2015 at the Hammond Barn

[chris vickery]

Bob
I ended up sheeting the rear cab panel with 16g which was a little
heavier than original and harder to work with.
I believe 18 g is correct and will form nice to the contour if you roll weld and tack into place as you go.

[Bob Carriere]

Now waiting for fair weather to do the sandblasting and skinning.

Will be using 18guage Chris as it is closer to the original 19 gauge. We plan on rolling the ends and will work to have a close fit during dry runs.

When everything is ready we will be using the automotive metal glue. works great and give sufficient working time before final set. Edge will be rolled at the bottom using a bead roller.

We have used the glue before on a cab 13 and it worked beautifully solid with no heat warpage. It also seals the space between the angle and the skin hopefully reducing chance for rust to form. Should last another 74 years!!

Everything will get coated with POR 15, binding primer and 2 or 3 coats of OD.

While waiting for more suitable weather we will be redoing the engine cover panels that have cancer near the floor area. This will give us a chance to make use of our pan box brake.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

Notwithstanding the miserable 7 nches of white fluff we got in the last 24 hours...... Grant and I worked on the cab 11 after we managed to blow some of the snow out of the driving area.

At this time of the year I have to take the snowblower tractor out of the barn to get the cab 11 stored out of the sea can and into the barn.

Weather warmed up and at one point Lucifer was cranking so much heat we had the place up to 75F..... and worked in our shirt sleeves.

The issue is to fit the engine cover back on the truck. Both side panels have been eaten away by rust so before cutting an welding new patches to the panels we need to clearly establish how long should the patch be at the bottom where it bolts to the floor.

Fitting the engine cover panels after the nose panels are in place MAY be the wrong sequence. One step forward 3 steps back. Next Tuesday will remove the front external engine cover and see if we can coaxed a few more 1/8 or 3/16 of travel so the engine cover will fit best.

First frustrating discovery.... the engine side panel will not fit with a 261 c.i. and the civilian road draft tube..... it hits the the captive nuts of the removable panel that gives access to the plug wires and dizzy.

Luckily Grant had salvaged a CMP cab 13 very short draft tube with a threaded fitting for the PCV. Removing the draft tube in cramped quarters is a nightmare. I crawled underneath and using a cut off broom handle was able to tap the underside of the draft tube enough to loosen it. We installed the shorter model and gained considerable clearance. The shorter draft tube required a piece of 3/8 rubber hose to extend the metal PCV pipe. Next week we wil flare a new complete steel line for the PCV system.

Next step backward. My dizzy is equipped with a Pertronix system and has the typical 261 tall dizzy cap and rotor. Now we realize that the cap is way too close to the engine cover. The apparent solution, yet to be applied, is to replace the tall modern cap and rotor with a shorter 216 cap and rotor...... we will gain over one inch of clearance.

It is also obvious that the spark plug wires are one too long and will need to be shortened by quite a few inches. Also some 90 degree plug boots will be beneficial for cyl. no 6 and 3. Angled boots for the dizzy on about half the cyl. will also help routing the cable as short as possile and without touching the engine cover. Fortunately I bought a full large grocery bag of ignition wiring at a flea market so I can mix and match until get the right fit.

Finally quite proud with having fitted almost perfectly the two sides and back panel of the engine cover..... and about to start/drive the cab 11 out of the barn..... the starter lever we had screwed off the starter stomper would not fit back on as it was about 3/8 below the oval hole.

Reason.... as we assembled what will be a cab 11 1/2 due to all the mix and match panels salvaged from other trucks most being cab 12. Now I know why the original engine panel of my cab 11 had the starter hole all enlarged and beaten and twisted..... of course we choose a better panel and the darn hole is now too high. Part of the solution is when we have the external panels from the nose removed and the floor panels tweaked we may have enough clearance to fit the starter handle back on.

We keep reminding ourselves of the wise words of Phil Waterman when he talked about re assembly of his cab 12......." assemble every cab panel loosely then drive it around so parts will shake themselves in place... " theb tighten the bolts. Boy was he rigth!!!!!

Once we have the engine cover properly fitting, they will still need to be removed for welding the rust patches...... see how they fit..... removed to paint them and install some heat/sound insulation and re installed with proper machines screws and the finishing cup washer and yards of antisqueaking gasket material.

For that matter ALL the front end cab panels will need final removal for proper machine screws and gasket material installation, touch up of all the scratches on the paint and a final readjustment of the valves ( one seems to be ticking more than needed) and to subsitute a 216 valve cover with proper 216 air filter instead of the existing 261 4 bolts modern GM cover...... it will better disguise the 261 as a 216....after all it the same digits just sequenced differently.

On the bright side we drove it in low gear 4x4 in 2 feet of wet snow and at a fast idle and the wheels do not even spin...... front and rear axle gouging a nice round center furrow in the snow bordered by two herringbone tracks in the snow.

