[Essex_29]

Nice of you sammons to sell him the truck back, and nice of him to give you a token of appreciation too.

I got the tires on the rims today. Fun with another detail
that's making things look a tiny bit closer to done.

[Essex_29]

It's hard to see any progress, even as I spend most night working on this project.
I'm a tinkerer, I don't work efficiently.
Anyway, I got the fuel tank installed, hole cut in the floor for the fuel line, the return line plugged
for the time being, and the vent line running up to the roof, through a small fuel filter, to filter
out dust from the moving air, and back down and out through the floor.



The filler is of course connected too, the cap from an old bus is right below the rear window.
As the fuel pump turned out to be very loud, I mounted it on the outside of the frame on soft
rubber stands. It's a bit less obnoxious now.



Dual crome fuel lines snake up from a T-fitting under the floor, and are held in position with a
home made double P-clamp I made from a piece of brass sheet I found in my grandfather's
shed when we cleaned it out many years ago.



Finally, this last week I've been making the brake lines, bench bleeding the master cylinder, mounting
it to the brake booster with its pushrod and finally worked with endless leaks.



This is the brake proportioning valve, and for some reason I just could not get one of the brake lines
to seal. I remade the double flair a couple times, I got it better, but it still kept weeping fluid.
I had a shop make a new line with their high end tooling, and finally got it to seal, Then I noticed the
 cupper washer on the other end was weeping too. I took out the fitting, filed it a bit shorter so it
wouldn't bottom out before the washer got crushed tight, mounted it using a new washer and
probably too much torque.
Now it's not leaking anywhere, and we finally have brakes!

Original drive shaftsdrilled for 5on4-1/2" mounted with new bearings, differential filled with oil, Pinion
angle adjusted, prop shaft mounted, all bolts and nuts torqued down.
In the best case scenario, there will be a test drive in my near future.

[TFoch]

You say you're tinkering.  I see it as attention to detail!  Nice work!

[sammons]

Ya, i'd say your just motoring right along on that!

[Essex_29]

Thank you for your support, sammons and TFoch, because that's exactly what I need right now.

The day after I made my last post, the proportioning valve was weeping brake fluid again. I changed the
copper gasket to an aluminum one, then with no improvement, changed o a new copper one, and still leaking.

I wrote to the speed shop I bought the proportioning valve from, and asked for advice.
 They sent me another valve with no questions asked. When that valve too leaked from exactly the same
copper seal, I got annoyed, this has to be an issue with these valves.



I called and sent them this pic along with a couple other ones. After less than an hour I got a text saying
that my new Wilwood (more expensive) valve was sent along with a paid lable for returning the two bad valves.
That's what you get for trying to be cheaping out to save like $45 on a project that costs tens of thousands anyway.
Along the way, in desperation I bought a really good brake line double flairing tool. Next time it will be fun to make
new brakelines, I took out and made three new ones just to try the tool out. Much neater results.

So now for the Nth time nothing leaks, the brand new Wilwood proportioning valve is mounted and I
have depressed the brake pedal for some time, still not finding any leaks. Maybe one day I can get
the brake system bled too, a task that I was going to get done two weeks ago.

Leaking brakes is not a big deal, but when I seemingly couldn't get it fixed, it took a huge chunk out of my inspiration.
It's not like this is my first time making a brake system...
Two weeks all but wasted, but hoping for no leaks tomorrow, a deep breath, and then to get back up to speed.

[TFoch]

I'm glad the vendor took care of you!  We don't always get good customer service.  Hope all stays dry!

[sammons]

Quality control is almost non existant these days. Glad the upgraded Wilwood is holding so far. Thumbs up to vendor for stepping up to make it right, rare anymore.

Had that happen on an Impala i sold wayback. Reman alternator, went thru three, resopnse was it was my wiring. Put an old used one and it worked fine. 😡

[Essex_29]

TFoch, This vendor did it all the way!
I got the new Wilwood brake proportioning valve, (to which they had had already mounted the
right hardware to fit the brakelines I made earlier for the cheapo valves) as I mentioned earlier.
No leaks. After checking that everything is good, I sent the bad valves back to the vendor  using
the prepaid ( free to me) label.
I messaged them yesterday, sunday asking how to pay the balance. I got an answer immediately
telling me that I can keep that as pay for the unnecessary work with the no good valves.
How amazing is that?!

sammons, that's so annoying,  when you know  there's not an issue with the car,
but with the new part. Reminds me, I had a friend who had mounted his second new alternator,
which still didn't alternate. I noticed that his alternator light didn't light up when I turned
on the ignition. Turns out he didn't know that you actually have to have a functioning alternator
light to get the alternator excited. Not related, but it was kinda funny.

So the brake issue finally out of the way, the easter break was all used up working on mounting the
seats and the exhaust.
The driver's side seat is mounted and ready for a test drive, the passenger seat is waiting
for me to invent a better mouting system for decent access to the rear seat.



The exhausts are done, I went out of my way to make then so  that are theoretically going
to sound awesome. The different length pipes will make for a very nice exhaust note.
Or it won't. No way to tell before a test drive.



I've used plastic truck brake line for fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump. The right hand
exhaust is too close the the fuel line to feel  right, so I'll have to pull the tank and make a
metal fuel line instead. Otherwise the truck brake line works perfectly, in case anyone's
wondering, I used it on my Pontiac, and it's still good after almost 14 years.

[sixball]

Great progress!

[Essex_29]

Thank you sixball.

I got in the new copper fuel line yesterday, better routed that the old one, sealed the holes
around the tubes with body sealant, and today when the sealant had set, I put the tank back
in, connected the lines, filler tube and ground wire for the fuel gauge.

While I was at it, I welded a few bolts to the tank hold downs and the rear of the body.
A tank cover of sorts can be mounted to these to tidy up the space between the rear
seat back and window.

Small steps, a feel good step as there's a possibility that the tank can stay now.

[sammons]

A guy tries to get the big stuff outta the way, but all those small things end up taking more time than the big.

Your moving right along.