Restorations

The luck continues! Today I picked up a GM Corp 10-bolt front axle with 8-lug outers from an NP203 equipped 3/4 ton truck for $50! Everything spins over very well and it looks very good inside. Since this was originally on a full-time 4wd truck, there are no lock out hubs installed, rather a dust cap and a solid plug for connecting the hub to the axle. These will be nice to have once I do start wheeling this truck harder than I am now.

Here are some pictures:

The only thing I was really hoping for out of this was that it would already have 4.10 gears. But as can be seen in the photos below, the ring gear states 41 11 so they are 3.73 gears…

So this axle has the same gear ratio as my truck currently.  Now I have the 8-lug outers to go with the 14-bolt full floating rear axle!

For another $20, I picked up a set of 15×10 8-lug rims.  They need some good cleaning, but they are not too shabby for $20:

And the 14FF is in the shop! Dad had his new backhoe home today. I shot up to the shale pit with it and snagged the axle out of the weeds.

Everything looks good inside. I was able to get one drum freed up with some tender tapping with a 5lb hammer. The one that was down in the dirt for ~13 years did not budge. I will have to get in there and flush out the brake area with some water to get the mud out, then see about adjusting the shoes in to get the drum off.

There was some rust on the ring gear though. Not too sure what I am going to attempt with that…

Here are the pictures…

Yeah, its in there… Under a few telephone poles which it slipped off of over the years:

Back at the shop where I could open it up and take a look at things:

10 41 as it reads on the ring gear:

Rusty ring gear… I am inclined to see how it wears in after I clean it up and then use it a bit..

Oh yeah, here’s the best part (besides being free), 42.5" center to center on the spring perches. Exactly what is needed for my K5!! If I had 4.10’s in the front axle, I would be bolting this thing up!

I had to go down to my dad’s place today to snap some pictures of a few parts off of my donor Suburban so I figured I’d go up to his shale pit and have a little fun.

Here are the pics:

Today I drove over to Honeoye Falls (just south of Rochester) to pick up a set of used, but complete and original rear quarters.  The passenger side quarter has some ripples in it, a tiny bit of surface rust, and is a bit messed up at the front where it attaches to the B-pillar, but for what I need, it will work nicely.  The ripples I can massage out before I weld it on.

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!

The holes in the floor board on the driver side were covered up with some sheetmetal.  I took it back to the shop and the sticker went on.

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.

I finally got the exhaust pipe complete enough to mount mufflers. This meant that I could license it and get it inspected.

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.

So I have had this mower deck in my garage all winter that I have been rebuilding, rather lazily, through out this period of time.  Today I decided that it really needed to be done.  With weather changing for the better, I am sure that Mark was going to be needing it sometime soon.

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.

After a useless work detail at the fire hall which wasted all morning and accomplished absolutely nothing, I started back at the ‘burb.

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. 

Jason (my cousin) and I were able to get a good start on tearing down the ‘burb tonight.  We started by removing the doors. 

The “barn door” style rear doors were a cinch to remove only requiring the impact wrench.  The rear doors on the sides were also quite easy requiring some trim to be removed, electrical connections disconnected and then removal of the mounting bolts for the hinges. 

The front doors on the other hand…  After removing the trim on the inside it became evident that the wiring had to be disconnected from the components inside the doors and then fed back through the hole in the door first.  Only then could the doors be unbolted.

Once the doors were out, we pulled the glass.  This was made very easy with the way the glass was installed at the factory.

So $250 later and the Suburban is sitting in the shop!  No real excitement in picking it up.  Just drove it up onto the flatbed and chained it down. 

The ride back down off of the flatbed was interesting though.  It was raining outside which left the bed of the trailer quite slick.  The practically bald tires on the ‘burb offered no traction and the truck just slid on down.  There is no real problem with that, it just came as a surprise to me.