IT'S NOT A 69 - IT'S A 70

It's called rust. It never sleeps. But I have a cure for it.

A little siding from one of the garage projects and it's good to go.

  

 Neo has no clue what he's doing. He's a real dog.

 How about some rust and stain blocker? 

It's almost a hundred degrees out there right now and I'm indoors with only a borrowed fan for a cooler. But it could be worse. I could be in the jungle and that's no fun at all.
I'm still waiting on a few parts to get this thing running. It needs an oil filter housing to replace the cooler housing that came on it. They do that a lot with crate engines installed in motor homes. I need to get cooler lines installed. The u-joints on my home-made drive shaft have the wrong caps for the yoke on the transmission.

For all of the rust and cleanup needed, I think this is going to surprise even me once it's all together. I have enough sheet metal to cover up most of the holes. Then, I need to come up with an accelerator cable. There's not enough room behind the valve cover to put the original back on.

Lastly, it's going to cost to put headers onto this 454. I found them for $100 with collectors and all the bolts. The factory manifolds are worth more than that. But I'd also like to get an intake for the spread bore carb. It still needs a freeze plug, oil and transmission fluid, oil filter, transmission cooler, and few assorted things like a couple of hoses and spacers for the alternator. I'll work on the body/exterior and interior sheet metal as well as the drive line while I wait for parts. It has been fun if not downright hot but that's how it goes.  We can do this.

Project 1969 Chevy

Here I go again. This is a 1969 Chevy C10 long bed, stepside. I got this from Scott Butler earlier this week. It has no engine or transmission but I have the means to fix that.

This will be a real rat rod when I'm done. The LWB (long wheel base) stepside bed is pretty rare. At first I thought it was a short box.

It needs a little body work but nothing serious. The windshield needs replaced and there is some cancerous metal on it. I have a little sheet metal work to do on it. 

It shouldn't take more than $1000 to get it onto the street. It has power steering and if  want, I'll replace the front drum brakes out for power disk brakes. I still have the booster and master cylinder from the motor home I took the engine and transmission out of. 

Trailing arms and shocks are all good. If you didn't know, the use of trailing arm suspensions is much better for the ride than leaf springs. That's what is used on NASCAR race cars. My neighbor, Bob, helped remove the bed as far as we could. When the boys get over here to help I'll get them to stand it up then go over to the storage unit and get the BBC (big block Chevy) loaded onto Dave's little Ford Ranger. 

I will have to make a drive shaft for the Turbo 400 that's going behind the 454.

It's going to be fun until the sun scorches my head.

 With the front clip off I can get into the nooks, crannies and forbidden zones to scrap off the cheese.

 The front brake shoes need replaced. But all of the bushings, tie rod ends, idler arm, ball joints, and control arms are in pretty good shape other than a little rust.

 There's a lot of cancer underneath the front clip corners. The floor pan is pretty nasty, too. I just pulled the seat out a few minutes ago so I can get into the cab floor. I'll get a picture later.

It's hot out there today.

 The cylinder heads are cleaned and ready for assembly.

It needs a seat cover and dash pad. But the door handle button popped back into place all by itself while I was pulling out the seat.