Projects 1950 3100 Truck Project

Picture kind of dark, but glass and trim look great, happy you finally got it done...Jim

 

Great to hear!
Feel free to contact me if you need a second pair of hands.
Can't wait to see your truck at Soda Pops soon.

 

Thanks Jim, yea it was in my garage at 9pm...better pics of all soon.

Thanks Ramjet, That would be awesome. It seems like the only time I can work on it is in the middle of the night during the week though, ha. Weekends have gotten out of hand lately....I really want to go to the HotRod night OCT 25, so thats the plan....

 

Man, that's awesome - the windshield looks great. I can't believe you put it in by yourself. When I did the rear window on mine I couldn't have done it without my daughter's help. I still have the front to do yet...

 

Went for my first real drive thursday..man it was loud....went by a buddys house,then into town and back about 10 miles. Everything went great, stayed at about 200 at low speeds, 185 at 60....was a blast...

Taking it for exhaust tonight!!




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Thanks man, yea it was a bitch but I got it done...

 

Woohoo - another one on the road! Great to hear.
I've really enjoyed following your build thread, it has helped me to keep plugging away on mine.
I love that last picture - I hope mine turns out that nice.

 

Thanks man, I still have a lot to do before its "finished" but at least I can start enjoying it. Hopefully we'll see pics of yours soon....

 

All right, great to hear it's running good, exhaust will make a huge difference, enjoy it you've done a great job...Jim

 

Looks great! Well done.

 

Congrats man! Thrilled for ya!

 

Thanks all....exhaust got bumped one more day...after that I can drive it to work and get it up in the air and really give everything a good look over....cant wait...

 

Truck looks great man! SO stoked your out driving it....I knew you'd beat me onto the road! Windshield looks great!

 

George dickel FTW!

 

Quick update, been busy as hell....

Got the exhaust done, had it come out just in front of the rear tire...love it....1 1/2", going to put some 2" stainless tips on, straight cut thin wall same location....


Picked it up from the exhaust shop and went on a short drive, started making this nasty tick noise from the trans only in first gear....so first trip to the shop using my Hagerty's towing service...

Pulled the trans and found that when rebuilt, there is a beveled snap ring and a flat snap ring. Well they were installed in the wrong spot so the flat snap ring came out of place and ground into the 1st clutch housing...

Easy fix as far as trans repairs go, and $300 later it was back in action, just in time for its first car show about a mile from the shop where it was at...

Baby enjoying her 1st car show...



I was parked at the end of a row of Corvettes, and there wasnt a single other vehicle like mine, all the other cars/trucks were completely bad ass...I was completely out of place. However I always had people checking it out, but I was at a friends set up because I didnt want to hear any smack talk, haha...



There were 5 other trucks in my class and they gave out a best in class and a class award, and whatta you know!



I had to get my pic taken with the head car show dude, very awkward for sure...but hey, I'll take it. As I was driving out (another awkward situation, you had to drive back out the entrance where everyone was gathered) I had a lot of thumbs up so I guess it went over ok...

Since then I have gotten a few more things done that I'll get pics of, but hunting has take up almost all my time...

 

Great update, sorry about the trans. Good pics, little one's a cutie. Truck looks super, more people like them than you think. Congrats on the win...Jim

 

Yeah, way to go - congratulations! I love the way your truck looks and it sits just right, too.

 

first show got an award ! thems bragging rights there

 

Haha...It was probably a participation trophy!

Anyway, more pics. Finally got all the window lock strips in...and fake patina on the back of the cab...



Painted the tailgate, was previously black....



So the last few times I drove it the fan sounded like shit. I guess the way I had it mounted it would twist and the blades would hit the shroud and make a loud whine/buzz. It was on the outside and wasnt a very nice fan and low cfm. So I bought a SPAL puller and made it work inside. Quiet and moves a ton more air...not very pretty though. Gotta get some better hardware in there, but for now it works...

Couple more outside shots..replace the pass outside handle with one that doesnt sag...



So today I went for a drive after getting the fan situation squared away and discovered something else obvious.. I couldnt find a rollover valve to fit my tank, so I just used some pipe fittings and hose with a filter...when filling it today the ground was leaned toward the right and when I shut off the pump fuel was pouring out of the vent hose....sheesh...so I just ordered a check valve for it...

