Diary of a Restore (Thread)

we all have our little idiosyncrasies! we all can agree on that. that makes for great discussions among the scientific. yet great arguments among the emotional.
on the holley /eddy debate its just the same thing. no different than duraspark/ hei. the engineers see pros and cons in each and weigh their options. like choosing tires

Very much like choosing tires.

One last spring question.  Are the ends of your auxiliary spring rounded or square and is the end of the spring bent in any way or is the arch consistent from end to end?

Work on the bed continues slowly with mostly sanding the interior bed, and scuffing the outer.  Some minor mud work also—nothing major.

I am starting to think about putting the doors back on.  I am dreading this.  Anyone have any tips on actually reaching the bolts on the frame side?  Tools to use?  etc.?  I tried a search here, and either I am doing it wrong, or there is not much on it.  Perhaps Gary has learned advice?

I am going to use my hoist to lift the doors, but the three holes on the cab are a bear to reach, so, saying I get it adjusted right, tightening those three bolts is an intimidation factor.  

Also, I traced the thread on bolts I took off the fender today as well.  It is pulled out slightly on the pass side when I was working on the pass side floor pan.  There are three—one behind the door panel, and two near the hood spring.  They look never to have been removed.  Rust was getting to one of them.  tracing them cleaned up the threads, but I have regular (not tapered) bolts of same size.  And these are metric bolts too?  What?!

Finally, the radio is in.  It still needs adjusting for the dash, but, it works.  I had to trace the bat wire to another spot in the cab—under the dash.  The previous owners had the radio hotwired and bypassed into the fuse box.  Not smart I’d say.  I found a hot lead over the glove box in an unused plug, and use that for the bat wire to the radio.  It works fantastic.

Oh as promised, my Bush League screw job where the weld would not take.  Maybe a MIG would have done better than my flux in this situation?  Fuzzface?  You know the answer to this?

Tomorrow is revised date for epoxy IF all goes well.  I filled a few bed pin holes with glass.  As I plan on replacing the bed floor at some point, I did not do what needs be done and cut it out and replace with sheet metal.  Part of the reason I am pausing on this (but will paint it anyway) is I want to find someplace that fabricates the inner rounded wheel wells.  Mine are pretty beat up, but not rusted at least.  If I tear into the interior bed next time, I want to do it right and thus, do it all.  The outer bed is as you’ve seen near perfect now with my sheet metal replace.


Cheers!

Hi Carl,

Consistent.

Main spring cluster rounded.  Single top spring square.  

The Carb debate had me thinking, not nec about the brand of carb, but the carb v. EFI debate.  I like carbs because I can work on them.  EFI is more efficient, however.  As someone explained to me once:  Carbs give an engine what it wants; EFI gives an engine what it needs.  

My first two carb rebuilds were my dad’s 4 brl Rochester—I confess to loving the sound it made when you kicked in the 4 barrel.  I also loved his 1973 ¾ ton.  Personal fact:  My dad was a chevy guy, and at 15 when I bought a Ford hat, he had a coronary.  Not really, but I always loved Ford.  Seriously though, he was not happy with me.  The first car I bought ON MY OWN, was a Ford Bronco.

OK, so to throw a monkey wrench into this debate in ways perhaps not expected:  what would survive, say, an EMP attack better?  Electronic (EFI) or mechanical?  The easy choice here is mechanical.  Under the rare likelihood there is an EMP, the EFI’s would likely die for a period.  Not carbs.  Score one for old tech.

Removing the fenders really helps, you can reach those three bolts easily.

I’ve adjusted the door with the fender on with universal sockets, but had to be careful.

Also, the Light manual suggests using this sealer on the plate of the hinge that makes contact with the cab--door sealer esb-m2g150-a


Thoughts?  

When I pulled the doors, the rust behind the hinges was evident.  The sealer must stop water and dirt from being trapped there.  Mine had no sealer applied when I removed, which means when they shot the truck with red they did not reapply the sealer.  

