Project Larry2

[panelrodder81]

So with the demise of Larry and his sale to my father I had a void in my life. It was filled with a v6 2008 Chevy but it just didn't fill it well. So I sold that and bought a 2005 Harley and a 1961 Chevy Suburban.



Its a 292 straight six engine and a four speed truck. Totally complete less the two rear seats. The P.O. was a car guy locally that was driving it daily which is what I'm planning to do when I'm not riding the bike!

[panelrodder81]

Reupholstered seat:


Pic from my office window:


The only real bad rust on it is the front floors/toe board area. I plan on patching those before fall though. I'm thinking I'll keep the body as is for now but I'd like to repaint the white on top minimally. I might do the black and white two tone even though it is kind of the defacto finish, I just like that look so much! I'm just not sure. Inside I'm considering selling the factory seat since I can't afford to buy factory rear seats and go with a more street rod look. Maybe get some buckets up front and a 3rd row suv seat in the back. We'll see.

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

Quick update: I spent a bunch of time on friday trying to figure out why my brake lights weren't working. Turns out when one of the P.O.s added the big rig turn signals they must have cut into the wrong place because they have taken over the wiring! So I'm thinking of rewiring the whole thing.

Also after I figured that all out I had myself a little photo shoot in the driveway.

[panelrodder81]

Also, I picked up a 1984 Blazer rear seat that fits nicely and looks right. I will add it to the back shortly though it will need to be recovered!

[Clyde65]

sweet! I like your sub brothers!

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by Clyde65

sweet! I like your sub brothers!

Thanks! I always knew I was into some of the odd ball stuff but looking this pic over and over really drive home that I'm not the run of the mill '32 kind of guy!



On a separate note, I spent two days rewiring the truck. I bought a kit from EZ Wiring, the 20 circuit mini fuse kit. I've used both Painless and EZ Wiring now and I'd say they are both really good kits as far as materials and quality but I have to give the edge to Painless. The instructions were more complete and the printed names on the wires were a little more intuitive, as in telling you where it came from and what it was going to in addition to the wire's name where as the EZ kit was just a printed name. Again, it is just slight edge to Painless as the EZ kit was worth more than what I paid and the price difference between the two made for a compelling argument as to why the EZ kit might not have had all the 'bells and whistles' of the Painless kit. All in all I'm pretty happy with things. I did run into a few snags the largest of which is my headlight switch totally disintegrated in my handes while trying to wire it up, going to have to replace that before I can really finish things up.

I'm also trying to gather up parts to swap the steering column over to a 75 Chevy unit with integrated turn signals so I can bail on the big rig unit. Can anyone tell me if there is a coupler to go between the output shaft of the column and the steering shaft of the 63? The diameter of the steering column is larger than the diameter of the steering shaft and I know very little about steering components!

I have some pics of the rewire job but I took them with my camera rather than my phone so I will have to add them later.

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

Here are two pics of the wiring job I did. I didn't snag one of the fuse panel because its not pretty because I am not using a whole bunch of circuits so I have a whole bunch of wires coiled up and zip-tied to the firewall.




I tried to run everything as cleanly as possible and in the stock location and even cut out the surviving stock panel clips to hold the wiring in those locations. I also wrapped everything that isn't in outside of the cab with the split loom which really made the install look rather nice, I'm pretty proud of the whole thing over all!

Additionally I went ahead and replaced the steering column with a newer unit so I could wire in some actual turn signals rather than the crappy big rig unit strapped to the old steering column.


I intend on using the original steering wheel if possible but I just didn't get that far. This wheel is ugly but it will work fine until I get back to the project!

While at Pep Boys for supplies I had no choice but to buy me this shift knob, I just love it!

[panelrodder81]

Almost forgot a pic of my free rear seat from an 85 blazer sitting in the rear of the truck. Still needs to be mounted and reupholstered but it will work great!



-Panelrodder

[Pop's C-10]

nice rig

[panelrodder81]

Quick update: I picked up a suspension clip from a mid 80's C10 for a crossmember swap. The clip was missing the lower controls arms, spindles, and brake parts. I have it all priced out and my buddy has some 3 inch drop spindles I'm hoping to use a I have an 85 brake booster to install as well. All and all this should be look pretty sweet when it gets assembled.

Additionally, I borrowed my dad's soda blaster and attempted to soda blast the truck. What I ended up with was a small area on the hood that is clean and huge mess. It appears that my dad's soda blaster isn't industrial enough for what I was asking it to do. I think I will just attempt to clean the body up the old fashion way, sandpaper! Especially since I have a bunch of that already from something else I was working on. I'm not building a show rod here anyway so smoothing the body out enough for primer should be fine. I'd have rather left it the way it was but my wife demanded it get an even coat of some color!

Here are some in progress photochops of what I'm hoping to end up with.
This is my first mock using the original aqua color of the truck as a building point:

This is one that I really dig and would really like to go with:

The black version would also get my logo on the door and maybe even some white out flames off the nose, more hot rod than classic like the first mockup.

Any thoughts?

