Hexenschuss

[SteveCanup]

Looking great Doug!

[My wife's nightmare]

Thank you Steve. Looks like y'all had a great time in the Christmas parade!!

Progress has been kinda slow but in the immortal words of Jake Blues, "We're putting the band back together........"


Need to verify all of the wiring and test crank the engine. Then start on body working the front fenders.
A few days ago the weather was suitable for a ride in the Fairlane. It was making a little ticking noise when I started it, sounded like the water pump. Knew I wouldn't go far so took off for a few miles. Was heading back to the house when I heard something that sounded like a rock kicked up off of a tire but saw the ALT light come on. Well dang! Found out what was ticking! Made it back to the house with temperature at 220F. Opened the hood and the alternator belt was wrapped around the clutch fan. I got this car in 1988 and not sure how long that belt was on there before that but its a shame things don't last like they used to!!


Merry Christmas to all the great people in Slick-land!!

[SteveCanup]

Merry Christmas, Doug! Man...that truck is a thing of beauty! Just going out to the garage to find that sitting out there would make every day "Christmas Day" lol.

[SteveCanup]

...I went back through your build thread looking for the front tire size...those look great! What size are they?

[My wife's nightmare]

Thanks Steve! Some days it seems like Ground Hog Day everyday, but little things are getting done one by one.
The wheels are 8/9,5's and tires are 275/40R17 on the front, 315/35R17 on the rear. Hopefully they fill out the fenders well!

[My wife's nightmare]

Not much to show as far as pictures recently. Just been working through the wiring. I had ran the harness a long time ago and while the truck was together before the frame was painted but never put power to anything. Took the truck apart to paint the frame and after putting it back together and applying power have been finding a few bugs here and there and discovering wiring that I should have ran originally. It's coming together just taking a little longer than I planned on. Also spent quite a bit of my time recently fixing some things on a Mustang that we sold last week so need to catch up on the truck now!!

[My wife's nightmare]

Well, made two upper brackets for the electric fan, need two more for the bottom. Should be able to get them done tomorrow. I'll get some pictures and see if y'all have any concerns about the "engineering"! The wiring is pretty much complete and all is working properly. The only runs I have left are for the radio which I'm planning to put in a console. I have to get the console planned out and decide what audio equipment will be installed so I can run that wiring sometime soon.

[My wife's nightmare]

Ok the days kinda run together here but did get the brackets for the fan roughed in. Worked on one of the lower brackets today to locate it on the radiator support. It worked out better than I expected except I ran out of time to get the other side done. At least I have a pattern now for the other side. I don't think I will try to attach the upper brackets to the radiator support, there's not a real good place to do that without having a very complex tab.

These are the upper brackets. They wrap around the radiator core and are quite snug, no movement unless you move them.

A close up of one of the uppers

These are the lower ones. I added a tab to one of them and bolted it to the bottom side of the radiator support. Sometime this week I'll do the same to the other bracket.
Anybody see any issues with doing it like this?

[My wife's nightmare]

Well about two weeks ago, I determined all the stars were in alignment and decided to try cranking the engine for the first time. I was mostly prepared; however, my wife and the dog were not. The engine fired right off, which caught me of guard a bit. Of course. it's loud. smoke from all of the pre-priming and fingerprints on everything. My wife had no idea how ugly a new start can be, so she's panicked that it's all on fire and I can't let go of the throttle cause I'm going to go ahead and break the cam in, so she can't hear me trying to explain all is good. Somehow she figures out what I'm trying to say and goes to catch the dog. By the tine they return all the smoke drama has died down but still running the engine at 2000+ RPM so there's still some communication issues. Everything went pretty good except it blew thee water out of it about halfway through. I did have the hose handy and got some water back in to finish breaking it in. Towed it out of the garage a couple days ago and fired it up again. Blew the water out again when the thermostat opened. Noticed the fan did not come on so shut it down and found a blown fuse. Fixed that, filled the water back up and ran it fpr ten or so minutes. Seemed to be good this time! Jumped in the seat, checked for brakes, put it in first gear and drove back in the garage. That went so well I decided to try reverse. seemed that was successful also. Pulled back in the shop and called it a night. Time for some bodywork on the fenders and paint them and the doors and I'll really go for a test drive (I hope!!)

Burnt paint on the mufflers is all the proof I have that it actually runs!

[SteveCanup]

Congrats! Excitement abounds! I'm hoping to see your truck sometime in the future at one of the cruise-ins...

[aarons428]

I always love he first fire up on a new engine!!
I built exhaust systems for 13yrs and I hated those mufflers. The first sign of restriction is heat. Where the paint is coming off is where it either hits a wall or is so tight. But so many people love those mufflers.

