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The hole saw worked perfectly! Had the rear bed bolts out in seconds after doing that.
So now, the bed is ready to lift off. I just had to do some rigging so it can be lifted with my cherry picker. So, by Saturday morning....the bed will be off, and the rear frame section can begin the cleaning process. Yay.
This has been, by far, the filthiest vehicle I have ever worked on. My last major undertaking was the '65 VW Karmann Ghia. That was begun late 1998. It was dirty, but this truck has had an extra twenty plus years to accumulated extra dirt! I'll be happy when the dirt is gone!
The six bed bolts that have heads on top of the bed floor, I didn't even mess with. I just ground the tops off and punched 'em through. They most likely would have spun out the square hole in the bed floor anyway if I would have tried to unscrew 'em from the bottom. The bumper bolts were a pain, and the two bed bolts at the rear.....well those present a bit more of a challenge. Can't get an impact in there, and even the torch would be unwieldy. Since I'm cutting the steel floor out of the bed anyway (rusted out at the front where debris had gathered and left to sit), I think I'll use a hole saw to punch through the bed to gain access to the two rear bolts.
I am going to cut the rusty section of the vertical bed walls out and build a patch panel with perimeter support and a couple steel tube cross-members to put in an oak plank bed floor. Just like a styleside or early "Shiverlay" had.
I was gonna say, to heck with trying to save the bed bolts. I did some horse-trading/bed swapping a while ago and unbolted them all from the bottom, but I'm stupid and had them on a hoist. Didn't even think about cutting them at the time, not until you were talking about sliding underneath.
Well, after wrestling with all the rusted bolts on the front clip, I said to myself, "Self, just go "scorched earth on any fastener that even looks at you sideways!" Many bolts and nuts have lost their lives to the torch, the grinder, the sawzall, or just plain busted in two with an impact. Many that did unscrew were still tossed. judged too FUBAR to use again. It gives me a certain amount of pleasure to sweep up a group of rusted bolts, and bid them adios while dumping them in the bin!
After wrenching on cars for over 50 years, I have no desire to try to save bolts. I'd bet there are less than 5% of the original fasteners left on that Karmann Ghia.
There is (almost) nothing finer than putting something together with new hardware. Fighting with them again on reassembly? Nope! Yep, it cost some money. I'd say I'll have a few hundred bucks in nuts and bolts and various screws before this thing is back on the road.
Lots of good progress the last few days. I had to wait for the weekend before lifting the bed off, so I started on my steering wheel. Original wheel had several coats of paint. It looked to be originally blue. Over that was a metallic green, and then black. Of course there were cracks. I used a hacksaw blade to cut open the cracks and get to clean material. Then filled that with epoxy. I found that a flat, half round and round file worked the best to get the filler epoxy cut to shape. The column has already been stripped and primed.
Soooo....I just need to decide which way to go color-wise. Wimbledon white wheel and column with dark red interior metal, or the other way around. Decisions, decisions!
Saturday morning, the bed finally came off. Just me all by myself. An old coot with a cherry picker. Without much room behind in the area where the truck is, I just lifted it high enough to roll the truck out from under it.
Now that the bed is off, I commenced to scrapin' dirt. Lots of dirt. Twenty -two pounds of dirt. Yep. I weighed it.
After getting the thick stuff scraped off, I fired up the pressure washer and got after it.
After it was all hosed off, I was very pleasantly surprised! Light surface rust on the frame, and what I though was thick chunky rust on the rear -end housing and springs, was just caked on dirt! So the rear end housing doesn't need to be sand blasted after all. But I still have to take the leaf springs in the get the bushings replaced. I'll drain the rear end still, replace seals and axle bearings anyway. Cutting out the crack Taped to keep the epoxy in place Dirt pile The front of the bed actually rubbed a hole in the back of the cab. Dirty Clean!
It's cut out a bit on both sides, and on the right, it's been bent up. As if it rolled over a big rock or something. I'm gonna check the back end of the rails for level to see if it needs to be straightened. Depending on how I'm gonna mount the gas tank.
On to the "Next Big Decision."
Rear end "oil" drained. It was part oil, part sludge. Doubt it's been changed in the recent past. Got the driveline yoke off to change the seal. In my experience, Dana 60 rear ends use shims rather than a crush sleeve, so it should be good to go to just go back on and tighten the livin' s**t out of it. I had to use a puller to get the yoke off. First time for that.
I also found out why the e-brake wasn't able to be engaged. The right side cable is locked up solid. The left side seems to be OK, but in the name of symmetry, I'll replace the pair.