One day..... one day it will be all done.......

Just remember when they say a 261 will just bolt in a CMP they did not particularly meant a cab 11.

Cheers

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

Interesting that you are having such a problem, I originally fit all engine panels when the my truck had the 216 and didn't even think about it when I switched engines to the 235 last summer. My 235 is late version so it shares many fittings with the 261.

Of course I was fitting my covers using your drivers side panel which you loaned me to copy. When I made my copy I did modify the copy by splitting it in two sections which makes it a lot easier to remove that side with out having to remove the rest of the engine cover.

Will look through my photos to see if I've got any photos that might be of help.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Phil

When I cleaned up my dirver's side engine cover I wanted to go back to the original configuration and of course welded back the two section into one..... now I realize how hard it is to fit the darn thing.

First is a picture of the PROPER breather tube for a cab 13.....low profile and tuck close to the engine block.

The second is from my cab 11 engine I removed.

Last two are of my cab 11 with the 261 circa 1959 civilain breather tube. It is significantly taller, hides one spark plug and you can see some scratches onit where the caged nut was rubbing on the tube. The proper short tube does not use a long retaining bracket.

Not sure I want to go back to cutting my side panel in two section....but one piece is a bitch.

Our plans for Tuesday is to remove the front sheet metal to have access to the foor panel and see if we can loosen the floor bolts to allow to tip the foot panel inwards which we hope will slightly rotate the side engine covers counter clockwise bringing the back of the engine cover to touch the floor plate.... it is high by about 3/4 of an inch right now. The hole in the 45 degree foot panel are oval and their is room to move slightly. As we reinstal the floor panel we will also replace the bolts for machined screws and finishing cap washers and with gasket anti squeak material.

Remind me of what you used to insulate the inside of your engine cover. I have a one square foot sample of a 1/4 in. foil backed spun glass panel I obtain from a supplier in Toronto.... apparenty not affected by water or oil but would need to be wired in place using the existing holes and hand made staples using MIG welding wire...... not sure of the cost but will not be cheap. On the exhaust side I have about 3/4 clearance from the red hot manifold and may use a section of asbestos cloth salvaged from NOS foundery mitts for the section near the manifold.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

As we progress with fitting the engine cover we discover other little "irritants"

My 261 Chev engine is currently running with a rebuilt 1959 distributor and a off the shelf universal spark plug wiring loom.

Will have some recent pictures after this weekend but the modern dizzy is about 1 1/2 inch taller than the original 216 dizzy. This causes the wiring to be touching far too much against the engine cover.

I was under the FALSE impression that you could just simply replace the shallow dizzy cap and rotor from a 216 dizzy to a 1959 dizzy....NO WAY.

The shaft on a modern 1959 dizzy is taller than the older 216....just will not fit...and caps and rotor must be paired with the proper cap.

So the next step will be to remove the existing 1959 dizzy...... remove the Pertronix system which I will install in an older NOS 216 dizzy and hopefully it will start on first try.

Some of the sparkplug wires will also be replaced with angled boots to allow for shorter cabling and less of a spider's web in there.

The other issue has to do with the "dipstick" ..... no not the neighbours kid.
On the 1959 Chev truck the 261 dipstick could easily be pulled out because it has a long tube and a long dipstick...... there is no way it can now be removed for checking using the round access port hole near the feet of the driver.

We will have to remove and shorten the tube and shortened the dipstick while managing to retain the same oil level measurement.

Final lesson learned..... you have to install the transmission floor cover before you can finish installing the two side engine cover. back cover than the instrument cluster.
We are just in the finishing stages of patching the rusted section of that tranny floor cover. You know rust is bad when you have to work from 3 differently rusted cover to manage final measurements.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

Learned some thing new today.

In my attempt to replace the 1959 distributor with a new NOS 216 dizzy I ran into some technical difficulties.

I had planned to remove and transplant the Pertronix system from the 1959 distributor to the 216 dizzy...... NO DICE..... it will not fit. The 216 dizzy fits beautifully in the 1959 block and gives me extra clearance but the Pertronix guts will not fit.

Checked the Pertronix cataloque online and they only list one size fits all for Chev dizzy from 1933 to 1962 as model 1168 ....... but that is not the full listing.

Called Pertronix Technical support and once I provided the specific dizzy part number # 1110090 was told that I need the special 2161 model...... and yes NOT ALL possible applications are listed on the online catalogue.

So I am off to Ebay to procure myself a new system model 2161 with the new Lobe Sensor.........

On the plus side...... the new rebuilt tranny cover that Grant toiled over the last few days fits beautifully. Grant copied from 3 badly rusted covers to rebuild one new solid cover....... just needs to cut up a section of inner tube for the rubber flap.

....and life goes on!!!

Cheers