34’ Chevy pickup

[chistech]

Finished up the sills today. Cut them to their finished length, drilled the three front mounting screw holes, finished off the front mid cross sill by installing the lower mount blocks, and drilling the 7/16 holes. Shaped the rear corners of the main sills because the lower cab corners have been patched previously and the pieces welded in were done a little crudely so there is extra thickness to the metal on the inside requiring me to remove some additional wood around the corners. Fit the cab panels and checked for fit. Drilled the holes for the small screws that hold all the sheet metal on on the cab back then put on the panels for fit.  Fitted the dovetail receptacles and cover plates to check all inletting. Another 6 hours worth of work. Just a few more pieces to make and I’ll be all done with the wood work.

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

1 hour ago, John S. said:

Ted, is that your Olds on the lift? Beautiful wood work. John

That’s my brothers 67’ cutlass. I’ve been helping him replace all the body mounts, replace an inner rocker, and fix a rotted area on the chassis. Next he’ll be fitting new tubular A arms along with front disk brakes. It is good having company in the garage for a change but sometimes I have to stop what I’m doing and help him. He has a bad back and uses a rolling office chair under the lift to move around on. He can’t stand for very long so I help when he needs it. I grew up working side by side with my brother. He knows my next move and I know his, so he and I can get a tremendous amount of work done fairly quickly when we work together.

[John S.]

Ted, is there anything you can't do? You made a lot of progress in such a short time. The work looks great. John

[chistech]

Wood work is done. Started checking the frame again for squareness, then unscrewed the rear frame, applied waterproof glue, squared it up, then glued and clamped it together. With the lower blocks done, the got glued and screwed to the main sills. The seatframe got removed. Glue added, and screwed back into the main sillson the sides and back edge. The two recessed holes got drilled first with a 7/8” forester bit for the relief for the washer and nut, then drilled with the 5/16” drill for the carriage bolts that will bolt the rear cross sill to the two main side sills. Squared up the two latch pillars to the main sills using two methods. The latch pillars require a distance of 52 1/2” between the upper top inside surface. This is where two metal straps from the  roof screw into the pillars. Leveling the wood assembly, I put a stick across the tops of the pillars, spaced at the 52 1/2” with a center line drawn on the stick at 26 1/4”. I marked the centerline of the seat frame back board and then dropped a plumb bomb down from the stick. With the C-clamps just snug, I pivoted the pillars what little they needed to get the bomb hanging at the centerline. When it got close as possible, I then measured the diagonal from the top of the latch pillar down the the opposite top corner of the seat frame rear board at the back of the latch pillar. There are screws fastened through the back of this board into the back of the latch pillars with three screws. These screws help keep the integrity of the framework aligned and solid. It is alway important when building wood framed cars that pieces are cut and set exactly on center so that the measurements are exactly the same side to side. This allows for the procedure I described above of checking squareness. I often find previous work done where things are done with no regard for the center and proper measurements. This often shows up in the application of interiors and seat cushions where people use the “close enough” method, then later complain that the pleats didn’t align quite right, often blaming the stitcher of the upholstery.  “Close enough” doesn’t cut it if you want correct results. People don’t have to be master craftsmen to do good work, but they do need to understand a ruler and use center on just about every component if they want good results. Things actually are easier to do when done that way too! Ok, I’ll get off the soap box now! 😁

Edited December 12, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[r1lark]

Wow christech, your woodworking skills are AMAZING! 👍

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

When my girls were in 4H, I'd spent a weekend tuning up the table saw, jointer, and planner. It really makes a big difference on the quality of work one can do when the tools are aligned properly. 

 

I love over all the attention to details you do. Thanks for sharing them. Mike

[chistech]

3 hours ago, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said:

When my girls were in 4H, I'd spent a weekend tuning up the table saw, jointer, and planner. It really makes a big difference on the quality of work one can do when the tools are aligned properly. 

