Gary Lewis Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Painted the AC brackets then hit the hard ware store for bolts and propane for the shop heater as it ran out just before I started to paint. Only ones they had were too long so had to cut them down and rework the threaded ends. Also had to make a spacer to fit between the AC bracket and the power steering bracket. I found an old ear from a ALT that I cut and filed to fit. Got the bracket bolted up and ready for the compressor when I get it. With that done I moved on to wire brush cleaning of the hood hinges & springs and got them painted. Got the springs installed but the hinge bolts were rusty so had to soak them. I then went looking for the hood release cable. I think I should of had 2, cant remember if the parts truck had one. After looking for half hour I found only 1 and got it installed. When I stood back to look over the truck I saw I did not pull and paint the air filter bracket so pulled it and hit with paint. With the air filter off I adjusted the choke so it would close when cold as it was open about half way. I also raised the fast idle speed a little as it was not working but could of been from choke not closing, time will tell. After dinner I cleaned the bolts for the hinges and the jack bracket for the fender and hit them with paint. Hope to get them installed tomorrow. In looking for the hood cable I pulled out the 2 sets of running boards I have. I will look them over and get the bolts I have together to see what I have to get together before painting. The plan is to get the bed painted as soon as I can and need to get all that prepped for paint. When looking for the hood cable I found the bed heat shields from the long bed parts truck. Along with installing the hinges I want to try again on fitting them to the bed. When at the hard wear store I picked up bolts for the bumpers as I have a custom touch I want to do to them and my look into starting that. Little by little it is getting done. Dave ---- Wow, that is a lot of progress, Dave! Little details like that just eat up time, so you did well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 Wow, that is a lot of progress, Dave! Little details like that just eat up time, so you did well. It sure does. I was out there for most of the day, yes I could have started earlier, and it was not till I was posting that I said "man I did not get a lot done for the time in the garage". The cutting of the 3 AC bracket bolts and still to long so needing to grind them down more and redo the threaded ends eats up time. Then wire brushing the hinges & hood springs for painting tanks time. Then add looking thru 6 bins of parts, looking on top of my work shop (needed to pull out the ladder) and then going thru the work shop for the hood cable all took time. So I guess I did get a lot done LOL Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share Posted January 21, 2019 Wow, that is a lot of progress, Dave! Little details like that just eat up time, so you did well. It sure does. I was out there for most of the day, yes I could have started earlier, and it was not till I was posting that I said "man I did not get a lot done for the time in the garage". The cutting of the 3 AC bracket bolts and still to long so needing to grind them down more and redo the threaded ends eats up time. Then wire brushing the hinges & hood springs for painting tanks time. Then add looking thru 6 bins of parts, looking on top of my work shop (needed to pull out the ladder) and then going thru the work shop for the hood cable all took time. So I guess I did get a lot done LOL Dave ---- I got hit with lazyazzetsis today:nabble_smiley_unhappy: Never made it out to the garage today but did hit the mail box. I ordered some LED's for the gauge cluster because the other light before I came in I hooked the battery up and turned the lights off and man was the cluster dark! I guess I should have gone with new bulbs and not just clean the outs sides off. I went with green bulbs as I like that color. Also the HVAC control(it was pretty bright), light & wiper light and the radio are factory green and want it all to match. I did not think going with the blue, I do like that color, or red would go to good with the other green lights. We just got hit with a cold spell 60* yesterday with a high of 34* tomorrow. It will be pretty cold in the garage if I make it out there so we will see. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I got hit with lazyazzetsis today:nabble_smiley_unhappy: Never made it out to the garage today but did hit the mail box. I ordered some LED's for the gauge cluster because the other light before I came in I hooked the battery up and turned the lights off and man was the cluster dark! I guess I should have gone with new bulbs and not just clean the outs sides off. I went with green bulbs as I like that color. Also the HVAC control(it was pretty bright), light & wiper light and the radio are factory green and want it all to match. I did not think going with the blue, I do like that color, or red would go to good with the other green lights. We just got hit with a cold spell 60* yesterday with a high of 34* tomorrow. It will be pretty cold in the garage if I make it out there so we will see. Dave ---- Dave, If you think of it shoot a couple comparison shots of the cluster lights with the factory bulbs and then with the LED's. I am thinking of converting my cluster as well, but as I get everything back together and have been cleaning all my grounds my lights are looking pretty bright. So, I may hold off for now, but for comparison's sake I'd love to see the difference. Keep at it. I am struggling with losing some steam myself. We had a 0 degree day here today, but thankfully I have a few small heaters running in the garage so its not bad at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 A few weeks ago I was in the truck when it was darkish and saw half the dash lights did not work. When I rebuilt the cluster I did not replace the bulbs, just cleaned them. Also the colored covers were like new so I left them in at that time. So I ordered LED bulbs, pulled the cluster last weekend and replaced all the bulbs. Today was install time and to make sure worked. Some of the bulbs needed to be turned 180* before they would work. I also replaced the warning lights across the top with LED's too. I had to jump out the sensors to make sure they worked or needed to be turned also. The only one I did not jump out was the brake light. I did not know what it was till I was going in the house. Then again I will know if the brakes don't work and don't need a light to tell me. What bulb colors did I use you ask? Green for the gauges and white for the warning lights. Garage lights off but still bright out at 5:45pm and facing the windows but you can see the gauges. Then took a picture when it was a little more dark out. I left the colored cover in as I did not want to take the cluster all apart to remove them. After the cluster was back in and tested in day light I pulled the truck out of the garage and did a Bill Murray cleaning like in Caddy Shack, back pack blower and all! There was a lot of body filler dust all over, even on top of the lights! It will take a lot more cleaning before I can paint in there. It would be nice to get my sons boxes from moving out and the 1 car I have in there with 4 blown out tires for the next cleaning I don't see that happening but I do see Bill Murray coming back out again LOL Before backing the truck back in I checked how the HVAC worked as I remembered something not right with it. When on MAX AC the air comes out the defrost. If on Normal AC it comes out the dash vents. The rest work as should when in that position of vents / floor / mix / defrost. This works off the vacuum system of the switch, the temp side works as should and that is cable. I should have jumped the AC pressure switch and checked for power to the AC compressor, maybe next time? Oh I also bolted the jack bracket to the right fender and the hood hinges on. I need to go thru all the parts a have and start putting them together that I have 2 of, like wiper arms, wiper motors & linkage to name a few. