Radarsonwheels

I used to have a chock on a rope in my ‘54 truck for my sloped driveway at my old house- I’d park it in gear but to crank up I’d put it in neutral then roll back onto the chock. Once it was warmed up I’d drive a couple inches up, open the door and reel in the chock with my foot on the brake and go! Ha!

I realize that I am a hack and slash make it work or upgrade kinda mechanic and not a proper restoration guy when it comes to our trucks but detroit all sourced from the same suppliers in a lot of cases- would a cable meant for another car or truck be a black cable with a ball end from like an 80s d150 or something do the job? You can look up part specs and details on rockauto for a million vehicles and the driveshaft drum on a pilothouse might be a similar length as a modernish parking brake Cable since they ususally go to the trans xmember then hook to a splitter or linkage in that area. Might work a treat and cost $13.00?

I had a lot of trouble getting the pipe thread on the tops of my rear airbags to seal. I cheaped out when I bought them because they came with nice thick brackets to weld in which made the bags effectively cost like $20 each so it seemed like a good gamble. The threading in the steel was very rough and wouldn’t seal brass fittings even with multiple attempts using teflon tape, teflon paste, & different fittings. The closest I got was a slow leak that would air down overnight. I’m not planning on valves switches compressors or dumps- I just want the bags to require maintenance similar to a wheel and tire- pump to desired pressure and check once in a while. Well my last ditch effort before going nuclear with two part epoxy has now held pressure for two days- loctite 545 and 7649 primer/cleaner/activator. I’m a believer this stuff works!

Thanks Jomani. The trans tunnel is going to get finished as a skeleton with the 1/4” round stock then faceted with 16g. The facets will get bigger and simpler around the right side and into the shifter console plate. The difficult part will be the top under the dash where I want to make the hump removable but I’m telling myself I can make a removable skeleton for that too so I can finish it on the bench instead of standing on my head under the dash.

Got some more done today. I got a 17 gallon tank to go under the bed. I also welded in risers to hold the bench seat bracket and made a crossmember with three attachment points for lap belts. I didn’t weld that in yet. I’m still trying to figure out if I am going to run the race harnesses I have on the shelf. If so I need to install a bar above the bench seat back that’s strong enough and high enough for mounts but tucked away enough to not touch anybody’s head in an unhelmeted accident... maybe I’ll just do the lap belts. Knees are softer than metal dashboards.

Me too! What size wheel/tire are you stuffing under there?

Go Plymouthy! I can silver solder, bend & cut, and do some torch welding but I never figured out what kind of flux to use to get a nice bead on a weld. I can stick stuff together just fine but sheetmetal work is a little scary. Complex shapes are much easier for me than big areas I have trouble with how slow the work needs to go. Structural fabrication is fun but stitching on 1/4s takes me for ever!

Man I had a ton of trouble doing one on mine. Maybe I needed a bigger bore- I think I used 7/8” or 15/16” dual pot master from like a dart or diplomat or something I also had the rusty hope setup, but with stock ‘54 drums and an adjustable proportioning valve. I couldn’t get enough leverage to slow down fast with a 1 1/8” or so m/c so I swapped to the smaller bore. Then I couldn’t get enough throw out of the stock linkage- it would either hit the floor before squeezing the rotors hard enough or if I made the pushrod longer it would stop great but then not return far enough to let the pressure out of the lines so after a few stops it would drag then lock up. Then I added residual pressure valves to hold the drums and prevent flowback so I wouldn’t have to pump up every stop and lengthened the lower arm on the pivot to get more throw for the same pedal movement and I had to angle the MC up so the rod didn’t bind now that it pushed back and up instead of just back. It was like a saga of not working right and to add to the fun the rear with the quad wheel cylinders for some reason never wanted to bleed easily. Instead of setting the truck on fire and pushing it into a lake I ended up adding a jeep rear axle with discs and a cheap swinging pedal with a dual diaphragm power booster and 1 1/8” corvette style master. It finally stopped- not like a modern car, more like my ‘86 ramcharger with 33” tires. It would slow quickly and reliably but couldn’t ever lock them up... I have done a lot of custom brake stuff and never had trouble making stuff work like I did with my ‘54. I hope yours works out better- seems like other folks just swapped to a dual pot with no drama. Maybe there was air in there I never got out? I even paid a shop to power bleed it in desperation once...

I don’t know how floppy your shaft is but they can be a little sloppier than you’d maybe think compared to a motor’s crankshaft. The pilot bearing in the back of the crank should keep the input shaft’s nose pretty much dead center. My buddy put a t5 in my truck when he owned it for a while but I have only pulled and installed stock trannys on our trucks, never swapped them out or got creative but on the 70s mopar stuff the bellhousing was machined concentric while married to the actual block it goes with and a swap to another trans calls for indexing the bell so that the input shaft doesn’t end up going in little circles instead of spinning true. Hopefully folks that actually know about the old stuff will chime in! Good luck!

