46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[Desoto61]

I had originally planned to bolt through the lower AC condenser, but the bracket fits tight to the bottom of the unit so I just left it that way. The one bracket was plenty to hold and support the condenser but I added pieces to either side for additional protection.

With that done I moved on to the aftercooler piping. It's 2.5" aluminum tubing in a kit with various shapes and connectors. The route to the engine inlet is pretty straight-forward. The other side from the turbo was a little tougher. There was just enough room between the AC bracket and the lifting ring to tuck the pipe in-between then a bend and a small leftover straight piece complete the run. I had just enough connectors to make this work. I haven't clamped anything in place yet as I need to figure out some way to put another bead on the ends of the tubing I cut off before I clamp it all in place.

[Desoto61]

The condenser only needed to move up about 1/2" but it required some interesting bracketry to do so. The final result is small, but it provides little but much needed space above the winch, and closes the gap at the top of the grill.

The bottom of the condenser is still very close to the winch. So I came up with an idea to combine the lower mount with some protection by using some aluminum angle to wrap the bottom of the condenser. The height is basically perfectly level with the bottom of the intercooler mount so the bracketry is simply built from some 1/8" aluminum stock. The angle will provide some protection and the plate will bolt to the intercooler frame while also providing additional protection.

My aluminum welding went much better this time too.

[Desoto61]

Thanks, I wish it went together as well in real life as it does in my head, but that's always the challenge.

I could have gone a little taller on the radiator, but I still have to fit the intercooler piping and the I'd like to build an overflow tank that sits under the cowl with the fill spout in the original location, so that extra space might not be extra.

Otherwise as far as surface area I'm not sure I have too much less air facing area then stock, just not the giant end tanks, but it's a dual row aluminum core all furnace brazed and welded, so I think it should be fine, but it is a concern of mine too. From everything I've read these diesels tend to run cool. If anything I'm probably under-sized on the charge air cooler, but it was rated for more HP than this motor makes, but that was gas not diesel.

I was planning to tuck the PS cooler under the radiator, though I could easily add something small to the driver's side of the intercooler now that I think about it. Hmm, time to take some measurements and head over to the Summit web site.

[Bruce in BC]

But where is the PS cooler going to go ?

You are humming along. Looks good and hopefully the motor will have no over heating issues.

Bruce

[Desoto61]

Unfortunately due to the thickness of the radiator and intercooler I was out of room behind the grill, so I had to take some drastic measures. Luckily the condenser is very thin, but I still needed space. I'll warn you this isn't pretty, it hurt me to do it. I took the 3/4" thickness out of the backside of the grill.

At this point I thought I should probably verify the clearance to the winch, which has been collecting dust under a workbench (literally). The rear mounting bar had been cut down for some reason, and I attempted to fix it, but managed to mess that up, so I either need to try and re-repair it, or try and get another one.

Luckily everything fits, or at least will. It's very tight, as is everything, the bottom of the condenser touches the winch drum, so I'll need to move the condenser up as much as I can, which isn't far, but it should be enough.

[Desoto61]

Tracking down radiator hoses is always tricky for custom stuff. Most places are pretty good about letting you browse but that's only what they have. Dayco has a nifty feature that lets you browse via size and length on their web site, but it can be tricky to see the shapes. The upper hose was pretty simple, just a 90 in a 1.75" size. It's tight near the belt but I have more space than I thought I would.

The lower hose was tougher. At 2.25" it's larger than most automotive stuff, and I didn't get the lower radiator tube angle right, so it's a bit of an odd angle. I had a potential part number but the local NAPA didn't have it, so after browsing what they did have we managed to find something that worked after some careful trimming. It also has a wire liner which I also cut down and re-installed for extra protection.

Next was trying to mount the AC condenser in front of all of this. I got a small piece of aluminum channel with the needed outside dimension and drilled and bolted it at the top using some stainless hardware.

[Desoto61]

With the radiator in place it was time to work on getting the aftercooler mounted. The new unit is shorter but wider, overall smaller but is a better fit.

I used some aluminum angle to build a bracket along the top. Had to figure out welding some aluminum, tricky, but it came out OK. Nothing I'd want to show off, but it won't be. That held the top, but I needed a way to support the bottom so it couldn't bang around. Decided to build a frame around the unit. Used some aluminum angle on the sides, and a piece of flat stock across the bottom then used a small 1/2" piece of aluminum bar stock to stiffen the plate without blocking a lot of air flow.

It came out OK, plenty strong, though it wasn't quite square. It's held in place by four bolts drilled and tapped to the core support.

[Desoto61]

After a couple of days I went ahead and started bolting the bumper pieces back together to get them off the rack and make some room. It's a slower process in order to not damage the paint. All the bolts (and there are a lot of them) get started until all of them are in, then everything can be tightened down carefully.

Also bolted down the spare tire carrier to the bed.

[Desoto61]

The fenders came out pretty good. I resisted the urge to do much with them today as the clear is still pretty soft. I looked everything over and not too bad, a bit of orange peel on the bumpers, and one big run on one of them. But I've got a spot on part of the windshield frame that got missed, so I'll have to figure out how to feather that in and re-paint it.

