LAST EDITED ON Apr-12-26 AT 11:13 PM (EDT)
 
For the first time in more than 30 years, Angus lives.

Oh yeah, and I fit behind the new wheel, too. But that's not what's really important right now.

Of course, I didn't hog the experience.

Obviously we have a hell of a lot still to do, but... this is the first time that chassis has moved under its own power in decades. That ain't nothin'.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I was imagining taking it down to the auto parts shop like that, but there's not enough cargo space, and for all I know, there's some law against taking it on the road without all the bits in place.

Peter Eng
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Insert humorous comment here.

>I was imagining taking it down to the auto parts shop like that, but
>there's not enough cargo space, and for all I know, there's some law
>against taking it on the road without all the bits in place.

The laws around here don't have anything to say about missing body panels as such, but since all the lights and whatnot are also missing and we haven't repaired the holes in the cab floor yet, it wouldn't pass a state safety inspection. It also hasn't been registered since 1994 and there's nowhere to hang a license plate. So... yeah. I joked about maybe running down to Dollar General, but the old man was having none of it. :)

--G.
no seat belts right now, either, not that they were even required in 1966
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Was this "Angus the testbed for the Impala engine" or "Angus with its own engine"?
I've lost track a bit.

>Was this "Angus the testbed for the Impala engine" or "Angus with its
>own engine"?
>I've lost track a bit.

The original plan was to run this engine in the truck as a test and then transplant it to the Impala, but at this point I believe we've abandoned that plan. Right now it looks like the Impala will either keep the engine it's got (possibly with some mods to bring it up to a slightly later spec, like replacing the DC generator with a more modern AC alternator), or receive a different one when the time comes.

Or, who knows, maybe I'll be seized with an ardent desire to return Angus back to its original 6-cylinder glory and build a 292 for it or something... it's only parts!

--G.
I do kind of miss the old Turbo-Thrift wheeze
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Mostly prep work for the next phase today. Lots of body work to be done. NOTE: We are not good at nor enthusiastic about body work. :)

We'll be working on the areas around the bottoms of the doors, so they had to come off.

The doors need a bit of work too, but for now we're just going to stash them over by the wall. We lashed them to the electrical conduit so they can't fall over. That glass is expensive!

To give you an idea of what we're up against, although almost all the cab metal above the floor line is in pretty good shape, both rocker panel/door sills are in rough shape. The driver's side, seen here, is actually the better of the two...

... never mind that large and rather puzzling hole. How did that get there? It's not even the lowest point of that panel. The rest of that rot makes sense, but that hole does not. (Also note the round hole just below the seat edge, with the two obvious screw holes flanking it. What was there? Why did some previous owner choose to put whatever it is right there? We will never know.)

It wasn't all grunt work and prep. We also took the opportunity to make one critical adjustment to the cab. Note the boring, completely featureless knob our shift lever kit came with.

Surely we can do better than that?

Why yes. Yes we can.

That's more like it. I hereby dedicate this gearshift lever to Mori Calliope.

As an aside, that shift knob is one of the all-time Mr. Gasket classics, still in production since... sometime in the 1960s, I think? Check out the vintage OEM packaging on this one, which I found on eBay.

If I had to guess, I'd say that packaging is from the 1980s at least. Well before the plastic clamshell era (that's what the new ones come in nowadays). I almoat hated to open it, but hey, these things are made to be used, not to sit around in plastic wrap forever.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

More work on the passenger side of the cab. I've decided to group stuff that takes more than one day together as the same "session" to give more of a sense of progression.

After pulling the remains of the outer rocker off and getting a sense of what needed to be cut away in the structures underneath (previous post), we got to the task of actually doing so.

The corners also needed some work, but I didn't get very good pictures of that. The new panels for those areas mostly fit over the damaged areas instead of completely replacing them, because the way the corners are built makes it very difficult to replace them entirely without the specialized equipment they had at the assembly plant back in the day.

As an aside, I think I've mentioned this before, but this particular truck was assembled at Chevrolet's assembly plant in Fremont, California--which, after several twists and turns of usage and ownership in the intervening decades, is now Tesla's factory. Life is strange.

Anyway, with the rotted panels removed, the next step was a test fitment of the new inner parts. These are held together by bolts at the ends, which makes it possible to fit them into place and hold them there for welding or riveting without any special jigs or anything.

The next step here will be to take those panels back off again, spray the remaining metal with a rust converter to stabilize them, and then put the panels back with liberal doses of seam sealer. After that, it'll be time to screw them in place, then replace the screws one by one with blind rivets to attach the new panels permanently. Then more seam sealer, then a coat of primer, followed by bed liner. That ought to hold everything together. And then, off to the driver's side to do it all again...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.