Gary Lewis Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 OK, I'll do that. I'll buy the piano hinge etc. In the meantime, I've ordered the SEM paint from Vinyl Pro so I can reinstall my dash (and paint everything else, too) I'm getting new flooring in my house next week, and I probably won't make any headway on the truck until the dust settles from that... there goes my accountability. Sounds like a good plan. Wasn't Vinyl Pro easy to work with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 20, 2021 Author Share Posted December 20, 2021 Sounds like a good plan. Wasn't Vinyl Pro easy to work with? They were indeed! I'm finally getting to the point to be able to actually start painting interior parts. It's a long story, but I was diverted by the flooring/painting work on our house for a month - all seemed to settle down. Then, I was in Las Vegas for re:Invent (AWS conference) and my wife called me pretty upset - there was a water leak inside a wall and was there was wet drywall and water under our new floors.... Bottom line, a crew member of the flooring guy put a baseboard nail through our hot water supply pipe in my sons closet. It didn't spring a leak (that we knew of at least) until the nail corroded to the point that water was able to get by... so, now our floor is torn back out in two bedrooms to be replaced. Thankfully the flooring guy took responsibility and is covering it.... Given all that, not much time for the truck. But, there has been progress: 1. I showed a friend at work the piano hinge contraption. He asked to borrow it and two days later came back with a 3-D printed hinge and door that is WAY better than what I made with my limited tools. He is printing me an ABS version that is more temperature resistant and has a few tweaks to the dimensions. 2. To test the door to make sure it worked smoothly, I needed to run the engine! So, I finally filled the radiator, crossed my fingers, and said a little prayer. I used my new electric "priming" pump that's on a push button in the cab, pressed the pedal down once, turned the key and the engine started and ran for the first time in about 2.5 years! I had a few little issues - the transmission cooling line fitting on the radiator wasn't cinched enough so it was leaking at first. And even after re-torquing the valve covers, there is some burning oil near the #4 cylinder. I'm not sure yet if it is residual from before I retightened the covers, or is still leaking. I also put ThermoCure into the radiator and did a radiator flush. It got a decent amount of crud out, but not a ton thankfully. I have the Champion in-line radiator filter, and the screen is catching some old scale/rust. I have to do one more flush I think with water before I'm ready to put 50/50 antifreeze. That was a long way of saying that the door works, so now I can paint the dash and start painting/reassembling each interior part! I hope to post updates more frequently now, and fix that valve cover issue. Of course it's on the side with almost all the emissions junk, so taking it back off to diagnose will be a bear... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 They were indeed! I'm finally getting to the point to be able to actually start painting interior parts. It's a long story, but I was diverted by the flooring/painting work on our house for a month - all seemed to settle down. Then, I was in Las Vegas for re:Invent (AWS conference) and my wife called me pretty upset - there was a water leak inside a wall and was there was wet drywall and water under our new floors.... Bottom line, a crew member of the flooring guy put a baseboard nail through our hot water supply pipe in my sons closet. It didn't spring a leak (that we knew of at least) until the nail corroded to the point that water was able to get by... so, now our floor is torn back out in two bedrooms to be replaced. Thankfully the flooring guy took responsibility and is covering it.... Given all that, not much time for the truck. But, there has been progress: 1. I showed a friend at work the piano hinge contraption. He asked to borrow it and two days later came back with a 3-D printed hinge and door that is WAY better than what I made with my limited tools. He is printing me an ABS version that is more temperature resistant and has a few tweaks to the dimensions. 2. To test the door to make sure it worked smoothly, I needed to run the engine! So, I finally filled the radiator, crossed my fingers, and said a little prayer. I used my new electric "priming" pump that's on a push button in the cab, pressed the pedal down once, turned the key and the engine started and ran for the first time in about 2.5 years! I had a few little issues - the transmission cooling line fitting on the radiator wasn't cinched enough so it was leaking at first. And even after re-torquing the valve covers, there is some burning oil near the #4 cylinder. I'm not sure yet if it is residual from before I retightened the covers, or is still leaking. I also put ThermoCure into the radiator and did a radiator flush. It got a decent amount of crud out, but not a ton thankfully. I have the Champion in-line radiator filter, and the screen is