86 GMC squarebody, eventual tow rig. Molasses pace build.

[rusty ol ranger]

We had a 1993 Taylor TC250S that had a propane fed Ford 460. It kept overheating the old style ignition module so I swapped in a MSD 6al. The stamped valve covers had unstoppable leaks from years of over tightening, so I put a set of aluminum Ford Motorsport valve covers on it.
I don’t have any pics, because I haven’t worked there in 14 years, but here’s one I found on the Google.

View attachment 131480

Thats badass lol.

 

[Blmpkn]

Turned out to be 8 rivets per side.. 6 in the web and 2 in the flange(?)

I drilled into them until I was pretty flush with the frame.. then hogged em with a 1/2" bit and finished up with the grinder. Just did the one side for today, all my damn safety glasses are in the ranger and my eyes were getting tired of squinting lol.. plus all my drill bits are either smoked or broke now.. I'll hafta make a trip by HF for another box of bits and some flap wheels this weekend.

Oh yeah.. the truck that was on this frame before I got it obviously had a body lift.. as someone hacked off the front few inches of the frame and welded it up on top of itself.. Instead of just buying some goddamn new bumper brackets.. gah.

 

[Blmpkn]

Slight bit more progress has been made... Veeeeerry slight.

I started to use all my manliness to remove the front hangers from the frame sometime in August.. but I wasn't at it long before I managed to take a chisel to the face that was delivered by a 4lb hammer

Couple stitches later I was good as new.. but didn't get around to messing with the truck again until today (with a face shield this time! )

Anyhow.. front hangers have now been (painlessly) removed from the 'new' frame and got chucked in the lake.. and I cut the leafs off of the old rear axle for use on the front of the new frame. I forgot how exciting cutting u bolts is.. those suckers are under some good tension.

Would've liked to get the bushings removed from the leafs as well but it was starting to get dark and both myself AND my band of misfit animals were getting hungry..

The plan of attack from here is to simply get it together enough so it can be rolled around the yard as need be.. ideally before the snow starts to fly.

I already have new 4" leafs for the rear, as well as HD greasable rear shackles, u-bolts etc.. just need to do a little shopping for the front.. "B52" front spring hanger/bodymount combo brackets to utilize the 52" springs, probably go with poly bushes for the leafs, matching pair of HD greasable front shackles.. I believe that's all I should need.. well see.

 

[Blmpkn]

It was an incredibly nice day up here in the Northeast.. had a little motivation left once I got home from work.. used it to make another *slight* bit of progress on this damn thing..

40 year old bushings & their sleeves have been exorcized from the leafs.

Used the drill bit/Swiss cheese method to get the bushings out, and then a punch & chisel to roll/fold the sleeve in onto itself so it could get hammered out. 2 of the sleeves seemed to have had a seam in them which made things slightly easier.. still took the better part of 2 hours. Killed half a dozen drill bits being a total gorilla while drilling on the bushings but... No civilian casualties so.. that's a bonus

Used a little flappy wheel job to clean up the eyelets as best as I could afterwards..

Not perfect but.. good enough for me.

I actually have a real deal deadline now for when this thing needs to be together enough to get rolled around the yard.. so bushings, shackles, and spring hangers have been put a lot closer to the top of the list of crap to buy.

Aiming for the end of the month, well see what happens.

 

[Blmpkn]

Messed with the truck again today after work.

APPARENTLY... if you're swapping to 52" springs up front on one of these you ideally don't want to be using the stock shackle hangers.. didn't know this until just the other day lol. They'll work... But it won't be close to optimal so.. kinda just a waste of time..

So I added HD 52" front shackle hangers to the list of stuff to buy and whacked the stock ones out of the frame.

Ezpz.

Also got the passenger side rear leaf mostly removed. The bolt on the front hanger somehow wasn't seized in the sleeve and the nut felt like spinning right off of the bolt so.. that came out real easy

The bolt that holds the shackle onto the rear hanger though.. not as cooperative. The nut came off easy enough and I was able to hammer it out to where the end of the bolt is flush with the hanger... But no further. I hammered it back and forth a few times to see if I could loosen it up to the point where I could then just grab it with some vice grips and yank it the rest of the way out but.. no dice. Gonna need some heat and PP blaster. Torch decided to break and I don't have any blaster laying around so..two MORE things for the list lol.

Absolute deadline to get the suspension all back together and get the thing to roll around is officially the end of NEXT month, which takes a bit of a load off.. as getting this thing back on its feet is still about 600$ away.. money well spent though hell yeah. Even though it's still just a naked frame that's not even COMPLETE.. getting real excited. Progress baby! It's coming.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've had to cut the head off, and then stack washers under the nut to pull it off. Just keep stacking washers as needed. Use antiseize on the threads.

 

[Blmpkn]

I've had to cut the head off, and then stack washers under the nut to pull it off. Just keep stacking washers as needed. Use antiseize on the threads.

I'm really surprised i couldn't yank it out after hammering it back and forth a bit.. it's loose enough now where one whack of the hammer will drive it as far as it'll go one way or the other... when initially I needed to wail on that bolt a good dozen times to get it flush with the hanger. It's definitely getting there. Getting it screaming hot and then hitting it with blaster will have it slide right out of there im sure.


Neversieze though... Yes. Thank you for the reminder. Allllll the hardware on this truck is definitely getting slathered in the stuff... The ranger would appreciate it too I'm sure.. ANOTHER thing added to the list lol.