Charlie's new ride (build thread)

[clintonnut 126]

A couple more pictures of the paint, door assembly started, final engine internal parts purchased and modified kick panel for the fresh air vent on passenger side. I took a driver's side vent, split the seam where it is glued together, rotated the rain shield and traced it onto the passenger side, plasma cut the hole bigger and grafted a piece in to cover the remaining opening I don't need.

Hole needs to be trimmed up with the die grinder now but it is ready to rock and roll!

Engine parts. Resurfaced lifters, ARP rod bolts and a new genuine cummins oil pump made in england.

Charlie

[Zeek 2,284]

Looks great, can't wait to see it in person!!

[clintonnut 126]

Some pics:

Cab done:

Fender mods!

Made 2 candy-canes!

Went to my rebuilder's house today to finish my engine in his garage. Turned out awesome!

Shaved .040 off the tops for head clearence to factory spec plus an additional .015" and then did .050" fly cuts from there for lift clearance and for use of big intake/exhaust valves

Beauty:

Dropped my Dana 80 off at my buddies house so he can machine the spindle flanges for press fit onto housing. Mocked housing and spring perches up on frame yesterday and it looked and fit great.

Going to work on it tomorrow, saturday and sunday with hopes of finishing paint on doors and fenders, finish frame and start final assembly on motor. I hope to test run the motor in the next two weeks.

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

BIG WEEK AHEAD!!!! AAHHHHHH I can't control myself! I'm jumping off the walls at this point! Motor is coming together, axles coming together, body work getting wrapped up (except the bed) and front springs from Alcan on MONDAY OR TUESDAY!!!!!

Here's the weekend of course!

Dropped housing and flanges off to my buddy and for a couple bucks, he bored the flanges for a press fit. I mocked everything up, slid shaft in, bolted everything down tight and rotated calipers to place the bleeder valve properly. In the end, they are the same location as the front position.

Then moved on to the cab. Set the rear window gasket in hot (almost boiling) water, scrubbed it clean and then the back glass literally slid in to place with a THUMP! These old gaskets are really nice when they are warmed up.

Couldn't resist moving it outside for a picture show with the beautiful weather we have had recently.

Freaking beautiful. I love the color.

Back to the role as sandblast bi*ch

Blasted the IC rad support I plan to use for now until I fab my own

Sandblasted steering column housing and shortened it about 8" and added in a sealed roller bearing on the end to rid of the crappy cast aluminum plastic thingy. Also need to do a custom shaft and steering shaft for it. No pics

Goal by this hour next Sunday:

Frame finished, painted, front spring mounts made, axles painted, ROLLING.

Doors and fenders painted, doors mounted, rear seat installed, steering column done.

Motor mount holes drilled and test fit motor.

Phew...A lot of work ahead!By the way, there are 707 photos of this truck uploaded to this forum now! Probably near 1000 all done. My eyes hurt. I freaking hate the new photobucket too...

Charlie

[Ken B 3,116]

Looks great Charlie! Yer an animal! Agreed, new Photobucket sucks! Why can't they ever leave well enough alone?

[varosd 1,185]

Charlie,

             That Six in a row is really gonna GO!     Mango Tango will make it real easy to find you in June at the big show...will it be done by then?

[clintonnut 126]

IT ROLLS!

Frame is as high as the Rat!

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

Was able to finish painting the cab and assemble the dash and hand ghe doors. Sandblasting hardware is a breeze if you punch a piece of cardboard full of holes. Also, I deleted the stock heater control and painted the dash body color and the top in bed liner. Looks really good body color. Will have a black glove box, gauge brow and black door panels and pillar trim. Also worked on the frame. Received my ALCAN 6" springs this week. Full military wrap in the front with 5/8" spring eye bolts front and rear. Used a hole saw on the frame for the rear mounts and welded a piece of DOM in and pressed in a poly bushing. Almost done frame work. Hope to paint frame Tuesday along with the front axle and that will allow me to get it rolling with the cab on....

Other stuff:

WAITING!

Front axle shafts:

ALCANS!

THE RAT!

Finished roof inner structure and hand made a Drivers side A pillar. Need to channel the roof some but it is close.

Need to finish up the passenger side of the trans tunnel and clean up the welds but...

Model A rat rod cab is now about 70% 16ga steel. Real fun to weld, not so much fun to cut.

Charlie

[Zeek 2,284]

Lookin' sweet, keep up the good work!!

