First Deuce renovation - with pics

[snakehunter1964]

After having 1 deuce for 3 years, I decided to buy a few recently "off the base" trucks and have some green iron fun.

This was a really nice solid running truck with a winch so I thought my first project would be a fast task...um...tasks...ummm...pile of tasks. What I figured would be a few weekends turned into a couple hundred hours of learning, tool buying and building, and sweat...and blood and a few tears (who knew new brake shoes aren't necessarily properly rounded?).

Anyhow, here's the first set of pics I took while tackling the basics: Bent fender, brakes, cab cleanup etc.

 

[duecedodger]

From the sound of it, you are having some fun! Nice looking truck by the way. What color you going to paint it when she's done?

 

[snakehunter1964]

From the sound of it, you are having some fun! Nice looking truck by the way. What color you going to paint it when she's done?

Thanks.

It's actually done already. I painted it the current green/black/brown camo scheme. I'll get some more pics posted soon. It's almost as hard to organize the pictures as it is to flip the hubs on these rascals.

 

[snakehunter1964]

Got the fender on and the bed off. The bed had a LOT of sand packed in all the nooks and crannies so I found a good excuse to buy a pressure washer.
Word to the wise: Work on your brakes while the bed is off. What a difference because I flipped the hubs while the bed was off, but reworked the brakes and bled them with the bed was on. The funny PVC gadget is my home built power bleeder. $8 to build, takes about 10 minutes to bleed the whole truck with no assistant! If you have more than 1 truck to work on, it's an awesome investment, needless to say.

 

[RedbeardTheZombieHunter]

Good improvisation on the power bleeder. When I bobbed my deuce, I mounted the brake fluid reservior from the M105 I butchered for the springs and bed under the driver's seat (old box-style seat mount), ran 1/2" vinyl tubing to the vent on the MC cap and put a male quick-connect air fitting on the vent of the trailer reservior cap. When I wanna bleed the brakes, all I have to do is connect an air line to the reservior, pressurize the system and go around and crack open the bleeder valves. All together about 7 minutes to bleed the brakes from all 5 bleeders. It works beautifully!

 

[snakehunter1964]

Good improvisation on the power bleeder. When I bobbed my deuce, I mounted the brake fluid reservior from the M105 I butchered for the springs and bed under the driver's seat (old box-style seat mount), ran 1/2" vinyl tubing to the vent on the MC cap and put a male quick-connect air fitting on the vent of the trailer reservior cap. When I wanna bleed the brakes, all I have to do is connect an air line to the reservior, pressurize the system and go around and crack open the bleeder valves. All together about 7 minutes to bleed the brakes from all 5 bleeders. It works beautifully!

Nice. Remote Reservoir and power bleeder in one unit. I just might do that on one of my keepers.

Already have A/C and 4 new hummer seats laying in wait for a crew cab i plan on building and this would be a cool addition.

 

[RedbeardTheZombieHunter]

I almost forgot to post a pic. Don't mind the junk in the box, I haven't cleaned it out in a while. The black cap on the tip of the fitting is a valve cap for a tire. It allows venting and keeps the dust out.

 

[snakehunter1964]

Banishing faded paint.

It sure feels good to clean the paint gun after it's been used a bunch.

That's OD green poetry...


.

 

[snakehunter1964]

Tires are never as easy as you think they will be.

I wanted to go with A3 wheels so I had a stock setup that wouldn't run afoul of DOT. I found a nice set of wheels, cleaned up the beads and installed new o-rings.

I guess I was naive to think a 250lb tire would be straightforward to mount, especially when moving those tires from 10" wide FMTV rims with bead locks, to 11" wide A3 rims without.

Don't expect to seat the beads on these big rascals without a: beadlocks or b: an air cannon or c: a bead seating ring.

But like I said before, I built some tools during the process and here's the results.

Wow, what a difference a 46" tire makes on a Deuce!

 

[w3azel]

WOW, your truck looks great. These trucks always have a way of blowing the time line but your hard work shows.

 

[SE Jones]

Looks great!

 

[clinto]

Yes, very good. Removing the bed is the only way to paint these things.

 

[Heavysteven]

Wow, looks great.

 

[GrizzlyEater]

Awesome!!

 

[snakehunter1964]

Thanks everyone.

Next project, a bobber with a longer wheelbase (not a shortie).

My final project will be a crew cab with A/C and power steering...it'll probably kill me, if I survive bobbing one!