1963 J-200 SLOOOOOW Build

[Wagoneer-ing]

This is my kind of build thread! That old motor is looking pretty good!

[63J200atLSU]

Thanks! Contrary to many (potentially valid) opinions, I've chosen to stick with the 230 for now. Figure I at least owe it my solid effort at rehabilitating it! Right now, I'm vexed trying to figure how to reinstall the oil line in the rear of the engine without pulling the head again. As an aside, I pulled the head without benefit of a hoist. Near killed me. Pretty sure that'll be my next investment.

I'm intending on building a wooden thriftside bed for it as soon as I get the rustouts addressed. I know this kind of bed isn't typical on 60's period trucks, much more common in the 50's and earlier trucks, but I think it would look fantastic and since this old guy had all but been left for dead, I feel like my obligation to the truck is to enjoy it fully. A few have tried to convince me to look for an original thriftside bed, but that's just not the point, I guess.

Doh well. First things first, I guess. Gotta get this engine purring and save the poor old body it's dragging around!

[63J200atLSU]

Not a whole lot to report, been working on cleaning up the frame and using some rust encapsulator after trying to get it down to bare metal. Eastwood frame paint being used all around with their extension hose for the boxed in portion of the frame.

Got the headlights, tail/parking lights, brake lights and blinkers all functioning correctly. Trailer tail light converters are really a god send. My rear harness is now test fitted and idiot proof for wiring purposes. Just waiting to get the frame finished before I re-install it.

Up next is body work. This is going to be my hell, I already know it. My plan, as of today, is to get it in the garage so I can take off the doors and front clip and then pull the windshield and rear window. It's got some pretty bad rust on the front brow driver's side corner. I know there is no "easy" fix for this, and really te easiest option would be a new cab. That being said, getting another cab to Louisiana is next to impossible. Would it be a bad idea to cut the roof so I can completely get out the rusted bits, get it all in good shape and then weld it back in place? Was planning on cutting/rewelding around the drip rails, seems like that would allow me easier access to do a more thorough repair and being behind the drop rails would also allow it to be a more concealed repair. Thoughts? Feels like I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel to daily driver-ville!

[63J200atLSU]

Sorry for the lapse in posting to anybody actually following my build... short of it, I've been working to get all the electrical stuff in order, got headlights, tail lights, blinkers and brake lights all functioning properly.


Also stripped what I could of the frame and painted it. When I graduate and have a little more money to spend, I want to pull the cab off and do a professional restoration, but my goal right now is to make sure everything is safe (the frame is super solid, surprisingly) and looks passable so I can drive it around town.


So this weekend I started digging into the floors. My word. Nasty nasty nasty. If there were people around here selling complete cabs, it would totally be the better option to just replace it outright, but that's just not an option for me currently, so patching time. Worked on my mig skills on some pieces of scrap I had in the garage, now that I'm confident I can weld something structurally ok, I'm going to work on making my welds prettier by doing the floorboards. That way they'll be covered and my skills will (hopefully) be much improved by the time I get to patching things like the cab corners.

Today, I cut three layers of slapdash floor patches from the driver's side before finally getting down to the original floors. Sad thing is, if someone had done it right in the first place, or at least even tried to cut out the floor cancer in the first place, they wouldn't have ended in near as bad a shape... Ah well. New beginnings and fresh starts and what not...







Of an unrelated note, those of you of the praying/keeping stuff in your thoughts sort, do keep my city of Baton Rouge in your thoughts. My girlfriend lives about 2.5 miles from where the Alton Sterling shooting took place, and the whole city is in this weird tense kind of suspicious state. No matter most people's thoughts on what actually did or didn't occur last week, I don't think anybody wants to see more people hurt or killed, and it feels like the threat of rioting and violence within the city is very real and only being perpetuated by the way national media outlets are perpetuating stories by misrepresenting events and sentiments. That's all I'll say about it. Stay safe out there amigos.

Till next time...

[Randyre]

Subbed !

[63J200atLSU]

Welp... Summer school's over. Sad to say, but differential equations was the part of my mechanical engineering degree that helped me out in literally zero ways when it comes to bringin this old guy back to life. I've also been receiving a daily dose of shame and humility reading Kaiserjeeps' build thread, so it's about time these floors get done I think.

