58250, Thanks I'll check out the thread you mention and appreciate you thoughts on the build.

Er side note: I guess its not really a build yet but eh whatever

 

Oops, sorry for telling you to divide the wrong way!

Glad you worked it out though, then found the info to back it up.

Alex.

 

Anytime !!!

 

Wow... 7 months since my last update. Well I guess if I am using this thread as documentation for this process that I am still OK since it has been about that long since I have made any progress on the truck.
What I have done is get the front suspension disassembled, bagged and tagged. And these seven months haven't been uneventful cause if they were a LOT more would be done on the truck.
There was the vacation to Disney World... Bonus stopped by the NPD Warehouse and picked up some bushings for the front end... just so I could say "I been there".
Then there was the lightning strike to the house (Pictured). $4500 bucks worth of damage... the insurance paid up no problem but what a pain in the rear replacing and repairing everything. I do realize how lucky we are and how much worse that could have been.
And the biggie... I was totally frustrated with my work space for the truck so I took on the task of building a simple workbench... yeah right ... what I ended up with though was a fairly decent workbench with cabinets and drawers to hide all my stuff in.


So... now when time permits between football, cheer leading, piano, yard work, and work work. I get to play in a garage where I don't say "Where is my _____?" Oh and by the way I have my eye on an 80gal Ingersoll Rand 5hp compressor to go in the left corner in place of that dark cabinet. I just hope it fits in Santy's sleigh.

 

Subscribed. Its always nice to have an organized work space. Excited to watch this unfold.

 

Hey welcome back, totally understand all of the above working etc... Work bench looks good and your work area is plenty, most definitely you will need that compressor for that corner . Yeah you have to be careful with Lighting it comes out of anywhere even if their is sunshine and just a small cloud, sucks it Damaged your home BUT it is fixable better your home than you OUCH Alright see you around on your thread.

 

Its been a while since I've had a chance to make any progress on the truck. I decided to work on the front brake calipers. Yeah, I know I could get complete reman's for about 20 bucks each but what the heck, more practice in the parts catalog right? So, I get the part number for the rebuild kit (D3TZ-2120-A) and have a NOS kit on the way for about 10 bucks. Meanwhile back in the bat cave, I tear into the old calipers. I pull off the dust boots and had previously watched a YouTube video where this guy user air to blow out the pistons... neat! WARNING turn your air pressure down!... PING!!! no sweat. That's when I saw the damage on one of the pistons. Some pitting and some definite tool marks. I don't remember working on the front brakes as a kid at all, so Granddaddy must have booger'd them up and as for the pitting I am guessing that is one of the results of having water in the system. Pretty sure I am going to have to replace the piston(s), the other one actually looks pretty good. But this leads me to my query you would think the stamping would be identical or at least similar had they never been changed out. So back to the parts catalog I go and get a new number. (D3TZ-2194-A) To my dismay I could not find a NOS. I don't have to have NOS but I would like to when they aren't too expensive. I hit up RockAuto and found some but I am not sure what the differences are here and the price swings from about $7 to about $18.

Thoughts and Comments are appreciated. Anyway here are some pics because we all love pics .

 

OOOOEEE
Those pistons look nasty.
When I did mine I posted the same thing you did about numbers on the piston backs. I was also curious about the different numbering.
Here's mine and some normal wear. A little polishing and no more stains.
BTW easy to get these on the wrong side when you stick it back together.
Easiest way to tell. If the bleed nipple points up ...... wrong.
If it points flat .... right.

 

Thanks for the tip on right side, left side Marc.

I have the calipers all cleaned up and am painting them now. The seals and dust boots are here waiting to go in. I have a replacement piston on the way for the one that was in such bad shape. I also went ahead an picked up a set of speed bleeders. I ought to have these finished up by the weekend so I can move on to the I-Beams, spindles and radius arms.

 

I love those speed bleeders.
Was always puzzled why no L or R on the calipers since they are so easy to get wrong.
When you look at them you would think the bleed nipple should point up in order to get all the air out.
But if you look at the chamber, you can see there would be a small area that would make an air pocket if indeed you install it with the nipple pointed up.
Good luck.

 

So I've been stripping the frame down to prep it for blasting and I finally got around to finding someone that will blast prime and paint it for a reasonable price. I decided since I was going to get it painted that I would go ahead a get the repair done to the passenger core support mount. Best I can tell this is the only body mount that needed work and really the only part of the frame that needed to be refreshed.
In addition to not having acquired a decent compressor I am light in the Welding machine department as well meaning I don't have one. But I know someone that does and has a fair amount of experience with them (40 years). So I loaded the frame up on a friends trailer and sent the afternoon at my Dad's visiting and learning. He left me a little grinding and sanding to finish it up but here are the results of the day.

 

Nice work so far! Keep it up!

Makes me want to get back at my build... but instead I decided that I'll start going back to school again Horray for degree #2!

 

Alright! this is the post I have been anxiously anticipating for the last year or 20. Positive progress! and by that I mean instead of tearing down I am actually on the upswing putting this thing back together. I don't remember which one of the many wise folks on this forum said "Anybody can take one apart" but I gotta say given the track record of my youth I was worried. Well I still haven't put anything back on the truck yet but the frame is DONE!

I picked up the frame and two detached cross members from the Blaster\Painter yesterday and I am tickled with it. I was able to give it a once over while it was bare metal for problems that I couldn't see through the grease, grime, and undercoating. Everything looked good so he shot it with black epoxy primer and satin black Sherwin Williams Macropoxy. Blasted, Primed and Painted including supplies... $200 Cash Money. Not. Too. Bad... See for yourselves.

I gotta say... it feels really good to have it back in the Garage!

 

frame looks great, they did a nice job on it. now the fun starts

 

Great job so far, but I would like to offer a little bit of advice. Rubber degrades over time. Rubber technology has come a LONG way in the past 20+ years. Rubber parts that have been stored in a controlled environment for long periods of time can experience a rapid degradation when exposed to the real world (as opposed to a package on a shelf in a warehouse).

This can be disappointing when the high dollar "NOS" window seals dry up and crack in a year to be worse than the originals. By a modern replacment, learn a lesson, and move on.

The learning curve might be a lot steeper with your brakes. Now if you got a replacement from the dealer, it may be ok. That may not be 30 year old rubber. I would be seriously concerned if you actually installed vintage rubber in your calipers. May not ever have a problem, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

For anything other than a numbers matching showpiece that will be stored in a climate controlled garage and never driven, leave the NOS rubber on the shelf where it belongs and get a modern replacement.

Apologies in advance, best of luck with your project!