Lastly, the engine seems to have some lifter clatter just off idle/light throttle which is basically all the time when cruising with a 2600 stall, it is pretty loud actually, kind of concerned.

The guy that did all the machine work told me to use this Valvoline VR1 syn, 50w. It pours out like glue....wonder if switching to something like 10/40 syn would help?

 

Like how your rear tires fit the rear fenders-look perfect!

 

Hey man, just checking back in. Your build just keeps getting better and better! Everything looks awesome.


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Thanks guys.

Still chasing gremlins....my brakes were hanging up, thought it was my residual valve but just notice my brake pedal isnt coming all the way up when released. Pull it up and the brakes release. Havent figured out if the pedal is dragging in the firewall or if I need a return spring or something like that.

Lifter noise....the engine builder had me running 20-50w syn VR1, I need to add 2 qts and inadvertantly added 2 qts of straight fifty. Oil pressure is always 70psi+- so I am going to do an oil change and see whats what. Cut open the old filter and take a look..

Horrendous knock noise the last time I drove it, only at idle and is not consistant. Suspect a cracked flex plate, all the videos online of a flex plate sound exactly like mine...already started the teardown..

Fuel leaks out of the tank at the vent when filled.....didnt put a check valve in....got a rollover valve for it, have to drop the tank again...

Speedo wacky...havent calibrated it yet but it is about 15mph high, when coming to a stop just before 0 it goes all the way over to 120 or whatever....dont know why....

Guess it could be worse...still need to install seat belts and door glass. Need a heater....other odds and ends.

Not happy with the glass packs, not loud enough at all although it sounds bad ass, the cam is just right. Maybe they will loosen up a bit with time....

Lastly, lost all the pics in the beginning of the thread with the change over, or imageshack....going back in and editing the posts and pics to clean it up a bit. Not that anyone cares but I like to look back and times for motivation...

 

The speedo cable sounds like it's binding in the sleeve. A little graphite in there might just do the trick.

 

I went with an all electronic set up (shhh), hopefully its just a poor ground....thanks for thinkin about it though...

As far as the knocking noise, I took off the trans inspection cover and unbolted the converter. Started the engine and it made the most godawful screeching noise. Shut it down quick, figured something changed so it must be the flex plate... I tried a little trick my boss told me about to get it out without pulling the whole trans. I pulled all the bolts to the trans, put in two longer ones on either side, pulled the driveshaft and unbolted the rear trans mount, took off the vacuum line to engine and pulled off the floor cover so the shifter had room to move and slid the whole trans back just far enough to sneek the flex plate out. Was actually pretty easy considering I was laying on my back...

Turns out all the bolts were loose with one almost all the way out. the screeching was the bolt scraping against the converter since previously they turned together. Only thing keeping it in was being up against the converter itself. I pulled it out and no cracks, but went ahead and bought a new one with new bolts and hopefully that will be the end of it. (with a little loctite this time of course....)

 

I got the new flex plate in and got it al back together, good to go in that area. Changed the oil and filter and still
have a pretty noticeable lifter tap. Also really need to get my electrical squared away, my voltmeter shows the alternator not charging consistantly, so gotta figure that out becuase as the voltage gets low the truck starts running bad due to low voltage at HEI (I assume).

Sighh....one of these days I will get this all worked out....

 

Going to make the round up this year?


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I hope, but the wife will be 8 months preg then and with a close to 2yr old it'll be without the truck if so. I am bummed as this is the second year in 3rd year in a row I missed it but we'll see.

On the other front, not much progress as its actually be cold and rainy for a while and when its nice we have been out and about. In the process right now of replacing all the lifters, should be done by the weekend.

 

I've been following your build, almost from the beginning, glad that rusty1 chimed in early on with advice on your sub frame, that guy (Sam Bolens) REALLY knows sub frame swaps and I'm sure glad he is willing to share his knowledge and experience. Congratulations on getting the truck on the road!! Sorry your going through a rather rough list of new build gremlins, but it WILL get better. I've got well over 80,000 miles on my Avatar 48 Chevy truck (been on the road 16 years) and I STILL really like the truck. Lots of winter work over the years but never missed a season. The bottom line----Drive it, the more you do, the better you'll like it. BILL RINALDI

 

Nice man, thanks! Yea Sam and a few others saved my ass more than a few times. There is NO way I would have ever gotten as far as I have without all the help here... Anyway thanks for the kind words. Take care!