Every Man Needs A Good Truck.

Hmmmm

2007-07-25T12:20:00.000-04:00

Haven't updated this in a long time. Been too busy with life, but the truck is great! I haven't changed anything other than a few maintenance items, like new belts, hoses, and water pump.

Oh, and I realized a dumb mistake from my previous post...the reason the finish is so bad after sandblasting the wheels is that I had used high-build primer on them before the paint. I thought I was using regular primer...high-build adds a lot of material you are supposed to sand off. Not what you want to use for wheels.

Sandblasting...

2006-07-18T22:24:00.000-04:00

So, I thought I would try out my sandblasting gun on the truck wheels, since they were convered in surface rust, and likely hadn't been painted in their 40 years of service. I bought a bag of fine grain sand from Home Depot, and fired up the air compressor.

After about an hour of blasting, followed by a few coats of primer and black paint, I learned two important things:

1. I don't like what sand does to the surface of the wheels. Check out the finish below, it's terrible! (It's supposed to be smooth, the sandblasting leaves it very rough.)

2. Sand gets EVERYWHERE! Even after a long shower, I was still finding sand in my ears.

I think I'll just use a wire brush mounted on a drill for cleaning these things up.

Live and learn, I guess.

Actually...

2006-07-17T15:03:00.000-04:00

...this is more like what I'm looking for. This truck has white painted bumpers and grill instead of chrome, and hubcaps instead of those fancy shmancy rims.

I'm not going to use side pipes like this one, and I'm not going to have it quite that low, but you get the general idea.

To get this truck on the road...

2006-07-16T23:44:00.001-04:00

...all I had to do was replace the master cylinder, brake lines, all four wheel cylinders, and new brake pads for all four wheels. Basically, the entire braking system was replaced.

I also bought 4 new tires and a seat cover. Oh, and I changed the oil and filter.

Amazingly, that was all this truck needed to get going. I've been driving it now for a year with no problems at all. I've even loaned it to Christopher to use for a while. Nothing has fallen off the truck, and so far nothing has broken down. I've hauled trash to the dump, I've tossed 1200 lbs. of concrete and fence posts in the back, and I've even towed a 1 ton trailer loaded down with furniture and a big screen TV. Nothing has fazed this truck so far.

I borrowed the truck back from Chris today so that I could do a few maintenance tasks on it. I replaced the tailgate chains, degreased the engine compartment, and started sandblasting the wheels. This week I'll replace the water pump, all the belts and hoses, valve cover gasket, and add a water temperature gauge. (Currently, there is no gauge, just a green light and a red light that is supposed to tell you when the engine is at operating temperature or if it gets too hot. These lights don't work, so I'm adding a gauge just to be safe.)

My wife refuses to ride in this truck, but I love it. Once the beetle is finished, this truck is getting a frame-off rebuild.

Imagine the truck below, but painted in a greenish-grey color. That's the look I'm going for.

Meet the Hulk!

2006-07-16T23:27:00.001-04:00

In July of '05, I drove up to Mississippi with my friend Michael, and brought back his grandfather's '66 pickup. His grandfather had passed away eight years ago, and his truck had sat underneath a tree for most of that time. They were getting ready to move his Grandmother down to Florida, and really needed someone to take the truck.

The truck is a bit rusty in the usual places, and we didn't even know if it would start. Both front tires were flat (and dry-rotted), so we put the spare on one side and I bought a cheap Wal-Mart tire to go on the other side, just to get it up onto the trailer. After clearing it out of wasp nests, spiders, and the weirdest grasshoppers I've ever seen, we got it onto the trailer and back home to Florida.

A week later, my parents came into town, and Dad and I drained the gas tank, checked the oil (it was brand new!), gapped the points and got it ready to start. After I got a battery for it, it cranked right up! It had been sitting for eight years and probably hadn't been cranked for at least five years. It's a little noisy (hopefully just an exhaust leak), smokes a little, and there's a short that's draining the battery. I disconnected the alternator harness, and that got rid of the problem, I'll just have to track that down later.

Here's some pictures:

It's a little rough, but not too bad. We are calling it "The Hulk" for now...

The engine is a 250 straight six. Only 73,000 miles on the odometer. I even have paperwork all the way back to the original owner, which was my friend's great-grandfather. He bought it new off the lot on November 1, 1965. He then sold it to his son (my friend's grandfather) in 1973. He took good care of the truck, there was even grease on all of the lug nuts. I expected to break a few wheel studs due to rust, but every one of them came off easily.

Check this out, he would put a label here every time he changed the oil and filters, listed the date, mileage, brand and weight of the oil, filter part numbers, etc...

Here's the tag he put on the radiator listing the date he changed the coolant, brand, and "good for 4 years".

The hood has some bad rust at the front, but I picked up a hood in great condition on eBay. I only paid $62 for the hood, but shipping was just over $100. Still, that's a steal compared to the prices the junkyards were quoting me. The new hood only needs one small repair to be usable.

Both doors are rusted out at the bottom (inner and outer patch panels will be needed), and both rocker panels will have to be replaced.

The bed had an aluminum camper shell on it it's entire life, so the entire bed is in great shape! There's very little rust here.

40 year old bed wood, still looks pretty good. This truck will be a "shop truck" of sorts, not a show vehicle. I doubt I'll replace this wood for a long time.

The interior is a little rough, but not bad. Besides the rockers and door bottoms, the floors will need to be patched in a few places, and the cab corners will need to be replaced.

We found a snake skin under the seat, and the original owner's manual in the glove compartment. Some small rodent had used it for material to build it's nest, but only the first ten or so pages were chewed up!

Also under the seat: a full set of spark plugs, two new fan belts, and a set of heater hoses.