1972 GMC Frame Pictures

Here are a few picture of the 1972 GMC pickup frame. This has been a very slow process. A few years back I bought a truck to restore. First I completely disassembled it. The frame has been sandblasted and painted along with all the suspension and steering components. These pictures were taken before the front wheels were back in place.

This first picture is where the trailing arms connect to a cross member. The differential is mounted to the other end of the trailing arms.



This is picture of the entire assembly. Finally I can see my progress.



Here we see the trailing arms again, this time showing their attachment to the differential.




Looking down the length of the frame from just above the second cross member. The cross member you can see is blocking the view of the trailing arms and the differential. My '06 Dodge Charger is trying to hide behind the rear tire.



The front end of the frame. The first cross member will be below the radiator. The second is below the engine and was quite heavy.



The rear view of the differential. The truck originally had leaf spring suspension. I am in the process of completing the conversion to trailing arm suspension.



This is the front suspension, passenger side. Shown here are the upper and lower A-arms along with the coil spring and the spindle. I mounted the brake rotors on the spindles today and put the tires on the front end.

GMC Progress

This afternoon I put the front wheels on the '72. There was actually more to it than that, but visually that is what you would notice. Also included was the installation of the brake rotors, inner and outer bearings, and other miscellaneous foo foo.

Wood Working SkillZ

Saturday's adventure was hardly as glorious. I re-sawed and planed a few pieces of scrape pine that were originally destined for the refuse bin.

The wood was actually 8 pieces of 2x4, each about 14 inches long. Really too short to be useful. (Unless one decided to make some small boxes to practice making dovetail joints.) I have certainly got a fair amount of use out of these boards. Their last use was as part of a large dolly I built to move the truck frame around on before it had its wheels back on. I recall at that point I was recycling the wood from another project though I don't recall exactly what it was at this point. Not that it matters, but I certainly felt good about using the pieces of that 2x4 three different times on three different projects.

After many past attempts, I did finally manage to get the band saw tuned up sufficiently to re-saw the wood without any wander of the blade. The solution was so simple, I can't believe I hadn't spotted it before. (One of the blade guides was misaligned.)

GMC Update

I bolted the rear coil springs on the GMC this evening. It is starting to look like a real truck again!

Woooooooooooooo Whooooooooooooo!!!

Yesterday, I bolted a couple of wheels back on the frame of the truck. This was huge progress, bigger than when I reassembled the front suspension which seems like eons ago.

What did I accomplish?
1. Installed new bushings in trailing arms.
2. Bolted trailing arm brackets to frame.
3. Bolted trailing arms to brackets.
4. Bolted differential to trailing arms.
5. Installed front coil springs and spindles.

The last step required two neighbors to sit on the frame to sufficiently compress the coils while the spindles were bolted on.

What did I not accomplish? I forgot to take pictures!

Monday's List of Accomplishments

After spending several hours this morning doing homework, I had a couple of free hours to spend outdoors. I managed to get two more things accomplished, in addition to my homework.

The first was unscheduled. My neighbor has an old 1980's model Honda Passport. He wanted me to help him get it running. He is actually the expert with regard to gasoline powered engines, but I have better eyes. After checking the spark, and draining the carb bowl, we finally got the motor to kick over and run even with old gas in the tank. Unfortunately the rear tire has a huge hole in the tube so we didn't get to cruise it around the driveway.

Today I also mounted two tires to the freshly rebuilt 10-bolt GM differential. I now have a partially rolling vehicle. Ha! The next step will involve connecting the trailing arms to the frame and the differential to the trailing arms.

A differential with wheels certainly takes up more space than a differential on a work bench. This is creating a problem for me, not enough space. Therefore I will make another small effort at selling the turnip truck.

For Sale: 1925 Chevrolet Superior Series Model K Truck

What's the Difference?

This evening I finished assembling the 10 bolt GM differential for my '72 GMC pickup. I was having a tolerance problem this weekend while working on reassembling it. The pinion pin did not seem to have enough space to slide between the end of the axles. The solution turned out to be as simple as removing some grease from between the thrust washers and gears. This potential solution came to me while I was driving home from school today. Glad it worked. Who would have thought a little grease would make that much of a difference. The tolerances on these parts were definitely tight.

I have not filled the diff case with fluid. I will wait and do that after the diff has been bolted to the trailing arms. Oh yeah, I also need to touch up the paint on the differential. I scratched it up a bit, flipping the diff end over end a few times while it was up on jack stands. Again, it is a minor thing. I am calling it done.

Next Step? Assembling the rear suspension I believe.

GMC Progress: None

After what seems like months, thought it has only been a few weeks, I finally got back to working on the differential for the GMC. What was suppose to be just a buttoning up process, turned into a minor struggle. The stuff is suppose to just go back together, easily. It did not.

I am guessing I have less than an hours work to finish it up. Just as soon as I figure out what is not right, I will start the clock on that hour. It could be a while.

I went by the parts counter at the local Chevrolet dealership to buy a special bolt today. This particular bolt is a retaining both that goes through the shaft in the chuck of the differential. According all the information I have read, this bolt needs to be replaced anytime you take it out. Failure to do so could be catastrophic for the differential.

