i wouldnt sandblast the sheetmetal if i were you ive herd alto of horror stories about ppl killing there skins with sand im sure more ppl will chime in on this cuz its not really a good idea my 2cents -kyle

I think Hutch was referring to what looks like a smiley face in the area he drew a box around. At least, that's what I see.

My buddy dropped off a boom pole for my tractor yesterday, so the motor/trans is coming out before the end of the weekend! (If the Lord's willing and the creek don't rise!)

Keepin' ya posted!

Sean

that first pic is a cool (found in the weeds pic) as cheyenne10 put it.

She's out!
 

Got the motor/trans pulled this morning. Not an easy task by yourself, but she gave it up without too much trouble. Here are some pics for y'all.

soo much easier pulling a motor with out the front clip on

DAMN STRAIGHT, about a week ago I was putting my 350 back in with the front clip on...... what a pain in the a$$.......

More progress pics
 

I was busy today! Got most of the motor tore down today and took the long block to my brother-in-law's. We're going to finish the tear down Monday night. Check out how clean the inside of the motor is in these pics.

wow that engine is spotless inside. you are making some great progress. itll be back on the road before you know it

The engine teardown
 

Went to my brother-in-laws tonight and tore the rest of the engine down. Everything looked pretty good. Did find a couple of burnt valves, but nothing major. Should be ready to take to the mach. shop. Here are some pics of the progress.

couple more pics. What do you think of the progress so far???? :)

good job!!

i want a big block :(

the heads look a hell of alot better than the head on my 250 when it came out. one valve had a deep seat, and one valve was missing 1/4 of it. but she still ran on all 4 cylinders :D
now you just got to get it back together

wow how many miles were on that, that chain looks streached

73k, but they were HARD miles. It was the station truck, so they were put on two or three miles at a time. And everybody"got on it" b/c it had so much power and was so fun to drive.

Can't get over how clean that engine is inside. Was the p.o. a 1 brand oil guy? What brand was it?

probably not penzoil

No. Am hoping it's Valvolene.

or castrol

Pops says Quaker State Super Blend. Lots of folks complain how dirty QS looks when you drain it, but more dirt in your oil means less in your engine. The trouble comes when you don't change it regular and that dirty oil starts to gum up. That being said, I still use Castrol in all my machines.

little progress and motor question
 

Pulled the Q-Jet off of the intake, getting it ready to clean up. That's about all I did today. Still tired from late night in shop last night.

Where is the best place to buy a master rebuild kit for my 396? I might end up getting it from my machine shop, but would consider buying from board vendor if someone will recommend vendor with good price/quality. I want pistons, cam, the works.

Couple more pice for y'all.

i got my rebuild kit from kitpros.com........ very reasonable, talked to customer service on the phone they shipped exactly what i asked for...didn't try to sell me stuff, and answered almost every question i had

Wow, let me chime in to say awesome truck and great progress!! Those pictures remind me of the 454 I am building for my blazer right now. Please continue to keep us updated. I read through the entire post and just wanted to reinforce the sand blasting issue that was brought up and not completely discussed. I know you are doing the mechanical right now which is great, but please do not touch any sheet metal with a conventional sand blaster :no: Take sheet metal to a professional to be stripped with a soda blaster or other material that is comparable. A regular sand blaster will work great on the frame and heavier metal, but it will completely destroy (warp) your thin and very nice sheet metal. I learned a very hard lesson with this, lets just say there would be one more very nice 69 front clip in this world if I had never purchased a conventional blaster :( . Lesson learned... hard way, sorry for the long post but really wanted to save you a headache......

Keep up the AWESOME work!!!!

Thanks for the advice CF! That's the kind of help I need, a guy with previous experience. I'll check prices on having someone do it, but I'll probably end up sanding it all by hand or with an air sander. I did all the tins on the m/c I just restored and that went pretty good. I had just seen how nice sheetmetal looks when you have it (media) blasted and it looked WAY easier and quicker that sanding blocks and disc sanding. Knew it couldn't be that easy.

lOOKS LIKE THE PROJECT IS WELL UNDERWAY CONGRATS ON THE PROGRESS..