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 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.

38. Headache - Mission Creep

October 10^th 2015 Ever since I removed the starter a week or so back and did a preliminary pass at area cleanup, I've been pondering the state of the engine paint. I came to the conclusion that I will not be happy putting the engine back together without refurbishing the paint. This is known as mission creep and will require taking more parts off the engine, including the nose and radiator which I had decided against at the beginning of this job. I started taking everything off the right side of the engine. The oil dipstick tube, a press fit, came out easily. The road draft tube turned out to be a different case.

First, I rigged up a ratchet strap to put tension on the road draft tube as I tapped it on all sides with a brass hammer. No joy with that so I took off the mechanical fuel pump which is right next to the road draft tube and hit the base of the tube with MAPP gas torch, then quenching with Kroil penetrating oil. I ran three cycles of this process, tapping with the hammer and rocking the tube until I wore myself out. Only a little progress with this method and I'm not quite sure whether I loosened the tube a bit or I need a new front engine mount.

While sitting in front of a fan resting up with a beer, I remembered a specialty tool I got years ago from Eastwood Company, a tubing separator. I got it for taking apart the tailpipe system on BillyBob. The bad news is that it only works with 2-1/4" tubing. I rooted around until I found it and the good news is that it would work with the road draft tube. I put the threaded clamp on the road draft tube and ran the separating bolts down against the block (normally they run against a similar clamp on the opposing tube you are trying to separate). After a few rounds of tightening bolts and rocking the road draft tube, it came out.

I also cleaned some more engine parts and bagged them for reassembly down the line.  I primed and painted the coil bracket too. This operation did not go well because I picked an old can of Eastwood's Detail Silver paint and it came out like lumpy gravy. It will have to be stripped and done over. Why mess with an old coil bracket? Because the replacement coils come with a bracket that is too small in diameter for the coil they ship with. You can make it work but it squeezes the coil into a hourglass shape. That can't be good. Go figure.

When I posted this to Facebook, Tony remarked that he might have used JB Weld when he installed the road draft tube . . . Greg Macha laughed and laughed.

February 25^th 2016 Activity in the BillyBob Shop pretty much flatlined after the first of the year. I haven't been doing much except cleanup.  Yesterday was more of the same with the addition of some unproductive tinkering with my broken Jeep door. The one item of note was the unpacking and inspection of a newly obtained treasure., a positraction center chunk for the Deerslayer's rear axle. The axle is a conventional differential from a 1957 Chevy car with 3.36 gearing. I don't romp-n-stomp much but, when I do, the Deerslayer goes smartly down the road with one tire on fire. This 1957 positraction center section has been fitted with a 3.08 ring and pinion, too high for the owner's taste in the '62 Chevy 409 car it was built for. It is well suited, however, for Deerslayer.

April 6^th 2016 Spent the day refinishing the Jimmy 302 valve cover. It looked pretty nasty after spending weeks submerged in the parts washer goop. Took it down to bare metal with scotchbrite roloc disks  in the air angle die grinder. It's tedjus work with my low capacity air compressor with lots of wait periods, which I filled up with the beer of the day, 16 Mile Brewing Company's Tiller Brown Ale. Afterwards, the valve cover got two coats of self-etching primer and two coats of Chevy Orange Dupicolor Engine Paint before I ceased ops for the day.

April 13^th 2016 It was another day with the Scotchbrite Roloc disks in the air angle die grinder, this time with the Clifford Research, water heated, four barrel carb manifold for the Jimmy 302. Today I filled up the wait periods with another offering from 16 Mile Brewing Company. Beer of the day was their Amber Sun Ale. Recommended. It crept up on me slowly and knocked my johnson into my watch pocket.

Looked out the door at my Jeep and saw bees swarming it. I had cleaned the plastic windows earlier with Lemon Pledge. The bees eventually went away when they didn't find any lemon blossoms. Got the manifold down to bare metal before I called it a day. I was going to remove the intake port alignment rings for the cleaning but they were uncharacteristically tight. Now, that I know of Tony's fondness for JB Weld, I had my suspicions and decided to leave them be. I also left the throttle linkage studs and the water jacket fittings in place.

April 20^th 2016 Wanted to do some more cleaning of the intake manifold before painting so, I ordered this big French tickler appliance brush and a bottle of Extreme Simple Green Aircraft and Precision cleaner to get at the intake runners. Also wanted to go over the water fittings and some tight spots with a brass wire wheel that the Roloc disks couldn't get at before getting the masking tape out.

Taped it up next and put on the latex gloves to clean it with Eastwood's PRE Paint Prep. Then gave it two coats of self-etching primer. Settled down to wait a couple of hours with the beer of the day, Boulder Brewing Company's Shake Chocolate Porter. An acquired taste for sure and the three beer sample wasn't enuf for me to make the acquisition.