The data in the computer at the parts counter only went back to 1973 so the parts guy had to get out an old parts catalog. Once the experienced guy took over for the new guy, he found the part number very quickly and then located the bolt in the parts room in less than a minute.

Total damage: $5.02 for a bolt. Golly-gee.

The Fall of Rick

Fall semester is off to a good start. I have been busy, but not too busy. Definitely more manageable than the summer was.

On Wednesday, I substituted at a nearby middle school. Seventh grade math. This school was on a traditional 7 period schedule instead of the 4 blocks I have become accustomed to during my field work. The day flew by. I had the opportunity to apply a lot of what I have learned from the classroom management class I took this summer. Overall things went very smoothly, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I have 3 more days of sub'ing lined up. (AP Calculus, 7th grade math, and Spanish III).

I still haven't gotten around to buttoning up the differential. Only a couple hours effort remaining. I hear it calling from the garage. Soon, very soon. Unless of course I decide to take a nap instead.

Last Friday my sinus's started bothering me. I don't know exactly what caused it but I have been miserable since then. Taking meds helps, but then I end up feeling spaced out for several hours. I took some allergy medication at dinner last night which caused me to be very sleepy by 8:30 PM. By 9, I gave in and went to bed. The problem with going to bed early is waking up early.

The date for the Fall camping trip has been chosen. We have 4 ACKs, 3 NAKs, 2 MAKs, and several "No Replies". That usually means their wife hasn't decided yet. :)

990

Occasionally I wake up during the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep for a few hours. When it happens I usually get up and find something to read on the internet. I don't ever watch the tv because I don't want to wake anyone else up. I use to just lay in bed but that gets restless after a while. I will start to get drowsy again in a few hours. Probably around 5:30 am, within a half hour of the time I normally wake up. I have started keeping track of when this occurs. For a while it seemed like it happened about weekly. The last time it happened was twenty days ago. This summer I have had the luxury of not having to get up at 6:00 am, but the internal clock is still wound pretty tight so most days I still wake up within a couple of minutes of 6, plus or minus.

Tonight we had takeout from Rosie's for dinner (Mexican). I woke up thirsty, but normally when that happens, I drink some water or tea and go right back to sleep.

My seester made a delivery in HSV today. We had lunch at Casa Blanca (also Mexican). She let me sit in the big rig. Nope, I didn't get to drive it, though I did wonder if I would have been able to break it loose like I did Danny's dually. I bet I could!

After lunch I drove by the Dodge dealership so that she could take a gander at the new Challenger. On Wednesday they had two on the lot. One black, one Hemi orange. Today they also had two, but they were both orange. The window sticker's MSRP was about $41,000 before the additional dealer markup of $15,000 was added. I guess the guy that bought the black one wanted it pretty bad. The engine is a 6.1 liter, 425, and it gets something like 14/18 MPG. Sweet. To me, it appears that Dodge doesn't really want to sell many of these cars. While there is a lot of interest, this car is priced to high for most folks. I suppose all the numbers will be more reasonable when the non-SRTs reach the dealerships. The Dodge website lists the starting price at $21,995 for the base model. The R/T will have 370 HP. I forgot to ask for a test drive. To borrow someone else's slogan, Zoom zoom zoom.

This afternoon I trimmed all the trees in the front yard. All four had many limbs that needed to be removed to ease mowing. I have been told that these butcher jobs should wait until the fall though I seem to always do it during the middle of the summer. It is easier to see the shape of the tree when it still has leave on it. That of course is not the real reason. The real reason is that tree trimming is usually a spontaneous event that follows having a tree limb whack you in the head while your minding your own business.

Planning for the fall camping trip is under way.

Last week I spend a few hours on a couple of days working on the differential for the old GMC. I was on the home stretch last time I touched it. Perhaps I will finish the diff up this week. School comes first though. I hope to not get too far behind too often this semester.

I recently signed up with the county school system to do some substitute teaching on the days I am not it class. Friday I sub'ed for the band director at a nearby HS. I lined up a couple more jobs while I was there.

Friday evening I helped the inlaws unload the moving truck. They bought a house nearby.

It is now 3:20. Only a few more hours to go.

This is post 990. I plan to celebrate post 1k with the mundane label also.

I recently read that the new U2 album was schedule for release in October. And then it was changed to November. They have a working title which I have inconveniently forgotten.

This week I picked up 3 lbs of okra at the big garden down the road. Mmmm. Fried okra is good. I boiled a few pods too, just to gross you out. It never occurred to me to try to steam it. I read about that here: Okra and Proud of It.

I have used some of my free time this week to work on rebuilding the differential out of the GMC. I was very lucky during the assembly process. I got the backlash within spec on the second try and the pinion shim was already correct. All that is left is to get the pinion pre-load set by crushing the crush collar and then button I can button it up.

BR549

OK, after figuring out my plan, I measured both my frames and then looked at some photos of Guy's frame. At this point I realized that I was wasting my time. The difference between my two frames was due to the fact that one was a SWB and the other was a LWB, not that one had been cut off. So now the plan is to just leave it alone.

Monday I went to the dentist to have my teeth filed. No charge.

Today I pretended like I was starting the rebuild of the differential for the '72 GMC. I was limited to pretending because I did not have a bearing separator to remove the old bearings from the pinion. Quick trip to the china store to discover they are out of lower dollar goodness. What to do, what to do?

