Re: Penny
 

It's a new tank with fresh gas, so I don't think any water has gotten in. Didn't have any problems with the gas pumped at the same time into my 63. Also put the new tank in before I reinstalled the rebuilt carb

Re: Penny
 

I know, it’s been awhile since I worked on Penny, but Frankentruck’s A/C install took priority. While waiting for the a/c to be evacuated and charged, I finally decided to throw some new spark plugs at Penny. All the old ones were wayyyyy too rich. The engine runs nicely now, so now I need to track down some replacements for all the wiring under the hood that turned into rodent delicacies. Once I get that figured out, all the exterior lights should start working again. I’ll get a tag and insurance on her once that happens

Re: Penny
 

Finally decided to give Penny a bath this morning. She cleans up pretty decent for 42 year old paint!

The next thing I need to work on is getting the chewed up wiring harness repaired. Once all that is fixed, I’ll get her tagged and insured and start really putting some miles on her.

Check out a video my friend put together: https://youtu.be/oyOjabnCY-I

Re: Penny
 

It cleaned up pretty nice Christian.

Re: Penny
 

Cleaned up way better than I was expecting, so I’m pleased with how it is for now. At some point I’ll have to try my hand at doing some polishing

Re: Penny
 

Made a quick trip to Sally’s Speed Shop in Newman, GA, today to pick up a new wiring harness. The harness came out of the 82 in front of the shop when the truck got an LS swap and a complete rewire. Should have what I need now to get Penny road legal again!

Re: Penny
 

That is a Great deal:metal:

Re: Penny
 

I’m taking a similar path to get Penny back on the road as I did with Frankentruck, but slightly different in certain areas. Now that Penny runs well, I decided to start fresh in the suspension, steering, and brakes department. I started the tear down today. Hopefully I’ll finish that tomorrow before heading to the beach with friends for the rest of the week.

Anybody heard of the original upper ball joints lasting 150k miles and still being tight? The rivets don’t lie on these control arms. Makes me lean more towards the idea that the odometer hasn’t rolled over yet.

I had plenty of caked on dirt to scrape off. Prepping the original parts for paint is not going to be a good time.

Re: Penny
 

Nice truck! I like how you are making things right again and doing all the maintenance work that is needed on an old truck. Cleaning up the front suspension parts was definitely one of the least enjoyable parts of my build. I had to attack it multiple times before I finally started to get down to metal that wasn't greasy anymore.

Re: Penny
 

Yeah, I'm going to end up getting covered in dirt and mud after spending some quality time with a pressure washer :lol:

I didn't clean and paint the suspension bits when I originally did the disc brake swap on Frankentruck, and ended up doing it several years later. Definitely don't want to do that with Penny this go around.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Got the rest of the front suspension removed, so next up will be lots of cleaning and a little bit of painting

Re: Penny
 

If I had an extra set of 63-72 control arms, I would be swapping those in. Removing these bushings sucks!

The uppers weren’t the worst, but dadgum, these lowers are an absolute pain. I’ve spent over two hours just getting one bushing out… and the outer shell is still in place.

I’m real tempted to abandon these control arms and switch to something else. Would love some tubular arms and coil overs, but those are prohibitively expensive right now.

I guess I’ll keep on hammering and drilling these old bushings

Re: Penny
 

The struggle was real with those bushings. They gave me a lack of motivation to work on Penny, but finally got them out by drilling out the rubber, slicing the outer shell in two, and an ample amount of hammering. Also had to cut the upper ball joints out. Those original rivets were in there good.

The next step was pressure washing everything. Took me awhile to do because I had no desire to break out the pressure washer and make a mess. Finally got to it last week.

Had a nice evening tonight weather wise. The control arms have now been “restored”.

Still plenty of parts to paint, but I need more paint and it’s dark now anyways.

The muffler was toast. It’s no longer attached :lol:

Re: Penny
 

I haven't been on the site for a year, so I took a little time and got caught up on your build. Lots of cool progress. You should flip back through the photos and see how your engine bay evolves from a creature habitat to a propulsion system. It's cool to see.

Piece by piece, you're getting the whole rig back into shape. These are my favorite kind of builds both that I do and watch other people do. Where it's not about making something perfect, but catching up on the maintenance, fixing what's wrong, and getting it back on the road. And then other modifications can happen after that.

I've had old paint like that respond really well to a gentle process of iron fallout removal, clay bar, meguiar's number 7, light compound, light polish, and cleaner wax. You don't get that mirror shine that a lot of people go for, but I do it all by hand and it preserves as much paint as possible and brings out the luster.