-Panelrodder

[Pop's C-10]

I like tha aqua better

[Captainfab]

X2

Originally Posted by pop's c-10

i like tha aqua better

[pdxhall]

I like the aqua also. By the way, is Eagle Mountain on the north or south side of the point of the mountain? I'm originally from Utah but I'm unfamiliar with the new communites sprouting up down there.

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by pdxhall

I like the aqua also. By the way, is Eagle Mountain on the north or south side of the point of the mountain? I'm originally from Utah but I'm unfamiliar with the new communites sprouting up down there.

Its all different down here these days for sure! Eagle Mtn is due west of Lehi, Utah. So its south of Point of the Mountain and then further west. Does that help? It is a little bit of a drive out from anything but since I'm from a very small town I actually really like it!

Thanks for the input on Larry's paint job you guys. I'm still struggling because I really like the aqua but I've always wanted black and white hot rod too. We'll see what happens.

Keep the input coming.

-Panelrodder

[pdxhall]

I know exactly where you're talking about now. I grew up in American Fork and my family still lives there so I know that country well. I can't believe how that area has grown. Have you ever been to the annual cruise-in in American Fork? It's in a park about a block from my mom's place. She's 81 and sits out on her porch every year and watches the cars cruise by on their way to the park. By the way, the black version looks great too, I'm just a sucker for that aqua color.

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by pdxhall

I know exactly where you're talking about now. I grew up in American Fork and my family still lives there so I know that country well. I can't believe how that area has grown. Have you ever been to the annual cruise-in in American Fork? It's in a park about a block from my mom's place. She's 81 and sits out on her porch every year and watches the cars cruise by on their way to the park. By the way, the black version looks great too, I'm just a sucker for that aqua color.

Since moving down here a few years back I have gone to that very show every year! So far I haven't shown anything there but maybe next year! Its a pretty great show to for being that obligatory city event car show, you know the one where another event like 'something something days' is happening so they eventually figure they need a car show too! This one is quite nice and the venue is really enjoyable as well. I hope to make it a regular show each year if possible.

I think the black mockup might be more agreeable once I actually get it finished out. Right now it is very literally in its most early stage. I'm not sure which I'd go with right now though, which is fine since I have plenty of paint stripping left to go.

Here is a pic of the hood from today with minimal effort and some aircraft stripper:


Since this stripper worked so well I'm gonna try and get some more in the morning and let it work all day on the roof and try and finish off the hood with some paper, especially the spots were there is filler or where there was nothing and it has rusted.

The driver's side paint was so flakey that I just took a metal bondo applicator and scrapped a ton of the flakes off! The big wide rust colored stripe down the side was all removed in ten min with just the scrapper!


-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

Did a bunch of work on Larry on Saturday. He was originally equipped with a canister oil filter that was hung off the side of the intake manifold. When I went to do an oil change I couldn't find a new filter locally so instead of spending the money to order one I bough a filter relocation kit and hooked it up. That plus the cost of the 7$ spin on filter was a little more but will save in the long run. Here is a pic:


I also put a new fuel pump on:


And a new fuel filter and air cleaner:


On top of it all I did the oil change to a high milage Pennzoil oil with a bottle of Sea Foam. Gonna run it for a few thousand miles and change it again and see what comes out. The oil that was in there was just black and nasty. The old oil canister had a nasty thick black build up in the bottom and couldn't have been good for the motor!

Up next, tonight hopefully, I'm gonna put a timing light on the thing and make sure its tight. If the timing is tight I think I will need to get a kit and rebuild the carburator as I'm having some problems with it cutting out.

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

Since it seems that I broke my photobucket links from the two post above, here are those pics in order that they appear:


Hood after paint strip


Flakey paint on the side


Oil filter setup


Fuel Pump


Air and Fuel Filters



I also did more work on the truck last night by way of adjusting the timing and some minor carb tweaking. During my test drive I snap these pics:

[panelrodder81]

In the last pics above you may notice that the truck looks a little rougher than it did earlier, that is because I've been running paint stripper on it. While stripping paint on the back doors I found some old lettering, check it out!





I HAVE A GENUINE ARMY TRUCK!

Here are a couple more paint stripping pics:




I also spent some time on my 53 GMC Panel truck, that info is in that build thread, link in signature.

-Panelrodder

[pdxhall]

the truck looks great. It will be interesting watching your progress.

[LostMy65]

There's a thread where guys post trucks painted military like.

You have a genuine Army Vehicle.

Looks cool.

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by pdxhall

the truck looks great. It will be interesting watching your progress.

Thanks, indeed I am interested in watching my progress too!

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

There's a thread where guys post trucks painted military like.

You have a genuine Army Vehicle.

Looks cool.

Thanks. I was thrilled when I found that under the outter layer of paint. It was a surprises but not all that unexpected. There are a number of other things about the truck that suggested military or public service vehicle like a siren or light hole in the roof.

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

In the spirit of the newly discovered heritage of the truck I put together a quick military green mockup. Enjoy!

-Panelrodder

[panelrodder81]

With the year slowly slipping away I decided to make getting the body stripped and primed a priority. So this is what I did today for a couple hours:

and


Also, this weekend I took a few minutes to finally finish pulling the frame horns off of my suspension clip that is for Larry and hit it with a wire wheel.



-Panelrodder