I have been trying to get caught up on my school work but I don't yet see the end in sight. I think four of the ten weeks for the summer semester are complete. Note to self: work on time management skills, if you can find the time.

The '25 auction is rapidly progressing towards various stages of completion. It is currently 45% sold.

Saturday afternoon, I called up Brian (no not that Brian, the other Brian) to borrow his plasma cutter. As I told him then, "I have some plasma that needs to be cut". Some things seems funnier before you say them out loud.

My eventual plan is to replace part of the GMC's frame with part of another frame I have. Essentially my appears to have been attacked by a torch at some point in it past and I will be replace the foot or so with a section from the other frame that is in pristine condition.

The plan is:
1. Learn how to cut a straight line.
2. Determine where to make the cuts.
3. Mark the frames.
4. Make the cuts.
5. Weld in the piece from the other frame onto my frame.
6. Grind grind grind.
7. Amaze friends and family with my mad skillz.

Step 1 is complete.

Everyone needs to play with a plasma cutter at some point.

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

Differential Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the differential after sand blasting. The diff has now been painted, but as usual I haven't taken the pictures yet.

What's the Diff

This weekend I finally got around to the differential housing.

Step one: Remove anything that doesn't look like a differential housing.

Step two: Sandblast the giant hunk of metal resembling a differential housing.

Step three: Paint giant hunk of metal that resembles a differential housing.

Weekend Update

F1: The first F1 race of the season was this weekend. Hamilton finished first, no surprise there. Of the 22 cars, only 6 finished. Kimi was 9th, Masa DNF. Still pulling for Ferrari. G is dedicated to McLaren. Rubens(Honda) will probably be black-flagged for leaving the pits under a red light putting Kimi back into the points.

Diet: Lost another lb and a half this week. Having achieved my initial goal, I have not yet determined where I am heading now.

GMC: Disassembled the rear diff preparing for some sandblasting.

Melting: No progress.

Other: Attended auction.

39

Another nice weekend is coming to a close. The kids were out of school today and G and I were both off work. I had a pleasant birthday dinner with my family at Rosie's. I had lunch with a friend who I hadn't seen in a while and I spent the morning working on the truck. (Removing another 16 rivets)

Saturday I helped a neighbor build some cabinets for his garage. We took an early morning trip to home depot and then spent most of the day cutting and gluing boards in my garage. The cabinets turned out nicely.

This may possibly be the last blog post from this laptop. The keyboard and mouse pad have beening acting up for a while. Now the harddrive is making the kind of noise that says "you better back this thing up soon. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am heading for it!". A replacement has been ordered and is on the way. Hopefully it will arrive before this one says goodbye.

21.6 down, [3.4 to go]

An interesting note about the license plate. While the plate is several years old (1972), it was never issued and therefore has never been on a vehicle. It was still wrapped in up in its original plastic baggie.

Weekend Update

I got the taxes out of the way this weekend. One less thang.

Yesterday I finished up removing all the suspension leaf spring brackets on the GMC. I have made pretty good progess in the last couple of weeks considering it is winter. I suppose the next step is to drill holes for the related coil spring brackets and then touch up the frame paint. Either that or clean up, blast, and paint the rear differential. So many choices.

Today I made a trip up to Nashville to attend a parts swap. The swap was much bigger than I expected. I went looking for a GMC tailgate, or a GMC core support. Both of these items must be off a GMC pickup. Most parts are interchangeable with a 1967 - 1972 Chevrolet, these are not.

I found and purchased a GMC radiator core support. It is in very good shape. By its appearance, the donor truck spent most of its life in a garage or under a car port. The original paint is in excellent shape, considering the piece is 35 or 40 years old. The common problem with this part is the lower portion at one end is usually deteriorated due to acid from the battery being mounted directly above it. This one had the common problem, though someone had patched it. They did a fairly good job. At first I could not even tell the patch was there. Nice job.

The bargaining process went really well. Here is how it played out. I walked up, gave it a quick glance and asked the gentleman "how much for the core support?" His reply was "$50". I then picked it up and gave it a close inspection. While I inspected the core support, he dropped his price to $40. While I closely inspected the patch on the core support, he dropped his price to $30. He had done such an excellent job bargining the price down for me, I didn't even bother to counter offer. Personally, I think he just didn't want to have to carry it back to his truck. Instead, Brian (neighbor) and I carried it about a quarter mile back to our transportation. Well bought.

I also purchased a 1972 Alabama license plate. Perhaps someday this will be registered to the GMC. Brian also purchased an old Alabama license plate, his a 1966 for his Mustange.

My antique truck got posted on Stovebolt in the gallery. See it here.

This weeks welding class went well. I got a little experience arc welding. Arc welding is very frustrating at first, though I will say two+ hours of welding went by very quickly. This is definitely a learned skill and I haven't learned it yet.

[ 9.6 lbs to go]

Twas Another Glorious Weekend

I am certain I had a great weekend but I can't recall what I did. Friday evening was so long ago.

I do recall grinding the buttons off of 20 rivets on Saturday. This was of course part of the effort involved in replacing the leaf springs with coil springs. So far so good.

