Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Yep, it's difficult to cut masking tape without going through the paint below it, but your tailgate looks great in the pic. I used the chrome stick on letters on mine.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I needed something to get me out of the doldrums and make me want to get back to work on my truck so I ordered an Ididit tilt column from Scott's today. Considered black since that is what color my original is but went with chrome. Pricey, but got the column drop, lower column bushing, gear indicator, and what ever else I need to install it and hook it up to my transmission. I dealt with Cameron at Scott's, said it would take four to six weeks to get it. My truck is running and driving so I won't take my old column out until I get the new one. I never measured for it but he said I need a thirty inch column. I have already shrunk my steering wheel and that's what I want to use.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I was dead, absolutely dead tired falling asleep on the couch and I forced myself into the 5 minute a day plan and got up and dressed went out to the garage and drilled some holes in my shims. Found what I needed to make the nut plates on the top. Got something done!


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Good to have your posts back, Brian. This thread was getting pretty dead without you!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Today didn't go very good, I couldn't find my speaker wire so I ran down to the Ace hardware and got some, then stopped by the local tavern and had a quick beer, then as I was leaving several people were looking at my truck so after chatting for a while I started to get into the truck to leave and one of the guys who showed the most interest asked if I would step on it when I left so I did... busted a motor mount which stuck the throttle wide open, so I stood on the brakes front brakes engaged rears couldn't stop the rears, rear end started to swing out to the right, I took my foot off the brakes with the throttle still wide open and tried to straighten the truck up but the rear end was still powering around, shut to key off and went sideways through someone's yard... now I need to get some Prothane motor mounts before I can drive the truck again... There is real truth to the saying horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you push the wall... But on a positive note I got my amp and 4 of my speakers hooked up.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Man, that had to be an exciting ride.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Whoa...Jim

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I'm sure most of us have seen videos of people in hot rods start a burn out and then lose control of the car and run into something, well other than stupidly I can almost say most are due to a stuck throttle for some reason. I'm a experienced driver with training, drove ambulance for 12 years. But that 517hp with 499ft lbs of torque made me respect that old girl, the Nova front clip and 4 wheel disk brakes didn't stand a chance, but did their best!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Exciting is an understatement... all 5 to 7 seconds of it!!!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Working on getting the interior looking better...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I hope the spectators appreciated you nearly wrecking your truck for their entertainment... :smoke:

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

RIGHT? WOW that is not good!

Got the nut plates made for the top of the rear cab mounts. :metal:

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I hadn't posted in a while, but the exterior is about done now, except for the rear view mirrors and wipers.
Attachment 1984388Attachment 1984389
The tips of the exhaust are now clipped at an angle and are moved to be symmetric. Making aluminum holders for the blue dots in the curls of the bed sides was fun. No two were the same size.

Even the wiring is complete at the front and rear. I have put a TON of hours in lately, but thankfully the wife sees the end in sight and is getting excited. I estimate about 100 hours to go, but I am REALLY slow. If I did this for a living I would have starved a long time ago.

I now have my rear tires (P275/60R17 Hankook Ventus RH06 on 17" x 9.5" polished Torq-Thrust IIs w/ 5.5" backspace).
Attachment 1984392
I have about an inch clearance on the inside and outside, and had to do a little surgery on the bed cross brace in the rear and the bed side in the front to be sure I didn't do surgery on the tires going down the road. I didn't want to go off shore, but the tread pattern was just too cool. I was also limited by what my tire guy could get me at cost.

I'm into the next step, which is spec'ing the front wheels and tires. The wheels will be TT IIs as well, 15" x 7"s. I stuffed the "Fatman V8" springs in, and the truck's nose was bleeding like a gasser. After discussion with the great guys at Fatman, the standard spindles went into the mail, to be exchanged for 2" dropped spindles. Even after 6 years - and with them painted - Fatman will exchange them for the cost of shipping! GREAT company!

