What have I gotten myself into? My Deuce's Road to Recovery

[Nitro700]

I purchased a 1971 M35A2 back in 2011. Ran the snot out of it as a daily driver just because I enjoyed it. Well I started noticing an oil leak out of the stack two years ago and quit driving it as much untill it was sitting at a friends, untouched, for about a year. Well last fall I bought a house that has a very nice barn that the Deuce fits in, so I cranked it up after sitting for a year (batteries were still good, all I did was bleed the brakes) and drove it home and rolled it into the barn. Then I started looking for where the oil was coming from and pulled the exhaust to look at the turbo, pulled the turbo, pulled the exhaust and intake manifolds, valve covers..... Now while im waiting to pull the heads to replace the gaskets, I started pulling the wiring harness for a full custom replacement. Having never worked on a vehicle before in my life, I ask myself, what have I gotten myself into?

 

[Nitro700]

 

[Nitro700]

 

[Nitro700]

 

[Nitro700]

 

[Nitro700]

 

[FloridaAKM]

Well, to start with, we know you can take stuff apart really well!

 

[Valence]

You've jumped in both feet first and no looking back!




Just don't get distracted or over daunted (easy to do with these trucks). There's too many unfinished projects out there, especially in the automotive world, left to languish in part strewn heaps. MVs seem particularly susceptible.

 

[theeDIZ]

Looks like a whole lot of gratifying work ! But worth it in the end .

 

[tommys2patrick]

I hope you don't mind me asking this, but what is your project goal? total rebuild from frame up? fix the oil issue? partial restore? You seem to be looking for something in your tear down process. We might be able to help.

 

[tommys2patrick]

By the way, good photograph documentation, like the tagging you did when disconnecting and your work list on the cardboard tags you nailed up. all good work routines.

 

[tommys2patrick]

By the way, welcome to the forums from Colorado.

 

[Karl kostman]

Never worked on a vehicle before? Looks like you have the dissasembly part down pretty good! OH MY! I f you do not have them in your hands now you ARE going to need all the TMs that pertain to what you have done so far, what you have done is nothing difficult to put back together but it has to be done correctly, read up in the TMs everything that pertains to this, follow them closely and you should be able to get things back to where they need to be! Good luck and trust me its all doable!
KK

 

[dirtdobber]

Myself being in the deep south I always love to see nice barns,old or new. Yours seems perfect for you current project. Good luck and welcome from the Volunteer state.

 

[elkhtr]

I know who won't be hanging out at the bar for a while.

 

[turnkey]

Great take down...Really good idea about what goes where and what is this??/ Take off the hood and fenders and you can get to anything on her...Best of luck oon this one.

 

[Nitro700]

Honestly I just started looking for the oil leak, then thought what the heck, Ill replace the seats, then why not the wiring harness. I dont have the equipment to do any major overhauling just yet, everything you see here was done with a kobalt starter kit from lowes. and my goal is to have it running again, with a good wiring harness.

 

[Nitro700]

And I do have the set of TMs for this truck. Already been digging thru them for the wiring on this rig

 

[tucker79]

I often ask myself that same question Sure I can do that

 

[DieselBob]

Good luck and remember we are all counting on you !