John Austin Motorworks

The Orphan Goes Home

mechanic55 — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 00:06:16 +0000

It was a long year but the orphaned '50 Chevy 3100 is finally going home to it's owner. Here are a few photos as we bid adieu...

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The Last Details on the ’50 Chevy Truck

mechanic55 — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 19:30:23 +0000

We're down to the final details on this '50 Chevy Truck project. It's no longer looking like the orphan it was when it came to the shop about a year ago.

We actually (test) drove it to the exhaust shop to get the side exit tail pipe fabbed and installed. Ran great with the 'new' Carter YF carb - a night and day difference from the old dual Rochester setup. Lot's of thumbs up from other drivers.

Another small detail: Color coordinated bed rail plugs

You wouldn't think headlight trim rings would be hard to install. Normally they're not, unless the rest of the headlight assembly needs some work. We started with a pair missing rubber seals. These can affect, just a little, how far they fit into the fender opening which, in turn, affects trim fitment.

Missing rubber headlight assembly seals cab affect final fit.

Aftermarket retainer clips had to be bent and parts of the bucket assemblies repaired. Finally, the sheet metal tabs around the fender openings were massaged out slightly with a rubber mallet from the back side.

A combination of all these tiny fixes and 'adjustments' allowed the headlight trim rings to go on and be secured as they should.

Headlight assemblies installed: Check!

The last significant project within this project was to finish the wheels. They had purchased Artillery style wheels from Coker Tire & Wheel years ago. They have chrome barrels or hoops and primer gray centers that need to be painted.

A variety of center caps can be used. There were 4 boxes in the collection of parts with smoothie caps - like baby moons. Unfortunately, one left the supplier (years ago) with the wrong cap in the box (of course). Matching caps are on eternal back order (of course). The owner has chosen a complete new and different set from what they have available right now. Anyone need these?

Mismatched center caps. Part numbers on the boxes are correct but we have one '41-'47 cap (left) and three '47-'53 caps (right).

Meanwhile, the owner has decided to he wants the wheels to match the body color on the rest of the truck.

After washing the wheels and tires thoroughly, I started the arduous task of masking all the chrome around each of the 14 spoke wheels.

Since the back side of the wheels aren't seen (but still need protection) I decided to coat them with some Hot Rod Black I had on the shelf. They would be painted first.

Wheels masked and prepped for paint

The first step is to lay down some gray sealer and then the black was sprayed.

Sealer coat over factory primer

Hot Rod Black finishes the back side. It will dry to a nice satin finish.

The next day, the wheels were flipped over to do their face with base-coat/clear-coat. Again, the first step was sealer followed by three coats of base color and three coats of clear. Trying to get paint into all the nooks and crannies around each spoke was tricky and time consuming for each coat.

Base coated to match the truck followed by 3 coats of clear

The best part of painting is unmasking everything...

Wheel backs look great!

Painted wheel faces look even better!

Once the new center caps arrive, this old truck should be ready to send home...

The post The Last Details on the ’50 Chevy Truck appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

The Final Countdown…

mechanic55 — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 03:16:40 +0000

It's the final countdown on the '50 Chevy pickup. Our last post ended with hanging the front clip sheet metal. Guys that work on these trucks will tell you aligning everything in the front clip can be a real challenge. They're not kidding.

I spent the better part of three days pushing, prodding, and coaxing to try and get things to line up as it should. For me, I encountered two or three major issues - so, you do the best you can and let the rest go.

The first step is the hood. It's got to be aligned to the cowl and body and everything else aligns to the hood. Our hood was a little 'fubared'. From what I could tell, at some point, the entire truck was sand blasted. There was evidence of a very aggressive 'tooth' left behind on the inside of the fenders and underside of the hood. (Sand still falls out of cab seams). There's nothing wrong with media blasting as part of the restoration process but you've got to be very careful. Panels can be warped, damaged, and even ruined pretty quickly.

I believe warpage occurred on the bed sides and, unfortunately, on the hood. There's no flange at the rear of the hood - it's just flat metal. The rear edge on the drivers side was warped downward (and built-up with body filler to restore some crown) and the passenger side warped upwards. There was no fixing that side. The metal was stretched and there's too much crown.

The adjustment procedure is to get the hood to fit as tight as possible against the anti-squeak rubber strip across the cowl and have an an even gap all around. I did the best I could, considering the damage.

The fenders and grille align to the hood depending on a number of things, including shims under the radiator core support. Every bolt (and there are a lot of them) needs to be loose so panels can be pushed around if even only a little bit. On day three I found the next issue.

