512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread

[RNR1957NYer]

......hopefully get back to cruising and fun.

 

I though PA banned fun during the pandemic ...MA did.

 

Stay well, everyone!

[Radarsonwheels]

21 hours ago, RNR1957NYer said:

......hopefully get back to cruising and fun.

 

I though PA banned fun during the pandemic ...MA did.

 

Stay well, everyone!

Well non essential tasks have been shut down but outdoor activity with social distancing is fine. I can go out for food or medicine or for exercise I just don’t want to break down farther than I want to walk home. I think a cruise is just fine!

 

I have been working on my bikes a lot lately too. Did a bunch of horse trading and bought sold wrenched and bled my way to a couple of new bikes- a clean ‘day 2’ 1986 softail with 1400 miles, and a 1952 panhead chopper that I rebuilt my way. I ride them around the neighborhood a few times a week but don’t wanna get put in the hospital by one of these terrible drivers out on the road.

[Radarsonwheels]

The 86 softail is cool too I’m really enjoying it. And my private outdoor rod & gun club membership is still good so there’s always handloading and target, & clay shooting to keep busy.

 

fun is not dead

[Los_Control]

3 minutes ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Well non essential tasks have been shut down but outdoor activity with social distancing is fine. I can go out for food or medicine or for exercise I just don’t want to break down farther than I want to walk home. I think a cruise is just fine!

 

I have been working on my bikes a lot lately too. Did a bunch of horse trading and bought sold wrenched and bled my way to a couple of new bikes- a clean ‘day 2’ 1986 softail with 1400 miles, and a 1952 panhead chopper that I rebuilt my way. I ride them around the neighborhood a few times a week but don’t wanna get put in the hospital by one of these terrible drivers out on the road.

Too bad the neighbors do not pickup their trash, see a piece of cardboard blew into your driveway    Good looking pan!

[Radarsonwheels]

Haha yup I changed out the trans mainshaft seal and it still marks it’s spot! Plus the front cyl base gasket is leaking. I’ll get around to fixing that sooner or later

[Plymouthy Adams]

I understand that if it is not leaking..this is your sign you need to add oil as it is empty.....?

[Radarsonwheels]

Haha yup exactly. I always wanted cool 1950s stuff haha careful what you wish for! The pan is awesome though lots of fun to work on.

 

The chopper chassis is all hand made and aftermarket junk but the driveline is pure ‘52. Well it has late 50s cylinder heads and T&O 74” replacement flywheels, 2” belt drive with a diaphragm clutch, Morris impulse drive magneto,  and a mild cam. 
 

The 1954 truck is all handmade junk underneath with a more original look to the outside... sorta!

[Radarsonwheels]

It’s the end of an era! No more Mr. Niceguy!

 

My buddy who brought the truck up from Virginia around 03ish (?) sold it to me, got it back in a trade, and sold it to me again put in an aaoogah horn the last time he owned it. It was just a modern cheap one so it didn’t have the exaggerated wind up to it’s full scream or that low burping ah! as it quickly winds down like the old 6v ones have but it was still cool and made people smile when we’d give a friendly honk while cruising. 
 

I couldn’t find a new one that I wanted to buy, and I would love an air horn but not like there’s a locomotive coming, more like a late 70s bigrig with a flat nose and a screamin’ jimmy. Loud but still fun not totally ignorant. Maybe someday. 
 

I got a set of piaa dual tone conventional modern horn snails and threw them on the fender apron where the aooga horn used to live. They are loud but still kind of bassy as advertised. They kind of evoke a 70s caddy or lincoln maybe? But that’s just my imagination. 
 

At least my grant horn button is fresh and has a good action and electrical path, and the horn relay on the fusebox panel delivers a nice shot of current. It should be easy to give a friendly meep meep which can be tricky with some modern airbag steering wheel horns, and still be able to lay on a stereo middle finger when needed. 
 

[Radarsonwheels]

This guy demonstrated his in an empty parking garage vs stock modern ford horn.  Sounds cool. 
 

I can’t place what car the piaa horns sound like but the tone is familiar. Anybody?

 

[Radarsonwheels]

It’s always something innit?