Oh wow hahaha I might keep the foot because it makes me feel like a little kid but I never saw a whole barefoot theme car! Maybe Jr should make a theme bike on Orange County Choppers it can have barefoot floorboards, gastank, fenders, exhaust tips, maybe even smell like feet! I sent my buddy a pic of it and he said he threw up in his mouth a little and asked if I was gonna do a hitch with truck nuts too. I’m not sure if that seals the deal that I’m keeping it or realizing my mistake! I’m only 40 and he’s well into his 50s so maybe the nostalgia is different for folks that saw this junk the first go around... I also got around to drilling the bottom of the grille cavity for grommets so I could pass my rubber trans cooler lines between the rad support and the new fabricated front crossmember to the hard lines I just made. And thanks to advice here I was able to quickly correct my droopy driver’s door handle- for such a ratty truck that angle really messed with the lines and bothered me. That’s about all I’m gonna get done till next monday or Wednesday I hope you all enjoy Thanksgiving with your families!

Update: I took the two exterior machine screws out and the handle with square drive pulled right out together. I measured it needed 20° of correction so I put it in the vice and found it was bent 7° down. With the part that interacts with the latch safely in the vice jaws I clamped a vice grip near the handle and the steel was soft enough to easily bend a spiral in the square profile until my angle finder said 13° up. I cleaned and oiled the latch mechanism and re-installed the handle. It now sits straight and needs much less effort to work- should be good for another 60 years of service! Thanks again for the detailed responses if I ever run into more trouble I’ll know what I’m dealing with. I might have a ratty truck but it looks much much better with the door handle complimenting instead of clashing with the lines!

Haha thanks I dunno if it’s gonna stay but the one that came on the knockoff streetrod cable throttle angles the wrong way

Got the brake master cylinder in and mocked up the gas pedal. My buddy who originally brought the truck up to PA gave me the footprint gas pedal- it’s a little silly but it’s free and fun.

I decided to enclose the tunnel under the shifter and make a little access panel for the mounting nuts. Should have welded them in or tapped the plate. At least its super strong! The floor frame is re-connected and the shifter plate is a stressed member at 3/16”. I also re-tied the back of the floor frame together with a driveshaft loop, and cut the hole for the steering column in the new firewall. I have to make a bracket for the seat frame and also extend the floor frame up behind the seat for seatbelt attachment points.

Do you mean in between the rad support and the frontmost frame crossmember where the two bolts drop down and hold up the whole nose and fenders?

Also I’m trying to leave skinning the floor behind the footwells for last to make plumbing easier but now is the time to finish the rear floor frame with a driveshaft loop and also locate the seat frame since the shifter will need a console made in the rear trans tunnel area. I’m not sure if I want to make a console/tower under the rectangular shifter housing that is skinned into the floor (interior of console is open to under the truck) or just make a strong pedestal with an upper plate mount so the shifter console is a floating lump with a stalk connecting it to the floor? Either way I’d have to address the cable which heads down and forward under the shifter.

The snow is all melted and I got a couple hours today to work. I finished the outside corner of the driver’s footwell, connecting my new pieces and the old fenderwell section. I also started to make a skeleton out of 1/4” round bar for the trans tunnel. It will get plated out in 16g facets. I’m trying to leave an opening to put an access panel for the back of the motor so I can get to it without pulling the cab. My original plan was a one piece metal panel but looking at how complicated it needs to be I had a thought today that fiberglass might be a good idea? Or possibly two window access panels instead of a larger removable hump like in a van?

The new springs and dampers will probably help you rev without valve float. I put a similar cam in my 318 ramcharger- it works great!

I’ll have to see what I’m working with then decide. A cherry/orange heat would anneal and soften the stressed part while a cold twist would work harden and make it brittle. I think a good cleaning and greasing would be the best thing I could do so that the latch sees less stress in yhe future .

Planning on 12v and power steering huh? Nice looking mill

And you should use the zinc additive or special break in oil with zddp. I always change my oil after break in then after a couple hundred miles, then 3k intervals. I had a comp lifter go bad but I haven’t lost a lobe yet! ?

That cam doesn’t need a spring change to break in. Not a dumb suggestion at all it’s just a very mild cam. It is basically a hot stock replacement or barely an rv type cam. It should have low maintenance and great manners!

To add to the options and confusion haha anyway the driveline worked excellent and it probably ran hard over 3000 but I always shifted at 3200...

Mine had a repop weber 32/36 carb from the stovebolt guy. It started and ran amazing and the electric choke worked perfectly. The rest of the recipe was a shaved head, repop fenton dual exhaust manifolds, 3.73 gears, t-5 trans. The trans was actually useless past fourth gear because my steering box was too sketchy over 50mph.

Cool project, nice shop!