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I had a different plan at first but now that I have gotten into the front end and started removing things that needed to be fixed...... Well, looks like a total make-over is in the cards.
The more I worked at trying to get the front grille off, the more ROTTEN things I started to find. It is painfully obvious, this truck NEVER saw the inside of a garage or a shed of ANY kind.
SO..... rather than try to fix a few things at the time while I drive it..... I am going to pull the engine, take off all the body panes and do it right.
Some pics from this weekends eye-opening experience.
I knew I wanted to replace the grille but every time I took a piece off, I saw more rot underneath.
The headlight buckets had a bad case of cancer and the adjusting screws were toast.
Somebody had already "fixed" the one on the driver side...... the spring obviously had rotted and here was the fix......
See how bad the adjusting screws had gotten......
The inner fender under the battery tray was a mess...... New inner fender will fix this train wreck.
Also, you can see where the PO had cut the wire to the horn...... I guess he must have had the old "horn blowing on it's own" problem. This is one way to fix that problem. Just cut the wire...
EVERY one of the clips that serves as a nut (nut clip??) was rotten so there was NO WAY to take the bolts out of the front end without cutting the clip off.
SO... after a LOT of "nut cuttin'..." I finally got the front end this far along. LOTS more work to do..... But, It's gonna be done right.....
Here is another shot of the sorry dirt engineers work. The dang dirt daubers had built 2 nests INSIDE the ICU..... Even with this much of the filler plastic melted away and the dirt nests.... this unit was STILL operational. I drove this truck for 3 weeks before I started the tear-down.....
I'm SURE this won't be the LAST on of these nests I will find.
ONWARD!!.......
Yeah sometimes those modules will surprise you, the one on my old brown 79 f250 looks like it had a gooey leak. That thing will still fire up with a battery and carb prime. Funny thing is at some point a small garder snake got up in engine bay and met its fate by getting stuck in the goo.
A couple of head light buckets and a passenger side innerfenderwell...that is not that bad. The core support looks ok. Now when it comes time to get those 2 bolts out that will tell ya just how rusty she is....the bolt heads are way down on each side of the radiator and go into threaded bushing like connections and rubber mounts all in one, going thru the frame.
Here if and when you sawzall them out...go in between the bottom of the core support and on top of the frame. A cutting torch will make a unholy smoky fiery mess. lol D3TZ-1000155-B.. Absorber (rubber cushion) -Lowerradiator support andlowerfront & rear cab mounts / Obsolete CARPENTERNOS OBSOLETEPARTS in Concord NC = 800-476-9653. PARTS INTERNATIONAL in Farmers Branch TX = 888-727-0418. GREEN SALES CO. in Cincinnati OH = 800-543-4959. WESLEY OBSOLETE PARTS in Liberty KY = 606-787-5293. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- D3TZ-1000396-C.. Absorber (rubber cushion) -Upperradiator support andupperfront and rear cab mounts / Obsolete PARTS INTERNATIONAL CARPENTERNOS OBSOLETEPARTS GREEN SALES CO. WESLEY OBSOLETE PARTS
The main metal components are solid.... The main rust and ROT is all on the thin stuff....... I couldn't loosen ANY of the bolts that held the front sheet metal together without breaking those captured nut clip things. First turn of the wrench and pop..... they broke and would spin. Nothing to grab and hold so out comes the cutting wheel.
My wife gave me a sawz-all last year for my birthday.... so I can already see I will need to put it to work on my truck.
One good thing from this past weekend....
I broke aloose all of the exhaust manifold bolts without breaking any off....LOL... win-win.
That was one thing I never could do on ANY of my CJ or MB projects. There was ALWAYS 1 or 2 that would break off....
Use a 5 point impact grade socket, not a 12 point on the core support bolt heads and maybe they will not strip...RED DIABLO sawzall blades are the best IMO.
Good advice!
I will go see if I can find me some of those Red Diablo sawzall blades. As much rust as I have found so far...... I can see I will have to use those guys.
Those blades are the cats meow, and IMO way better than Dewalt, Lenox, Lenox Gold, Milwaukee, Porter Cable, Spyder, Irwin, Craftsman, Bosch.... The RD are thicker material and do not bend like most do.
Need something cheaper than PB Blaster? ATF and acetone 50/50.
Those blades are the cats meow, and IMO way better than Dewalt, Lenox, Lenox Gold, Milwaukee, Porter Cable, Spyder, Irwin, Craftsman, Bosch.... The RD are thicker material and do not bend like most do.
Good deal.....
In my limited use of my sawzall has shown me that those dang blade will bend REAL easily.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Need something cheaper than PB Blaster? ATF and acetone 50/50.
Thanks for that too!!!
I have already gone through 2 cans of PB.....
I mixed up a concoction that the gun folks call "Ed's Red"... It has acetone and ATF but also has 2 more ingredients I can't recall right away. (Maybe alcohol, mineral spirits)
But on guns.... that stuff works.
SO..... I'm gonna mix me up some home brew PB....
A couple of head light buckets and a passenger side innerfenderwell...that is not that bad. The core support looks ok. Now when it comes time to get those 2 bolts out that will tell ya just how rusty she is....the bolt heads are way down on each side of the radiator and go into threaded bushing like connections and rubber mounts all in one, going thru the frame.
Here if and when you sawzall them out...go in between the bottom of the core support and on top of the frame. A cutting torch will make a unholy smoky fiery mess. lol
D3TZ-1000155-B.. Absorber (rubber cushion) -Lowerradiator support and lowerfront & rear cab mounts / Obsolete
CARPENTER NOS OBSOLETE PARTS in Concord NC has 13 = 800-476-9653.
PARTS INTERNATIONAL in Farmers Branch TX No longer in business.
GREEN SALES CO. in Cincinnati OH has none.
WESLEY OBSOLETE PARTS in Liberty KY No longer in business ------------------------------------------------------------------------- D3TZ-1000396-C.. Absorber (rubber cushion) -Upperradiator support andupperfront and rear cab mounts / Obsolete
"Ed's Red" is a modern adaption (whale oil is tough to find these days) of a firearm cleaner/lube developed by Hatcher at the Frankford Arsenal.
1 part ATF (Dexron)
1 part Kerosene
1 part Acetone
1 part Turpentine or Mineral Spirits - aka "Varsol", stoddard solvent
Add up to 1 lb. of Lanolin from the drug store to make a longer lasting preservative.
"Ed's Red" is a modern adaption (whale oil is tough to find these days) of a firearm cleaner/lube developed by Hatcher at the Frankford Arsenal.
1 part ATF (Dexron)
1 part Kerosene
1 part Acetone
1 part Turpentine or Mineral Spirits - aka "Varsol", stoddard solvent or charcoal lighter fluid.
Add up to 1 lb. of Lanolin from the drug store to make a longer lasting preservative.
Meridian_mike great work so far! Way to get in there and get it done the right way instead of covering up problems like most PO did. I feel your pain digging into a rust issue like that front end...feel lucky your rad support hadn’t completely rusted apart from the frame bolts though. Lucky for me found a NOS for cheaper than the junk replacements available today
Speaking of covering up problems..... The more I REALLY dig, the more bubba things I find......
Check out this nice wire splice job..... If you can't find the problem, just JUMP over it.....LOL.
No tape, nothing..... just make sure the BARE WIRE doesn't touch anything and GO!!
What a joke!
problem is.....I'm not finding this crap very funny....
02-25-2019, 07:34 AM
