When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey guys thanks for the comments! It's getting there. We finally got the passenger rocker in. It's a bit low but it'll do. He's been antsy about privacy from my pictures so I gotta kinda watch what I post up for him...the whole government is watching people don't need to know what I got kinda thing. Whatever lol
The front clip is being sent out for paint soon. We installed a new shift collar as we broke the old one, and put new guts in the glovebox. We also got a new wiper ****, new pedal pads and a few other odds and ends. We are currently sourcing a dasbpad but it's not top priority. The seat will be sent out for reupholstering in the fall. We have also been looking at new vinyl flooring. He's ordering a brand new set of rear leaf springs and I'm going to go pick them up here pretty soon. After that it needs a gas tank and fuel pump relay, and it by then it should be able to roll down the road. It'll be interesting to see if it eats a bearing or what breaks when it starts being driven again. It's getting there.
Evidently these pockets are tough to find because they were only only on XLT Lariats and other high optioned trucks. As far as we know, these are original to the truck.
The old broke collar.
1990/91
1992-ish
1990/91
These restoratjon pics are a frame off job done in September of 1993. The first V8 was already swapped in at this point.
Got the new leafs in and all new hardware to go with it. Gas tank also arrived. We will be ordering a fresh sending unit as well; it was a bit difficult to find.
It's getting there Gary! Really hope the gas tank goes together nice. We had a tough time finding a new sending unit; not that their was anything wrong with this one...the lock ring was a bit rusty but the float never worked right so the guage was always off. This will be the third tank and we've finally.upgraded to a plastic one. It needs a new pump relay as well, but that's a minor detail. I think he wants to go through the brakes again; the lines and brakes themselves are new, maybe have a couple (like 5 at most) miles on them in the last 6 years since we've done them, so it'll be more of a check over than anything. He wants to do some.structural stuff to the frame to beef it up a bit, but as you can see there for Bing a New York plow truck the frame really doesn't look at that bad.
We have also been looking into rebuilding the entire exhaust system. The current one as you can see is kinda just mangled together to get it legal for the road. We have been looking at headers and an X Pipe, but I know it's difficult to find headers that will work that are NOT fender wall exits. Any suggestions?
We we thinking about long tubes, but like you said there is major fitment problems, and it doesn't appear anyone makes anything that will fit a 351 powered 4x4 and keep it between the rails. We have clearance issues as it is using stock manifolds, although the drivers side one I beleive is for a 302 out of a car so that doesn't help. Wed like to get away from stock manifolds if possible.
Can't quite decide on an exhaust yet. Probably going to let it heat up and see if we can get the manifold bolts out for headers. I've suggested running an X Pipe and then dumping it out, he can't decide if he wants bumper exits or dumped behind the tires. He's talking about leaving the cats since they are hollowed out anyways (he says they blew out).
Evidently the radiator is from a 460 as well. Didn't know that.
Suspension work is more or less done. Could probably use shocks up front, rear ones don't appear to be bad.
We got the gas tank out and set up the new plastic tank. This will be the third gas tank. Hoping to have it in be the end of this upcoming weekend. We are also talking about relocating the fuel pump as it's an inline Holley red to a boxed location on the frame.
Frame wise it looks decent. There was a 3" size hole burned in it under the pass side cab due to an exhaust leak. The acidic gasses were being blown right on it. It currently has a plate bolted to it and the area was ground down before it gets a legit patch. The only other area of concern appears to be by the gas tank inside, as there's some heavy flaking. That crossmembers lower inside angled edges are gone. They were cut out and replaced with 3/16ths flat stock cut and welded to fit. They are much stronger than stock. One other thing we wanted to do is take some square tubing and weld plates over the ends, then bolt them inside the rails and tighten the ends to it to draw the rails together nice and taught. He's tossing around the idea of putting a 5th wheel in it for a camper and wants it sturdy enough. Other than that, he wants to needle scale the whole thing so it gets rid of the flaky crap (not tha there's much anyways) then paint the whole thing. There's still old paint from when it was painted in the 90s on the inside, I was surprised to see it. This frame has held up surprisingly well for a plow truck, I've seen frames 20 years newer in much worse condition.
These are pretty self explanatory. We relocated the fuel pump, got it running good after changing a float and front bowl gaskets. Built a crossmember to draw the rails together and stiffen it up, needle scaled the frame and bedlined a good portion of it which isn't quite done yet. Got the rockers and cab corners done, got new vinyl flooring in and ordering a headliner soon, just got samples in for that. New tank and sending unit are in, floor has been seam sealed, cowl removed and new stainless brackets getting ready to go in. The cowl looks and feels fantastic, no signs of it rotting out. The cowl cover we are going to put some mesh behind it...I know most people swap to the newer can style ones with the small holes not slots, but he wants to keep the slots so that's what he's doing. All the lights minus a bulb or two work, just about everything electrical still works just as it did when it was parked, but there are a couple small electrical gremlins we are still ironing out, but we wkll get into that more as it gets closer to getting put back on the road. All in all I think we have around $2500 and 1500 man hours in it so far.
Wow! An 8-page micro-analysis in one post! Well done!!
Seriously, lots of good work. It is looking good. And I agree about putting mesh under the cowl as I like the slots better than pin holes.
Also, don't forget about the sight plug on the front bowl of the Holley.
It's getting there. I think his bud is gonna spray the front clip soon so we can tear that off. I know there will be more cab work to be done on the firewall once it comes off, but we shall see. I think the major issues regarding the cab have been dealt with and at this point it's more of needing to swap the front clip and find a box before it's road ready. It should realistically be ready by sometime this summer, but I don't think it will go anywhere without a bed on it. We've been looking for newer boxes, and his idea is that he can swap the bed sides to his style arches and rear end especially since we have one 80-86 bedside in storage anyways. His main concern is that the body lines won't match...be has it in his head that the crossmembers that run the width of the bed are at a lower height than the 80-86s. I don't think that's true, but even if it was, it's not like you can't shim the bolts anyways, which he's going to have to with the 1" body lift we have on it.
That sight hole was out...I took that picture as we were screwing around with it trying to figure it why it kept flooding. We had it out trying to adjust the float while playing with the needle and seat as it kept launching fuel out of the vent tubes. It's since been torn down and partially rebuilt with new gaskets and brass floats, not plastic ones, and running great. It has no problem idling or cranking some RPMs now. Whereas before it wanted to spit fuel everywhere, which I attribute to it sitting.
But the comments are appreciated guys. It's been a lot of work but it's getting there. Can't wait to go for a ride again. It's been almost 10 years since I've gone for a ride in it. I don't think it's gone anywhere since 2007-2008 ish.
03-17-2016, 03:21 AM
