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MrSaturn
Sep 8, 2004

Go ahead, laugh. They all laugh at first...
Super duper trick: fill the brake line with sand when you bend it and it won't kink. Just make sure to flush the hell out of it with compressed air afterwards.

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PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


Tomarse posted:

Also - flaring your own brake lines is really easy to do and the tool to do it costs very little.

For brake lines, a double-flaring tool is required. I paid $90 for a decent one fifteen years ago

Blaster of Justice
Jan 6, 2007

by angerbot

MrSaturn posted:

Super duper trick: fill the brake line with sand when you bend it and it won't kink. Just make sure to flush the hell out of it with compressed air afterwards.

This is the correct way to do it regardless of what tool you chose to bend the lines with.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

For the first time in too many years to count, the old beast can stop on it's own.

Once I got the hang of it, bending the rest of the lines weren't too bad. The only thing that worries me is how far the lines stick out of the master cylinder. I put the bell housing on the cross member and eyeballed the transmission bolt holes against where the lines were. From what I can tell, I am going to have about an inch or so of clearance. If need be I will find a way to bend the lines a bit more.



Since the cab is still resting on the rear of the frame, I couldn't move the truck around to test the brakes. When I had my brother push down the brake lever while I turned the front drum, all I got was a broken back and no wheel movement for my troubles.

As for the cab, I hope to finish up welding the floor tomorrow. I welded in the angle iron today. All I have left to do is weld in the bar stock and finish up the welds on a few random areas I forgot about until now.

Sponge!
Dec 22, 2004

SPORK!
Since you have a completely new brake system (everything has been rebuilt) have you considered using DOT4 silicone based fluid? It doesn't draw water like DOT3, so there's practically ZERO chance of it boiling. Its just not ABS compatible is all... Drums all around on a steep downgrade always makes me think about temperatures...

Sponge! fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Aug 2, 2009

honkykong
Sep 20, 2005


Sponge! posted:

Since you have a completely new brake system (everything has been rebuilt) have you considered using DOT4 silicone based fluid? It doesn't draw water like DOT3, so there's practically ZERO chance of it boiling. Its just not ABS compatible is all... Drums all around on a steep downgrade always makes me think about temperatures...

DOT5 is silicone. DOT4 is synthetic glycol based with a higher wet/dry boiling point than DOT3.

And apparently there is a DOT5.1 according to Wikipedia.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.

Sponge! posted:

Drums all around on a steep downgrade always makes me think about temperatures...

It's fine. People have this idea that drums will overheat and fade after ten feet of light braking, and it's simply not the case. With normal driving, even up and down hills, the average driver won't notice a difference between discs and drums at all. Yes, in a racing application or holding back a heavy load down a long downgrade, it's an issue. But bopping around in an unloaded pickup he has plenty of brakes to be safe. Discs are better in general, but drums don't mean a firey death instead of a panic stop.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

It's a manual, he can engine brake on long hills if he really needs to.

InterceptorV8
Mar 9, 2004

Loaded up and trucking.We gonna do what they say cant be done.

EvilDonald posted:

It's fine. People have this idea that drums will overheat and fade after ten feet of light braking, and it's simply not the case. With normal driving, even up and down hills, the average driver won't notice a difference between discs and drums at all. Yes, in a racing application or holding back a heavy load down a long downgrade, it's an issue. But bopping around in an unloaded pickup he has plenty of brakes to be safe. Discs are better in general, but drums don't mean a firey death instead of a panic stop.

Not only that, it's the shoes that get hot with drums, not the fluid. Unlike disc brakes, drums don't have the fluid filled part of the brake really close to the hot shoe. Sure, you can get fluid hot with drums, but you first have to heat the metal backed shoe up, then have it heat the pushrods up, where the disc setup you have the piston pushing right on the back of the hot brake pad.

Dr. Chim Richalds
Oct 21, 2008

The Popular One

Mooecow posted:

For the first time in too many years to count, the old beast can stop on it's own.

That's gotta be fun to say. Congrats on all your progress, keep up the good work! I look forward to each new update. Just think, one day you'll be able to say "For the first time in too many years to count, the old beast DRIVES AGAIN!"

BabyJesus
Nov 13, 2002
Wow, I wasn't keeping up on this thread- VERY NICE progress. Question: you seemed to switch image hosts around page 4? My work proxy is now blocking the images afterwards :(

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

With all the patches welded in, I wire wheeled the bottom of the cab in preparation for a couple layers of Por-15.



Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the bottom all painted.

