Tinkering with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com and H.A.M.B. regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

5. Get Rhythm

October 10^th 2009  Summer is over, even tho' it is a sultry 91 degrees under the shade tree today, and it's way past time to get a work rhythm going again. All the rides are showing the effects of my continual battle with mother nature and I'm losin' the fight. I wanted to do some organizational work up at the warehouse yesterday before heading down to the Friday nite Tower Shoppes cruise-in but I ran Renegade's battery down trying to get him started. If I can't move the Jeep, there's no room to reorganize. Damnation!

Deerslayer is overdue again for monthly and quarterly maintenance so I started off with those tasks . . . and that's as far as I got. By noon, it was broiling under the shadetree. I'm headin' for the Shorty's BBQ saturday cruise-in even tho' I hadn't planned on going there when I got up this morning.

October 11^th 2009  Only about eight rides showed up for the cruise-in at Shorty's and I was the first there. Today is a hot, sunny morning and I set to work with a Wash Wax All session on the primer red portion of Deerslayer's exterior before I lose the shade that the west side of the Krash Lab building provides. I find cleaning work tedjus and so I tend to break it up in small doses. I've established a pattern for Deerslayer as follows: Week 1 - powerwash the chassis; Week 2 - powerwash and detail the engine; Week 3 - Wash Wax All the pickup bed interior; Week 4 - Fritz polish or Wash Wax All the fenders; Week 5 - Wash Wax All the tires and wheels; Week 6 - Wash Wax All the body; Week 7 - Clean the cab interior. Then, I repeat the cycle.

October 17^th 2009  Not too bad, weatherwise , in the shadetree garage today. Failed to get Renegade started again yesterday so there's no progress on the warehouse organization front. This time, I ran down my portable battery pack but I 'membered to take wrenches with me to get the battery out and I brought it back to the Krash Lab for re-charging. I didn't have any major task scheduled for this weekend so it will be a hodge podge. Gonna start with Deerslayer's interior cleaning and go from there. Seems to be some kinda walk-a-thon event going on in Boca today so I had to drag the traffic cones out for those who can't read the "No Parking" signs. Two got by me before I discovered it is an "event day".

I forgot to bring the 50' extension cord down from the warehouse so I can't vacuum the interior. These logistics are killin' me. I'll eventally get it sorted out if alzheimers doesn't kick in first. There's a front rollin' thru and the rains started just before noon. It's a cold front, too, and a hard rain. Hope the walk-a-thon wasn't for the Algoracle and gerbil worming.

October 24^th 2009  It was a good cruise-in last nite. I take a minute for "cab setup" when I arrive at cruise-ins instead of the twenty minutes some guys spend detailin' their rigs. I have a gray rag on the seat that Tony gave me along with an old mason jar with "hooch" that I got off e-Bay. Beside it sits a pack of Korean War era Chesterfields (my Dad's brand), also from e-Bay, and a GMC engine slug that Oldcarkook awarded me at McCungie. On the dash is an old photo of Mom & Dad in the happy times before I arrived that my Brother, JR, found. And on the floor is a beatup vintage cooler chest, another e-Bay find, that I put to good use carrying beer. Some people who peek into the cab get a good chuckle over this stuff.

It rained shortly after I arrived at the Krash Lab this morning so I sat in BillyBob's cab and had a ceegar while I waited for it to dry up a bit. A ritual I haven't performed for quite a while. Yesterday, I finally managed to get Renegade started again and rolled him out of the warehouse bay for some reorganization. I put together a Metro shelving unit I bought last year and set it up at the entrance to the bay. I'm going to collect my scattered hand tools and comsumables on this unit for easy transport between the warehouse and the Krash Lab.

Grimeblasted the Deerslayer chassis from a distance (I forgot to get the jackstands yesterday and I wasn't going under the truck with just a floor jack holding it up) then answered a voicemail from my friend, Lou Lupino. He wasn't going to make the cruise-in tonite and our other friend, Anthony, is down with root canal recovery. I decided to go get some beers and finish out the day putzing around the shadetree if it doesn't rain again. Tomorrow is an all day car show and cruise-in in the evening.

Went over to my friendly "Case n Keg" and picked up a couple of six packs of Shipyard Brewing Company's Pumpkinhead Ale which will be Beer of the Day and and in the cooler for tomorrow's car show. Case n Keg has hit hard times and their cooler shelves look like a soviet era supermarket. Empty shelves with just a few six packs. Looks like a Japanese sand garden with a few rocks poking up here and there. Making a good choice is tricky. My friend, Lou, may be cursin' me tomorrow for my selection.

