My '77 K-30/V3500 Monster Truck Build

[Engineer]

This weekend's work consisted of FINALLY assembling the tires.

First was finishing the gaskets that seal the two wheel halves. The first is a photo that I posted earlier of my 2 piece wheels. Me being me, I wasn't satisfied with just replacing the center of the old ag wheels. The gigantic rubber o-ring that seals the demountable side bead ring on those have a tendancy to leak with the least, slightest provacation.

So I set about building wheels to my specification. One of these being ease of tire assembly. Sorry, I didn't take any in progress pictures. I'll see if my oldest son did. Working with a 1,000 pound wheel and tire assembly isn't your typical trip to the farm and home store that also services lawn mower tires.

Basically I set the long side of the wheel on the shop floor, hoisted the tire onto it, added the gasket, and finally dropped the inner side in and bolted it all together.



The gasket: No, it's not die cut, I free handed the cutout using an exact-o knife. Ok, so maybe it is die cut, sort of, using an exact-o knife and the wheel as a guide.



And the completed product:





I'm thinking I can just use the force to lift my truck and slip the tires on the hubs. If Yoda can pick up an X-wing fighter............
















And this week's bonus posting isn't the fun type I normally like to put in these pages, however.........



This 18-wheeler is operated by our church association. We use it for disaster relief. It contains a portable kitchen that a crew will use to cook meals for disaster victims and relief workers. The Red Cross provides the food and the Southern Baptists provide the truck/kitchen and the manpower. Early estimates are that it will be needed to provide at least 10,000 meals a day to a tiny portion of the hurricane affected area in Texas.

I took the above photo after I drove this truck to the flooded areas in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas earlier this year. Thankfully I will not have to drive it to Houston later this week but I may be called to go get it after the emergency has passed. Remember those folks in your prayers as they deal with this situation.

[1967KaiserM715]

The 5-ton hubs run on wheel bearings packed in grease. Not sure why but I assume it has to do with the ability to ford deep water without contaminating the oil that lubes the differentials. There is a seal that is sandwiched behind the wheel bearing nuts that seals against the outer race of the outer wheel bearing to keep the oil and grease separated. I plan on tossing this seal so as to have a normal oil bath hub like our trucks use in the 10.5" 14-bolt FF. After adding the oil to the hubs this should require an additional 2 quarts and that will have me at the 9 gallon threshold.

I'd be interested in knowing if this will work, I have an M35, 2-1/2 ton axles, but similiar, I'm pretty sure the inner seal (where outer seal is the grease to oil seal) isn't meant for oil retention, and so these can't really be successfully converted to oil bath. But that's just what I've read.


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[Engineer]

Relevant to this thread:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4843602/Fleet-MONSTER-TRUCKS-roll-flood-hit-Texas.html

And

http://www.missourinet.com/2017/09/01/missouri-baptists-lend-a-hand-in-hurricane-region/

[Engineer]

The 5-ton hubs run on wheel bearings packed in grease. Not sure why but I assume it has to do with the ability to ford deep water without contaminating the oil that lubes the differentials. There is a seal that is sandwiched behind the wheel bearing nuts that seals against the outer race of the outer wheel bearing to keep the oil and grease separated. I plan on tossing this seal so as to have a normal oil bath hub like our trucks use in the 10.5" 14-bolt FF. After adding the oil to the hubs this should require an additional 2 quarts and that will have me at the 9 gallon threshold.

I'd be interested in knowing if this will work, I have an M35, 2-1/2 ton axles, but similiar, I'm pretty sure the inner seal (where outer seal is the grease to oil seal) isn't meant for oil retention, and so these can't really be successfully converted to oil bath. But that's just what I've read.


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I ordered 4 of these seals. They are the same for all four (six) wheel positions on a M-39/M-54 et.al.

These particular hubs seals are for the M-900 series 5-tons. The trucks have changed significantly but the Rockwell axles have not.

Anyhow, you can see the double dust lip, and it has the garter spring which is the exact design of the oil seal that GM uses in our 14-bolt 10.5" ring gear axles. Also, it appears to be no different than the 100s of oil bath seals I put in OTR big rig axles when I was an 18-wheeler mechanic.

I also have read that the military axles can't be oil bathed but I have no idea why that would be true. I'm going to do it my way and see if it fails. My years of experience is telling me to try it. If it doesn't work I'll find a different seal that will work. It has to work, I don't see how it cannot.