Got the rear brakes disassembled. No surprises there. The right rear drum was WAY over the max turning diameter. The left, not as bad but still a good bit over. Yanked the axles so I could put new axle seals in. I was gonna replace the axle bearings, but a couple of things are holding me back. The existing bearings turn smoothly. The machine shop wants $100 in labor to replace 'em, not including the bearing cost.
And finally, are new bearings gonna be any better than the ones in there?
Also, a question about leaf spring bushings. The descriptions seem to be vague no matter where I look. They say stuff like "rear upper", or "rear shackle". Are they the same bushing for the front and rear spring eyes?
So you guys were a big help on the leaf spring bushings. Sheesh! I had to figure it out my own dang self!
Finished crack repair on the steering wheel, and got a coat of filler primer on it. A few minor blemishes to work out, as can be seen in the close-up of the spoke-to-rim joint, then the wheel and column can be painted.
JB weld.
I know JB weld gets bad reviews. But I've used it for a lot of different things over the years, and it's some of the toughest epoxies out there. Like most things, it's all about the prep.
Anyway, a few rounds of high build primer and sanding, and it'll be ready to paint. Column is ready to paint, so I can do 'em both at the same time.
Great work Mike I am impressed. I wanted to ask where the E-Brake return spring hooked to and how long was the spring. Mine was missing and I tried a couple, but I am still not sure.
Mine is missing too Steve. I wasn't even aware it needed one till I was looking at catalog pictures. It looks like it connect to the end of the arm, and then to the crossmember. I'll have to look to see what the length is supposed to be. It looks like the photo with one long leg, but I'd bet cash money any garden variety hardware store spring would work!
I'll tell ya all, I am REALLY bringing this truck back from the dead.
I took the last piece of hardware out from under the dash in preparation for a scrubbing and power-washing so I could get some primer squirted on the bare metal. The wiper motor.
Put it on the bench to test it for functionality......aaaannnnddd yep, it figures. It is dead too. So not a single switch, including the turn signal switch and now the wiper motor were usable.
And, as I was getting rid of some of the cast off parts, I figured out why this truck had been non-operative for a long time. I never truly inspected the fuel tank, as I was loading it up in the dump pile, i shook it to see if the were any traces of fuel still in it. Nope. Just some chunks. Turned it upside down.....several large rust holes. And then when I removed the last section of fuel line, it too had a hole in it.
But that is it. Deconstruction is DONE, and new or refurbished stuff can start to go back on!
Brakes are done, as far as the brakes themselves go, with new E-brake cables. The power booster needs to be mounted, but the firewall and inside the cab are to be painted first.
As far as suspension goes, everything is done except for the tie-rods. Dropped beams installed, rear drop kit installed, new leaf spring bushings, pinion seal, new e-brake cables done. Ready to move on to other things. Except for the dang tie rods
It's pretty interesting about how these components are so hard to get. No luck at RockAuto....(who has all the parts your call will ever need.....or so the TV commercials go). No luck at NAPA, or even Summit. Interestingly, Summit has more stock stuff than Rock Auto does.
The last resort for an outfit that had 'em "in stock," was thru Amazon. A company called Cleveland Chassis. All I can say is "Buyer Beware."
Complete tie rod set ordered on Sept 15th. Notified it was shipped on the 15th. So far so good. That's where the good times ended. No tracking number, and a no-show on the expected delivery date of Sept 26th. No-show a week later. OK, fine. Went through Amazon tracking to find out when it would arrive, "Package is delayed".....and no tracking number. Amazon says contact shipper for tracking. More digging. The seller was impossible to contact.
So, on the 4th of Oct, I called Amazon. I told 'em I either wanted a tracking number or a refund. Within minutes I had a tracking number.
"A shipping label has been created and FedEx is waiting to receive the package." Or something to that effect.
What??!! Oct 4th and not even shipped yet? Even though I got notified it was shipped back on Sept 15th?
I still had the Amazon rep on the phone, and I told him the shipper has not even shipped it yet. I told him I just wanted a refund.
All of a sudden like, I get an email with a shipping update. It is now in route and expected delivery is Tuesday the 5th! Amazing!
So I told the Amazon guy I would forego the refund request as long as it showed up by the weekend.
Well, it was a no-show on Tuesday, and the delivery date was updated to Wednesday. Then, potentially delayed again and expected to be delivered Thursday. But, at least it's in Fresno now....somewhere.
I actually don't NEED it for a while. But I have this expectation thing......and historically, I really only have given sellers one chance, and then they get black-listed. I expect sellers to say what they will do, then do what they say. A simple request.
Is that too much to ask?
