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Bill ...

Great idea. I'll take it under advisement.

John,
Sounds like some interesting discoveries on your flywheel. I can't imagine why it would have gotten put together that way.
One note on the engine. I have a friend who has a 27 he is rebuilding with the same set up as you where he has a 27 block with a 28 head. He has found he had to custom make a heat stove for the exhaust where the air cleaner attaches and has the tube that runs over the carb otherwise with the 27 block which doesn't have the crank case venting to the carb that he doesn't get enough air flow and he runs lean on his engine. I'm no expert but when you get to that point if you have issues......
Maybe someone else will have some wisdom. I was going to ask it over on the vcca site also.
As promised here are some shots of the trim that goes over the sheet metal at the back of the cab. Also a couple of pictures of 'Grumpy' coming home and about where the body is at today.
Didn't want to highjack your thread with any more than that.
I'll send you a pm about any parts you may be able to help me with.
Keep up the good work on Peggy's truck!
David

David -- Not a hijack -- good info sharing!

I got the flywheel off yesterday -- I found that the pressure plate bolts, as well as the flywheel bolts, were hand tight and that there was no clutch disc installed (that's hanging on my wall, too ... and looks new ... ). AND the timing marks on the flywheel were off ... Leading me to suspect that the rebuilder didn't have the ring gear or the clutch and just set what he *did* have back on there to send back with the engine and misaligned the timing marks as a flag.

Thanks for the shots of the trim. Did you get replacements or were your originals usable?

By the way ... did you get a wood kit for your cab? If you did, did it have the pieces for the seat base or any of the floor boards?

My trim pieces will be reusable. They are quite pitting, but not all the way through. A thin coat of filler and high build primer and they will be fine.
As far as wood, I bought several pieces from Jim Rodman at Autowood, like the A and B pillars, windshield bottom and top, one sill piece and one door header. I duplicated the other sill and door header on my own. I had enough wood in my cab back to duplicate that. A new roof frame work (bows were kinda tricky) and then made the new roof slats. I have one door done with new wood and just need to do the other side. The seat riser was easy to figure out after I got some measurements off a fellow members truck who lives about an hour from me. Floor boards need to be made yet but are also pretty straight forward I think. I just need to get the engine and trans in with pedals etc so I can figure out where to cut holes and slots. Doesn't your cab have all the wood?
I could lend a hand with measurements if needed.
David

Davis -- Thanks.

Yes, my cab is "mostly" done. I do have some original floor board pieces, plus one or two other pieces with sheet metal attached that I have not been able to identify. I won't be able to verify if my intact floor board pieces are correct until, like you, I get the engines, transmission and pedals in place and the cab mounted.

I was wondering about the seat base because it seems I have a complete (extra) wood kit. It's still wrapped up in its original shipping boxes and I don't want to rip into it if I don't need to (i.e., the remaining pieces I need aren't in it anyway). The seat base looks simple enough to replicate and the '31 my friend has will probably provide the measurements, although we could verify with yours.

John

Wasn't at the shop this weekend, but I still moved forward. Following the guidance above from you experts, I got the ring back on the flywheel. I even turned it so the unworn part is toward the "front" so the starter will engage unworn teeth

I set the ring out on Peggy's ramp in the sun (very warm today) and I had the flywheel in the house with ice packs on it. The ring got nice and hot after a couple hours and the flywheel got nice and cool ... and using a piece of 2x4 and my caulking mallet ... bing bang boom, together they went!

Yay!!

Thanks for the help, gang!!

Note: The propane torch was standing by if needed.

Congrats and job well done! Lurch has an original seat box made by Chevrolet, so I can do some measurements and take some pics if you need them.

Dean

Thanks Dean!

Hold that thought (about the seat measures) ... it will be awhile yet ...

Yay ... 2nd baby step to Carlisle Gold with this project!

Got off work early yesterday and swung by the shop for some quality time with Calvin. I was hoping to get the engine stand together and get the engine on it. A secondary objective was to get the blast cabinet "out of storage" and OpCheck it. Getting the cabinet "out of storage" pretty much meant getting all the cobwebs removed, plugging the vacuum/light power cord it, airing up the compressor and checking function on everything.

The shop has pretty much just been a storage facility for the last 4 years -- Just a place to park the '49 and the '73 Binder. Since then, the '49 has come over here to HQ, along with the Binder to make room for the '27 project and Joe's '69 1/2-ton project.

I think the last person to actually use the blast cabinet was Hambone for the '66 K-10 project .... and that's been a few years now.

So there were a LOT of cobwebs to clear out and dust from the viewing window. So that all went fine.

Until I went to switch the compressor on .... This is a compressor (5 hp, 2-stage with a 60 gallon vertical tank) I got more than 20 years ago. It hadn't actually been used much, either. well, prechecking it, I noticed it didn't have any oil on the case. Oh well, so much for the cabinet opcheck.

So I returned to the engine stand.

I got the stand put together and was ready to mate it to the engine ... I didn't have the right bolts ...

Done for the day??? Well, methinks, I could always run next door to my former neighbor (and who we actually sold the farm to), the Stihl Dealership, and see if they had compressor oil and the right bolts (4 - inch 3/8-14 shoulder bolts) to go into the 174's bell housing. So I did. And They did. Cool, I was back in work!

Now with the right bolts, I started to mate things up. Only .... the bolts wouldn't go very far in ... crud, corrosion, whatEVUR.

I needed to chase the threads or else risk damaging the only bell housing available on the East Coast for this engine ... (Not actually true -- there's another one on the parts engine, but you get the point...) and my tap and die set were back at HQ.

Soooooooooo ..... back to the compressor. I put the oil in and fired things up. All great until things stalled at 20 psi ....

About the time I was about to say a naughty word, I remembered to shut the drain valve at the bottom of the tank. Things went pretty smoothly after that. My bag of Black Diamond medium abrasive was even dry enough to use!

I managed to get a part of the radiator support blasted.

It was about time to go home anyway, so I declared victory, awarded myself several decorations on the spot, turned off the lights and went home a hero.

... trying not to think about how long this project is going to take at this rate ...


John

Two steps forward and one step back is still forward progress. You did get the blast cabinet set for you next piece so that is a victory.

My project was a three year ordeal and I’m in year five, with no end in site. My wife always doubles my time estimates but at this rate maybe quadruple would be a better estimate.