Project: 1966 Stepside LWB

[b2948kevin]

Also, I got my new tires on! They look pretty good in my opinion. Not too small like the ones I had on before.

The plan is to eventually get the wheels painted flat white, or get some white hubcaps. Not sure which yet, but I need some white on those wheels to match the other accents.

[McMurphy]

Oh yeah!
Some stock white hubs would look cool, especially if you found them with the bowtie emblem in the center and painted it orange or black to match!

Yours is coming along man, always good to see an update from you!

[b2948kevin]

Yeah, I agree McMurphy. I am considering just sending these in for powder coating. We'll see. Anyone have a line on some hubcaps?

I took Mater to the gas station today to fill er up. Got plenty of good looks while I was there. Finally have a driver, though I still need to work out the headlights and tail lights. The blinkers work just fine now.

I also put an aftermarket choke cable on there. It sure likes to be choked when I start it, but it's getting to be a pain to open the hood everytime.

[b2948kevin]

I almost forgot. I am looking for a truck bed box to put in here. I need to be able to pack my breakdown kit with me in case I get stuck somewhere.

Bed dimensions are 50x16.5x97" on the inside of the bed. I would like one that goes across the width of the bed and opens on each side.

[J.Cagle]

Originally Posted by b2948kevin

I almost forgot. I am looking for a truck bed box to put in here. I need to be able to pack my breakdown kit with me in case I get stuck somewhere.

Bed dimensions are 50x16.5x97" on the inside of the bed. I would like one that goes across the width of the bed and opens on each side.

Me too! I want a white one with the butterfly doors and paddle handles. the old style for my long stepper. You need a white grille in that thing man!

[McMurphy]

There are some stock hubs at the bone yard where I got my tranny, but there is only 2 or 3 of them. I could go stomp out there and shoot a pic for you if you want...

Just dear god, please paint the rim of your spare to match. It grabs my eye every time I see a d-side shot of your rig. my OCD shudders at the thought of you getting a flat, and putting a mis matched wheel on

[b2948kevin]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Just dear god, please paint the rim of your spare to match. It grabs my eye every time I see a d-side shot of your rig. my OCD shudders at the thought of you getting a flat, and putting a mis matched wheel on

Hahaha! Tell us how you really feel, McMurphy... If those wheels are your favorite things ever, just say so...

Ok, I will. It's all in the plans. I have a request in the photoshop forum right now to get some mock ups and see how the white would look.

Also, if you get a chance, the hubcap pics would be sweet, but don't make a trip for me.

Originally Posted by J.Cagle

You need a white grille in that thing man!

Yeah, I know... I have it but I just took it off to do some testing on the headlights. They aren't working at the moment.

[McMurphy]

I will try to remember to swing by the bone yard this afternoon, hopefully the sun will still be up...I will have to shoot you some phone-pics though, did not bring a camera to work with me.

[b2948kevin]

Ok, I saw another person with questions about the throttle linkage on the Edelbrock carb, so I thought I'd make a quick video to explain how I did this. Hopefully this will help someone in the future.

Here is the link:

http://youtu.be/vdYGwmxsYBU

[b2948kevin]

So, as I begin to drive my truck around a bit, I started to notice some whine from one of the front axles, so I decided that bearings were necessary. I went to Napa and bought 2 sets of axle bearings for the front.

Below is a pic of the part numbers you need. These come with the bearing and new race.

[b2948kevin]

I started on the driver's side by pulling the wheel and the dust cap, and when I did, I noticed that the grease looked surprisingly good. Someone had recently changed or serviced the bearings on this side. I ended up just repacking them and reinstalling them because they looked almost new.

[b2948kevin]

Here are some pics of the brake assembly. Pretty nasty right now. I realize that I need new pads, but I plan to be doing a disc brake swap in the near future, so I didn't work on these.

You may even notice that I need a new tie rod end.

[b2948kevin]

On the passenger side, the bearings hadn't been serviced recently, but they didn't look shot to me. Even so, I decided to replace these ones for good measure.

[b2948kevin]

I didn't get any good pictures of this, but to remove the races from the hub, use a punch from the backside of each race and punch them out while rotating locations in a circular pattern. There are cutouts for this in the hub and they will fall out eventually.

Here is a pic of the new race installed.

