Builds Treebeard (1 Viewer)

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Ok... let's talk brakes again. After the rebuild I drove the truck 270 miles across the state without a problem. Several days later, before driving home, I smelled burning brakes on the interstate and got out to see my DS rear brake smoking/steaming. Les Schwab told me it was "way over-adjusted" and adjusted it back for $30. Unfortunately, it was overheating again just 30 miles into our 270 mile drive home. I loosened the brakes significantly so that they wouldn't rub and drove home without them.

At home I followed this procedure before driving into the mountains the following weekend and everything seemed groovy. Sadly, the brakes got tighter and tighter and eventually I found myself pouring water onto the rear rims in a mall parking lot.

I had noted when adjusting the brakes that the rubbing was inconsistent. This led me to suspect that my OEM drums were in bad shape. I had them resurfaced for $30, re-installed, and re-adjusted. The tech told me that they were "super warped". So far so good!

However, I have noted that my parking brake is losing a click every few days. I started with 9 (10 if I really pulled it) and now I'm down to 7 or 8. Hopefully this is a normal self-adjustment and, now that the drums are round, the whole system will work together as it's supposed to.
 
During that cross-state trip my dog went a little crazy in the truck and made the tear in my driver's seat even worse. I ended up grabbing an awesome pair of restored HJ61 seats that were already adapted for an 84 (cheers @ProwlerDriver). They're amazing! My only hesitation is that I do love the look of the stock brown cloth... I'll give the original seats a few months in the shed and see how I feel then. :)

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During that cross-state trip my dog went a little crazy in the truck and made the tear in my driver's seat even worse. I ended up grabbing an awesome pair of restored HJ61 seats that were already adapted for an 84 (cheers @ProwlerDriver). They're amazing! My only hesitation is that I do love the look of the stock brown cloth... I'll give the original seats a few months in the shed and see how I feel then. :)

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Looks great Nate. If you do the DNP carpet kit I think they will really tie together.
 
IF you do that vinyl kit it would tie in to the seats but the brown seat stripes and the brown carpet are what give a 60 have such an 80’s appeal.
 
IF you do that vinyl kit it would tie in to the seats but the brown seat stripes and the brown carpet are what give a 60 have such an 80’s appeal.

I'll keep the brown carpet for sure, it just needs freshening up. The stripes are so classic but for now my hope is to keep this truck for a long time so the vinyl seats have a very utilitarian appeal.
 
I just ordered everything needed to install a 3' Firestik in the stock antenna location (including an FM splitter), one of those $50 grills because why not, and some 194 LEDs to fix a couple of burned-out bulbs on the body and to upgrade my dash lighting.

I've also decided that the truck is going to take us to the southeast USA and back for Thanksgiving. That means it's going to get a full run-down at Torfab as soon as I can get it in, new carpet and soundproofing, and whatever else it needs to be in tip-top shape and drivable for my wife.

Also also I spent a few days on the road this past week camping and exploring forest roads. I've somewhat resigned myself to regularly loosening the rear brakes and going a bit easier than normal on the parking brake lever. 😅 Other than loosening the brakes on the side of 101 I had no trouble with the truck and it was a joy of a companion for a few days. On the last forest road of the week I drove up a side road that was very overgrown and lost one of my rear side badges to the bush. Worth it!

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I swapped in a $20 headlight washer relay today and now my headlight washers work flawlessly. :)
So now when your crossing the desert and your lights are too dim to see the roadrunner.... a quick squeeze of the button and your back in business!
 
I have a number of updates to share in addition to the working headlight washers.

First, the grille! The $30 carparts.com grille is quite nice, other than the minor fitment issue with the TOYOTA badge. I added some Rustoleum to my chrome headlight surrounds, bought some new screws and nuts from the hardware store, and voila, brand new grille.

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I installed the rust-free, Red Kote-treated fuel tank I picked up months ago. Anyone need my old tank? I pressure washed the body and frame underneath the tank while it was out. At the same time I installed a new fuel sending unit and a totally new quad gauge from @ProwlerDriver. My oil pressure gauge had never worked and my fuel sending unit was bad so I went from 2/4 to 4/4 on working gauges.

I deleted the rear spring isolators using the pricey spacers from OME. This was a pain but I'm relieved to have more thread on my U-bolt nuts. It also gave me a centimeter or so of extra lift in the rear and seemingly eliminated a lot of body roll? That was a welcome surprise.

I put some LEDs in my markers, behind my gauges, and behind my turn signal indicators. I love the white dash and the bright markers but I'm going to have to downgrade the turn signal indicators, those are BLINDING at night.

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I picked up a working carb fan relay from @blbuck12 and finally have a working carb fan! What I don't have is an installed thermosensor. I had grounded the wire, which worked, but I think it ran down my battery while I was cycling the ignition on and off for unrelated work. I ungrounded it for now and I'll work on fixing the thermosensor (which I have).

Finally, I used the Wagongear mount to install a 3' Firestik FL in my stock antenna location with a CB/FM splitter. The crappy aftermarket antenna was loose and bad so this was a welcome change. Not only is the FM signal much better but I can also ditch the magnetic antenna I was using for the CB.

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What's next? I'm not sure. I wavered and finally decided not to drive to the southeast for Thanksgiving. That means the urgency is off. Still, I need some new coolant hoses soon, I still want to refresh the carpet, and I've got rust that needs treating. Most importantly though I need to do more driving before all of the trails get covered in snow!
 
Really enjoyed reading this whole build thread. Thanks for posting up such good info with pics.
Keep up the great work man!
 
I did the rear spring isolator delete too and added a leaf too this weekend. But that was as far as I got. You are ambitious!
 
The cold and wet season has returned to Seattle. I'm excited for the snow but I'm not excited about working on the truck in the cold and wet. I've had some generous offers from Cruiserheads for garage space to use but I'm on the lookout for a space in my neighborhood to rent longer-term. It'd be nice to get these parts off of my patio and have somewhere dry to work.

Tomorrow I'm driving myself, my wife, and a friend over Snoqualmie Pass for a few days at a cabin in Roslyn. I bought one pair of chains in preparation for the adventure, I'll pick up a second pair ASAP for the Christmas tree run in a month. :)

I got 7.7mpg on my last fill-up so I'm trying to fix my over-adjusting rear brake problem again. I thought my bell cranks might be the problem so I pulled them and started a rebuild. They actually turned just fine but I figured I should do the job right while I had them out... but that turned into a complete replacement. I had to drill out the pin that holds the crank to the housing and missed widely enough to not want to re-use them. Fortunately Oreilly carries a Dorman kit that's a very good replacement (924-753) and I now have those installed and working! I also added a washer to the pivot pin for the self-adjuster, hopefully that is the real fix for the over-adjustment problem (the photo shows the gap that I filled with a washer).

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It's good to know that there's a readily available replacement for these cranks. What are the components made of? Hopefully Dorman opted for something other than aluminum for the crank mount...
 
I'm going to have my 80 at Stews self service garage this weekend for a bunch of crap. I'll post up my overall thoughts of the place after I've burned some hours there. One negative going in is no fancy on-site parts washer.
Nice work on your 60! There are a few good trails past Roslyn out at the Salmon La Sac end fyi.
 
I've heard there's a guy next to the Blue Grouse who runs a shop/truck rental place who will let you use his garage/lift for a small monthly fee. I think it's called Pauls Auto Care?
 

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