Here are more pics of the grille:

The primered grille
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...leprimered.jpg

And the teeth before sanding.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ethbefore2.jpg

The insides were really bad.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ethbefore3.jpg

And I pulled off the parking lights to rebuild them. Behind them is what I believe to be the original color of the truck. I have been wondering, since a PO painted it tan and dark brown, what the original color was. And the 51 doesn't have a color code on the tag in the glove box. There may have been one on the firewall tag, but it is illegible except for the stamped VIN.

I think this truck was Silvertone Gray. What do you guys think? It's kind of a gray blue...

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...rtonegray1.jpg

I am not good at colors, just ask my wife. I will suggest you set up an electrolysis de-rust tank. It is easy and those parts will come out void of rust and paint.

I'm sure that would have been less work, but I didn't think of it, and sanded them all down. The elecrolosis would have done a better job, I'm sure. I've watched the YouTube videos. :)

Pics? Slacker.

I picked up the bed today
 

I was able to arrange for help with moving the "free" stake bed today. We met at my friends house this afternoon, pulled the bed out with ropes and a pulley to a position where it could be set on and strapped to my utility trailer. I got it home, and can now begin the refurbishment. :-drink

It's in remarkably good shape for having been leaning on a tree for 20 years. That is to say the metal is in good shape. The wood was termite invaded at some point and mostly rotten. The tree is now a horizontal stump... It was ready to fall over when we stood up the bed, so my son kicked it over.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...allingover.jpg


The leaning stump...

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...eadytomove.jpg

Do you think I need more straps?

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ouldholdit.jpg


OK, more straps.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...erearheavy.jpg

Needed more tongue weight, so we added the concrete chunks.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ngueweight.jpg

And 2 minutes later... ta da! Pics of the stake bed...

Hey, you know the rules.

Pics or it didn't happen. Go get some playground sand and you can mooch the blaster.

Took another bite out of the elephant today.
 

My wife got me a horn kit and button for Christmas. I decided to rewire the horn relay today while I was installing the new toys and removing the stupid button stuck on the side of the column. (Sorry if you like them...) (not really).

So I discovered the original wire from the horn button connector to the horn relay is about 12 feet long for some unknown reason, and buried in a harness under the hood. I removed several yards of decades old electrical tape and found wires with original color coding! It's the only wire in the truck that isn't bare! Of course the exposed ends are all bare, but at least I can see what they are now.

Here's the horn relay with new power and horn button wires. I'll do the wires to the horns tomorrow.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...layrewired.jpg

And here's the rest of that short harness. No idea why the original wire was so long.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...elaywiring.jpg

That was so exciting, I decided to rewire the dome lamp, which I had previously refurbished. During that refurb, I made the mistake of operating the toggle switch, which broke after two clicks. So I installed a new toggle switch and rewired the whole dome light circuit. That took the rest of the day. Heck, it took me a half hour to figure out how the thing worked with the factory wiring... and I have the wiring diagram. My only problem is that the door switches use the old round post connectors, and I don't have any. But both 61 year old switches work perfectly.

Here's the refurbished dome lamp with a new toggle switch all wired up.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...amprewired.jpg

And from the front

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...mprefurbed.jpg

And in the truck after running all new wires.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...pinstalled.jpg

And the lights on, but nobody's home.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...obodyshome.jpg

More to come. Film at 11. :-jammin

Bright idea. (I know... Boooooo)


That dome looks a lot better. Wait til you install a headliner. :)

The horn wire is so long because it likely went to the second horn on the other side of the hood. I don't remember if you have a 5 Star Extra Cab truck or not. Those trucks had dual horns.

Yes, I have a 5 Star Extra, with dual horns. But the wiring for them goes from the horn relay to the right side horn, and from the right side horn to the drivers side horn. That's how it's wired (I haven't replaced that wiring yet) and that's how it's shown in the wiring diagram.

Although, after redoing the dome lamp today, I have to say the wiring diagram is a little different from the actual wire runs. There are only two wires going to the dome lamp, and they're together in the harness. I had to study the diagram and the actual harness that I removed from the truck to figure out what really was operating the dome lamp! :o I'm usually pretty good with wiring (well, the dome lamp works correctly...).

The wire I was talking about connects to the horn button wire that runs through the steering column. That's the kit I got for Christmas, along with the horn button (which I had to modify to make it work). Someone here (maybe you?) told me how to run that wire out the bottom of the column. Then I had to find the wire the PO had tapped into to put the button on the side of the column. THAT wire, that goes from the horn button wire connector to the horn relay was about 12 feet long. It ran down into the harness almost to the generator. I have no idea why. I probably used about 4 feet of wire to redo the harness.:-huh

The PO strikes again...
 

So a while back, I installed an ignition switch where a PO had stuck a toggle switch for the ignition. As I was twisting on the bezel, the switch rotated. I thought that was odd, and a dumb way to hold an ignition switch in the dash.

The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. I'm sure the switch should not be able to rotate when you turn the key.

So I removed it today to see what I could see. Apparently, the guy who installed the toggle had to round out the hole to make that piece of crap work. Closer inspection shows the hole really isn't round.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...dholeround.jpg

So now what to do? I think the sides need to be squared off to match the flat sides of the switch. That would be a good design, and I think that's what I'm missing.

So I'll know tomorrow if my "fabrication" worked. I cut a small piece of metal to make a new straight side on the right side of the hole and JB Welded it into place. I've used that stuff building rockets, but never on my truck.

You can see it (barely) on the right side of the hole. It's backed up with a piece of wood and clamped in place. If this works, I'll do the other side tomorrow. Actually, if it stops the switch from turning, I won't bother with the other side.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...AJBWeldfix.jpg

I bought new choke and throttle cables a while back, and decided to install them today. Guess what... they don't fit. They're too short, and the choke doesn't have the correct end on it (my bad). I think the throttle may be for a V8.

So I cleaned the paint and rust off the old ones and routed the choke through the firewall differently. The PO had it going through a higher hole, and it looks better this way IMO. Now I'll have to clean the speedo cable, as it looks terrible.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...utedcables.jpg

That hole is supposed to have two slots for the ignition cylinder to slide into. What you're doing is correct. You can also make a new circle with the slots on each side and put it behind the hole. Spot welding would be better.

The choke and throttle cables are supposed to be routed through the hole you used.

Thanks. I don't have a welder, so I'm trying this first. The tabs make sense to line up and hold the switch. I hope my idea works. :-drink