October 25^th 2009  It was a good day at the car show and cruise-in afterwards. We didn't get the predicted rain which made it brutally hot out on the asphalt since the show was held at a fairly new shopping center where the landscaping has not matured. Deerslayer got an "Award" but it was like a Nobel Prize since everyone not named Bush got one.

November 1^st 2009  Didn't get anything done yesterday because I was at the Voodoo Rod Run at the Downtowner Saloon on the New River in Fort Lauderdale. Ended up in a good spot because the police kicked me out of the space the promoters had put me and they relocated me in the only area they had left which was right in the center of things. Hard to believe there's a river between Deerslayer and that high-rise condo in the background but if you look close, you can see two yachts in the clutter.

Today is good weather under the shade tree. Record breaking hot for this time of year but, other than that, fine working weather. Today is "fall back" day for the clocks so I have an xtra hour of morning to work in the light. Started out with monthly maintenance and followed up with a grimeblaster engine cleaning. I haven't broken the habit of forgetting something when I bring the tools down from the warehouse and this week it was scrubbrushes and microfiber towels. I did get more organizing done at the warehouse on friday. Renegade started again and I pulled him out of the bay and filled up my new shelving unit with hand tools and consumables. I also found the Redline Gear Oil I was looking for but not the ATF fluid.

The long distance rides in Deerslayer have been brutally hot. I want to mitigate that problem some for future roadtrips. With that in mind, when The Filling Station sent me a "closeout specials" e-mail with a 36 Chevy Truck Acousti Shield Cowl Kit with a 30% price reduction, I ordered it on impulse. I didn't know 'xactly what "Acousti Shield" consisted off and didn't know how much a "cowl kit" covered.

The kit turned out to be two small triangular shaped pieces of foil backed fibrous insulation about 3/8" thick, a spray can of contact adhesive and a roll of aluminum sealing tape. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this. As it is, it cost me forty bucks, including shipping. My next surprise was when I pulled the old insulation out. Tony's insulation is practically the same stuff. The "jute" material is a little different and Tony installed it foil side down with duct tape. Otherwise, there's no difference that I can see.

I installed the new cowl pieces, foil side out, according to the instructions. Next week, I think I will redo the firewall insulation by turning it around with the foil facing out and securing it with the kit's contact adhesive and tape.

Headed out to the sunday nite cruise-in where my friend, Anthony's '51 Merc was leaking some gas on the intake manifold (350 Chevy crate engine). We determined a short length of fuel hose had rubbed a radiator hose clamp and ruptured. I was gonna try an' tape it up for his drive home but another friend, Fred ('64 Chevy 2-dr sedan), had a length of 3/8" fuel hose and John Carey ('34 Ferd "tow truck") had tools so we fixed it right then n there. When it was time to go home, I had trouble starting Deerslayer. The battery cut off switch (Calterm Electronics) was malfunctioning. I finally got it to work but I'll order a replacement to install next weekend.

November 7^th 2009  I took the day off yesterday and went to my friend Lou Lupino's house to work on his '72 Ferd LTD. He has several nasty dents in his stainless steel trim and, in a loose moment of drunken fervor, I told him I could fix that. I've been putting off this event for a couple of months now but I finally managed to find all my tools up at the warehouse and told Lou I was ready last sunday nite at the cruise-in. He said to show up at eight am on friday morning.

I made it to Lou's a little after eight and he stuffed a good breakfast down my throat. Lou had taken the trim pieces off the nite before. They were the front hood edge trim piece and the two rear wheel opening pieces. The hood trim had a nasty crease on the left side and some small dents. The wheel trim pieces had a good size dent each.

I started on the nasty crease. I got it pounded out pretty well with metal-working hammers and went after it with a file next. This act scared Lou and he went to find something else to do in the house for a while. About this time, Anthony showed up in his '51 Merc lead sled. By lunch time, I had the hood trim sanded and had run it thru the buffing wheel process with both emory and stainless steel compounds. Lou cooked us up hamburgers and Johnsonville brats for lunch. In the afternoon, I got the wheel trim done.

This was by no means a professional job and I wasn't very happy with the blemishes and little bumps that remained but Lou was and it was better than what we started with. You had to be much closer to the car to notice the trim issues now. Lou had also furnished a case of Killian beer on ice for my benefit but I didn't touch that until late in the afternoon when I was almost finished with the buffing wheel. Then he made me take the rest of the beer and sausages home with me.

Got a late start this morning and it's windy today. I'm really getting to be a cranky old bastard about the weather. Not long after I got to the Krash Lab, I picked up a virus on my laptop "Firefly" and had to stop and deal with that. I also forgot to get the oil filter wrench when last I was up at the warehouse so the Deerslayer oil change I had scheduled will have to wait.