The diet is going well. And Saturday night is any-thing-goes night. Rosie's for dinner. Mmmm

Today was a trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a low-cost 3/8" corded reversible drill ($9.99). Next was drilling out 20 rivets to remove 6 brackets.

And finally a long ride in the Miata with the top down to enjoy the mid-40 degree weather we had today. The trip involved a nice 30 minute ride to TN, grabbing a hot cup of coffee, and then the return trip.

Friday night, as I now recall, involved me taking an online test for the ED class I am taking. No wonder I was blocking on Friday evening.

Next Saturday is tax time. Yippee.

[10.6 lbs to go]

The current odometer readings are:

2006 Charger R/T: 11,497

Last years reading was 5,784. Total mileage for 2007: 5,713 miles.

1995 Miata: 105,037

Last years reading was 100,774. Total mileage for 2007: 4,263 miles.

1925 Chevrolet Truck: 17879

I don't recall logging the odometer reading on this one in the past year but I am pretty sure the odometer hasn't moved. At all. Because it doesn't work. My swag for actual mileage for the truck in 2007 would be somewhere between 100 and 200 miles.

1972 GMC: 30520 or 03526

Like the 1925, the odometer(s) for the GMC have not moved. Not because they are broken but because the truck is (still) disassembled. Why two odometer readings? I bought a spare at the junk yard two years ago. I actually bought the second for its plastic bezel. The odometer was a (free) bonus. Today I learned that my odometer is apparently not the original for the truck. It is from a '69. The spare is from a '67. (Date codes are inked on the back side)

2002 Tahoe: 83,479

Again, I did not record a value at the beginning of 2007. I also put a few miles on this one driving it to various vacation destinations.

1972 GMC Project Update

My hands currently have a slight gray tint to them.

Over the past two weekends I have been working on sand blasting and painting the control arms that are part of the rear suspension on my project truck.

After spending several hours the first weekend sand blasting I had what appeared to be two new looking control arms. Nice gray bare metal. The casual observer would have stopped there. Between the two pieces of stamped steel there was a gap just large enough to college small pebbles and dirt. These gap on both members were completely encased with rust.

Attempt to blast the grime out made slow progress. My next step was to marinate them with penetrating oil and WD-40. After letting them soak a few nights I used a hammer, a small punch, a screw driver, and a putty knife to knock this stuff loose. After about 3 hours I had about as much grime removed as I could hope for.

The next step was to spray some phosphoric acid based rust remover into the seem to clean up any rust in gap. And then I cleaned it out with Simple Green degreaser to remove any loose dirt that may have remained.

Once the inside was clean, it was time to clean it up for painting. The process of cleaning the gap had taken a few days and some surface rust had formed on the outside both suspension members. First I thoroughly cleaned both items with Marine Clean (also a degreaser), and then treated them with POR-15's Metal Prep (also phosphoric acid based).

Using the Metal Prep is pretty amazing. The surface rust just disappears before your eyes. (My sister likened it as one of those Billy Maze Oxy-Clean commercials). After 30 minutes of continuous metal prep application, a good rinse with water, and drying the parts off, I was ready to paint.

My intention was to use POR-15 on these just like I did on the frame. Most of the other stuff I have used Eastwood's Chassis Black on. I like the Chassis Black because it is easy to spray on. I attempted to thin (using POR-15) and spray the POR-15 but it did not seem to like my spray gun. I resorted to painting the parts using a foam brush.

The parts still need one more coat. I will have another go with the spray gun but I suspect I will end up painting with a brush again. I really like the way this stuff looks when it is dry, but it has been a real pain to apply it. If I have success with the brush I will let you know (and I will be using POR-15 on the differential.) If things don't go well, I will spray the Chassis Black on the diff. It always looks good and it is easy to use.

Another thing to mention. The POR must be cleaned up immediately if any is spilt. If you get it on your hands and don't remove it immediately, you will be wearing it til it wears off. Did I mention my hands are gray?

After several points during this entire expedition, I thought I should snap a few pictures. Before I started blasting was a good time, but I had already gotten dirty setting up the equipment and did not want to go back in the house until I was done. After the blasting was complete would have been a good time also, but I delayed thinking I would snap some shots before I painted. The before and after for the rust removal would have been impressive also. It looks like the only pictures will end up being shots after the paint is dry.

Another Long Weekend
... has been successfully complete. We made two days trips to visit extended family. Wii played quite a few rounds of bowling, baseball, golf, boxing, and tennis. (My shoulder is sore). And we probably ate too many goodies.

This weekend I managed to get the trailing arms for the GMC sandblasted. Progress is good. Hopefully I will get them painted next weekend.

Back to work tomorrow.

Today's Blog Entry is Brought to You By the Letter 'P'

Another key on my computer has quit working. It hasn't quit completely but it is very intermittent. I have a backup though. I have a file with the letter 'p' in it. When the key is not working, I just copy/paste from that file. The list of intermittent keys is now [Page Up], [Page Down], [Delete], [Up Arrow], [Down Arrow], [End], and [P].

Monday I went to the Dentist for a scheduled cleaning. This led to another another appointment on Thursday with an Endodontist. Prior to this week I had no idea what an endodonstist did. Now I know. Root canal. The procedure was needed due to an incident in high school. I walked thru a fight and got hit in the mouth. Two broken teeth. The root canal wasn't as bad I expected. Glad it is over.

