1978 non - rust pile

[kb426]

Pretty good afternoon at O&S. I finished swapping some parts out on the 88 5.0 engine and fired it up. It's ready to be off the to do list for the most part. Then, I pulled the driveline from the 78. It turns out that only 1 of the 3 u-joints were done. I replaced all 3 anyway. I went for a drive and as you would imagine, there is way less vibration. One less item on the list. It was 70 degrees here today. We're having some lovely weather for March. That's not unusual for here. April will dump on us to make up for it. I was in the drive in shirt sleeves. That sure makes it easier to be happy.

[kb426]

O&S made some progress today. I installed the carb kit this morning. After lunch, I decided to do the rust repair in the bed. I crawled under the truck to see if I could repair the front of the bed at the same time. I was able to force it in place but there isn't enough space between the back of the cab and the bed to get in to repair it. I cut out the 2 rusted spots and fitted panels. The repair panels are left over from the material that I used to make the bed floor in the 51. It's welded and ground down. That's a lot of being bent over and strange positions for an old guy. I've heard stories of fuel miser sixes. This isn't one of them. It appears to be making 8 mpg around town. I don't expect the carb overhaul to make much difference.

[WZ JUNK]

Looks good.  How are you going to match the paint?

The bed floor of the WZ JUNK truck is spliced all across the front and the hump for the gas filler tube was relocated.  I remember a lot of weld grinding that was not much fun.

[kb426]

This afternoon, I installed rear wheel cylinders and the rear brake hose. I started to remove the emergency brake cables. I had hopes of being able too free them up by soaking in something. Laying under the truck, that looks like a bad idea.

[kb426]

O&S slobbering along! I installed the new brake hoses on the front. They came with copper washers. All the stuff I get anymore is real thin. I'm not lucky enough to make them seal. After seeing that they leak, I grabbed my H.F. washer kit and fixed it. I went for a ride and returned home. I was adjusting the idle speed and looking for leaks and I see that the fuel pump has sprung a leak on the diaphragm. I just ordered parking brake cables and a fuel pump. I hope I'm getting to the end. After the parking brake is repaired, the only item not working is the windshield washer. The tees and the lines are broken. My goal is for everything to work as originally produced.

[kb426]

I spent a couple of hours scraping grease and dirt from the left side of the chassis again. I don't know how long the power steering has been leaking but I'm guessing about 50,000 miles. It's a long ways from clean but now I can see some of the bolts.

[kb426]

This afternoon, I installed the new parking brake cables. It took a while but that is more about O&S than anything else. I did figure out that the front cable goes into the cab 1st and then back towards the rear. I used Raybestos Element 3 cables. The cable and the outer sheath are both coated. That surely will prove to be better than the old style. I worked on the left front fender a little more and installed the inner fender.

[kb426]

Light afternoon at O&S. The new fuel pump is installed and the seal kit has been installed in the p.s. pump off the 88 5.0 engine. That is the same pump as the 78 only with a different pulley. Every o-ring was brittle and squared off. No wonder it leaked profusely.

[kb426]

The material for the seat arrived yesterday. I purchased Dodge truck cloth because I thought the durability would be excellent. This afternoon, after doing some more yard work, I removed the seat from the 78. I removed the upholstery but it was work. The vinyl was very set in it's pattern. I have the seat back cut apart ready for the next step. The original vinyl is so stiff that I don't know If I will be able to sew it successfully or not. I have a plan but I may find out that it has a few holes in it.

[kb426]

O&S at it's finest. It took me way too long to relearn how to sew. It has been 3 years since I did this. Not having a memory sure causes difficulties. The seat backs are finished. The bottom is ready to be installed. The old,stiff vinyl caused me to go real slow trying to get it to cooperate with the sewing. Installing the bottom cover is what's remaining.

[WZ JUNK]

Looks good from here.  It reminded me that I still need to do the sun visors for the Ranger.

[kb426]

Plenty of mistakes at O&S on this. The description is very serviceable. It feels like a real seat now. Doing a task about every 3 years doesn't yield perfection in my world.

[WZ JUNK]

You are your worst critic.  Looks great to me and I have some knowledge and experience of what you have done.

[jaybee]

Lookin' good!

[kb426]

When I woke up at 4 am, I knew what would be on my agenda today. I was going to repair 2 items on the seat. That turned into 5. Those of you that know me, know that it's not uncommon for me to be redoing things. Sometimes they aren't good enough, sometimes I have a better way to do something. This seat was the 4th one I've done and the 1st for reusing the sides and backs. My lack of exp. shows up occasionally when I venture into uncharted waters.  No excuses, just providing some background info for those that don't know me. It now looks decent from all angles. I'm ready to move on to something else.