C30 Project Buildup

[Just-speed]

So much work bro.  Keep up the postings

[exilous]

Ok I forgot to post this up earlier...i really didnt get much accomplished today well i did and i didnt. I got 3/4s of the back of the cab roughly sanded ready for primer and I resanded bondoed again and sanded the roof. Now Ive made it almost full circle around the perimeter of the cab. Passenger side is dang close to done i did a few touch up spots I need to sand tomorrow and that should be case closed the back of the roof is done I did the 3rd coat of bondo on the driver side and it looks real good need to sand that tomorrow. and I made my way to the front. Hopefully I can get away with sanding the front tomorrow and just doing some touch up. I mixed the front bondo a little softer so it would take plenty of time to dry because I put it on a shade thicker than I should have. So hopefully just touchups on that and I'll be good to go. Im not even going to bother with the middle cause its not too bad. Hopefully you guys will get some pics tomorrow with the roof and the back of the cab in primer...that would be delightful. Somehow I don't think that will be happening though because I still need to buy a gun air dryer and all the other necessities to paint so...who knows. Here's a few more pics.

[Laderhosen]

Serious amount of work going on there. Nice to see a working truck getting some TLC.

[Just-speed]

Dude you have a done a great job and you should be proud.   

[exilous]

Lets see...where to start for today. I got a ton done. First thing I sanded the bondo down i put on last night and decided to primer it up. cause staring at shiny sheet metal makes it hard to see all the bumps and ridges. I primered it and it looked decent a few small spots that need some work but I'm not going to go crazy with it. Then I set to work disconnecting everything from the cab so I can take the cab off.Hardest things to take apart were the linkages for the PTO and the emergency brake cable those 3 little prongs are a $#*(). Oh and I finally figured out why my speedo stopped working a handful of years ago. When I uncoupled it from the trans i looked in it and I couldnt see anything...the little squar end got twisted off and was in the speedo gear end. I took it out and forgot to take a pic of it. I will get that and show it up here for you guys. Other than that everything went well. I didnt have anybody available so the cab stayed on. I would have prefered to have someone lend some eyes if i missed disconnecting something. We will see if i can get someone for tomorrow. So I called it an early day from the shop I left at 4. I went home and fired up the drivetrain donor truck the old 78 C30. pulled that up to the barn and set to work disconnecting the engine and trans. I got everything disconnected I just gotta take the PTO off and pull her out and get the engine on a stand so i can freshen it up. Has some valve noise well not some its actually pretty loud. Im gonna see what I can do with that do the timing chain oil pan and valve cover gaskets rear main seal maybe a camshaft depends on what kind of can of worms I open when I start looking into the engine. Here are a few pics.

Before

After


that is by far the nastiest antifreeze ive ever drained from an engine in my life...

[exilous]

alright everyone. I got much accomplished today.I posted about my critical engine dillemma on the engine thread. Check it out some pics are over there. To sum it up i moved the engine today and i grabbed the crank and went to push it into the shop and the crank moved...moved about an 1/8 of an inch so i may be getting in much deeper than i wanted to with this engine. either way it has to be done right? So after I screwed around with that till lunchtime i left went to my shop and pushed my c30 around got the cab off pushed it around some more figured out i didnt have enough room to move the forklift around the truck so i had to move the truck again. That freaking truck is really heavy when you gotta push it around...Nonetheless I got everythign moved situated and happy. So i got plenty done today...here are some pics of the move.

[78 Chevyrado]

You're knockin it out man!  nice work! keep em comin

[hotrod24]

yea man keep the good work coming

[Just-speed]

Sorry about the engine bro. Gonna have to head over and read your post. Dont sound good.

[exilous]

Ok over the last two days I havent even gone to my shop to work on this. My parents are away for a week so i brought the 78 donor dump up from the woods and chopped it up. slavaging whatever I could scrapping everything else. Here are some pics.




Ya i lit the seat on fire so i could scrap it. haha.

