It wasn't taken that way and it is good to know they make that anti freeze.
My garage is closed unless I am in there but you know dogs when your back is turned they will get into anything.
Wife tells me she found one of my work gloves in the drive she had to pickup.

Yes I did paint the back of both bumpers as they were heavily rusted so I used Eastwood's Black Encapsulator http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-bla...over-rust.html
They now make it in silver but I had black on hand from another project I have been working on.
It covers the rusted areas really good but the non-rusted areas because it has no bite it does not stick too well. I only did 1 coat on each and don't plan on more.
On the other project I have painted over it with pro type auto paint and looks great. I just don't know how well I stands up as that project is even father to being on the road than this truck.
Dave ----

 

I hadn't thought of doing that, but will paint mine now.

 

You can see some of the light rust in a picture of the box I had to make to put the light in because of the set back on 1 side.
The rear bumper had a steel channel behind it as there was a trailer hitch bolted to it. Water & dirt got between it and the bumper and really made a home for rust to forum.
Dave ----

 

May need to rethink the bumper wrap.
I hit 3 places, first said he did not want to try it because of some of the bends / corners.
They sent me to a place that does not do wraps who sent me to the 3rd.
It looks good if I want to do it in anything but chrome. The girl that does the wrapping, owners daughter, has not worked with chrome and did not want to give it a try.
Owner was all for giving it a try but was up to her. They did say it scratches easy so would need a film cover over it.

They gave me a number to a guy that does full color change on cars, most I checked with said I need to find a place that does full color change wraps. But if I want to do any other color for the wrap they would do it.

I also was told the finish on the bumpers needs to be better before they can be wrapped.
It is like body work before paint, all nicks and sanding marks need not seen or felt.
I will do a little more prep on them and check with this last person to see what he has to say but they may get painted as it will be about $200 to $250 to wrap them.
Dave ----

 

Good news the parts, intake / exh. gasket & freeze plugs, I ordered came in so I can work on the truck this weekend.
Bad news I don't think the plugs are the right ones.

There are only 3 in the kit but I count 5 in a picture I have and I think they are the wrong size.
The quick measurement I got 1-1/2" and they sent 1-5/8" plugs.
We will see when I get into it I guess.
Dave ----

 

I hit the garage at 6am to get some information for another member and then got working on the truck.

I pulled the manifolds off so I had access to the 5 freeze plugs. 1 had a rubber one and another was leaking from rusting out.
Because of the rusted one I waned to replace them all.
The kit I got from Rock Auto only came with 3 of the 5 plugs I needed so had to hit the local parts house and got the last 2 they had.

Then the fun started how to get the old plug out? I started with the rubber one man I had to fight to get it out. I did not want to knock the others into the block.
Started on the rusted one and after it fell apart but still had the outer ring on the block how to get this out? Using a flat punch I was able to move it yep into the block!
A little work and I was able to get it out of the block. I removed the rest the same way, knock into the block and using vice grips to pull them out worked pretty good.

I then took a find grinding stone on a drill and cleaned up the openings of the freeze plugs.
Then the next fun started coat the openings and the edges of the new plugs with

This stuff is almost as bad as never seize, it gets all over you and it is sticky!
I used a big socket to get the plugs started and used the hammer to drive them flush with the block then back to the socket to drive them in a little more like the old ones were.
I do have a bearing / seal driver but the drives would not fit right and the bolt that holds them to the handle would hit the plug and why the socket.

Being on a roll I got the gasket areas cleaned and remounted the manifolds. Yep fun with EFI exh. manifolds and no helping hands to hold the EFI when tightening nuts.
Speaking of thick washers & nuts I have 1 of each left over. I checked 100 time and cant find where it goes? I have to check old pictures and see if I can find where it goes.
I got everything back together but the air filter, a vacuum line or 2 and coolant as I wanted the sealer to set up some before I filled it backup.

When almost done I hit the vacuum line to the carb bowl vent and the check valve? fell apart. I heard something hit the floor but could not find it when I looked. I have the spring part but think there is a washer type thing missing so will have to deal with that.
all of this was done by 2pm and that includes the parts store run and taking the trash to the dump.

Tomorrow I want to fill it with coolant, see if I can find where this washer & nut goes and fix the bowl vent thing.
Dave ----

 

Found & fixed 2 things this morning.
When you have a pan under the motor with oil or coolant and you drop something up top guess where it ends up? Yep in that pan.
When putting the coolant back in I found the metal disc that fell out of the carb bowl vent check valve, so that is back together.

After looking at pictures of how many bolts hold the manifolds on I counted 13. Checking the motor again for the 900th time I come up with 12?
I found the lonely stud on the bottom row under the carb base a PITA to see and to get the washer & nut back on but it is done.

Topped up with coolant I need to recheck everything and can start it and make sure all is good.
Get it up to temp and see about moving it closer to a house so I can rinse off the coolant that spilled when the funnel tipped over.
Dave ----

 

Well 1 step forward 3 back!
Got it running and it has a miss? That strange because it never did before.
Top up coolant stat opens a few times and gauge reads just below the half way mark, good in my book.