[My wife's nightmare]

Hey Steve, you'll probably have a better chance of seeing this one when you come to visit the grandbaby!!

Aaron, I really don't want to hear that about my mufflers but thank you for the warning! I should've known something was up when they were "on sale" at the swap meet. That will be something I will address in the near future.

Been working on the front sheet metal recently, trying to get a set of fenders ready for paint. (Well actually epoxy first!!) Blasted the upper grille panel and repaired a few rusty places in it. It's waiting for primer and some sanding. Somehow I've wound up with quite a few fenders but they all have their issues. Not rusty but beat all to pieces or what's left of it is straight but needs lots of rust repair. So I'm combining a couple to have a usable set.

One thing that would be a huge blessing would be if someone would invest in producing the rear inner structure that usually rusts out where it bolts to the body. The picture is of a pretty good one I cut out of an unusable fender. I'll use it to try to reproduce a repair piece for the drivers side. I'll let you know how that goes, might be a few days or maybe weeks but I'll come up with something.

[My wife's nightmare]

Haven't been too good about posting regularly but have been working on the truck here and there. The driver side fender is good enough and waiting on epoxy. My wife did buy me a new spray gun that I haven't had time to use yet but if the passenger side fender gets finished up soon, I'll see how the new gun works. I did realize that the fender rear brace/support is galvanized, on the one I've been messing with at least. Hard to believe these pieces still rust out after 60-some years!! My metal working skills are only good enough to get rid of rust so don't look at the photos too closely please. This is the piece I cut out last:

After many hours of beating on this poor little piece of metal, I'm satisfied enough to start tacking it in:

Also visible is the patch on the lower wheel opening and a big hole. We'll cover the reason for the hole in a future post

[SteveCanup]

Looks good from here....lol.

[My wife's nightmare]

It looks real good in Wytheville doesn't it Steve???

[My wife's nightmare]

Ok, finally got to use the new spray gun my wife talked me into buying. And I really do like it! Only thing is this one is the "new" version and the lids are different from the first generation. (That just means they cost more!!) But its a nice gun for the price and all I shot was epoxy on the fenders and upper grille panel. A little body filler here and there and probably a coat of high build. Would really like to have color on these and mounted by the end of the month. Also need to scuff the doors and get green on them.

Kinda crazy using a compliant spray gun in my outdoor spray booth!

[grump]

I like your spray booth. I've painted cars in some pretty non compliant places. Keep up the good work.

[My wife's nightmare]

Somebody said something about a box chocolates and painting out in the yard can yield the same results. Hard to tell but that is bird poo on the upper edge of a fender. Just shot some epoxy on it and came back to find that! It cleaned up just fine so all is well
Took the day off yesterday and got color on these pieces. Was hoping to do the doors to but got them out of the barn and one hasn't fared very well. It needs more work on the lower edge so that will commence shortly I hope.


I also got the ends of the frame touched up where they didn't get painted while on the rotisserie, sorry no pictures of that.

[jamesdfo]

Doug: Things are looking good, and any progress is good.

Besides, when have you ever talked to ANYONE who finished sooner than their planned completion date?

I expect your truck will be seen at a few 2022 shows!

Cheers!
James

[My wife's nightmare]

Grump, thank you for the encouragement! It will be a looooong time before I can say I'm decent at painting or bodywork, but I'm having a great time learning things and practicing. Plus, I want to be able to say that this one was all done in house (well the majority of it ) The one thing I do regret is waiting so long to try painting and bodywork. I did do quite a bit on the 65 I had but that wasn't until I was in my 30's.

James, the build schedule on this one was busted about 6 months into it!! Luckily I could put it off but originally this was going to be my daily driver and should have been finished in about a year. A job change and too much overtime took its toll. It's been hard to get serious again but making progress a little at a time. I'm trying to decide what to do with the bed so it'll probably have some trailer fenders on the back for a while so I can get out to some shows this year. My neighbor is keeping an eye out in his salvage yard for something I can use but hasn't found the right pieces yet. Thank you for your faith in my dream

Saturday morning allowed some time to spray some rubberized undercoating on the insides of the front fenders so those are a big checkmark on the old whiteboard list of things left to do. Also started looking at the passenger door that didn't fare too well in storage. I don't have any idea what happened to it but it had rusted through in a few places and the epoxy looked like gator skin in several places. I had blasted it before it was primed and the inside was cleaned and treated so I just am at a loss. Not any huge places to repair but still enough to slow what little progress that was beginning to happen. It's all good, more opportunities to practice!!