[clintonnut 126]

Tonight, I ordered the last part to make it a roller. Got my high steer arms with studs and king pin bushings. Went with springless because of the weight of a 37" hummer tire and the weight of a hummer wheel. It will require adjustment as the bushing wears but I'd rather deal with that than a death wobble. Ordered my U bolt kit for the Dana 60 front and tonight, I finished boxing the frame, painted it and bolted the cab down. Also installed the alcans! Had to drill the shackles out to 5/8". Need 2 more greaseable bolts for the front eyes....

If I could only get my hands on some Hutchinson beadlocks for good money...

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn263/Mitschke88/DSCN9893.jpg

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

Got a lot done!

Bought my high steer arm kits, spindle bearings, king pin sets, wheel seals and put it together! Painted axle and then assembled some more of the cab. Also got some work on Nick's rat rod done. Starting to piece the back of the cab together and finished the trans tunnel. Also sandblasted and assembled his 9" rear. Also, Screwed up the passenger front wheel seal which is why I didn't finish assembly on that side. The lockout hubs are almost NEW. I picked them off a fresh ford at the yard on Saturday.....

Yes, those are 5/8" wheel studs! :alien:

Color contrast from the lighting. Pretty B.A.

Sits pretty high. Hopefully it will go down a couple inches with the drivetrain installed.

[clintonnut 126]

Rat:

Messing around:

Low:

Cleaned shop up a little. Getting more space as the truck goes together! The best part now is I have Thursday-Monday to kick butt on this stuff.

Charlie

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,543]

Its looking totally cool!

This is always a good thread to read, keep it up and thanks!

Mike.............

[Jim_M 178]

Love that color Charlie!

[clintonnut 126]

Worked some on the crew cab and also purchased a new beater truck after I sold my 1993 to pay debts.

I decided to use a 1970s dash wiring harness and wiper harness in the engine bay. The rest will be scratch made. I used all weather pack connections and each circuit group is wrapped individually so I can remove to service/modify if I want. Also, I plan to put 2, 4 circuit ATO fuse blocks on the firewall. One will be IGN ON, the other will be Battery. Battery circuit will run lights, brakes, dome light, etc. The other will run the wipers, gauges, ignition, turn signals and radio. Each circuit was also labeled every 12" after wrapped.

Soldiered all connections and all blade terminals have heat shrink over them to insulate. I will have a large weatherpack bulkhead connector bolted to the firewall.

Replaced ignition switch connectors with weather packs just like everything else. Originals were burnt and melted.

Also, gasket matched the head and started porting the head. This is about as much as I want to port it. All I did was enlarge the valve pockets, smooth the casting, radius the top of the runner a little tighter under the valve seat and run the sanding cylinder for the die grinder down it. It feels much better than how it was and should flow better. I will also gasket match the exhaust manifold. Need to figure out how to do the intake pockets.

Bought this for $1500. Has 250,000 miles and has the cummins/getrag with a D70 4.10 Powerlok. Working on tuning it up (fluids, grease, replaced calipers, gut interior, fix electrical etc. Needs doors but it is rust free except the drip rail. Floors are perfect. Runs great and already turned some screws and ground a pin! I am doing a basic cosmetic redo on it to make it look better. I finished the drivers fender, did the hood last night and will do the other fender soon. I used a DA sander with 80 grit to blow all the burnt paint and rust off, then sanded with 220, primed and painted. Looks good and a close factory match. I want to make it look like a sleeper truck (stock on the outside, upgrades on engine) to blow all the ricers away.

NV4500 is apart, buying bearings, clutch, countershaft and input in the next week.

Charlie

[Ken B 3,116]

Dang Charlie! You must be drinkin Red Bulls! I often catch myself looking at the older Dodge 2 wheel drive trucks. I'd love to find a pre emissions truck and stuff a hot 440 into it.

 

I can remember when I was younger, one of the guys in the neighborhood bought a new 78 Dodge 2 wheel drive long bed with a 360 in it. It was a real nice looking truck and it had some nut! It would smoke the tires for as long as you held the pedal to the floor. He had it for many yrs and always kept it nice but I swear, I don't think a day went by without him leaving rubber somewhere. The only mods he did was headers and dual thrush mufflers, it sounded wicked.

 

Now, what are your long term plans with this one? Is she a keeper? I'm sure you'll have it lookin like new in a week or two.

[clintonnut 126]

I plan to keep the 2wd as a beater or I may swap the killer engine/trans combo into say.... a 1940s powerwagon. That's on my bucket list.

