Hello everyone, i'm back. At least for now. First I would like to apologize for (yet again) taking so long to update my project journal. It has been a crazy last few months between working multiple odd jobs for friends and family members, preparing for college, and working on my truck in my spare time. I have, however made some substantial progress since my last post.
The first thing I did was manage to track down another Borg Warner R-10 overdrive, also in New Jersey. This one, like the last one, is a passenger car transmission, supposedly from a 55-57. I took it apart just to make sure that the inside looked decent, and it did. It also had the governor and the bracket for the lockout cable, two items I did not even realize were missing on the first one. I got a color coded wiring harness complete with relay and kickdown switch for it from a fellow stovebolter by doing a partial trade with the good parts from the first overdrive, and I bought a generic pull cable from Autozone for the lockout. Being a passenger car 3-speed, the lower 2 mounting holes were not threaded, so I put grade 8 thru-bolts with nuts and lock washers in them. I replaced the driveshaft yoke seal, but I need to find the seals for the solenoid shaft and lockout lever.
The other thing I did was to bite the bullet and buy another cab. This one is a cardinal red C-60 cab from nebraska, and is in much better shape. It does have a couple of rust issues, the most major being the top inside edge of the windshield opening. The passenger side rocker will also need replaced, but that's not too hard to do and I already have a pair of OEM rocker panels that I got from a friend of mine.
I have been thinking about different ways to patch the roof rust, my main options as I see it being to remove the rusted areas and patching in the conventional method, or removing/replacing the entire inner roof panel. The white cab, for some inexplicable reason, had an absolutely perfect inner roof panel, so I will be using that to patch the red one no matter what I do. At first I thought replacing the entire inner roof panel would be the easier route, plus it would have the added benefit of allowing me to deal with any issues inside the roof before they become major. With this in mind, I purchased a spotweld cutter, and removed the outer roof skin from the white cab, both for the practice, and to facilitate removing the inner roof panel. The construction of the cab was more complex than I had anticipated, plus the inner roof panel flares out at the front corners where it joins with the inner a pillars, making the panel 2-3" wider then the opening. So, I am now reconsidering the conventional method.
In preparation for leaving for college, I disposed of as much extra bulk as I could to free up space in my grandpa's shop, and (after cutting off anything I thought might be useful) took the remains of the two old cabs to the metal recycler's. I also cut the old frame right behind the transmission crossmember, and threw the rear half away. I plan to make an engine run stand out of the front part sometime in the future.
Unfortunatly, This will probably be my last post for a while, as I am now at college in McPherson, KS, and am about to experience a new definition of the word "busy." I was not able to bring my truck with me, but hopefully I will be next year.
