Project Build Your Wife Her Truck

[72 tigger]

Nice truck and plan!

[Benchracer]

Research and to get back to 68Gold/white....

I have been crawling all over/under the truck now that I have less "stuff" falling into my face when I touch anything underneath it. Now that years of caked on dirt, debris and gunk have been blasted off, I can see and get to things. The goal of this build is NOT just replace or rebuild everything. I only want to refresh or update stuff that is bad or makes sense since while I am in that area (more on that later). Safety is priority 1 and with that brakes.

Other than being crusty, the fronts seem OK. I will still refresh with new hoses, either calipers or rebuild the ones on there (are they worth blasting and rebuilding), clean up the rotors and new pads. *IF ANYONE HAS A _GOOD_ SOURCE FOR FRONT CALIPERS PLEASE HIT ME UP. I'm not talking the local brake best lifetime warranty reman junk.


The rear drums do nothing. Not surprised, so I will be addressing these. That port of the master cylinder was dry a few years ago when we started tinkering with this. Once filled, I have not found any leaks. Odd. Once the drums were off, I could see all the hardware needs to be replaced, shoes, drums and wheel cylinders. What is left of the shoes may be the original set! All that adds up and it pains me to spend that kind of money and effort to still be left with drum brakes. There has to be a non-high dollar, easy to get parts for solution, right?

Several days of research later I found several threads referencing CaptainFab and his brackets along with supporting parts. Really great threads and good conversations all around his kits. Captainfab had really good quick support with some of my questions, good recommendations and was great at corresponding. If you are looking for that, check out the thread:

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=382633

Rear cont'd...Along with the Captainfab "Camaro Caliper Brackets", I have the full caliper assemblies (from Amazon no less, wow!), Caprice rear rotors, f-body e-brake cables, 70's Corvette master cylinder and dual disc proportioning valve. I think I still need to pickup the caliper hoses.

Note: I ran across a thread weeks ago that I can no longer find referencing a different/better e-brake cable setup. If anyone can point me to that, I would be much appreciated.

That's where I am going brake-wise.

[Benchracer]

March 04 2022 - Bed Removal

Since there are several items to take care of under the rear of the truck, my next project steps involved removing the bed to get access to everything under it: fuel tank relocation, fuel lines, rear brake lines, carrier bearing, driveshaft.....

First: 6 of those bed bolt nuts are at hard to get to places. Too much bolt extending to use a shallow. Not enough room to use a deep socket and any combination of swivel/wobble and too much for a wrench. Poop. The two that I could get to, I wire brushed the exposed threads and reapplied Deep Creep. They turned and it looked like I was home free! NOPE! I got 4 threads from the end and the recessed square in the bed gave up and became a rounded hole. I vise-gripped the exposed bolt shaft only to have the nut strip out. Double poop. Back to researching...



----->> WHAT NOT TO DO <<-----: I highly recommend NOT doing what I did to remove the bed bolts. I found several threads on how to cut an x in the head or grind off the head then tap them through the bed. I even found several several YouTube videos on doing this. So, that's what I did. <insert explicative here> While cutting the head seems good, these bolts are in a recessed area so you risk cutting the bed. I would X the bolt head only to find out there was still more meat on the bolt. I switched to cutting/grinding as much of the head as possible. Tap what was left with a hammer and punch. Success! the thin edge left on the bolt head popped and went through the bed. Whew, 7 more to go. The other 7 did not go the same...One just made the recessed square hole bigger. Another tore the bed at 2 points of the square. Two more made larger holes. CRRRRRRAAAAAAPPP. And guess what? The bolts are still in the bed channels. I did have 2 more inches of play which allowed me to cut the nut ends off so I could remove the bed. I hang my head in shame. Now that it's over, I have great regret and foreshadowing of more expense and work to fix what I did.

*** HIGHLY RECOMMEND *** Cut the bolts off from the bottom by any means necessary but not to damage the frame or bed. This will allow you to pull the bolts out by their heads from the bed. I cannot begin to tell you how much this will save you in the long run. I did not have adequate cut off tools then, I do now.

*** ALSO RECOMMEND *** IF you cannot cut them from the bottom, you can drill the heads off with a _good_ drill bit just large enough to drill the head off but not damage the recessed square hole. This will allow you to drive the bolt shaft down and out.



Rust Rain/Shower: If you don't know what this is, you are in for it. Those of you who do know are probably laughing. The whole time I was being introduced to "Rust Rain" or "Rust Shower". Yes, the vibrations of the tools were shaking the bed and loosening the years of scale that I could not get to with a power washer. It was all raining down on me. The pic is after only working on one bolt.


Finally released of it's moorings, myself and 3 guys were able to pick it up and walk it onto a small trailer.


I really hope someone finds this and lets my suffering help them do better.

[Gregski]

does this beauty have a name?