 

I love over all the attention to details you do. Thanks for sharing them. Mike

You’re absolutely right. Even though most every tool has a stop at 90 degrees, I still put a good steel square on it to check. This is especially true when ever I angle the blade on my table saw. I really wish I had a top shelf table saw but this Craftsman saw was a gift from my dad and has special meaning like other tools he bought me as a kid who loved to make wood projects.. It works well enough but I do always check everything. Things like my tenon jig is another where even a 1/4 ofone degree can make for ugly joints and unsquare projects.

[Mike Macartney]

23 hours ago, chistech said:

Things actually are easier to do when done that way too! Ok, I’ll get off the soap box now!

 

Ted, did you also make the soap box?!?

 

Joking apart, I do admire your skills. Only having done metalwork at school and college I have never really got into woodwork. I have been following, Harm's, Jeff's and your woodwork posts with great interest. 

[chistech]

Mike, I’ve probably said this before but my woodworking and metal working basics came from junior and high school. I was an overweight kid and never very athletic until my junior and senior years of high school when I ended up being a pretty good two way football player. But prior to those years, I found I could excel at something other than my grades and that something was shop class. I was lucky as I had a total of three shop teachers in 6 years of grade school. Mr. Lawrence was a phenomenal wood worker and was tough on us but taught us the correct basics in junior HS. Same for Mr. Pelletier, my metal shop teacher in Junior high. When I got to high school, 9-12grade, I had the same teacher for all four years and both disciplines. Our school allowed a double session, advanced class in 11-12 , and was available to those students who had good grades in prior years. Joe Botelho was my advanced Industrial arts teacher for those high school years and it was in his classes that I learned more of the finer parts of wood work and metal work. I finally got to use the vertical mill and engine lathe in his classes plus we learned to forge and sand cast. I have to say today it was a hell of a program and if they had it today, I believe kids would be so better off than they are now. Unfortunately, educational professionals feel everyone should go to college and blue collar jobs are going away. Boy have they been wrong. I imagine they’ll never bring the programs back saying the machinery would cost too much and they’d be hard pressed to find enough teachers who know about the trades. 

      Way before I started on working on our old cars I built mainly furniture, some pole barns, and made muzzle loading guns. This was all as a hobby and mostly before I was 25 because along came the wife, house, kids, and my father passing away all too young at 55, leaving me, along with my siblings to keep the family business going. So it took almost 30 years for me to get back to serious wood and metal work. I’m much more comfortable with the wood as I never did a ton on the lathe and miller though that didn’t stop me from acquiring both. I’m learning as I go with those and when I need some guidance, I go and see a machinist friend. For most of us, what we do on these old cars is our hobby and our abilities are often gained from the hobby rather than our profession. I myself grew up as an accomplished abattoir (Mike, I used that term especially for you.) so most all of my original profession except maybe using a hoist won’t ever come into play in this hobby!😁 I would have to say that majority of those who post here doing absolutely incredible work, I enjoy every single thread, and I’m willing to bet have a similar story, minus the abattoir thing!

[Mike Macartney]

17 hours ago, chistech said:

Mike, I’ve probably said this before

 

Well if you did I don't remember seeing it.  Our backgrounds are a bit similar, Metalwork and technical drawing were my best subjects at school, although I have difficulty in remembering the names of the teachers. Abattoir, could be another name for some surgeons!  Thanks for the interesting information.

[chistech]

4 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

 

Well if you did I don't remember seeing it.  Our backgrounds are a bit similar, Metalwork and technical drawing were my best subjects at school, although I have difficulty in remembering the names of the teachers. Abattoir, could be another name for some surgeons!  Thanks for the interesting information.

Mike, my daughter became a veterinarian and when she was in school, she would call me to tell me things they were doing in class and I could tell her locations and names of the different bones and organs. When she told her professor that her dad was a butcher and we had these talks, her professor told her that I would have seen more of the insides of an animal that she ever would and the only difference is I ONLY took them apart and never put them back together! Little did he know we would often knock big dairy cows to find them with calf. We would immediately perform a C section and removed the calf. Sometimes we were successful, others, the calf was too premature but we were butchers with a ❤️! LOL Yes, I have to agree, some surgeons are indeed butchers, and not very good butchers!

