84 Crewcab...AKA..Patches

Working off and on on things the last few day, between work and life...Man they really get in the way...[laugh]

Finished getting the support brackets welded on the inner fenders.





Then got them cleaned up, sanded and primed.





And today I got some white paint sprayed on.

 
The black pads for the front bumper are held in place by 8 small square headed bolts that sit in pockets on the back side of the pads. They then protrude through the bumper and have a nut to secure it.

Well my front bumper was extremely rusty on the back side, and I ended up wrecking 4 of them. The plastic that makes up the square head on the bolt cracks and falls off. So I was trying to figure out how to replace them. Finally came up with an idea.

Cut some 3/4 flat bar into squares...then drilled 1/4 hole in each one. Then found some old bolts and cut the heads off.



Then welded the studs onto the flat bar squares.



They look very similar...and function better then the originals...IMO. ;)

 
I also ordered all the spicer U-joints for my front drive shaft...which will need to be shortened. The donor 93 4wd was a Cummins/auto truck...and I have a NV4500.



Quick clean up with the wire wheel...




Anyway I went to disassemble the Cardan joints and found that there was no clips..WTF!! I did some searching on line and could not figure out exactly how they were being held in.

I noticed these white nubs...which I originally thought might be small bumpers for if the cardan joint got too close to the U-joint on rotation? Turns out those nubs were the leavings of the liquid plastic that was squeezed into the castings and caps.



It requires lots of heat to melt the plastic. It then comes squeezing out of the holes like long white worms.

 
After battling those 2 joints for a hour or so I finally got everything apart.

Here's a pic of the plastic I cleaned out of one of the U-joint caps onthe driveshaft.



And you can see the grooves in the driveshaft yoke, and the U-joint cap.



I was telling a friend of mine about this and he mentioned that GM/Chev has been using this type of U-joint securing method for a long time...it was the first time I had EVER seen this!

Glad the new joints come with clips. ;)
 
my RC had the exact same setup...so did my 71 caddy..ive done the joints on the rc..but that was back in the 90s lol...i remember alot of cussing

cow..what do those braces on the inner fenders actualy goto/attach to?...ive never seen them before....
 
69.5CUDA said:
my RC had the exact same setup...so did my 71 caddy..ive done the joints on the rc..but that was back in the 90s lol...i remember alot of cussing

cow..what do those braces on the inner fenders actualy goto/attach to?...ive never seen them before....
Click to expand...

Yeah I was pi$$ed off doing those U-joints as well...friggin stupid idea!!

As for those brackets...they don't attach to anything that I know of. They just add a little extra stiffening to the inner fenders. Since the 93 inners were too rusty for me to use, I decided to salvage the brackets and re-install them on the 84 inners. Can't hurt anything I figured.
 
Do yourself a favor and replace that Cardan ball & spring while you have it apart; you'll be pissed if you have to go back and do it again in any reasonable time frame. "It looks really good" is the famous-last-words of that setup.

Oh, yeah, don't be surprised at the price. They don't exactly give those things away in local parts stores, but they're not too bad through our friends at rockauto.com. I still have an active discount code, too.
 
Dr.Jass said:
Do yourself a favor and replace that Cardan ball & spring while you have it apart; you'll be pissed if you have to go back and do it again in any reasonable time frame. "It looks really good" is the famous-last-words of that setup.

Oh, yeah, don't be surprised at the price. They don't exactly give those things away in local parts stores, but they're not too bad through our friends at rockauto.com. I still have an active discount code, too.
Click to expand...

Yup I ordered a Spicer 211009X - Ball and Seat Repair kit, it arrived today. Just waiting on 2 more U-joints and I can start re-assembly.
 
Been up to a few things on the crewcab.

Go the cowl crack area bracing welded in. I was originally going to make big patch panels to cover everything...but I was down at the parts store and spotted some HD band strapping.






The nice thing about this strapping is you could tack one end...then beat it into shape and move along. Worked really well....I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.





And the holes in the strapping were big enough to have the fender mounting bolts go through...so a little added tie into the fender
 
Cleaned up the access plate area at the bottom of the rockers.

Before...



After...



I will spray on some new undercoating before I put the front end back together.
 
I can not even tell you how much I hate PHOTOBUCKET right now!! I've been uploading photos and it has been randomly placing them wherever in my folder. I re-organize and it then shuffles them around AGAIN! :mad:
 
When i got the truck originally the box was missing the two mounts on the LH side of the frame. In fact the box was welded to the frame! I eventually removed and cleaned up the area, and made my own brackets.





But since I had the original brackets form the donor 93 I figured I way as well install the proper brackets. I had to re-drill because these brackets used 3 mounting holes. I then installed them with the same 1/2" x20 Grade 8 Flange head bolts and matching flange head stover nuts....overkill...probably, but I feel better knowing it's this way.





I also ordered enough bolts to replace the ones on the LH rear body mount.



Not sure what happened in the crewcabs life to cause the two box brackets, and this body mount to be missing and replaced? But now at least things are closer to the way it should be.
 
I also ran the brake lines. Found out that with the 2nd Gen adapter and starter to run the NV4500 that the brake line would be in right between the starter and the frame rail...with little to no clearance. So I had to re-route it along the top of the frame and then down once under the cab.

Got the RWAL valve mounted, and the lines bent up for it.

 
And I cleaned up and repaired a bunch of the body /chassis wiring. Had to modify the box a wee bit to get the taillight connector through the hole down inside the box.



Seems this hole got bigger probably whenever they decided to go with the big water tight 4 wire connection.



So a little pounding with a bar opened it up enough to get the wiring connector through.

 
All fixed. I really HATE photobucket!! If it wasn't for the fact that I have close to 2000 pics on there I would go with another hosting company.
 
Dr.Jass said:
Man, you're cruising right along with this! Everything's looking so nicely done. Much envy!
Click to expand...

Thanks Doc I appreciate the kind words.

Hope to have it on the road in a month or so. Weathers been great so making some headway. Glad I we haven't had the winter you guys back east have been having, or I would be a lot farther behind.
 
Looks great Cow!!! Wishing I had a 70's-80's Dodge crew cab! :2thumbs:

Although a '73-91 3/4, 4X4 Suburban has been crossing my mind quite a bit. :hmmm:
 
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