Today we went to a family reunion for part of G's family. J & B played horse shoes. When we got home Jordan layed down on the couch to rest his eyes. He claims he did not go to sleep. I have photographic proof showing otherwise. He does not know it yet, but he has a predisposition to napping. Both his parents nap, my parents both nap, and my father said he remembers his grandfather napping, everyday. As the story goes, my great-grand-father lived on a farm. Everyday he would stop working around 11:00 am for lunch. After eating he would listen to Paul Harvey and the he would take a short nap before returning to work. This is a genetic explanation for both napping and my desire to eat an early lunch everyday.

Also today I painted some more truck parts I had been busy blasting in the last few weeks. I painted the rear coil springs, the rear shock mounts, and several miscellaneous brackets and two cross members. Next up: the two trailing arms and then the 'new' rear differential I acquired from the junk yard back in July. Good progress!

It has been smokin' hot lately. We have had a streak of triple digit days. And a deficit of rain on top of that.

Yesterday evening we had a rapid drop in temperature. In a relatively short interval we had a storm roll in and the temperature dropped from 3-digits down to about 70 degrees. Lots and thunder, lightning, and buckets and buckets of rain.

A little bit earlier in the evening when I arrived home, one of my neighbors crossed the street to let me know that the water conservation level had changed to level 3. Level 3 means even numbered houses like ours are only allowed to use outside water between 12 AM and 4 AM on Monday and Wednesday nights. No other outside water use of any kind allowed. Good thing my neighbor told me. The new level was announced on the news and in the paper. I don't watch the news nor read the paper.

G had to work today and the kids spent the night at Grandmas. What to do, what to do? I decided to take the turnip truck out. My local okra pusher lives just a few miles away. This was my destination. After purchasing a couple of pounds ok okra, I gave Mr. Lacey a ride around the block. He loved it.

On my way back home I stopped by Joe G's. This gentlemen lives a few miles away. He has a 1932 Ford parked in his garage. I have blogged about him at some point in the past. He also enjoyed giving the truck a once over.

And on my way home, again, I stopped by Tammy's to let her family see the truck. I offered to let Ken drive it and he drove the kids around the block.

And then I actually went home.

The truck now has more dirt on it than it has probably had in the last 15 years. During my journey I drove though a patch of gravel. The gravel dust stuck to everything. Nice white dust on glossy black paint. Great!

You may be wondering how the GMC is coming along. I have not even glanced in its direction in a couple of weeks. For a few weeks I was busy with school and right now it is just too hot. It is time to do more sand blasting and I just can't imagine trying to do that with the current temp and humidity.

It was a fine weekend

Saturday I took the turnip truck to the the Greater Tennessee Valley Antique Car Show. A stunning 715 vehicles were registered at this show.

My trip to and from the show was unique. I left the house shortly before 7:00 AM. A quick stop to top off the tank and I was on the road. The trip was 25 miles and it took about an hour. I route was mainly 2 lane roads but I did have to get on a 4 lane highway for a couple of miles. No problems though.

Two of my neighbors decided to accompany me to the show. Brian drove his '66 Mustang and Guy his '72 Chevrolet Pickup. We brought a tent, some chairs, and a couple of coolers. The shade was a nice relief from the warm sun.

The truck got a lot of attention. A whole lot of attention. Most were amazed not by its age (1925), but rather by the fact that it was a Chevrolet. It was not the oldest vehicle there. A gentleman from nearby Athens, AL had trailered in a 1925 American LaFrance fire truck.

Great Show.

Bug'n in July 2007

This weekend was also the VW show in Decatur. It was a two day show so I was able to go to it on Sunday. I took quite a few pictures and learned a lot about the little VWs. The cars are fascinating. A good mixture of vintage and newer, original and customized. The entire show is held under a large pavilion which is nice and cool even in July. This is my favorite show to visit. And there is definitely a Beetle in my future, though probably a very distance future. (I have to finish the 1972 GMC first.)

GMC Update

Sunday afternoon I removed a few more rivets from the new/old LWB frame. Only ten more to go and I will have everything off the frame that I need. I can then start the sand blasting process on the rear suspension componenents.

I will eventually need to remove the leaf spring brackets from the old/old SWB frame. This will be a minimum of another 16 rivets I will defer this task for a while.

This weekend was very busy. I think I need another weekend to recover.

And That Is A Good Thing!

It has been a long weekend and that is a good thing.

This afternoon I didn't get back to the rivets. And that's OK.

This evening I took several trips around the block in the turnip truck so that I could give everyone a ride. Some neighbors came over to look at the truck. I ended up giving them each a ride and then I took a truck load of kids for a round. I let the adults drive. They seem to enjoy it after getting over their initial concern that perhaps the truck is fragile! If it were fragile it would not have lasted since 1925.

Weekend Getaway

Ginger and I made a quick weekend getaway to Nashville Friday & Saturday. We stayed in a hotel near the Opryland Hotel. We enjoyed a nice dinner there and took and indoor boat ride. The Opryland Hotel is an amazing place to visit.

