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11-11-2009 01:24 AM JB's 37 Pickup This will be my last entry for several weeks and that's a good thing after the disaster yesterday. I have been hitting it pretty hard to have the truck ready for the upholstery shop so yesterday was get the brakes bled and fire up for the cam break in. I cut to length the head light wires, hook up the front turn signals and the horn, and put the spiral wrap on all the wires and tied them in place. I did a rough toe in check and then pushed the truck out side for the fire up. It fired up perfectly and started accelerating to 2000 rpm when the new fan went sailing into the new Griffin radiator with new antifreeze blowing ever where. Talk about two sick puppies!!! I could not figure out why until I looked at the fan pulley with the flange intact, but not attached to the water pump shaft. When we installed the radiator and grill shell, it was obvious we needed to move the fan back another half inch to get the proper hood/grill/cowl clearances. JB jumped right in there and removed the fan and took the 2 inch spacer to his machinist friend to cut it down. The next morning, he came in early and had it on before I arrive. I never looked at it and never gave it another thought. Big mistake!!! When he put the fan back on, he used the old bolts and Yep, they became a good puller for the pressed on pulley flange!!! I asked JB why he did not stop forcing the bolts when they came in contact with the water pump housing. He said they were not that bad since he was alternately tightening them. He only pulled the flange about 85% off and the reving did the rest!!! An expensive lesson for him and a discouraging two days for me. I will come back from my hunting trip all fresh and rested up for the final throw. I just hope JB takes a break too!!! Trees   [Entry #67]

11-09-2009 01:09 AM JB's 37 Pickup Still no new pics. The hood, grill shell, radiator and inner fenders are finally installed. We have been going back and checking several little things and stopping a few minor leaks. Every thing but the brakes are serviced and I did a quick fire up of the motor this AM. We will service and bleed the new brakes first thing tomorrow and then push it outside for the cam break in. The exhaust system is on so this will not be a noisy affair. When that is done and the timing is checked and carb tweaked, we will run it up the drive way a couple of times to see how it is going to steer. I will do a poor boys alignment (set the toe in and see how bad the camber is before JB drives it to the upholstery shop. I started building up the passenger door, but quit to take the wife to dinner. I can get them done in a couple of hours and that is the last thing I plan to do before knocking off for a month of hunting. The fenders, running boards and head lights will just have to wait. Trees   [Entry #66]

11-07-2009 02:12 AM JB's 37 Pickup Finally got the Power Steering Hoses completed and the Air Conditioning is complete except for the leak check and charge. Transmission cooler lines are hooked up and 5 quarts of tranny fluid has been installed, waiting for engine start up. This is a brand new motor and the cam has not been broken in so we will have to do that and complete the tranny service at the same time. The radiator is hooked up, but is not bolted in completely since I am still tweaking the hood, grill shell, cowl and inner fender alignment. I should complete that tomorrow. I wanted to start on it fresh. All the interior carpet is installed and I will do the final install on the steering wheel in the morning. After reviewing some of the old pictures of the truck before dis-assembly, I noticed the hood/inner fenders did not match up very well at all and decided the inner fenders are not the right ones for this truck. I solved the problem by adding 3/4 of an inch of metal to the bottom of them and relocated the holes. Now they are starting to get close to what they should be. Hopefully, I can start the build up of the doors tomorrow after noon. I think they will be ready to hang Monday. Regardless, we will start and drive the truck Monday or Tues. Keep your fingers crossed!! Trees   [Entry #65]

11-05-2009 01:29 AM JB's 37 Pickup Another entry with no photos. The bed is bolted in place and the flooring is in. The wind shield wipers are complete and going. I have been dealing with the hood, cowl, radiator and inner fender install. The radiator is very close to it's final resting place. The hood panels have been on and off several times and the 4 pieces are finally together for the last time. The inner fenders have been in place several times as well. We had to loosen the bolts holding the cab on and remove a thick shim in the front and kick the back up to let the front part of the cab come down onto the frame farther. This trick resulted in much better hood to cowl match up as well as getting the inner fenders closer to their final resting place. However, it effectively pushed the steering shaft back about an inch and a half so I will have to grind off my spot welds and shorten the shaft appropriately and re-tack. Finally got tired of messing with it and went to solving the power steering hose issue. JB made two trips to the local hose build up place and they still do not have it right. They have to reputation of being the local experts but so far, they have been clueless. They can not be convinced that the later M II power racks had 0 ring seals vice the old flared fitting of the 74-76. Guess I will have to visit the junk yard to find the fittings and take them to the geniuses for rebuilding. I also finished building and installing all the A/C lines. Still need to drill one hole for the A/C condensate hose to exit the cab: a 3 min job. All the electrical work has been checked out so we are ready to seal up the channel and finish installing the floor. When this is done, JB will install the carpet and the kick panels and hook up the speakers so we can ops check the sound system. As soon as I get the hood/radiator/inner fenders in place, I will jump to building up the doors so every thing will be ready for the upholstery guy. This will take place while I am gone so the only thing left will be installing the running boards and fenders and head lights. We will start the motor in a couple of days to see if there are any pressing issues and hopefully JB can get a Bud to come by and evacuate and charge the A/C as well. Before Christmas for completion is looking better every day!!! If so, this will be a 10 month build: the fastest I have ever done. Trees   [Entry #64]

11-01-2009 01:57 PM JB's 37 Pickup Still not settled my resizing of pictures issues so will have to wait. There are plenty of shots in the camera though. I have all the wiring completed under the dash and have checked every thing out. All that is left to do is put the cover on the fabricated channel that carries all the wires to the big panel under the seat and installing the front and rear lights. Thanks to some help from HR.com, I have the latest GM 5 wire alternator hooked up. The wind shield is installed along with the last piece of the dash. All the lines to the Vintage air are hooked up on the inside so the covered kick panels with speakers installed are ready to go in, but will wait until the A/C has been leak checked before doing that. I have the A/C dryer mounted (made a bracket and bolted it to the MII cross member just in front of the motor mount which keeps it away from the exhaust manifold heat and in line with the lines in/out of the condenser on the Griffin radiator. I will run the rest of the A/C lines Monday when we set the radiator and grill shell. We did a quick check of clearances with the grill shell and radiator and hood panels to see how things were lining up. The bed is buffed and ready to be set on the frame for flooring and lighting to be installed. That will happen either this after noon or Monday. I have started the windshield wiper installation and that will be finished today. Installing the Specialty Power Windows wiper kit can be a royal PITA in these old trucks because of the small space and twists and turns you have to put the tubing through. I turned down a piece of aluminum bar stock, drilled a 3/8" hole through it and then polished while still in the lathe. I made two 20* cuts 1.5 " apart and then made the 90* cuts to give me a pair of 3/4" spacers to provide the wiper transmission shaft alignment perpendicular to the windshield angle. With some luck, we may have the truck ready for the upholstery before I leave for my annual hunting trip!!!! Trees   [Entry #63]

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