There's a factory spec for how high the cab sits off the frame at the front and rear cab mounts. It's basically 3/4" to 13/16" (the factory specified in 64ths of an inch!) measured from the cab floor or floor brace and the top of the frame rail. The last time someone set the cab on the frame they used a rubber pad/shim at the front mounts (putting them within specs), but used nothing at the rear mounts. The cab was basically tilting down in the back a good 1/4". Seven feet away, where the front clip mounts to the frame below the radiator, that angle translates into inches of misalignment.

The fix was to unbolt the rear of the cab, jack it up, and insert 1/4" rubber shims to raise and correct it.

Rear cab mounts are shimmed to bring cab to frame spacing into spec. This affects front sheet metal alignment.

The driver side fender aligned easy-peasy. I had to all but remove the passenger side inner (splash) fender to push the passenger side fender back where I wanted it. It took two of us - one to push and the other to tighten a couple of bolts to hold it in place.

The firewall to fender support rods were missing from the parts collection. These are crucial in supporting and positioning the fenders - they kinda pull back and up on the fenders. The rear of the fenders are then pushed up (they only move a tiny bit) to close up the gap to the hood.

Two firewall to fender strut rods help keep the front clip in alignment

With the fronts of the fenders aligned with the leading edge of the hood, all the bolts are tightened. Incidentally, someone had used common zinc plated bolts and washers from the hardware store - which looked totally out of place to me. I swapped in nearly 50 black body bolts (SEM style) with integrated washers. They look much better, IMO. A couple of large fender braces were found in the collection and also installed.

The final piece of the puzzle is to set and adjust the hood latch.

Decent hood to fender gaps and alignment.

SEM style body bolts look the part and are easier to work with

Since they were never really finished, the inside of both front fenders got the blackout treatment.

Inside of fenders are blacked out for looks and some corrosion protection

Wiring for the front and rear lighting was completed and tested A-OK. Yaaaay! The rear bumper was bolted back in place. These were parts found in the collection and reused. Though the chrome is marred in a few spots, it looks good. The large gap between the bumper and truck bed is a little funky. An aftermarket panel is available to fill this in but it's not something that came on the trucks originally.

With wiring complete, the rear bumper is installed

I fabricated a bracket to install a stainless steel coolant overflow/recovery tank. As you might recall, someone had installed a plastic jug on the firewall that was just plain ugly. This tank will collect anything the radiator might burp out and return it as needed.

I made a bracket from a scrap of stainless angle I've had sitting on the shelf for years. The stainless steel coolant recovery tank is compact and mounted next to the radiator. Looks good!

When I went to install the front bumper brackets I found that they interfered with the front upper shock mounts.

One of the first things I removed from the truck when it came in was a failed attempt at rack and pinion steering. Apparently, part of that installation involved moving the shock mount forward on the frame presumably to make room for the R&P tie rods. Now the bumper brackets won't fit.

Upper shock mounts in the 'wrong' position

Someone had cut and knocked out the rivets that originally held them to the frame. Fortunately, their boogery welds didn't put up much of a fight. I sliced a couple of weld beads and the good 'ol 'Chief' air hammer knocked the brackets off with ease.

Air hammer/chisel knocked the brackets off, lickedy-split,

One of the mounts had a bad crack in it that I didn't notice till after spraying a little paint on it. It was welded up and repainted.

Crack in upper shock mount

Both mounts were bolted back onto the frame in their original position using grade 8 fasteners. We're good, right? Not so fast. The shocks they installed were now too long. Couldn't install them without them bottoming out. The correct length shock was ordered. But hey, now I was able to install the front bumper brackets.

Upper shock mounts bolted to frame with grade 8 fasteners

Bumper brackets, bumper, and a chrome plated filler panel (from the collection) went on smoothly. The front is nearly complete except for the headlamp trim.

The front end is 99.9% complete. Need some bits to finish the headlight trim.

The original stainless headlamp trim rings were a little worse for wear: dings, scratches, broken welds. Some time was spent repairing and improving their appearance without going overboard. You could spend a lot of time working on them and it doesn't appear these are being reproduced. Just polishing them on the buffer wheel made a big difference.

There's supposed to be a special rubber seal with a wire core that goes around the inside of each bezel and some funky spring retaining clips hold them in place and to the fender. They were ordered and installed but the rings refuse to fit as they should. I believe it's because a rubber seal is missing behind each headlight bucket (shocker). The seal would also space the bucket out from the fender a little, allowing the rings to fit correctly. We'll see when the seals arrive.

Headlight trim ring, seal, and fiddly retainers

Polished headlight bezel: restored to used/driver quality

Really, all that's left is to finish the exhaust (a tail pipe), paint the center of the wheels (came in primer), and finish a few little details.

The post The Final Countdown… appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

Broad Strokes & Fine Details

mechanic55 — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 23:38:45 +0000

With the wood bed floor of the '50 Chevy truck finished and assembled we can get on with the broader 'brushstrokes' of assembly and the fine details within.