I did sit down with a file and re-open the fender bracket mounting holes that had slowly been closed up with LineX and filler. Then fitted some the carriage bolts and mounted the brackets using top-lock nuts on the underside.

The lower brackets are reproductions and didn't quite line up, but I just enlarged the holes slightly and that corrected most of it. The biggest problem was my remedial math skills where I somehow ended up with four fewer bolts than I needed. So I'll have to put those in with the next batch of black items to be painted.

I'll give them a day or two before I move them out and start on the next batch to paint, which will be most of the remaining blue items, but first I need to finish any modifications to the radiator cowl top.

[Desoto61]

Found more parts that needed painted black, so had to re-configure my hanging space and try to fit it all in. Not ideal, but neither is having to do two rounds of painting. I'll have another batch of black items, but for now this is the majority of it.

I mixed up a small batch of primer and using a small funnel poured it into the frame halves and worked them around to try and get a good coating of the interior surfaces. Wiping off the excess that managed to leak out. Hopefully that will protect the interior of the frame. Still thinking about alternative methods of filling it though.

Everything gets a coat of epoxy primer, as a base on most of the parts and as a seal coat on the fenders since I burned through the surfacer in a few places. I did that Friday evening, which worked out well since the odd shapes meant I ended up with some runs in a few places, so I could sand them back and give a quick touch up before moving on to the color and clear.

I used my full size gun this time, which I'm still learning. The color wasn't too bad, but the clear is still tricky. The first coat had a lot of peel in it, and many of the parts were mixes of too dry and too wet. After some more adjustment the second coat went better. I did a third coat on the fenders, windshield frame, and fronts of the bumpers. Everything else got two coats.

[Desoto61]

While I'm waiting on the intercooler and the radiator hoses and parts I continued getting parts ready for paint. Mainly the two front fenders. I had painted them with primer surfacer before getting the undersides LineX-ed, so they just needed to be block sanded. Then did a bunch of cleaning and started setting everything up for paint.

Need more hanging space really, but this works well enough. Masked off the garage a little differently but it's quicker and easier and with the cab in the back half it wasn't much use anyway.

[Desoto61]

The custom radiator arrived over the weekend. Very quick turnaround. So I played around with getting it mounted. It fits all right, though the lower radiator hose is going to be a bit of a challenge. It also hits home just how little space I have in front of the engine. I could have made it a little taller, but it should be fine.

The intercooler could probably have been made to fit, but rather than try to cut and modify it I ended up ordering a different unit that should fit much easier.

[Desoto61]

The big project was modifying my bumpers. I wanted to install some fog lights (we get a lot of fog here), and have them better integrated than just bolting them to the top or bottom of the bumper. After cutting a large hole I centered and then built some mounting tabs and welded them to the back to hold the lights. The hole was a little larger than I had intended it to be, but it will allow for some adjustment of the pattern which is good.

The lights are LED and are nice though the covers that came with them I don't really like. Half tempted to remove them and install some expanded metal in the openings for protection instead.

I did hold back for once, I made the tabs out of some 3/16" plate and was going to build a gusset for them but the lights weigh almost nothing so I doubt I have any strength issues to worry about.

[Desoto61]

Have a long weekend to work on the truck, but there are so many different tasks that I tend to bounce between many and somehow feel like I don't get anything done. But there was some progress.

I had torn down the plastic as it's dirty and torn and will need replaced before I paint again. So with "full" access to the garage I turned to other tasks (and I really don't want to sand). I installed U-joints in the front driveshaft as well as taking it apart and cleaning an greasing the splines. I think there's some sort of seal supposed to be there but mine is gone. I plan to have the axle shop look them over and balance them, hopefully they can replace that seal. The t-case yoke on my truck is for the larger style u-joint like on the input side, so I'll need to have that modified on my shaft, I also need to order one more lower u-joint as they only had two when I placed the first order. It also got separated and greased, and will need gone through and balanced by the driveshaft shop.

The intermediate shaft will either need modified or replaced as it needs shortened due to the longer transmission (and it's already short) as well as needing one end replaced to mate with the Chevy transmission output. The end is the right size so they may be able to re-use them for the rear and t-case end of the intermediate shaft.

My truck was missing one of the covers for the windshield wipers, so I picked up another set from somewhere, since I am using a different wiper setup I don't need the switch holes, so I used one of the covers to donate patches for the other two. It's annoying to weld something like that though (plus I suck at welding), even with the grinder it's pretty rough, but a little filler will hide it fine.

I also built a better electrolysis tank and used my big battery charger and after some more time and a little scrubbing the regulator came out pretty good. I'll throw a little paint at it and then I can grease it and install it.

(sorry for the small pics, these file size limits are really annoying sometimes).

[bobyepsr]

This is the door window channel that lets a with vent window style regulator operate a one piece window. I welded a support under this one because it was rusted beyond use. I feel that a short one could be lengthened. I would cut a donor channel for the part and then reinforce under the splice. Jim