e015475
Member
Came up gimpy two weeks ago - cut my foot on some glass and ended up on crutches for a couple of weeks and lost a little momentum, but here's progress for the last month or so -
The fixed glass is all in. My truck is a deluxe five-window, so I opted for the chrome (well plastic chrome, anyway) lock strips. I bought my glass from Jim Carter and the rear window had quite a burr on one of the corners and I had difficulty getting it into the aperture. About ten minutes of sanding with some 220 wet or dry on a paint stick knocked it down so it would fit.
Wyatt had done a lot of big-rigs that had windows with a lock strip, and at first we made a tools out of some welding rod. That turned into a shoulder-killer until bought this Lisle tool - it works really well. There's four different profiles available and I put them all together so I wouldn't lose them. We wrapped the tool with tape so it wouldn't damage the paint.
The airbag system is all in. Here is the compressor mounted on the passenger side frame rail. The system has no push on connectors and is all hard lines with AN fittings. I spent about a half day going through the entire system looking for leaks. I've got most of the big ones, but I charged the system to 50PSI and lost about 10 PSI in my tank in about three days. Need to keep working on it to get it to the point where it will only loose a couple PSI a week.
I put a drain on the airbag tank so I could drain the water out of it once in a while. I used a standard air chuck so I could pressurize the system with shop air for service.
The high and low pressure lines for the hydroboost are all in, but I still can't put the hose clamps on the frame unit it is off the jack stands. I bought a bunch of Adel clamps from Aircraft Spruce (about $10) and will tap the frame for #10 stainless screws to hold them on - brakes, air and hydraulic.
Not supposed to be walking around so I cleaned the shop from my chair. Keep misplacing parts so I set up a stand to hold everything I'm getting ready to install-
Started on the exhaust system from the header back to the rear bumper. Here's the first pipe tacked together in preparation for TIG welding - this is the pipe from the header to the muffler.
Stainless mandrel bend prices have gotten ridiculous so decided to go mild steel. An H pipe will connect the left and right sides. For reasons I can't figure out, the headers I made didn't turn out symmetrical at the exits - they're off about an inch side to side. No matter, just means I'll have to compensate with the pipe on the other side. Here's the passenger side with the mandrels cut with some extra 'tails' to get it fitting just right under the truck.
I'll get the two exhaust pipes looking pretty symetrical under the truck before welding them up.
That's about it for now. It is getting hot as hell here now, and it is a good time to hunker down in the shop and work on the truck.
Phil
The fixed glass is all in. My truck is a deluxe five-window, so I opted for the chrome (well plastic chrome, anyway) lock strips. I bought my glass from Jim Carter and the rear window had quite a burr on one of the corners and I had difficulty getting it into the aperture. About ten minutes of sanding with some 220 wet or dry on a paint stick knocked it down so it would fit.
Wyatt had done a lot of big-rigs that had windows with a lock strip, and at first we made a tools out of some welding rod. That turned into a shoulder-killer until bought this Lisle tool - it works really well. There's four different profiles available and I put them all together so I wouldn't lose them. We wrapped the tool with tape so it wouldn't damage the paint.
The airbag system is all in. Here is the compressor mounted on the passenger side frame rail. The system has no push on connectors and is all hard lines with AN fittings. I spent about a half day going through the entire system looking for leaks. I've got most of the big ones, but I charged the system to 50PSI and lost about 10 PSI in my tank in about three days. Need to keep working on it to get it to the point where it will only loose a couple PSI a week.
I put a drain on the airbag tank so I could drain the water out of it once in a while. I used a standard air chuck so I could pressurize the system with shop air for service.
The high and low pressure lines for the hydroboost are all in, but I still can't put the hose clamps on the frame unit it is off the jack stands. I bought a bunch of Adel clamps from Aircraft Spruce (about $10) and will tap the frame for #10 stainless screws to hold them on - brakes, air and hydraulic.
Not supposed to be walking around so I cleaned the shop from my chair. Keep misplacing parts so I set up a stand to hold everything I'm getting ready to install-
Started on the exhaust system from the header back to the rear bumper. Here's the first pipe tacked together in preparation for TIG welding - this is the pipe from the header to the muffler.
Stainless mandrel bend prices have gotten ridiculous so decided to go mild steel. An H pipe will connect the left and right sides. For reasons I can't figure out, the headers I made didn't turn out symmetrical at the exits - they're off about an inch side to side. No matter, just means I'll have to compensate with the pipe on the other side. Here's the passenger side with the mandrels cut with some extra 'tails' to get it fitting just right under the truck.
I'll get the two exhaust pipes looking pretty symetrical under the truck before welding them up.
That's about it for now. It is getting hot as hell here now, and it is a good time to hunker down in the shop and work on the truck.
Phil