The fenders, running boards, and tail gate are next in line and require lots of nuts, bolts, and washers. I employed a combination of plain and stainless steel fasteners for looks and corrosion resistance.

The running boards were loosely bolted to their brackets - they're mostly in a fixed position with no adjustment. The fenders were bolted to the bed sides using button head SS bolts.

Button head screws attach fenders to bed sides

During an earlier mockup, the contour where the running board and rear fender meet and bolt together was markedly different. I fabbed and installed a black foam gasket between the two (originally they were paper). Once the bolts were installed and tightened, the fender was sucked into the contour for a nice tight fit without a gap - a pleasant surprise.

Running board to fender fitment with foam seal

There are filler panels between the running boards and bed sides in front of the fenders (called aprons) that go in with some hidden fasteners and a bracket. Each side was a little different (different year or original and aftermarket) but we made them work. A lot of fiddling and working in tight spaces under the truck. I applied a non-original piece of weatherstrip between the top of each apron and the bottom of the bed side. This filled the gap and made for a cleaner appearance.

Fenders and running boards are bolted in place, along with the aprons.

The running boards were already drilled for step plates but the old ones found in a box of parts were in pretty rough shape. New step plates were installed.

Aluminum step plates help protect the running boards

I also applied 3 aerosol cans of black stone guard (like undercoat) to the inside of both fenders for appearance and protection.

Here's the unfinished side of one fender. Someone sprayed some black paint but there are areas of bare metal. The stone guard will black everything out (including fasteners) and help protect the bare metal.

I assumed (ha, ha, ha!) the tail gate would fit without issues but, no. First off I discovered that when they slathered body filler over the entire bed assembly they partially filled one of the holes for the tail gate hook - and then painted over it without cleaning it out. The hook wouldn't fit through the hole.

Out came the die grinder and bit to clean it out - which means paint touch-up later.

BEFORE: Partially filled and painted hole

AFTER: Ground out body filler. Now it has to be painted again.

The inside of the tail gate was in poor shape. It looked like it had been set on a paint stand while the clear coat was still fresh. The finish was marred and there was primer stuck to it at the contact points.

I used some 2500 grit paper, compound, and a polisher to clean it up and look respectable.

Some major paint defects are 'corrected' inside the tail gate

A pair of new chrome hinges secure the bottom of the tail gate. However it would not close without the top corner interfering with the passenger bed side. Of course.

The fix? A rubber mallet was used to coax the very rear edge of the bed side out very slightly. Then a grinder was used to remove some excess metal from the corner of the tail gate. It sounds medieval (and was) but it had to be done. It actually looks better and more finished (less crude) than the other side. What's important is it closes without scraping the bed side.

No pics but what followed was lots of masking and touch-up painting with base color and clear to finish the repairs. But that's okay 'cause I was painting other stuff anyway.

The truck came to us with trailer lights out back. There's no way they were going on. Nope. A proper pair of original style lights were called for and I took it one step further by taking them apart to paint the black housings to match the rest of the truck.

Tail lights were disassembled and the housings painted body color to match

Chrome tail light brackets also add a little bling to the booty. Tail gate chains/hooks were cleaned up and reused with fresh chain covers.

Tail of the truck is coming together

Stainless button heads and accorn nuts for a finished look. Color keyed lights match the rest of the truck.

...Even threw on the old Texas plate.

We needed an air cleaner for our 'new' single carburetor. There was an old oil bath air cleaner in the parts collection. I didn't want to run an oil bath because they're messy to maintain.

So, I cut it apart inside and modified it to take a conventional paper filter element. The idea is to look somewhat old school, but work new school. I stripped the old paint before applying a fresh coat of the gloss black that we've used in other areas.

Old oil bath air cleaner

Guts cut up (some bits in background) and modified to accept a paper filter element

What's old is new again?

Back on the carb - should do for now...

And, to round things out, the front clip was loosely bolted back in place. Next, I'll go through a procedure to align the hood to the cowl and fenders. Nothing was aligned when the truck came to us. Fingers crossed!

The front clip is 'craned' back into place

Stay tuned! We've got bumpers, front and rear wiring for lighting, and lotsa little details to go.

The post Broad Strokes & Fine Details appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 3)

mechanic55 — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 01:27:51 +0000

In our last post I'd started sealing the oak boards with epoxy. The biggest issue during that process was most of the boards expelled air during the cure and blew little bubbles into the sealer. Some boards were worse than others, depending on the grain.

I tried everything I could think of to reduce or eliminate the phenomenon. Temperature may have played a role. I brushed on the epoxy early in the day when it was 75 degrees or so. Two or three hours later it would be 85 or 90 and that's when the eruptions would start.

I tried keeping them cool - without success. For the top, visible surface my final experimental technique was to let the boards warm up, apply a single coat in the heat of the day, then squeegee the excess epoxy off. That probably worked the best, though still not bubble-free. I just popped them with a torch when they appeared.