 

[chistech]

Completely assembled, glued, and screwed the whole wood framing together. Fit all the sheet metal, including the roof, in place and checked fit of everything thing. All is good so all the sheet met came back off and work will start on all the panels while they’re off the frame. I will put the whole cab back together in a fully painted state rather than assemble it then paint it. 

    After my Christmas break, I’ll be starting on the conversion of the 37’ rear to fit this chassis along with the gear change to 3.55. There is a fair amount of mechanical work to the whole change and it will be a little off my usual but hopefully will turn out all right. Will also start assembling the chassis and adding the hydraulic Huck backing plates to the front spindles. 

     Seeing that the owners intentions is to drive this truck a lot, at higher speeds, I feel much better knowing the cab structure will be solid and much safer than it was. Along with the addition of seat/shoulder belts, all new safety glass, and a double reservoir hydraulic brake system, a fresh motor and updated differential should make this a really nice, but safe driving 34’ pickup without changing the original look.

[Mike Macartney]

Ted, you are making me feel really slow with the progress I am making on my project

[chistech]

Don’t feel that way Mike, I had decent patterns and this is now well over my 10-12th wood restoration with some just being a piece here or there to a few being full replacements. These early Chevy pickups come apart quite quickly and are all separate panels. The wood itself other than the latch pillars was all straight or angled cuts so very little router/shaper work was required. 

      In truth, im way behind on this truck because of all the painting issues I had with the Olds and another car 5hat kept me from doing this type of work in my garage. The machine shop has taken a while on the engine because we found a crack in the block and it’s getting stitched plus other things. Now the full fledged refit of the higher ratio rear is going to add even more time to this restoration. I’m easy full year behind schedule on this. I never try to go over two years on any vehicle and I’m only three months away from that now with my current completion target being late this fall now. That means 2 1/2 years and that upsets me as I have this personal code that I won’t keep a vehicle away from an owner that long and that I keep my time frame that I promised. On this truck I’m off that promise and that really bothers me. This is the second vehicle I’ve done for the owner and he does know the work I do and told me not to worry about it but that still doesn’t help that I’m taking longer than promised. The rest of this year will be a marathon with me fitting in showing the Olds and working on a 30’ Chevy 4dr inbetween when I can’t do anything on the 34’. Whew, I can see why my wife loses patience with me sometimes. The old saying goes, “I’ve spread myself around like manure in a barnyard”!

[chistech]

Took the 37’ rear mostly apart and I’m summing up the work needed. I opened the boxes of 51’ Chevy 3.55 rear parts I got from a fellow  VCCA member. He sent me the ring, pinion, pinion socket, all the spiders, bearings, and the bendix brake parts. I discovered I can’t use the bendix brakes but all the other parts are exactly what was needed. The 37’ rear uses an offset to the centerline, bushed, spring mount where the 34’ uses a rotating mount that encompasses the outside of the axle tube. The 37’ mounts are also set 1 3/4” too wide on each side so will be cut off as they can’t be used anyway. The axle tubes are smaller diameter than the 34’ tubes so my plan is to get the rear housing chucked in a big lathe and turned down round to the width of the 34’ rotating spring mounts. Then, bushings will have to be turned with the inside diameter matching the new diameter of the axle tube and the outside diameter slightly larger than the inside of the rotating spring mount. The bushings will be cut in half then welded to the tube, then the bushing will get turned again down to the diameter of the mounts. There is also a lug that get mounted in the center on top of the bushing to keep the spring mount in place. All this work is just for the spring mounts. The cutting of the driveshaft, torque tube, and all the welding of the pieces is more of the work needed on this conversion. 

[Bloo]

Wait, what?

