Hanging on by a thread

There is only one @#*(&@ bolt holding the truck bed on. I circled it on the picture. I thought I had them all broken off, but when I tried to raise the bed off of the frame, I found the bonus bolt. Guess I'll try to tackle it later today.



Once I get that bolt off, I have a plan. I am going to park the truck at the front of the driveway, on a steep hill. Then I'll get a nice long 4x4 post under the bed to use as a lever. Hopefully then the hill will help me get the old bed right off of the frame. The good news is that the stepside bed weighs a lot less than the other one.

Which is not a big surprise, since almost all of the wood is gone and a lot of the steel is now dust in the street.

Why do you want to swap the truck bed out?

One of my buddies asked me that yesterday. And here is my answer.



Here is the first picture of the new bed. Sorry it is upside down, but that thing is heavy and I am not touching it again until it is ready to install on the truck.



After church, and before the rain started, I got three of the eight bolts off that hold the stepside bed to the frame. Only three of the bolts are actually holding anything, but I still have to remove them all to get the bed off.

Upside down and sideways

Sitting on the top rail of the trailer.

No pictures, because by the time we got that big bitch home, it was 95 degrees and we were worn out from wrestling the 400 pound box.

Turns out the new bed is much better shape than I imagined. It is the complete bed from a 1968 longbed, fleetside anniversary edition truck. I felt a little guilty taking fairly rare pieces off of a cool old truck until I remembered that I was getting it for the cost of the rental trailer and three cases of beer.

Pictures tomorrow.

The question of the day...

How well do you think a truck bed that is a tad over 8 feet long will ride in a trailer that is a tad under eight feet long?

Should be a fun ride. Glad I won't be in the car behind the trailer.

A family affair

The entire family got some truck time this afternoon. The Boss Lady finished painting the rear bumper lettering for me while the kids played in the truck. Later this evening we were playing at the neighbor's house and the kids hung out at the truck, checking out everything under the hood. I removed the air filter so they could look into the carburetor and see the butterfly valve open. Then they got to watch the steering linkage and shifting linkages while I sat in the cab and moved everything around.

Good times.

We made it home before another storm hit this evening. Just made it into the garage with the new car before it started pouring again.

Fuel Pump #3

I swapped out the fuel pump this afternoon. This is the third one in a year. Pretty bad, since the truck has moved only 250 miles in that year. AND that counts the 50 miles it rode on a trailer to get here!

Not a huge deal, since the pump has a lifetime warranty. And with the practice, I can now install a fuel pump in less than 15 minutes. But now that I think about it, I might have been swapping out the wrong parts. But since the pump was off and it is under warranty, I switched it for a new one.

There was gas in the oil pan. I noticed that the level on the dipstick was really high this morning and sure enough, I could smell gas in the oil. Both signs of a bad fuel pump. But the truck was running fine before the swap. So I am thinking that maybe the fuel is getting to the oil pan another way. But that is where my mechanical knowledge ends.

I don't know what other ways it could be getting into the oil. Do you?

Or have I just gotten really unlucky with the fuel pumps from Auto Zone. I am sure they are not the greatest parts, but who can pass on a $15 part with a lifetime warranty?

Anyways, after swapping the pump and changing the oil and filter, we were back on the road this afternoon. Until I ran out of gas. But again, I was lucky. It happened at the end of the driveway.

Installation day

Almost everything I bought at the swap meet is installed. The mirrors will have to wait until I have time to bust the rusty screws loose on the doors. Almost everything else is in place, but the headlight switch and windshield wiper switches did not correct the problems with those systems. I have a spare motor for the wipers that I might try to install sometime soon. The headlight/dashlights are likely a wiring issue that I'll deal with later.

The door handles and window cranks went on easily after I cleaned them up a bit. While I was working on them I pulled the door panels to install the escutcheons. My doors are looking quiet spiffy now. And the side marker reflectors really look great, too.

I'll have to find some time to install the fuel filler grommet. I am not sure if I have to remove the gas tank or not.

After all that I installed a new coil and new spark plugs. The truck is running like a champ now. After a neighborhood cruise, I washed the truck so that everyone will notice the spiffy new parts.

Swap Meet, The Final Chapter

While I was at The Pate Swap Meet this weekend, trying to score some good deals for the truck, I ended up getting a better deal than I even imagined. But it did not happen at the swap meet.

