The old spruce moose build

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by WE B CRUZN

Great thread keep up the good work, just think when you get her all done you can Roll with pride and say you did the work yourself.

Thanks man, i cant wait to get it done but the weather needs to stop being Bipolar!! A couple weeks ago it was T-shirt weather, now its subzero and snowing again.

I want to get the body work done so i can continue with the cab but its just too cold to do anything.

[lkfldredneck]

Ok, so im testing the water on colors for the truck. Anybody seen the show Diesel Brothers? The Mega Ram is concrete grey, similar to the color grey i want.

I have a normal primer kinda grey, which is the darker one in this picture (Left) And a High build primer grey, which is the concrete grey color that i want. (Right)



I think im going to go with the High build grey, just because its closer to the color that i want, It covers great, but its expensive. $16 a can. Compared to $9 a can for the darker one. Ill ponder about it but any input will be appreciated and maybe if someone has a similar color truck that they could show me to help my decision.

[lkfldredneck]

So, i took them out in the sunlight beside the truck.

The darker one is definitely nicer looking in the sun, The lighter one has kind of a Blueish tinge to it. Which doesnt look very good. The darker one is going to be my choice i think. Which will save me some money haha

[lkfldredneck]

Driver side fender and inner fender are done. Did that Monday after work. Had today off of so i started on the gauges as my summit package finally came. Also figured out it was my oil pressure sending unit that was screwed so gladly the gauge came with a new one. Fuel gauge just needs to be wired in. Got the exhaust riser pipes done and on. Definitely a lot nicer having the exhaust tucked up closer to the bed. Ran out of mig wire so i couldnt finish it today. Hoping the snow holds off tomorrow so i can grab some wire after work and finish up the exhaust.

[bhc41051]

I have an Edelbrock Performer intake I pulled off my 75 K10 you can have it if you pay the shipping.

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by bhc41051

I have an Edelbrock Performer intake I pulled off my 75 K10 you can have it if you pay the shipping.

Sweet, PM me. Would love to have it!

[lkfldredneck]

Ordered these new bad boys tonight! Searched and searched for rims all over the city and couldnt find any for cheaper than 800 so summit it is! for a grand total of 500 (Canadian funny money) 372 american, i have new rims! and in the correct size and style i want!

[lkfldredneck]

Well since i didnt post pictures of my stuff ive done lately, heres some!

The new fender, after a fair bit of trial and error on lining up the mounts etc.. as you can see from the door chips..



The Oil PSI gauge and Fuel gauge location. Have yet to fully wire and swap the oil psi sending unit.



And my fancy new Brake pedal pad. Damn those buggers are hard to get on!



The new Blue Streak distributor cap, Matching the NGK plug wires. Sometimes its nice to match



And all wired up.. Now let me rub my head for a second.. 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2... i should get a tattoo of that..



And holy all mighty this has to be the best purchase ive gotten so far!!

New Door Strikers.. The doors close easier than a Bentley! (Kidding, but close...)



Also with the local parts store actually stocking door lock cylinders for an old chevy, i'm now able to actually lock my truck and get in on the right side! this is quite exciting for me!



Exciting because my (Ahem...) Ford.. doesnt have a functional door lock on the driver side.. and my 94 GMC K15 didnt have a functional door lock on the driver side either.

Also got the Headlight bezels back in, and the bumper back on. waiting to find a stock grill to throw on the moose.

Tomorrow hopefully finishing the exhaust if i can get some pieces bent up for the axle, or i might have to cut and weld some bends in. But either way, i hope im getting it done.

[lkfldredneck]

Productive last few days!

Got the rims, sent them with my buddy who works in a shop with a tire machine to get them done with my new tires. went out there last night to put em all together. Gotta say, 33s on shiny new rims look pretty damn good!

Got off work, and went right at puttin the tires on. but holy hell i sweat for the first time in a while! 18* Celcius jackin a truck up with a bottle jack. But, soon as i knew i got my first glimpse.

Old Rims and tires:



New Rims and tires!






ME LIKE!


And on to the second part.

