Quite
a bit has happened since my last post. I have been working on the truck
with every spare minute I have in an effort to drive the truck to the
2008 Mopar Nationals in Ohio. My wife has been very supportive and would
very much like to see the truck completed as well. In the following photos
you will notice the many of the various thing I have accomplished. This
biggest thing is getting the firewall, underside and inside of the cab
painted. This has allowed me to start hanging parts on the cab such as
the dash, sterring column and wheel, Ron Francis fuse block and start
sorting out the brakes. I also bought a hidden AC compressor kit from
Bouchillion Peformance. Their instruction suck and the washers they supplied
were the wrong size but everything else fit. Note that the alternator
and water pump pulley will be either cleaned and painted or replaced.
Here are the big changes in a nutshell:
Pulley kit installed and power steering pump rebuilt
Body work on cab
Paint the firewall, underside and inside of the cab
Started sorting out the brakes
Bought another hood – thanks Jeff (for the hood), and Matt, Scott
and Kerry for the sweptline railroad!
primed
the fenders and core support this week. i am starting to really get a
feel for the painting of the panels. the primer is very forgiving and
i have only created a couple minor runs in spots that won't be seen. i
may leave them since they look like many of the runs i have seen here
and there on the truck.
Next up:
- when the weather is bad i'll cut out rust on the hood and fix with patch
panels.
- finish stripping and paint door shells.
- the tailgate and bed (that's a whole project by itself!)
worked
on priming a few parts for the truck - the cab is primed and placed on
the frame. the Dash, trans tunnel cover and cowl guard are in place and
primed. they are not bolted down but merely resting in place to hold them
while i work on the core support, fenders and door shells. it is slowly
starting to take shape! now i get to start knocking out dings and dents
and mudding the dings that won't knock out.
side note: i sent the gauges off to redline gauge works. the AMP gauge
will be converted to a Volt meter and the Sun Tach will be updated to
modern electronics. all the needles will be painted to match. with luck
i may even have a new bezel put on the speedo.
took
a week off from work to do a few things around the house and work on the
truck.
first things first - i spent all the money i have been saving and had
all the body panels stripped using a company in Orlando FL called Master
Blasters. they used plastic media and did a great job. the owner, Wayne,
suggested i use Ospho to treat the rust and then prime it. in the following
pics you will not that the truck panels are laid bare and have a coating
of Ospho all over them - nasty stuff! note the old "Republic Steel"
paint stamp on the inner fender...
the parts are located at my friend Mike Nelson's shop. he's helping me
prepare each part for paint and we will epoxy prime each one in flat black
- VERY COOL!
the next thing is
we bought a tractor with the help of Kelleen's parents. it is a Montana
brand Rseries 4344. it uses a Mitsubishi 4 cylinder diesel and comes equipped
with 4WD, 16x16 gear drive and shuttle shift, front end loaded and a host
of other goodies. this should help save an imense amount of time on weekends
when mowing season starts up and will free up more time to work on the
truck!.
still
plugging away on the resto project.
the big news is i now have the engine together, painted and mounted on
the frame - see pics below.
the air cleaner and valve covers are just sitting on top and will be rechromed
when i do the grill, bumpers and mirror bases.
this milestone is a big deal for me since i have been salivating for a
while to rebuild the 440 my brother George gave me. it did not need much
more than new gaskets but i did have a machine shop clean up the block,
hone the cylinders and knock in some brass freeze plugs.
i have started a fund to take all the body panels to orlando to have them
media blasted. the time and labor i have invested to date to mechanically
strip the core support and cab have taken a toll on my patience level.
i am determined to get though it but i feel i can better use my time sanding
on dents and shaping panels rather than raw stripping. i have half the
money saved so far so hopefully sometime in march i can drag all the panels
down to be stripped!
i also have the fender i bought from Terry Holcomb de-undercoated. i used a wood chisel and a putty scapper to chip is all away. i'll start stripping the paint once i can get more encapsulator on hand. because my time on the project is divided i will start using spray bombs to paint with since i pretty much wasted a whole gallon of the paint from it just sitting. i think in the end the spray bombs will save me money until i can get it all "in prime". once it is all in prime i can do larger areas with bulk paint.
with the help of terry winkler and his brother Kerry i was able to located and purchase a bare 426 block from a really nice person name John Deitle. part of the sale also include a chrome air cleaner and valve covers. John lives in MO and Terry picked it up for me. Kerry will drop off the block on his way back from a visit with Terry so shipping is quite reasonable! this will shift my priorities some and the 440 my brother donated will give up its rotating assembly. i'll have to purchase some pistons and have the block line bored but i think this is a better way to go in the end and now it will have a 426 in it again for the first time since 1968! hopefully this one will last longer than the first one.
i will keep plugging along with the project and scrapping undercoating for the next few weeks. the block should be here the first of april and i promise to post pics of that event!