The radiator and condenser are installed, and I gotta say. I was not impressed with my Champion radiator and shroud. In their defense, I bought it on Ebay, so the guy selling it may have gotten one done by a novice welder. The bends in the shroud only had a vague resemblance to the bends in the radiator flanges. MAJOR re-work. Nuff said.

The windshield is IN! Last Sunday four of us attacked that Taiwanese beast (fifth time). We narrowed the gasket across the top and ground the upper corners about 3/16". In and out 5 times. I'll be stuffing a rope between the gasket and the edge of the windshield in the lower corners to get the gasket to fill the corners. There was never any indication that the upper cab was damaged. I'm just glad it's in. If I ever get a rock chip you'll see the aftermath on the news.

The elephant in the room is the interior. My console and door panels have been at the upholsterers since early November. He called me this week, so that's a good sign. The plan is for them to be done next week. We'll see.

Sorry the pics are all over the place, with a duplicate of the front end. I stuck two of the pictures in the wrong place and couldn't figure out how to un-stick them.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

My 5 minute a day plan at work. Got all my shims for the cab mounts finished up tonight. I'll paint them tomorrow. I can't tell you how much better I feel the last few days after getting back on the plan!

Brian

https://scontent.fboi1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...db&oe=5EFF5673

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Bob, your truck is looking fantastic! I did have to chuckle as I read it, because I've had several of the same challenges!!!

Jim W

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I drove the Beast to work this morning with no heat hooked up yet and 26 degree clear weather, it was so much quieter with the interior panels in it!!! Then ran some errands at lunch time, and drive home getting on it a little bit on the freeway, it ran great. took it home and gave her a good bath, then decided to run down to the local tavern, got right to the point of it's misadventure the other day and she sputtered and died... I started her again she ran a few more feet and died again for good. No spark... had a couple older guys stop asking if they could help, one of them had been trying to meet me for sometime as he's seen my 56 pulling out from my road and he only lives a quarter mile away! Both of them are old car guys with several 30's and 40's hot rods!!!
They towed me home and said if I needed ant help to give them a call, and told me they hoped I would join them in some car shows! so I had really great day!!!!!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks, Jim.

Mick53, just wanted to say that when I see your pics I know it's your post before I see your name. You're doing some crazy work!

Brian, glad to see you're back in therapy, even though it's only your usual 5 minutes a day!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

My area has been enjoying our annual "False Spring" for a couple of weeks now. Today the temperature hit 70 degrees, so I shook the cobwebs off my panel truck with a 70-mile drive. First stop, the non-ethanol gas station for a tankful of fresh clear premium. Next stop, the pizza parlor. En route, I ran across a guy with a '53 AD truck on an S10 frame (but I didn't hold that against him ;-) I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a photo of our trucks together!

Here's my truck at the pizza parlor. I hope this inspires you guys still working on your trucks!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got my cab shims and nut plates all prepped and painted.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I think I found my no spark issue, HEI module, Power at battery plug and no spark on cranking, new one will be here tomorrow.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Moved an inch forward today. Cut down and welded in the tubs and installed hidden latches.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

finally got the crack in my inner fender welded. its been a while since I fired up the tig welder and it showed. I finally got a decent weld. I'm becoming an excellent grinder. I got a few coats of paint on it. should be dry by tomorrow morning and I can start the final install.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got some shimming of the cab done, a bunch of measurements side to side and most of what I am seeing doesn't make much sense. I ended up doing some massaging to the running board apron, lowering the running board a hair and I think I got it.


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Wired the oil pressure sender to complete the engine wiring.

Working on getting rid of some nasty "puckers" in the windshield gasket (inside). The glass needs to move toward the driver's side, but it won't budge even after soaping down the whole thing again. The glass really needs to be pulled back out again and sanded on the edge some more.

