My J-4500

[Crankyolman]

I just finished spraying the 2nd coat of Raptorliner in the bed. I really like the Raptorliner and it looks very professional but they way understate the amount it takes.

For anybody wondering it took 2 full gallons to just barely give the bed 2 coats on my 8ft bed and the coats on the sides were as light as I could get them and still have full coverage.


So I guess the next thing will be to get the door cards reinstalled and do some paint touch up here and there.
Things are getting very close to finished and I'm very happy to be driving a complete truck again

One thing I have noticed is the truck actually seems to get less attention than it did with the original paint and way less than when granny was on the back but I love it and that is why I bought it in the first place

[SOLSAKS]

photos of truck are nice,...

especially the one with the sun beams reflecting off of it.

close calls on the highway,...dang,

maybe you are done with those for a while,....

dave in NC

[chubbinius]

That looks really sharp cranky! What a great looking truck you have restored. That antenna nut you made looks spiffy as well.

You can always return "Granny" around Halloween and have her hold a sign saying "Granny's restored ride"

[Crankyolman]

photos of truck are nice,...

especially the one with the sun beams reflecting off of it.

I really like that one too

close calls on the highway,...dang,

maybe you are done with those for a while,....

dave in NC

You know, the speed limit on that road is only 35mph but I've seen people going as fast as 70 on it. I'm glad I wasn't running 30 seconds to a minute later or I might have met him on the blind curve.

[Crankyolman]

That looks really sharp cranky! What a great looking truck you have restored. That antenna nut you made looks spiffy as well.

You can always return "Granny" around Halloween and have her hold a sign saying "Granny's restored ride"

Thank you.


I'm thinking about getting granny ready to go in the back for a bit but I have a few things to haul first and possible some apples and pears to pick.

[Crankyolman]

Today the gas gauge was showing 1/4 and lately hasn't been getting below that and I had gone 130 miles on this tank and I had wasted some gas cleaning out lines and stuff plus the leak so I figured I better have my wife meet me for gas. I was actually surprised when I couldn't get more than 11.5 gallons in it and that was filling it until it was literally overflowing.


Obviously my gas thief hasn't been around in the past 2 weeks because in spite of all that stuff I still got 11.3mpg We will have to see how long it takes him to figure out I am driving again. Anybody want to hazard a guess?

[Crankyolman]

Well, I made it a whole week and nobody tried to kill me, or wreck the truck and the truck didn't attempt to self destruct. I even filled up the tank and there was no gas leakage so I think we may now be in the clear

[Crankyolman]

A couple days after getting the fuel line and fittings I needed to fix the truck from my local speed shop I noticed they were closed on a day they should be open. I also noticed a sign that said "Thank you for 38 years" or something like that.



Yesterday I pulled up to it to see what it said and it said that they have closed for good and a NAPA will be coming soon.



That really sucks because I was planning on them rebuilding the V6 for my wife's Mercedes...although I have reluctantly agreed to sell that


I did some searching and found an auction website that is selling some of their tooling which would be awesome to have but I'm sad that they went out of business.

[Crankyolman]

Well 3 weeks have now gone by with no issues on the truck. I haven't done much to it other than drive it but this morning when I left for work I picked up the mudflaps to see what I can do to them.


In case you don't remember or didn't notice in the early pages of this thread, when I got my truck it had some vintage Keep on Truckin' mudflaps in the front. Which were put on the truck very early in it's life and I thought were just cool.





Of course when I painted it I had to remove them but always intended to see if I could somehow straighten out the curl and reinstall them.


Today I decided to see what I could do about cleaning them up and uncurling them so I took them to work. Time has not been their friend, they had become pretty grungy looking and I had to cut the colts that still held them to what was left of the fender brace they had originally been bolted to. but after getting the old rusty metal off of them they looked like this.



So then I took some hot water, dish soap and a Scotch Brite pad and set to work cleaning them up.


I'm actually quite impressed by how well they cleaned up and the hot water softened the rubber up enough that after cleaning I set a weighted pan on top to flatten them out. They now look like this



Which is much flatter and I think pretty awesome looking with just enough patina. The blue and white rubber are actually the same color throughout so I could actually restore these to look brand new simply by removing a little bit of material but I kind of like them showing their age.



My plan now is to cut some strips of stainless steel, bend and clamp them onto the lower edge to keep them from curling in the future and reinstalling them on in the back and maybe getting some plain or possibly some other iconic 70's mud flaps for the front.