The new battery cut off switch arrived from JEGS on wednesday so I manhandled the seat out of the truck and replaced that first. This thing is manufactured by Calterm Electronics and many vendors carry them. The one that is malfunctioning came from McMaster-Carr last april. BillyBob has had one of these for years now and it has not given me any trouble. A half hour of google searches did not turn up any complaint issues so I think I just got a bad one that went south and that this isn't going to be a chronic problem.

Next, I cracked open one of those Killian's Irish Reds that Lou sent me home with last nite. It's the beer of the day. Went back to my re-isulation project. Removed the firewall insulation and pad to determine what could be done with it.

November 8^th 2009  Still windy today. Otherwise, it's nice working weather. Continued with the firewall insulation. The firewall insulation had a simulated black leather, felt-backed material attached to it with those little plastic t thingies that attach price tags to your new shorts when ya buy 'em. I snipped them off and rolled the cover up to disappear into the bowels of the warehouse bay for some future use.

I started cutting up the firewall insulation into manageable tiles to apply with the contact cement provided in the Acousti Shield kit. This stuff is called White Lightning and it's pretty good stuff. The spray nozzle lays down a very precise one inch wide strip of goo without overspray. You let it dry to the touch on both pieces, and slap it into place . . . It stays put. We'll see how it does over the long term.

November 9^th 2009  On friday, when I was working with the stainless steel trim with Lou and Anthony, I ended up with some kinda transition blemish next to any repaired area I had used the file on. This only happened with the hood trim. The wheel opening trim pieces were okay. We thought it might be some type of clearcoat and Lou went off to the hardware store for paint stripper. He used a whole rattlecan of stripper on the hood trim piece without results. We scratched our heads and moved on. You had to be pretty close to the trim to see the problem.

Lou called me this morning after visiting a professional trim restoration outfit. Turns out that the hood trim is not stainless. It is anodized aluminum. The restoration outfit removed the rest of the anodizing while he was there. Damnation! I'm lucky I didn't really mess this piece up!

November 10^th 2009  I've been having a problem with radiator coolant coming out from under the cap instead of going into the overflow tank. This has been happening since before the new radiator was installed. I ordered a new 6-8lb cap from JEGS to replace the Stant 7lb cap (a good brand). It arrived today and it's a Moroso cap "for racing use only". I'll keep that in mind and try to live up to the directive.

November 15^th 2009  Friday's session up at the warehouse went well. I found everything I was looking for (for a change) and made some progress in my re-organization efforts. Also got Renegade outside for thirty minutes to exercise the engine.

Yesterday, my friends and I were convoying up to ABACOA Town Center in Jupiter for a cruise-in, a monthly event that we attend during the winter months. I detailed Deerslayer slightly and slapped another slab of insulation on the firewall before running off to meet them at a Turnpike entrance point. This piece of insulation was placed around the steering column and foot pedal floorboard penetrations and I wanted to see how well it would hold up to the high speed run.

Things went well until we were almost to the event. Anthony's big '51 Merc shut down on him a few miles out. We put on our flashers and attempted to fix it in a turn lane. It's a carby problem of some kind. The four barrel Rochester is leaking badly and won't idle. My friend Lou messed with the idle screw and tapped around the float bowl(s) with a block of wood. He got it to idle without leaking and we made it to our customary favorite spot. The Merc was running rich and it messed up Anthony's day. When it was time to leave for the sixty mile ride home in the evening, gas started pouring out of the carb in a steady steam. Anthony got a AAA flatbed dispatched and Lou and I met him at his house to push it into his garage.

Today is a perfect weather day. I started out with a Oil and Filter change for Deerslayer. Today's detailing task was the pickup bed. Usually, this is a Wash Wax All session but the bed boards are starting to weather even tho' I applied four coats of Old Masters Marine-Spar Varnish back in april. I've decided to add a coat of varnish to the detailing cycle.

The bed boards were lightly sanded and blown off with compressed air. Then, they were wiped down with mineral spirits and one coat of the spar varnish was applied with a 1" throw away brush. I didn't mask anything off. I was just more carefull. When I finished, it was time to clean up for the sunday nite cruise-in.

November 20^th 2009  Good weather for this afternoon's friday cruise-in. I got the Jeep exercised and a little more reorganization done up at the warehouse. I think I managed to bring everything back that I need for this weekend's work under the shadetree too.

When I got back, I found out that the Boss is having a mild anxiety attack over cash flow. He didn't ask me but I decided to work late and get some client billing out. I called Lou to tell him that I wouldn't be making the cruise-in today. He told me that Anthony has a new Edlebrock 600 cfm carby on the Merc to replace the Rochester and that he was good to go for this sunday's Festival Fleamarket show in Pompano, Florida. We made plans to meet there a couple of hours early to get good spots. It's a big show, typically, 600 to 800 cars.

