Betty White The Restomod SGT

[vonrottes]

She made it back from Carlisle without any issues....other than the ac freezing up on the highway and blowing fog when it started raining 😂 think it's still just slightly low

 

Only issue on the way there Thursday morning was the cheapest reman alternator they had at O'Reilly's decided it couldn't do anymore than 12v with nothing but the radio on, so I threw in a NEW duralast gold Friday evening in the hotel parking lot, now holds 14v with EVERYTHING on.

[vonrottes]

Trying to work on cars and still have time on the weekend to do stuff sucks... thats why the leaking heater core has been temporarily bypassed.
But the tune has been fixed and it feels like it's running SIGNIFICANTLY better than before, though I screwed up and the original file from the yukon PCM got lost due to the flash drive I kept all my tunes on just....died. so it's stuck in MAF enhanced RTT. Not a big deal since I'm not planning on keep the gen 3 stuff much longer, Valley knock sensor are the bane of my existence.

But other than that I've not really had any motivation to do any work to it so have a picture I took at the park...

[Casper]

Looks awesome. 

[vonrottes]

Week off work has led me to finally tint the windows. 35% 3m ceramic... It's not great but idk not awful for my first time.. stuff is a lot less forgiving than 3m Scotchgard film 😅

 

Need to swap out the back glass, bronze for clear and tint it as well. Will probably switch to Llumar film since it's significantly cheaper for a 10' roll.

 

Other than that I got a broke ass sand blasting and powder coating setup in the garage so get ready for all the custom coated parts like this spare 0411 I used as a test piece

And I hauled off a 300lb load of scrap metal from my garage, and subsequently got to weigh the truck 3440 with half a tank of gas and me in it, she a lil piggy 🐖

[vonrottes]

Out here looking extra smol next to an obs 3500 crew cab 🫠

 

Recently the belt has started to slip REAL bad when it's wet, definitely not enough wrap around the crank pulley (between like 5 and 7 maybe 8 ) with the AC bracket and I think the belt is slightly too long as well.

 

Getting real close to buying an SS so I can park this thing again and start repairing and upgrading

[vonrottes]

Little things....

Got the rear calipers and a spare set of valve covers powder coated, so I can start making it look pretty, have some metallic grey I'm thinking about doing the coil brackets in.

 

Soon as I have time to take the truck apart I'll get the front calipers done in the same red and make some silver reflective vinyls for them... As well as powder coating the front and rear caliper adapter brackets..

[vonrottes]

Oh man, there is a bunch of small things since April.

Got the "new" valve covers and coil brackets installed, along with a catch can

 

Switched all the lights over to LED with some slightly sketchy H4 projectors

and even did the interior lights finally.

 

Got the rear brakes installed and also powder coated the diff cover and battery tray while it was all apart.

 

 

for smaller simpler stuff... installed power studs on the tank because I'm sick of melting the racetronix bulkheads.

Primitively did the trunnion upgrade since I had a spare set of rockers, got those put in last monday.

 

FINALLY threw in a set of 2" blocks with JTR setback plates, also did a quick buff/seal to get the paint cleaned up a little and got compliments how clean the truck looked this year! 

 

And some pictures from the trip!
 

First stop in PA, noticed the rear looked like it was squatting pretty bad because I was also delivering a GM 8.5 to carlisle for someone.

only hit the bump stops on the expansion joints on the bridges, in hindsight I probably should have turned the compression on the shocks up a click or two...

second stop was in MD at the welcome center, absolutely beautiful area!

 

 

And sad sunday everyone packing up I was just getting some last photos since it rained off and on most of the day on saturday

[durk]

@vonrottes Nice looking truck. I appreciate your attention to the details. 

Edited August 10, 2024 by durk

[vonrottes]

Remember kids don't daily drive your projects 😂

After attempting a 1/4 mile pull the other day, the truck developed some odd noise that made me let off it before I even hit 60mph. thought it was the transmission, then I thought it was the differential or possibly the original 33 year old u joints.... after reviewing the under truck video I took trying to kind the noise, I THINK the rear strap for the fuel tank has come loose.... which would definitely cause some unsettling noises at speed..

So this weekend I'm still replacing u joints, I know they are loose but they don't seem sloppy yet, but preventative maintenance right? especially considering I'm planning on taking it down the track at least a few times in may.

Also going to tackle the valve stem seals, occasionally a big ole cloud of smoke on start up. don't think it's a ring issue. valve stem seals are only 10 years old, when I had to swap the 862 heads from the 4.8 onto the new 5.3 since the 706 heads had cracks in the head bolt recesses.  I deep cleaned the heads, lapped the valves and replaced valve stem seals... maybe I did it wrong, or maybe they were just crappy seals. hopefully the valves don't leak much because I don't want to pull the heads to fix the valves unless I'm doing a cam swap 😂 

[vonrottes]

Didn't take pictures of my work, so did I really even do it?

 

But what an absolute pita 💀

Went to jegs and picked up a valve holder/air hose thingy on Saturday, was supposed to take a ¼" NPT fitting, fitting was 5/16 compression thread... So ordered one with air fitting from Amazon, the hex on the spark plug fitting with that hose was to big to fit in the recesses on LS heads, so I had to grind down the fitting to clear....

 

Tried to use the cheap universal "pry bar" valve compressor and it ended up sending two valve keepers on an express one way flight to the abyss.

Tried to get a hand full of replacements from the local autozone and they were useless (the hub store closest to me on West broad specifically is useless not the valve keepers) so I ended up having to go BACK to jegs and get a full set of comp keepers, and picked up the expensive bolt on valve spring compressor (because I forgot the one I already had was for LS3 style heads AND DONT FIT THE LS1 STYLE 😂)

Old seals were definitely crusty with lots of sludge around the valve stem and guide under the seal.

Truck is back together and seems to be running maybe a little better, wideband looks a LOT more consistent, but I haven't plugged the laptop in yet.

 

U joints are in, originals were pretty chewed up but not loose so I think that was some vibration and noise... But the crusty bearings sound is still there on left turns, might be wheel bearings so I ordered those today. Could also just be the diff, supposedly the F body Zexel torsen make a "rusty screw" sound.... Just because 🤷‍♂️ idk it feels smooth when I rotate the wheels in park, and when I hold the wheels letting it idle in gear on Jack stands..

probably should have replaced the the bearing when I installed the rear brakes but they looked fine when I had the axles out.

Edited yesterday at 01:42 AM by vonrottes