Today was a good day.



https://instagr.am/p/BpA9lq6A2Kf

A project never feels finished to me until it matches up with the way I imagine it should look. Well, you can guess that level of satisfaction is hard to achieve with a complicated project and for that reason some things are never really 'done'. This is probably going to be one of those things; I can tell. With that said, after putting the hood/cowl on today and playing with some fender and door gaps - it was hard not to feel a sense of accomplishment. This is the first time all the body pieces have been together since before we bought the truck (one inner fender and cowl were in the bed when we got it).

The project isn't finished; there's a long way to go, but we're a long way from where we started. When CPjr drove it out of the barn after school he/we were all smiles - this is living up to the billing. If it's not raining tomorrow I think I'll load it on a trailer and haul it to town and get the exhaust run.



18 months later

I hauled the Baron to town this week like I planned. I went with 40 series Flowmasters because they had them in stock and I didn't know enough about anything else to sway me. So that's what we're starting with.



Drilling this blind hole will make you pucker... It's not the kind of thing you want off center!


It worked. Nobody would ride with me for test drives because we could't remember exactly how much gas CPjr and I put in before we put the bed on. So I calibrated the gauge and it confirmed that we couldn't procrastinate any longer; it was hole saw time. Success....




Tomorrow during school I'm going to drive it to town and get the front end aligned. We've decided that this is the chosen ride setting to align it for. It's low enough to look 'cool' but it gives enough room for error around the school speed bumps so CPjr won't get hung up and it leaves us enough travel in the back the it shouldn't bottom out. There are 3 preset programmable settings so we can have one 'low cruise' and one 'oh sh*t it's the railroad crossing' setting to spare. Time to order shocks.



Today the family did a little shakedown cruise up and down the farm road and around the drive. Other than the alignment shop there won't be much else done this week. CPjr and I leave for Indianapolis on Wednesday for the National FFA Convention where he will compete, representing Texas, as one of four National Finalists in his award area. Kinda makes a pickup project pale in comparison.

https://instagr.am/p/BpNZQLvlNnc

We dumped 2 just in front of the axle - and it darn near rattle your teeth when it fires up! We don't have the carpet in yet, the insulation pad up inside the firewall, heck we don't even have the door weatherstripping in... but who are we fooling; it's gonna be a loud b*tch. But, who put a big cam in to listen in silence?


Updating the thread - CPjr and I took a few days last week so he could go compete at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. He's up there on the stage with the 3 other national finalists in his award area. The young man from Indiana took home the national win, but being a one of four finalists selected from the 50 state winners to compete was a real honor. Not disappointed at all. Making memories.

Saw some cool mechanical stuff in the Expo hall at the Convention. The Waterloo Boy was the tractor that started it all for Deere. Deere paid the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company $2.5 million in 1918 for their operation - the rest is 100 years of tractor history.

Thats a Perkis V-8 power ProStock diesel tractor, Sleipnir, on display courtesy LucasOil. The diesel injection pump sat in the middle of the V under the intake manifold.... it looked like a small irrigation pump.


Got home and drove the Baron to get the front end aligned. All this stuff gets done while CPjr is in school. I'm a puss going 50mph; it's going to take a while to get comfortable. I hear every squeak, knock, or rattle. Did I mention the seat belts aren't in yet? I'm just waiting for all the wheels to fall off before skid into the ditch like the Armadillo Jackal. "He screamed his raspy epitaph before he turned to flame, Silvy said put an LS in it. I ain't the one to blame."



Now all 4 wheels are pointed the same direction.

https://instagr.am/p/BpnP7bpgA_3

My favorite pic of the truck so far...

https://instagr.am/p/BpfqEF-gIpn


I function tested the launch control on the blacktop near the entrance to my driveway with great success; there's now one big looooooonnnnnngggg black streak that appeared in a huge cloud of white tire smoke. There are a few nagging issues; for instance, when we bled the brakes I led us wrong and we quit bleeding the rears a little too soon in our haste for test drive. Now the shuttle, or safety spool, in the center of the proportioning valve is out of position and we need to crack the fronts and get it centered back up. We tried earlier this week and got it to move some, but not all the way - so our rear brakes aren't what they should be just yet...
NEXT UP - LS TUNE, wish us luck.

Tl;dr, tune is done, videos at end of post.

Since the last update, we've had some of the ups & downs that working on a big project entail. First, the alignment shop proprietor told me the front tires were 'rubbing' but when CPjr and I pulled a front tire we found they weren't rubbing the A arms were freaking GOUGING.



I was crushed. These A arms were already quite the saga and this was something we didn't anticipate. I sat down that evening and wrote an email to Porterbuilt I typed, then deleted some thoughts, and eventually hit send on a softly worded email that expressed my disappointment. Much to my surprise, within 5 minutes, Nathan Porter personally called me on my cell to ask what the problem was; he asked for pictures and I obliged. By the next morning, he replied in texts with these drawings of the 'new' A arms that he put in production because he had seen this before. The ghosted portion is where our current arms are rubbing. The solid drawing is the replacement. This is a setback, but that kind of customer service eases that pain.



Every single item from Porterbuilt is custom built and we're going into the 3rd week waiting for replacements, so how do we fill the interim? Stuff like door weather-strip.



