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

Yeah, it sucks, but in a little while you will be back on the road! WHOOO HOOOOO!

Brian

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

took a short drive in the beautiful sunny 60 degree weather today. life is sometimes remarkable. 2 days ago it was snow and ice.

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

Well I was able to get get her down on all 4's for the first time since I painted the cab and front clip.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4803/3...7feed9b4_c.jpg

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

I love those little victories, they're so rewarding. Looks like you nailed it!

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

The latest in my ongoing, perpetual, unending, eternal head plug saga:

Got the head into a machine shop today. A magnaflux revealed three 1-inch cracks radiating from the threaded temp sender hole. It can't be repaired; replacement is the only option. So far everything to do with this head plug debacle has ended up as worst-case scenario :-( Moral: never remove the factory sender bung.

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

sorry to hear the head is toast. the good thing is now you know and can move on. weird that there were cracks like that unless someone over-torqued a plug at some point. anyway, its apart now and you know what the deal is, just a matter of getting a new head just like the old one.

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

don't get a head just like the old one - you don't want cracks in the replacement !!

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

My five minutes was spent cutting my rear springs apart and hauling them into the garage, no kidding, this took five minutes! HOLY COW I hate to think of the mail guy or gal who had to haul those babies up tot he porch!

I then spent about three hours, no kidding, THREE HOURS boxing up some rocker mouldings I sold on ebay. What will they get it, ONE of my spring shackles! LOLOL

Brian

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

You may remember the extreme difficulty I had removing that plug, so yeah, I suspect someone over-tightened it, or maybe the removal process caused excessive stress.

Since I'm only replacing one head I'll probably have to get one just like the old one.

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

So, which head do you need? (You can thank me for asking later when one shows up from the forum!)

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

https://youtu.be/fYA7CQYeIpU

The green turd earning it's keep, picking up some more tan bark for the yard.

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

Pretty deft loader operator too.

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

A while back I got a "good deal" on a used Corvette steering wheel. (Brings up an old quote, "One more good deal and we're out of business.") Underneath the leather cover, the top of the wheel that was most exposed to the sun had turned to mush. I cut out the mushy part of the foam core, then replaced that with a split piece of garden hose. I filled the hose with Great Stuff foam. Then I used pieces of fiberglass drywall tape coated with adhesive to build up the contour so that it matched original good foam. I then wrapped the whole mess with 1/2" strips of fiberglass drywall tape, like applying a cast for a broken bone. I think it's going to be fine, if I can hand-stitch a cover...

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

I can't wait to see how this comes out.

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

Me too.

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

Picked up my reconditioned head from the machine shop today. No time for installation however: in one week my home furnace went out, the dishwasher stopped working and the power windows in my daily driver broke. It's like I live in the Bermuda Triangle of mechanical failures. I think it's a plot to prevent me from finishing this truck!

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

Looks like you hit the required "they run in 3's" rule somebody invoked in days gone by.
You should be GTG on the head install now. That is once you've caught that elusive round to-it. LOL

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

Bummer, crap.

Brian

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

When that happens to me I call it being in a broke vortex..like a black hole sucking all broken things to me.

So, the head install should go smoothly based on rule of 3’s.

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

took some truck time today to cruise around the city running errands. I really need to get back to my truck but my daily driver has been falling apart. its one thing after another. luckily it drives well so I can still enjoy it while neglecting it.

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

I can hand stich a cover, now that is skill, I like that.
I too want to see the finished product, cool you can do that and save the wheel.
Mudman.

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

Well, we'll see. There's a guy named "Cechaflo" that posted this video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcAm...ature=youtu.be

What a master, and what a video. I made the part up about replacing the mushy foam, but I think it will work anyway.

Yesterday I taught myself how to use my wife's sewing machine. Not all that bad, thanks to more YouTube. Today I'm doing my drawing, but I leave for Florida in the morning for a week. You'll see some pics in about 2 weeks, I suppose...

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

Parts showed up last week, finished the starter wireing, battery behind the seat locked down, battery cables made up, put a little gas in the carbs, hit the starter and it fired right up. All is good with the world.

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

NEAT! Very nice work!

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

Lotta room behind that seat svr, nice for other things too, maybe ammo box for small things. So do you run a vent tube off the battery outside the truck?
Mudman.

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

This was already ridiculous, now it's becoming absurd. While cleaning my parts for head reinstallation I discovered this suspicious looking feature on my aluminum intake manifold. It never leaked while driving, so my guess is the thread sealant around the sender bung kept it dry. Probably won't last for long, however. Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money :waah:

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

drove it I the freezing weather to the gym. I have got to get to working on it again. drives so good though.

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

This an AGM battery, have been told it doesnt need to vent outside, can do if it becomes a problem.

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

Got some paint on it and the cab back on the frame

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

Oh for goodness sakes, geeez. If that's a real crack, toss it man. An intake isn't much these days, get one so you don't have to think about it and enjoy the truck.

Brian

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

RIGHT ON! RIGHT ON!

Brian:metal:

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

That color is spectacular!

Ordered one tonight.

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

Somebody knows how to lay some paint on! Great color!

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

miracle, man, you can't get a break but that was a good thing to do, order the new one and be done. put the old one next to the torque wrench so you don't forget how important that tool is. pipe fittings can be weird with the torque down. it seems like the sealant becomes a lubricant and a lot of guys keep turning because it just doesn't seem tight enough yet. then the wedge affect of the tapered threads causes something like this to happen. well, at least it was found now rather than after it is together and you are on a road trip, right?
now maybe that is the last of it. I would say check the block drain plugs and anything else pipe thread related. the plugs with the large base, like the ones you have dealt with, would be the most suspect.

PDK, nice smooth looking paint you have there, gonna be awesome.

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

Thats sucks. This thing has been fighting you from the git-go.

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

Nothing exciting, just got out to the garage to get some stuff ready for ebay, damn this takes more time than I would have thought. But I am building up my money to get stuff done on the truck.

Brian

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

WHOOOO HOOOOO! My springs arrived today! I was getting a bit worried having bought them off a facebook post and they were across the country and the dude wasn't real good at communicating. My gut feeling was he was a good guy but when I am messaging him about a tracking number and getting nothing and seeing he has no friends on his facebook home page things started getting odd. But damn, my gut feeling was right, he is a good guy!

Brian

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

Swapped out the chip on my 283 TBI set up for what I believe to be the correct chip. So far, so good.

Additionally, I got my condenser from Vintage Air. Not thrilled. To be honest I would think it would be of better quality. I have gotten condenser's from Napa with cleaner looking fins and better packaging.

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

Send it back.

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

that looks like a used one. i'd send it back. vintage air has a great rep for customer service