I removed the "T-clips" in the door weatherstrip, replacing them with double-sided tape. The tape works pretty well, but won't hold on the inside corners. I'm just going to put a little black w/s adhesive on those spots and declare a victory.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I wonder if it will gradually shift into position with the heat of summer and some driving?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Haha!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I had some extra Second Skin Audio Damplifier Pro leftover from my Tacoma, so I stuck a few of the remaining sheets on the floorboard. I'll stuff a couple in the doors to use up the remainder.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

If it's under stress now and doesn't break it will eventually conform to the shape. Glass is not a solid.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Here's a picture. It's 3X better than it was, but this was the best I could get it.



Good points. Thanks guys. Now I have a decision to make. If I try to glue it now, there's nothing in the interior to mess up (carpets, consoles, headliner etc.). I think I'm going to try to glue the edge down and clamp it. If it looks like it's going to straighten itself up during the summer I can always take the glue out with solvent. I didn't want to take a small pie cut out of the lip but it really calmed it down. Before that it looked like an elephant ear.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Updated my to do list for the bed. In no particular order.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Nothing exciting, no photos. :D But I got my running board apron I have been working on about finished up. Got some cracks welded. First time I have fired up my torch since I moved. Got a little shrinking and stretching done (don't you always go to far and have to go backwards? LOL) and will get it finished up tomorrow I think.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Before you glue it, get a plastic tool like this and pull the rubber away from the glass and spray liberally with window cleaner. Work the tool up and down along the glass, pressing against the rubber. You might have to do it inside and outside, but the pucker should be able to be worked out.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I made these tools out of screwdrivers and ball bearings, worked damn good to get that rubber nice.

https://www.hotrodders.com/forum/win...ls-360386.html


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks, guys. I did all that. Have good tools, and I had the glass so soaped up I could pull on the inside and see the outside move. The problem is, the glass is too large and it bottoms out before it can be slid to the driver's side far enough.

This is a weird situation. We put this glass in another truck in 15 minutes, perfectly. Something bad happened to my truck in its life even though there was no apparent damage on the roof. Maybe got smacked hard in the side and bent the upper "A" pillars? Who knows. We have already ground about 3/16" off the upper corners of the glass just to get it to go in at all. A little more would probably do it, but we've made 5 runs at it, and I'm tired of it.

The gluing is going very well, and it could be unglued if necessary. I think it's going to be OK.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got my right running board apron fit and basically finished. I need to drill out some holes so the bolts will go through but it's looking good!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Following...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

its the gasket, I had the same thing happen on a truck with the elephant ear in one corner and working around the gasket with the plastic tool made it a lot better. that problem hasnt happened again yet. although the last gasket was so stiff I broke an original windshield half.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I finished polishing my brake and clutch parts. These parts are going to slip right through the air. It takes a long time to polish this stuff and most people don't care. Although labor intensive polishing doesn't cost much to do. I would say anyone can afford to do it. I don't have any super cool polishing tools. I use a dremel, die grinder and buffer/grinder machine. I have found that 90% of the work is by hand anyway. Unless just removing material I stay away from the little D/A type die grinder because for some reason the little swirl marks are very hard to get out. At some point you are always polishing scratches so the level is up to you. I have also learned that there is a big difference between shinny and flat and shinny. Thank you for your time. Also "chicks dig it" so there's that.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I fixed the long standing headlight issue. I put a power light on the headlight switch and had no power. put the power light in the fuse panel socket for the headlights and I did have power. tested the fuse and it was good. made a jumper to double check still nothing. started tracing wires and the idiot i paid to wire the truck needs his ass kicked. after sorting through the spider webs of death he call routed wires i found the issue. he didn't wire the headlights into the fuse panel socket labeled for the headlights. the headlights are in an unlabeled socked for extra accessories. turned out to be a fuse. easy to correct once i knew it wasn't the headlight fuse. this is why i don't pay anyone to work on my stuff anymore. im not a great mechanic but i care. i do things as correctly as i can.
i have the inner fender painted and ready to go on and i am prepping the outer fender tonight. hoping to start installation tomorrow. for the moment the hotrod gods are smiling on me.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

looks really nice. good work