This posting is one in a series. If you have not yet read the earlier postings in the series, you’ll need to, as this posting won’t make much sense without having done so! Just do a search using the word “SLURP”.
In my last posting, we discussed engine ideas, and settled on the Chevy LS series engines as the best combination of bang for the buck for Red.
In this one, we’ll divert for a posting or two to other news on Red, and this time, it’s his weight – he lost 219 pounds on Saturday! We’ll also discuss a surprising finding on what kind of power his current “Stovebolt Six” engine is actually producing.
I have had a running list of minor repairs that Red has required, and also a list of potential weight savings. Randy cam over first thing Saturday morning, and we had a VERY productive full day of work in which everything on my list except rebuilding the worn door hinges was addressed.
First, we addressed a few problems that had manifested themselves since I took delivery of Red 6 weeks ago.
The left front turn signal and left front parking lamp both did not function. Randy traced these to THREE problems, any of which could have caused the lack of light. First, the ground connection was very marginal – too much paint where the pronged ground terminal was fastened to the body sheet metal. Secondly, the spring loaded bulb socket base was corroded, impairing its “springiness”. Thirdly, the wiring harness run to tha light housing was too tight, preventing the spring laoded bulb base from working properly even without the corrosion issue! Randy fixed all 3 contributing causes, and the lights came on!
The horn also did not work. Turned out, the horn relay was not even getting power – the power wire was not connected. Randy ran an “always powered” wire to it, and it now wakes the dead! Turns out, there is a REASON it now wakes the dead: it’s the original 6 volt horn, not 12 volt, and when fed 12 volts it REALLY performs. Randy pointed out that when the vehicle was converted from 6 volts to 12, probably neither the horn nor the horn relay had been changed. So, he advised, be “judicious” in using the horn, because not only am I likely to give someone a heart attack, but because both the horn and the relay were not going to be happy campers getting 12 volts for extended durations.
Next was the heater core leak. Red had rather immodestly leaked some engine coolant into the passenger compartment the other day. That had reminded me that Carter, the former owner, had in fact mentioned in one of his Stovebolt postings that he had found a heater core leak and had repaired it. Evidently, the repair was not permanent. The heater blower had for the entire 6 weeks I have owned Red exhibited a notable “clatter” when running, and Randy’s inspection now confirmed that the entire heater assembly was due for “retirement”. Since I plan to buy and install an aftermarket custom HVAC unit for Red very soon (as soon as the cash for the now sold SSR arrives), we did not waste any time or money trying to extend its life. We simply disconnected the coolant lines to it and looped them back to the engine compartment.
The parking brake was interesting. For as long as I have owned Red, the parking brake has functioned well, but the foot pedal has been reluctant to pop fully back to the “released” position when I pull the release knob. That caused me to develop a cute habit in which I pull the release knob, and then immediately also LIFT the pedal fully UP using the top of my left shoe. ridiculous as it may sound. I had tried lubricating the accessible points in the system, and had improved it some, but Randy did a much better job on it Saturday, lubricating the entire system from pedal to just OUTSIDE the rear brake drums(don’t want to get lube onto the drums!). That pedal now FLYS upward when the release knob is pulled.
The cable that enables remote driver activation of the passenger side exterior air vent also had the same problem, but much worse. That one we did not try to salvage (VERY grungy after 53 years of unlubricated use). Instead, I had ordered a replacement CHOKE cable, which is not ideally long in length, but workable, and also LOOKS sensational in comparison (stainless steel braided cable sleeve!).Now the vent opens and closes remotely easily. This is important to repair, as trying to use the old stiff cable would have eventually caused the sheet metal painted dash mount for the cable knob to fatigue.
The steering wheel, with wheels pointed straight ahead and dirivng down a level straight highway, had had about a 30 degree rotation to the right ever since I bought Red. This has the perverse advantage of improving visibility to the speedometer. But, since the speedometer range right between 55 and 60 mph is obscured very effectively by the factory automatic transmission column mounted shift lever, this was a moot point. The 30 degree rotation also prevented use of the right turn signal, since the factory accessory self-cancelling system was activated by it! I Hence, I REALLY wanted that steering wheel re-centered.
Randy told me that the off-center rotation was probably the result of a change in ride height, but since Red appears to have all his original leaves in all his original leaf springs, I’m not sure how that occurred, except maybe via the springs front or back losing some of their original “arc” through age. In fact, that does make perfect sense: Red’s rear springs look pretty shallow in arc compared to the front ones, and Red’s rear appears to ride a tad low (a truly personal observation that Red resents my making
). This may also explain why it seems impossible to get a view through the interior rear view mirror that goes further than 50 feet behind Red  . Randy pulled and re-centered the wheel, and by the way, he did not need a puller. He has what the pros call “technique”
.
The transmission linkage was the last item we addressed. Like any modern but non-electronic automatic (e.g. like the 700R4 mechanical version of the 4L60E electronic tranny), the cast iron Hydra-Matic in Red requires a mechanical throttle linkage. The adjustment on these is important, in order to not only have the tranny work correctly, but also to ensure it is not damaged. I had noticed that the throttle pedal movement on Red was rather “short”, and that the transmission tended to shift at rather early road speeds. And, there was NO way of getting Red to exceed 3000 rpm in any gear without the tranny upshifting (except in top gear of course, where Red happily pegs the speedometer).
