The Resurection of 'The Beast' (1 Viewer)

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Southeast Overland

Southeast Overland

Get lost! Go explore!
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
Threads
276
Messages
8,575
Location
SC
Website
www.southeastoverland.com
As some of y'all know I bought Yooper's Pig not long ago. She carried me over 1,100 miles from the UP of MI to SC without a single problem. The trip was quite enjoyable and I was even able to pick up some nice beer along the way. The Pig is a '76 w/ rebuilt 2F, SOA, 35x12.5's...overall a nice functioning rig.

Well now I have been able to drive my new Pig a fair amount. My wife has dubbed the Pig "The Beast" and "Shirley" (long story on the Shirley name - if anyone has ever read the comic strip 'Get Fuzzy' you might pick up on the name.) I am fairly familiar with my new Pig and have just recently started my restoration, or shall I we say 'resurection,' efforts. The main work I have infront of me will be stopping and repairing rusted areas. I am not going to be doing many mechanical mods for the time being as this 55 is set up almost just like I want her.

I decided to start a thread to document my work on The Beast. I am far from being anything close to a mechanic so I am sure I will have plenty of questions for everyone.

Now for the 'before' pics. Some of you might have seen these already.
1) In the UP of MI during the voyage to SC...
2) In Ohio...
3) At her new home...
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The Beast cleaned up pretty nice after I desalted her.

Friday Feb 09 I had a new exhaust and muffler installed. My old exhaust had several leaks, one of which was directly beneath my feet and leaked up into the cab when sitting in traffic. There is nothing like arriving to work smelling like exhaust. My wife wanted it fixed before she rode in the Beast any more so I had a local shop cut out the old exhaust just below the header flange and weld in new tubing and install a Flowmaster Series 40 exhaust. They did a good job and it was pretty cheap. The Pig is now quieter than she was w/ the leaks and the sound comes out the rear instead of under my feet. (Added to answer a question below: Price was $210 out the door with tax. The exhaust pipe is tucked up as high as possible w/o causing problems. It was a good price for good and a quick turn around.)

Sunday Feb 11 I started stripping the driver's upper fender off to work on some rust. All of the bolts came off very easily on the top of the fender but the three I tried under the wheel well all sheared off. It will be fun replacing them later I'm sure. I plan on cutting out the rusted area and welding in some new metal. I don't weld myself but a friend used to be a professional welder and loves beer so I am trading microbrews for welding...nice trade if you ask me.

I tried to install a tach so I could make sure I am keeping my rpm's pretty low. So far the tach is not picking up a good reading so I need to figure that out but it shouldn't be too big of a problem. When I wire up the tach I get a 'pulse' reading. The tach never reads above 0 rpm but the needle will twich. It is getting juice (the light on the tach works) and has a good ground. I am wired directly into the negative terminal of the ignition coil. Is there a resistor before the coil that I need to wire into instead?

I have a question on the rear bumper. This bumper came from Lance Williams at IPOR. One of the PO's backed up into something pretty substantial to bend the bumper. What is the best way to straighten this? I was able to break the eight bolts free holding the bumper on so getting the bumper off won't be a problem. Do I need to have this professionally done? I don't want perfection - just something straight enough to repair the rear quarters. Would heating the metal up with a blow torch and the banging the fool out of it with a sledge work???

Pics:
1) New muffler - complete exhaust was replaced from just below header flange to tail pipe
2) Rust work
3) Rear bumper - how to straighten?
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I LOVE that this piggie keeps on truckin so rightously and the owners are all here on Mud over the years. Cheers man I love that pig! :beer:
 
She is quite a fine swine. I have all day Monday off so I plan to start some work on her. I am going to add 2x3 inch steel from the back bumper towards the rear wheels and tie into the frame w/ bolts so the whole thing (rear bumper and all) can be removed. It will provide some nice protection for the body and will also help make the replacement of rear quarters easier. I'll post pics.
 
I got a couple hours in today. I trimmed the rear wheel well flares off on both sides (they were in bad shape) and then trimmed the rear quarters level with the top of the rear bumper foward to the rear wheel well. I am going to weld the wheel tub to the rear quarters and then add a flexible flare from JC Whitney, and then 2x3 inch steel straight from the rear bumper towards the rear wheel and then tie into the frame w/ removable bolts just behind the rear wheel. I also started installing a 2 inch receiver.

I plan on getting about six hours in tomorrow working on some surface rust, finishing installing the 2 inch receiver, getting my tach working, and getting my tag lights to work for a night drive I have to make this Friday to meet the local cruiser club at some trails.

Pics of Sunday's work:
1) Rear quarter before cutting. Wheel well was already cut.
2) After cutting - note PBR for scale! Surface rust at corner was ground off, primed and painted. I'll repaint the entire rig after all rust is fixed.
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eventhough said:
I have a question on the rear bumper. This bumper came from Lance Williams at IPOR. One of the PO's backed up into something pretty substantial to bend the bumper. What is the best way to straighten this?
Click to expand...
Leave it bolted up and take it to a frame shop, I had this done when I pushed the ARB bumper wing on my 80 up into the fender flair - came down on a rock ledge :rolleyes: They put it on the frame machine, heated it up and pulled it back into shape for about $125.

Good luck!

Tucker
 
Here is my update on this weekend's run.

The Beast did do great. Her capabilities are definately vastly superior to my driving skills. I have a lot of learning to do but I had a blast and am looking forward to future trips. My wife did get bounced around a good bit in the passenger seat, along with the dog in the back seat.

I broke off a shock mount from the front axle. A little wrenching and cussing enabled me to remove the shock and a little welding will fix that problem easily.

I think I am going to park my Piggie now for a few weeks and really concentrate on the rust issues.

Go to https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=139727 for more pics.

Pics:
1) Broken shock mount.
2) Nice view.
3) Articulation.
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I spent 5.5 hours today on the Pig and 4 of those hours were spent trying to get the front fenders off. I only had 2 bolts left but the volunteer help (read wife) got too cold and ran inside so I'll have to finish up tomorrow. There was a good bit of rust in places and very little in others. A PO coated the underside of the front fenders w/ some sort of coating - I do not know what it is. This coating kept the rust away wherever it had a good surface to bind to but at seams (between fenders) the rust was able to gain a foothold and start its work. Everything is repairable with a little work but I am thinking about some sort of tubular fenders. I think I saw some pics somewhere on MUD of a Pig with tubular front fenders...anyone?

Oh, the camera battery was dead so I will take some pics later this week and post.

:cheers:
 
Don't know if I have ever seen any tube front fenders on a pig, although I do plan on making some one day.
 
If Ehsan will make steel replacements I will just go with those but I don't know if I want to spend the time replacing rust w/ new sheet metal on the ones I have or if I just want to go off the deep end and make some with tubes...I think it could look pretty sweet.

ETA: OK - after a beer I decided I want to try and make some tube fenders. Stay tuned - this will be entertaining.
 
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I only got about an hour and a half in last night before it got dark. I was able to get a coat of primer on the underside of my IPOR bucket seat bracket. I did have to wire wheel and grind off a little rust which took some time. I also pulled off my luvers (if that is the correct term) and got them mostly wire wheeled and ready for priming tonight. Does anyone have a recommendation of what type of rattle can silver paint I should use? I'm looking for type of silver, not so much type of paint. The pics are not too exciting but I have to show some progress! :cheers:

Pic 1) Primed seat bracket ready for paint
Pic 2) Luvers ready for sanding, priming and painting. I did get them mostly stripped but ran out of light and didn't feel like sanding in the garage.

ETA: You can see in Pic 1 where the primer from Wally-world decide to throw up everywhere.
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