Lakeroadsters' Build Thread: '65 SWB Step

Body Side Trim, The Long and The Short Of It.

I picked up some oem side trim from my budy Rich Sisneros rjsisneros@ria.net at a swap meet locally and plan to modify it for use on my stepside. Bought the long bed trim so I'd have extra. Plan is to do the factory install but with the following twists:

• shorten the front fender spears,
• add trim to the rear fenders,
• add trim acoss the back of the cab at the orange / white paint split.

I always thought the factory should have done this, so I am going to give it a shot this winter. Ya'll know me, I gotta mess with everything.

Ok, so how about a visual? Sound off, take a look at my amateur side trim mock ups below and tell me, long spear or short spear? It's not really a popularity contest, I just value your opinions.

I am also leaning toward installing just the trim, and not painting the area between the trim white.

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#1, No Trim Factory Stock^^^^

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#2, Long Spear^^^

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#3, Short Spear^^^

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#4, Long Spear, Cab Only Factory Stock Custom Cab^^^

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#5, Short Spear, Cab Only^^^

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#6, Long Spear Single, Cab Only^^^

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#7, Long Spear Single^^^​

 

I can see how either of your trim ideas would look good.
Myself, I always felt the trim looked out of place on the stepsides.
But you putting it on the rear fenders would be an interesting look.

 

Long or Short Spear....

My vote between the two is the Long Spear.

However, I've always liked the "clean" look without trim and stuff, and your current "shop truck" is very cool.

 

Long Spear

That's a nice idea .

 

Rear Pinion Seal, Post #1, 08-25-2012

Since I need to change the pinion seal on my 12 Bolt I decided to pull the rear cover and see what shape the gears were in. They look good.

The photo below is of the numbers stamped on the ring gear... the 11 and 41 confirm I have 3.73 gear set.

Anybody know how to decode the rest of the numbers? My truck is a '65, I'm wondering if the rest of the numbers confirm this is the original gear set.

381778 11 41 GM 7 65 2 27





And here a few more photos..

47 years of crud:


Amazing just how good the gears look. I'm sure they'll be good for another 47 years :


Rear Cover all cleaned up & ready for paint:

 

3.73 Gearset

Just remember , the gears came of the Gleason Gear Cutter about three months before they were assembled into your truck .

Hey , you know what ? MY birthday is coming up in November , you could send those ' High Speed " gears to me........ .

I think your pumpkin there is pretty darn clean ! .

 

Momma always said "Keep your pumpkin clean"

What I have been told thus far:

• the "2 27" stamping means the 227th day of the year 1965, which works out to be August 15, 1965.
  
• the "2 27" means February 27th, 1965

Sorry Nate, I can't part with the gears... they are the only "numbers matching" components left in the driveline of my ole shop truck. You know those number matching fella, them thar gears increase the value of my truck by a dollar two ninety eight.

 

No Worries !

I hear you loud & clear .

The date stamps work both ways you mentioned , it depends on what the part is but I no longer remember with way is correct for the gears , C.R.S. Syndrome don'cha know .

So far I'm well pleased with whatever final drive I have in my old Shop Truck , it got me from Dallas to Los Angeles just fine , in August with the heater stuck full on no less .

After I get the lockup converter TH350C in , we'll see if I need different ratio , I think prolly not .

 

Rear Pinion Seal, Post #2, 08-30-2012

Finished the Pinion Seal replacement today.

Just in case somebody else needs to do the same here are some photos:


^^^^Center Punch the yoke, the nut, and the pinion shaft. This ensures that after you remove the nut and yoke you can re-assemble them in the same orientation, and tighten the nut to its original torque. After I center punched them I used a paint pencil to make the center punched spots easier to see.


^^^^Next step is to use a dial caliper against the face of the pinion shaft and down to the machined surface of the hex nut. This measurement will be used after re-assembly, again to ensure it is the same as original.


^^^^Write down the dial caliper readings.


^^^^Now we're ready to remove the nut and washer. I used a 1-1/8" six point socket and an impact wrench. Man, that sucker was on there! I think I need my teeth fillings tightened now. I used a harmonic balancer puller to remove the yoke. This came off easily; it and the pinion shaft are splined.


^^^^Here's the bad pinion lip seal. Since it has a full face flange I removed it with chisel by tapping it slowly from behind the flange, it came off easily also.


^^^^With the lip seal removed you can now see the pinion bearing. At this point I hosed off everything with brake cleaner and wiped the shaft and bore with a shop rag.


^^^^Here's the old lip seal, the yoke, the nut a flat washer. Notice the flanged type lip seal.