I vote getting the turbo 350 rebuilt since they're basically bulletproof and not very expensive as far as rebuilds go.

If you were closer, I would be happy to lend you another jack stand. This makes for a cool picture but made me nervous just looking at it, haha. And thanks for keeping this up-to-date, I'll enjoy following along.

Re: Penny
 

Thanks for reading through the thread and for the advice on the paint. I would like to make the paint look a little better once I get the truck back on the road, so just might have to give that a try.
I pulled a sneaky on y'all. There's 2 more black jack stands supporting the truck, but they're just behind the front cab mounts, so I wanted the single one under the front cross member to help support the full weight of the engine and front end. I would not trust just one jack stand to balance the truck like that :lol:

I'm slowly working through a rattle can restoration on the rest of the suspension parts. Figured I should make it look a little better than just leaving everything rusty. That is one thing I didn't do the first time on my 63 and later regretted. Sure it'll take a bit longer to complete, but the truck will look a little bit nicer underneath than just rusty

Re: Penny
 

I see the other jackstands now :lol:

PM me if you want more info on my semi-patented (not at all : ) paint rejuvenation process. It's not that unusual, just geared to save as much of the remaining paint as I can, while adding clarity and some shine.

I like your idea of getting the suspension parts painted. It occurred to me that it doesn't just look nice, it'll help preserve them too.

Re: Penny
 

On Saturday, I got some steering parts painted.

Did I take today off work to work on Penny? Yes, yes I did.
The control arms are back together with new bushings and balljoints. Probably should’ve painted them after I installed everything, but that’s why I use a rattle can. Touch ups are easy.

All those chips came from the lower control arm shafts. Yup, I drilled a new locating hole for the caster mod.

Finished off the day by washing a bunch of the small suspension parts in the kitchen sink. I cleaned up the mess, so mom wasn't upset about it :lol:

More progress coming soon!

Re: Penny
 

Made some good progress this evening. The driver’s side upper and lower control arms and spindle are torqued to spec. I put the shims back in the same spot as removal, so hopefully the alignment will be close. If you look at the picture of just the LCA installed, you can see how the caster mod moves the arm forward on the frame. I only moved the arm the typical 3/4”.

Also got the rotors turned today at my local tire shop. They charge $15 per rotor for rotors off the vehicle while O’Reilly charges $30 per rotor for truck rotors, $25 per for car rotors. Always nice to get a better deal and support local businesses at the same time!


Edit to add:
A day later and the passenger side matches the driver’s side. I did coat the spindle in some fresh grease to keep it from rusting until I can get the rotors on.

I’m planning on going back to repaint the frame and such, but want to get the truck back on the road so I can figure out what all really needs to be done engine and transmission wise sooner rather than later. Easier to repaint the frame while the engine is out for a rebuild if needed.

Re: Penny
 

Steering parts are back together and torqued down.
Had to use an unconventional method to remove the outer bearing race from the rotor. The punches and chisels I have were not able to grab on to the race from the back, so I had to use a pulley puller and a piece of flat steel that used to be a trailer hitch on my 63 to pull the race out enough for the punch to bite. Worked surprisingly well actually. Time to go toss the new races in the freezer overnight, brrr

Re: Penny
 

So ever since I got the carb back together, I’ve struggled with keeping the engine idling. The fast idle screw was not adjusted properly at all, so it was keeping the throttle blades open way too far at idle. The guy who rebuilt that carb oughta be fired for that one :lol:
After playing with the adjustment, I finally got the engine running decent enough to take a spin around the neighborhood. Of course, it would be a more pleasurable experience if you don’t run out of gas, but at least there was a decent picture spot.

I took the tailgate off in preparation to start pulling the bed. I want all the space to be able to clean up the rear frame rails, suspension pieces, and whatever else I find

Re: Penny
 

Some good progress was made over the past two days. I started to pull the bed yesterday morning and proceeded to spin the first bolt I touched without loosening it a bit. Decided to fight with that another day and pulled the leaf springs instead. Got the old bushings removed today, new ones should be here tomorrow.

I think I will still pull the bed off, but I’m going to get the rear suspension back together first.

Re: Penny
 

It's too late to help now, but I just soak the bushings in gasoline, set 'em afire, and walk away. After they burn-out, the rubber is brittle, and comes apart easily.

Good to see the old beast coming along though! :metal:

Re: Penny
 

Great progress:metal:

I have learned a Few tricks over the years about bed bolts.

Especially the Later model Square body has 2 bolts that are (Long).

