More discoveries and some progress to being street ready

If you want, feel free to comment on any page on our blog. 

 We gladly welcome any suggestions; repair advice, websites for parts that won't drain our finances, words of encouragement, etc.   

On Friday, the 23rd of August, we took the truck for a very short test drive.  We came to the realization that the cause of the "herky jerky" was not a bad flywheel but a sticky gas pedal that was preventing us from shifting into the lower gear.  Long story short; no need to have the flywheel resurfaced.  Any suggestions to remedy the sticky gas pedal will be greatly appreciated.

On the same day we got the truck registered and titled in Jim's name.  Cost a "whopping" $34 for 2 year tags then on Monday we added it to our insurance policy.

Today we were able to take the 4 rims, that were kindly donated by our friend Jeff Tigner, to Rons tires Pros and got 4 new P235/75R15 for a total of almost $430.  Tomorrow Jim will put the truck on the concrete and get the tires put on.  Rons Tire was very nice and put Nitrogen in the tires for free! 

Here's a picture:

Jim's been busy under the hood.  He added a fuel filter just before the carburetor, installed a thermostat because the truck didn't have one.  Here's the funny part.  To start the truck there is a toggle switch in the cab that no matter what position it's in the truck will turn over; but of course it won't start if the switch is in the off position.  We make it a habit of turning the switch to off when we don't need to start it.  It was time to move the truck to the concrete for some underneath work but for some reason the truck wouldn't start.  We thought because it was a 12 volt alternator that the coil should have the same voltage.  The coil under the hood said "6 Volt" so we went to Autozone and bought a new 12 volt coil.  Installed the coil and the truck STILL wouldn't start.  We bought a distributor rotor and ordered a distributor cap.  After coming home Jim asked our son Vinny if the switch was in the on position when he was trying to start it.  Vinny told Jim which side the switch was to and we all came to the realization that all this time the switch was in the off position!! DANG IT!  Because we installed the coil we couldn't return it.  It has been listed on Craigslist. The reason we don't need it; there is a voltage regulator that the 6 Volt coil is what is used.

The bolts holding the rear fenders on were loose or missing so on Tuesday we put some in and tightened up the loose ones.  That was easy.  We came to the realization yesterday that the license plate bracket is broken.  The piece that holds the light is gone so we found a new one on Ebay for about $45.  It should be here sometime next week. There is a lot of rust on the bolts holding the old bracket on so we bought some Liquid Wrench and hopefully it will be easy to remove the old bracket.  We also bought 2 rolls of 20 foot 14 gauge wire for our lighting system.  

Another problem we have run into is finding a replacement grille; in an earlier post we stated we found one at R & R auto for $30 plus shipping; unfortunately that grille is gone.  The only other intact grilles we can find are over $600; OUCH.  We will continue to hunt on car-parts.com.  Some other websites that we have found are http://www.americanclassic.com/ and 

http://www.classicindustries.com/

That's all for today.  Thanks for looking and PLEASE leave a comment; even if it's just your name and the date you visited.