I got a new rad seeing as my old one was lacking the cooling fins, and had a puncture somewhere. Well the parts store guy ordered me a 4 channel rad instead of a 2 channel. Meh, whatever! Heavy duty cooling is quite alright with me! Just need brackets..

Brackets from LMC truck. $9.90. cheap enough!
Nope. shipping for 2 tiny little brackets was $40. Screw that.

Thoughts got cookin up in my head.. Scrap yards!

Every single squarebody at the wreckers, HAD heavy duty cooling systems!!!

BUT! all of the brackets were missing.. DAMN!

More thoughts cookin in my head, enough to make it smoke..

Fabricate brackets! How hard could it be?

Was actually fairly easy. Some pieces of 1" Flat stock. Got em done in about 2 hours, which was mostly just looking around for more flat stock

First one made up minus Drilled for bolts.





And mounted



And then the second.



Hell, i cant complain! for maybe $5 in flat stock, i saved a little bit of money id say!


And a little beauty shot, cause who doesnt love staring at squarebodys?

[lkfldredneck]

Had a good weekend of work. kind of. but got a fair bit done!

Started saturday morning with helpin Muscle Car Mark (AKA my dad) get his 69 Chevelle SS runnin. Well i didnt really help since it was a fresh rebuilt motor, and he had everything set up correctly. But it was beautiful seeing an 18 year project start coming together. And it was beautiful seeing a Big Block 502 fire for the first time.

I dont know about any of you guys, but this is just pure beauty in such a natural form.



So after that i had some motivation to work on my truck!

Started on my project with setting up the fans.

Suck through style? Nope! Blowin fans. Just because better cooling.

Reversed the polarity to run these big bad Subaru fans backwards so they blow nice crisp cool air.

Mocked up to how i i wanted them



Then mocked up the bracket.



And then welded the support tabs and done!




So, now the fans are on.. What next? Wiring. oh the fun of wiring and relays etc.. etc..

Easy as eating pie. Cause who doesnt think eating pie is easier than a cake?



Minus the temp switch, but i got the manual override switch hooked up today. just need to splice onto the temp switch when it comes.

So, what other boring stuff did i do?

On the hottest day its been after it was 0 degrees last weekend?

At a blistering hot temperature of 25! (For not being used to, it was hot) i did body work! Finished up the passenger side cab corner. Minus a little skim of bondo to get rid of a few of the hard marks.

Grinded then fiberglassed over the welds




sanded, and sanded, and sanded... Finally smooth, and primered.



That is also the colour im painting it..

Finally, im tired of rambling on. It was mail day today! Got my new intake thanks to member bhc41051!

Thanks again man, you did me a solid favour!

Just need to clean it up a little bit, and install!

[lkfldredneck]

Scored a mint rust free passenger side door for $120! everything included. Only thing that it needed was a window track. Which the one in my passenger side door was mint.

It even has a sweet paint job!



Im guessing it was a show truck before (Built motor, which i want the heads off of if they arent blown, incredible interior, well it was incredible at one point..)

The interior side




Old Window track




What the donor is doing now, the poor mans window track



And the new track installed!



Also swapped out the plastic crap door handle for the chrome steel handle.



Just gotta sand, paint, and install the window

[lkfldredneck]

Door is:

Sanded!
Needed to take it to bare metal in a few spots, had a few bubbles and rusty spots



Primed!!



PAINTED!!!





That was before drying.. once its dry i will take another picture and show dry colour.

The products:



Dupli-Color Self Etching Primer
Dupli-Color High Build Fleet Coating Primer
Dupli-Color Hot Rod Grey Primer
Dupli-Color Acrylic Enamel Machinery Grey

[lkfldredneck]

Started on friday night thinkin id get the carb off, and the distributor off to start the intake swap for saturday.. Well i did that.. and felt a little ambitious and did the whole intake swap in 4 hours!

Started at 6PM after dinner.. Dissasembly went pretty good! minus a little bit of a coolant misshap.. where some coolant ended up in my oil.. stupid me..

Old one off, no more circle track Torker intake! although i did like the look of it..



Lifter valley lookin a little sick..



And the drumroll please!!

Dum-D-D-D ahh screw it..