After two or three days of cure time I scuffed the face with a red Scotch-brite pad and shot three coats of automotive clear. The clear should provide some UV protection. They're not glass smooth, but instead allow the texture of the grain to come through - some of which is quite course and interesting.

Scuff the epoxy to kill the gloss and give the clear coat something to grab on to

Boards were clear coated with automotive paint for UV protection

Meanwhile, the Carter YF 966s carbureter (rebuildable core) arrived a week after ordering it from The Carburetor Shop in Missouri along with a rebuild kit. Hey, and it had the correct throttle linkage and choke bracket.

Carter YF 966s core specimen

It was a little crusty on the inside, which is to be expected. The worse part was the cast iron throttle body and butterfly valve which had some rust buildup, and a plugged vacuum passage. Inside there's a metering rod, a couple of jets, check balls, and various springs. I had to boil the fuel bowl in water on the kitchen stove in order to free-up and remove the accelerator pump plunger and housing.

Crud and light corrosion on the inside

Some delicate and fiddly bits inside the vintage carb

I used an ultrasonic cleaner and various 'cleaning agents' over several cycles to get the pieces to be reused clean again.

Ultrasonic cleaner used to speed up the rebuild process

Good ol' white vinegar and sonic waves dissolved the stubborn rust on throttle body. Once the tiny vacuum passage was cleared, the carb was reassembled with new gaskets, float needle/seat, and accel pump. Various adjustments are made on the bench.

Carb reassembled with new parts from the kit

Fresh screws supplied with the kit finish the job on this Carter YF

I bolted the rebuilt carb to the manifold and made some tweaks and changes to the linkage till it fully opened and closed smoothly.

I also fabbed a new section of hard fuel line from the glass filter.

Carb installed on the 'new-old' manifold and insulator from our donor chassis

The only thing left was to feed it some fuel - and with that it fired right up. After a couple of adjustments, it seemed to idle perfectly - like a sewing machine. The best part is when you crack the throttle there's no stumble and hesitation like the old dual Rochester's. (And no fuel leaks!)

Still have to drive it to confirm but I think we have a win. The owner should be much happier with this setup. Back to the bed!

There's around 70 polished stainless steel carriage bolts that hold the floor boards and stainless steel strips together - plus lock washers, flat washers, and nuts. Someone lost count putting this kit together - only got 1 of 14 large split lock washers...

Fasteners to assemble the bed floor - all stainless

I decided to lower the fuel tank so I'd have access to a cross member above the tank, and assemble the bed floor on the truck (rather than remove the bed). The outer boards are the narrowest and go on first. Most all the fasteners will be installed finger tight so the spacing of the boards can be adjusted later.

Tank is lowered several inches for access and boards and strips are installed

Board by board, strip by strip, I worked my way towards the center. A piece of tape holds the carriage bolts in place while working from underneath to add washers and nuts to each.

Boards and stainless strips are installed with carriage bolts. Tape helps hold each bolt in place while working underneath.

Installing two washers and a nut on a bolt up inside four different cross members was the trickiest. There's not much room for fingers or visibility. I slipped a small piece of heater hose over a 7/16" socket to hold each nut and washer 'pack' to get them started on the carriage bolts. Some go on fast, some don't.

'DIY Tool' to help install washer and nut packs on hard to reach carriage bolts

Bolts that don't go through a cross member just get a large fender washer, lock washer, and nut. Most of these go on easily by hand. Here's what things look like underneath when finished...

View of the bed boards, fasteners, and cross members (aka sills) from underneath

Once they're all in place you can adjust the spacing of the boards and strips slightly for appearance. Then it's back underneath to tighten all the nuts.

The fuel tank was then raised and bolted back into place. The fuel filler is accessed through the billet aluminum flip-up door. Just insert the pump nozzle - no need to remove the cap.

Bed floor is fully installed

Flip-up billet aluminum fuel door

Next up: fenders and running boards...

The post Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 3) appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 2)

mechanic55 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 01:24:54 +0000

In part 1 of "Make Your Bed...!" I mentioned that the filler neck on the fuel tank was going to have to be relocated. That's because with the bed floor and stainless strips in place the fill neck on the tank was going to interfere with a strip where it needs to come up through the floor.

Also, once the bed floor is in place there's no way to clamp and secure the fancy fill cap that came in with the truck to the short hose and neck. It might not be impossible, but it would be very difficult. In a sense, the entire bed and tank would all become connected so either removing the tank or bed later become's a royal pain for someone. And there's no margin for error on placement if an adjustment needs to be made later.

The solution was to move the tank fill neck so that it is centered on the middle board AND hide it under a flip-up door so that neither are physically attached to each other.