Hit it with two coats of Dupicolor's Chevy Orange engine paint. Then the Krash Lab called. The Internet connection was out and I had to jump in the Renegade and run up to the office to set things right again. This is happening way too often. I better take it as a sign and get a new proxy server in place before the damn thing shuts down entirely and puts my ass in a sling with my co-workers.

April 21^st 2016 One bright spot when I had to go to the office yesterday was that the last bit of hardware to finish tricking out the valve cover had arrived from McMaster-Carr. Stainless steel hose clamps with thumbscrews for securing the PCV valve. I had already gotten a new shielded breather vent from JEGS. A month or so back I made about my best eBay purchase yet: 7 vintage chrome valve cover wing nuts for less than eight dollars total, including shipping. These things are a press on beauty item but are just a RCH smaller in diameter than the 3/8"- 24 stud I'm mounting them on. They are perfect for tapping out and becoming functional valve cover nuts with the addition of 3/8" stainless steel flat washers.

April 23^rd 2016 I've let the BillyBob Shop get so cluttered that I'm trippin' over stuff so today was a cleanup day. I didn't get finished but I put a dent in it. It's getting close to the time for rebuilding Deerslayer's carb and I want to use the shop desk for that. Problem is, I've been piling stuff on the desk since I moved in. I got it done but it was painful. Cleaning means throwin' stuff away and that is alien to me. I found stuff I forgot about as well as stuff I've been looking for and stuff that made me say to myself "What the hell is this?"

 By mid-afternoon, I called it a day. I had the desk clean and little piles of stuff around the shop. Nothing puts a burr under my saddle like dragging out a storage box from the bottom of a pile, putting an item in and re stacking the boxes, only to find another item for that box five minutes later. Now I make little piles and put them in the box at one time. An old dog can learn new tricks as long as they're simple. Beer of the day was Sand Creek Brewing Company's English Style Special Ale.

April 28^th 2016 Goodies were delivered to the Krash Lab on Wednesday while I was at the BillyBob Shop. Stainless steel 1/4"-20 hex nuts, acorn nuts, flat and lock washers for the Jimmy 302 intake manifold. I can now store this thing in Deerslayer's pickup bed for reassembly down the line. I may cut down the throttle linkage bracket mounting studs so I can get away with just the acorn nuts and make things a little less busy.

 Also in the plunder that arrived on Wednesday, was a nine liter, heated ultrasonic cleaner and a muffin tin for carb cleaning operations. I guessed at the size I needed and got lucky this time. Nine liters is just big enuf for four barrel carbs. I'm ready for dis-assembly and cleaning now. Once clean, I can get the number for this 400 CFM Carter AFB off the left front flange to order the carb kit.

April 30^th 2016 A few weeks ago, I scored a '54 Chevy truck clock for BillyBob's build. I wanted the housing to mount a tach in. The clock was extra as far as I was concerned. At Sunday morning coffee, John Carey discovered that the clock worked. He suggested I use it to fill the hole in the Deluxe '35 Chevy glove box door I have mounted in Deerslayer. The hole was the right size but the mounting notches for the spring metal mounting clips were in the wrong places. I bought a tool on impulse a month or so back that proved perfect for the job of cutting new notches. It's an air-powered "pencil" die grinder with 1/8" shank. This thing is like a Dremal Motor Tool on steroids. It runs up to 56,000 rpm and is only about seven inches long and 5/8", or so, in diameter. I had the clock in and wound up in under an hour.

May 11^th 2016 Not much progress today. Started out to rebuild Deerslayer's Carter 400 AFB carburetor. Things went okay until I had the air horn ready for cleaning. The ultrasonic cleaner turned out to be defective, right out of the box. We had heat but no shake, rattle or roll. Let the piece percolate in the heated Water Pine Sol solution I was trying out for a couple of hours, hoping that the ultrasonic would kick on but it never did. That brings the carb rebuild to a stop for now. 

 Finished cleaning the phenolic resin spacer / adapter that Tony made. Also made a gasket for the Clifford manifold. I cut down the throttle bracket studs for the acorn nuts and somehow chipped the manifold paint in the process. Sprayed a blast of engine paint on a throw away artist's brush and fixed it. Maybe next time, I'll be smart enuf to use a Q-Tip instead. Beer of the Day was Red Hook's Long Hammer IPA.

May 18^th 2016 Ongoing cleaning and organization ops of the past few weeks have left the main workbench free for useful work again. The Jimmy head had been laying on the corner of the workbench ever since Wayne and I dropped it there back in July. I dragged it to the center and turned it on its side for a first look at it.