1st thing I do is Drill a small 1/4" to 5/16 hole in the center of the Top of the bolt that is spinning / about 1/2 to 1 inch deep.

If you have someone to hold the bolt from the bottom while drilling (If Needed) it helps.

Then take an angle grinder and very carefully cut and X in the top of the bolt.

Tack weld the bolt lightly to the bed.

Then try your luck breaking the nut loose.

Only put penetrating oil on the nut not the bolt.
Ask me how I figured that out. :lol:

If this does not work or the bolt breaks the welds.

You have several options.

Reweld the bolt then drill the top of the bolt with a drill bigger than the Diameter of the bolt, (1/2 ") maybe use a 9/16 or 5/8 drill.

This will separate the head from the shank of the bolt.

An undesirable option would be to drill the bottom of the bolt or grind it off.

I prefer to do the grunt work on the top (Less sparks, shaving and dirt in your eyes and stuff) ;)

Hope this helps.

:chevy::chevy::chevy:

Re: Penny
 

That's a good idea. I was surprised with how well the ball joint press did in removing the inner sleeve and rubber, so if fire isn't an option, the press definitely is. Also great for installing the new bushings. Did that in just about an hour this evening.

Thanks for the tips, I might have to give that a try before resorting to slicing from below. I wonder if cutting a slot in the bolt head and using a large screwdriver to hold it would be enough to break it loose. Might give that a shot as well since I have a really large flat head screwdriver

Re: Penny
 

I have read from some guys that they just go right to tightening the bolt from underneath and snapping it off. I'm assuming that we can get these bolts either at the hardware store or from one of the reproduction suppliers, but I haven't looked into it. Kind of makes sense, just tighten it til it snaps.

Re: Penny
 

Yeah, that does make sense to just tighten till it snaps, but I would still be concerned that the bolt will just spin instead of getting tighter

Re: Penny
 

A lot of progress has been made over the past two evenings. Some late night wrenching had to happen, but the rear suspension has new bushings and is back together and torqued to spec. I got the new u bolts and new shocks on yesterday and wrapped up torquing the leaf spring bushings just about 20 minutes ago. I’ve been sitting and staring at it since.

On top of fully rebuilding the suspension system, I decided to finally do what I’ve wanted to do to a truck for a long time. I didn’t have the money to do it to Frankentruck, and then went a different direction, so this was the perfect opportunity. Yup, Penny is no longer stock. I ordered up some 2.5” drop spindles, and a 2” drop spring up front, and a flip kit for the rear. She’s sittin’ real fine nice now. Yeah, I still need to pull the bed off and install the c-notch, but I wanted to get her mobile again to maybe put her in the garage so I can work on the wiring and brakes over the winter months. I would like to be driving Penny come spring time, but I’m not counting on that just yet.

Re: Penny
 

So I’ve been struggling for a couple weeks with getting Penny to run. I was getting air, fuel, and spark, so decided to check the timing today. Sure enough, it seems the probably original nylon timing gear has decided to no longer exist. The crank is at TDC in the picture, but the rotor is no longer pointing towards #1. I think the timing has jumped. At a minimum, I’m throwing a new cam and timing chain/gear at it with some fresh paint. Might even go with a full rebuild. Not sure yet though.

At least it’s sitting real nice now.

Re: Penny
 

Well, that escalated quickly.
Since I have to pull the transmission for either rebuild or replacement and want to pull the engine for a rebuild, I decided to yank the front end off to make pulling them much easier. This will also give me the opportunity to more easily clean up things under the hood.

I want to convert the factory a/c to 134a and the radiator is leaking, so now is the time to do all that as well.

It might sound crazy, but I’m going to rebuild the original 305. Definitely going to replace the cam with something better, but probably going to keep everything else as is. Maybe some flat top pistons to bump the compression up a smidge.

Re: Penny
 

Great Choice:metal:

Sounds like a good plan.

I will suggest at least add a Double roller timing chain also.

I run a Quiet Gear drive timing chain setup years ago.

Would I do it again????:)

Re: Penny
 

The battle was long, but the war was won. Started about 9:15 this morning, took about an hour for lunch, and got the engine and transmission out and split apart by about 8:15 tonight.

Not sure yet which timing chain/gear set up that I’ll go for, but probably whatever will fit under the stock timing cover. I want the engine to look stock but have some more ponies than stock.

Of course, I would love to buy a new 383 stroker motor and tremec 5 speed, but I don’t want to spend that much money on it right now since I’m also trying to save up for a house.

I’ll start getting the engine torn down at the beginning of next week. Trying to get one of the 3 8 point bucks that we’ve seen on our trail cameras tomorrow.