 

Are you sure that is a 1937 rear axle? From a CAR? I once saw pictures of Ray Waldbaum's 1937/3.55 conversion, and IIRC it had the rotating mounts, just too far apart, and he had to move the "location key" part of the rotating mount closer to the center on the 1937 axle tube. Apparently the spring spacing had been wider on the 1937 car than the 1936 1/2 ton truck. It sure looked like both used the rotating mounts, and that the axle tube diameter was the same. Am I missing something?

 

 

 

[chistech]

2 minutes ago, Bloo said:

Wait, what?

 

Are you sure that is a 1937 rear axle? From a CAR? I once saw pictures of Ray Waldbaum's 1937/3.55 conversion, and IIRC it had the rotating mounts, just too far apart, and he had to move the "location key" part of the rotating mount closer to the center on the 1937 axle tube. Apparently the spring spacing had been wider on the 1937 car than the 1936 1/2 ton truck. It sure looked like both used the rotating mounts, and that the axle tube diameter was the same. Am I missing something?

 

 

 

I was told it is a 37’ axle from the parts yard I got it from. I haven’t checked back with Ray since my first few conversations about this whole conversion. I will double check with both Ray and the parts yard. 

[chistech]

Well the axle I have is incorrect and I’m in the process of trying to locate a true 37’ so the conversion is stalled as of right now. I will assemble the original 34’ rear again and temporary mount it back on the chassis with the springs and front end so I can get the chassis off the rotisserie and keep this project moving along. Got a couple good coats of Cuprinol on the wood cab framing so that’s good until the owner decides if he wants it natural or painted.

[chistech]

While I’m still trying to get a 37’ rear axle, I was about to locate a full set of front backing plates and drums from a 37’ from a fellow VCCA member. Got them in and blasted one side. The linings are in great shape so I’ll just need some new cylinders. Pressed the studs out of the 34’ hubs/drums and checked them for fit to the 37’ drums, perfect. I had installed the new kingpins on the powder coated axle and tried fitting the blasted backing plate to the spindle. I almost fell over,,,,,,another perfect fit! Put the drum and hub on the spindle and all lined up perfectly. What do you know, no snafu on the front anyway. Still have the other assembly to sandblast and then to get new cylinders. Thankfully the front is easy so far. The blast cabinet works fantastic but as those who’ve done it, takes lots of time. People who don’t understand the cost of the restoration can come and stand at my blast cabinet for what seems like eternity and blast these parts for me! It’s coming along now and starting on the chassis assembly.

[TexRiv_63]

How do those 37 drums compare to the stock 34's in size?

[John S.]

I love the Cutlass in the lift. 

[chistech]

8 hours ago, TexRiv_63 said:

How do those 37 drums compare to the stock 34's in size?

Pretty much identical. I’ll mount a wheel tomorrow so you can see how the 34 wheel fits.

[chistech]

4 hours ago, John S. said:

I love the Cutlass in the lift. 

My brothers. Pulled the motor for a higher HP freshen, replaced front drums for disk, new tubular A-frames, repaint of chassis front, all new body mounts, etc. Been on my lift now too long. Thank goodness he finally got layed off from his dump trailer driver job. He needs to get this thing done!

[chistech]

Lots of blasting, priming and painting. Here’s some pics of work done earlier.

[chistech]

More done. Started assembling the front axle. Ordered and waiting on new wheel cylinders. While the brake shoes are virtually new and just got blasted/painted, all the rest of the brake components will be brand new. 

[chistech]

I’m posting these photos while I’m sitting at the desk in the hotel at the Philadelphia convention. First time here, we’re enjoying ourselves. My son and his girl met us from Florida and my my daughter comes in on the train tomorrow to attend the banquet with us. Went out for a nice lunch with our good friend Bob Whitmoyer. Will be heading out with Joe later on. 