After taking careful measurements, the first step was to prep the tank to receive a bolt-on filler neck from Tanks, Inc.

Holes are marked and drilled for the new fill neck

A 2" carbide tip hole saw was used to make the requisite hole. A little grease on the hole saw will not only lube the blade but also catch a lot of the metal chips.

Hole saw is used to make a 2" hole. Grease lubes the saw and catches a lot of metal chips.

A little cleanup and deburring and our hole is ready for the new filler neck. We also used a vacuum and compressed air to clean out debris.

Tank is about ready for the bolt-on filler neck

Next, we cut off the original 1.5" filler neck that was brazed in place over in Taiwan. It just wasn't in the right place to work with our bed floor.

DISCLAIMER: Do NOT weld, grind, or otherwise generate sparks on any fuel tank that has had fuel in it! This tank was new.

The original tank filler neck is cut off

The coating is removed for welding

...And a round piece of sheet-metal is TIG welded over the hole to plug it.

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Some silver paint will touch up our welded patch and prevent rust.

With the new filler neck bolted in place with a gasket, the tank is reinstalled along with the sending unit. The neat thing about the filler cap is, it doesn't have to be removed to put gas in - just push the pump nozzle through the spring load flap.

Tank with relocated filler neck is installed back into the frame.

No need to remove this cap. Just push the pump nozzle through the center.

Now we can lay out on the center wood board where the access door should go and cut a hole for it...

Fuel fill door is located on the center board

Hole is cut for a billet aluminum fuel door

The final opening looks like this

Hidden fasteners mount the door. A magnetic 'push to open' popup thingy keeps it under control.

Billet fuel door is mocked up to board

Just flip up the door to add fuel

Meanwhile, the remanufactured Carter YF carburetor for a Chevy 235 engine we ordered from Florida showed up after 3 weeks. The problem is, it's wasn't for a Chevy engine. It only looked very similar to the correct one. Apparently they just grabbed a core that sorta looked like it should work - never mind it's actually for a Willy's Jeep.

A rebuilder sent a carb for a vintage Jeep, not a Chevy. (The linkage moves the wrong direction), They had nothing else. Maybe they hoped we wouldn't notice. Who knows?

The first clues were the throttle linkage was wrong. The choke cable bracket was different and in the wrong location. The original number stamped on the bowl was 2467s. My research showed it was intended for an AMC/Jeep 226. It could probably be adapted to function. So what to do?

One old-timer (Jon, retired owner of The Carburetor Shop in Eldon, MO and trusted expert on Carter carbs) is a member on the Stovebolt forum. He opined:

"The 2467 is SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT in calibrations than the 2100/2101 (Chevrolet). I would NOT run it on a Chevy 235"

Yeah, we don't need more runability problems. That's what we're trying to solve. National Carburetor in Florida offered no explanation or apology as to why they built/shipped what they did. But they did agree to take it back for a refund. So it went back.

Jon goes by the forum handle "Carbking". He really doesn't sell carburetors any more but later posted on the forum he found a YF 966s core. These were used on '50-'52 Chevy trucks with 235 engines. I called and bought it along with one of his rebuild kits. I trust him more than some eBay listing.

(A Carter YF model 788, 966, or 2100 would all be good candidates if you can find a good core).

While waiting on another carburetor I've turned my attention to finishing the oak bed floor boards. Satisfied with the stain color, the boards need to be sealed up and top coated for exterior exposure.

Have I mentioned I'm not a woodworker or finisher?

I'm sure some guys would happily apply a bazillion coats of marine grade varnish over several weeks. That would be fine if you have the time and enjoy redoing varnish finishes periodically - and don't mind taking the bed off and apart to do it each time. I don't think the owner wants that. So I'm trying something a little different: a product that will cure faster through chemical reaction rather than wait for solvents to evaporate.

Regardless of the final top coat the wood needs to be sealed against moisture. I'm using a two part penetrating epoxy sealer used for boat building and repairs. It should not only seal but act as a primer or tie coat for a final top coat.

Penetrating epoxy sealer

The grain structure varies quite a bit from board to board. I'm starting on the underside of the boards to see how the epoxy and oak behave. The course and porous grain of the oak soaks it up and then blows small bubbles back to the epoxy surface well into the cure. Not cool. I was hoping the first coat would stop this but it hasn’t. I guess bubbles are a common problem and I’m still experimenting with technique before doing the visible top side.

Notice the bubbles in the dark grain

I mentioned I'm not a woodworker or finisher, right?

Once I get it sealed to the point where it won't blow bubbles then I'll top coat it with automotive clear coat. This should provide the UV protection it needs to last a while. That's the plan anyway. The truck will spend most of it's time in a garage.

Second coat of epoxy sealer on back of boards. Each successive coat will look better.