[Brynjminjones]

Those look fantastic!

[SOLSAKS]

classic 70's catch-phrase,.....

the metal braces are a good idea,.....VINTAGE.

dave in NC

[Crankyolman]

Not a lot going on in my little world, just enjoying driving the truck.



I took a washer and dryer to my son and his girlfriend, which is about 15 miles each way and had no issues.


I will say I absolutely hate this frame mounted fuel pump because it makes what sounds to me like a squeaking sound and I hate that so I am now trying to think of a way to slip a new in tank pump into my budget and install it without my wife finding out as well as somehow modifying the tank with a 2nd fuel pickup so in the event of an in tank pump failure I can easily switch back to the frame mounted pump should the need arise again.


In the mean time, I had to go back to work and really don't have any projects for the slow times, which are really becoming few and far between but I did have one minor truck related project this week. I went back to work on the mud flaps.


I tend to accumulate bits of scrap metal at work because you never know when you may need it. I needed some stainless steel to add to the bottom of the mud flaps to help keep them straight over the next 48 years and it turns out I had just the thing in my work locker. So I cut some pieces of stainless slightly longer than the mudflapsare wide.




Bent them a little past 90 degrees on the brake



Used the brake to make that into a U shape



Placed that onto the bottom of the mudflap and used the brake as a press to clamp it onto the bottom of the mudflap






Then took it to the sander to round off the corners and it was done



Now I only have two minor problems to sort out


1- The mudflaps are slightly too wide to fit the back fenders without rubbing the springs


and 2- I have nothing to mount them to so I will have to figure that out but I'm determined to get them back on the truck hopefully some day soon.


I've also been toying with the idea of painting the cheesy 1970's wood grain stripe back on.



I've been playing with paint shop to get an idea of what it would look like




Of course I would have to go with a mahogany rather than the original teak but I have to say I really like the stripe and the only thing that has kept me from painting it on there is fear of not liking it once it's done and having to paint that section white all over again but now I'm seriously thinking I may need to start teaching myself how to paint wood grain using automotive paint.


I also sent Mrs. Cranky a copy of the pic and she agrees it just looks like it belongs there but says she would prefer to buy the stripe. I know BJ's sells the stripe in colors but don't know if it could be ordered in wood grain or not but personally I think for durability sake I prefer that it be painted even though I know it's work I don't really have time to do.

[rang-a-stang]

When I mounted my frame mounted pump, I left the rubber body protector on it, put foam around that, then stuck that into a electrical conduit bracket from Dome Hepot. I bolted that bracket to my frame with rubber washers on either side of the frame and my pump has been dead silent. The only thing I hear is the swoosh of fuel going through the fuel lines if I turn it on but not start the engine.
Here it is on the table:

[Crankyolman]

I don't think the noise is because of how the pump is mounted and don't think it's actually a squeak as much as just a noise the pump makes. It's not all that loud but it annoys me. I may crawl under the truck some time while it's running and see if I can pin point the issue but I don't think there is much I can do about it. The in tank pump I had was actually very quiet and that's what I want, I want to hear nothing but the sweet sound of the exhaust pipe.

[Crankyolman]

It's been a while since I have posted anything which is a good thing because it meant the truck had no problems. Well, of course that couldn't go on forever



Saturday on my way to work I started smelling gas. When I got to work I looked under the hood and found the 90 degree fitting for the return line leaking. That wasn't really a big deal except I had to order it and I wasn't able to change it til Yesterday. So it was an easy fast fairly cheap fix...well not really.



Yesterday I brought it home and when I got home did another check under the hood. I didn't see anything, the fitting was dry but I could smell gas. I ran my hand along the expensive stainless steel braided flex line I used for return line and it came up wet. This is the same line I had used as feed line that failed under pressure, apparently it also failed with little to no pressure as well. So now I need to buy more expensive line to replace it but now I don't know what brands can be trusted.



So today I'm going fuel line shopping and hopefully will have the truck back up and running when the rain stops this coming weekend.


While under the truck working on the fuel line I also noticed some drips near the front and started to investigate. I'm not positive it wasn't condensation dripping or if there is a leak. what it looked like was water and it had no smell but it felt like antifreeze. Whatever it was seemed to be following the lip of the oil pan along the drivers side but I couldn't see how it got there. Nothing above the lip of the oil pan was wet or showed any signs of leaking but it warrants further investigation as time allows.