 

I have been testing and tuning since all the fuel system upgrades and fixes. Lately it breaks loose the tires from a stop but not in spectacular fashion. I checked out some datalogs and saw that flooring the gas was only 35% of WOT! That’s like feeding the 512 with a 280 cfm carb!

 

Well a little investigating revealed that my cheap aftermarket throttle pedal setup had  slipped it’s splines on the pedal arm. No problem- I drilled and tapped through the aluminum arm and shaft, red loctited a machine screw in there, and the shaft broke in half in a different place! Junk.

 

I spent a day wishing I had a lathe and looking at junk you can mail order then today I made a new pedal assembly out of steel. I used a large fine thread bolt and nut for the pivot, tacked in bolts to the bracket so it can be pushed in place then installed from the engine bay side without a helper in the truck. It’s pretty crude but I think the repop harley brake pedal rubber churches it up a little bit. 
 

It’s the middle of the night and raining cats & dogs here but tomorrow I hope to try it out. I kinda can’t believe I didn’t notice the pedal slipping closer to the mat!

 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Radarsonwheels

[RNR1957NYer]

It's not shiny - I like it!

 

My P12 wouldn't break the tires loose at  235% WOT - maybe I need to get to work on a pedal.

[Radarsonwheels]

Huh. Maybe the cars were geared differently. When the truck had the 230 flathead, 28” tires, and the stock 4.10 rear it would burn one tire no problem if you revved it a little and popped the clutch. I am not the smoky burnout king I hate buying tires but the torque was there for sure. 

[Radarsonwheels]

Here it is installed. I love iphones I was able to set it down on the throttle body recording video and check WOT from inside the truck.

[Radarsonwheels]

Sometimes you gotta get new screens for your porch sliding doors- maybe shoulda thought of that before I made the bed 6’6”ish haha

 

Really it was a 3/4 ton longbed and must be from an era before 8’ was a standard building material length because it was like 7’ 8” or something. So shortening it was no great loss. Just needed a ratchet strap and I was in business. “See honey? It’s totally practical!” Definitely good to have a big block for a full payload.

 

In other news the EFI seems trustworthy again which is a relief. I should have known to look at whatever parts I touched since it was last reliable but sometimes the world has to teach perseverance.

 

I hope everybody’s well and I’m enjoying watching all the cool projects going on. 

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

3/4 ton beds are 90” (7’ 6”), at least for the B-Series. I would guess that carried over into the C-Series. 

I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle a few years back and he needed to transport a piece of soffit panel to a house that he was building. It wouldn’t fit in his van so I offered to take it in my truck. We tried it with the tail gate down, which supported it better, but there wasn’t a good way to secure it tight to the floor. We ended up propping it up across the top of the tail gate and hopped the wind wound’t fold it over. It survived the trip. 

It’s nice to have a “heavy hauler” to help out family... ?

[Jim Roach]

Hey Merle, how about some close up pictures of you tauno cover hardware.

[Merle Coggins]

It’s a Truxedo roll up cover. They’ll do customer covers. There is a download link on their web site to get the order form. Just measure up the length and width, fill out the form, and submit it for a quote, or to order. https://truxedo.com/custom-covers

 

The side rails are designed for modern beds, where they get clamped onto the inner lip of the bed. As we don’t have that option on these trucks I bolted the side rails to the bed sides. At the front and back I hid the bolts inside the stake pockets. Then I added 2 more through the middle, using carriage bolts with painted heads. They blend in and are barely noticeable unless you are looking for them. And they are sort of hidden by the bed flare/bed roll too. 

 

I actually did a post on this back when I installed it. I did a quick search and found the thread. 

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Merle Coggins

[Jim Roach]

Thanks Merle, that’s just what I was looking for. 

[Radarsonwheels]

It’s finally getting cool enough to enjoy driving the truck again. What a sauna of a summer here in PA!  Despite all the insulating I did the truck is still a toaster oven inside when you sit at lights.

 

I took her to work and on a supply run to Lowe’s this week. 

