The NCH Garage

Alright.  Figured it was finally time to buck up and make a thread about this beast.  It's deserving, and due for some discussion.

The rundown:  Truck belongs to my woman's parents.  I was drooling over it the first time I saw it, over 3 years ago.  Long story short they've recently agreed to give Toni and I temp custody of the beast to get him back on the road and get some life pumping through the veins again.  It's a got a 383 out of a derby car.  Hasn't run and has been parked in the same spot for about 5-6 years.  Got it pulled out of the weeds and into a workable area a couple weekends ago and started cleaning it up and tearing into it.  Oil was pretty nasty and the pistons were all stuck.  Ended up taking the fan completely off so we could fit a big ass breaker bar in there and eventually got the crank to turn.  She's not seized, just a little sticky.  The girls (Toni and her mom) worked on cleaning out the inside while the boys (her dad and I) worked on getting the heart pumping again.  Didn't really mess with the possible solenoid issue yet so hopefully we'll make some progress with that soon.  Kinda need that to get it to crank over so let's all hope for the best!  With any luck we'll have it on the road at least once before the snow flies.

Not much else to say right now.  Hoping to get at it a little this weekend.  Gonna try to put a whole day in and see what we can come up with.

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My 3 favorite things with this beast: a) The fact that it's a crew cab and the rear doors are almost the exact same as the fronts. b) The hood that goes past straight up and down and actually leans back towards the window. c) The somewhat pearlescent paint on the upper body panels.

That truck is sooo huge!! Would look awesome on the road again! 

Huge is an understatement.  Her mom said when they used to drive it it took her 2-3 months to get used to parking it in a parking lot.  

Looking forward to ripping off some bumpers with this thing.  

Gonna have to get a HUGE cattle pusher on the front.  

flat paint ,,scallops  way kool

That truck is so flipping sweet dude I'm almost as excited as u and I don't even have anything to do with it

Quote from: hillbilly les on August 24, 2010, 08:25:05 PM
flat paint ,,scallops  way kool

I agree dif would really look good

Makin' progress!

Put in a little work yesterday after leaving the Cricket car show.  Definitely cooking with gas now.

Started out by running in for a new battery cable and antifreeze.  Got back, hooked up the juice, and we were getting none - at least to the key.  Started trying some lights and we could tell the battery was fine.  So Mark resorted to jumping it at the starter and the beast kinda came to life.  Started cranking over and wouldn't stop.  The starter relay was shot and wouldn't disengage so we had to pop the battery cable off.  From there we started doing the relay part manually by just touching the wire from the starter to the contantly hot relay and pouring gas down the carb.  Basically fired up immediately, it was SWEET!  

So we found out we weren't getting gas to the carb, besides what we were forcing down it's throat, and also needed a new relay.  Ran to town, got both.  New relay worked fine so we started to use the key instead.  Kept getting it running with gas down the carb but still weren't getting it from where we needed to.  Popped the fuel filter off the side of the carb and it was full of   .  Cranked it over and nothing came out.  Mark blew out the fuel line from the front.  Apparently took a ton of pressure but it finally popped free.  Guessing there was a bunch of   in the bottom of the tank as well.  So we got it hooked back up, cranked over, and now we're pumpin' gas!  All we needed now was to clean out the filter and see if he'd sustain himself.  Only we couldn't find the now magically disappeared filter for the life of either of us.  And it was 8:55, 5 minutes before the parts store closed.      

So.  Making progress indeed but still not quite across the finish line.  Probably gonna have to wait until next weekend to get at it again but it's coming.  Gotta get it rolling and see how bad the brakes are.

bring it to life,,,, way kickin kool hope to see it at the show

We'll see.  Got a ways to go still I think.  Hoping it continues to go as smoothly as it has so far, tho. 

Mark found the fuel filter this morning hiding in a stupid spot.  Picked up a new one today at O'Reilly's down here.  Now we just gotta wait a week to get my hands back on it.

More pics!

nice pix man, happy to see it there under its own power! and might i say that truck is sweeeeet! 

Thanks!  It was pretty awesome to actually have something to show, too.  Put my wagon in it before and it's just not the same.  Was a little stressful trying to get it there and back with the thing choking to death a couple times.  Guessing she's just not used to leaving home.  Definitely showing some signs of stage fright.  Hopefully with a little time I can actually make something out of this thing.  Definitely got my work cut out for me but I think we've got a solid foundation to build off.

Got a couple semi-major issues to get taken care of soon: tranny doesn't shift into drive, engine sounds like it's still missing a little (or something similiar), gas tank NEEDS to be taken out and cleaned thoroughly, and the rear lights work sporadically (might have to count myself out for that night show in Cambridge next weekend).

Theres a night show in cambridge???

Yeah, supposedly they're doing some Cambridge city event or something.  I think it involves a bunch of the local businesses, I'm assuming they'll just be open late and everybody walks around town.  Dan mentioned the show and I think it starts at like 6 or something, maybe even later?

So I think Ferris said Saturday, but maybe he said Friday and I'm just retarded.  Was thinking a) I couldn't go because we don't have taillights, and b) even if we did, we've got a kickin' 80's party to go to.  However, after a little research the show is on Friday night (I think).  I'll make a thread for it.