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B873SX Rebuild Update


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I towed the old girl out of the garage today,after I finished with disconnecting all of the wires and airlines that run from the cab to motor or to other locations.I will be lifting the cab off the frame on Friday afternoon when a friend of mine comes by with a boom truck from his work.Will post a picture of it on Wednesday and again on Friday after the cab is removed.The frame and motor,tranmission will be needing a good presure wash.May even sandblast it depending on how it looks.

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Are you going to do any mechanical work to it while it's apart? Clutch, seals, gaskets, etc.

I know that I got caught up in the "hey, I've gone this far I might as well do this" syndrome when I work on the trucks. Gets a little costly sometimes.

Have you sand blasted one before?

Money, sex, and fire; everybody thinks everyone else is getting more than they are!

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Haven't had much time to work on the old girl,my sons college lacrosse seasons start this week so I will be travling to all of his games.Still waiting on friend to stop by with boom truck to lift off cab.So in the mean time,I removed the driver side fuel tank,both air tanks,and both battery boxes.Like to have must about everything removed off of frame so when the weather clears up can push truck out the back of garage to pressure wash and sandblast.Will be removing wheels and tires prior to sandblasting.The mechanicals of the truck were fine,before I started on the truck I would have driven the old girl to the west coast and back.But I will be checking any seal leaks and replacing most if not all the hoses.

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If you have not sand blasted one before be prepared for the mess that you will face when you are done. The media gets into everything and everywhere. Plan on removing the brake drums and to spend a lot of time blasting all the little crevices and holes to get the media out before you paint. If you don't the pressure from the paint gun has a nasty habit of launching media dust into the fresh paint when you least expect it.

Money, sex, and fire; everybody thinks everyone else is getting more than they are!

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fxfymn,thanks for the heads up but been there done that stupied shit before.That damm sand finds it way into places you never throught it would.After I blasted my R model I drove it around for 3 days before I painted her,still found some sand.Took the driver side fuel tank off and the brakets that hold both fuel tanks on along with the air tanks,battery boxes.Hopefully I will have the cab off in the next couple of days.Then the fun really starts.Will keep you all updated as I go .

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Well I finely got the cab off this morning.Now I can start to remove the 49 years of dirt,grease from the frame and all of the air lines.When the weather get better I will be taking her out back to pressure wash and sandblast her to ready for paint.Will also be doing over the cab.

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Well I spent the day stripping the backside of the cab so a fellow can make me a panal to weld in on the bottom middle of the back of the cab.It will only have to be about 2"x 3',it right where the back meet the floor.I had to use 40 grit sand paper to cut through the 5 layers of paint.Next I tried the new mig welder I brought acouple of weeks ago.Used it to weld up some cracks in the floor,and started to weld up some of the other cracks and holes in the floor panals.Never used a mig before but once I got going it seemed to work great.The final chore of the day was to remove the dash.Once I got the dash away from the rest of the big panal the wires behind was mess.I think what I'm going to do is just ripe out all of the wire harness and just make my own.Would like some feedback from anyone that has done this before.Will get some pictures on Sunday and post them up.One last thing does anyone know what thickness the floor is?It looks like something close to 16 gauge.

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Well I finely got the cab off this morning.Now I can start to remove the 49 years of dirt,grease from the frame and all of the air lines.When the weather get better I will be taking her out back to pressure wash and sandblast her to ready for paint.Will also be doing over the cab.

not that dirty considering the age

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No your are right the frame is not all that dirty and very little rust even between the frame rails.This truck was parked most nights in side of our shop.The only real mess I have is removing most of the wires that have been cut off over the years.The cab for the most part is in excellent condition for the age.The only real problem area is where we tried to fix the cab mount area.Now this was done back in the 70's when we most likely could still but the right panals from Mack still,but no we had to make our own panals.Our welders were some of the best but when they got done you weren't going to move the cab off that frame with a wrecking ball.Can't wait till the better weather so I can get some real work done on it.Like sandblasting and paint.

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I think it is 20 with beads rolled in to make it stiff, I used 16 without beads and it works just fine, I cut the old floor cross bracing out and re used the stuff that was good then used angle iron to make up the rest look at my pics http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/gallery/member/10018-thomastractorsvc/

On the sand blasting thing I took the gun and pick up from my blast cabnet and added a longer hose, I went to tractor supply and got black diamond coal slag in the 40# or 50# bag and blasted away , was a little slower but did not spend but maybe 75 on media and some time, the sand blaster guy wanted like 2500. I used 60 and 80 grit da sander to strip most of the paint then went over it with the baster, low budget but effective. I would like to buy one of the 50# pressure pots at tractor supply some day.

Robert

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."

 

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Re-wiring is not all that difficult, especially if you have the manual from the museum with the wiring schematic. I always solder the ends and cover them with shrink as well. HF sells an assortment of wire ends and heat shrink for a pretty low price.

If you want to use the original asphalt loom you can buy it at Brillman Co. among others.

When I started doing my 52 75A I removed a five gallon pail worth of old wire and everything still worked!

If you are concerned about the metal's gauge, use a caliper to measure it and check it against the gauge thickness chart that almost any metal supplier has on-line. I would use 16 at the least just to make it easier to weld without burn through.

Money, sex, and fire; everybody thinks everyone else is getting more than they are!

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yea the B model wirin is not difficult at all. i redid my harness cause i couldnt afford one of those new ones from top of the hill trucks even tho they are really nice. i first cut out all the extra junk everyone added. then cut the cloth coverin and kept the wires bundled loosely where they were headed and bent with zip ties. and replaced all the bad wires one by one with the same guage wire. wasnt the original cloth covered wire but that can be bought to if you need to be original. i even added a few extra wires to run down to the headlight junction block for running and fog lights and extras if i need.

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yea the B model wirin is not difficult at all. i redid my harness cause i couldnt afford one of those new ones from top of the hill trucks even tho they are really nice. i first cut out all the extra junk everyone added. then cut the cloth coverin and kept the wires bundled loosely where they were headed and bent with zip ties. and replaced all the bad wires one by one with the same guage wire. wasnt the original cloth covered wire but that can be bought to if you need to be original. i even added a few extra wires to run down to the headlight junction block for running and fog lights and extras if i need.

Not to bump off subject but Rhode Island Vintage Wiring builds a beautiful harness, i bought one for my B model and the price was very reasonable compared to other prices.

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I went out to the website of the Rhode Island Vintage Wiring and found that they do make the wiring harness for the B61,can't be that much different then my B87.Problem is that it's $1200 so I will be making my own.It will be a slower process doing it one gauge at a time but for 1200 I'm in no rush.

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