Pic of the truck as I bought it. Picked it up for $1500 and drove it home. Has manual drum brakes all the way around, power steering. "Rebuilt 460" (didn't care either way as it didn't sound good so I planned on tearing it down eventually anyway). 4 Speed Manual Tranny. Brand new dual exhaust that needs some modification (no H-pipe yet). Steel roll pan. And pretty damn straight and rust free. I wasn't crazy about the paint at first but it's growing on me. I'll save the minor body work for my very last project and repaint it eventually.
Well I originally had planned on driving this truck for the summer and gettin' some tinkering done this Winter but I lost all my oil pressure on a 50 mile freeway run the other night and didn't realize it until it was too late (oil pressure gauge in-op). I decided to yank the motor last night and start coming up with a plan.
The 460 "was" a fresh rebuild which kind of worried me right off the bat. It's hard to find good engine builders around my town. Upon tear down I found that it was definitely just "rebuilt" but I'm finding no evidence of machine work. Looks like somebody slapped in new pistons, lifters and an oil pump. Not sure about the bearings. With the intake off I found 11 bent pushrods, 5 that were completely out of their guides and lifters laying in the valley.
<br>Rod Bearings: They weren't spun out but torn up on the crank side.
Main bearings were the same story
Pistons are all scored up
Torn down completely and ready for whatever I decide to do with her:
At this point I was feeling all inspired to get some work done on this thing so I decided to do a roll on bed liner this morning. The bed was already in really good shape so I got a 5" wire wheel for my buffer and went to town on the minor surface rust. There wasn't even much rust on it. This picture is a little deceiving because the original color was brown so it looks like rust in the picture. Here's a before pic:
After the wire wheel I gave it an acetone wipe down and used a green 3M pad to prep the surface for the liner then another acetone wipe down. I taped it off and painted the spot inbetween the bed and box that was left over from the quickie paint job. Found a really close match and gave it a quick rattle can job. Turn out really good for a can. Then came the bed liner. Here's a pic after only one coat. I'm going to give it another coat tomorrow morning once it's dry:
Still feeling inspired I decided to go to work on the side box. Prep was a breeze as there was no rust. Just scuffed it up, wiped it down and rolled it on:
That's all for today. I'm planning on painting the door jams and tearing the interior out tomorrow.