Anyway, here is how the truck sits now:



Now that the floor is solid, I was finally able to somewhat sit in the truck. I put a stool in the seat riser and promptly realized there is no visibility at all out of that cab. I can't begin to imagine how little visibility the 3 window cabs (cabs without the corner windows) have. Granted I have to learn not to trust those windows. They distort anything you look at through them wildly. Also, simulated engine noises may have been involved. This can not be confirmed nor denied however.

Anyway, question time:

I went to adjust the front brakes and realized one of the fronts is rubbing even though the adjuster screw is completely retracted. When I popped of the drum I saw this:



When I tap on that shoe with a mallet, it slowly retracts back to the post. When I apply and release the brakes normally, however, it only retracts that ^ far.

How did I manage to mess this up? The other side doesn't have this problem, and I just copied what I did on that side. All the hardware is new, so I don't think the springs as to blame.


As for image hosts, I switched from Waffleimages to Tinypic. Waffleimages seems to have made a habit of borking some of my original pictures in the thread so I changed.

Jethro
Jun 1, 2000

I was raised on the dairy, Bitch!
I know poo poo about brakes, but that spring on the left looks funny to me. Are you sure that it isn't the case that either those springs should be put on the post in the other order or that the left spring should have the ends swapped?

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Either the spring isn't pulling hard enough, or something's hanging up or jammed. I'd take it apart again, try to work the mechanism by hand until you figure out where it's sticking.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Don't worry, the truck hasn't killed me yet. I didn't have much time to work on it last week. :(

Anyway, I figured out the brake problems. It turns out that all four corners had the same issue, only with different causes. The fronts just needed to be greased where the shoes rub on the backing plate. The rears, however, were a bit of complicated. The spreader bar for the parking brake was forcing the shoes out too far. This happened even what the bar was completely seated in the shoes. I couldn't think of a more elegant solution, so I took a cutoff wheel and make the indent in the spreader bar a bit larger on both sides. After a bit of the grease on the rears as well, they functioned properly.

Look at those fancy brake lines:




After that I switched my attention to the interior. I wire wheeled the roof, gas tank shelf, seat riser area, floor pans, toe board, firewall, and behind the dash. Doing behind the dash was extremely fun. I sat with my head behind the dash, thus forcing me to get covered in rust dust. I ruined a brand new dust mask doing half the dash the rust clouds were so bad.

With all the rust cleaned up, all those areas were sprayed with some metal etch and then hosed off. I think it came out alright, but it did burn through a bunch of Por-15. So before I do anything else I have to get another quart. Yay, quart #3.








I also took some polishing compound to the bed side, and I like what I saw. I quite like that dark blue.



I am going to have a local body guy stop by and talk me through the paint process. I am leaning toward redoing the dairy paint job. Including the white roof and white rear of the cab down to the belt line. Like this, only without all the primer and rust:



Hopefully that won't cost me an arm and a leg. Gulp.

Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

Many things about this project make me happy.

Not the least of which is the utter glory that is POR-15 coating what was once a true mess. Something about a brutally good rust protectant coating every possible surface makes me very happy.

Damned good job :)

CroatianAlzheimers
Jun 15, 2009

I can't remember why I'm mad at you...


This is just awesome Mooecow. I've lusted after one of these advanced design trucks for years. I'm so glad you saved that five window cab, definitely worth the work.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.

Mooecow posted:

The rears, however, were a bit of complicated. The spreader bar for the parking brake was forcing the shoes out too far. This happened even what the bar was completely seated in the shoes. I couldn't think of a more elegant solution, so I took a cutoff wheel and make the indent in the spreader bar a bit larger on both sides. After a bit of the grease on the rears as well, they functioned properly.

I'll betcha the problem on the rears is poo poo-rear end aftermarket shoes. They try to make one shoe fit as many as possible vehicles, so there has to be a few compromises, drum diameter and width is relatively standard, no one's going to use weird fractions of an inch, but things like distance between the ends of a spreader bar may be a bit odd. Therefore that one indent in the shoes can be a fudge factor. But what else is there anymore for that truck? Ya go with what you've got.

Elegant segue: when you install points in the engine, lube the cam in the dizzy with a thin coat of grease and try to find points with the sponge on them. Good points are made of pure unobtanium these days, while lovely ones abound. Fifteen years ago, Carquest could get you passable ones. Don't know anymore, though. See, without the sponge and lube, the plastic cam follower part will wear down causing you to have to replace the points long before the contacts wear out. With a bit of lubrication though, the follower lasts much longer. I've found though, that once you get the hang of points, converting to electronic ignition isn't really worth the expense unless you're building a race engine. Tried it.

That blue is wonderful. Keep it.

Have I mentioned yet that this thread makes me happy?

Sponge!
Dec 22, 2004

SPORK!