The post Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 2) appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 1)

mechanic55 — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 18:36:45 +0000

The beds on these old trucks are made of steel, wood, and a couple hundred fasteners. The fenders bolt to the bed sides and the running boards which reside, more or less, in a fixed position. And it's all got to come together on a frame that was bent way out of shape in a previous life.

We got the frame straightened at a body shop and they got it much closer to what it's supposed to be, but not perfect.

The wood boards for the bed floor were stained once by someone but not finished. And they had gray primer overspray from sitting at another shop.

After sanding to clean them up I had to accurately locate and drill 20 holes in 4 of the boards. These are used to fasten boards to the bed sides at the angle brackets, and the entire bed to the truck frame. Some are countersunk for special offset and keyed washers for carriage bolts.

Outside bed floor boards are drilled

Outside boards have multiple holes for carriage bolts

To get the entire bed assembly to line up and mount on the frame better we had to 'tweak' one of the frame horns. This is the corner that had been wrecked. The bumper brackets also bolt to the frame horns so they need to align properly too.

A frame mod is in order

The end of the frame rail was sliced top and bottom, pushed to the right about 1/4", and tack welded in place. The bed was test fit again before the cuts were welded up solid.

Frame horn is sliced top and bottom

Frame horn is pushed into position

Opened slice is tack welded

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A little "chassis paint" touches up the welds

The fuel fill neck is going to interfere with a stainless strip on the bed floor so it will have to be relocated. While waiting on parts I test fit the fenders and running boards. The wheel/tire combo should fit without rubbing.

Wheel/tires should fit without rubbing the fenders or bed sides

The running boards mount to brackets on the frame. There is some in and out adjustment available but nothing front to rear. The rear of the running board bolts to the fender. There's not much leeway anywhere for disparate pieces to fit together correctly.

The right fender is not original - it's 'newer' - perhaps a reproduction. The left fender might be original. You can tell on the inside where it was dented and repaired. There was also a patch welded in - probably a rust repair.

Unfortunately, it was never drilled for the running board - just repaired and painted. So, using the other fender as a guide, a pattern was made and new holes were drilled.

Holes are missing where this fender was patched. The reinforcement piece indicates where the running board is on the outside.

I was able to (very) loosely bolt things together. Final assembly may be another story. One thing's for sure though. The fitment between the running boards and fenders will be poor. The contour of each piece is different. Like the doors, this is another example that illustrates the importance of fitting all the sheet metal pieces (new, old, or from donors) before going to body work and paint.

Running board to fender contours are similar but different

While waiting on parts the oak floor boards got a fresh coat of stain. I don't know what color was used on the first go around years ago but this time they got "Kona" by Varathane.

Varathane "Kona" stain

Next up: Fuel tank filler and bed floor mods...

The post Make Your Bed…! (Pt. 1) appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

Winning: One Skirmish at a Time…

mechanic55 — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 01:14:55 +0000

In our last post we removed the dual carbs and intake to swap them out and began fitting the wonky-sided bed.

The first steps were to fit the new stainless steel angle brackets to the inner bed sides. The edge of the bed wood floor attach to them and they also help strengthen the sheet metal bed sides. Originally, the brackets were spot welded to the sides but someone had removed them. Now, the new ones must be bolted in place.

I laid them out, measured, and drilled for a stainless button head bolt about every 16-1/2" or less in places. Two of the holes are shared with fender bolts. All of the fasteners on the outside will be hidden inside the fenders or stake pockets.

Stainless angle bracket is positioned and marked for drilling in a drill press

Once the brackets were drilled, it was time to drill new holes in the bed sides. Drilling through newly painted panels is always a little nerve wracking. I knew there had to be plastic body filler under this paint.

Drilling through paint and body filler till I hit metal

Lots of plastic body filler shavings!

To slow down rust and seal up the body filler (which absorbs water) I touched up each new hole with some enamel paint.

The edges of new holes are touched up with paint to slow rust

If you watched the video in our last post you'll recall one spot on the driver side where the bed was bowed-in pretty badly. The metal did not want to push out. With all the body filler, I was a little nervous about forcing things - I did not want it all to crack and fail. That would create a huge mess. Nevertheless, it needs to be flat for things to fit!

Bedside bowed in and does not want to move

There's some major 'gaposis' going on here!

To persuade it to move I placed a long 'two-by' board on the outside of the bed, as a backer, with a hole that corresponded with the hole in the bed side. I ran a bolt through everything with washers and a nut on the inside of the bed.

I slowly tightened the nut which put pressure on the metal. All of a sudden it went POP! and oil-canned out the opposite direction. The metal here is under a lot of stress and pressure (stretched from collision damage) but fortunately, the paint and filler remained intact. Phew! I could now get the angle bracket installed.

Looks crude and it was. Tape on the ends protected the paint.