 

Went and and picked up another 37’ rear that was brought to my attention for sale on eBay but was very close to me. Although it was stripped of all brake parts, the essential banjo housing and torque tube is exactly what I needed for the conversion. The wrong 38’ rear had perfect brake drums and shoes so it ended up yielding the necessary parts to make a complete, updated dated rear that I need. Funny how little things matter and how excited we can get. Walter, the seller of the rear, has a real nice 36’ Chevy pickup, and asked me if I knew of other parts i needed. When I told him I need the “one year only fit” 36’ brake petals to fit my master cylinder bracket, he not only produced the pedals, but the whole assembly with another master bracket and all necessary pivot pins. SCORE! Then he said he believes he has a 36’ transmission that I also need for the correct speedometer drive location! Got to love good old car guys who appreciate bringing all these vehicles back, not just their own. Blasted up the pedals and bracket after driving out the pins. All got etched primed. Finally feel like I’m getting this conversion moving towards its goal. Assembled the front 34’ hubs to the 37’ drums and seal slinger. Blasted and primed the rear brake shoes with their brackets.

[chistech]

Haven’t posted in a while but been busy. Located a bare 37’ master axle and disassembled the pumpkin, drove the driveshaft out of the torque tube, and removed the axle bearings with seals. Put the 51’ pinion gear, which was still attached to a short piece of drive shaft and pinion socket in the lathe and turned the driveshaft off the socket. Also drove out the pin then pulled the socket off the 51’ pinion. I took the the 37’ drive shaft down to our local driveshaft shop and he’s going to cut off 6.5” , weld and pin the 51’ socket into the end. I need to take him the torque tube so he can cut and weld that back together. It seems I’m alway learning something new and it it seems the other rear, which had the wrong type spring perches on it, is also a 37’. It seems the standard and master models used a different spring mount. Because both torque tubes are identical with identical casting numbers, I’m looking at which one is best to have the shop cut down. I’m having the tube cut in the middle where Chevy put the vent and will be removing the vent from the tube. Chevy only did it in 37’ quickly learning the vent spewed oil all over the car. I will be drilling and tapping one of the axle tubes on the banjo housing for a vent instead of the old location. 

      Got in a bunch of new parts from the filling station and started assembling the front of the chassis. The front axle with drums is Installed along with the 34’ axle (for now) so I can drop it on the ground and off the rotisserie. I was told the motor is almost ready to come back so that will be going in along with the rebuilt trans. From there, I can mount the pedal assembly and start running brake lines. I decided to stay with the original type single reservoir master as it bolts correctly to the bracket and comes with a residual pressure valve built into it so the pedal stays high where it should be. I’m currently waiting on small chassis items like the tie rod, drag link, battery box pieces, etc. to come back from the powder coat shop. He also has the banjo housing which he is sandblasting so I can work on moving the spring perches. The perches are a whole story on their own as the 34’ perches are too big so I had to locate a set of 37’ perches. Looking at the banjo with the guy from the driveshaft shop, we both thought of turning some steel bushings on the lathe, split them in half, weld the two dogs that keep the perches from moving side to side onto the bushings, then weld the bushings onto the axle. This would give a nice new, round surface for the 34’ NOS perches to rotate on rather than stay with a somewhat worn axle tube and the smaller diameter 37’ perches. All I can say, it’s never easy doing a restoration, never mind adding some custom fabrication to the mix. I’ve said it before though, when this truck is done, I expect it to be an exceptional driver compared to its original form. 

 

I should also also mention that while the chassis doesn’t look that good in the pictures, it in fact is nicely powder coated. It’s just covered in a ton of dust that has a red hew to it from my brother sanding down his maroon cutlass!

 

Oh, by the way, do you think the tie rod will work!😂

Edited March 4, 2020 by chistech (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Looking good. Keep up the good work

[Mike Macartney]

12 hours ago, chistech said:

Oh, by the way, do you think the tie rod will work!😂

 

No - especially as it's not connected to anything!