Simplfying things a lot, it turns out that the combination of this tranny, and the dual Carter Weber carb setup on Red, results in a need for a mechanical linkage that is non-standard. No one made one for Red, so, on the current setup, in order to get the tranny linkage right, to enable and protect the tranny, you end up NOT being able to get to “fully open throttle” on the carbs. Since we are about to replace this entire drivetrain, it made no sense for us to address this Saturday. Randy did, with his experience, manage to get the adjustment notably better, so that Red now shifts at higher road speeds / rpms.
There is a subtle discovery inherent in the above information: the dyno data I published recently for Red’s 261 engine is obviously incorrect. That engine will clearly make more power when it is allowed to actually hit FULL throttle opening. Since it is already at the top of its class, that means someone is going to get a VERY strong 261 engine after it comes out of Red.
Red has one more unaddressed personal issue. His doors sag just a bit (Sorry Red, for the public embarrassment here, but people need to know). This means you need to push justa bit upward on the handle when closing a door, in order to get a good latching. We did not try to rebuild the door hinges on Saturday, as removing the old pins and fitting new pins with bushings would require some time, and I wouldn’t want to have to drive around with no doors for a few days (Ford owners might think a flathead Ford had blown my doors off
). I am trying to find a set of used hinges that we can rebuild in advance on the bench, and then just install in one abbreviated session.
Now we get to the good stuff – the weight reductions! These ended up being even more successful than I had thought they might be.
First, we yanked the front bumper and mounts off. That was 34 pounds off, and the front end now looks “aggressive”.
Then, we took off the rear bumper and its mounts, which took off another 30 pounds.
Removing the frame mounted trailer hitch assembly removed another 27 pounds, and profoundly cleaned up Red’s rear end.
Removing the spare tire / wheel assembly took off 53 pounds more (ironically, the full size spare wheel / tire is marginally lighter than the 4 in-service tire / wheel assemblies, but of course does not LOOK nearly as good :)). Removing the bracketry that holds the spare wheel / tire assemble took off another 9 pounds.
The next move was radical, and was done first only tentatively, and then finalized when I saw the benefits. Randy took off the running boards with attached “spats” (the pieces that cover the gap between the running boards and the cargo box sides) and their mounting brackets.Wow. It was revelation time.
First, the visual effect is quite stunning. The truck looks incredibly lighter but unfortunately also incredibly HIGH (he looks right now like he is wearing too-short pants!). Look at the photo below to see what I mean
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround001.jpghttp://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround003.jpghttp://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround004.jpghttp://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround005.jpghttp://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround006.jpghttp://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Redweightreductions1stround007.jpgBut, remember, Red is going drop in height quite a bit when we change to the composite mono leaf springs. Perhaps as much as the claimed 4 inches  . When he does so, the lower edges of the front and rear fenders, which drop quite a bit below the body, will look FABULOUS close to the ground.
In addition, if you look at Red without the running boards, and see where he has rust, you will realize that aside from the rust at the front lower edge of the cargo box (due to people leaving wet debris in there for 53 years off and on) and a very few other minor spots, almost ALL the rust on Red is in areas where the running boards have allowed moist dirt and debris to accumulate where it is hard or impossible to see and remove when washing and cleaning the vehicle. This includes the cab corners, the bottom rear edges of the front fenders, the bottom front edges of the rear fenders, and to a very reduced extent the bottom of the cab sides where the running board top edges are visually tied to the cab via rubber strips that are mounted via cavity-rich / debris-rich steel strips held in place by sheet metal screws! Those running boards HAVE to go. Consider it like a radical cancer surgery to remove the source of the tumors.
To top it all off, once you look at Red for a few minutes, and imagine exhaust systems, you realize that removing the running boards opens up a 5’ 3” long area under each side of the truck, where some form of side pipe exhaust is a natural. The benefits of THAT, beyond it being highly visual and highly retro, are that you avoid having to route 3 inch exhaust piping over the rear axle (which will be closer to the frame with the lowering mono leaf springs), AND you reduce the weight of the overall exhaust system (less piping in total = less weight).
The weight saving from removing these running boards, spats, and frame-mounted brackets was a stunning total of 66 pounds (Each running board is 21 pounds, but its associated bracketry is another 12 pounds).
There is one immediate need crated by the removal of the running boards: the battery box, which is under the passenger door, just inside the inner edge of the running board. Needs to be relocated so as not to be “just hanging there”. But, since I want to relocate it anyway much further BACK to improve the overall weight distribution, that is no hardship.
If you add up the numbers above, you will see that they total to a stunning 219 pounds removed in one day. And, their removal requires only the cost of a good battery box and longer cabling, so the price per pound removed is sensationally good.
Note that 219 pounds is 6.3 % of Red’s total pre-fuel weight. So, getting this weight reduction is exactly as effective, at least from zero to highway speeds, as increasing the engine power by 6.3%, which would definitely cost some big bucks.
This is street rodding and vehicle reengineering at its best. I am really pumped now about the potential for this project, as 106 of those 219 pounds had not even been in my weight reductiton projections. 3000 pounds finished weight is starting to look like too conservative a target.
If there is anyone out there who is a Photo Shop wiz, and can lower Red about 4 inches in the profile photo, and then maybe paste in a side exhaust, I’d be THRILLED to see what that could look like . . .
Jim G
...Joe