Mamma’s In the House

You knew it would happen, it was only a matter of time.

I love my wife of 31 years, she has the most gittyup-and-go of anyone I know, even Dale. She has patiently let me fumble through the truck project and even provided motherly support like one would to an eight year old building his first pine box derby car. But at some point she had to step in.

Well I was out of town with my daughter last week, this is another twilight zone story, and Stephanie said she would sand the fenders over the weekend. Just for those of you that play hockey, there are four fenders, not three.  She was going to sand all of them - okay this could be good.

I gave her a little advice before I left for Memphis and Dale was going to drop by for the final check out. Saturday afternoon I got a call and was told that the sander had completed its final orbit and burned up during reentry. Being resourceful, Stephanie went to Harbor Freight, she still talks about how much fun she had going there, and buying a new sander, a multitude of sanding disks and a whole lot of new friends.

I had told her that Dale being a Power aficionado used the large air fittings because you just can’t get to much air. To her credit she did put on the big adapter, I guess she was just use to working with big fittings, however she was having trouble getting the sander connected to the air hose. I walked her through the process and she successfully got it connected. The next problem was that air was leaking from the fitting.  I asked if she put the Teflon tape on the threads and the line went dead.  Okay, she is fine, I told her what to do and voila, the tape was on, the sander connected, and she was SANDING her pee- picking fingers off.

Bless her heart she used the Moses technique and sanded for three days and three nights and got the outsides of all four fenders in tip-top shape.

What could be better.

Next, Dale and I went to work on the front inside fender skirts. We grinded and sanded and chemically treated them until they were perfect.  I have to admit I had a bit of a crisis with the final prep. We used Eastwood Fast Etch for the rust treatment, it is excellent. But it did leave a gooey residue in some places. I tried acetone, lacquer thinner, engine degreaser, and Limco final prep. It turns out that sanding and a final lacquer thinner wipe did the deed but I was really concerned about the primer sticking to the goo.  Well time will tell.

We put on several coats of acid etching primer and man do the skirts look hot.

Well it looks like I am still in the Baboon phase but let me tell you I can see the light at the end of the long tunnel. I just need to keep my wife working on the fenders and hope she doesn’t try to polish my nuts.



It Is All About Clearance

The new meat on the ol’ 54 is awesome, I mean what eighteen year old doesn’t love chrome spoke wheels and eight inch tires. I know I do.

After the tires were mounted on the wheels, the next step was to put the wheels on the front wheel hubs to see how they fit. The chrome eight inch rim slips on over the brake drum just like it was meant to be, but then I discover a problem. The front tie rod ends rub against the rims. This is not good, no clearance.

Now I begin to understand the meaning of “Clearance” and how non-stock parts could have unintended consequences. Well the parts store where I bought the rims were not interested in a return or anything of that ilk, however they were glad to sell me a ¼ inch spacer that goes between the wheel and the wheel hub. This spacer will move the wheel away from the tie rod end. Next, I put two washers between the steering knuckle and the steering linkage arm, this moved the wheel out another ¼ of an inch.

 

Can you see the difference?

I wanted a second opinion on my “engineering” modifications and once again ask Richard Pella to come over and assess the situation. He gave me a clean bill of health on the use of the washers and the spacer, but asked if I had checked the clearance of the tire inside the wheel well.  Well now that you bring it up, it seems like an obvious thing to consider, except that of course I hadn’t even thought about it.  Remember the eighteen year old kid, nothing could be better than 8 inch meats, what do you mean it has to fit in the wheel wells.

Okay so I put on the inner fender skirt, reattach the front fender, and much to my relief everything fits. Yo, I got Clearance to spare.

It took a few extra steps, but all-in-all another happy ending.

What could be better.

It’s Never Over

It is that time of the year in Alabama were we have the hot muggy days and the temperature is in the high nineties. It makes you think you are on the African Savannah. Still, there is nothing much better than working in the man cave on the truck project.

Dr. Dale was out on rounds last week and came by to check up on the truck. I have to admire his commitment to the project.  I was pretty proud about the amount of parts already assembled; brake drums, drive shaft, bell housing and steering components. Well Dr. Dale was not really happy with the rusty brake drums and rusty drive shaft, clearly it was not acceptable. The next thing I knew I had a prescription to paint my parts.

Like any patient that doesn’t like the diagnosis, I wanted a second opinion. I pleaded my case to Dr. Brian, my other mechanic friend, and to my great surprise; he too said I had to paint all my parts. It’s a conspiracy. Why, I asked?  Now this is the true story, he explained that if I just happened to stop the truck over a mirror, people would be able to look up at my trucks private parts and it was just not lady like to not have them painted.  Remember what your mother said about always wearing clean underwear, you just never know who will see yours. At this point I figured I had enough opinions and went to the paint store.

Thinking of the Queen, I dedicated the weekend to cleaning my parts. First the wire brush, next the Purple Power degreaser, which was followed by brake cleaner.  My team of advisors said that Barbeque paint was the best paint option because it would stick to the rust and handle the heat from the braking action.  I have to admit that the parts do look good. But you all know I am a sucker for those little black numbers.

While my Hillbilly garage has its good points, it does not really keep all the moisture off the truck.  This fact comes to my attention as I am working on the brake drums and notice that rust is coming through the paint and in fact the spot where I was working, the Barbeque paint was rubbed off. Lord Jesus Mother of Mary, all my hard work for naught.

My theory is that there was still a grease residue on the parts and that prevented the paint from properly bonding. Now I have exactly what my Mother feared, holes in my underwear.

And it is not over, I still keep finding dirty rusty parts that need cleaning. The bed parts, among others need to be prepped. It will be a long summer.

I am going to be so glad when the Baboon Phase of this project is over. You know, the phase where you sit around on the hot savannah cleaning your parts.