EvilDonald posted:

converting to electronic ignition isn't really worth the expense unless you're building a race engine. Tried it.

Ermm... $70 is too much? http://www.carparts.com/PERTRONIX-B...p=10618-2005140

MrSaturn
Sep 8, 2004

Go ahead, laugh. They all laugh at first...
I don't think I can possibly relate how much you want to use a Pertronix setup on your truck. It will make all the differenct. My corvair runs buttery smooth now that i've got the Pertronix installed. LobsterboyX has it on all of his 'mobiles, too.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Or, if the distributor is mechanically compatible, you can grab the HEI distributor for a '75-up truck and drop it in.

Doing this on my truck when I had the old carbed 350 was probably far and away the best $ spent / performance gained I've ever spent, by a long shot. Quicker down at the track, 2MPG better around town, and it actually liked to start.

Megillah Gorilla
Sep 22, 2003

If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.



Bread Liar
This is easily my favourite thread in AI. It's mesmerising watching this grand old truck come back to life.

Ishamael
Feb 18, 2004

You don't have to love me, but you will respect me.
Great thread, can't wait to see it all come together.

Skyssx
Feb 2, 2001

by T. Fine
I read this thread when you first posted it, figured the truck was too far gone and checked on it again today. You've done an amazing job so far, don't stop!

Dr. Chim Richalds
Oct 21, 2008

The Popular One

Gorilla Salad posted:

This is easily my favourite thread in AI. It's mesmerising watching this grand old truck come back to life.

Totally agree with this. I check for updates daily.

Cronus
Mar 9, 2003

Hello beautiful.
This...is gonna get gross.
I repainted my old Datsun pickup that same dark blue and it is indeed great. I love this project!

Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

MrSaturn posted:

I don't think I can possibly relate how much you want to use a Pertronix setup on your truck. It will make all the differenct. My corvair runs buttery smooth now that i've got the Pertronix installed. LobsterboyX has it on all of his 'mobiles, too.

IOwnCalculus posted:

Or, if the distributor is mechanically compatible, you can grab the HEI distributor for a '75-up truck and drop it in.

I put a pertronix module in my Beetle and I absolutely love it.

Just remember to keep a set of points with you (in the rare case that it fails, it'll just be plain dead), and don't leave the ignition on without starting it. If you need to troubleshoot wiring or something, just pull the coil wire. The coil likes to fry the pertronix, supposedly.

Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Aug 14, 2009

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





I believe it. If I was working on a vehicle where an actual factory HEI wasn't an option, a Pertronix would've been my next choice.

MrSaturn
Sep 8, 2004

Go ahead, laugh. They all laugh at first...

Hypnolobster posted:

I put a pertronix module in my Beetle and I absolutely love it.

Just remember to keep a set of points with you (in the rare case that it fails, it'll just be plain dead), and don't leave the ignition on without starting it. If you need to troubleshoot wiring or something, just pull the coil wire. The coil likes to fry the pertronix, supposedly.

Mine was the other way around. Don't spend the $100 on the fancy flamethrower coil with the pertronix. Mine fried withing a month, and I swapped back to my $16 POWER-DEVIL-COIL-AT-ANY-SPEED from the parts store and it worked fine.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.
Weird. I swapped my '66 F100 over to the Duraspark off an...'81 I believe, and didn't notice a lick of difference other than not having to adjust the points. I didn't have it dynoed, but the butt-dyno didn't tell me anything really, and I got the same 20mpg I did before.

Then the Duraspark broke and I put the points dizzy back in.

If the Pertronix works that well and is that cheap (the cheapest I'd found was about $200, but that was fifteen years ago to be fair), it may be worth a shot. But honestly, if this isn't a daily driver, I'd likely still leave the points in.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


I installed the Pertronix & one of their coils in my 66 Bonneville last spring. Total cost was about $130.00. I've noticed a definite increase in acceleration & ease of starting. I kept the points & condensor just in case, but have no regrets.

This is an inspired and inspiring project. My son & I are in the middle of reassembling a '68 Beetle from a '70 and various used & resto parts to make his first car. Weather, work & waiting on parts have slowed us up some; this thread keeps my edge up.

LobsterboyX
Jun 27, 2003
I want to eat my chicken.
i have nothing but good things to say about pertronix. i have a unit in 2 of my cars that i drive regularly. i installed one in my 58 cadillac over 4 years ago now and there hasnt been even a hiccup in the system. i recently upgraded my 48 buick and again, could not be happier.

Kaptainballistik
Nov 2, 2005

Why ask me ? I cant understand me either!
Ive been thinking of the paintjob....... See, To be truly oldschool you must paintbrush the thing.

But Im assuming you have a life.

