Garage Clean Up

We (Miguel and I) had a very successful Sunday morning this past weekend. We picked up an engine hoist from a local equipment rental and loaded up the old engine into the trailer.  Not before emptying the oil pan though because the recycling place won't take any parts with fluid still in them.  Mind you, the oil has been sitting for 25+ years. Simply taking out the oil pan plug wouldn't do. Oil dripped out for a couple seconds then stopped. We knew there had to be more than that. So we unscrewed the oil pan, which was a lot easier than I was expecting.  Gave it quite a few bangs with the mallet hammer to loosen it and the oil pan came free. What we discovered looked like black, gooey, slimy sludge. It was gross. 

We also threw out the transmission, the whole front in (front crossmember, breaks, torsion bars, a-arms) and a few other metal parts. We took the whole trailer load to TKO Recycling (Rancho Cordova, CA). They will recycle just about anything. 

Gettin down to the nitty gritty

So it's been about 7 months since I've been able to get some time to work on the truck.  This weekend was very successful though!  Since we've got the whole front half of the truck down to the frame, it was time to start cleaning and polishing it up.  And let me tell you...it looked a lot worse.  With the right tools (thanks to my friend and neighbor) it took no time at all.  Of course, it's hard to get into all of the nooks and crannies, but that's later.  There's still some spots to finish but in two evenings we got a lot cleaned up.

Cleaned section on the left, still dirty on the right

It looks ALMOST brand new again

I went back and forth and back and forth and back again between cleaning it by hand or taking the whole thing to a shop to media blast it.  We settled on doing it by hand, which isn't awful!  It's been fun actually.  I'm learning how to use tools I've never used before.  I may or may not invest in my own pressurized abrasive blaster to get into the tight places and crevices.  We'll see.

Removing the Cab from the Frame

A couple weekends ago we removed the cab.  I thought it was going to be really difficult.  I thought I would need a big group of my strongest guy friends to help.  I wasn't even sure, exactly, HOW we were going to get it off the frame.  

We made sure to remove as much as we could to make the cab as light as possible.  We removed the doors, the gas tank, the steering column, the bench seat, and most of the dash.  I had 3 guys and 1 girlfriend to help....and it went a lot smoother than I thought!  

We pushed the truck out of the garage.  Unbolted the 4 bolts holding the cab to the frame (use an impact wrench.  It's SOOOO much easier).  We then put 3 4x4's under the cab to lift it up, then slid the cab (very very gently) down the 4x4's and off the frame.  Then the guys each took a side and were able to simple carry the cab over to the side yard where the cab will rest for the time being.  The cab is being stored on pallets and covered with a giant tarp.  

Ripping out the heart...in a positive way

Last weekend we accomplished a big step...we removed the engine and transmission! The guys did most of the heavy lifting but it was very exciting! It feels like now that the engine is out I can really get down to cleaning and removing other parts. Removing the engine was surprisingly smooth and easy. No issues getting bolts off or even pulling out the transmission with the engine. 

It's About Family

A lot of people have been telling me this whole project of restoring my dad's truck is a bad idea.
It's a waste of time and money.
It'll take years to complete.  

My response to that?

I don't care.  I don't care what they THINK is a bad idea or a waste of my time.  I knew going into this project that it was going to take some time and a bit of money.  But that's not the point of this whole project.  The point is that I've watched this truck sit in my backyard for 20 years, always thinking one day I will work on it, and one day i'll get to drive it.
To me...it's not about how much money I put into it, or how many years it takes.  To me, it's about my dad, my grandpa, my grandma, even my mom.
Fixing this truck makes me feel closer to them.

It's about family.  

A brief (and delayed) update

It has been a while since I last posted and I am happy to report.........the project is at a standstill.  We've gotten all of the front end taken off and have determined the engine is shit (not really surprised there).  I've been tossing around the idea of replacing the engine anyway because the one in there now is a straight 6, and i'd rather have a V6 or V8, so i've started my shopping.  There are so many engines out there for sale, some cheap, most not.  It's a lot of work since i'm not too knowledgeable on engines.  But i'm having fun with it, which is important.  

I have so much to learn.

Until next time.  

A New Home

After sitting in the backyard for 24 years, the truck has been moved!  With the help of a couple friends and their diesel truck the Chevy was pulled from the backyard, out the side gate, down the street, around the house and backed down the driveway into the garage.  Actually, I should say it was pushed down the driveway by three, and me behind the wheel steering it into the garage.  That was fun.  
The task went a lot smoother than I imagined.  The Chevy wasn't running under it's own power.  The brakes didn't even work!  But the E-Brake did. Oh and remember that ONE tire that would NOT inflate?  We tried it again and the tire held air this time.  We could not figure out why it decided to hold air now.  It made the job of moving the truck a lot easier though.  

As we were backing the truck down the driveway we were all kind of skeptical of the truck fitting in the garage in the first place.  The house was built sometime in the 40's or 50's, and the garage door is a lot smaller than standard garage doors today.  Add to that, the amount of stuff stored in our garage takes up a lot of space.  Did I mention we had to do a thorough deep cleaning of the garage before we could even THINK about moving the truck in there?  The garage was piled with stuff from years and years and years of storage.  But the truck fit!  With inches to spare.

New home!

Before truck

It was a great accomplishment, getting the truck out of the backyard.  Now the garage will be it's home for however many years.  

And now the real work begins. 

Until next time...