Last but not least, after a hard day’s work, it’s pie time :two:

Re: Penny
 

Good work. You and I might be the only two in the whole trucking universe that will spend a little money on a 305. I understand the rationale of building a bigger engine when it costs the same. If you already have that other bigger engine... To get the value out of a 305 one needs to understand why it's built the way it is and most people don't take the time to do that. Do you know the specs on yours? Mine is an LE9 which means that it is designated as high torque from the factory. It actually has higher compression, about 9.2. And then the ESC is there to retard the timing if it starts to ping. Kind of cool when you think about it. 305s are long stroke and narrow bore. That allows them to have the mechanical advantage to provide torque to get you up to speed with a load. But then it runs out of air because of the heads and the valves with the narrow bore. So yeah, it's not capable making a lot of power. But if you set it up right, it's a motor that can get you up to speed and keep you there, while burning a little less fuel. Have you looked into the summit cams? An 1101, or an 1102 might take great care of you and are priced well. If you don't need to rebuild that motor yet, I wouldn't. Just putting in the cam and lifters and getting back on your way should be pretty economical and quick.

Re: Penny
 

Thanks for the explanation on the 305. Sounds like it will still fit the bill for what I want out of the truck, and I can still say it has the numbers matching engine. The code on the SPID is LG9, but I'm not sure if that's the code you mentioned. I don't believe that my truck has the ESC system. It is just a 2 barrel carb, but that'll most likely get replaced by a Quadrajet at some point.

I am going to go through with a full rebuild even though I could probably get away with just the cam and lifters. There's a lot of crusty looking carbon buildup throughout the engine. While it's out, I want to just do it all at once. I really don't want to pull the engine again after 6 months to do the stuff I didn't do the first time.

Re: Penny
 

Got the engine torn down to the long block this morning. It’s got 416 heads and the block is 14010203.

In the process, I figured out that the nylon timing gear was not the culprit, however there was still a noticeable amount of slack in the chain.

When draining the oil, I almost overfilled my drain pan. I drained about 6-7 quarts out of a 5 quart pan. What probably really happened was that the carb kept flooding out real bad and kept dumping raw fuel straight past the piston rings. That oil sure was thin coming out of the pan.

With the sludge that’s in the top end and since it’s already out, I think I’m still going to go for a full rebuild. Hopefully won’t have to do any extensive machine work since that aspect seems ok at the moment.

Re: Penny
 

Pulled the cam out this evening. Seems like I might have found the misfire that was happening. Cylinder 2 exhaust cam lobe and lifter are not happy with life. I marked the lobe with a red line in the last picture.

Re: Penny
 

That does seem to have a bit of a relaxed profile...

I snagged some of the links I have saved that pertain to the mighty 305. These might be interesting. the crankshaft coalition one mentions a couple times that the 305 doesn't have a fuel mileage advantage over a 350. That is a surprise to me. I want to see if I can find the EPA estimates for our trucks back then. Your LG9 is different than an LE9, but does have good torque numbers which is the number that really counts in my book. The 416s are good heads to have. The other two links are 305 engine builds.

https://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/...evy_305_engine

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/cc...Cx87PGLphGsT5c

https://www.firebirdnation.com/threa...-owners.15985/

Re: Penny
 

Yeah,
You caught that early.:metal:

Before the block got filled with grinding and shavings.

You are on the right track. :metal:

:chevy::chevy::chevy:

Re: Penny
 

I think I’m leaning more towards rebuilding the original 305. Haven’t fully decided, but I did pull the lifters out last night. Three of them were not happy. This was the worst one. Also checked one of the rod bearings. Seems like typical wear for a 157k mile engine. I know it’s sideways, it’s the way I took the picture, but this morning I picked up an electric choke Quadrajet. Hopefully I’ll have better luck rebuilding this one than I did with the 2 barrel. Or maybe I’ll just send it off to be rebuilt.

Re: Penny
 

The Old soup bowl lifter issue. ;)

Do you know someone close to you,
That has Micrometers?
Or do you have a set?

You can check the crankshaft and replace the bearings With Std if they are not to bad?

You are probably not going to get that lucky.;)

You never know till you check it though.

I may get Beat Up by the 2 Engine Guru's on here. ;)

That Okay Though. :ito:

:chevy::chevy::chevy:

Re: Penny
 

I don't think I want the soup from that bowl :lol:

Re: Penny
 

I know it's already past, but another trick with bed bolts is to well a wheel nut to the rounded head, so you can put a wrench on it. I say wheel nut, because they make big wrenches/impact sockets, etc...and they are cheap.