The trip up to Webster went quite well.  It held 65mph just fine cruising down rte 104.  The oil pressure was fine while cruising down the road.  When I finally pulled off of 104, it dropped a bit low and I could hear a slight noise (I hesitate to call it a knock) from the motor that I did not recall hearing before.  This kind of troubled me… 

I stopped at my destination where I was for about an hour and then started on my return trip.  On the way back home, the temperature started to creep up.  It wasn’t getting too high, but still high enough to worry me.  Every other trip that I had taken never resulted in the temperature rising this high.  I turned on the heat (it was a bit chilly out anyway) and dropped the windows.  I used the heat to gauge whether I was loosing any coolant.  While driving down the highway, the heat stayed steady on the high side of the factory gauge.  Every time that I would drive through a small town, it would drop down…  I think I know what’s going on..!  I’ll elaborate when I get time to dig into it.

Surprisingly, now that I have the problem with my hands/forearms, my hands do not cramp up like they used to when working in tight areas or with repetitive motions.  Good thing!

Put it all back together and found that the fuel gauge and temp gauge did not work.  Removed it and traced out the lines.  Found a bad connection to the temp gauge and fixed that with a short strand of copper and a little bit of solder.  Removed all of the gauges and cleaned them while I was in there.  Put it all back together and still nothing…  Checked the fuses and the 3A cluster fuse was blown.  A quick run to Autozone for some fuses (all I had was the mini blade fuses) and it was back to working great.

While I was at autozone I bought a new headlight pull rod/knob to replace the broken one that was there.  So that was done.

I also picked up a new window crank handle for the passenger side.  Put it on and noticed why the previous owner had removed the old one…  The window track was broken making it almost impossible to roll the window up once it was down.  I had another rear window track from a pickup that I was able to cut off the truck upper bracket and weld on the bracket for my cut down doors (73-75 full convertibles had a different upper bracket).  Put that in and tried it again…  The window still jumped off…  A bit more inspection showed that the window regulator was bent up to the point that it was pulling the window out of its channels.  One of the doors out in my shed had a good manual window regulator so I removed that and dropped it into my door then dropped the window back in.  ALL IS WELL!!  It was a bit of a hassle to get the window back on the regulator, but now that it is in, it works as good as new!

Now that my roof is done, my next purchase will be that 74 Jimmy to cut up!  The first thing I am planning on doing is skinning the doors to get the additional supports out of them.  Then I will be converting my extra set of doors over to full convertible use. 

These quarters came off of an 87 Blazer if I remember correctly so if I use the whole passenger quarter, I will have to change over to using a fuel door.  I have to look into what is different between this and what is currently on my truck now.

I am itching to start cutting panels off, but my schedule right now sucks.  I am way too busy with other things to make time for the K5.  I am content right now to be able to drive it around!

Had a little hiccup on the way home from the shop though…  The night before when I was buttoning everything backup inside the truck, I decided that it was time to rip out the “security” valve that the previous owner had put in.  Well, I did not have enough time to remove the valve itself, but I did remove all of the wiring associated with it.  That was a mistake…  The truck started to falter on the way home.  Decided to die about a 1/4 mile from the house.  I had everything in the truck to make repairs on the side of the road and did so.  Gotta love old vehicles!

I have been driving it around all weekend, messing around here and there and am surprised at how nice this truck drives.  My biggest complaint is how loud the damn tires are!  Those 33×12.5-15 BFGoodrich Mud Terrain tires really howl when cruising down the road.  This will be addressed in a bit.  New 33×9.5-15 BFGoodrich A/T tires will be put on for the everyday driving.

I have also realized the need to put an overdrive transmission in.  I am in the hunt for a 700R4 transmission right now.  I know where I can pick another 2wd version up for relatively little money and then swap in a tail shaft to allow it to mate up with my NP203 transfer case.  I also know where I can pick up a very nicely built 700R4/241C combo with driveshafts good for a 6” suspension lift for around $1200 OBO…  I just do not have the money right now and do not know if the deal will be available until I do have the money.

Looking back now, I should have known that the hole in the floor board was not going to fly… So that is the task for this week. Getting that hole covered up so that it will pass inspection. I have been assured that, when fixed, it will pass.