[chistech]

The tie rod in the picture is actually a piece of 1” thick maple with two 1” holes to drop over the balls on the control arms. I wanted something to keep the two wheels pointed in the same direction when I put the chassis on the ground. 

 

Good news, when I stopped by the powder coat shop to drop off the grill (the owner wants a satin black grill rather than the original chrome), the owner told me all my stuff was done! So I ended up getting the tie rod, the ends, drag link, battery box parts, radiator support rod, front fender support, and other small parts I left off. I also picked up the freshly sandblasted rear banjo housing so I can cut off and move the spring perch dogs. More good news, the engine shop called and the motor came back from the stitcher. Absolutely perfect work on the cracks and you almost can’t even see where he repaired. The block was pressure tested and all is good. I was told less than two weeks and I’ll be able to pick up the motor. Also went by the driveshaft shop to drop off the torque tube and he already had the driveshaft cut and the 51’ socket welded in. Super excellent work. Pictures coming. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Took measurements today to make sure exactly where to move the perch dogs on the tubes of the housing. I was told the dogs need to come in 1 7/8” and that is what I came up with. Before moving the dog, i needed to first round the axle housing where the perch will sit. While there is a fair amount of material to remove, I opted to only use a grinder where the tube was extremely heavy like at the welds. All the rest of the shaping was done with a file. Because the area is good size and I needed to remove a decent amount of metal, I went and picked up a blacksmiths file/rasp. The hoof rasp, using the file side, made fast work of removing what I needed to and because of the width, it was easy to keep the surface level. I kept work the tube by spraying guide coat paint on the files area then put the perch half’s on, trying to rotate them feeling the binding areas. Removed the perch half’s then filed where the paint showed contact. I continued this process until the perch could be fully tightened together and still rotate.

       Once I got the perch to fit right, I the ground off the tops of the rivet heads holding the dog in place, the drove the rivets into the axle tube, releasing the dog. I moved the dog 1 7/8” in then checked my measurements again. I took the dog, clamped it in my miller’s vice, and milled the 5/16” rivet hole up to 1/2”. This gave me a larger hole to weld into to allow me to get the mig to penetrate the axle tube with weld while welding the dog to the tube.  I the took 1/4” long pieces of 5/16” bolt shank and put them in the two rivet holes in the tube and welded them in. Some grinding and that big file made fast work of closing up those hole. You can’t even tell 5hey were there. So I’m pretty happy knowing the passenger side of the banjo tube went easy so I go to start on the drivers side and when I put the other perch on the tube I realize 5he guy was old me the perches didn’t sell me a matched pair (left and right) but sold me two, right side perches!😡 So now I’ve got to call him up and see if he has the drivers side. If not, I’m again on 5he hunt for a god perch. Just when I thought thing were going so well!

[Mike Macartney]

5 hours ago, chistech said:

. . . . and when I put the other perch on the tube I realize the guy didn’t sell me a matched pair (left and right) but sold me two, right side perches!

 

Yet another example of 'Sods Law'. . . . . the best laid plans of mice and men!

[chistech]

Well it turns out the parts book for 37’ shows the same part number for each side so I continued to fit the other perch to the driver’s side tube. With the grinder, blacksmith file, fine file, and emery paper, I got the new area of tube into shape. Made my measurements, drilled the two dog rivets out, enlarged the holes in the dogs to 1/2”, and welded the dogs in the new location. Filled the two rivet holes and the rear banjo modifications are done. I had to move one brake line clip but that was easy. Now it’s ready to go to the powder coat. The driveshaft shop won’t have the torque tube done till next week so dropping everything at the PC shop will have to wait. I’m getting anxious to reassemble this rear as it’s something I’ve never done before but the results should really be a nice change. 

[chistech]

I forgot to mention that with these perches, it’s the cap that wears as the axle sits above the springs. The other perch showed a fair amount of wear so it was chucked in the miller vice and I removed about .065 off of each flange, much like filing the cap on a babbited rod. The machining removed the egg shape and got rid of the excessive play the assembled perch had. Now the perch rotates on the tube as it should with just a minimal amount of play. I don’t know how I managed all those years doing things without my lathe and mill!