If guys are having problems with these seals leaking I'm guessing they have mud plugging the vent tubes on their axles. In all my years of wrenching I have only had one oil bath seal leak and it was a GM 14-bolt with a leaky hub seal. Not pinion, just hub. Replacement leaked as well. Finally blew air through the vent tube and replacement seal never leaked again.

[1967KaiserM715]

Well, I was curious, so I started digging, and one of the issues was where the fill plug was-too low to allow oil down the axle tubes, the other was actual hub design and allowing enough oil to the bearings. All this on a 2.5 ton axle, not sure how much different the 5 ton axles are.

But it seems like a higher fill plug would solve the major issue.

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[roundhouse]

Enjoying reading the progress

Gonna be a fine looking truck

[Engineer]

When I get my monster truck done this is what I plan on doing with it........

https://youtu.be/lmhKttIQOws

OK, maybe not a chance I'd do this, but if you have never seen this video it is well worth your 1:50 of time. I'd normally add this to a post as a bonus but I thought it was so cool it needs its own post.





And check back in a couple of days. I've done some more work on the truck. A couple of cool updates. I need to sit down at my desk to catch up on some vital paperwork when that happens I'll update my build.

[Engineer]

This update shows us working to finish the hood:



Painted the bottom a glossy black.



Top got the requisite epoxy primer and then the urethane high build:



Lots and lots of sanding to get it smoothed out. I had 2 small dents, and 1 large dent in the hood. This is the last body panel with the exception of the tailgate to be fixed. I am finally getting the hang of how to hide the dents. Shame it took me this long......the hood is the part most people will never see. Oh well, if anyone wants to criticize my body and painting skills they are more than welcome to pay a professional to fix my cruddy work.

Unlike many of the other pictures of the body/paint on this build there is no trick photography, or critical angles here. That hood really does gloss like the picture shows...




The next sub-project is where I went bubba. Despite that fact I think it turned out rather well.

Before I start beating up on myself observe that deep gloss in the fuel cap door. Pretty good, eh? I only recently did the gas cap door in conjunction with the hood project. I didn't include it with the bed when it was painted.



Now here is where I went outside the box. As you can see the '88~'00 body side molding isn't in the appropriate place for our beloved square bodys. What I did on my build was to place the 88+ body side molding on my pick-up truck in the position it is in on the 1989~1991 Blazers and Suburbans. on these models it resides lower than did the silver trim that was standard on the 1981~1987(88) models. The 1989~1991 R/V series pick-ups never had this trim. Many 1989~ 1991 pick-up trucks had the V22 grille (4 headlight), but they were sans body side molding. They also never were optioned with two tone paint like the Blazers and Suburbans of 1989~1991. I wanted the body side molding on mine in the proper location that was consistent with the available models in this model platform.

So, as can be observed, this led me to a situation. Do I smooth over the gas cap door in the same manner as the right hand side? Or, do I keep the door and look at a different option. Considering if I were to smooth the gas cap door the bed would essentially be ruined for any future street truck. This, then, led me to explore option 2. Carving the body side molding in a manner that would allow the gas cap door to function, and retain the proper placement of the 1989~1991 body side molding. This is a compromise, but I am satisfied with it.

.........As a side note. Everything about the body on this truck remains "stock". Nothing has been modified so that anyone in future generations who would want to could move the body over onto a street, or original K series, frame could do so without any modifications.

And this is a pic of the finished product. I'm content with it.



So here are a couple of photos of the hood after it was installed:



It was really quite funny taking the above photo. I had never cleaned this truck since painting the top of the cab. It literally had a 1/4" of dust on it. Now, remember I am no professional body man, I don't play one on TV, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So looking back at the very first panel that I painted, which was the top of the cab, you can see streaks of light/heavy/light/heavy metal flake. Haha. It looks like a blue and silver zebra. Well at least I figured out how to uniform the metal flake by the time I arrived at the visible parts. And any body shop instructor or experienced body man will try to discourage a metal flake paint color for your first paint job. Oh well, I did it myself and saved a ton of money.  .......again, we will default to the top of this post: "if anyone wants to criticize my body and painting skills they are more than welcome to pay a professional to fix my cruddy work." 



The tailgate is the only thing left to paint blue. Should get its new identity in the next week or so.



This weekend's tasks should see the final round of sandblasting. I have my last 20 Kenworth lug studs in the rear hubs, the fuel tank mounts are done, and the rear bumper brackets are being prepped. These will get the epoxy, and black paint so these separate items can take their rightful place in the truck.






