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.

42. On a roll

December 13^th 2019  Next task is to clean and paint Deerslayer's front wheels. There is method to my madness. The wheels will be put back on the truck soon to reposition it with the Go-Jack wheel dollies and I want to give the paint around the lugs some time to cure and harden.

Cleaned and organized the tools and parts left over in the aftermath of the disk brake and head work ops, then set to work washing the backside of the first wheel with a Dawn dish washing soap and water solution, the only thing I had on hand. Beer of the day was Sumerian Brewing Company's Holy Water Citra IPA.

December 17^th 2019  Made a pass with wire cup and wheel in air-powered angle grinder followed by several cycles of cleaning with Oil Eater degreaser. I was surprised to find it as effective on this dry brake grime as it is on greasy surfaces.

After the Oil Eater cleaning, the rusty areas were  treated with a course grit foam sanding block and the whole surface to be painted was gone over with a Scotchbrite pad.

Went and hunted up my Wheel Masks, a tool I'd gotten from Eastwood in the last century. These simple sheet metal bands are the best thing since sliced bread as far as wheel painting is concerned. I need all the help I can get. My tape masking Kung Fu is not strong. PRE Paint Prepped the wheel and gave required areas two coats of Eastwood's Self-etching Primer, followed up by four coats of Dupli-Color Black High Performance Wheel Paint over the entire wheel side.

December 18^th 2019  After the first side of the first wheel was painted, I adjusted my procedure. The wire cup and wheel step was eliminated. I couldn't get to the nooks and crannies and as much paint was being removed as dirt, necessitating more primer. If I had known beforehand how well the Oil Eater was going to do, the air-powered angle grinder would have never come out of the drawer for this operation. Deerslayer's front wheels are done for now and can be put off to the side for the paint to harden. Beer of the day is RJ Rockers Brewing Company's Son of a Peach Wheat Ale. As a rule, wheat ales do not agree with me but this one tastes, well . . . just peachy.

December 19^th 2019  Organized, put away the wheel painting materials and cleared the deck for the next planned task. Deerslayer's 400 CFM Carter AFB Carburetor has been in pieces for 3-1/2 years. Long past time to get it back together.

When I took this thing apart, the parts were organized in muffin tins with post-it note labels. Hopefully, this will cut down my confusion during reassembly. Most of the ferrous parts have developed surface rust over the years. They will have to spend some time in the Evapo-Rust basket.

December 20^th 2019  It's time to strip down and remove Deerslayer's cab for the next phase of the work while I'm scratching my head over the carburetor. Dropped the front end down on the jack stands to level out the truck. Now I can jockey the door lift into position to take off the doors. Some of the door hinge screws want to stay where they are. Now, I'm trying different methods of extraction, with limited success. Beer of the day is River Horse Brewing Company's Oatmeal Milk Stout.

December 23^rd 2019  All the hinge leaf screws were small but stubborn. I was successful at getting the driver side upper hinge cab side screws out with manual impact driver but none of the others would bust loose. I also tried MAP gas, Kroil penetrating oil and air-powered impact wrench, all to no avail. I got the driver side lower hinge leaf door side screws loose but they had hex nuts inside the door and I had to take off the inner door panel to get at those. I finally got the door off with the upper hinge still on the door and the lower hinge still on the cab.

Went to the passenger side door and found more of the same despair. Then, palm slap to the forehead! I'm overthinking things again. I was doing things here the way I did when I took BillyBob's doors off but Billybob has concealed hinges. Deerslayer's doors have exterior hinges. All I have to do is drive the hinge pins out with a punch! I did and the passenger side door was off in five minutes instead of the hours long ordeal of the driver side door.

Damnation! Some days the bear gets you and some days, you iz the bear. Beer of the day was Southern Barrel Brewing Company's Damn Yankee IPA.

