I haven't been able to do a lot of truck work, or home repairs, or a lot of things over the last 6 weeks or so. I was having a great time drifting the ATV around the driveway until it caught an edge and threw me off. I was able to scramble away before it rolled over on me but I still ended up with a broken collar bone and 3 broke ribs. It's healing, but I'm getting older and the healing gets slower each year. So I'm still in a sling.
And I started a new job a couple weeks ago. I had been working as a part time inspector (full time hours) but they made me the western region manager now so I get benefits, a car, etc and a bunch of new responsibility. Wasn't looking for that but I tend to take opportunities when they come along.
I also found a 69 GMC shortbed in a friends backyard for my son to have as a project. He (my friend) got it because he wanted the bed for another project. So we struck a deal for the truck without the bed. It had been sitting for about 3 years or more but he drove it to it's parking spot. He managed to get it running and delivered it to us a few weeks ago.
The carb was clogged, so we swapped another one in. Runs and drives and stops. Wanders the road like a drunk clown, has rust in the usual spots, has no options beyond the heater, but it's fixable. We found a step side bed for it.
And I have been accumulating 67/68 chevy front sheetmetal for it. That's what he wants. He just graduated from auto body school and has a job working at a hot rod shop.
He was replacing the door glass in that 55 the other day...
He assembled that rolling chassis the week before...
Part of his graduation gift from me is a cab repair kit to fix the rust, and I will try to find some good tires for it. He's paying for the truck himself.
Now as for the 79, we got the sheetmetal off the front and the engine/tranny pulled out. That's a 90 suburban parts truck by it. Donor doors with power windows and locks.
Got it on the engine stand and taught him how to disassemble it and inspect for damage. Other than a worn crank timing gear, most of the bearings and worn piston skirts it looked ok. No idea why it wouldn't start but I think it was the distributor. The cam timing marks were still alignment. I'm a little worried about the crank. The engine had been rebuilt before and the crank has been ground already to .010 and .020. The journals need a little work so I hope there is enough meat there to clean it up and still have proper bearing clearances.
Yesterday we stripped most of the accesories and stuff off the 5.3. It needs a good cleaning. I'm still deciding whether or not to crack the engine open for a quickie rebuild and head swap. But for now I'm just trying get the tranny mated to the engine and see how it'll fit. I bought a new flexplate with the spacer needed to mate the torque convertor to the flexplate and a set of engine mount adaptor plates. The boy had some where to be so being partially disabled, I had to stop at this point. Also, I don't have the torque convertor bolts or the bolts for the bell housing to engine.
I'd like to get these wheels from detroit speed but they don't list an 8 lug option. I emailed them to see if they would make some, so we'll see. There are a couple other wheel builders out there to check with also.
I wanted to keep the brown and cream 2 tone, but the boy is pushing to go family truckster on it. Green with wood grain vinyl wrap...
I have a set of rebuilt 241 heads. They are slightly better for flow than the truck heads, bigger valves and as mentioned, rebuilt. They also have a larger combustion chamber which will drop compression a bit. I figure if I go with the new heads I'll put a new cam in. And if I do that I might as well do rings and bearings, which is why I'm debating this. Do I want the added work and cost or just drop it in, get it running and move forward?
I will need exhaust manifolds or headers and either a new harness or modify the original, get the computer reprogrammed, etc. Still a lot of work to do.