1980 Peterbilt 359 International Transport

[Ol2Stroker]

Not much for updates I've been busy rebuilding the transmission in my bulldozer and reinstalling it. It's starting to get cold here so i dumped the water out of the truck and got some coolant in it and ran it to temperature to circulate. Sure starts and runs excellent!!!! I got the new radio, cb and speakers in the mail last week, only had time to throw the speakers in quick. Hope to tackle the radio and cb soon.

[Ol2Stroker]

So the following day after I put coolant in the truck and ran it to temp I went outside to show my buddy the truck who hasn't seen it yet and opened the hood and checked the coolant. Radiator empty..... uh oh. Pulled dipstick.... way over full. You know where this is going.... pulled drain plug got 5 gallons of coolant before i got any oil out. LOL Pulled the pan off today.

8v92 Coolant in pan video

No traces in airbox or under valve covers. I believe I'm a victim of an old style water pump with no weephole.

Water pump on order.

Edited November 4, 2017 by wayne64ss

[j hancock]

Uggghhhhh......  That sucks.

[h67st]

Glad you don't have to pull liners!

[Ol2Stroker]

Me too!!! Really got lucky here!

 

Finished up the stereo,cb, and speaker install on sunday. I can't wait to get this thing on the road.

Some fresh speakers behind the factory covers in the cab and in the sleeper



Sounds awesome and looks good in there.

Edited November 8, 2017 by wayne64ss

[MHfred]

Wayne, it is looking very good. That interior cleans up real well.

[Timmyb]

Yeah I agree on the interior. Was going to ask what you used to clean it?

[Ol2Stroker]

I just used some armor-all leather wipes and some leather cleaner??? 

 

Did the water pump job Friday and got all the fluids back in on Saturday and got her running again. Easy job woulda been ALOT nicer inside in a heater bay instead of outside in 15degree weather. UGH I hate winter. Even still I had the pump off in under 40 minutes.

 

 

Confirmation:

 

 

Turns out the old pump does have a weep hole but it was very small and plugged. Also totally invisible to check in this application.

 

 

Had a bunch of minor leaks when finished which were all hose clamps not tight enough. Think I've got em all squared away and I moved the truck to it's winter location. I'll check again tonight.

[Ol2Stroker]

Little bit of cold start fun on the old 8v92. Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJvzsFevEKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIP7x18AsKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANEDZXY-vLs

[j hancock]

Hope you warmed your hands before trying to get the old girl going!

[Ol2Stroker]

Been awhile... though I had a buyer for this but as is typical money never appeared. Was only selling it so I wouldn't have to see it sit any more so I decided since I didn't need to sell it we'd make a better choice. 

First lets get the old girl pulled out of the weeds.



Next lets get it turned around and in a spot we can work on it a little easier.



Lets get to work shall we:





 

[Ol2Stroker]

As you can see the back half of the truck needs.... everything. lol 

 

 

 

 

We also had a bunch of work to do up front. The radiator has always had a leak at the seam right above the lower outlet. Out she comes.

 

 

 

 

 

On top of that the single rounds and rock shields looked like complete shit and had to go!

 

 

This poor radiator was in ROUGH shape.

 

 

 

Here you can see where the leak was. The corrosion in this area was so bad it actually snapped all the bolts above that outlet.

 

 

 

 

Core is filthy but appeared in good shape otherwise.

 

 

 

 

First trip to the store. Ugh. The bleeding begins.

 

 

 

 

Decided to pull a front wheel and have a look. Not too shabby.

 

 

 

 

Cleaned up nice!

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Ol2Stroker

[Ol2Stroker]

Swapped my steers over to some real wheels and put it back together in the front.

 

 

 

Getting back to the part that really needs attention. She's lost her fifth and fenders.

 

 

 

Broke a shock mount in the process so I unbolted it. Also got rid of the bent rear crossmember.

 

 

 

Pulling airbags etc.

 

 

 

Got a set of REAL headlights mounted. That's how a Peterbilt is supposed to look.

 

 

 

Still coming apart however:

 

 

 

 

 

Oh man this can't be good. What is all this?

 

 

 

 

And so it begins...

 

 

 

 

 

Typical I get done sandblasting at 3am just in time for rain. God I love NY (sarcasm)

 

 

 

The plan was to primer Saturday but ended up getting rained out so we had to make a mad dash and primer AND paint for 14 hours on Sunday,
as this was to be the last good weekend of the year and it's gonna rain on Monday. UGH. Wouldn't have made it without my wife's help.
At least it came out good!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Ol2Stroker

[Ol2Stroker]

Typical... have to tarp for rain again!