[Radarsonwheels]

I have had a little vibration when cruising off the loud pedal, especially on the highway. Turns out that after finding a final preferred ride height my pinion angle ended up way too far nose down- like 9°

 

I got a couple sets of shims, 4° and another that was more like 6°. The thicker ones covered the leaf spring pin leaving only a small rounded nub- not enough to hold alignment on the spring pads that are welded to the rear. So I went with the thinner ones, and added a little air in my bags to get a touch of rake. 
 

Now I’m closer to 4° nose down at rest, and still dead straight under power when the leafs wrap and the slapper bars limit windup. 
 

I did have some excitement when I dropped one of the wedges on a full can of spraypaint in the garage- the paint had gotten knocked over and the wedge nicely pierced the side creating a spinning jumping can spraying green paint everywhere! No damage to anything important though and the harleys are across the garage and behind stuff. 

[bkahler]

19 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

I did have some excitement when I dropped one of the wedges on a full can of spraypaint in the garage- the paint had gotten knocked over and the wedge nicely pierced the side creating a spinning jumping can spraying green paint everywhere! No damage to anything important though and the harleys are across the garage and behind stuff. 

 

I had something similar happen 40 years ago.  A friend had just painted his motorcycle tank and fenders and they were sitting on sawhorses just inside the back  door of the garage.  On that fateful day I happened to go into the garage and on my way back out I slammed the door to close it.  Well, a can of spray paint fell off the shelf and landed on the floor performing the same act yours did.  

 

He had to get another paint job.......

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

Good news that no serious damage was done with the green paint. Bummer on the motorcycle tank repaint... 

I had a can of spray paint spontaneously start to leak while on the shelf in my laundry room. It had probably been there for several years and I believe the can seam rusted, but one day I could smell paint fumes in the house but couldn't identify where it would be coming from. As I walked past the laundry room I heard a hissing noise. I opened the door and noticed the mist. Fortunately all the paint pigments were settled at the bottom and the leak happened about half way up. It was only clear paint solvents, but it was still a mess to clean up. Once I realized what it was I grabbed the can to toss it in the garbage, stirring up the pigments in the process. It started spraying color into the garbage can. I got it outside to remove the fumes and commenced to cleaning up the mess. 

[bkahler]

2 minutes ago, Merle Coggins said:

Good news that no serious damage was done with the green paint. Bummer on the motorcycle tank repaint... 

I had a can of spray paint spontaneously start to leak while on the shelf in my laundry room. It had probably been there for several years and I believe the can seam rusted, but one day I could smell paint fumes in the house but couldn't identify where it would be coming from. As I walked past the laundry room I heard a hissing noise. I opened the door and noticed the mist. Fortunately all the paint pigments were settled at the bottom and the leak happened about half way up. It was only clear paint solvents, but it was still a mess to clean up. Once I realized what it was I grabbed the can to toss it in the garbage, stirring up the pigments in the process. It started spraying color into the garbage can. I got it outside to remove the fumes and commenced to cleaning up the mess. 

 

 

I think there is a lesson in there somewhere......

[Radarsonwheels]

Howdy fellas!

 

Got her goin pretty good lately! I blew a couple super thick vacuum caps I was using as heater hose delete caps with hose clamps and at the same time the water neck (thermostat housing) developed a pinhole in the gasket area. I looped a hose and pulled the neck off, trued it in the lathe, and put it back on with a buttered gasket.

The fixes are seeming to hold but I wish I had a stock iron water neck they don’t warp! Hopefully whatever warping my pot metal piece was gonna do are done and now it’s “seasoned” haha

 

Beyond that I have re-discovered leaving my manual valvbody 727 trans in 2nd gear. It pulls hard in 3rd but 2nd gear is more violent and fun with the motor actually revving above stall speed!

 

Also I picked up an oak desk last week. I mean I “installed it as a prop in my antique vehicle then tested it to ensure parade worthyness” haha no work technically allowed for retired trucks with antique plates. Dunno if a cop would bust balls until I was really dangerously overloaded sanford & son style 

 

 

[Radarsonwheels]

Oh and I haven’t logged on here for a bit but now that it’s the holiday season  y’all got butts on here?! Haha wow glad the bills are gettin paid no matter how hard it is to look at ?