Saturday we visited the Lane Motor Museum. Ginger found a few cars she wanted to bring home. Unfortunately we were not in the Tahoe so we didn't have room for them in the back. My favorites were the Fiats (especially the Topolino [think Italian Volkswagen Beetle]), the Austin Minis, the Morris Minis, the MGs. Here is a complete list of their cars. Take a look at the Honda S600 and S800 , and the Datsun 1200. (There is a Datsun 1200 in a junk yard near here.) These are definitely some cool convertibles.

Saturday after returning home I removed 22 rivets from the pieces of rusty metal. No small task. I believe there are another 28 to go. Maybe Sunday.

Saturday was 07/07/07 in case you missed. Were you feeling lucky?

The 4th

I started the 4th with an early more trip to Pitts Salvage yard in Athens. I had arranged to purchase the back half of the frame of a1972 Chevrolet Pickup LWB complete with all the suspension, brackets, and the 12 GM differential. I got a really good price on it too!

I borrowed Lott's trailer and Ginger's Tahoe. David M. rode shotgun. The entire trip took about 2.5 hours. Once home I unloaded the big piece of rusty metal and began planning how to disassemble it as quickly as possible. I am sure my neighbors love looking at it.

I did manage to get the differential, trailing arms, and coil springs separated from the frame and stowed safely in the shop.

I still need to remove 50+ rivets to get all the brackets I want removed from the frame and the frame disassembled. That will be no small task. In the past it has take about 10 minute per rivet. I will need to find a quicker method or this could take forever.

In the Presence of Greatness

We celebrated the 4th by attending a party at the White House. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool and the food was great. BBQ chicken, pork, and ribs. Mmmmm. And fresh corn from the garden.

Rusty Parts Is Rusty Parts

Operation trailing arms is now underway. I spoke with the gentleman at the automobile salvage yard today. He and I came to an agreement on a price for the rear differential, the trailing arms, and all the necessary brackets to attach said parts to a frame. I have also arranged to borrow my neighbors trailer in the morning. And Ginger's Tahoe.

Two friends have expressed an interest in riding along to the junk yard in the morning. The more the merrier. I expect they will both back out in the morning. The 4th of July can be a very busy day.

The junk yard is an amazing place if your interested in automobiles. In some ways it is very sad place. Rows and rows of deteriorating vehicles. It can also be an exciting place. Rows and rows of old trucks and cars. Every make an model you can imagine. For a truck guy there is nothing like discovering an old forgotten Chevrolet Apache in the middle of nowhere. A Mazda guy would be amazed at all the old RX-7s. Another nearby yard has a half dozen VW bugs: A couple of early 60's models with metal dashboards and 6 volt electrical systems, a super bug with a sun roof, etc. And yet another yard has an old '50s Nash Metropolitan (in pretty good shape), a '50's Studebaker Commando (in not so good shape), and the rusty skeleton of a early '50s Ford pickup. Each junk yard is so very unique, almost like a car show, but no one remembered to wash and wax the vehicles. Don't bother going to search for an old muscle car though. Those were all crushed years ago.

Leaf Springs, Coils, and Trailing Arms

I made a quick trip to the salvage yard last week to look for a replacement differential. I found several correct for my year model of truck, but they are all intended for trailing arm suspension trucks. Mine has leaf springs. I could convert the brackets from trailing arms to leaf springs but it would be some work.

Last year I started thing about swapping the truck from leaf springs to trailing arms/coil suspension but decided against it for a couple of reason. It would take extra time/effort. The major benefit of making the swap is that the truck will ride smoother, more like a car than a truck.

Now with the differential housing needing to be replaced, I revisited the idea of swapping to the coil suspension. It definitely makes more sense now. Perhaps that is because it is what I wanted to do in the first place. Or perhaps it is because the parts are readily available for a coil truck but not for a leaf truck.

So now the plan is to pick up an old rusty differential housing and some trailing arms at the salvage yard. It's like Christmas in July.

GMC Differential Woes

This evening I decided to clean up the rear differential housing for the GMC. It seems like I have been on the verge of this chore for months but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I hadn't done it. Then I looked at my blog. Oh yeah, I was working.

The great thing about the blog is that I can forget what I have been doing and still have a record of it.

First I had to beat out the bear chases for the pinion. I used a 24" piece of rebar and a framing hammer. The next step would have been either removing the wheel bearings and seals and then finally I would begin the de-grunging process.

At this point I noticed something that derailed the process. I was looking at the bottom of the differential housing when I noticed what appeared to be a weld. Having never really looked closely at the bottom on the housing, I inspected it further. And then I looked inside.

The differential housing had apparently been broken at one point and the hole was big enough to put a baseball through it. The broken piece had then been welded back into place. I could imagine this had probably been done after dark one fall evening in the front yard of a single-wide.

Perhaps this was the location of the leak resulted in the differential only having about a quart of fluid in it. Perhaps.

Regardless, I think it is time to hit the salvage yards and attempt to locate a replacement GM 12 bolt housing. The complete carrier assembly is fine.

My guess is the 12 both was originally a locker. At some point it "blew up" resulting in a cracked housing and the total annihilation of the carrier. The housing was welded back and a replacement carrier was dropped in.

According to the code stamped on the axle, the differential was originally a 1/2 ton 3.73:1 from a 1972 pickup, so the housing is probably original. The gears I found inside were 3.07:1. I like the 3.07:1 ratio because it will provide better MPG at highway speeds.

