The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Status Report

Well, the rumors of my demise are greatly....

I have been busy with a bunch of projects and not making the midnight visits to the bolt, or at least not for a month or so.

Here is the 72 truck project: 72 truck

I spent a bunch of time rounding up the 700r4, the kits for hooking it up (bowtie overdrives), and figuring out the Jim Carter AC components I bought for it.

JC 6 cyl AC mounts that I bought were for a sanden/sankyo compressor. Not the A6 I bought from him (returned no problem). The instructions that came with the brackets were a photocopy of a 235 (and I bought the kit for the 194-230-250-292 engines my engine is a 230) and hand scrawled parts list. So it took a while to figure out what compressor to use, and then how the mess went together on the block. I then took a bunch of pictures and wrote a real set of instructions and sent them on to JC but he's going with a different set of brackets now. Oh well. They didn't have fan belt recommendations either so that was a few trips to the parts store to sort out. I can use the long headers on the 292 in big red when I take red out of service to get its overdrive.

I then put the manifolds on (Clifford intake/exhaust) that I got from the swap meet forum, but when I finally got the motor on the tranny and tried to shove it all in the truck found that then long clifford exhaust headers won't work on a 72 as they foul the A arms up front. But the prospect of finally dissassembling my engine hoist and motor stand was too great so I took the headers off and put them asside and ordered the shorties which you see in the picture. The shorties didn't foul the frame, but the front one fouled the AC Compressor so I had to make new spacers to move the compressor out of the way - then more trips to figure out what belts to use...blah blah blah.

I also changed from a webber/holley 2bbl to a holley 390 cfm 4bbl and not that I am a super holley fan but there is a TV made EZ kit from bowtie overdrives that will make the critical TV cable setup easy for the automatic and fits right on that carb.

Two swap meets back I got the wheels you see on the truck for $60 and then had them cleaned up and new tires put on 255/60r15s and all that drive out for less that $500 total. I have noticed a new moronic trend of putting big wheels on and then a graphic reading 22" on the wheel well. I wonder what its like to have a vehicle where one tire (nevermind the wheel) is worth more than the whole vehicle! I have some magnetic stuff I can feed through my printer and I am going to make some big 15" ones that I can put on my truck to make fun of that trend. Since the truck is going to be white, I might add some WWII air plane 'scores' like shopping carts, pets, wheel chairs, etc with red x's through it (again all magnetic and easily removed) and maybe a big UPC symbol for the side of the truck. Sheesh...

I have also been engineering a small Sun tach into my 72 instrument cluster instead of laying out the 4-550 for a panel with the tach on it. I have been taking pictures of that process and will submit it as a tech tip here in a while when I finally get the circuit board soldered up but my old faithful solder gun gave up the ghost and I got one of those new fangled battery ones I haven't had a chance to test yet. I have heard that a mid 70's camaro tach fits perfectly in that instrument cluster. Well worth looking into as the GM tach doesn't have to read so far and you'll get a better needle sweep.

I decided to paint this truck with a gallon of white tractor paint after doing up a JD 830 (74 model) with it and the tractor came out real purdy. Today I took my old marginal grill and put rattle can tractor gloss black on it. Grills are a pain to paint because of all the nooks and crannies. It is vastly improved.

Meanwhile I have had other projects jamming up this one including a few pay jobs fixing friends bikes and trucks, taking pictures at bike races, weddings, etc etc etc. Like everyone else just trying to make a living.

Big red got a new mirror mount - I had been using the glue on mirrors but they kept coming off and I finally made an original equipment style mirror mount. If you look in the picture you can see that when I sent to the junque yard with Larry, I found a Sewell Village Caddillac Gold bling bling moniker and decided I HAD to put that on big red. Now I can park big red anywhere....

Great to hear from you. You've got that truck moving right along. The A/C will be nice to have.

Looking good. Can't wait to see the finished product. Keep us posted.

Thanks. I am hoping to make the 72 my main vehicle and my newest one. So going to get some nice seats for it and try to get this project did. I hopefully finished painting the grill today gloss black. Grills are a real pain to paint. You have to turn them all different ways to see everything you missed.

Truck looks like its coming along nicely.

That will be a nice truck when it is completed

I am hoping so Jarred. Been so hot here. I have been working on the interior - Tech bit on scrubbing bubbles . I had my heater core redid, which was a mistake as you can get a newer one cheaper, oh well, the guy made it too long and had to squoze it a bit so it would fit. Got that bit in and then started doing the ducts. Man, its a real snake factory behind the dash with factory air. I forgot to order the defroster hoses, so that's a hold up, and decided to go ahead and get a radio. Ordered the am/fm stereo from Carter, but its back-ordered so tomorrow I am going to see if anything is available local that will go in. I want to do the dash and be done with it. I haven't mounted the new seats, and won't until I feel like the dash is did. Without the seats or glove box in there, or gauges (see tech tip on adding a tach its much easier to work on.

BTW, if you want to put gauges in and out of the 66/72 truck, drop the steering column a bit, it makes it much much easier.

While waiting for the interior bits I'll probably go back and get the drive shaft in, the radiator support remounted, and the new 700r4 cooling lines completed. I got that bowtie overdrives universal cooling line kit which looks to be very nice.

I was also holding off on body work till mechanical was did, but I might go ahead and do the tractor white paint after scuffing up and lay that on. The lion's share of banging bits about (stuffing in engine and tranny) has already been did. Truck will be blacked out grill (the grill was in poor shape) and black rear step bumper (turned out to be a nice one) and a white body and white interior. Truck was that medium olive color and I found it high on the yuck scale.

Then to gussy it up I'll probably add all grey interior bits to go with the grey ferd excursion seats I bought for it. Kick panels, lower door panels, door panels, and even grey sun visors.

Oh, and I also have a brush guard for the truck that a neighbor was throwing away. Not sure exactly what color I'll paint it as the thing is kind of stinky. But it was free, and a good wire brush job will get it nice. I might go ahead and put bed liner on the brush guard like I did with the step bumper. But it won't stand out much from the blacked out grill. I could paint it yellow first, then tape it, and paint it black so it had yellow and black safety stripes. That might be kind of neat. I do have some yellow left over from a harley I did years ago. And come to think of it, some from a ducati as well (that I raced).

It's looking good, but you gots your wheels on backwards.

Irwin,

Your Bolt looks GREAT!
Hey you plan to come to the swap meet in Sept?

Cliff59

Nah Rusty, dem wheels, dey be rite.

Cliff I am thinking about that swap meet. Is it posted in the events? Isn't one of our contempoaries getting like 6 spaces?