Heading out in a bit to clean some of the road grime off and enter it in a car show the kids' school is sponsoring to raise money for their after graduation party for the senior class. I'm not expecting to come close to winning anything, but if it'll help with the fundraising I'll be there.

 

There were only 2 trucks in my class, but my factory original didn't stand a chance against a heavily restored 1 ton GM square body 4x4. They had left over trophies for classes that no one entered so they started drawing names. Naturally, I was the first one drawn. Considering how I feel about "participation" awards, it is actually pretty funny.

 

Is that a rock n roll trophy? Bwahahahaah

Stupid square bodies. Everybody thinks they're the cats meow and who hasn't restored one?

 

It took me a bit before I got the humor.

I'm sure square body fans would have loved it, but I thought it was just overdone to the point of being cheesy.

 

In the bid to get my clutch pedal smooth again (replaced hydraulics twice now) I finally broke down and ordered new bushings for a grand total of $18.

It wasn't too bad replacing once you get your fingers up there and are able to work blind while contorted like a monkey gymnast but I got all six replaced. The old ones were very gunked up with old grease, dust, etc. Took awhile to clean everything but installation went quick. I did notice the AL bracket where the pin holds the pedals was a bit wallowed out on the clutch side. Hmm, so a solid steel bar wore out the aluminum bracket that holds it? Geewhiz, what brilliant engineer thought that was a good combo? (facepalm)

Verdict: pedal has less free movement but still gritty with catchy master cylinder movement when depressed. Ugh, I suppose I'll buy another kit ($100). My theory is that maybe the loose pedal caused the pedal to move at a bad angle which wore out the masters. So now that it's solid again, maybe I'll try a new kit again?

I don't know. I'm so sick of this. Just want it to work like it should.

 

Begun the heater core yesterday. Got as far as the new one is in and hooked up then I retired for the evening. Had to remove the dash much farther than when I replaced the dash top. I cut the old core out so I could hook the hoses directly to the new one without splicing. Much more work having a stick as both shifters and center consoles have to come out. Sure hope this Napa core lasts awhile. Nobody makes a very good one anymore so we'll see. Hope to button it up by noon here.

Got it all buttoned up. Seems to have good heat but either the new core holds a lot less coolant or there's a huge air pocket because there's at least an extra quart of coolant in the overflow that wasn't there before. I jacked it way up on the passenger side and ran it til hot with heater full blast. Took it for a spin and let it go through several stat cycles. Seems fine and no more gurgle gurgle when taking off in first. The radiator cap is cold though. Hmm. I'll keep tinkering with it. Overall not horrible, but not fun either. But it's not my first time tackling the interior.

 

I managed to pick up an almost imperceptible vibration in the steering wheel that was really really getting on my nerves. I finally decided to check the wheel bearings just to eliminate that possibility and found them looking like this:

I changed them out and said annoyance is thankfully gone. While I was there, I decided to go ahead and do the front brakes. If I wasn't racing the weather, I would have rotated the tires as well.

 

Yeah, he's looking a little scored up there.

 

Just a bit. LOL

I had a heck of a time finding the outer bearing. Most of the places I called just wanted to argue with me about whether or not it had a unit bearing instead of taper bearings. One even hung up on me because I obviously had no idea what I was talking about. I finally found someone who would work with me and even had them in stock. They're now the only place I'm buying parts.