 I removed the valve cover studs and set the head upside down on wood blocks to work the surface and combustion chambers. Tony made me aware of the grit contamination inherent in using Scotchbrite Roloc disks but I haven't found a better way to clean the machined surfaces yet. After the head surface was cleaned, I checked it with a Starlett machinists straightedge. This is the most expensive piece of bar stock I own. I laid it down the center, on both sides and criss-cross, corner-to-corner. My smallest feeler gauge is fifteen ten-thousandths of an inch (0.0015") and I could not get it under the edge of the straightedge at any location. That's good, I think. This measurement will get my friend, Wayne Harlow, off my back for awhile. He's been bustin' my chops about this measurement ever since we grunted this thing off the engine.

 I continued to clean the combustion chambers with the help of the beer of the day, Full Sail pale ale. The Scotchbrite disks were not much good here except on the faces of the stainless steel small block Chevy valves Tony installed in this head. I did the best I could with brass wire wheels and cups for the rest of the combustion chambers. About three in the afternoon, it started raining hard enuf that I had to close the overhead door. That made it too stuffy to work any longer and I closed down operations.

May 19^th 2016 After posting to FB yesterday, my brother, JR, and Wayne Switzer questioned the health of the valves. Wayne outlined how easy it was to check, so I did when I arrived at the BillyBob Shop. Put the plugs back in and filled the combustion chambers with water. Turned on the air compressor and, in the five minutes it took to cycle up, there were no noticeable leaks in any of the chambers. Blew compressed air thru the ports at the back sides of all the valves, twice. I had heavy bubbling at cylinder 1 and 4 intake valves, cylinder 4 and 5 exhaust valves and some bubbling on number two intake. All the rest were tight. Damnation! Mission creep again. Removed the plugs again and drained the chambers. Blew the water off and gave the chambers and head surface a good dose of WD40. Lit a cigar and went into deep ponder mode.

May 21^st 2016 Spent most of the day degreasing the painted areas of the Jimmy head and cleaning the Carter AFB carb. The replacement ultrasonic cleaner arrived on Wednesday and, when I set it up, this one worked. I was a bit underwhelmed. It cleaned the carb but I was expecting a little more shiny. Also, the main body cleaned up better than the airhorn but that may have come from literally cooking the thing in the old ultrasonic cleaner last week. I thoroughly explored the process with several thirty minute cycles with each piece but there wasn't much improvement after the first one. I used a half liter Pine Sol, eight liter water solution and will work with a different solution next time. In addition, there was some residue on the choke plate after all the iterations that will still have to be cleaned off. Closed down ops at seven in the evening and retreated to the Flamingo Room.

May 23^rd 2016 My friend Johan read my last FB post and messaged me to bring the carb body over to his shop for vapor blasting. I wasn't aware of the process and had to look it up. Required that the carb had to be torn down the rest of the way. There's that mission creep again. Glad I did tho'. I was surprised at the amount of grime still on the plates and shafts. Went okay until near the end when I broke a throttle plate screw. Might have been staked. I can't see worth spit. The others came out easy enough. I'm ready now to visit Johan sometime Wednesday.

May 25^th 2016 I visited my friend, Johan Amy, at his shop, Iron Alley Fabrication, twice. He wasn't there the first time. I had forgotten he is a nightcrawler. He went to work on the carburetor body while I wandered around the shop, taking in the changes since the last time I was here. The process didn't take very long but it takes a lot of air and Johan's compressor had to recycle a few times. I doubt if my dinky compressor would run this thing for more than a few seconds.

The results are nothing short of amazing! The blasting medium is a mixture of air, water and microscopic beads. For future reference, Johan told me I didn't have to break down the carb as far as I did. It won't hurt to leave the throttle plates and shafts in for blasting. Oh well. I asked Johan what the damage was and he gave me a very good price . . . Then, I stiffed him because I had forgotten my billfold. Damnation! I'll get back to him in a week or two.

Between trips to Johan's, I took the valves out of the Jimmy head. The valve spring tool I used for this operation was the little jaws type with the star wheel of pain on top. This thing has its place, on engines when you don't remove the head from the block but, I've had enuf fun with it. I'm getting the big C-clamp type valve spring compressor tool like my Dad used for reassembly.

Since I'm a virgin regarding valve work, having not paid attention when my Dad was doing this stuff, research is in order and a few conversations with my machinist buddy, John Carey. I need to learn about seals for one thing and, two of the valves were tight in their guides beyond the 1/2" of travel they make under normal operations. These are small block Chevy valves. Do I need to buy Chevy seals or Jimmy seals. All will be revealed in time.

It's been a long time since I've posted a Deerslayer log entry, mostly because I've been a lazy slug. The realization that the truck has been laid up for over a year now hit me like a bucket of cold water the other day. Still need to pick up the pace.

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Issued  Friday May 27, 2016

Updated  Wednesday June 20, 2018

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