Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday June 4
Today the plasma cutter came in. Today we realized that the reciprocating saw would give us a much finer cut than the plasma cutter.
The instrument panel finally came out today and only a few knobs are left to remove from the dashboard.
Marc cut off of the tailgate so we can shorten the bed. It's going to look so much better than the longbed.
The instrument panel finally came out today and only a few knobs are left to remove from the dashboard.
Friday June 3
More bad engine news today. The bearings have deep gouges from the metal fragments that went through the engine. This leaves us with a ruined engine block and two choices, find another engine to rebuild, or buy a crate engine. We're still weighing both options and have some time before we have to reach a final decision.
We did some initial fender placement to see how far up the fenders would need to move.
Marc did some body work on the fenders, removing the dents on the front and back fenders.
We did some initial fender placement to see how far up the fenders would need to move.
I removed the heater from the cab. However, once again, I struggled to remove the instrument cluster and failed.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Thursday June 2
Normally, I love Thursdays. Thursday is my favorite day. Wednesday is a memory and the whole weekend stretches before me. Most Thursdays are happy days. Today, not so much.
We did a preliminary truck bed fitting, which involved my oldest managing to get dirt to stream into my eye and nearly dropping the bed. It is however going to fit with a few modifications to the bed braces where the 58 braces don't quite fit with the 82 chassis.
Disassembly has started on the cab again, in preparation for body work. Getting up under the dash to remove the instrument panel is proving to be a feat in human origami. I had to stop before I was completely frustrated by my lack of progress, but not before questioning the 50's engineers who designed this dashboard.
Marc continued to take the engine apart. Unfortunately, it's not good news. One of the lifters failed. You can see in the picture where it is messed up. The failed lifter then ground itself up against the cam and sent part of the lifter spring into the oil pump. This is along with the missing header bolt, accidentally dropped piston, and the gouge in the crankshaft rod journal. The lifter failure spells the worst news however, because now this means the block from the 82 Chevy is going to have be machined to repair the damage. Right now, this is probably not the best option since we don't truly know just how much the block is damaged.
On the brighter side of things though, the Apache body itself is in really good shape and we got some awesome performance parts off of the donor truck, making it well worth it. Now it's just figuring out what we will be doing about the engine.
We did a preliminary truck bed fitting, which involved my oldest managing to get dirt to stream into my eye and nearly dropping the bed. It is however going to fit with a few modifications to the bed braces where the 58 braces don't quite fit with the 82 chassis.
Disassembly has started on the cab again, in preparation for body work. Getting up under the dash to remove the instrument panel is proving to be a feat in human origami. I had to stop before I was completely frustrated by my lack of progress, but not before questioning the 50's engineers who designed this dashboard.
Marc continued to take the engine apart. Unfortunately, it's not good news. One of the lifters failed. You can see in the picture where it is messed up. The failed lifter then ground itself up against the cam and sent part of the lifter spring into the oil pump. This is along with the missing header bolt, accidentally dropped piston, and the gouge in the crankshaft rod journal. The lifter failure spells the worst news however, because now this means the block from the 82 Chevy is going to have be machined to repair the damage. Right now, this is probably not the best option since we don't truly know just how much the block is damaged.
On the brighter side of things though, the Apache body itself is in really good shape and we got some awesome performance parts off of the donor truck, making it well worth it. Now it's just figuring out what we will be doing about the engine.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Wednesday June 1
Wednesday brough more grinding off rusty bolts, finally freeing the fenders from the truck bed. We have the truck bed ready to be shortened and fit to the chassis.
Tuesday May 31
Once again the table is set up in the garage and full of engine parts. Marc and boys pulled the engine this morning in anticipation of the re-build.
Monday May 30
It's ALIVE!
Well, mostly... and just for a second. Marc installed the fuse box today and connected the wiring from the ignition to the engine. We both held our breath as he turned the key and cheered when the engine turned over.
I spent my time cutting bolts off of the bed rails and fenders. Only a few bolts are left to cut off and we'll be able to remove the fenders and steps in preparation for shortening the truck bed.
Marc welded brackets to attach the front of the cab to the chassis and checked to see how much work the engine will need. Tomorrow he and the boys will be pulling it in preparation for the re-build and I'll be removing the rest of those stubborn bolts.
Well, mostly... and just for a second. Marc installed the fuse box today and connected the wiring from the ignition to the engine. We both held our breath as he turned the key and cheered when the engine turned over.
I spent my time cutting bolts off of the bed rails and fenders. Only a few bolts are left to cut off and we'll be able to remove the fenders and steps in preparation for shortening the truck bed.
Marc welded brackets to attach the front of the cab to the chassis and checked to see how much work the engine will need. Tomorrow he and the boys will be pulling it in preparation for the re-build and I'll be removing the rest of those stubborn bolts.
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