Colorado Melons

It seems that I went to the big swap meet in Denver a couple weeks ago.  You know that it’s going to be really interesting when a story starts like that.  None of my boys could make it.  Something about sorting socks in the sock drawer or something of equal importance.  My wife wanted to go to a sewing and fabric show that was just up the street from the swap meet.  The result was that I was turned loose in the biggest swap meet of the year with no adult supervision.  And I had a pocket full of cash, a really bad combination. Continue Reading »

From Norm on Jan 31 @ 8:04PM:

I actually got a little time to work on the ‘51 this weekend.

After setting the upper cowl section on the lower sections I found that there was a misalignment between them.  Although I expected some misalignment the difference was a lot more than I had planned on.
Continue Reading »

The music and truck are from the same year.

I put the ‘58 Chevy on the road earlier than anticipated and have since been shaking it down by running errands, driving it back-and-forth to work, etc. I really wasn’t ready to start driving it, but it’s turned out to be good motivation to get back to working on it again.

The truck still needs a lot before it could be considered presentable, but you do what you gotta do and driving it right now has turned out to be the best thing. Even though this one isn’t close to  yet, I’ve totally forgotten the effect these things have on people and how much fun they are.

I’ve been involved in the “Street Rod” scene with the ‘56 Ford, and I’ve met some decent people at local shows, gatherings or stuck rows and rows deep in cars and unable to get out when you’ve had enough, and it’s just not how I want to spend my day anymore. I like building stuff and talkin’ to people who build stuff. I really appreciate the effect old mechanical stuff has on people and sometimes a vehicle just fits the bill. It just changes our perspective sometimes. Continue Reading »

I had originally diagnosed Exhaust Valve #2 as not opening so I set out to replace the cam in the ‘58. Good thing, because it was worse than I thought. You can enlarge the side-by-side, old vs. new photos below to see for yourself:

Working on a 350 Chevy in an old truck’s engine bay is really about as easy as it gets. It’s usually just time consuming, but when the over-priced Snap-On junk breaks yet one more time, the process takes longer than it should.

I don’t really give two bits about the life-time replacement warranty and with the mobile tool vendors you’re really paying, in a large way, for that replacement service. It costs money to run those trucks, print those hats & calendars… and the dealer needs to make a living too. No harm in that.

It was all well and good when I worked at Salem County Harley Davidson and Larry Flintcraft would come by or be readily available by phone to repair whatever got broke. That guy had a phone in his truck before cell phones were in. But now that I’m home I’ve got to run out myself whenever something breaks… and it shouldn’t. I want my investment to be into the quality of the merchandise, not the service and the promo goods.

All I was doing with my 1/2″ drive wrench was taking off the driver’s side head-bolts (no cheater involved) when “Bang!” little pieces of The Amazing Exploding Wrench go flying all over my garage! They should list these things in the backs of comic books.

Be the First One on Your Block
Own
The Amazing Exploding Wrench
Fool Your Friends!

All I want is quality that will last. Funny thing, after the stars from my mashed thumbnail went away, I reached for the Craftsman that’s older than I am and finished pulling it apart.

Snap-On may have invented the little ball that snaps the socket onto the wrench (hence the name), but they haven’t done much good since then but build a decent tool box and collect payments. I’m done with ‘em.

I’ll get the valve seals replaced and put the rest of it back together tomorrow.

Ciao.

If the video doesn’t play or to see it a little larger, Click Here.

We headed to Lakewood this morning to pick up a pickup. The previous owner, Bob, gave us great directions to his house and after talking about his nineteen year ownership of the vehicle – evident from the way he spoke about the details of the truck – and having a few laughs, he cranked the engine over to prove it would crank.

As he tells it, the truck started giving him some trouble on the way back from a Christmas trip but he was able to get it home. We he cranked it over for me in his driveway, it would pop and spit through the intake as if out of time and Bob said from the way it was running but now wouldn’t start that he thought the timing chain may have jumped a tooth. It’s all speculation at this point, but we’ll systematically eliminate probable causes one-by-one, as usual, until we get our desired result.

Soon Leigh was behind the wheel and  we were pushing the a 4X4 extended cab S-10 out of his driveway to hook it to the back of the Trailblazer. After a few more laughs and a few more “almost forgot” parts, we were on our uneventful trip back home.

Since I’m right in the middle of insulating and sheetrocking the unheated & already over-crowded garage, I had to leave the truck sit in the driveway to clear out enough space to push it into. That’s when I snapped these first photos.

Meanwhile the boys came home from school and Jack yells out “Cool truck!”
I yell back, “Your Mom and I just picked it up.”
“No.” he replies, “Rex.” referring to the ‘58 Chevy I was using as a push vehicle, the only vehicle I own that my wife doesn’t want me to sell. She actually chided me the other day with, “You make money on every vehicle you own” but does not want me to get rid of that one because of the work I have in it. But when someone wants it more than I do I’ll be okay with it.

So I push the S-10 into the garage, Leigh now officially having driven it more than me, and I start digging into the engine. It’s an ‘85 so it’s got the 2.8 and there really wasn’t much exciting tearing it down except a couple of bolts through the aluminum waterpump that were too tight from the electrolysis between the dissimilar metals. I worked them back and forth enough that they came out, albeit with some of the aluminum from the pump, but it would’ve been quicker and easier to use the torch for a little heat.

I’d also advise anyone who does their own maintenance to coat the contact surfaces between hoses and their connections with a little anti-seize to prevent the hose from baking itself onto the fitting over time. It makes removal much simpler even after long periods and doesn’t affect the seal at all.

You can see the slack on the left side of the chain in the picture above and how much tighter the chain is on the right (since that’s the way I rolled the crank to get it at TDC), but the picture below shows the timing marks between the gears really lined up well. The mark on the crank gear is not at the key way, it is on the face of the tooth that is straight up:

There may have been enough slop in the chain when the engine was cranking to prevent it from running, but I’m not convinced this is the problem. I’ll change it for good measure after the boys’ basketball games tomorrow since it’s obviously stretched and since I’m in here, but won’t be surprised if things still aren’t right when I button them back up.

The red-dyed alcohol in the garage thermometer (government says mercury is bad now unless it’s in light bulbs) was reading 33F when I stopped, so I can’t say it was “freezing” out there, but I thought I’d come inside where it’s warmer to write a little. Besides, the parts places are all closed.

Stay tooned.

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