December 24^th 2019  While I was pondering the problems of clutch and brake pedal, and other obstructions blocking cab removal, I went to work on items that were relatively easy. The rear fenders gave me some trouble in the form of a few rusted bolts I had to grind off. Otherwise, the fenders and running boards came away easier than I expected. The running board supports are bolted in place, not riveted like BillyBob, so those "shin killers" will be removed too.

December 26^th 2019  Started striping the glued on insulation and other easy items from the cab interior. That's when I discovered or, rather re-discovered (since I had applied the insulation years ago), that the firewall kick plate, including the area of the clutch and brake pedals, was a bolt in item. The area surrounding the pedal shafts splits into two pieces. The pedals would not restrict the cab lift operation after all. Beer of the day is RJ Rockers Brewing Company's Bell Ringer Double Pale Ale. I've been punched by this brew before.

December 27^th 2019  I unscrewed the firewall kick plate sheet metal and went into Deep Ponder Mode. This was a game changer. The reasons for lifting the cab have largely vanished and the diminishing returns threshold crossed. I have all the access I need from above except directly under the seat base and that is a "quiet" area. Not much has to be done on my back there except clean and paint the frame rails and cab floor. Yogi Berra said "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." I moved on to the task of preparing the bed for removal.

December 30^th 2019  Back to the Carter AFB.  This thing has been apart so long, a recap is in order. Originally I tore it down for a standard rebuild. I got an ultrasonic cleaner to brighten it up. The first cleaner was faulty and it had to be replaced. The second cleaner worked but I ended up with main castings of different shades of gray. I was unhappy. My friend, Johan Amy, suggested vapor blasting. I read up on it and agreed. I tore down the AFB to the basic castings and that's where things went South. I twisted off screws and buggered my repair attempts. John Carey's machining skills and Johan Amy's vapor blasting saved my bacon. Ironically, Johan told me I did not have to break the AFB down that far for the process. And that's where we are right now.

De-rusted primary and secondary throttle shafts and installed them, using my spare carb as a guide. New screws were used with threadlocker blue on the throttle plates in lieu of staking them. I could foresee getting myself into real trouble doing that as I've never done it before. I've already screwed up the throttle shafts enuf.

Choke plate and shafts were next. Bit of a setback here. Noticed one of the very small screws was shorter. Pulled the shaft out of the Evapo-Rust and found the other end of the screw still in it. I must have noticed this at the time I broke it but forgot the traumatic experience.

Okay, cannibalize the spare carb's choke shaft and clean it with Oil Eater. Done, assemble . . . Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot! Shafts are ever so slightly different and screw holes are off. Salvage the choke plate from the spare carb as well and clean it. Attempt assembly a second time and it goes together this time. On to the next challenge.

December 31^st 2019  Put the wheels back on and lowered the Deerslayer. Dragged the Go-Jaks over and positioned them. Pushed and dragged the truck around until it was perpendicular to its previous position with the engine bay poking into the operating theater under the loft. Disengaged the Go-Jaks and stored them under BillyBob. Started clearing out Deerslayer's bed. Thirsty work and it wore me out. Beer of the day is Red River Brewing Company's Penalty Bock Lager.

January 2^nd 2020  Emptied Deerslayer's bed slowly as I organized the parts so I wouldn't loose track of them. Removed the tailgate and puzzled over the logistics of moving the heaviest items, the two Latham superchargers. The Positraction rear end chunk was lighter but still heavy from this geezer's perspective.

I was hoping I could dismantle the bed from the top down. I knew it was wishful thinking. Like all old pickup beds, the bed boards are held in place by bed strips attached by a grid of carriage bolts and fender washers. The hex nuts are all accessed from the underside.

First thing I discovered was that a few of the carriage bolts were above the gas tank. It would have to come out. It's still full of corn squezzin's stuff that used to be ethanol gas. It's heavy. Positioned my transmission jack under it for support and took off the tank strap hex nuts inboard, next to the axle, because, as Murphy would have it, they weren't halfway up the threaded rod as the more accessible outboard strap anchors were. Dirty work. Cut the fuel line with shears and rolled the tank out.