I am a fan of built small block mopars. They really scream. 440's take some RPMs away unless you go crazy in the bottom end. They are a torque engine.

Have you ever driven a slightly modified 1989-1993 Dodge diesel with a 5 speed? They are rice killers for sure. This 2wd truck breaks the rear tires loose in 4th at 50.

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

Have 90% of interior wiring done. Made my own fuse panel, wired it in and tested circuits with a battery jump box. Every connection is soldiered and heat-shrinked. All connectors are weatherpacks which are soldiered as well. Looks super clean and a nice secure connection. Fuse panel is mounted on cowl under center speaker grille. Then I moved on to other things. Headliner is installed. Made out of a club cab and standard cab joined together with new headlining material. Material is from Jo-Ann fabrics ($15/yard). Felt kinda weird walking into that store as it was filled with women but, I got what I needed. Dome lights are spares from our 1966 Dart Wagon. Ran a strip of aluminum diamond plate down the center to cover the seam. Picked up my seat belts today from a yard. Had to get 2 sets of black seat belts. Also painted the engine and dropped it in for a test fit. Cleaned up the transmission case and ordered all the bearings for it. Should have the engine/trans/transfer case mounted this weekend in the truck. I also scored a wiper motor and wiring harness from the yard so I can now wire that up. Need to order my steering joints tonight so I can build the shaft.

Fuse panel:

Head porting was going great so far. Had #6 exhaust done and unshrouded the valves. THEN, I saw cracks between every valve and injector bore!!!! WTF! I wasted 5 hours on this head!

Whelp, need to buy some stuff tonight for the big weekend. Should have all the door seal kits in as well this weekend.

Charlie

Here's what has been going on since last Tuesday.

I dropped the motor in and found my mounts sat the engine about 1.5" too high when I added the motor mount isolators in. Redrilled mounts and now need to reinforce them a little. Nice thing is now the drive shaft angle (sighting in along the oil pan to rear axle) is right where I want it. I'll aim the rear axle pinion down about 3-5* off parallel to allow for U joints to operate smoothly and allow for axle wrap to put it back in line when under power.

Before I redrilled mount brackets. Pretty bad.

Nothing seemed right!

Indulged on parts for trans etc:

Friday night, power went out but I worked for 2 hours then caught some sleep. Hooked up a battery to the truck and had the dome lights on and running lights on while working on door glass. I still need to hook up the other cab lights.

Started on transmission installation:

Cleaned gears and installed new needle bearings. Ordered the wrong frickin' countershaft so I hope I can assemble this thing this weekend.

My chinese marine remote oil plate came in. Pretty impressed by the quality but I could tell they ground off the cummins logo. Gasket surface was flat and threaded holes looked nice. Cost $90. About 1/4 of that from Cummins.

Cleaned up the wiper motor and painted it. Works.

Glass installed. My buddy did a favor of cleaning it after it was installed. Looks really good!

Today, I moved on to the radiator support. Had to finish the mounts and cut holes for the headlight buckets. I used 1960s mopar headlight buckets. They are really nice because the adjusters and mount along with the bucket are all one assembly so you don't have to hack slots for plastic thread nuts and try to relocate the integrated buckets some rad supports have.

Tested them out. Used some new Phillips bulbs off the shelf. They have an almost blue light. Looking at the filament, it is some high tech doo-dad in there.

Brake lines up front are pretty much done:

Still have the goal to have it done (road worthy) for Prom on May 10th.

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

Some stuff is coming together...

I ordered tires and wheels today, and picked up another cylinder head...

Trans assembled (still need to torque 5th nut). Then I turned down the coupler to use a seal on the tailhousing.

My buddy loaned me these shocks off his new wrangler he just lifted. They are the perfect length and are the unlimited series shocks (upgraded OEM) I will probably give him some money for them and use them.

Also finished rear interior trim and mounted my sweet MIL spec bulkhead connector.

Charlie

[clintonnut 126]

Says Deutch MADE IN CHINA! Whatever, it is a really high quality piece and the connectors are a piece of machining art as well.

Ordered tires/wheels!

Went down this afternoon and accomplished this in 5 hours.

National 4739 Seal installed to accept my machined coupler. Has a 2" ID

Made a 5th gear nut. Can you ID all of the pieces I used?!?! I had a 6pt axle nut hence the reason for the axle nut I destroyed doing this...

