy, and will absolutely get the job done! It should gain me about 1.5 - 1.75" of downward fitment to clear the steering shaft. Not sure how much space I will need to give it to account for flex...
Next up, I need to figure out how to get the old mount bolts out -
They aren't in great shape - but I'm not entirely sure how they are attached. Anyone know? I will probably replace them with some tacked-in bolts of the same (metric) size, and a length TBD based on the final mounting situation of the radiator in the engine bay.
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They are press fit and welded in IIRC. I just cut them off flush re drilled and weled in metric bolts. Easy.