The very front and rear bolts go into stake pockets and they're difficult to reach to install a nut. Here I used a SEM style nut that has a spinning washer built-in. The washer is compressed as it's tightened. I love these things but they're not super plentiful to source locally. The nut for the bolt in the front stake pocket is fairly easy with a long box wrench from the bottom.

SEM nuts with integrated spinning washer

On the front stake pocket, just put a nut on the end of a long box wrench and go up through the bottom

The nut for the rear bolt is trickier. The 'hole' lands on the edge of the sheet metal so there's not as much clamping surface. But the built-in washer on the nut should grab enough to hold. (If this wasn't already painted I would have welded a nut or threaded plate here). Also, there is no access from the back side - there's just the space below the hole to work through.

For this we have to get creative. I used an articulating ratcheting box wrench to hold the nut.

Anchor point for the rear of the bracket

Articulating wrench will hold the nut from the back side

With the bracket in place, I fished the wrench and nut through the small opening to hold it on the inside while starting the bolt. It's a little fiddly. Helps to hold your tongue just right. Once the bolt is tight you can pull the wrench out.

A wrench holds the nut while starting the button head bolt

Remember that spot that was oil-canned out and under pressure? I installed and tightened that bolt last. POP! It snapped back angrily against the angle bracket. No damage. There's still a small gap (bow out) between the bed side and angle strips near the front on either side. There's no way to hide a fastener here so we'll leave it be.

All of the wood bed boards and stainless strips were then test fit. (The strips appear blue in the photos because of a protective plastic film).

Remaining boards and stainless strips are test fit

The boards and strips fit as they should. Some of the oak boards appear dusty or gray in places. That's because they sat in a body shop for a year and managed to get primer overspray on them.

Boards and strips pass the test fit

Someone put one coat of stain on them prior but because they now have paint and scratches, they get another sanding. We need to knock the sharp edges down and then apply more stain followed by a protective top coat of varnish.

Boards sanded with 220 grit to prep them for refinishing

Meanwhile the one barrel carb intake from our donor chassis has come back from the sandblaster (our friends at Cascade Powder Coating) looking good as new.

Crusty and rusty manifold before

Manifold fresh from the sandblaster

Some high temperature 'Cast Iron' color paint will protect it before it's clamped back to the head with fresh grade 8 bolts. The exhaust header stove pipe and plate are reused from the Fenton intake. It's looking good!

Now we just need the vintage Carter YF carburetor from National Carburetor to top it off.

We also received the bolt-on wheel spacers that'll move our wheel/tire combo away from the bed sides. We don't want things rubbing anywhere.

Wheel spacer maintains the same bolt pattern and lug size

The next step is to nail down and finalize the final and exact resting place for the bed. As you'll recall, when the truck came in, we found the frame was severely bent from a prior wreck. We had it straightened by a body shop. They we able to get it close but not quite close enough. The ends of the frame horns, where the back of the bed is secured, are still a little off.

Also, I'm finding the fuel filler neck is going to interfere with one of the stainless bed strips so, it's looking like it'll have to be relocated. Of course. Stay tuned!

The post Winning: One Skirmish at a Time… appeared first on John Austin Motorworks.

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back?

mechanic55 — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:26:35 +0000

After our excursion to the muffler shop (on and off a trailer) it was clear the front brakes were dragging. The 2 lb. residual pressure valves plumbed into our brake lines shouldn't be an issue. So, I pulled the brake master cylinder to look for clues. There's a push rod inside the vacuum brake booster between the booster and master cylinder that you don't see when they're bolted together. They're usually adjustable in length. I failed to check the adjustment a long time ago while putting them together and assumed all was good. If the rod is too long, it will push the piston in the master cylinder and potentially cover a port that shouldn't be covered when your foot is off the brake. Fluid pressure isn't released. It's kinda like having the brakes applied all the time.

I used a special tool to measure the depth of the hole in the master. Once you find the depth, the rod is locked in place on the tool.

A brake booster adjustment tool is used to measure the length of the booster push rod. First, the depth of the piston hole is checked in the master and the rod locked in place.

Then you place the other end of the tool on the booster and see if the end of the push rod is too far in, out, or just right. Ideally it would just touch the end of the tool rod.

In this case the booster push rod was pushing the tool away. It was adjusted out about 1/4" too far!

The opposite end of the tool is placed against the brake booster to see where then end of the push rod falls. It's difficult to tell in this photo but the tool is being pushed away from the booster. It's adjusted out too far - probably the way it came. The adjustment will vary with the master cylinder bolted to it.

There's a hex on the end of the push rod with a lock nut below it. The whole rod wanted to spin after loosening the lock nut so I couldn't screw the rod end in farther to shorten it. I pulled the booster off and removed a retainer and rubber seal for better access on the bench. Sometimes the rods will just pull out the back but this one wouldn't.

