Slow Roller

[nineno]

dude you are killin it! nice job

Much appreciated. Thank you.
Since I'm still in the midst of getting everyone caught up on a 3.5 year build, don't be to upset when my updates become far less frequent because I've caught up with "real time." In fact, we're almost there, now. Probably only 2 or 3 more meaningful updates.

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I did find some additional pictures of the work I've completed already, so I'll dump those below with a brief description.

Here's a picture of the floor (and the dash guts) before I cleaned it up and repainted it. It looks baaad, but it cleaned up well. This was late fall, 2021, I believe.

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Here are the spindles after glass bead blasting, before being POR15'd. (For the record, I'm not convinced of POR15. Stuff is NASTY and I'm not sure it's much better than the less frightening alternatives.)

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Another glamor shot of the spindles after being rebuilt.

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Another picture documenting the busted spring. Still gives me shivers.

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As noted previously, I went with a DJM 4/6 drop setup, all around. I did pick up a pair of McGaughys frame notches from a guy that got in waaay over his head (and bank account). Here's a picture of the two styles side-by-side. The McGaughys piece is on the left. I like it because it is a c-channel and it's longer. However, the inside dimension is wider/taller than the frame which seems to indicate that you need to add a spacer between the lower edge of the frame and the top side of the bottom plate on the notch...? (I know that's not a great description. If anyone is curious or has insight to share, please share.) The DJM plats are 2x the thickness of the McGaughys and don't require the lateral supports on the bed to be notched (or the bed to be raised 3/16") because they don't sit above the top of the frame. Ultimately, I just used the DJM parts, but I'll probably end up reinforcing the frame around the notch juuuuust incase. (The McGaughys notches are ready for a new home, if anyone needs them.)

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Just a few more random pics in the next post...

 

[nineno]

Here's the pedal I scored with the Hydroboost unit. Glad I took it because I didn't know that the pedal ratio was different between a vac-assisted system and the HB system. (Note the placement of the pin that pushed the master cylinder linkage.) I may have more to discuss on this as I get closer to reinstalling the brake lines, etc.

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Here's one more shot from the body shop. The passenger side of the bed has a little "heavy rub" mark that needed a some touch-up.

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The last few images are one of of the smartest things I've done on this truck. I'm sure everyone that's pulled the engine isolators out of one of these trucks will find this amusing...
As mentioned in post 1, the truck was a V6 originally. And while there was no engine in it when I got it, the engine mounts were in it. I went to take them out - assuming that the frame was pierce-threaded like the brake line clips, or that there were weld nuts inside the frame. I learned, quickly, that there are nuts inside the frame that need to be held on to. (For all of the simple and eloquent solutions on these trucks, the engine isolator nuts is a pretty crazy-bad choice.)

Since I knew I was going to yank the entire OE suspension, this wasn't a huge deal. After I got the suspension off the truck, I busted out my trusty dial caliper and...umm...tracing paper. I figured out where all 5 holes were relative to one another and made a nut plate. I included all 5 holes because I didn't know which I would need and which I wouldn't.

Here's a view from the top. Doesn't look too special...

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Here's a view from the bottom.

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As long as I don't take all 5 out at the same time, I'm good. I've had many (maaany) cobbled-up engine mounts in and out of the truck, and these nut plates have been a life saver. At some point I should have drilled a small (1/4") hole through the frame in the center of the bolt pattern. That would have allowed me to tack weld the plate to the frame and not have to play the "always leave 1 -- preferable 2 -- bolts in the plate" game.

Certainly not rocket science, but one of those things that made me feel like I have a little something going on upstairs.
Here's a screen capture of the CAD file.

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Painted truck pics, coming soon-ish.

 

[jaybee]

Great project, and welcome from the Tidewater region!

 

[nineno]

Great project, and welcome from the Tidewater region!

Thank you, jaybee; and thanks for the Virginia welcoming.
Truth be told, I've been in Richmond longer than I ever anticipated -- 8.5 years and counting.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I'm sure everyone that's pulled the engine isolators out of one of these trucks will find this amusing...

Nice! The previous owner of Roscoe sold the 454 out of it, and the buyer torched out the motor mounts. When I built patches to weld into the frame, I welded nuts to the back side. You solution is much more elegant.

 

[nineno]

Here's one last pic of the poor old truck, all torn down in the prep room of the paint shop.

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The truck was painted a nice shade of root beer brown, with a touch of red added. The inspiration was (embarrassingly) a Toyota Tundra that I see regularly on my way to work. (So much for "some shade of blue" that I had been considering.)

Ironically, I realized I don't have many pictures of the truck since it's been painted. Here's a pretty nice shot of the bed. One of the guys at the shop texted this to me, so the resolution isn't great.

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After the truck was painted and before it came back to my house, I had a new windshield and a very nice new rear sliding window installed. I let the glass install guy pick the glass after explaining what I was going for.

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The rear window is a Majestic brand (??). (Anyone know anything about this brand?) I hadn’t come across that brand while hunting around the inter-webs, but I have to say that it looks WAY better than the early factory slider, and almost as nice (smooth) as the solid rear window. The center window is a bit small, but I’ll take that tradeoff for the much-improved aesthetic.

For reference, the reason that I insisted on the rear slider is that the truck was not built with A/C. Cab ventilation in the summer months will be crucial. Perhaps I’ll install A/C in the future, but I’m not going to mess with that until I’ve got a truck that can run down the road.

The truck returned home in mid-November and I've commenced with several small projects.

