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Old 12-03-2012, 08:35 AM   #8
Tx Firefighter
Watch out for your cornhole !
 
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Azle, Texas
Posts: 14,162
Re: The Hillbilly Deluxe dually build

I'm fortunate to own a pretty decent pressure washer. Over the course of the first week of owning this truck, I went through 3 full tanks of gas in the washer trying to get the goop off this thing so I could see what I had to work with. I'd pressure wash the engine bay and chassis very thoroughly, then let it dry for a day and do it again. Finally after a week, it got down to where I could get under there and take stock of what I had to work with and not have grease on everything.

First thing I noticed was that some yay-hoo had pulled this thing with a chain some time in the past and used the sway bar bracket as an anchor point.

This picture is taken after removing the sway bar obviously.





I am lucky to have a good buddy that is a very long time parts guy at a local dealership. Having his help makes building these old trucks so much easier. Looking up annoying little parts for me doesn't bother him.





I wrote a sway bar article years ago which is an FAQ here on the board. At that time, I recommended getting Moog brand sway bar bushings locally when you need them. Well, over the years, that has changed. I have a shop account at my local O Reilly Auto Parts so I get a decent discount, but Rock Auto still beat the local guy's price by 20 bucks on these things, including delivery charges. They are urethane just like the Moog, but are black instead of blue. Rock Auto sells tons of different brands and colors of these, all of them cheaper than local parts houses. Pick your favorite flavor.

While I was waiting on my bushings to arrive, I detailed and powdercoated all of the sway bar and clamps. I use this silver vein texture powder with a coat of clear on top. Some folks may not like it, but the textured powder really obscures any pits and gouges in the parts.

Bushings....








Much more progress to come. I'm slow but very steady on my work ethic. I only spend truck money as I earn it too, so there's no pulling from my bank account or using a credit card to get a bunch of nice stuff all at once. I gave up the credit card deal years ago. It sucks to build your truck one part at a time, but it works best for me and keeps me sleeping soundly at night without worry.
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