Well the tables have turned recently, and they are finally in my favor! I have an engine lined up for my truck! It is not going to be able to go in though for around a month. I'm in sort of a tricky situation, because I've been restoring the truck for about a year already, and it is more finsihed than not, but so far, I have seen all the work I've done as being just case by case repairs and upgrades, I've never had the truck completely apart.

I've rebuilt the C6 into a much heavier duty unit, just finished the power steering box, did the pump, did brake lines that needed it, done electrical as needed, done all the bodywork (except for final), done the interior, the whole front axle (ball joints, bearings, seals, suspension upgrade), and POR 15'd (underside) and bedlined the bed and gate. The gas tank is newly coated, the brakes work fine and are new, and the engine and all accessories are coming together as we speak.

The only major things I haven't gotten into are paint, the rear axle, the T case (but it works fine), the fuel and long brake lines, the underside of the cab, and the frame. The rear axle is fine though, and the frame is all there, although it is rusty, and I want it to last alot longer. The brake and fuel lines will be problems soon, but they will be easy enough to replace. The underside of the cab is the part that really concerns me. I patched the floor and POR15'd it on top, but the bottom is very rusty in some places. Paint I'm treating as a sort of seperate issue, it's going to be last, and may not happen until the spring.

My question is, I'm taking some classes and working, and busy most of the day, but I have evenings, nights, and weekends, and about a month until engine time. Do I pull off the body, clean and coat the frame, install new lines, paint stuff, seal the trans and T case a little better, do cab mounts (needed), fix the cab floor really nice, and generally pretty stuff up? Or is a month, times about 4 hours a day not enough? Or is it just not necessary at this point?

Thanks for your input, AleX

 

Do you have a shop available to use and what about tools do you have a good supply? Pneumatic tools? Given your time frame it is doable, you could have that cab off in an evening, can you get the underside of the cab blasted along with the frame? If you can get them blasted it will save you lots of time. If your going to keep this truck i'd proceed with the tear down, get some buddys over and get the bed and cab off and go for it.

 

id say yes.y do a job half-*** when you can do a great job. it might put the finish off, but youll have a better end product

 

I have my garage, not a full shop, but I make it work. I don't have a lift, but an A frame and hoist, no air tools, but a full compliment of conventional ones, basically it doesn't look like much, but it's very functional, and I know how to make it work. The downside though is time. I make my own tools all the time, but it can take an evening, that type of thing.

I'm not planning on blasting it, planning on wire wheeling (6 inch wheel, grinder, it mows), cab floor should take an evening, frame should be maybe 4 with all the hard spots, rear axle 1. I know what you're saying about time though.

And ya, that was pretty much my thinking, originally I didn't know what the plan was, but when I started needing to fix, and so upgrading, most of the systems, I got more and more into the idea of doing it complete. Now that I'm adding a brand new engine to the mix, I think I want to go long term.

 

Merc, totally agree with you there, except, this is my daily driver. So as much as it's not my usual way, the money was spent, and then the engine went, and time is an issue. I'm using a car in the meantime obviously, but the arrangement is generous, on the owner's part, so I need my truck back.

 

ah.---open mouth, insert foot--

 

Haha nah no don't worry about it. It's good advice, just not exaaactly my situation right now. Anyway though, any more votes? And anything I might not be thinking of? To be honest, I'm pretty confident I can do it, and in time, and I've had everything on the truck apart before (at seperate times) besides the cab from the frame, but I've never taken that final step, so from someone who's done it, what could still suprise me?

 

well, you could "delay" it until you have a different vehicle you could drive

 

The cab mounts took some rattling with a 1/2 inch impact other than that very simple to remove the cab once the harness and linkages have been disconnected, its really very simple, keep track of how many shims and which side they go one when you remove the cab and clip. You can easily remove both clip and cab in an evening.

 

I can only speak for myself. In my case I was going to convert from 73 F100 4x2 to 73 F250 4x4 on 79 chassis. With that said, I was going to have to remove the body anyway so I built the 79 Frame the way I wanted it and then built and engine/trans... Once that was all done, I took the body off the 73 Chassis.

It wasn't to difficult. You just need to decide how far you want to go. You can certainly build a nice driver without taking the body off. It is all up to how far you want to go. I intend for my family to inherit this truck when I am gone, so I want it to last longer than I do. I've already had it about 17 years.

Doug