2 Pac cant be beat for durability but it will look too plastiky So I thought why dont you brush on a layer of Hifil and sand it back so its still slightly "Brushy" then spraypaint it.

Light cutback and presto.

Comedy option of spraying the car in matt red tinted to look like lead oxide primer , Paint over with blue and sand back so it looks like it does now.

It still needs a paxton supercharger however.....

trouser chili
Mar 27, 2002

Unnngggggghhhhh

IOwnCalculus posted:

I believe it. If I was working on a vehicle where an actual factory HEI wasn't an option, a Pertronix would've been my next choice.

I was looking at HEI for the Scout, but it's $450! Taking the pickup to HEI was only $220. So the Scout is going Pertronix to get rid of that drat risky-rear end gold box.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.

trouser chili posted:

I was looking at HEI for the Scout, but it's $450! Taking the pickup to HEI was only $220. So the Scout is going Pertronix to get rid of that drat risky-rear end gold box.

If those are anyhting like the risky-rear end Chrysler gold boxes from the '70s, you can dramatically increase their life by adding a chassis ground wire to them. You'd think the mounting screws would be good enough, but get a little rust and bye-bye. If they lose their ground they burn up. Run a wire from the chassis of the module directly to a good solid chassis ground, not just a sheet metal screw.

Hell, it's cheap and worth a shot, right? It works on Mopars, it may work on your Scout. There's a decent chance it's nearly the same drat gold box.

FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009
best option is to use a urethane enamel primer and paint with at least two coats of clear.

It's tough as nails, and looks great.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


EvilDonald posted:

Hell, it's cheap and worth a shot, right? It works on Mopars, it may work on your Scout. There's a decent chance it's nearly the same drat gold box.

As an old Mopar monk, I say screw the ballast resistor.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Well then, I guess I am going to add a Pertronix to my enormous shopping list, once I eventually get an engine. I called the old guy again about an engine, to which he replied that it had been raining every night so his field was still flooded. Catch being, It only rained 2 days during that 2 week period. I am going to give this guy a few more weeks then I will probably buy one online and get it freighted in.

Anyway, I didn't feel like welding so I started looking into the speedometer/odometer. I can now confirm that I have no idea how many miles the truck has done. One of the teeth on the gear for the odometer is broken, and who knows when that broke. Also when I hooked the speedometer to a drill, the needle bounced around and there was a grinding noise coming from inside. Hopefully it will be an easy fix, but I doubt it. Hopefully the gauge from the parts truck works.



After putting off repairing the doors, I gave in and started on them. The bottom edges on the inside of both doors were rusted out along with a few holes on the outer skin toward the bottom. I replaced the riveted patch on the spare door with a welded in patch. I didn't get the contour quite right so it is sitting too low in some spots. A little filler and it should be alright, hopefully.

Before:




After:


And I took some polishing compound to the cowl on the cab. After seeing that, I am sold on that color blue. The red strip is primer. I lightly put a piece of painters tape there, and when I peeled it up it pulled the paint right off. Oops.



As for the interior, I think I have picked out a good color. Rustoleum 7272 Dark Bronze Metallic. It is very close to stock and I quite like it. The interior was painted a teal color at one point which I have zero desire to see again. The only problem with the 7272 is that it is only available in rattle cans. I am not going to paint the interior for a few weeks, so if anyone has some recommendations I am all ears.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Well, progress has been slow lately, mainly due to the heat. Mid 90's with high humidity = slow going.

I tried to stay inside as much as possible, so I fixed up the steering wheel and painted the door components and the backs of the window garnish.

To fix the cracks I filled them into a V shape and filled them with JB Weld. I then sanded it down level. To paint it Krylon Fusion gloss black was used. I probably should have sanded some areas a bit more, but overall I think it looks better than before. Plus my hands no longer become black when I handle it.


(The bright areas are just the camera flash)

I also went through and started grinding all my welds smooth. Here are the welds ground down with a thin coat of cheap rattle can black:



Sadly I am getting the same overwhelmed feeling I got midway through repairing the cab again. This time it is the paint overwhelming me. I was originally planning on just using a paint eater disc to strip the panels the bare metal. The body guy I had stop by shot that down. He told me I had to have the parts media blasted. As annoying as lugging the cab and fenders around is going to be, I am probably going to have to do it. I tested the paint disc on a rusty area of the cab, and this is what happened:



You can still see the rust inside the dimples.

Once I have the parts down to bare metal, I have no idea what to do. Suggestions?

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Toucan Sam
Sep 2, 2000

Mooecow posted:

Once I have the parts down to bare metal, I have no idea what to do. Suggestions?

Self etching primer to prevent it from rusting again is the first priority.

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