Does anyone use something equivalent?  

BTW, Grumpin—thank you.  And what part of Oregon?  I was raised there.

Klamath Falls.

Central Oregon!  Redmond!

Cool! Redmond was my first time in Central Oregon, did two weeks there when I was in the USAF Reserves.

We were with the smoke jumpers in their facility at the airport, and operated our Hueys out of there.

It was great!

Used to live in Oakridge and Hillsboro. Don’t think you’ll find me in Hillsboro again!

Do you mean the Hot Shots?  (smoke jumpers).  They were all manly men.

I spent a lot of time in Portland in the 70s-80s—my sister was a big part of the music scene there.  So, my summers were spent hanging around that sort of thing.  Bud Clark was mayor around that time in the 80s too.  But, the Willamette Valley is never to be what it once was, and I shall not return.


Cheers!

Seems like things are coming together for you quite well.  And the radio looks great.  

Hey Gary,

Thank you.  I cannot wait to get the doors on and install the speakers.  I am working on a novel plan to install the doors—we shall see if it works.  If it does, I will post.  I hope to get to the doors this coming week.  I have called a local glass place what deals with restored trucks.  $370 installed, and they come to me.  They even knew about some windshields covering the VIN on my truck, and quoted me with a special windshield that will NOT do that.  So in a week or two, that will be done.  I will attempt to install the rear sliding glass using the string/rope method before that.


In the meantime.  Epoxy and Primer surfacer went on today.  We had a hell of a thunderstorm as I began.  But, thankfully I am in the garage and no wind came into it. I am constantly amazed how much I need to step up my bodywork game.  Areas I think are smooth and will not show transition, showed when the epoxy went on.  There were not many, but there was enough to make me say, ya, no.  I also need to seal a seam that looks like I spaced out and forgot to do in the bed.  Doh!

So, prep and wet sanding tomorrow to make way for the color.

I have included epoxy and primer shots, including a section where I put on some glaze that will be sanded tomorrow.  There’s one little divit on one of my sheet metal sections that will need a small amount of glaze before the color. I see many little imperfections.  Lots of little detail work to do tomorrow.

It is looking really good!  Yes, I can see some of the issues you mentioned, but you found them and can fix them.  

Thought I would post this and ask a question.  I know this has been discussed briefly in the forums.  But, I never saw a solution.  

My truck has, what looks like, the old hinges on it—the 1979 and before, with the s-spring.  

The Light manual shows the older version.  The new version of the hinge is the roller/center spring.

So, I can find an s-shape spring, like on ebay and hope it works.  LMC sells the s-spring for Chevys in the model years of my truck…but, again, will that work?

Or I could just buy the newer version of hinge.  

Anyone dealt with this issue?  Does the chevy s-spring work?  Would it be best just to go with the newer model hinge?

I've interchanged the late for the early style and didn't really notice a difference.  But I've not tried to change out the spring so can't answer that question.

Are your hinges broken?  Or?

Hi Gary,

There is only one hinge that is missing the spring.  I rebuilt the hinges with a bushing/pin kit 4 months ago, thinking (silly me) I could find a spring.  NOPE.  

Other than a Dorman I see on Ebay here, which has sketchy detais about fit, I see the 79 trucks at LMC do not sell the spring, but only the entire hinge assembly.  The Dorman spring is not exactly shaped like mine as it is squared off on one end.

LMC on the chevy side used a spring like this but I am not sure of fitment.  LMC sells the spring only on the chevy side.

When I got the truck, the pass side door was sagging and hit the fender, hence would not open.  I took it off, and found on the rust on the b side pillar—the same side as all that rust on the roof down the windshield.  The bushings were indeed shot.  So, I got the kit.

Now i am ready to put the doors back on and the issue I forgot about is now presenting itself to me.  

I'll check tomorrow to see what I might have.

That's an upper hinge.  Right?  I have three doors, all with no upper hinges.  Sorry.