Hey guys, just a "mid summer update" I completed repairing the bed and put it back on the truck. It was a lot of work! The fiberglass fender flares in particular took a long time to fix. I used aluminum flat stock, aluminum mesh and stainless steel hardware to repair the various framing as well as enforcing the flares. The flares came out "OK". Perhaps one day I will finish them properly..I used a combination of fiberglass cloth and fiberglass bondo. I will have more details in a YouTube video at some point. I welded up repair patches for all the holes in the bed and POR painted them. I POR painted only the worst rusty areas in the bed to try to conserve the POR paint. I also cut a hole for the fuel pump trap door, but I made a mistake. Since the bed was upside down the measurements were off...so I will have to extend the hole. I will finish it off the hole using a piece of aluminum, "nut serts", and some old weather stripping... I also asphalt undercoated the entire underside of the bed and inner fenders (hopefully that will keep away the rust). I also went to the 'yard and got a new gas tank plastic fill up piece, I re-installed it using pan head stainless steel bolts (not with the stupid TORX bolts) and speed nuts...with what little POR paint I have left I painted the gas tank fill up tube. I also tried to test the electric fuel pump out for a few seconds and it doesn't seem to work. Hopefully; with the proper connections it does? I will have the trap door access at that point so I can change the pump easier. It looks like the proper Earls to AN connection #'s are 9894DBJ & 9894DBH I will get these and convert the fuel line to AN stainless (I have some extra -6 hose and fittings). I also painted the fairly new gas tank and got the proper plastic "undertank" protector...
I am trying to research a engine. The best situation for me is to find a low milage 350 TBI rebuildable core (around $150 up here from the 'yard) in which the I can re-use the entire rotating assembly. This would avoid a lot of machine work and balancing which would cost $$ as well as pistons etc. This looks to be tough because a lot of stuff will at least have a significant "rim ridge" and will require a cylinder bore. I though I found a good candidate in a late 80s/90's 1 ton van that was in accident. The engine looked clean. I spent 3 hours in the hot sun taking it apart only to find the cylinder bore had a significant ring ridge. It was also a propane engine that is hard on the rings..
So, next step is to extend the trap door hole and bolt the bed down, other than that keep looking for a good engine...
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