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On the whole, I am very pleased with the color choice. I may feel differently in the dead-of-summer, without air conditioning, but for right now, I like it.

The quality of work is so-so.
There are several spots where the paint is awfully thin, to the point of the hue changing. Most of these spots are hidden (door jambs, under hood, etc), but I wish a little more care would have been taken by the shop.

There are also a few areas where the original (silver) paint was chipped, the body shop didn’t catch this -- or maybe they never intended to do anything about it. Ultimately just painted over the chip rather than some combination of filling, sanding, and/or high-build priming.

The spray-in bedliner is alright – but not great. It, too, is a bit thin in some spots and there are some tricky spots (behind the stake pockets in the leading corners of the bed) that really weren’t lined at all. Other sections of the liner were applied to heavy and you can tell that the thick, heavy liner was starting to run as it cured. There are also a few dents in the bed that weren’t noticeable until a uniform semigloss black was applied. You sure can see the dents, now! (They’re so obnoxious, I may try dollying them out the next time the bed is off.) There is at least one hole left from when the old drop-in bed liner became a screw-in bed liner, courtesy of a prior owner.

I know I'm picking the fly **** out of the pepper, but here are some of the annoyances I can see in this low-res pic.

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I don’t want to throw the shop under the bus – at least not too much – because the price I paid was modest by any standard; I agreed on the front end that this would be filler work for them; and I specifically told them that the truck would be driven (assuming I ever get it back on the road). It’s not a show truck and it’s defiantly not a trailer queen. I suspect if I paid a ‘normal’ rate, the results would have been that much better.

This is the part where I have to remind myself that this whole project started out as an $800 truck.

I'll detail a few post-paint projects in an upcoming post.

 

[someotherguy]

Here's a picture of the floor (and the dash guts) before I cleaned it up and repainted it. It looks baaad, but it cleaned up well.

That's actually not bad at all for a vinyl floor truck. Add a bunch of roof leaks into the mix (3500HD with cab lights) and you get.. bad... btw, the insulation pad on the engine side of the firewall on the diesel trucks also encourages rust to a degree.

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Here are the spindles after glass bead blasting, before being POR15'd. (For the record, I'm not convinced of POR15. Stuff is NASTY and I'm not sure it's much better than the less frightening alternatives.)

100% agreed it is nasty stuff. For example one should never spray it without proper respirator gear, because it will glue your lungs shut, and you'll have a bad time. I brushed mine on. As far as its effectiveness, it is advertised to work better on rough metal vs. "clean" metal. Knock all the loose debris off, de-grease, then POR-15. If it's freshly blasted, sanded, etc. they recommend you etch it with their Metal Prep product. I did the entire frame, firewall, and floor of my 3500HD and it worked very well. The sun faded the exposed areas as expected but I witnessed no peeling, flaking, or rust peeking back through.

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As noted previously, I went with a DJM 4/6 drop setup, all around. I did pick up a pair of McGaughys frame notches from a guy that got in waaay over his head (and bank account). Here's a picture of the two styles side-by-side. The McGaughys piece is on the left. I like it because it is a c-channel and it's longer. However, the inside dimension is wider/taller than the frame which seems to indicate that you need to add a spacer between the lower edge of the frame and the top side of the bottom plate on the notch...? (I know that's not a great description. If anyone is curious or has insight to share, please share.) The DJM plats are 2x the thickness of the McGaughys and don't require the lateral supports on the bed to be notched (or the bed to be raised 3/16") because they don't sit above the top of the frame. Ultimately, I just used the DJM parts, but I'll probably end up reinforcing the frame around the notch juuuuust incase.

Man, those really look like Belltech notch brackets on the left and DJM on the right.

Richard

 

[nineno]

Yep, Richard, that cab looks much worse than mine did! Is that the same truck shown in the second picture?

100% agreed it is nasty stuff. For example one should never spray it [ed: POR15] without proper respirator gear, because it will glue your lungs shut, and you'll have a bad time. I brushed mine on.

I was woozy after brushing the POR15 on some small parts (spindles, battery tray, etc, etc) outside and recall not feeling great for awhile after. I don't go near the stuff without a carbon filter respirator any more.

Man, those really look like Belltech notch brackets on the left and DJM on the right.

Any chance both systems/mfgs use the same notch? "No need to re-invent the wheel..." and all that.
The pieces I have came in a McGaughy's box or with McGaughy's instructions - something that told me what they were. (I bought a pile of parts of a local guy that needed to move stuff quickly. This was one of the items in the haul - and truthfully one of the items I was more interested in.)

I believe these are what I have:

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[someotherguy]

Yep, same truck. It eventually became the all-black wrecker you may have seen me post already in other threads.

On the notches - I think they're sourcing them either from the same place, or from each other. That looks exactly like a Belltech notch. The gap you notice due to the fitment to the frame? It closes up when you tighten the bottom bolts.

Richard

 

[FLGS400]

On the notches - I think they're sourcing them either from the same place, or from each other. That looks exactly like a Belltech notch. The gap you notice due to the fitment to the frame? It closes up when you tighten the bottom bolts.

I used the McGaughy's notches on my truck (like the Summit link above). I bought those for their complete frame coverage design (fits over the frame top and bottom), and their notch part looked a little sturdier to me. When installing, I pushed them up as high as they would go (bolted the bottom in first), and did end up with a very slight gap on the top rails. I just bolted them together at that point, notched the bed cross brace accordingly, and went on with my day. Seems fine so far.