^^^^And here's the new lip seal box. It shows the cross-reference part numbers of other seal manufacturers.

 

Rear Pinion Seal, Post #2 continued, 08-30-2012


^^^^I applied some Gear RTV Sealant to the lip seal o.d., and grease into the lip seal, and then installed the seal. The flange made installation easily, just tapped it in with a ball peen hammer, slowly tapping all around until it was seated in the housing bore.

Reinstalled the yoke, the washer, the nut, and tightened the nut to its original location, as confirmed by the center punched marks and the dial caliper reading.

[Flushed the rear gears with brake cleaner, wiped the sealing surfaces with a shop rag, applied Gear RTV sealant to the cover I refurbished and bolted the new cover on. Filled the housing with 85W90 gear lube.

Does that freshly painted black cover make my rear end look big? ​

 

Cleaning The Banjo

I hope you meant you flushed the gears with brake cleaner......


Brake Fluid can soften and ruin the rubber seals .

 

You are correct... I used Brake Cleaner. Thanks for the technical edit.

 

I`ve heard that as well, but several years back my power steering was growling and started to leak, sitting around with some other old croanies at a four day car show the subject came up, the eldest of the bunch said put a ounce of brake fluid in and see if it stops and it should, so I figured I had nothing too lose and tried it it worked, with in five minutes of running the growling stopped several days later no leak.....differant composition of seals...?

 

Bubba StopLeak

No ;

This works because the brake fluid softens up the old hard seals , adding a teaspoon to the slushbox's ATF was an old Dealer Used Car Lot trick , it'll often work *BUT* , it'll also often work so well that when you shut it down hot , the now super soft seal's lip will stick to the shaft ad the next time you start it up , it'll rip the lip right off the seal and you'll have a gusher on your hands .

 

Pulled off the M/T valve covers to install some new gaskets. Gives me a chance to identify what heads the motor has.

Turns out they are 3932441, 76 cc heads, circa April & May of 1969. Here's a neat website for decoading the head stampings: http://www.chevellestuff.com/qd/head_casting_by_year.htm

So now I know the truck has a 1970 350 cu. in. block, 1969 76 cc heads, 1976-1982 4 barrel intake. Nothing fancy, just your basic old school SBC. Reminds me of the Johny Cash tune "One Piece At A Time": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4pAwosnIQE

 

SBC Head Swapping

That site should be bookmarked by everyone who's ever thought of doing engine works .

Chevy changed the size of the combustion chamber as well as the size of the valves repeatedly over the years for different applications and SMOG requirements too , I used to have a bunch of old guys at the shop who knew this stuff by rote and they'd ask what your planned use was and tell you which heads to go find....

No matter what anyone tells you , Chevrolet Small Block heads of all varieties are cheap and easy to find , you just need to know the casting #'s to look for and be willing to get greasy .

Adding better heads to your old 265 or 283 can easily wake it up a whole bunch , cheaply .

 

Valve Cover Gasket Palooza 09-09-2012

Sometimes a fella can overanalyze the simple stuff.
Let me explain:

Round One:

I have always used cork gaskets in the past for valve covers. Never had a problem with them leaking. But I did some internet searches and rubber seemed to be what everybody is now using. So i went to my local NAPA and bought some rubber gaskets. They didn't fit right in my M/T aluminum valve covers, wrong corner radius and overall length was too long, so I took them back.​

Round Two:

I did some more research and read that the rubber gaskets that had a steel core held their shape the best. So I ordered a set from Summit. They too didn't fit my M/T valve covers, same issues as the Fel-Pro rubber gaskets.​

Round Three:

I took one of the M/T valve covers to Napa and asked the counter guy to get me some cork gaskets, Fel-Pro P/N VS 12869. Guess what? They fit perfect, corner radii, length and hole locations were spot on. Done Deal.​

I also removed the vintage Accel Super Coil, cleaned it up a bit and reworked the bracket so now it is finally level with the world. It seems the PO's of this truck enjoyed doing things about half a bubble off plumb, so to say .



John

 

Cork gaskets are all I`ve ever used, I spray them with a coat of 3-M adhesive, let it hang for half hour, second coat it a little heavier, let it hang 5/10 minutes, place them on valve cover and let them sit on the heads for an hour before I tighten them down...rarely do they leak.

 

Gasketing

I too have always preferred cork , rubberized cork or composite gaskets , rubber ones need to be glued into place and then ever so carefully torqued else they'll squish out and leak....

 

Next on your list.....

Split the brake lines.