May 5, 2003
I had a very productive weekend on Rusty. I removed the rear bumper, frame-bumpers, and shocks. Finished sanding and got the frame, from the cab back, coated in rust encapsulator. Okay, that was a really short sentence, but it was almost 20 hours of work. I am very pleased with the results and will be putting on the final coat of paint to the rear frame shortly.
Last night I was reviewing prices for the rear suspension components. After going through all my catalogs, I have decided to order the leaf springs, shackles, U-bolts, frame-bumpers, shocks and pins from LMC Truck. Their pricing was much better than the others, but the leaf springs are on backorder for about 5 weeks. Oh well, the price makes up for it.
Okay, this looks like a good place to stop. Around the corner looks like rear suspension, parking brake, rear brakes, axle and drive shaft.
May 14th, 2003
Good news! LMC has shipped the new leaf springs that were on back order. So, instead of waiting five weeks, I only had to wait two. They should be in before the long Memorial Day weekend.
May 17th, 2003
Started the day off thinking I would remove the rear suspension and clean the axle. I wish! It took me a solid 8 hours just to get the rear leaf springs off. The U-Bolts were frozen on both sides. The left rear shackle came off easily enough, but the right one required cutting the bolts. The stationary pins wouldn't budge.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing how pathetic this sounds. I spent most of my time "thinking" about the problems. I tinkered around with the U-bolt problem until I came up with the bright idea of cutting the bolts themselves.
The next problem was the pins at the stationary side of the leaf springs. According to the shop manual, they could be fastened in two different ways. One of which they had a special pulling tool. I was hoping that mine could be removed by simply pulling the pin out. I tried hammering the pin, on the left side, through the hole to loosen the grip. It didn't budge and the tools that I used, bent. Fearing that I might have damaged the pin on that side, I moved over to the right side. I studied the pin for a while and then decided that I had the pull out type, but couldn't figure out how to get the pin out. I dug through my tool chest and came up with a long nail that looked like it wouldn't bend easily. I hammered on the nail and it pushed the pin through the other side. Bingo! However, the pins are too long to be pushed through the other side, so I had to figure out how I was going to pull them out. I grabbed a glass of water and put my thinking cap on. It finally came to me: put the grease zerks back on and use them as a "handle" to pull on. The right-side came out. I kick ass! Back to the left side - it wouldn't budge or turn. I grabbed my trusty nail and hammered on it until it shot through the other side. With a little more effort, I got the pin pushed back to the opening and then was able to pull it out by the grease zerk.
At this point, it was 9:00pm, so I put up the tools and called it a day.
May 24th
I started out by cleaning the rear axle. The surface rust came off easily, but it was dirty work laying under the truck to do it. Around noon, I got the axle clean and a couple of spots I had missed when first prepping the rear frame. I hit those spots with Rust Encapsulator. This stuff dries quick, so I was ready to start painting right away.
While I put the second coat of Chassis Black on the new leaf springs, I sanded and cleaned the brackets that the U-Bolts and rear shocks mount to. I also was applying paint to the new shackles and U-Bolts.
While the misc. parts were drying, I painted the exposed portion of the frame and axle. It looks great! By late afternoon, I was able to start the assembly of the leaf springs. Around 7pm, I had everything put back together. I also installed the new axle bumpers.
This was a fairly easy day and it was fun to see things coming together. The worst part was laying on my back painting the underside of the frame. I used aerosol cans and got really dirty. I believe that I will use a paint brush on the rest of the frame.
I have the new shocks for the rear, but there were no rubber bushings for them. I thought they were supposed to come with the shocks, so I'll have to call about that.
I was not able to get the rear wheels off. I don't have the right sized lug wrench, so I haven't cleaned the drums or rebuilt the rear brakes. Since those are easy to get to, I'm not to worried about it. Also, I will replace the brake lines when I get the rest of the body off.
May 25th, 2003
It is starting to warm up here in Houston. I was pretty sore from the previous days work and I think I was suffering from a mild case of heat exhaustion or something - I was moving pretty slow. I had a couple of cigarettes and some aspirin for breakfast, and then went to work.
First on the list was to clean the garage (again) so I could move Rusty back in. Some creative rearrangement and a quick sweeping got the job done. Next, I removed the door glass and then the doors themselves. I have seen my first case of rust damage. The bottom of the driver's side door is slightly rusted through. It should be pretty easy to weld up again though.
I was home alone and had to push Rusty back in the garage by myself. Her svelte figure is misleading! She weighs a ton (okay a half-ton). I had to fuel up on another cigarette, but eventually got her back in the garage.
I mentioned that I was moving slow, and by this time it was around noon. I went in for some lunch and AC. After a nice hour break, I was back out in the garage and started the process of taking the front-end off.
Not a lot more to report. I removed the hood, and hood emblem. I got most of the bolts out on the inner fender skirts. Sarah and Taylor came out to check on me and they helped remove the headlights and bezels. I also removed the bolts from the firewall which allowed me to remove the heater and vents from inside the cab.
During the previous weeks, and if I had enough daylight after work, I would work on removing stuff from the cab. So, at this point, I have the cab almost cleaned out.
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