Friday night I checked the 67-72 Chevy truck forums and found a guy here in town who had a complete longbed to get rid of. I thought about it until this afternoon and decided to email him when we got home. No one else wanted the bed, so I'll be going to pick it up this coming weekend.

I'll have to do some work on the truck to make this bed work, since it is a fleetside and my truck is a stepside. But from what I have read, it is not too hard to swap the two out.

The fleetside is probably not a permanent solution for my truck. I really like the original look of the truck. But this will let me decide what I want to do about the long/step bed. I either need to replace it with new reproduction parts at a cost of about 2 grand or I need to find a decent longbed stepside that would not need too much repair. Once in a while they come up for sell for around $500. The most likely option though is that I'll start gathering the parts at swap meets and junkyards to build another long/step bed. I can probably do this a lot cheaper, but it will take a lot more time and effort.

So the long/fleetside will buy me some time either way. Best of all, it has a decent floor, so I'll actually be able to use the truck once I get the other bed installed.

And double best of all, the price is right, 2 cases of Shiner Bock Beer.

Now THAT is a swap.

Swap Meet, Day 2

Dad and I hit the swap meet this morning until we finally got fed up with the rain and headed home by way of Cabela's. While at the swap, I found inner door handles, window cranks and door mirrors all for $25, bargained down from $30. I also got a free GMC horn button for a 69-72 style black steering wheel in the deal.

I don't have a GMC or a 69-72 style steering wheel and my wheel is blue anyways. But I think Rick might have a black steering wheel that needs a horn cap. And if he doesn't I'll just save it to sell at the swap next year.

Maybe I can get my $25 back on it.

Swap Meet, Day 1

I made it to the Pate swap meet this morning. The rainy weather followed pretty quickly, so I left before 2pm. While I was there I found a few good deals.

I hit a couple of commercial vendors for some electrical stuff. Fist, I bought a replacement for the gas tank filler grommet that I trashed when I pulled the gas tank out to clean it. $5. I bought a windshield wiper switch to replace the one I busted when trying to decide if it could be disassembled and cleaned up. It couldn't. $35.

I also picked up a headlight switch. $15. Mine works, but the dash lights quit a while ago. I am hoping a new switch will fix that. I bought a set of door escutcheons for less than $10. They go behind the door handles and replace some I broke a while back.

All of that stuff was new, but I still saved some $$$, since I did not have to pay for shipping. The only really good deal I found was a set of side marker lights, complete and in great shape off of a 1969 Blazer. They will be replacing the ones on the truck that are chipped and broken. $10.

I'll be heading back out Saturday, to look for a used fuel sender and some other small stuff. Saturday I'll take more Dr Peppers, too. They only sell Cokes out there. 20 ounce bottles, $3. Ouch.

Road Trip!

I haven't had any real time to work on the truck in the last couple of weeks. I drove it down to the far end of the street and back Saturday morning. Nothing else in a long time.

I am getting my shopping list together for the Pate Swap Meet. Hopefully I'll get to spend a couple of days looking for some body panels and lots of little stuff for the truck. If someone happens to make me a good deal on a cab, then my weekend will be made!

10 days to go...

Brakes are for suckers

I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to get the truck closer to passing the state inspection. The current list is very short:

Parking brake
Windshield wipers
Insurance and license plates

The parking brake and wipers should be functional for the truck to pass. Neither work right now. And I'm waiting until I get everything close enough before I start the insurance and get the plates. I could probably find some one to pass the truck right now, but I'll hold off for a while longer.

Anyways, the truck is running great now. After not finding any better spark plugs than the ones I already have installed, I cleaned them again and got the timing reset. I tried to tweak the carb a little bit. It is idling smoother than ever and it sounds good, too. The truck smells better when it is running and it does not need the choke closed off to get started now. I think it has been running really rich. Now the carb is finally right on.

I tried to get the parking brake to engage, but I think the cables must be too stretched out. I tightened the cables compeletely and no dice. I tightened the rear shoes and it helped a little. So I tightened the shoes a lot. Now they are too tight and the parking brake isn't catching at all.

When I get a chance I'll take the rear wheels off again (for the fourth time this week) and loosen the rear shoes a little bit. Maybe I'll get lucky with the emergency brake, too.

