May 14th, 2010

Pretty big update. Have done alot over the past few days. My boys love helping me work on the truck. You can see a few pictures of them below. Dylan has started using the air tools. Its alot of fun having them out there with me. Its funny because I was just thinking about when I was 5yrs old. My dad and I brought this truck home from his Step-Dad's house and started working on it. I helped my dad when asked, like bleeding the brakes. Now history is repeating all over again with the next generation. Making new memories. I hope to one day take my boys fishing in this truck as well. Thanks Dad!

 Few days ago, I started removing the steering shaft. I found out that the gear box has to be unbolted from the frame and the steering shaft pulled into the engine bay. This of course requires you remove the pitman arm. Not having a 1 1/4 wrench, I had to purchase one for $10. I also needed a pitman arm puller, which I rented from Autozone for $13. I have a real problem returning the tools though lol. Once I aquire a tool, its so hard to let go. :-) I soon realized that after the gear box had been unbolted, the inner fender was in the way. Not a setback really as that was the next step in my plan. I removed the radiator, draining it first. Moved on to the grill, all but one bolt came out easy with a little WD40. The last bolt I had to use the cut off wheel. From the looks of it all these bolts will need to be replaced anyway. Once the grill was out I removed the rediator support bracket, then started on the fender bolts. The fenders came off rather easy. The WD40 I pre-soaked the bolts in helped alot. Only body parts remaining are the cab and running boards, and I will be tackling those soon.

I happen to find out that there is a local custom restore shop, right here in town. I stopped by and talked to the owner for a while. He was very knowledgeable in the series truck I have. He even had a few in the shop that he is working on. This could really come in handy, when I need to farm out some work or just bounce some questions off someone. He happen to mention a super pentration oil called "Kroil". I thought I give the stuff a shot and placed a order for some. I will let you know how the stuff turns out.