Oh golly. It's past my bedtime.
Til then,
Eng

[Engineer]

Monster Jam-racing mom shows girls they can do anything
http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/09/20/monster-jam-racing-mom-shows-girls-can-do-anything.html

[VileZambonie]

Cool 

[SmokeShow]

I didn’t look back... is that color period-correct? Either way, what is it?    

[Engineer]

Are you referencing the body color?

The body is "blue granite metallic". It is a GM color but wasn't available on the Silverado until 2008.

Some sources call it "stealth grey metallic". Either way the paint code is 928L.

[ehjorten]

http://images.tcpglobal.com/chips/2008-Gm-pg04.jpg?_ga=2.187137384.1552707271.1507644065-1557103012.1507306402

[Engineer]

I finally have time to pound out another update. Once again I have been pretty busy lately. I'll get the truck stuff out of the way in order of precidence.

First order of business is to report the finishing of the tailgate:

This is a picture of the tailgate with the primer on it before I put the color on. I added this view because it is the only picture I have of the tailgate band before I "fixed" it. More on that later.



Tailgate after it was painted. Yes it is a GMC, and no, no one will ever know.



If you look back at the last picture you can see there are 4 dents. 3 that are minor, and one, this one, a biggie:



2 of the dents were an easy fix because I could get to them. This one however, was in a spot that required the disassembly of the tailgate band.



After a lot a patience, and a little work I was able to smooth out the dent, even from the rolled lines.



How about that? And yes it is the same piece.

Some more views:







I received into inventory these fancy parts the other day:



Set the ol' blower on top:





Bought some clevises for the M-39 lifting lugs:



Started the fuel tank install:



And I put the side windows back in during this time:





And now for the bonus:

About a month ago we went to the NHRA in StLouis for the first time ever. I have tried to go many times before but something always got in the way. We went on Friday night. This is the best time for the"experience". The crowd is smaller, all of the cars are still running because the elimination rounds haven't started purging the field, and the last round of qualifiying is after the sun goes down.









Heck yeah Chevy!



The scary moment came when Cruz Pedregon's chutes failed to deploy and he went into the pea gravel trap at the end of the track:



Then the thrash was on to build a new car:







Was able to choke on some nitro fumes after they put the new car together and fire it up. You talk about an effective nasal decongestant.......whew.

The highlight of the Friday night in StLouis was watching Clay Millican set a new world e.t. record. This next photo was taken of his car 10 minutes after that record setting run, in the pits, during tech inspection:



A view from the stands earlier in the day:



This next picture is not trick photography but instead it is a pretty fair likeness of reality. Those nitro fuel engines are so loud and the exhaust pulse makes so much pressure that your vision blurs as they pass by. It has the same effect on the camera.

In other words, this is what you actually see as the cars pass by:



And then two weeks after StLouis I caught these trucks on I-57 headed down to Texas:






That was a month ago. 2 weeks ago we took a trip out to the wife's sister's house.

Stopped by the new Bigfoot shops in Pacific, MO.





Concussion Motorsport's truck was sitting in the shop getting some new graphics:



Was able to say hi to Dan Runte. Probably the #3 guy in Bigfoot behind Bob Chandler and Jim Kramer.

Stopped at 4 State trucks. These are the guys that did the TV show "Trick My Truck" on CMT. Was able to say hi to Bryan "The Bossman" Martin.





Going to get a set of these eventually:



Wife's sister has some family that we dropped in on........For all the obvious reasons:





And where would my post be if I didn't finish it out with a couple of square body monsters?

Bearfoot 4 with 74" Goodyears:



And a tube frame racer, although I believe it is a steel bodied truck and not fiberglass:




So here is the deal. Now that I have my globetrotting, and galavanting behind me I'll have more time to finish my monster truck. I took time off over Thanksgiving so that should help.

I have resolved to finish this truck by the end of the year. The list is getting shorter of projects. The thing I have chosen to put off until last is the starting of the engine. I am getting real close to having all of my parts to install the 6-71. If that is the case I'll install it now rather than later.

This truck has its first obligation to apper at a show in early June 2018 so I only have 7 months to call it done. Wish me luck.

Oh, and tell me what you think of the tailgate band repair. Pretty proud of it myself.

Ta for now,
-Eng

[VileZambonie]

Awesome! Great pix, thanks for sharing. The tailgate band looks great, what technique did you use? The last one I repaired believe it or not was just working it with pressure and the heat gun. Came out pretty good but i didn't finish it and stuck it back upstairs for a rainy day. The body is looking might nice on this rig, it's nice to almost see the light at the end of the tunnel ...