Everybody needs to rest, sometime

Since getting the truck brakes functional, I guess the truck has decided it likes being stopped.

I have not bee able to get her running for more than a couple of minutes in the past week. I managed to get it out of the street and back into the driveway. After that, no dice.

I have not had time to even peek under the hood, so no idea what is wrong.

Brake work

I finally bought the neccesary hoses to bleed the brakes. $5 for a one man brake bleeding kit at Harbor Freight. What could go wrong? Actually, everything went fine. I got the brakes bled within 15 minutes. And now I can stop on a quarter.

Which is pretty good for a 3500 pound truck without power brakes.

One year later

The truck has been at our house for one year. My goal was to have it legal by this time. We still have a few things to do to get there, but all in all, it has been a good year.

Here is a post from one year ago:

Our's is the 5th house on the left, with the cool old Chevy truck in the driveway

Lots of changes since then. Most notably, only one child is in diapers now.

I would go snap a picture, but it is butt cold and windy out there, so just use your imagination.

Non-truck week

The Boss Lady was off work this week, so I haven't played with my truck in a while.

Last Sunday I did a little more painting. In the center of the grill there are two black bars. They are not real noticeable, but I ground off as much surface rust as I could and painted them black again. I took some photos, but the difference does not really show up. Believe me, it looks good on the truck.

After that, I only moved the truck out of the garage to make room for our new Saturn Vue, a long awaited replacement for the 2000 Ford Windstar.

Hopefully we can limit the miles we put on the Vue and since the kids and I don't often drive as much as the wife, I get to drive the new car.

Feeling a little guilty about getting a new car without having a job, I washed and waxed The Boss Lady's 11 year old car this afternoon. Tonight the boy and I took it to the carwash to get it vacuumed out. Monday the wife and I will both be cruising clean cars.

Mine is just a lot prettier.

Truck day

We are having a party here for fifteen couples and their kids this evening. So I am avoiding the house and playing trucks.

This morning I ground as much rust off of the front bumper as I could. I did not deal with the big dent on the driver's side. Or any of the other dings. That will have to wait for some real body work. Once sanded, I hit it with a couple of coats of red primer and followed that with a few coats of white industrial enamel. After this stuff dries, it should be pretty tough.



While I was at it, I threw a coat of paint on the rear bumper, too. It is in pretty rough shape, so I did not spend much time prepping it for paint. It got a couple of coats of the same cheap silver spay paint that is on the wheels. I am going to dress it up a little bit, though. I am going to get some red paint and paint in the name of the dealership that is stamped into the bumper.



All in all, I think it looks pretty good. If the white looks OK when it dries, I'll probably use this same paint on the white parts of the grill.

By the way, this is not the mod I blogged about in the last entry. That is a replacement oil pan that I will install sometime later, since the truck has quit leaking oil. For now.

A practice in plagarism

This morning I received the next truck mod. Stay tuned.

Not bad for $11

UPS dropped off my tachometer this morning along with the new satellite receiver. Of course, TV won out, and I waited until the wife got home to work on the truck. I bought the tach for $11 through Ebay.

It took me about an hour to hook up the tach. The hardest part was running a wire through the firewall to the ignition coil. I ran it through the same grommet where the oil pressure tubing runs. Hopefully that won't cause a problem.

My gauge cluster lights are not working right now. I suspect that the dimmer switch is bad. The tach has a light that should be tied to the gauge lights. Instead I ran the tach power and light power to an ignition switched tab on the fuse box. All this really means is that for now, if the truck is running, the tach is lit up. Someday I'll change that.

All in all I think it looks dandy. By the way, My truck is idling at 900 RPMs. It sounds good, but I think that might be a little fast.

Seven concerned citizens

I am up to seven people asking me where the truck has gone, now that it is parked in the garage. One is a neighbor from our block. He drove by and asked while we were riding bikes in our gravel free driveway this morning. Another neighbor stopped and asked while on her morning walk a few minutes later. A few days ago one of our friends asked The Boss Lady about it.

And finally, this morning, while they were making their rounds, the recycling truck drivers stopped and asked. An hour later the yard waste truck driver stopped at the curb and yelled his inquiry. "Where that cool old truck go?"

Sure is nice to have neighbors who care!