Installed the 5th nut with plenty of locktite...Torqued with a bar and tube til it wouldn't turn anymore. It basically stopped once the cone washer collapsed. Then I applied locktite to set screws and did not use the brass caps they supplied hoping to get a better bite on the shaft. After tightened, I peened them in so I wouldnt have anything floating through the gears and peened 2 sides of the nut into the keyways on the mainshaft. It shouldn't be going anywhere!

Then I installed the transfer case. I gooped up the insides of the coupler with RTV to prevent oil from passing through easily.... There is no room for exhaust inside the frame rails now since they are boxed. That's alright though, I was planning to run outside of the rails. I moved onto making a crossmember. I left it long so I can slide square box inside each end for steps I plant to make someday. The trans mount is a piece of 3/8"angle iron with 2 spacer washers to allow clearance for the tailhousing bolts.

Looks like a good amount of room for the front driveshaft!

Charlie

[stevasaurus 22,230]

I was wondering when you would get to the transmission and transfer case.   You know how I am about them.   Excellent work Charlie...so you in June.

[clintonnut 126]

This truck is 3 pedals, no plugs, 128 lugs!!! Haha.

Had to blow steam off with my shop buds so we had a good time last night and I was lights-out around 3 am but they were playing Call of Duty til 6am. After all, I can't be slaving in the shop. Gotta enjoy the final weeks of senior year.

So, I recentered them today, painted and mounted! 16.5s are a bit%% to mount but if you wrap 3/16 fuel line around between the rim and tire 2 times, it will seal it and with armor-all, as soon as the tire starts taking air, you yank the fuel line out as it is building pressure. Worked pretty slick and after a couple tries on each tire, it worked.

Some of that fine dust from Afghanistan

Nick falling asleep after last night while tightening the 24 bolts that hold the rims together.

Finished!

Also I have another head I'm almost done porting and will install tomorrow....

[Fast N Red 5]

Looks good Charlie my brother swapped a 5.9 in his 80's chevy 5.9 crammed in theregood old Wi fun

[Coadster32 793]

This thread is just amazing to follow!!!   Awesome work Charlie!!

[clintonnut 126]

Got some stuff done in the past week. Here's what I did:

Clean cylinder head, assemble with 60lb springs, new seals and set on block. Need a few more allen bolts...

Mounted exhaust manifold

Went junking and got a tailgate, grille, driveshaft, seat, rear wiring harness, extra pigtails and some taillights

Received my fuel sump ($120 on ebay), brake hoses and steering joints

made a steering shaft

Ran brake lines (done)

Rewrapped rear wiring harness. Added in the needed connectors for trailer lights/brakes, auxliary fuel tank and ran a nice hefty ground wire back up to the front to the battery ground. Also had a ground wire to the frame. Should eliminate all electrical gremlins in the future.

Made a fuel tank crossmember, cleaned tank, cut hole for sump (I had to yank out a plastic bracket that holds the sender to place it where I wanted it). Mounted tank. I used the stock front strap, flipped it upside down and manipulated it a little to work with my crossmember and some mounting tabs

Couple interior wiring things

Mounted another power steering hose

Welded washers onto the frame for brake hose mounts

Fabricated my own shock towers to work with the Jeep JK shocks

Picked up 2 LED sidemarkers to eliminate the factory pigtail. Spliced them in. These will be mounted in the bumper when done.

Robbed a trans cover off another trans in the shop. Sandblasted, painted and mounted.

Picked up a piece of aluminum to make a tappet cover this week.

Bought an Exide Marine Gel battery. Plan to get another. They will be behind the seat in an enclosure with the sound amplifier and a sub.

I'm trying to make it run this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mildly cleaned up the ports. There were some nasty boogers in them.

Hard to tell but I pocket ported the hell out of this thing. Pictures don't show the work very well but they really are clean and smooth now. No nasty step under the valve seat.

I'm going to eventually mount this seat in the rear. I plan to run a pair of Hummer H3 buckets up front with my own console.

Steering shaft!

Washers welded on. Need to get some retaining clips

Trailer hook ups!

Aux fuel tank wiring:

Front brake hose

The sump. I used the DA sander with 60 grit then 180 grit to make it smooth where it mounts to keep seepage from happening around the O ring. Then I used some RTV just to make sure.

Tank in! Here you can see the front tank strap is just flipped, bent to proper shape and bolted on. Didn't have to hack the strap up or anything.

About an eighth inch between the cab and tank. Good to go!

LOL

Charlie