Pull out the can of carb clean and find the #1 intake port is not sealing, Like WTH!
Everything was clean of old gasket, new gasket looked good before I placed it on the studs so why this?

So I picked up the speed dry I had down on the spilled coolant so the dogs would not get it, pulled the POS back in the garage and called it a day, maybe a week or a month!
I am beginning to hate this truck and because you have to lean over the fender to fix this it has to be done before paint. Should do the AC for the same reason but low funds right now for that to happen.
Dave ----

 

Permatex no 3 is a sticky mess but that's why it works so well. I keep a container of Hercules Wipes to clean up myself and antth5 it gets on and a box of gloves from Harbor Freight and just keep swapping gloves out if any gets on you. I still find some unitentionally weeks later.

 

After the sticky part was done I used lacquer thinner on a rag to clean up.
Came right off me and tools.

I did not use it on the gasket just the freeze plugs. If I did maybe I would not have this vacuum leak?
Dave - - - -

 

Got out to the garage by 5am and by 7am the truck no longer has a vacuum leak from the intake to head not sealing. First thing was to check for coolant under the truck, all good there so on to the intake leak.
The plan was to loosen the intake and lower it and tighten it back up reusing the new / old gasket.
The whole time not letting the EFI exh. manifolds drop down.

The intake dropped 1/8" on the front where it was leaking. When tightening everything up one of the lower rear exh. / intake manifold bolts did not feel right, hard to see as it is under the manifolds.
Found the washer did not catch the flange of the exh. manifold, manifold needed to go to the rear more.
We know the drill loosen everything backup, move manifold rearward and tighten everything back up checking as we go.

All looking good it's time for the real test, running! Once fuel got to the carb it fired right up and ran smooth. Pulled it out side to let it run but hear an exh. leak, Y pipe not sealing to the front manifold.
Took up on the nuts fired back up and no more exh. leak.

Once up to temp the idle is a little high at about 1000 RPM but when I try and lower it the motor wants to surge. Yes I did check for vacuum leaks with carb cleaner & covering the carb and all good.
The carb has been rebuilt but I have only run the truck to move it in & out of the garage and with todays fuel and it evaporates there maybe crud in the bowl.
I have been running it off a gas can on the fender well, don't want gas going bad in the tanks before I get it on the road, so I may add a little Sea Foam to the can to see what that does.

Up next is to see if I can get the bumpers a little smoother before I see if the last person on my list will wrap them. If he cant I will look to paint them. Think I also seen a powder coating place not far and may see if they can do them and how much.
Dave ----

 

Put some time in on the bumpers. Pulled the welder out to fill in some nicks / holes left from when I did the welding that I was told would show up if the bumpers were wrapped.
Also the rear bumper had low spots where the bolts were so I filled them in with weld.
Then the fun job of grinding all the weld spots. The rear still had low spots so I took a large socket placed over the bolts welded to the back side and gave it a few whacks with the 5lb hammer and that made them better.
I still have a few "nicks" and thinking to use JB Weld to fill them because to weld them & grind I think would cause more issues then fix.

Also when working the postal person brought mea box. My Ebay wiper governor showed up. The switch plugs into it but did not try the unit to the truck yet. I also have no wiper motor installed so cant test as far as I know at this time.

Being 94* in the garage and now 1:30pm I ran the broom around and called it a day.
Later will take a trip for the JB Weld and if I have any energy left will get it on the bumpers to set up over night.
Dave ----

 

Well can’t spend any money on the truck for a bit.

Had to drop $200+ with home land security to renew my port & HazMat credentials and I still need to take the HazMat test, more $$, with NCDOT to keep it on my driver license.
This way I can do the LP gas loads come winter and get cement at the ports in the summer.

I am lucky my employer pays for my medical card renewal every year, did that the same day as the credentials, that was another $100 I think it is or I can’t keep my CDL license.

Who said being a truck driver is easy & cheap?
Dave ----

 

Dave,
I've used that aviation form a gasket plenty. Used to keep a bottle or two on hand. Great stuff. Glad to hear you are making progress. Hope you can make the dinner next week, but understand it's a bit of a drive, and your work schedule. Keep up the work!

 

When I picked up the last gasket set at Auto Zone I could not remember what shape the gasket prep was in so I bought another small bottle guess what yep had 2 on the shelf.

Last weekend I was in the garage to get the gas can for the tractor and did not see anything on the floor so I did good on the freeze plug job.
I have the garage open this morning and plan to get out there to mess with some things that don't need money to do.
Thinking of seeing if the old brake fluid I have will take the spray paint off the door panels with out hurting them.
I also have a dash pad I started to repair so may look into doing a little more on it. I don't think it will be the one I use as I have a better one and a topper cover to put on it to use in the truck.
Still have the dreaded last bit of body work also, it's like it is never done!

Dinner during the week is ruff for me mostly because of the work schedule. Some times I don't get my jobs till 7pm and I may need to get up at 12am to make my off load times work.
An old fart like me needs a little more than 5 hours sleep to keep looking this good and as you have seen it has not been working for me
Dave ----