catching some old scale/rust. I have to do one more flush I think with water before I'm ready to put 50/50 antifreeze. That was a long way of saying that the door works, so now I can paint the dash and start painting/reassembling each interior part! I hope to post updates more frequently now, and fix that valve cover issue. Of course it's on the side with almost all the emissions junk, so taking it back off to diagnose will be a bear... Yippee! I'm glad it is all starting to come together. But that is a bummer on the floors. Sure glad the guy took responsibility for his actions. That is probably an expensive process to hire done. You'll have to post a pic of the hinge for the door. Better yet, maybe your friend will share the file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 21, 2021 Author Share Posted December 21, 2021 Yippee! I'm glad it is all starting to come together. But that is a bummer on the floors. Sure glad the guy took responsibility for his actions. That is probably an expensive process to hire done. You'll have to post a pic of the hinge for the door. Better yet, maybe your friend will share the file? I have it pseudo-mounted in the truck, I'll take a picture in the next day or two. My friend has an idea to try to print them for sale, but I'll ask him if he'd consider it. He drew it up in FreeCAD but I don't have really any more details than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 I have it pseudo-mounted in the truck, I'll take a picture in the next day or two. My friend has an idea to try to print them for sale, but I'll ask him if he'd consider it. He drew it up in FreeCAD but I don't have really any more details than that. If he's going to sell them then he won't want you to post the file here. And that makes sense. But we'd still like to see pics. And if he does sell them be sure to let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramttocs Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 If he's going to sell them then he won't want you to post the file here. And that makes sense. But we'd still like to see pics. And if he does sell them be sure to let us know. Yes, would be good to see what it looks like. Did you take a big whiff of the Thermocure after draining? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 21, 2021 Author Share Posted December 21, 2021 Yes, would be good to see what it looks like. Did you take a big whiff of the Thermocure after draining? Oh my gosh it's gross... I ran almost 7 gallons through it and there's still a whiff. I gave up finally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 21, 2021 Author Share Posted December 21, 2021 Yes, would be good to see what it looks like. Did you take a big whiff of the Thermocure after draining? http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/face-with-open-mouth-vomiting-23x23_orig.png Here are some pictures of the proof of concept, there will be another print after having to shift things up and down a little bit etc. The current one does work, but the vacuum arm gets a little caught up when the engine first starts, where the arm connects to the door needs to be brought up some, the next version will fix that. Hopefully I get the new version after Christmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Here are some pictures of the proof of concept, there will be another print after having to shift things up and down a little bit etc. The current one does work, but the vacuum arm gets a little caught up when the engine first starts, where the arm connects to the door needs to be brought up some, the next version will fix that. Hopefully I get the new version after Christmas Chris - That looks great! Ought to work forever. But is the door stiff enough to not deform if you put foam on it? I'm just wondering if it might eventually fail due to flexing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 22, 2021 Author Share Posted December 22, 2021 Chris - That looks great! Ought to work forever. But is the door stiff enough to not deform if you put foam on it? I'm just wondering if it might eventually fail due to flexing. Hi Gary, Yes, it's actually pretty rigid. Only at the edges does it have much give, and maybe 2-3mm when you apply a decent amount of force. Actually I've found that the little bit of flex helps, as you have to angle the door into the plenum, stand it on edge (normal orientation) and finagle with getting the vacuum motor arm set up with the pin holding it in place. If it was totally rigid it may be more difficult to get it installed. I forget which plastic this is currently... I think it's PLA. The hopefully final revision with be printed in ABS for a better temperature range that it can handle. We also thinking about putting some raised walls around the back side of the screw holes, that way nuts can be pressed into place and machine screws can be used instead of the sheet metal style that the hinge originally had... As soon as I get the new version I'll post pictures of that, and then I imagine we will want a tester or two to verify fit in another truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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