Project GoJo

[MrFiveOh]

Good progress today. My neighbor charged up the AC with 134a.  He put the vacuum on it for about 45 minutes and the system held vacuum. The 134a went in OK and the AC was blowing 55 to 60 degree air which is not great but I'll take it.  The weather here in Houston is mild right now so it'll be a few weeks before we have a 95 degree stress test.  The real test is if the thing keeps the refrigerant in overnight

Curious, was this 55-60 at idle only? I know when i start AC its roughly around that temp and when i drive some temp drops really nice around 35-40

[Ol Blue]

Awesome video! Thanks for posting.

[ken4444]

Curious, was this 55-60 at idle only? I know when i start AC its roughly around that temp and when i drive some temp drops really nice around 35-40

You are correct, that temp was only at idle. It could be that the temp will drop when the truck is moving.  If my AC system is under-performing, which it may be, I don't know what's causing it.  The whole thing is new to me and I have no previous knowledge about it, what was replaced, and how well it worked.  It does have a new dryer and blower motor, but those are the only obviously new parts I can see.

The good news is that the system held its charge over night and was blowing cold air this morning. For now I will leave it as-is.  As Houston starts to see regular temps in the 80's and 90's, I will get a better test of the system's performance.  I'll dig  up my AC vent thermometer so I can get a consistent reading on the air temp output.

Awesome video! Thanks for posting.

thanks!  Sometimes a video just conveys more info than photos can.

Today or some day this week, I need to pull the instrument cluster out and measure the resistance of the wire from the fuel tank sender.  If that's not consistent with the measurement AT the sender, then that's a problem.  I wouldn't rule out a grounding problem at the fuel gauge either. If the resistance measurement is about what the sender is giving me, then the problem is the fuel gauge.  At that point I can order new gauges and start working on fitting Auto Meter brand gauges into the stock bezel.

Ultimately I want to get the instrumentation issue settled early on in this project because those metrics are vital to seeing the truck's health.  Having no tachometer and having a broken fuel gauge are big problems.  The other gauges seem to work fine  but ultimately they'll have to be replaced with their Auto Meter counterparts so I have a good looking, all matching instrument panel.

[MrFiveOh]

Curious, was this 55-60 at idle only? I know when i start AC its roughly around that temp and when i drive some temp drops really nice around 35-40

You are correct, that temp was only at idle. It could be that the temp will drop when the truck is moving.  If my AC system is under-performing, which it may be, I don't know what's causing it.  The whole thing is new to me and I have no previous knowledge about it, what was replaced, and how well it worked.  It does have a new dryer and blower motor, but those are the only obviously new parts I can see.

The good news is that the system held its charge over night and was blowing cold air this morning. For now I will leave it as-is.  As Houston starts to see regular temps in the 80's and 90's, I will get a better test of the system's performance.  I'll dig  up my AC vent thermometer so I can get a consistent reading on the air temp output.

i hear ya, im in austin so i know all about the crazy texas weather.

[ken4444]

The inside of the radiator cap was coated in rust so I feared the worst for the cooling system.  I picked up a bottle of cooling system flush but upon draining the radiator I saw that the water looked clear.  It didn't appear to have any coolant in it though.  So I poured in the flush liquid, which is sodium citrate, and topped it up with distilled water. I drove it 30 miles today to an auto body paint shop.  I'll drain the thing this afternoon and get it filled with proper coolant and distilled water.

I went to a well known, reputable body shop to get a quote for paint and had a good conversation.  Long story short, they are overrun with insurance company work and my project was going to be a lot of work and less profitable so it wouldn't be something they could give priority to, based on the price we talked about.  I got the name of another person and will call him.

My PRNDL indicator is not working (more on that next), and this morning I had shifted into drive instead of overdrive.  I noticed than when braking and slowing down, the truck let out a big audible "thunk" when I got down to about 10 MPH. I could also feel the thunk.   I thought something huge had broken loose like a motor mount.  There was no thunk when gaining speed.. it was only when braking and getting below about 10 MPH.  At some point I shifted into neutral at a stop light only to realize that I was not in overdrive, but in drive.    After that, in overdrive, the "thunk" sound never re-appeared.  So my only thought is that the 700r4 has some problem when it's not in overdrive.

So the PRNDL indicator is there, although with a frayed cable, but the plastic collar around the steering column, where the little cable attaches, won't stay locked in place.  I haven't looked into how to fix this problem yet, but i'm open to suggestions.  It is frustrating how much of a complete kludge so many auto part designs are, like this PRNDL junk.

In other news, the AC was blowing cold today, especially on the freeway. I talked to the previous owner about the front suspension situation and he claims the AC system had a leak, but I wonder if he was just not driving the truck enough and the 134a leaked out around the compressor shaft which is a known problem for vehicles that sit for a long time.