Also in the works for ten very near future are a speedo cable install (does anybody know where this is routed on the older trucks?) aaaaaaaaaaand

Took a little bit of a risk on an eBay auction that I found. Had been looking for a 2bbl setup for the tornado, the carbs and their parts are in plentiful supply, but the manifolds are very very scarce. Found an auction for three allegedly complete Holley 2300's but all three in need of some serious work BUT a 230 2bbl intake manifold was also included with them. So I'm also going to have that little rejuvenation project running in the background. I've heard it makes a huge difference with the 2300 instead of the single barrel 1920. At any rate, the carbs looked rough in the auction but I'm crossing my fingers. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

More soon!

[Achilles]

If nothing else you get the much needed intake manifold. The carbs can be rebuilt. Looking forward to seeing more progress with yoir build.

[63J200atLSU]

If nothing else you get the much needed intake manifold. The carbs can be rebuilt. Looking forward to seeing more progress with yoir build.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the 2300 had a pretty wide range of applications and they're easy enough to find, but the scarcity of the tornado with the 2bbl setup makes those manifolds near impossible to find. My plan for now is to really clean up and rebuild all three carbs and sell the two I'm not using. Figure that should pretty much cover the cost of the auction price plus the three rebuild kits while still giving someone a good price on a rebuilt carb.

I too am looking forward to seeing some more progress on this truck... It's just been looking at me every day like, "Uhhhhhhhh, pretty sure you're not finished here."

[Achilles]

I too am looking forward to seeing some more progress on this truck... It's just been looking at me every day like, "Uhhhhhhhh, pretty sure you're not finished here."

LOL, I know the feeling!

[63J200atLSU]

The floors are starting to be floors

Got about 80% of the floors done today, I've still got to make a template and cut out/weld in the piece all the way up under the pedals, was trying to knock out the larger sections first, although I think if I were to do it again, I'd to all the edges first so I could have nice square/straight pieces to put in last... Anyway, I'm whooped for the day. I'm pretty awful/slow at this welding business, but the floor seems way more sturdy than the crap I cut out. Really looking forward to getting this phase done, it's rapidly approaching being driveable.



Also, for anyone interested in just how ridiculous I am, and just so no one thinks I'm mistaking this for some speed demon, I did this today. Not sure if it'll stay, but I got quite a laugh out of it...

http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/gregtalmage/media/AA4D6ADB-2D12-4FDD-B1CB-38CCE5FC67D0_zpssj3f92ya.mp4.html

More soon, hopefully.

[joe]

. It's just been looking at me every day like, "Uhhhhhhhh, pretty sure you're not finished here."

Ha, get used to it...it'll never be completely done. I've got a 47 45 inch flattie HD that I've had for over 20 years that was in the middle of it's 3rd reconfiguration(still is) when I got medically retired. It's moved on from "you whoo uhhhhhh, we're not done here" to yelling "YOU WHOO UHHHHH HEY CHUMP WE'RE NOT DONE HERE! In time you learn to ignore guilt and prioritize.

[63J200atLSU]

Ha, get used to it...it'll never be completely done. I've got a 47 45 inch flattie HD that I've had for over 20 years that was in the middle of it's 3rd reconfiguration(still is) when I got medically retired. It's moved on from "you whoo uhhhhhh, we're not done here" to yelling "YOU WHOO UHHHHH HEY CHUMP WE'RE NOT DONE HERE! In time you learn to ignore guilt and prioritize.

I know what you mean Joe! I've found that I mainly have to look for when my lady is completely exhausted by my tinkering and fixing things and then go do something useful like cut the grass or fix something in the house instead of on the truck. She's a patient one, but we've all got our limits, and as cool as my truck is (to me) I'd rather have her in my life than it...

[63J200atLSU]

Got my new 2bbl carbs and intake manifold in today. They were about as rough as I thought, but one quick pass with degreaser and a wire brush and they started shedding years of filth. I think it was probably a bargain well struck.




And after...



Should be a nice little project within a project. Also got the majority of the driver's side at least tacked in place. Amazing what solid metal will do to the overall sturdiness of the body. My plan is to grind the welds to smooth them out, use some seam sealer on all the welds then use a truck bed liner paint for both the floor and undercoating. Should start feeling like a much different vehicle in the next week or so... Then it's moving into the garage so I can take the doors and windshields off and work on the rest of the body and get the body prepped for paint. Woo!

[63J200atLSU]

Also, I apologize for the ridiculously large pictures. Will try and resize them in the future.

[63J200atLSU]

Driver side floor got sealed up yesterday and the first coat of truck bed liner got laid in today. All in all I'm pretty impressed with myself on this first welding job. Hoping the passenger side goes a little more quickly. Then I'll be rolling it in the garage and repairing the rust outs on the body. Wish me luck! More soon.