It will probably be a few weeks before I can round up another diff housing. I already have plans for the next few weekends.

Thirteen

...days ago I received an email announcing that my bentonite and clay had arrived and was ready for pickup. I was pretty busy at the time so it took me a week to get "a round tuit". The clay has now been waiting patiently in my garage for about a week. I suspect it has a few more weeks of waiting.

The diff has been in pieces for a few weeks. My next goal is to clean, paint, and reassemble it. I ordered/rented a video on diff rebuilding to get a few pointers so that I will at least have an idea what I am doing before I start the rebuilding process. A little knowledge can go a long way. Who knows when it will show up. They have a limited supply of DVDs and I am apparrently not first in the queue.

In the mean time, I can begin the de-grundging work on the housing. This is a pretty nasty job, but on the plus side, my list of greasy-grimey-grundgy pieces is getting pretty short. Good vibrations there.

In case your just tuning in, the clay is for making a furnace to do back yard metal casting with an end goal of building a metal lathe. The differential is off a 1972 GMC pickup that I am restoring.

Time to go wake up the kids.

Posts have been somewhat scarce around here lately. I would blame it on work, but work is not the direct cause, it is merely an indirect cause.

The increased amount of work time recently has decreased my extra-curricular activities.

No truck time means no posts about the GMC.

No cruising time, no rambling about the Miata.

No call from the pottery supply store, means no write up about back yard metal casting.

Tomorrow is looking like 70 and a mere 20 percent chance of rain.

Perhaps tomorrow I will write about an oil change for the Miata, or a test drive in a beamer convertible. And the Charger still needs to have the tires rotated.

Four days and counting, No diet drinks. This afternoon I tried a cup of hot peach flavored green tea. How is that for different?

Some how I overlooked this one so I will mention it now. I have now had the Charger 1 year, 1 week, and four days.

After a year of driving it, I would say I like it as much or more as I did when I first got it.

The odometer is currently just over 7000 miles.

I have had the Miata for 3 years, and 4 days shy of a month.

I would tell you how long I have had the GMC pickup but Ginger says it does not count as a vehicle simply because it is undriveable. Perhaps I should count the number of truck pieces I have instead.

GMC Update: Last Wednesday I receive a rebuild kit for the rear differential. Hopefully I can get those parts out of the bucket soon.

Differential

A 12 bolt GM differential with a 3.07 gear ratio. Forty three teeth on the carrier, 14 on the pinion.

(43/14 = 3.0714285714285714285714285714286)



Insides outside in a bucket.

This weekend I dissembled the rear diff of the truck. With one exception. I was unable to get the nut off the pinion. After two days of spring with penetrating oil, I finally manged to loosen it using a two foot breaker bar.

I immediately met the next challenge. The pinion shaft did not want to come out of the diff case. The instructions I had said to lightly tap on the bolt with a brass hammer. I tried taping on it with a framing hammer. No luck. The next day I tried hitting it with the hammer. Still no luck.

What next? Check Google. I finally found some good advice. Get a bigger hammer.

Guess what. A ten pound sledge hammer worked just fine.

This weekend I disassembled the rear differential on the GMC.

The diff only had about 2 cups of fluid in it. Sounds like it had a leak at some point. While I have it apart I am going to sand blast the case and paint it. I will also replace all the bearings and seals, and finally put some fluid in it.

I also got the remaining control arms installed on the front. Had I had a coil spring compressor, I would have also installed the coil springs and the spindles. That will have to wait til next weekend.

Three Sixty

The direction of the truck project has officially changed by 360 degrees.

Tuesday evening I, along with my one of my little side kicks, began reassembling the front end suspension. (My helper only lasted about 10 minutes but he was involved briefly.)

We, with the help of an engine hoist and a few straps, managed to maneuver the suspension cross member back into place and bolt it in. The hoist along with it's little operator were invaluable. I have let him "work" with it several times before. He always asks permission and it is usually granted. His experience as a crane operator worked to my advantage because when I needed a second pair of hands, my little buddy was willing and able.

I purchased some new bolts last fall from LMC Truck to reattach the cross member to the frame. As I was wrenching it on, I noticed the 3 lines on the top of the bolt head indicating they were grade 5. My guess would have been grade 8. I suppose those are being saved for the tractor grade.

Tuesday I also installed one upper ball joint. The second upper ball joint and one lower ball joint were installed today. This task was extremely easy standing at the work bench. It only took a couple of minutes per joint. I can imagine how much of a nightmare it is to replace them while the a-arms are attached to the vehicle. Lucky me.

What little reassembly has been done has been quite pleasant. All the parts are clean and freshly painted. The tools were clean also so no old grease was transferred to the knew parts.

Zen? Yeah, no, maybe.

Front Cross Member (Unpainted)

This is what all the fuss was about. I remembered to snap a shot after the blasting was done. It took about 2 months to get around to this. Weather was the big holdup. Hopefully as spring rolls in, progress will resume.



Eye Spy Bonus: Locate the Miata, the Charger, a wheel barrow, and a bale of straw.

Persistence Is Futile

To answer Terry's question, No. I did not get the piece blasted as I intended.

I got started yesterday morning at 9:00 am. I set up some saw horses in the drive way. Carried the cross member out. Rolled the blaster out. Pressurized the compressor. Ready, set, rain. Well not really rain, but it did start sprinkling.