A few months ago I had gotten it all cleaned up and fixed some of the damage that was present.  I had removed a prior patch job that was sloppily done and repaired some thin, cracked sections of the deck which needed to be strong to support the pieces that bolted on in those locations.  To strengthen the rusted and cracked metal, I backed these areas with some 14 gauge sheet metal.   Areas which were to be completely replaced, were replaced with 1/8” metal.

The pictures below show the progress from a few months ago:

Tonight I was able to get the non-discharge side completely fabricated and welded back together.  It is amazing how fast it actually goes back together.  My little Millermatic 140 welder still continues to amaze me.  For the old to new metal welds, I had to dial it back so as not to blow through, but with the new metal welds I had it turned all the way up and it burned in very well.  There were some spots which ended up with some porosity for some reason, but they were old to new metal welds so I do not know if it was just something in the old metal.

Anyway, pictures…  Mark, these are for you:

There still are a few other areas which need attention before I can call this one done.  I just wanted to show the progress that was being made so Mark would not think I was putting it off.

Hopefully I can get it finished up over this long weekend.  I want to discuss some other areas with Mark first to see if he would like me to just replace them or leave them as is.

I continued with the trim removal on the inside, getting all of the plastic trim removed carefully so that I could attempt to sell it to regain some of the money I spent on buying the truck.  This was not a difficult task and after about 45 minutes, It was done.

The carpets, headliner, and side trim in the back were junk and treated as such.  The main reason why the previous owners were getting rid of the truck were quite evident once the interior was gutted.  The entire passenger side was sagging 4” below the bed floor inside.  The center two body mounts were busted up through the floor.  There was absolutely nothing but the roof holding up the rear quarter at the C and D pillars!

As I was planning on chopping the truck up anyway, I busted out the saws-all.  The passenger quarter panel was my first victim and two cuts is all that it took to be removed!

The truck was quite rotted underneath.  The next time I am down there, I will take a picture of the underside of the rear floor to show just how bad it was. 

I was able to get a set of Hooker headers for $146 delivered next day from Amazon.com.  The headers and the exhaust system I have purchased are made to work with each other nicely.  However, not as nice as a true bolt in.  Some "massaging" of the exhaust will be necessary to get the mufflers and tail pipes located where I want them. Nothing a cutoff wheel and a welder will not fix.

The good news is that I was able to save the Flowmaster Series 40 mufflers that were on the truck and they will get welded back into the system.  I am trying to find some high temp cold galvanizing paint locally right now so I can spray down the welds to try and prohibit rust formation.

I also did some more digging into the speedometer calibration and what needed to be done.  I pulled the driven gear out of the back of the transfer case and had a look at it.  It has a 7 tooth drive gear and a 19 tooth driven gear. I would need to step up to a 23 tooth driven gear to get the speedo to read right.  However, only up to a 21 tooth gear is available.  So I will need to purchase an add-on unit (speedometer ratio adapter) to get to the proper ratio.

I have pictures of all of this stuff, but will have to update later.

I did notice that the speedometer is noticeably off.  I am assuming that the gear ratio is left unchanged and since the original tires for this truck were H78-15B which had around a 27.8″ outside diameter, the speedometer is off by ~20%.  This was using the information on the following websites:

NovaResource.org – Speedo & ChevelleEngineer – Speedo

My next task before I actually put this truck on the road is to patch the hole in the bed floor which at this point in time will just include some silicon sealer and sheet metal screws.  I will also have to get the exhaust so it exits out behind the rear wheels to pass an inspection.  I am not sure if I am going to slap on the headers just yet as the temps outside have been quite frigged and I will need the cooperation of the weather to get it done.  Time will tell.

One thing is for sure, I have to get the lawn mower deck finished for a co-worker before it gets too cold outside.  That way I can move in the Blazer and get to cutting on that thing.

I did just pickup a new 1/8” thick steel counter top for my main work bench.  This will allow me to use the bench for more than just a junk accumulation point.  I will be able to cut, weld, and grind on it.  I had a piece of 1/8” thick steel sheet bent to conform to the bench with an 11” back splash and a 2” lip on the front.  I will post up pictures of the top as well as installed photos once I get it put in.  Only thing prohibiting me at the moment is the amount of junk that is on my bench!!  LOL