We decide to treat it like a drag truck stay clear of the steering locks and try to get some stuff done. Since CPjr had no school Friday we drove toward Edinburg to get it tuned. I ended up going off script a little here and used a fella on a recommendation from a local friend. I really didn't know what to expect, but we were super happy when we left. Fernando's place is South of Monte Christo and a pretty good drive to get there; how could we not stop @ Whatburger on the way?

https://instagr.am/p/BqQ4cgvggZC

When we got there Fernando copied our bench tune into his laptop and then we went into his 'used to be a hair salon' (life on the border never disappoints, amigo) shop and he started working the LS magic.



When he got done we took a spin. The difference was already incredible, but it was fighting the brake a little on deceleration so we pulled back into his parking lot and he pecked away on his laptop a little more. His shop is adjacent to a beer barn so there's a few cars passing through the parking lot; it's not such a sketchy place, but there's some sketchy characters coming and going. Fernando, CPjr, and I talk about it. He tells us some stories about some of the characters he's done work for, it makes real thankful for our sleepy, rural, corner of the RGV. These are interesting times on the border. Finally, he says let go for another ride. I drive while CPjr and Fernando talk about what he sees on his laptop. A few light pulls, some braking, some white tire smoke at stop signs, and he closes his laptop. We're done. Fernando took this video for is FB page.



CPjr wheeled us home. 65mph drives like a laser.

It took me longer to make this edit that it did to... well, you get the picture.



A arms aren't the only thing to work on now....

This thread is about to fall off my watchlist w/ 2 weeks of inactivity... but since there's some activity in the shop I'll bump it with this teaser video. Longer update coming after weekend.

Well, tomorrow is the day. After a year and half of doing, re-doing, and doing it a 3rd time because we're slow on the uptake - the heavy lifting is complete and tomorrow the Baron head off to take its place on the back row, the 'truck row', of our little high school's parking lot. CPjr would never have displayed an ounce of disappointment, but hurdles here and there that set us back weighed on me fearing he would give up hope he'd get to wheel it some before graduation. The smiles & fist pumps this evening were worth the wait - He may not be as hard to wake up in morning.

I can't say enough about how much fun this, what started off as little and ended up big, project has been to work on with CPjr. I think he's learned a lot - and certainly broadened his vocabulary though the process. For his end, he's made it easy to want to make it as much his as mine. I'm overly proud dad, I know, but he clicks along every day keeping his priorities straight and doing everything that's asked of him; then sometimes he pulls off the extraordinary. While we waited for parts he put he capstone on a very successful run as an FFA member.

https://instagr.am/p/Bq5fV71H6Q3

Our real update left us shopping for new transmission. We settled on RPM Transmission's Street/Strip 4L60E in the end. It was more than I'd hoped - but this gives us a little headroom so I don't think we'll be tearing it up. No more tire or weight than we're at right now I doubt we could hook enough to hurt much. Man, a car lift sure would be nice, I'm going to add that to my Christmas list NEXT YEAR. Santa shopped at RPM Trans this year.



Going back under the knife was brutal. We got a lot done though: the replacement lower A arms are in (Make America turn tight Again) and of course working under a lowered truck requires some a smooth touch...



I let the apprentice fit the shifter boot - he did a fine job,



And it really set the interior off!



Many thanks to CatAg04. When he was out Terlingua way I hollered and told him I thought a Viva Terlingua bumper sticker would really look right at home on this red/white truck. He obliged and picked one up for us, held on to it and kept track of it for months, then hand-delivered it to us at the tailgate party right before the epic LSU game. Turns out I was right - it's perfect.

https://instagr.am/p/BrWRqpKgDO2

Now we are on the search for some slim 6x9 speakers to fit the corner grills. We have an anti-sway bar to install in the front later - if we choose to. I guess we should rig up a spare tire too since we have the hard-to-find RPO P13 spare tire holder. Those things can wait though... for now it's off to school.

For comparison - 4/29/17

Love it! Yall did a fantastic job! Next upgrade, twin turbskis!!!

Interior, exterior, powertrain, ****in dope bro

I'm happy for this post but I'm sad for the lack of burnout videos. I guess I'll go watch the videos from last month.

Awesome project and thanks for sharing along the way. I really hope either of my kids want to take on something like this. I would love nothing more than to start something when they turn 15 with the incentive of driving it to school their senior year.

TexAgs isn't full yet brother. The trucks may be 'done' but the threads not. We will HAVE to add posi soon. I told him to 'drive it like an old man' the first day until we find out what parts will fall off first. One of those deformed Ol hubcaps didn't make it to the highway - go figure.

He made it to school. So it's done 50% of its required work today with that minor glitch. #oldtrucksFTW

Still blown away by how fast you did this. Granted you didn't have to spend coublntless nights bumping metal and sanding body panels. But damn

Outstanding

The truck is cool. The fact that you built it with your son is way cooler. That's a lifetime of memories rolling down the road right there.

I meant to post this the other day and forgot. Somewhere along the way I misplaced a set of instructions and had to go online and download the pdf, it was kind of a hassle. I know how men are with instructions but with resto-mods YOU as the builder are responsible with remembering what disparate parts you're using to build your ride. Across makes, models, years it's handy to take notes - because you'd be surprised how soon you forget exactly what era those ball joints were for that fit these control arms... or what ohm range that fuel gauge sensor came with.

The easiest way to keep track of it all was to buy a little binder and get a package of sheet protectors. Whenever we would install something we'd put the data or instruction sheets into the binder. Now when we have to go back and recalibrate the speedometer or fuel sensor or figure out exactly what serpentine belt we used.. it's in there.



or you can do this before you get old. Your choice.

Not all burnouts - but a couple included at your urging coolerguy!