"Sheila" - K2500 Flatbed Tow Pig

if I may speak for senior Crackers...ain no stinkin' diesel here vato....solamente gasolina!!! andele !! arriba arriba!!!!

Yeah, it's definitely a gas engine. 5.7l vortec.

My personal dislike for diesels aside, I don't know if/when GM ever made a worthwhile diesel, but I'm pretty sure one never made it into a GMT400.

I must confess, I have a burning desire to install a 2001-2004 LB7 with a ZF6spd into my '91 ext cab short bed c1500 (330+hp and 550+lbft @ 1800rpm) and now that it its over 25 yrs old , no more sniffer test YES! someday.......

I'd love to do something with a 24v Cummins, specifically in a 1970 Dodge 1 ton panel van, but I find diesel exhaust nauseous. Also, those trucks with the 24v are treated like berkeleying gold around here, even if for good reason.

Anyhow, I fiddled around today and got my filler neck pocket welded in.

It's not very symmetrical, and may end up getting cut back out, but it's at least in. I wanted to do a little more fiddling with it but it looked like it was about to start raining so I packed it in for today and sprayed some primer on it to keep it from flashing over.

I'm not sure how many of those sins the bed liner is going to cover, but I'm pretty sure some body filler is going to be involved assuming I don't redo this.

Also I switched through a few of the junk rolls of welding wire I have, and I'm definitely going to need some new wire before I'm willing to try welding in the last of the bed mounts. This stuff is just embarrassing.

Tomorrow I'll bolt the neck back on and see if I can actually get a fuel nozzle in there!

Looks good enough. Sometimes perfection is the enemy of finished.

See the duster thread for reference.....

Yeah, you got that right but I gave up on perfection a long time ago.

Keeping everything square is my only real requirement, but it would be nice to not have everything look like hack work.

Fair enough. Picture don't look hack to me. Aint square, but does look fairly symmetrical in primer.

That looks as clean or cleaner than most of the flatbeds I've seen.

I appreciate that, both of you. I just know I'm compromising my quality because I'm rushing through trying to finish it so I can move on to the wagon.

the filler neck a pocket thingy she's a beautiful!!!

I didn't get to do anything fun today. Instead I got to replace an evaporator core in the GF's Dakota!

You know it's a miserable job when you have to fabricate your own quick disconnect tools because Chrysler are shiny happy people and like to use proprietary sized disconnects.

I've been putting it off for months but at least I was able to get it mostly done and it seems to be holding vacuum. I would be done, but I'm also swapping out the water pump and replacing the front crank seal. I'll finish that up tomorrow morning and I'll be able to focus on my stuff on my schedule.

Having done exactly this job, id rather put my nuts in a vise and smack my dick with a hammer.

I do NOT envy you.

In reply to Crackers:

Posts like that reaffirm my fervent hope to die alone.

For real!?!?!!!!! the entire dash???? cross that (Dakota) off the list

Dusterbd13 wrote: Having done exactly this job, id rather put my nuts in a vise and smack my dick with a hammer. I do NOT envy you.

Oddly enough, I think that's how I'm getting compensated.

759NRNG wrote: For real!?!?!!!!! the entire dash???? cross that (Dakota) off the list

Not just the dash, the center console too!

It went smoothly with abundant FSM hand holding, but I'm not looking forward to ever doing this again.

Crackers wrote:

Dusterbd13 wrote: Having done exactly this job, id rather put my nuts in a vise and smack my dick with a hammer. I do NOT envy you.

Oddly enough, I think that's how I'm getting compensated.

it's nice to be appreciated.

'FSM hand holding' ??

"Factory Service Manual"

I pretty much followed it to the letter. Saved me hours of time, no doubt.

Well aside from the one time use, automatically adjustable, non-serviceable, multifunction stoplight switch that is supposed to be replaced if it's ever removed, but I took it apart anyway and reset it so it works again, it went great and everything still works.

Back to Sheila tomorrow.

factory service manual.....BWahahahahaaa!!! when one access's the interweb, FSM equates to 'flyin spaghetti monster' ????...hey who knew

If you thought that job was fairly easy, if you have a few spare days, could you drop by and fix the noisy vent fan in my Maserati, I think it involves removing everything ever connected to the car. Actually sometimes the vent fan in the BMW X3 makes some noise and that one is just as bad a job. The vent fan on the Volvo was a 10 minute job, some days I miss that car...

You are doing a great job with the truck!

I used to be a flat rate tech, and usually beat book time with hand tools, so I don't scare easy. I'm just lazy. LOL

Then again, I've also always been the type that can throw all the bolts in a pile and still sort out what's what faster than trying to lay everything out with labels etc. (Even after months.)

Case in point...

I tend to refrain from posting photos like that to avoid getting scolded. LOL

Most of the projects that came in partially (or completely) disassembled went to me because of my ability to "see" where stuff was supposed to go.

So the old lady got some attention today.

I decided to work on the skirts around the wheel openings. I've been struggling with how to go about it for a while but finally made up my mind a couple weeks ago, and it went pretty well.

I started by laying it out on some steel.

(This rusty crap was part of the original steel purchase for this job.)

Then I cut it out, made some relief cuts and drilled some 1/2" holes about 1/8" away from the corner because it's easier to patch round corners IMO. (I also wanted a small radius at the corner anyway.) Then it got clamped between the top rail and some heavy flat bar then hammered into shape.

I made both sides at the same time and meant to get a picture of the parts by themselves but I was on a roll. I'll try to snag a pic of the other one before I weld it in, maybe tomorrow probably Friday.

Anyhow, here it is mocked up.

I got it welded in place and had to patch my relief cuts. Didn't really get any pictures of the process because it's boring, but here is one partly welded in.

For better or worse I usually don't get super obsessive about having my patches 100% shaped before tacking them in place. I tend to think more like a tinsmith than a panel beater. So I after it was in I finished shaping my patch before welding in the corner.

Then more welding and a bit of linishing and I ended up with this.

Then some primer.

Overall I'm really happy with how it came out. I was really trying to line up the openings with the crease in the body to get some interesting lines depending on perspective and I think I pretty well nailed it.

With that done, the passenger side is mostly finished. I decided I'm going to redo the hinges in the side doors (again) so they're more serviceable, and adjustable. I don't even want to say how much time I put into the driver's side and it's still not right. So I'm redoing both so I don't have to be as accurate with my hole placement. (Also, the current design on this side kind of likes to get rusted shut. )

If I have time I'll whack the other one on tomorrow, or whenever...

Dude those are the hottest skirts ever.....