With the end of the rod screwed all the way in it was still a hair too long. I had to file the lock nut to make it a little thinner - basically take all the adjustment out of the rod and then some. This allowed the piston in the master cylinder to return to it's proper resting position.

The brake brake booster push rod would have to be adjusted all the way in, and then some for proper clearance.

So, there you go - another lesson to never assume anything. The front brakes don't seem to drag now.

Some test driving around the field here and (ahem!) the neighborhood revealed continued and serious drivability issues. Under a load the engine would cough, sputter, and backfire badly - as if possessed. At other times it seemed perfectly behaved. The truck was definitely not drivable like this.

These engines rely on heated intake manifolds to help keep fuel atomized on its way to each cylinder. Originally, the exhaust manifold was bolted directly to the intake with passageways to direct hot exhaust where needed.

In this setup, a copper tube pipes hot exhaust from the headers to a chamber on the bottom of the Fenton intake (which is aluminum and will dissipate heat faster than cast iron). The question became, was it heating enough? The engine had been running remarkably cool with the stock 180* thermostat and electric fan.

A copper tube pipes exhaust from the headers to the bottom of the Fenton intake

As a test I installed a hotter coolant thermostat (195*). It definitely raised the overall engine temperature and that of the intake manifold on a warm day. And while it may have helped drivability slightly, the engine still coughed and sputtered under load. Just keeping the RPM's up was difficult.

That left the already sketchy Rochester carburetors as the likely culprits. Truck owners run dual carb setups all the time and they'll work fine if properly matched and tuned. After discussing options with the owner we came to the decision in this video clip - which I think will be a good one...

https://www.johnaustinmotorworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Three-Steps-Back_2.mp4

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Getting Exhausted…

mechanic55 — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 23:35:51 +0000

With the engine now running we can begin to see areas or systems that need some 'adjustment'. One of the first things noticed is that the transmission would not go into first or second gear while idling.

Remember, we're adapting the original clutch pedal, linkage, and clutch assembly to work with the T-5 transmission from an S10 truck so the geometry is a little different. The adjustment on the original linkage was just about maxed out and though it appeared to release the clutch, obviously it wasn't quite enough.

The solution was to take about an inch out of the clutch pedal to adjuster rod.

The original clutch pedal to clutch adjuster link rod from our donor chassis.

1.25" is cut out of the rod and welded back together

With this rod shortened, I found that the end of the threaded clutch fork adjuster interfered with our custom brake pedal linkage when the clutch was depressed.

So, an inch was cut off the end of the fork adjuster rod too. Clutch pedal free-play was set and voilà, proper gear selection with the engine running was restored.

Modified rods installed and adjusted

These trucks didn't come with turn signals. Someone had retrofitted an aftermarket switch for hot rods and I reworked the connection to plug into our new harness. It just mounts to the steering column with an ugly worm gear hose clamp, but I dressed it up for a nicer appearance. The interior is now 99.9% complete.

Generic 'hot rod' turn signal switch has an indicator built in.

I wanted to get an exhaust system at least started so that the truck could be moved around without so much 'fanfare' (noise). So I visited one of my favorite local muffler shops and got in line on their schedule.

While waiting our turn we assessed what we had or didn't have for bed parts. We had a painted box, some wood, and some old hardware which needed to be replaced. I ordered up some polished stainless bed strips and fasteners to put the bed together.

Originally there were angled metal strips spot welded to each bed side from the factory. Someone removed them and went to great lengths to bodywork the panels flat for paint. Now we've got to attach the new stainless ones, more or less 'invisibly'. I have a plan.

The box needs to be prepped for a new wood floor

One of the metal cross members for the bed (called sills) had to be notched and modified to fit over the top of the fuel tank without interfering. A cut off wheel, welder, and a little paint do the job.

Bed wood, sills, polished stainless strips, and loads of fasteners...

The day finally arrived for exhaust work and the truck was trailered to the shop. This is when I came to the conclusion that the brakes drag - badly! I need to check the pushrod between the vacuum booster and master cylinder to see how it is adjusted. If it's too long it may be pushing the piston in the master cylinder and applying the brakes slightly. Ugh. That means the MC has to come off again.

Anyway, the muffler shop fabbed dual down pipes for the dual exit headers and Y'd them together before entering a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler. The name sounds impressive, right? We used one of these on the 6 cylinder Mustang project and it sounded pretty good - almost like a real V8.

Looking front to rear the dual down pipes exit the header

Head pipe and Dynomax muffler. A V-Band clamp in front of the muffler will make removing the exhaust easier if necessary.

With everything going on at the back of the truck there's not enough room to run a tail pipe over the axle and out the back. Once the bed and running boards are installed, the truck will go back in for a tail pipe that will exit the side in front of the rear tire. We'll make sure there's a fancy chrome tip.

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