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9/11/04
Roy came by today, and reinstalled the second generation remake of the drag link, STTILL not right!!! Damn!! My error again. On the first goof, I had mistakenly had the piece upside down. On the second iteration, I had presumed the angle I had calculated was based on the flat areas as being LEVEL, not so. So I missed by about 3" on clearing the A-arms. Part of it is due to the additional beef added by Joe to make it work, and partly my goof.
So, back it went again today, and later next week we'll try it again.
On a possibly brighter side, I met a guy tonight at the Saugus Car Show named Gary Dubin, who owns one of the most outrageous Chevelles I have EVER seen. A five-year project, this car is mind-blowing. It is a lovely red, with red and gray leather interior, digital dash and DVD, custom flamed-embossed headliner, flamed rear view mirror, flamed shifter, flamed valve cover and paint. I could have done without the flames altogether, but that was his theme. It has a trunk filled with audio and speakers, and he plays it WAY too loud. The engine is a twin-supercharged, clear glass enclosed injected, big-block 502 Chevy, and he snuck EVERYTHING under the stock hood, including power steering and AC. A spectacular execution and mostly in good taste. We spoke, and the short of it is that he has a shop down the street from the car show in Newhall, and I will tow the dually out to him in a few weeks and see if he can finish it.

 

9/14/04
I will have pictures in a few days to document my errors, but the short story is that the drag link is on its THIRD incarnation of modifications. First time I had it upside down, as neither I nor Roy thought to mark it. The second time it turns out I had assumed a key portion of the drag link was installed dead horizontal, and it was not, and that killed half of the front kick-out we had calculated, so it STILL hit the A-arms. So now Joe is doing the drag link drop for the third time. Consider the old adage, measure twice, cut once. We measured, but failed to mark, so have cut three times. This had been a BIG reminder to get a little more exact about some things.
I have spoken at length with Rob Anderson, and the Vortech air-water cooler is a great (and better working) option, and appears as earlier noted to allow the stock AC condenser and radiator to remain. I now believe only one alternator is needed, and that the AC and power steering pump will need to be changed. Notwithstanding the spec that the stock Duramax clutch fan pulls over 10,000 (!!!!) CFM, I will first try to run the motor with the model 295 Flex-A-Lite 4500 CFM electric unit. Mr. Montana has run his Duramax with NO fan for a while around town!
I attended a large car show in Saugus (at the defunct Saugus Speedway), and saw a mind-boggling 67 Chevelle with a twin-Paxton blown and injected 502, and mega everything else. Short story, I'm going to flatbed the dually over to this guy's shop for an opinion and a price to finish the Duramax install.
I'm waiting on the drag link re-re-mod now. Roy has finally been over here, working on re-pulling the SC3 engine to cure its apparent piston pin problem while waiting for parts for the dually.
I will be writing/calling/emailing Mr. Montana to see if he'd consider finishing my dually.

9/15/04
Picked up the drag link, and it appears good to go this time, HOWEVER, the left side tie-rod zurk fitting (the lube fitting), is JUST touching the left motor mount center brace. The nuts have not all been tightened up, so this MIGHT be obviated. The right side mount has already been trimmed back in this area. If the interference is real, it appears that I will have to remake the mounts with longer pieces back onto the crossmember, as some forward support is being removed. No biggie. Randy was mightily impressed with the beefiness of the drag link mod. Once we get the steering done, then I can get on with beefing the chopped frame rails, and start looking at the actual engine, wiring, etc. For RIGHT NOW, the mounts and frame rails ARE the project. It's no wonder Mr. Montana took two years on his swap.

10/20/04
Roy has trimmed the gussets under the mount plates in order to clear the tie rod ends and Zurk fittings. We then found that we do not have enough room under the mounts for a bolt head or nut if we want the steering linkage to clear. We also find that notwithstanding the THIRD (and final) alteration to the drag link, I could have used another 1/2" or so clearance at the front of the pan. So we have to raise the motor 3/4", and incorporate a threaded plate to receive the motor mount bolts. Randy suggested get 3x5 plates, drilling and threading them, bolting them to the bottom of the mounts, and lowering the affair onto the frame plates, aligning everything, and welding the spacers to the frame plates. That way, we know everything is lined up. So today we got the plates bandsaw cut at Industrial Metals, and I drilled and threaded the plates, and promptly found Roy and I had both misinterpreted the size of the mount bolts as half inch, not the actual 5/8" diameter they are. Roy had brought the proper length (3.5") bolts and nuts as grade 8 here. The bolts we were using are stainless steel, fatter, and too long. So I cut them down, drilled one head through for safety wiring, and have gotten VERY bogged down drilling the second one, to the point that a drill bit broke off in the bolt head, making it nearly impossible now to drill it through. I may just have to find another 5/8" bolt. Ah, the little stuff that takes SOOOOOOOOOOO long.
In another amazing possibility, a wrecked Duramax truck is up on ebay for way cheap. If it stays that way for another two days, I'll get it and perhaps (BIG maybe) just take the body off the chassis, lengthen the frame, and drop my 86 crew cab onto it. While not a one-day simple idea, it would WAY simplify the whole thing. At the worst, I'll have a parts truck with everything needed. Of course, I am SO broke now I am overdrawn, but when has that stopped me from pursuing the BIG dreams? I have an equity line coming on my home that is scheduled to fund in two weeks. If I can just make it through until then.

11/6/04
Well…..that truck went for too much. But I saw ANOTHER Ford truck that was way wrecked, agreed to buy it, then regretted it, as it would just be too much work. The seller agreed to sell it to the first bidder, as there were only two of us bidding. I agreed to pay the $226 difference between his opening bid, so he got about $100 over on the other bid. This same seller had the other Duramax, and then posted yet another Duramax, another rollover, and I go this one. The only other bidder would have been willing to pay another $3K over my price, but couldn't get a bid in for technical reasons. The wheelbase appears nearly identical, so I might just swap bodies and be done. I would then off the rolling chassis of the 86 dually, and sell the Duramax and Allison trans separately. This is a VERY compelling notion: an 86 dually in perfect shape, mega sounds, etc, on an 8100 mile 2003 chassis.
Yessir!!!! This will likely be the best case scenario in the long run, and will save about a year of screwing around with the other project.

Oh yes, stay tuned.

11/7/04
I have quotes pending at two brokers for the shipping of the truck, both open and closed carriers. I'm guessing about $1200-$1500. As I pondered it further last night, switching the bodies just seems like the straight-ahead way to do this. I could mess around and further "project" myself to death on this, but I feel just getting the truck done and offing as possible all the unused stuff is the way to go. I have WAY too many vehicles here, and getting the 86 chassis gone will make the most sense (and cents). There is the issue of how to re-title the truck, and whether California will allow a rebuilt title. No matter, I'm going to keep it a long time. A VERY long time. With some funds available, I am going full steam on finishing several undone projects here, including the house veneer.

11/16/04
The quotes are $985 for open trailer, $1835 for enclosed. I'll go with an open transport and ask Ted Davis to liberally duct tape the open windows with plastic. It still appears the body swap will be the way to go.

I'll be posting some pix as soon as the hulk arrives.

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