The new one on! 18 Degree shims for the Non TBI head intake to fit on the TBI heads.
Gasket maker for the china walls, not the useless Gaskets they send that always seem to leak!



Studs, and distributor back in!



Carb and brackets back on!



In my tired state, i put the spacer on backwards, so the larger butterflies couldnt open, and also caused an extreme air leak. Quick fix atleast.

Anyone wondering what that sensor lookin doohicky is yet? Temperature switch for the electric fans!

Saturday!!

Got the Valve covers pulled and painted (No pictures, forgot) Painted them high temp flat black, because mean looking. why else?

After i was sure the Gasket maker was dry, i started er up. Wont fire. Check for spark and fuel.. everythings fine.. What the hell? It was only an intake! Adjusted timing, etc..
Nothing..
Found TDC for Cylinder 1, take the cap off, pointing at 5.. ok, completely off.. take off the distributor and adjust the oil pump shaft to point at one. reinstall everything. Fires first try. Sweet!!

What else did I do? Oh right.

wired up the temp switch to the fan relay, tested to see if it worked. Works amazing.

Got everything reinstalled on the door, and got the door installed. im diggin the machinery grey!



And that was it for the night.. as i thought.. Midnight comes close, getting ready to have what would seem like a great sleep. Who the hell is calling me? Boss man..

Emergency call.. Great.

Spent the rest of my night diggin in a broken hydro pole.



and finally, a slow sunday half tired, or was i half awake?

Puttered away at this screwed up tail light wiring.. Running light, and reverse light ground was run to a speaker wire, that ran NOWHERE!! Same on the passenger side. Got that figured out and grounded correctly. The Reverse light and running light was on the same power source and twisted together and electrical taped.. WHY???



And that was that..

Went and got some supplies from Canadian Tire for yet another oil change..

Whose up for some milky oil??



And that ends the weekend. Time for a good ol' work week...

[bhc41051]

Intake looks much better on your truck than on my garage floor. Keep up the good work.

[lkfldredneck]

Originally Posted by bhc41051

Intake looks much better on your truck than on my garage floor. Keep up the good work.

Thanks again man, definitely a lot nicer looking than the Torker.

[lkfldredneck]

Skipped probably the nicest day i would have had to work on the truck in a while, to go to a big swap meet about a half hour out. spent from 9 AM until 2 PM looking for parts. Found a good 8 ft box, but it was a dually and sold. Tons and tons of parts, but not too too much for an 80s style. One thing i did find though was a southern passenger side front fender from an 89 dually. Light included with antenna. And for $50!!



Also found a military gas can that i am going to put into the box for cool factor.

And i got a couple 1.5" carb spacers for $25 with 6 gaskets included.



So all in all, not a bad day, especially seeing this beautiul '71



No work going to get done to the chevy tomorrow. from what i hear, its supposed to be pouring rain, and i have to dig out my parents basement so itll be a day stuck in an excavator. If i finish early, my girlfriends dad told me about where a box is, so i might check it out

[lkfldredneck]

Havent updated in a while. Been sick. Busy. Bored. etc..

One cab corner is completely done..

Second Cab Corner is almost done..

Fender is painted ready to be put on..

Add a leafs are here for front and rear..

$350 in front end parts are here... (Wheel bearings, seals, spindle bearings, u-joints, brand spankin new Warn hubs!)

And A new box is here!

Have lots to be done.. hope to get it all completed soon..

[lkfldredneck]

I have really been slacking on this.. Too much work..

So all those front end parts i bought were almost useless except for the warn hubs and U joints. When i took the hubs off the wheel bearings were brand new. Grease wasnt even discolored. So i put both u joints in and the new warn hubs and called it that. Pretty easy job minus chiseling the spindle for an hour.

Started at the Add a leafs today. Didnt go so well. Got the driver side all apart and oh would ya look at that. Main leaf spring split right in two at the center pin.. Damn it.

Called the wrecker yard that is good to me and theyre pulling all 4 leaf packs off of a 1984 GMC wrangler 4x4. 4 front and back almost rust free leaf packs for $250. cant beat that id say.

So im going to get those leafs strip them down, paint them and install with the add a leafs then throw it all back together again.