November 21^st 2009  It's saturday and I've got another virus on the laptop computer. Damnation! I spent the morning fiddling with the computer and polishing Deerslayer's fenders with Flitz. They were dull again. The last time I did this was about two months ago. This time, when I finished the Flitz polishing session, I gave them an application of Meguiar's Cleaner Wax. We'll see if I get more shine mileage with the two-step process.

Jumped in Deerslayer and met up with some car nuts from the tuesday nite cruise-ins to cruise to a restaurant for brunch. We had 6 cars for the parade. an eighties vette and mercedes roadsters, '59 Tee bird ragtop and early seventies Shelby 500 convertible, Late sixties Lincoln four door and Deerslayer bringing up the rear. After brunch at a waterside joint, we went our separate ways.

Back at the Krash Lab, I had a beer and a cigar out on the rear stoop.

November 23^rd 2009  Left for the Krash Lab before daybreak yesterday. Got Deerslayer preped and to the car show by seven-thirty. Got in and found Lou and Anthony. They found a nice spot under a tree in the first "non-club" row of parking. It was a good day with about 750 cars. Afterwards, we went to the sunday nite cruise-in where Anthony's new carby was acting up. It put him in a funk and he wanted to go home early. Lou and I followed him to make shure he made it.

November 27^th 2009  It is chilly today by Gold Coast standards. The sun is shinning, tho' and I'm working on Deerslayer's interior insulation again. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and, between beers, I got monthly and quarterly maintenance done on the truck again. Tonite it will be cold enuf for me to sport my Pharoahs car coat. I am Pharoah #383 "Karsh". The person who did the embroidery work mustuv' been dyslexic because it was 'sposed to be "Krash". I waited two months for the coat, however, an' I'm not sendin' it back. I'll be Karsh. At least I didn't have to take the blood initiation. Look for me next time you see American Graffiti.

I started out where I left off with the firewall insulation. I had the passenger side glued in and taped plus a patch around the steering column and floor pedal penetrations. That is holding good. Today, I'm gonna try to finish off the driver side.

By mid-afternoon, I had the firewall insulation completed 'cept for a three inch strip along the bottom. I'll try to finish that up tommorow as it's time to put the beers in the cooler and head for the friday afternoon cruise-in in Davie at the tower shops.

November 28^th 2009  It wuz a bone-chilling 49 degrees when I left the Krash Pad this morning. Last nite at the cruise-in was pretty cool too but without wind so we were comfortable enuf. Slim pickin's. The place is usually packed with a couple hundred vehicles but there were lots of empty spaces last nite. A lot of the cars that come to this event are at the Turkey Run in Daytona this weekend. At least Anthony's '51 Merc is runnin' good again. The malfunctioning Edlebrock 600 was replaced with another new one after Anthony forced his mechanic to take a test cruise. Anthony hammered the car then challenged the mechanic to start it hot. The mechanic couldn't start it either and gave up defending the carb. The new Edlebrock works like it should. Maybe the old one sat on a shelf upside down or was dropped by one of the precision workers who man the loading dock. Who knows?

At two, I headed up to Delray to rendezvous with some Classic Diamonds car club members to caravan to lunch. We had five cars this time: a '55 Ferd ragtop, '55 Poncho Catalina Star Chief hardtop, a seventies Caddy Eldorado ragtop, the early seventies Shelby Mustang again and the Deerslayer bringing up the rear. Had a good brunch and headed back to the Krash Lab.

November 29^th 2009  Not quite as chilly this morning. Yesterday, I got the firewall insulation done and started pondering what I was going to do about the floor. I figure that if I get the holes in the floor sealed, I won't have the insulation and floor mat blowing up around my legs like a magic carpet at speeds above seventy. There's a small hole behind the shifter opening to be plugged and a 3-1/2" x 5-1/4" master cylinder access opening that needs a cover. The shifter and parking brake openings also need attention.

At first, I was thinking of gluing down the floor insulation, foil side up, like on the firewall and cowl or, maybe using peal n seal roofing insulation. As I thought about it more, I decided on keeping the insulation blanket loose just as Tony placed it for the time being. I plan on fashioning quick n dirty sheet metal flange rings to secure the shifter and parking brake boots and a sheet metal cover for the master cylinder. The rubber floor mat is in three pieces and getting brittle. A new one costs about $76. I opted for a pair of Mooneye mats at $39 instead.

Next weekend promises to be a full show and cruise-in weekend and I probably won't get much more work done until the weekend after that. This looks like a good place to terminate this "long in the tooth" log entry. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. I did.

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Issued Sunday Novemver 29, 2009

Updated Friday May 4, 2018

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