[ken4444]

I pulled apart the instrument panel tonight and tested the wire from the sender.  It is giving me about 40 ohms higher, at all sender positions, than what am getting at the sender itself. This tells me that there is too much resistance in the wire and that's at least part of the problem with the fuel gauge.  I ordered an Auto Meter Sport-Comp Analog Gauge # 3514 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/atm-3514.  This means I'll have to start modifying the stock instrument panel to fit this in, so it'll be a test case.  I also ordered an AutoMeter Sport-Comp Series Tachometer # 3997 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/atm-3514 so I can see what the engine is doing.  I'll put the tach where the factory fuel gauge was and the new fuel gauge in the blank spot.  The other gauges work fine for now.

I'm going to have to run a new wire from the sender which will probably take a whole lot longer than I'd like

I got the cooling system flushed but not much crap came out.  I filled it with all distilled water and will run that tomorrow, drain that, then go back in with coolant and distilled water.

[ken4444]

I worked on the sheet metal cover for the bed side of the fuel filler.  The previous owner never did this, maybe because custom fabrication takes a lot of time.

I started with cardboard templates.  I originally thought I could make a pipe-shaped piece as part of the design:











..however it quickly became apparent that it would be easier just to box the thing in with 3 flat panels.

Here I am working with 16 gauge sheet steel:



It took me 2 attempts to get correct pieces.  I am no metal fabricator, but I wanted to do the best work I can manage.



Here the parts crudely fit up, below.  I have to go to a wedding tonight so I had to put this project on hold.



I will get them welded and primed, hopefully this week.  I suspect some amount of seam sealer will be needed to bond the thing in, but I'll try to make it look legit

The longer term plan is to get the whole bed stripped, primed, and painted white.  It needs the rust protection.  I ordered a panel to cover the fuel tank.

[VileZambonie]

The Blazers and Suburbans have an inner panel to do the same thing.

[ken4444]

The Blazers and Suburbans have an inner panel to do the same thing.

Great information.  As usual with  , they provide no additional information on this part. Has anyone bought or installed this part?

[Oldblue]

Good stuff man. Keep it up truck looks good!  like the vids too

[VileZambonie]

I purchased one when I restored a K5

[ken4444]

I purchased one when I restored a K5

Did it fit correctly?  Was it in the stock location or a new location?

In other news, I'm trying to find compatible Auto Meter 2 1/16" water temp and oil pressure gauges. Are the factory temp and oil gauges mechanical or electronic?

[VileZambonie]

Fit perfectly, in the K5. The gauges are electric although oil pressure was mechanical  through 77

[ken4444]

Fit perfectly, in the K5. The gauges are electric although oil pressure was mechanical  through 77

Good deal.  I figured the gauges in the 80's would have been all electronic because of the circuit board that's part of the instrument cluster and how the gauges seem to plug into that.  I see the Auto Meter Sport Comp series of gauges is more expensive than a few years ago when i put them in my Jeep.  Geez.. they must be $20 more expensive, each.

I finished the fuel filler cover tonight.  Here's the final fit up before I welded it together:



Tacked together:



Here's the welded final product:



I realized that there is an indentation in the factory sheet metal.  Rather than trying to bend my part to fit the factory contour and then having to re-bend the triangular parts to fit the contour, I just made a spacer on the back side to fit the depression in the panel.

The spacer was made from 1/8" bar and 16 gauge sheet steel and that seemed to be the right height together.  I had to use body filler to fill in the lines between the 3 layers of metal:



I realized that it was going to start flash rusting if I didn't prime it, so here's the final product primed. It's not 100% flawless, but it's pretty good:



It will need a bit of sanding and some thin body filler in a couple of places but I think it will work well, and it's strong as heck and probably weighs 5 pounds.

You can see the holes around the perimeter.  Ultimately I decided to use sheet metal screws to attach it to the bed.  I can use the same screws that I'll use on the panel over the gas tank.

As far as painting the bed, or the whole truck, I am at a crossroads.  I am talking to another body shop tomorrow.  They specialize in full paint jobs whereas most places just to repairs for insurance companies.  So I'm eager to see what price they cook up.  I suspect it won't be cheap.  Every place I've talked to makes it clear that a "full" paint job is very time consuming due to disassembling the vehicle and all of the other prep work.

I have no problem prepping and painting the bed myself, because the bed doesn't have to be perfect since this is not a show truck.  But I really don't like the orange paint on the rest of the truck but I'm not up to the task to paint it myself.  That would be a TON of work and probably take me 2 months.

[ken4444]

I started stripping the interior of the bed tonight.  While I am not sold on the orange as a long-term color, the bed is a combination of primer, orange over spray, rust, surface rust, dark blue paint, and what looks like a lighter color.  I assume there is some factory primer and factory paint under there somewhere. I also noticed some new flash rusting in an area that I haven't even touched, so that was a reminder that I need to get the metal stripped, cleaned, and coated with a good epoxy primer.  This truck is generally rust-free but the bed is headed south.  I can't stand to let it rot.  Probably I will shoot it with warm toned white that will go with the orange, but I am partial to warm toned whites anyhow.

Here are some "before" photos to set the scene: