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.

16. Frontend Follies

May 20^th 2011 On the way to the BillyBob Shop last nite, Murphy let me know that I was procrastinating way too long on the broken front springs job. The passenger side monoleaf snapped back in october or november. This time the driver side monoleaf snapped. I was in the left lane of a long sweeping curve to the right, running at about thirty mph. There was a big bang and the truck got squirrely for a few seconds. The good lord gave me a mulligan and helped me out. I was lucky to have both hands on the wheel when it happened and managed to keep from veering into the car next to me when the Deerslayer lurched to the right. The truck settled down and I was able to limp on to the BillyBob Shop.

May 21^st 2011 I left the Krash Lab yesterday in mid-afternoon to limp back to the BillyBob Shop to start the spring job. Stopped off at former Saints n Sinners CC member Johan's hot rod shop. It was on the way and I hadn't seen him for about a month. Former clubmember French was there too, workin' on his '49 Chebby. As long as they had all the frontend sheetmetal off from the accident a few months back, they decided to change engines. Johan had found him a late 235 to replace the original 216. I know, car guy mission creep. French was painting chassis parts.

I told the guys about the new front end adventures and Johan started to move cars around. I said what's going on and Johan replied "Let's get started on changin' those springs". whoa! I'm gonna do it at the BillyBob Shop. Johan said "Let's get it up on the lift". I gave in and we pushed Rod and Kelly's '53 Merc, John's '49 DeSoto and Johan's '70 SS 454 Chevelle out of the way.

I jumped in Johan's shop truck to run over to the BillyBob Shop and . . . backed into the Merc! Damnation! Now I'm gonna be spendin' nites at Johan's shop for awhile doin' bodywork and painting under Johan's direction until I repair the damage done.

Got back from the BillyBob Shop without further incident and dove into it. Johan already had most of the bolts loose and he had borrowed, from one of the adjacent shops, one of those tall jacks you use under lifts to support the front axle.

First decision point. I wanted to use the old urethane shackles that Tony had installed. Eaton had installed metal bushings in the spring eyes for oem shackles. If the urethane shackles were reused, the bushings would have to be pressed out of the spring eyes. If the oem shackles were used from the Eaton hardware kit, bushings would have to be pressed into the frame. With this in mind, I had brought the Harbor Freight 3-in-1 Chassis Service Kit from the BillyBob Shop with me. The urethane bushings turned out to be hard and appeared a bit small for the Eaton spring eyes so, we went with the oem shackles. Pressing these metal bushings can turn into a real exercise in creative profanity but, with the Harbor Freight Kit and an impact wrench, it's a breeze.

We didn't have any real trouble with the spring pivots either. The old ones came out easily and the new ones went in with the minimum of cussin'. The driver's side a little more difficult than the passenger side. Maybe it's heat from the exhaust header or maybe it's just Murphy because of the more restricted access. Didn't even have to grind the springs to fit like I did with BillyBob some years ago.

I had wanted to get custom u-bolts fabricated to mount the sway bar and shock brackets on but I procrastinated myself out of time. We were able to make do with a pair of the old u-bolts. The new, shorter u-bolts from the Eaton kit were fine for the rear side of the axle. Again, we had no problems with the passenger side. The shock mounts on the driver side took a little more work. The bottom shock hex nut was stripped. I suggested to Johan that we re-thread it for a smaller nut. After Johan re-threaded the stud, we realized we didn't have a nut for the fine-thread die he used. Johan ran off to Home Depot and stopped for a pizza on the way back. Home Depot was no help so the stud was re-threaded again for a smaller course thread nut.

When we disconnected the driver side shock, we found the top nut to be spot welded. Ground off the spot weld and found this stud stripped too. When we put things back together, Johan spot welded it again. We were almost finished. We put the wheels back on, and put the Deerslayer back on the ground, and took him for a test ride around the block. Feels good, no weird noises.

Both monoleafs snapped in the same place behind the axle. The driver's side spring, which snapped on thursday, is in front in the photo. The Deerslayer is riding about an inch higher in front than it was before the monoleafs broke and I like the old stance more. I can live with the new stance but I'm dreamin' about a dropped axle. I'm not interested in a "rubber rake" with much smaller tires since the fronts take the burden of the braking. we'll see when it's time for tires. I favor the dirt track style for this truck.

It's beer time! Damn! I cut off the top of Johan's head. I need to work on my camera skills. We started about four in the afternoon and got finished about ten-thirty friday nite. We were beat by the time we pushed the cars back into the shop. I enjoyed the sleep of the dead but was up again at the usual time.

May 23^rd 2011 Saturday nite was a benefit car show at Wahoo's in Lighthouse Point. All the usual suspects showed up. Well, sixty or so, anyway. I had too good a time and almost missed the sunday morning breakfast meet. On sunday nite, it was back to wahoo's for the sunday nite cruise-in. A couple of Ferd shoeboxes were there, including this chopped and channeled beauty.

May 25^th 2011 Last nite was the last tuesday cruise-in at the Outback in Delray Beach for the season. It will start up again in october. There was a good showing for the night. Afterwards, I put in an appearance at the Monterey Club in Fort Lauderdale for a couple of hours. First time I've been there in months. There were no bands scheduled which was one of the reasons I picked the nite for the visit.

June 13^th 2011 Yesterday was a full day of cruise-ins. Started out at seven with the breakfast bunch in Fort Lauderdale. We split from the bagel shop early as Hank Langsenkamp led us in convoy to tour Adam's Chop Shop, also in Fort Lauderdale.

Most of us were able to park across the street in line and we shot the bull as we waited for everyone to arrive. Adam came out and got aquainted with those of us who are not his patrons.

There are a lot of neat projects inside but the pick of the litter is a '51 Merc ragtop that Adam has been working on for over three years. I saw it a couple of year's ago when he and its owner flatbedded it to a show to display the fantastic chassis work just then being completed. There are so many subtle details that you just don't see until you study the car for awhile (and they are pointed out to you). In this pic, you can see the chopped stainless window frames that Adam fabbed from stock.

I'm not a big fan of the bare engine compartment movement (I like to see wires and hoses) but I just have to marvel at this example. This pic shows the custom fabbed "air cleaner" in place. Six pieces of sheet metal alone in that item. Custom-fabbed firewall and inner fenders from scratch too. Another panel, missing in this photo, conceals the radiator. This hemi is fully plumbed and wired in this photo.

The air cleaner comes off to reveal coolant access, fuel injection throttle body and ignition wiring. The air cleaner has been designed to cover the top of the distributor. Adam and the owner are going on the show circuit when this thing is completed. I've never seen a Riddler car up close but this certainly looks like that kind of attention to detail to me.

For my truck buddies, here is a shot of the transporter Adam is building to carry the Merc from show to show. Sorry, guys, it's a Ferd. A sixties tilt cab that is being stretched to be a crewcab. Adam told us that the nite before, he and a couple of buddies english-wheeled the roof for this thing. It was sitting off to the side.

There's more goodies here but those are the highlights. You can see some more photos in the gallery at Adam's website. We benchraced in the parking lot some more before we each headed off on our own separate ways. A few of us showed up at an afternoon cruise-in in downtown Boca Raton while others went southwest to a show at a place called Lefty's. I went home for a few hours after the Boca Raton event to rest up. When it was time for the sunday nite cruise-in, it was raining where I was at and, since I had a dental appointment early the next day, I decided not to chance taking on too much beer. I had enuf suffering ahead of me as it was.