 

 

 

Luckily paint cured just fine. It's as close as I could get it to the body color. I brought a panel with me to napa to match to when I bought the paint.

 

 

 

With the truck paint cleaned up (not even buffed yet) it's a whole lot closer. Really excited to buff the truck next year now!!

 

 

 

 

So what I haven't mentioned is that in the mean time the radiator has been at a radiator repair shop... now i did ALL the hard work and spent 12 hours removing all the fasteners and extracting broken ones etc. I loosely reassembled and punch marked everything for location and delivered to the shop to be cleaned, rodded etc. What I got back from them was half assembled radiator they said the core was bad on because of a small crack between 2 bolt holes on the header flange. They wanted $3000 for just the new core plus I had to pay $400 regardless for their halfass assembly work. I got this thing back and it wasn't even assembled properly let alone cleaned or painted. Didn't even bother removing corrosion in places. Needless to say I'll never bring anything to acme radiator in watervliet ny ever again. So now that the radiator is back home lets do it the right way... fully disassembled yet AGAIN. This time I sandblasted them myself.

 

 

 

 

Since I had the blaster out I did the 5th and plate.... too bad the plate is wasted on the bottom side.

 

 

 

Painting all my freshly blasted radiator parts:

 

 

 

My buddy was able to fix the core no problem and the radiator shop did rod it before they found the crack so I figured I'd better paint it.

 

 

 

Man she looks great all assembled right?!?!?!

 

 

 

Sadly this radiator saga was far from over. Upon pressure test I found the sandblaster uncovered a porous casting on the lower tank. What you're seeing is water weeping through the casting in that spot. Back apart she comes.

 

 

 

Took me twice to get it right but i finally ended up grinding it wide open and then using some DEVCON aluminum putty to repair.

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Ol2Stroker

[Ol2Stroker]

Successfully completed a pressure test! About time. I can't express how bad this thing fought me.

 

 

 

Fully assembled and ready for install. I'm also painting the air bleeds for the upper hoses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the mean time i flushed the cooling system with cummins RESTORE while at temperature and then about 5 times with water.

 

https://youtu.be/nVpCi8bofA0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then since my drums were in excellent shape with almost no lip my buddy was able to turn them for me and after that I blasted them.

 

 

 

Then we got them and the tops of the bags and the fan painted up.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I got the radiator and fan etc put back in the truck. Sure looks a bunch better.

 

 

 

What you don't see in this picture is the truck got all new wheel bearings, races, seals, and s-cam bushings all the way around.

 

 

 

Finally ready for some new brakes and slacks!

 

 

 

 

 

Bitch was thirsty.

 

 

 

Finally over the radiator hurdle and holding coolant!

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Ol2Stroker

[Ol2Stroker]

Had to paint a few more miscellaneous items like this bracket for the leveling valve and also that shock mount i replaced.

 

 

 

That brings us to present day with the back end all assembled with everything new. I was able to move it under its own power back into the weeds until spring. In the spring I will do all the air lines and finish buttoning it up.

 

 

 

 

 

September 23rd is when I pulled this out of the weeds to get started and I just put it back again Sunday night 11/25. Not too bad of progress for 2 months. IMO. Thanks for reading through this mess, see yall in spring.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Ol2Stroker

[j hancock]

Dang!  You have been busy! Looks good!

Were you able to get gasket material for the tank to core from the radiator shop or what did you use?

[Ol2Stroker]

Yea that was the one thing they actually gave me worth a damn was genuine gaskets for the tanks.... So the gaskets cost me $400. LOL

[j hancock]

OK.  Thanks.

[66dc75]

Sort of like Netflix you get the whole season all at once.

[Hobert62]

Great progress.    

[r686st]

You have been very busy! I am impressed with the quality of the rebuild and it's how I did my superliner. If you were to sell it once you get done working on it what do you think you'd want for it?

[Ol2Stroker]

11 hours ago, r686st said:

You have been very busy! I am impressed with the quality of the rebuild and it's how I did my superliner. If you were to sell it once you get done working on it what do you think you'd want for it?

I dunno man... wouldn't be cheap though. Reality is when I'm done you'd be able to put it to work.

[85snowdog]

Really cool truck. 

Thanks for sharing your detroit knowledge at the beginning of thread. Its very helpful for a detroit greenhorn like me. 

[carlotpilot]

I can see about 1800.00 worth of s/b & paint there if it had been done by a comm. shop  and a ton of labor for all the rest. looking good