[b2948kevin]

Also, one question-

My PCV valve is rattling. Is this par for the course, or do I need to replace this? It's brand new as of about a month ago.

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/vdYGwmxsYBU

[allaboutchevelles]

Yes it is suppose to rattle. If it doesnt that means its clogged up and needs replacing. Good job on the bearrings.

[b2948kevin]

Thanks Chevelles. A lot of this is new for me, so I appreciate you guys fielding my noob questions.

Ok, so I visited the local pull a part in Lynwood today. It only had 1 63 Chevy, but I am going to keep my eyes on their inventory. Looks like they will be having a half off sale soon so I want to take advantage and grab some parts that I will need in the future. Any local guys know of better places to pick parts from?

Plans: power steering box and pump, brake booster, disc brake conversion parts. I know I will need captain fab's adapter brackets in the near future.

Questions:
What is the best year to pull the power steering equipment from?
What disc brake equipment should I be grabbing, and from what year? I plan to add aftermarket drop spindles soon.
What is the best year to grab the brake booster from?

[b2948kevin]

I spent some time checking out the back brakes today. I just want to make sure that everything is working well back there. It all started well on the driver's side with the pads and drum being in pretty good condition.

[b2948kevin]

Then I got to the passenger side and found what you see below. Two big grooves in the drums with matching tongue in the brake pads. It drove me nuts trying to get the drums off. It kept catching and I couldn't figure out on what. It wasn't until I loosened the adjuster a bunch that it finally gave up.

Ok, I have a theory of why this might be. There are 2 types of pads available for this application, the bonded type and the riveted type. Although I haven't confirmed yet (just noticed this while reviewing the pics), I think that the pads that are on there are riveted even though you can't quite see the rivets, and they caused the huge gouges in the drums because they were left on far too long.

I bought all new bonded pads for both sides today and have 2 new drums on order right now. I haven't found a compelling reason to change the rear axle out yet, so I want to make sure it's in good condition to last a while.

[b2948kevin]

I did one other thing on here just for the benefit of McMurphy's OCD . I took the wheels off and painted them a near flat white. I think they look pretty good. This is something that I planned for a while and just got around to it. It's one of the last big cosmetic changes that I will be making for a while.

Sorry about the low light. It was getting dark when I was finishing up at 4pm. Crazy that it gets dark so early this time of year in the Pacific NW.

[b2948kevin]

One other thing. I pulled the old nasty rotted sheet of plywood out of the back and discovered that underneath all of that is an old nasty rotted original wood bed! I will replace it eventually, just not sure if I'll buy a kit or cut it myself. I am pretty sure that I will need new metal strips as the ones that are in there look beyond a good wire wheeling and rustoleum.

[Captainfab]

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm not seeing rivets on those shoes. I'm thinking that the previous shoes were riveted, and wore into the drum. Then when the shoes were replaced, the installer/PO didn't bother to replace the drum. I see that sort of thing all too often.

I'm liking the white wheels better than the black.

[McMurphy]

I have seen the grooves in the drums, and on discs, and it is exactly from what CapFab said. Someone wore grooves in them, and changed out the pads but didnt get the drums/discs turned to smooth them back out.

Learned a long time ago that not getting your drums or discs turned when you change pads will cut the life of the pads in half.

Man your wheels look great!
I thought they looked cool black, but then all 3 on the d-side in flat white really brings in your bumpers and balances the look very nicely!!

You are making some great progress on yours!
I rebuilt my heater box today....
But in my defense I tweaked it a tad and that took some time.

[J.Cagle]

If you ever decide you want to make your replaced rocker panel match, its not hard with an orange truck. I just bought a 63 that is orange. Someone had sanded and spray painted over some logos on the doors. I just sanded the area smooth, sprayed a few coats of chevy orange engine paint( matches great!). Then I buffed the old paint on the rest of the truck. After this take a fine gray scuff pad and knock some of the gloss off the spray paint area. It actually matches very good!

[McMurphy]

I miss your updates man!
I blame the weather for your hiatus though. All your driveway shop work isnt really possible when winter hits the Pacific Northwest!

I got the repair patch panels in last night that you did on page 2-3 of this thread and just got done looking at how you did it.
Am going to tackle this job, if not this weekend probably soon then. Depends if I want to set my hood project aside and wait for parts to come in.

Hope to hear from you soon!