my shipwrecked '63

[shipwrecked]

85% done with the welding... still have a bit to do and some hammering and flapping. alas I have to go to work on the nicest day of the year so far... Can't get too busy on this fender.

[shipwrecked]

I was messing around with the rear bumper i picked up.... No idea which holes to put the one bolt through in the rear frame. Looks like my frame had a plethora of bumpers in it's life.

[shipwrecked]

some assembly required: But $630.00 spent on the engine machine work.



got 6 NOS connecting rods on the way from Green Sales.... $300.00

Got a ring gear (in the pic you cant see it, but a few of the teeth are really messed up from where the starter probably stayed engaged too long) and I have a water pump on the way from ROCK Auto ($50.00)

Expensive day.....

[SteveCanup]

April....the pics....the pics.....they're not there!

[shipwrecked]

I can see the pics just fine on my threads.. but everyone else threads i see an "Opps" message from photo bucket. Think the Bucket has a hole in it and needs repairs..

[SteveCanup]

Yep....sorry, that was what it was. I went to other threads and saw the same thing. Figured that photobucket kicked the bucket...lol...btw, the pics are there now.

[shipwrecked]

The connecting rods came in the mail Thursday- so Monday morning I will drop them off at the machine shop to have them looked at. They have never been used, but I want to be sure they are sound before I instal them in my block.
Today I am going to prep part of the block for paint. I took the side access cover and the valve cover to the car wash with me but it was;t easy to clean. I got most of the chunky gunk off of them but will need to purple power them.

[shipwrecked]

cleaned the block and prepped it for some paint. I used a Rustoelum high heat engine paint. (rattle can) Black. Will paint the valve cover red again after I clean it up some.

[shipwrecked]

Painted the head tonight with the high heat black paint. Messed up my transmission a little too- which i will figure out how to fix!

[shipwrecked]

Not to put the cart before the horse here, but I was up at the Chinafrieght store grabbing a few throw away items and stopped by the part house that supplies automotive paint. I brought my paint chip from 1962/1963 Ditzler book and compared the Driftwood color to what he can supply.
We came up with the Grey 669181 as an almost identical match.. That is the color I will paint the body. The other grey is Medium Grey 79574 and I intend to do the fenders in that.


I got my Flywheel and new ring gear dropped off as well as the con rods. They measured out perfect and I hope they will work. The part number i ordered turned out to be different then what they sent me... I thought I ordered an CAA#but EAA# came instead. It measured identical so who knows.

I spent two hours using a few cans of brake clean, purple power and a lot of water and wire brushes to clean out a few of the engine components. The truck sump that came off the orange block (the one I had bored) was caked in baked on emulsified oil. The valve cover, same condition as well as the lifter inspection cover. I spent some time cleaning so I can get them in the blaster at work without gumming up their materials.

I pulled this off the blue engine head. Thermostat!? we don't need no stinkin thermostat!


Tomorrow is another day.

[shipwrecked]

Yesterday was not very productive on my truck. I spent about 7 hours trying to help a shipmate put a MAGTECH transmission pan on his RAM3500. It has a transmission cooler and we couldn't get the pan on with the aluminum pipe in the way. It was frustrating. He needs to purchase a new piece of tubing to put in there to go around the new pan when he gets that I can help him install it.

I did get some time in the blast cabinet to do some engine parts.



little free time today due to work, but I ran home to walk the puppies and also throw some primer on the parts.


the inside of the valve cover, there appears to be a Gylptal paint... Not sure its worth me spending 50$ on a qt to redo the inside of that valve cover. Either 50$ for a brush on qt, or 50$ for a 12oz aerosol can... hmmmm... not sure it is worth the hassle, potential risk of it flaking off and plugging up oil passages and what not. I think the oil pan was coating inside too. It was just nasty in there!

Stand by for more. Little by little I am chipping away at the project. Down to 53 weeks till I due to pack up and move to a new location (no idea when/where for sure yet).

[slick4x4]

Those look nice.... I should get a blasting cabinet
Looks like your making good progress !
I have no experience with that type of paint on inside of cover , pan
But I think bare metal would be fine ... Others might know more

[shipwrecked]

Today I did some more welding on my spare tire fender. I mocked them back up to the bed sides to make sure they were somewhat level, and one fender was about 1'' too whacked out. I had to do some surgery to it to make it similar. I followed exactly what the original patch had in there, but obviously the previous patch was not 100%.

I threw some spray paint on my oil pan... reminds of that freaky 80's tv show "V". I was so scared of that show when I was a kid. No one in their right mind would look under the engine at the oil pan.


Painted the fan. There is no shroud for this.


Threw some red on the valve cover as well. I could have taken the small dent out of the top but it adds character.


Went up to meet tomrooster yesterday up north and got to see his nice projects! He gave me a 3 speed transmission to see if I can use it for this truck since I broke the bearing retainer. I will get around to taking a look over that transmission.

Other then this, I am keeping pretty busy. I have lists of stuff to do, little time to make sure I do it, and of course I want to be done (driving it) by 01May2017. The countdown is on.

Talked a little to SteveCanup about the gas tank conversion he did. I liked how tomrooster left the filler on the side of the truck for the original look, and put the gas tank back aft in the frame rails. I got some ideas from SteveCanup's build page 2- so I may do what he did and put a tank back aft.

Stand by for the wild crap I am up to next.

[SteveCanup]

I LIKE that oil pan....too cool! Looking good! You won't regret the gas tank relocation. It's fairly easy to do and gives you lots more room in the interior.

[shipwrecked]

Today I got my bell housing back from the machine shop where he dipped it a few times. I was then able to sand blast the remaining stuff off and get it home for a coat of primer and paint.

I just painted it a high temp rustoleum- nothing special. I seriously have a rattle can paint job on the whole suspension and drive train.



This is what it looked like before I had it dipped and stripped.

[bird55]

That little six cylinder is going to make a great engine for you. I had one that went bad and i replaced it with 292 v8. Do you mid asking what you think you will have in to the rebuild on the engine?

[bird55]

Oh, and I would also get rid of the oil filter can setup and switch to a spin- adapter. Less messy at change time and easy to get FL-1 filters anywhere

[shipwrecked]

680 for machining. 800 for the kit... 400 for the con rods. And 100 for misc stuff and a rocker assembly I got from another member. I paid 200 for the engine off craigslist last year too. I'm just about throwing money at this little engine and truck.

[ThinLizzy13]

Enjoying the build, nice work so far Those little 223's are great...

[bruceandersson]

If you do install the spin on oil filter adapter, make sure to put a little oil on both sides of the gasket before installing. Sma e amount you'd put on the oil filter gasket. If you do not the gasket will bind and not seal when the adapter is tightened.