What have you done to your square lately??

[mxer147]

Test fitted the left fender with the old skool emblem taped on. Gonna need a few shims for door alignment but pretty good. The hood gonna need some adjustments as well. It’s still a 20 footer, paint actually matches pretty well for panel spraying, but the orange peel is a little off and I have no plans to flatten it out.

 

[Strick]

Test fitted the left fender with the old skool emblem taped on. Gonna need a few shims for door alignment but pretty good. The hood gonna need some adjustments as well. It’s still a 20 footer, paint actually matches pretty well for panel spraying, but the orange peel is a little off and I have no plans to flatten it out.

There comes a point to where you must decide "is this going to be a pavement princess or a useful truck". I'd much rather have a nice 20 footer than a truck that I had years into restoring and was hesitant to use. I posted a pic of mine yesterday and it's definitely a 20 footer. Most folks have no clue as to how much time, energy, resources and CASH it takes to fix a vehicle to "new" condition. Keep the pics rolling and let's see the finished product.

HS

 

[Terlingueno]

My Suburban is currently a 58.7 yarder, working slowly towards the 20 foot benchmark...

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Getting the engine bay cleaned up on the 79, seem to be having a head gasket issue, need to pull it and reseal soon. Top 5 greasiest pigs I've worked on. Thick. Didn't even know all the blue was under there lol. Needs more thorough washing after engine trans and tcase are pulled.

Under hood and firewall come out great too.

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[mxer147]

Cleaned up very nice!

 

[WFarm]

Out driving yesterday and I noticed a shudder/vibration when accelerating. Shudder stopped when I took my foot off the gas, started back up when accelerating. Nothing noticed at steady speed. So I figured U-Joints were the likely culprits and after looking at them and twisting and prying to no avail I dropped the rear shaft.

What a mess! So off to Oreilly’s for a new pair. I’ll replace the rear u-joints and see how it drives. Will drop the front shaft if needed.

This end had zero needle bearings.

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This end had lots of broken needle bearings.

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[BRetty]

Hey guys! BRetty the truck expert here! Just wanted to share a Pro Tip with everybody out there.

When you get a new battery, MAYBE you should check to see if the terminals MIGHT BE reversed from your old battery. Because if you don't, what can happen is you can hook your cables up BACKWARDS! Hahaha! Doing this will immediately short 900 amps to the frame, and all your wires and alternator will start smoking! And when you instantly reach to pull the wire off that you just attached, you might discover that the wires are hot enough to cook your flesh like a pig roast!

(But you have to endure the pain because three more seconds and the terminal will be welded to the post and it won't come off and your truck will catch on fire!)

Anyway, if you enjoyed this video, smash LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Ok, until next time, BRetty OUT!

ETA -- two seconds of smoke and I got the terminal off. Alternator (crappy Chinese reman Delco I installed a month ago) survived, I just burned off a bunch of soot from my wiring. So... it was a Good Thing, right? Tomorrow I gotta redo my battery cables with new terminals I have had for years but never installed, battery is just sitting sideways not strapped down until I reroute the cabling to actually reach the new battery posts.

Would it really cost that much more to put a dab of RED plastic by the + terminal so people don't do this? I know it's easier to just have a + and - cast in the injection molded plastic body, but could you maybe just slap a red label somewhere, like when you are putting all the brand graphics and safety crap and CA Prop 65 warnings? Anybody? Bueller?

 

[Radiohead]

Paint pens can be your friend. Good heads up public service announcement.

I write on the ends of oil filters, so it wouldn't be too hard to color in the cast + and -. I should do that to mine too because sometimes I get a little distracted and I don't know if my reflexes are good enough to not burn the truck down all the time.

 

[bucket]

Hey guys! BRetty the truck expert here! Just wanted to share a Pro Tip with everybody out there.