[Flamingbig10]

keep up the good work

[oldwhity]

That looks like fun!

[1983stepside]

wow amn your hammerin that project out its goona loo good when done keep us posted

[exilous]

well today I got absolutely nothing accomplished on anything today. not a single thing. It felt like a wasted day. I had 3 potential buyers for a ton of parts they all had my number So while I was waiting to get some calls i mowed the lawn did some stuff around the house. I had to go price a porch for a tear down rebuild my buddy sent me to go look at. Got there rang the bell talked to the lady and she was like "What we arent getting our porch done we told that guy we arent anymore. But while your here can you fix my door?" So it wasnt a complete waste I went there for a porch and I got a door job instead. The door will take a few hours not nearly what I was hoping for like 3 or 4 days of work on a porch but its better than nothing. then when that was done i proceeded to hang at my buddies shop and BS for a few hours then came home... Oh wait no i did get something done I unbolted the 3 bolts and springs on the passenger side exhause manifold for the exhaust pipe adn took it off. And I broguth my buddy back to my shop to thoroughly investigate my bad 350 in my c30 project. The current engine in it has a long long story and I wont bore you with that but in short. At least this is the version i came up with after talking to all the engine owners.my cousins friend bought it from a napa type store a a "reman 350 that fell off its crate and hit the floor" for $400.  That guy sold the truck he wanted it for then sold it to my cousin who never used it it sat for a few more years then he sold that to my uncle who sold it to his friend who he then bought it back from and then it ended up in my dads hands who installed it intot eh truck and Now I own it. So after all that I still never figured out if it was a 4bolt or 2 bolt. Nonetheless my friend was over shootin the shoot and he wanted to see the antifreeze and he looked at it and said thats what color it was when it came out o fmy blown engine. Well he blew his head gasket and drove on it for a few months then detonated his cylinder 7. So we were pokin around lookin then he decided to stick a old weldin rod into cylinder 5 and low and behold there is a piston still in there.  Well he seems to think that since my engine doesnt blow any smoke yet and it still runs I may be able to salvage it with a head gasket but to put a rebuild kit in it anyway. So there may be hope. What do you guys think  on the engine? I will post more details about it on my post in the engine forum though.

[exilous]

It's been awhile since I posted here.only ive been really workin on is the engine. well lets see. i tore the engine down and it needs a lot of stuff found out it had been rebuilt and bored 30 over once before so last night I ordered my pistons and rings for 60 over they should be in on wednesday or thursday. me and my dad tore the engine down the rest of the way and we got it down i pressure washed the heavy stuff off and then we picked it up and dropped it in our citrus acid tank to take care of most of the other stuff. as soon as the pistons get in ill bring the block and the pistons down and have our machinist bore it and clean the engine again. That should all be completed by next week if all goes well. in the meantime I need to open up a few more engines i have to find a good donor crank cause mine is shot and any machinist we know that grinds cranks dont have very good turnaround times/ we dont hear from them in months. so i gotta look for that and i think im gonna steal a set of heads off my 305 hopefully the crank too and rebuild those heads cause my heads are very worn and dont have hardened seats. AND i bought a whole frontend rebuild kit so i have to drop the frontend out of the 78 tear it all apart sandblast and paint the whole thing before i put it back together and when im ready i can just roll it underneath my 85. Me and my dad were rummaging through some trailers the other day at our house and low and behold not only did i score a brand new set of front coils for my truck but i scored a brand new side tank with straps and a high volume PTO to replace my old pto with driveshaft and all that BS. So i made out pretty well. oh before I dive into that front end i dont think there is any difference between my 78 and 85 front ends but i just want to ask and make sure before I get into it and find out there is a difference. Cause I bought a complete tie rod/balljoin/pitman arm kit off ebay to rebuild a front end cause both front ends are completely worn out. Her eis a pic of my njew front end...and its so nice it fits right in a flat rate box too.