Slick 60's

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I wish I had a cold garage! I did the head gasket in my 87 on a nice 10 degree windy day outside

The way your truck is going, I’m sure it’ll fire up every time

The ‘ol green toad saw salt for the first time in about 20 years when I had to go pick up an engine for my 87 that busted it’s head...

Finally got a welder! I had been looking for a long time, and found a good looking single phase AC/DC Miller 330 with a tig setup! It welds so smooth, I was pretty surprised. Goes all the way down to 5 amps so there’s plenty of room for finese. Even came with a cooler and liquid cooled 25ft tig torch. Now I just need a bottle and I’ll be in business


The 800 pound behemoth


Really clean inside and out

Dang, that's a heck of a welder. That's enough welder to take on any job you can come up with.

grump wrote:Dang, that's a heck of a welder. That's enough welder to take on any job you can come up with.

Good thing cause this truck needs a lot of welding!

Did some tinkering with the truck yesterday and took it for it's first outing. Gave it a good look over to start my spring to do list.
It's a little rustier underneath than I remember. I guess I was too busy driving it and not laying on my back under it enough!

Driver's side cab mount is complete toast. I've got a lot of rust repair to do this year...


Crack in the shift collar (correct part name?). I have an extra from a 65, maybe that will work? If not I can always try welding it.


I noticed a leak in the axle seal on the passenger side. Looks like it was leaking most of the winter, so those brake shoes are shot.

Column shift collar, available from all the usual sources .( Dennis Carpenter, MAC's, LMC , EBAY, and some parts houses. Price varies, for an overseas casting.

Good luck, it's looking good so far.

Thanks man!

So I got around to some speedometer therapy. 6 tooth gear and a 17 tooth gear should put me pretty accurate with my 215/75r15’s.

Tailshaft housing came off hard...





New gear in...almost lost that little ball bearing


What I pulled out. The drive(?) gear was totally shot and one of the old driven (?) gears was floating in the housing lol.



Don’t think I seated the square part of the speedo cable in the driven gear correctly. My speedo needle bounces and floats all over the place Going to attempt a correction tomorrow. Hope I didn’t mess it up...

Make sure the cable is lubed up and turns smoothly. If it's dry and binding it could cause some of your problems and also might have caused the wear to the plastic gears do to the extra load.

I agree, take the whole cable out of the truck, check it for wear or burn spots if its up against exhaust. Clean/Degrease it real well, let it dry completely and then put it together with dry graphite.

Thanks guys, I’ll get it out and see how it’s looking. Is there a trick for knowing when the square end is seated into the driven gear? I keep pushing the square inner wire in...

That square inner wire is the cable. It's only square on the ends. It'll slide out of the flexible housing, don't remember from which end but it should be obvious when you look at both ends. Time to pull out the entire cable for cleaning and inspection.

Pulled the cable (comes out the dash side) cleaned it up, doused it in graphite, and still had a floating speedo issue. Idk if maybe the sheathing is really dirty? Either way rock auto had a new one for $11, should be here in a couple days. I’ll save restoring the old one for a rainy day I guess.

Haven’t been on in a while...I need the piece that goes on the back of the cluster for the speedo. That’s been on the back burner for a while.

The transmission in my ‘87 got stuck in 3rd the other day (tremec 4sp TOD). Had to fire up the ‘63. It has been sitting for a few months, and was running a little wonky. Cleaned out corrosion on the dizzy cap, put in a new fuel filter, and readjusted the vent rod. Seems to be purring along again. I moved farther away from work so it’ll be making an 80 mile/day commute until I can get the 87 up and running....

Did some redneck work on my driver’s side cab mount. Welded in some angle iron and wedged in a piece of a 2x4 Not my finest work, but it suffices for now. Next up is u-joint replacement, rear axle seals, and patching my floor boards.

Did some hauling this passed weekend and showed my daughter around the engine bay...

Replaced the u-joint yesterday and got some panels patched in with flux core. Not happy with the welds but they’ll hold. I decided to throw in an old rug I had laying around to help kill some road noise.

Before and after

Got the green toad all put away for the winter with tarps and mothballs. Lucky me gets to take a 6 month “vacation” to Iraq lol. Should have a pile of parts and some money burning a hole in my pocket when I get back. Maybe I’ll finally get some progress done on the truck. Probably not though because it will be driving season

That vacation sounds terrible and I hope it goes well. Been there/did that before I met you all.

shipwrecked wrote:That vacation sounds terrible and I hope it goes well.

Thanks. This place sure beats where I was in afghaniland. Should be relatively quiet, and it doesn’t snow here. So at least I got that going for me lol.

Did my 12 months 48 years ago in the jungles. It sort of sucks, especially if you have a family to take care of. Isn't it great how Uncle Sam gives out these all expense paid vacations? Not. Hope everything goes well for you. Good Luck.

All but two of my 20 year career we have been at war....