When you get a new battery, MAYBE you should check to see if the terminals MIGHT BE reversed from your old battery. Because if you don't, what can happen is you can hook your cables up BACKWARDS! Hahaha! Doing this will immediately short 900 amps to the frame, and all your wires and alternator will start smoking! And when you instantly reach to pull the wire off that you just attached, you might discover that the wires are hot enough to cook your flesh like a pig roast!

(But you have to endure the pain because three more seconds and the terminal will be welded to the post and it won't come off and your truck will catch on fire!)

Anyway, if you enjoyed this video, smash LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Ok, until next time, BRetty OUT!

ETA -- two seconds of smoke and I got the terminal off. Alternator (crappy Chinese reman Delco I installed a month ago) survived, I just burned off a bunch of soot from my wiring. So... it was a Good Thing, right? Tomorrow I gotta redo my battery cables with new terminals I have had for years but never installed, battery is just sitting sideways not strapped down until I reroute the cabling to actually reach the new battery posts.

Would it really cost that much more to put a dab of RED plastic by the + terminal so people don't do this? I know it's easier to just have a + and - cast in the injection molded plastic body, but could you maybe just slap a red label somewhere, like when you are putting all the brand graphics and safety crap and CA Prop 65 warnings? Anybody? Bueller?

The problem is, if they spend the extra 1 cent to put some type of a colored label there, they would likely save money by deleting the raised + and -. Then you couldn't feel which one was which on a dark night with no flashlight. The paint pen idea is a good one.

There's some batteries now that the top label sticker is so large that it encompasses the + and - markings. Quite often, the sticker is so far out of place that it covers the markings.

 

[Sgt Gus]

Changed out the double steering joints to singles from my original thought process, gained about 1-5/8” moving the column down by modifying the upper bracket and finalized the steering column shaft stabilization heim joint/column lengths

That work is too beautiful. I like and jelly.

 

[Sgt Gus]

This is my truck a few years ago when it was being sold by Garage Kept Motors. Top was black from the factory (Z59). Don’t know about that faux woodgrain stuff but it was removed and those areas painted white. Originally it was a solid color (ZY1) in Santa Fe Tan (60L)

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Love the white

 

[Sgt Gus]

Installed the front shocks and put a few bolts on the wheel wells. The driver side shock doesn’t fit nicely under the wheel well like the passenger side does. Is that correct or do I need to make some adjustments when I get the fenders installed?

Maybe the angle of pics, but drivers side top mount looks farther out?

 

[Sgt Gus]

Okay, caught up on your posts! Sorry, not sorry for the likes and what not.
Got some rubber floor mats for daughter's truck. So close to driving to school, Lol.
Note: At her school, square body orange and white Ford? And a Doge truck, all driven by girls.

 

[78C10BigTen]

Okay, caught up on your posts! Sorry, not sorry for the likes and what not.
Got some rubber floor mats for daughter's truck. So close to driving to school, Lol.
Note: At her school, square body orange and white Ford? And a Doge truck, all driven by girls.

Gotta say that cavalier steering wheel is nasty.

 

[williestreet]

I have never been happy with the stance of my truck since I bought it. Front was low compared to the back, and it was over 1/2" low on the passenger front compared to driver side.
I have been considering dropping the rear to level it out, but after noticing how rusty the front springs were and that the previous owner had at some point installed a spring spacer on the passenger side, I thought it would be better to get some new springs installed before I make any other decisions suspension wise.

I bought a set of regular springs from A-Premium. These are equivalent to the Moog 6452 regular springs.
This was my first time replacing front springs and will say it was a pain in the ass and took much longer that it should have to get them swapped. If I got the springs in the top pocket they would fall out of the bottom groove and vice versa. Eventually everything got installed but another floor jack will be required in the near future.
I expected some lift from the new springs but never expected what I got.
Driver side was raised 1-1/2" and the passenger rose 2". Better yet the truck sits level in the front with less than 1/2" difference front to back where it was over 2 inches before the work.

Truck feels more stable side to side, with much less dive under braking. We will see if they settle any over the next few months.