There is not point in sandblasting a part in the rain. Getting it wet would cause it to start rusting again almost as fast I finished up.

I quickly moved the x-member back into the garage and went back out to grab the blaster, et al. Before I got it all back into the garage the rain stopped falling. So I started setting up again. I had it all setup and was doing some scraping to get some heavy grunge off when it started sprinkling again. Again I moved everything back into the garage and again it stopped raining. This time I decided to wait a bit to see what the weather was really going to do.

In the mean time, I did a little cleanup and organization work in the garage. My neighbor dropped by and we talked cars, trucks, and motorcycle for a while. He helped me move the truck bed floor. That thing is heavy.

After about an hour without a drop from the sky I decided to give it another go. I setup again. This time I got as far as turning on the blaster. I made about 5 minutes of progress before the rain started again. This time I had to really hustle because I needed to sweep up the sand before it got wet. Wet sand is not good.

At this point I decided to call it.

At around 3 pm, after 4 hours without a drop, I decided to give it one more try. You know the drill. I drag everything outside, get everything setup, it starts to rain and I drag it all back inside. OK, this time I really give up for the day.

Today instead of dragging out the blaster, I just used a small pick, similar to a dental pick, to clean some gunk out of the many nooks and crannies on the cross member. I did this for about an hour before I put it way again. All the prep work is done. There is nothing left to do but the actual blasting. Someday the weather will cooperate. Someday. Maybe next weekend. Cross your members fingers.

The Mid-Week Blahs

It sure feels like a Wednesday. How can it only be Tuesday. This has certainly been a long week already. This past weekend was cold and rainy. I am ready to get outside and bask in the glow of the sun, where ever it is.

GMC

Saturday morning I had a couple hours free so I drove up to Hazel Green to visit a salvage yard. I took my camera with me as my intention was to get a couple of photographs of the rear suspension of a late sixties vintage GM truck.

I have been considering swapping my leaf spring suspension for trailing arm/coil suspension. The trailing arm suspension is supposed to provide a more car-like ride. I climbed under an old truck an took as many photos as I deemed necessary. Making the switch would not be much work, nor would it cost much, assuming I got the parts from a salvage yard.

As I drove back home, I made my decision. I decided to leave the leaf springs alone. Why? Because the majority of the trucks were made with trailing arm suspension and at the time, the leaf springs on this model truck were not all that common. It just makes it feel more like a GMC.

Cast Iron

As I sat here watching Jordan play Star Wars Lego on the Nintendo, waiting for the Barrett-Jackson Auction to start on the Speed Channel, I decided to find something to read. I have grown bored with YouTube and Google Video, as well as MySpace.

I headed over to Mr-Miata as it was the first blog I had ever read, and my motivation for starting my own blog. I thought I would traverse some of his links.

At the top of his list of Miata blogs is one called Ain't Chicken. I wonder why they didn't use Ain't Skeerd. Must have been taken. Off we go.

Now this is something I can relate to. This person, is obsessing over a purchasing a toaster oven. I am all about obsessing over purchases. Finding what you want is the high point of shopping and the research is the thrill of the hunt. Now don't think I enjoy shopping for shopping's sake, but how can one not enjoy shopping for a new power tool kitchen appliance. (Isn't a kitchen appliance just a power tool for the kitchen?) I fondly recall getting my first blender and food processor, and I was all for it when we got a Kitchen Aid. It's like a mini-drill press for the kitchen, only without drill bits or mortising attachments. I digress. Perhaps someday I will tell you about when I made my first purchase of Tupperware, wooden spoons, a cutting board, tea glasses, or the year I bought myself Revereware stainless steel mixing bowls for Christmas ('92). (These things I will liken to hand tools, as that is pretty much what they are. Hand tools for the kitchen.) (Each purchase is it's own story.) The mixing bowls by the way are the perfect size for making Toll House cookies. I digress again. And I haven't even mentioned Amazon.com yet. But this post is about cast iron.

So over on Ain't Skeerd Chicken, Carol asks "Who needs new cast iron?" Why me of course.

Back in college, I decided it was time to learn how to fry okra. I know you are probably tired of reading about me frying okra, but I promise I want mention it again until this summer, after I finish up here.

To fry okra properly you need a few things. The primary ingredient is of course a cast iron skillet. I had no relatives dying off leaving me their cast iron, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending upon how you look at it, so I obtained some new cast iron from Wal-Mart. A very sensible 8" skillet for frying okra and a nice 6" skillet for making cornbread just like dear old Dad. (I even used his recipe, verbally passed down a whole generation.) A few years later I got a more reasonable 10" Lodge skillet which allows for a larger batch of okra, or perhaps some chicken.

My first experience seasoning a skillet was less than optimal. It required some Crisco, and a little guess work on my part, but no cleavage. I seem to recall I set off the smoke alarm in my efficiency apartment. Glory days.

I think I just found the cure for blogger's block. Now you will have to excuse me as I resume my normal blog subject matter: a red Miata and an old rusty truck.

I never got a deviled egg tray, but then some things should be reserved for the girls.

I think the auction has started. Latter I need to head back over there and find out if "Ain't Chicken" refer's to dare devel stunts or the fried stuff.