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 Dave, If you think of it shoot a couple comparison shots of the cluster lights with the factory bulbs and then with the LED's. I am thinking of converting my cluster as well, but as I get everything back together and have been cleaning all my grounds my lights are looking pretty bright. So, I may hold off for now, but for comparison's sake I'd love to see the difference. Keep at it. I am struggling with losing some steam myself. We had a 0 degree day here today, but thankfully I have a few small heaters running in the garage so its not bad at all. Sorry I just saw this and it is to late to get before shots. To tell the truth the reason I did the LED's is because I think only 2 or 3 of the 5 cluster lights worked and did not think they were all that bright anyway. Now I did not install new bulbs when I did the work the first time. So if I had to pull the cluster again I was going LED's. Here is what green LED's with the covers still installed. I did not get any of the white warning lights but with out the colored lenses they are bright. Dave ----Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 I think my truck hates me I keep the gas cans in my garage, cooler in there than the tractor shed, and the 5 gal can is heavy so open the garage door and backed my DD up to it so did not need to carry the can far. When walking in thru the garage door I see a puddle of anti freeze under the truck Got out the drop light and creeper. Green on the new Y pipe and up above that on the starter? Looking farther up I see a trail down the side of the block and what does it lead me to ........... one of them rubber repair casting plugs that use a nut that flares out the rubber to seal it to the block. I remember seeing it when I had the manifolds off and was well it's not broken don't fix it! So got out the tools and was able to tighten the nut a little more, dried the area and fingers crossed it will hold. If it keeps dripping I will replace it with a steel or brass one with a little sealer. I think if I peel back the inner fender well I think I can use a long extension & socket to drive the plug in. The other day I saw some members under hood pictures and saw I had the hood release cable run the wrong way so fixed that. Being up at 1am for work I called it quits for the day and plan to get some work done Saturday and/or Sunday. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 I think my truck hates me I keep the gas cans in my garage, cooler in there than the tractor shed, and the 5 gal can is heavy so open the garage door and backed my DD up to it so did not need to carry the can far. When walking in thru the garage door I see a puddle of anti freeze under the truck Got out the drop light and creeper. Green on the new Y pipe and up above that on the starter? Looking farther up I see a trail down the side of the block and what does it lead me to ........... one of them rubber repair casting plugs that use a nut that flares out the rubber to seal it to the block. I remember seeing it when I had the manifolds off and was well it's not broken don't fix it! So got out the tools and was able to tighten the nut a little more, dried the area and fingers crossed it will hold. If it keeps dripping I will replace it with a steel or brass one with a little sealer. I think if I peel back the inner fender well I think I can use a long extension & socket to drive the plug in. The other day I saw some members under hood pictures and saw I had the hood release cable run the wrong way so fixed that. Being up at 1am for work I called it quits for the day and plan to get some work done Saturday and/or Sunday. Dave ---- I agree that you can probably replace the core plug by peeling back the inner fender and use and extension and socket to drive it. That worked for me on a 351W, but of course that puts the plug at an angle and yours will be level, so it may not be as easy. Good luck! Anyway, you are still making progress. Two steps forward and one back is the correct "reformation dance step". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 I agree that you can probably replace the core plug by peeling back the inner fender and use and extension and socket to drive it. That worked for me on a 351W, but of course that puts the plug at an angle and yours will be level, so it may not be as easy. Good luck! Anyway, you are still making progress. Two steps forward and one back is the correct "reformation dance step". At times it feels like a slow waltz 1 step forward and 2 steps back I should get my butt out to the garage, fire up the heater and get something done even if is just to look at it. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 At times it feels like a slow waltz 1 step forward and 2 steps back I should get my butt out to the garage, fire up the heater and get something done even if is just to look at it. Dave ---- Last time I was out to work on the truck it was cold so fire up the heater and got under the truck to look at the bed heat shields. Only under there for a short time and started to feel sick and for weeks now not quite right. Got out there today to finish the heat shield install and as soon as I got under the truck started to feel sick again but worked thru it. Wife is ordering me to see the doctor next week when I see my eye doctor. Got a feeling it is an ulcer and most likely need to go for tests .... oh joy ....not! Anyway I did get the shields installed. I was able to use the style side rear shield as it was and screwed into holes in the cross rails as that is where it came from. Now the front style side shield was to long as I made the bed floor shorter and not lone enough to cover the full area. I cut a section out of the front shield so the front part would screw to the side of the front cross rail and the rear part would screw to the 1 of the middle cross rails using the screw holes for it that were there. When I cut the front section out I left it to over lap about 4". I wanted to do a few spot welds at the over lap but the parts would have needed to washed better and being galvanized would be risky (fumes) so I just screwed the 2 parts together. Sorry no pictures, hard to get them under there and not felling good, didn't even pick up the tools or turn lights off yet. It would be nice if I can get primer on the last fender and get the spray gun cleaned up today. It will feel like I got something done. I think till I feel better it will be slow going on the truck. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts