...and Peanut made it into work just fine this morning. Carb needs a bit of tuning, and the timing probably needs to be checked, but the couple of miles in to work were a breeze.

it runs!
As it turns out, the next size up in brass fittings for the carburetor was 1/4", up from the existing 1/8", which was far too big to tap out. So I found some stripped thread repair epoxy, made by Permatex (who make Threadlocker), mixed that up, spread it around the stripped threads, and screwed in the original brass fitting. After leaving ample time to cure, I started Peanut up again, and . . . found gas leaking out under the cab and out of the fuel pump.

So it was off to Checker to get some thread sealer (again from Permatex), which I put on the threads of the main fuel line where it attached to the rubber hose under the cab, and where it went into the fuel pump. I also got the rest of the threads for the fittings going in and out of the fuel pump. More time to cure, and then she started right up, and I drove around the block.

I had previously been worried about the road draft tube melting the fuel line where they touched, and I was right - the road draft tube does get hot. So it was back to Checker to get a short piece of steel line to run around the draft tube and into the fuel pump. More thread sealer, some time to cure, a few sprays with the hose to get the hornet nests out of the bed, and we were off around the neighborhood.

I also reinstalled the seats, and drilled a new hole in the window regulator axle so that the window handle could seat properly. I had purchased a replacement window regulator from an oletrucker, Dave, on eBay, but it looks like it's for a later year truck. Oh well, guess I'll turn right around and sell it again on eBay. I also need to return the stainless fuel lines that didn't fit to Inline Tube.

Peanut and I are driving to work tomorrow (with my girlfriend following in her car, just in case -- and a fire extinguisher in the cab as well).

she runs...
...until gasoline squirts out of the carburetor.

I picked up replacement bolts for my driver's seat yesterday at my local hardware store, McGuckin's. They have an "aisle of fasteners," and a great staff that can find just about any replacement fastener in a matter of seconds. The driver's seat went back in just fine today, and it even slides back and forth just like it should. I also installed the line from the fuel pump to the carburetor last night, after cutting it to accomodate the inline fuel filter. Then I realized I didn't have a replacement fuel filter.

So today I got a new fuel filter at NAPA for $5, then realized I hadn't cut enough room for the filter in the gas line. So I Dremeled it a bit more, and installed the filter and the line. I ran the rubber fuel line from under the cab, along the frame rail, and up to the fuel pump. The key to this, since the flange adapters don't spin with respect to the fuel line, is to screw in the flange adapters first, then attach the rubber line and clamp it down. I need to keep an eye on the fuel line right before it runs into the fuel pump, as it touches the draft tube, and I don't recall how hot that tube gets. If it looks like a problem, I'll get another piece of steel line to run into the pump for a few inches.

After a brief mishap involving gasoline and a plastic cup (note to self: gasoline not only melts plastic cups, it also melts pavement when mixed with the plastic that used to be a cup), I poured some gas down the throat of the carburetor, cranked the engine a whole lot, and . . . nothing. The engine sort of caught, a little, but not really. At my roommate's suggestion, we checked the spark plugs, which were really dirty, but still didn't spark much after some wire brushing. Watching spark between just the spark plug wire and the engine showed that there was enough spark there. So it was off to Checker for replacement plugs. The guy at Checker informed me that the R43 plugs I'd been running were too cool for my engine, and sold me R45S plugs instead. That might explain the plugs fouling every 2000 miles or so, and maybe explains the original problem with the engine dying... But at any rate, with new plugs, properly gapped according to the shop manual, she started right up -- until my roommate yelled "stop!" because there was fuel spraying everywhere. The brass fitting between the fuel line and the carburetor had stripped the threads inside the carburetor.

So tomorrow, I'm going back to McGuckin's, and possibly another hardware store, to see if I can find a brass fitting with the same flange on one side, and a slightly larger thread on the other side, and then I'll take my carburetor top into my roommate's work and tap out the hole.

And in other news, I found a matched set of hornet's nests under the bed side tops at the back of the truck, a nest on the underside of the hood right up next to the passenger door, and possibly another inside the bumper. They're all dead now. I hate hornets.

keep it simple
I picked up 7 feet of rubber fuel hose from Broadway Automotive here in Boulder yesterday, along with 4 fittings and 4 clamps. Installation tonight, to see if she'll run. Then I'll wait for the fuel line clips I just ordered from Chevy Duty to arrive before taking her out of the neighborhood. If all goes well, that is.

patience, yes...
After cleaning and re-gasketing my carburetor for the sixth or seventh time since I've owned Peanut, I still don't understand exactly how the air and fuel flow through the thing. But it's clean now, including the oil-bath air cleaner -- that I soaked in carburetor cleaner for about 30 minutes, dried with a hair dryer set on "cool," and re-filled with the proper amount of engine oil.

I just got my catalog from LMC truck, and lo and behold, they do sell the right fuel lines for Peanut, including the missing piece between the sender and the rubber hose that goes through the cab floor (although they don't appear to sell that hose). Now the dilemma becomes -- buy their stainless lines for $125ish all told, or go for high-pressure nylon-jacketed rubber lines like everyone keeps telling me to get. On the one hand, the rubber lines are sure to fit, and are MUCH cheaper. On the other hand, I want to show Inline Tube that they're really wrong.

customer service?
I called Inline Tube on Monday, and the guy I talked to said he'd talk to the warehouse guys and track the paperwork to see if the wrong tube was sent.

I called Inline Tube yesterday, and the same guy said that he hadn't heard back from the warehouse guys, but he'd do that and then call me back.

Now, to call them again...

...and they say that the tube they shipped me was the right one for my truck. So I called Mile High Classic, and they said that they might have one for me if I call back on Tuesday. If they can make me one, I'll compare it to the one from Inline Tube, and see if they'll give me a full refund. Otherwise, it's a 20% restocking fee on a $85 fuel line.

it don't fit!
Well, I tried to install the main fuel line from Inline Tube, and it doesn't fit. The bends are in the wrong places; if I try to run it along the frame rail like the original line, it doesn't quite fit to the mounts and there's not enough line to go from the frame rail out to the center of the cab. I've just called Inline Tube, and they said they'll go through their paperwork to find out what happened and call me back.

Besides that, I got a lot done yesterday, despite being tired and a little sunburnt from a rafting trip. Rubbing a sunburn on asphalt sure does wake you up, though. My girlfriend took care of changing the oil, as well as draining, flushing, and re-filling the radiator. I put some more soundproofing material on the floor of the cab, under the driver's seat -- this was much easier to install in the direct sun on a summer day than it was back in December, since the stuff is like asphalt and bends when heated. The one missing piece of fuel line was created by bending a 30" steel line from NAPA, with a fitting on one end to mate with the fuel gauge sender, and a zip-tie attachment at the other end to attach to the rubber line going through the cab floor. I got the tank back into the cab, hooked up all the lines going in and coming out, and got all the wiring back in place. My girlfriend and I even re-installed the 6x9 speaker boxes between the top of the gas tank and the bottom metal "lip" of the top half of the cab, using my specialized speaker box installer tool (aka a rubber mallet). I test-fit the fuel line from the pump to the carburetor, and it appears that it might fit after I cut it in the middle for the fuel filter.

Left to do on the fuel system: Clean out the carburetor and oil-bath air filter, and re-adjust the fuel pump so that the inlet and outlet ports are parallel with the engine (they're skewed a bit). Oh, and get a fuel line that fits!

less mosquitoes, more rain
Last night, after the rain let off, I scrubbed clean the only part of the cab floor not yet covered by sound insulation (because it had previously been unreachable and underneath the driver's seat), using wire brushes and Marine Clean. My girlfriend helped out by taking the paint off of the bottom of the seat tray that I'd started the night before, then I sprayed it with Metal Prep. I'll POR-15 it on Sunday, after I return from a rafting trip.

The fuel lines just arrived today. I took a quick look at them and noted that the main fuel line is bent in two places to fit in the box, so I'll have to un-bend it. I also tried to figure out exactly where the 2nd line in the box goes -- I think it's from the fuel pump to the carburetor, but I'm not entirely sure. If it is, I'll have to cut it in the middle and install a fuel filter in-line. One thing not included in the box was the line that goes from the fuel gauge sender to the flexible line that passes through the cab floor. This requires further investigation...

Also, Dave from the oletrucks list is sending me a window regulator -- hopefully it's for the driver's side, since I still need to replace mine as the splines are worn off.

swattin' mosquitoes and grindin' paint
While waiting for my fuel lines to arrive, I spent last night working on the driver's "unison seat" that I removed from the cab. I cleaned up the seat frame with a wire brush, and got most of the gunk off. The paint seemed to be in great shape. I cleaned the main spring for the sliding seat with some Marine Clean, and greased up the sliding mechanism with some synthetic grease. It seems to slide a bit better now.

I then took on the task of removing the paint from the "tray" that holds the seat cushion, so I can POR-15 it later. The POR-15 instructions don't really say that you should remove paint first, but it says that it bonds much better with bare metal, so I took that to mean that I should indeed remove the paint. With a combination of various wire, plastic, and sandpaper-type brushes for my drill, I got 98% of the paint off of the top of the tray until my girlfriend lured me away with steak and strawberry-cream cheese turnovers. I'll get the bottom of the tray tonight, I think.

My new fuel gauge sender arrived today from Chevy Duty. While the last one I ordered from them, 3 years ago, didn't have a filter on the fuel intake tube, this one does. This is a good improvement.

one thing leads to another
After calling every single auto parts store in town, I found out that nobody carries stainless steel fuel lines. So I bit the bullet and ordered a full set of pre-bent and pre-flared fuel lines from Inline Tube. Their web site is a bit hard to navigate, they don't have any sort of "shopping cart" for buying things, and they don't use a secure server, but hey. They set me back about $120 for the full set.

Just as I had expected, I scratched off some of the POR-15 when trying to get the tank back into the cab. I couldn't get it to fit with the driver's seat frame still in place (my truck has a "unison seat" for the driver that is separate from the bench seat), so I took the tank back out and went to work on the seat frame. I had been avoiding removing the seat since it was pretty thoroughly rusted in place, but as it turned out, all but two bolts were easily removed. The Dremel took care of those two, although I went through five of my roommate's cutoff wheels. With the seat frame out of the way, I test-fit the tank, and it went in much easier. I did notice that I'll have to wait for the fuel lines to arrive before installing the tank, as once it's in, it prevents installation of the line between the gas gauge sender and the flexible line that goes through the floor.

I tried to start on removing some of the paint and rust from part of the seat frame, but the paint was rather stubborn, even with Marine Clean, so I'll hold off on that until I get some more sandpaper. I put that away for later, and sprayed some Metal Prep on the parts of the gas tank that had been scraped clean of POR-15. I let that soak for about 20 minutes, then I sprayed water on it to clean it, and then dried it with paper towels and a hair dryer. I put one quick coat of POR-15 on the scraped-off spots, then cleaned up everything for the night.

last step before re-installation
I put two coats of primer on the gas tank today. The POR-15 had dried to a plastic-like coating on the tank, and looks indestructible. I'm sure I'll still scratch some of it off when I install the tank in the cab, though. Taking a look at the various parts I had pulled out of the truck with the gas tank, I noticed a crack in the fuel line coming out of the gas gauge sender. So I just ordered a replacement from Chevy Duty. I had previously purchased replacements for the rest of the grommets and such -- in fact, I had made two orders of some of the parts, having forgotten about my first order.

I also found a good-sized hornet's nest on the firewall under the hood. I gave it a good once-over with some insecticide, then did my best to clean off the chemical from the paint on the fender. The radiator has a bit of mineral deposits around the cap, so I'll have to make sure to flush the radiator thoroughly before starting Peanut back up.

coating the tank
The repairs to my gas tank have just been fast-tracked. My '86 Mazda 626, which has become my daily driver while Peanut is in pieces, threw a rod on Thursday, starting a small fire under the engine. Depending on the damage, I may just scrap the car entirely.

Last night, I ran a hair dryer blowing into the tank for about 2 hours to finish drying out the tank. Even though it had been sitting in the garage for nearly a month, I figured I should be better safe than sorry. Once I figured the inside of the tank was drier than dry, I sealed off the gauge/drain hole and the vent hole, rolled a bit of cardboard into a makeshift funnel, and poured the entire can of fuel tank sealant into the fill hole. I sealed the fill hole with duct tape and began rolling the tank around. I just tried to judge how viscous the sealant was based on how it flowed into the tank, and tilted the tank around accordingly. I then placed the tank on a cardboard box, pulled the tape from the fill hole, and drained the sealant into a bucket. After a few hours, only a few drips were present in the bucket, so I pulled the rest of the duct tape and let it dry overnight.

This afternoon, I started sealing the outside of the tank with POR-15. It took me about 15-20 minutes just to open the can, which was probably the most difficult paint can I've ever opened. I had to use a flatblade screwdriver, pliers, and a small pry bar just to open the can. Once that was taken care of, I put on latex gloves, poured three cups of the stuff into a small bucket, and re-sealed the can with a piece of plastic wrap. I then applied the first coat of POR-15 with foam brushes. The POR-15 dissolved the adhesive holding the foam brushes together, so I went through a few of them. The stuff went on really well; I only used about two and a half cups for two coats. I let the first coat dry while I went to a pot luck dinner up Sunshine Canyon, which is a really beautiful place. The second coat took a bit more POR-15 than the first coat did, since I used the same bucket of paint and it had started to set a little.

I took another look at the floor pan underneath where the gas tank was, to see what it will take to clean and prime the metal. After playing around with the wire wheel on my drill, I decided not to bother priming the metal, since there's so much more work to be done inside the cab, and I want to get Peanut back on the road. Cleaning out the floor pan would have been too much work for right now. Better to wait until I do the cab restoration in a year or two.