Deerslayer's builder, Tony, had connected the sender with blade terminals so I didn't have to cut the wires. He also fashioned a vent line that resided in the rear, right-side, stake pocket. Pretty neat.

January 3^rd 2020  The Carter AFB is a touch different from the ones being rebuilt in the videos I've been studying and I've been coping with that best I can. When it came time to reinstall the jets, the primaries were located as in the video but the secondaries were not at the bottom of the fuel bowls where they are in the video and I removed them so long ago I couldn't remember where they came from. Eventually located them at the bottom of deep wells under the secondary venturi mounts.

I had to go into Deep Ponder Mode to figure a way to re-install them there. Hit upon an idea to use a thin pipe cleaner by putting the jet on the end of the pipe cleaner and using the pipe cleaner to get the jet started in the threads where a long screwdriver could finish the job. It worked well.

Accelerator pump jet housing, check weight, primary and secondary venturis and their assorted gaskets were next. These items were gritty and dirty and I couldn't remember why at first. Slowly dawned on me that I had not figured out the best way to clean these small parts and keep them organized at the same time when my activity ground to a halt. I did, however, get a fresh gallon of Chem-Dip before that happened and it beckoned now.

Started cleaning parts with a thirty minute bath as I needed them. Got the pump jet housing and venturis in place. Many parts will interchange and you can get things wrong and I did, occasionally, so my efforts had to be repeated a couple of times.

January 6^th 2020  Started taking the bed strip carriage bolts out. The first half-dozen went easy then, having been lulled into a good mood, Murphy hit me with two in a row that just turned in their anchorages. I had to get out the electric angle grinder and grind the carriage bolt heads off those. Progress continued to be be spotty.

Eventually found all the fasteners holding the passenger bed side on and got it off. Beer of the day was Clipper City Brewing Company's Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hops IPA.

January 7^th 2020  I couldn't find the new accelerator pump in pile of rebuilding parts so I took time out to completely clean up the other workbench where I tore the Carter AFB apart. Found the new pump, along with an unopened "Carter Strip Kit" from the sixties containing a variety of jets and metering rods for the drag strip. I don't have the knowledge to make use of the strip kit so it stays sealed.

Installed the new float seats and needles, then checked the new main gaskets against the old gasket to determine the correct one. Had two sheet metal items left over in the muffin tins that are not mentioned in any of the videos. I put them in the Evapo-Rust basket and tore down the spare AFB a little further to find out what they were. Turned out to be fuel bowl baffles.

The spare AFB had better floats so I submerged those floats under water for a day to check if they had leaks. I then set the floats and adjusted them. Placed the new accelerator pump and spring and it was time to screw the top casting back unto the bottom.

January 8^th 2020  Put the AFB top and bottom together. Installed the accelerator pump linkage and choke linkage, installed the metering rods and springs, installed the idle mix screws, idle speed screw and fuel inlet. Found some old photos I took before disassembly and saw I had the manual choke linkage bass ackwards so I fixed that.

Purty shure I got it right now but the proof is in the pudding. We won't know until the engine is reassembled. Time to Seran wrap this baby and put it on the shelf until then. Beer of the day is Sumerian Brewing Company's Lucidity Czech Style Pilsner.

January 9^th 2020  With the carb off the work bench, it's time to blow the dust off another half finished task, Deerslayer's new windshield. I quit working on this just short of six years ago. The repop windshield frame was bare metal then. Got on the intarweb and ordered a heavy duty 24 x 48 x 2 inch deep plastic drip pan and five more gallons of Evapo-Rust to submerge the rusty window frame parts.

January 10^th 2020  Originally, my plans called for refinishing the bed boards that Tony had made locally from oak but several of them are too far gone to save. Edges are crumbling and, at eye level, the bed undulates like sea swells. I will go with paint on pine this time. I've had it with varnishes and stains. This section is in better shape than most of the bed. Maybe the moisture from my bottle cap collection helped. Beer of the day is  Sudwerk Brewing Company's Rye of the Lager.

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Issued  Friday January 10, 2020

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