[John S.]

Boy Ted, you are making a lot of progress on the truck. 

[chistech]

Dropped the rear end banjo housing at the powder coat shop, picked up the tie rod And a nicely done in satin black, front grill. The trucks owner has decided to go with a satin black grill rather than the original chrome one. Installed the tie rod ends on the rod and installed the tie rod on the front end. Next was the steering box. When I disassembled the truck I removed a remote horn button so the upper mast/horn bushing in the must have been bad. I had removed the tube and the bushing to make it ready to install the new bushing. When I started to clean up and blast the steering box to get it ready for paint, I found the reason why the upper bushing was bad and why a secondary horn button had been added. It seems the original bushing must have worn into the shaft so the groove in the shaft was filled with braze and only filed or sanded down some leaving a big brass bulge of material. It was easy to see that there was no way the shaft would ever slide through a new bushing as it was,  so the only option was to repair it the right way and fix it the way it should have been done. I disassembled the box and slid the shaft through the headstock of my lathe. My Logan lathe is not a big one and the shaft barely went through but it did. I trued the shaft up in the chuck and steadied the end with the tail stock then turned the brazed area true. Now it’s time to clean all the grease out, reset and adjust all the bearings, and reassemble it. 
     What I’ve come to realize, working on these old cars, the cars that have never been “restored “ are often easier to restore correctly because you don’t have to fix a poorly done repair or half assed restoration. Considering my Olds was virtually never messed with other than one screw,  paint, and a common to the period “fix” for the free wheeling, the restoration was straight forward and not once did I have to fix any poor work before I could continue. This truck on the other hand has had, and still has areas that I’m constantly making right!

[Mike Macartney]

6 hours ago, chistech said:

What I’ve come to realize, working on these old cars, the cars that have never been “restored “ are often easier to restore correctly because you don’t have to fix a poorly done repair or half assed restoration.

 

How true. It's the same with bodywork. A car with rust showing, and no signs of ever being repainted, is easier to restore than one that looks "Bright & Shiny" with a nice coat of paint that is hiding a multitude of sins!

[JV Puleo]

11 hours ago, chistech said:

     What I’ve come to realize, working on these old cars, the cars that have never been “restored “ are often easier to restore correctly because you don’t have to fix a poorly done repair or half assed restoration.

 

 

Boy Ted...are you right about that. My favorite (meant sarcastically) is taking apart two parts "that will never come apart again"...

It's a tribute to how durable some old cars were that then can take such ham-fisted repairs and still work.

[chistech]

Completely cleaned out the steering box and checked it all out. Bearings were good, pitman shaft bushing was good, the worm and sector gear was also so a new coat gasket was made and it was reassembled. Using the offset nut and offset bolt, both got turned to tighten the sector gear as close as possible to the worm with no binding through full travel of the box. The play is taken up with the worm and sector in the dead center of range of rotation as the box is designed to be basically play free only in this position. As the shaft is rotated in either direction from center, play increases slightly and is designed so the pressure of the wheels in any position other than straight ahead, helps return the wheel to center. 
     The box was installed”back in the frame, the mount tightened enough to hold it in position but still allow it to be rotated in the mount as mounting the cab is easier when the steering tube is first rotated down then up as the cab is lowered to the frame. The drag link was attached to the control arm and the pitman arm. The wheels were set straight ahead and the steering wheel with one spoke of the wheel straight down, the the pitman arm was put on the best fit on the splined pitman arm shaft to keep all that in line. The pitman arm nut was just slightly tightened and the final adjustments will be made once the cab is on and the steering tube bolted solid in its mount to the bottom edge of the dash. Also got in the rebuild kit for the transmission tail to frame mount. Assembled it and painted it. Some more pieces of the puzzle coming together.

[Bloo]

Did your sector have ball bearings in it?