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.

43. Down to Bare Bones

January 16^th 2020  Slogging away at the rusted bed bolts. Was under the weather the last few days. Still spent time out in the shop every day but didn't get as much done. Scramblin' out from under the truck several times with the Aztec quickstep put a kink in my operations.

Finally got the bed off but it wasn't pretty. Last two carriage bolts turned in their anchorages. Prepared to grind the heads off when I realized they were both in ends of floating crossmembers and I could lift and lay the bedside down on its side, swing the crossmembers under the remaining board and lift the whole thing off as an assembly. Done! Beer of the day is Clipper City Brewing Company's Heavy Seas Winter Storm Imperial ESB.

January 17^th 2020  Cleaned up the aftermath of the battle of the carriage bolts. Drip tray, siphon and paint arrived for the windshield job. The drip tray has a corrugated bottom. That's a bonus. I won't have to fashion stand-offs for the submerged parts. Still waiting on Evapo-Rust. In the mean time I'll be removing parts of the drive train and some other, between the frame rails, items. I was wrong about the running board supports being bolted. They are riveted. I must've been having a senior moment. They are sharp on the ends and I've been collecting bubble wrap to encase them. A person could get a bad gash and I'm just the man for the job.

January 20^th 2020  Evapo-Rust arrived at the Krash Kubicle Friday afternoon. It was set up at the shop and siphoned into the drip pan. Two hours after being submerged, all the rust was gone. It took longer to set up and clean up than than actually clean the metal.

I've said before that there is almost something religious about bare clean metal. Now, I've got to bone up on setting the windshield in the frame with glass setting tape. Years ago, I did a similar op with one of BillyBob's vent windows. I'm hoping the process isn't much different.

January 21^st 2020  Got the remainder of the exhaust system off the truck. This thing has been in my way a long time. With the bed off, I could finally see the hanger bolt that was giving me trouble. The entire exhaust system was rusted together and I cut it in half at one point to get the header end off. It was a clean cut and I will be able to splice things together again without much trouble. I'm happy because the combination of the lumpy cam with the Flowmaster muffler makes a wicked sound that many mistake for a V8.

Took the drive shaft out next. Soon as it was unbolted, the universal joint got a strip of duct tape around it, keeping the bearing cups in place and preventing the roller bearings from making their escape.

Deerslayer's tranny is scheduled to come out next. Soon discovered I don't have a wrench that will fit between the battery box and the drain plug so, I stopped long enuf to take out the battery box. Beer of the day was Southern Barrel Brewing Company's Helles Lager.

January 22^nd 2020 Was tired of rolling around under the truck and doin' laundry afterwards so I switched to cab disassembly for a change of pace. The wiper motor and, hinge enclosure above the windshield has to come off to get at the old windshield hinges. Headliner trim, a-pillar trim and door header trim pieces have to be removed for that to happen. Had the items, along with wiper and wiper motor off by the time I turned the lights out in the shop for the night.

January 23^rd 2020  Turned my attention to the dashboard. Looks fairly straightforward. It should come out after four screws and the windshield crank mechanism handle are removed. It did, tho' there was some jockeying around, joggling this way and that, after it was loose. The next thing to consider is the wiring still attaching it to the cab.

January 24^th 2020 The dashboard wiring needed some deep ponder mode time to determine the best approach. Let loose the side cutters of war or try to preserve the existing wiring harness for comparison when the new wiring harness is installed? Preservation won out. Beer of the day is Christian Moerlein Brewing Company's Northern Liberties IPA.

January 27^th 2020  A delivery of electrical tape arrived. The windshield project can now proceed. Cleaned the glass and placed the windshield in my neoprene padded bench vice. Peeled the protective strip off the glass setting tape and affixed it to the top edge and sides of the new windshield glass with the electrical tape. Notched the corners.

January 28^th 2020 Deerslayer's cardboard headliner is wrinkled in a few places but otherwise in good shape. I'm leaving it in place. The five fasteners anchoring it along its centerline, however, stand out too much for my liking. They are screws and fender washers and my fall back plan was to paint them to blend in but I finally happened upon the magic intarweb search term to lead me to my preferred solution - "Upholstery Buttons". They arrived and were installed in a matter of minutes. Beer of the day was Spencer Brewery's Trappist Ale.

January 29^th 2020  Dawn dish washing soap was used as a lubricant on the setting tape and the upper windshield frame was urged into position. A rubber mallet helped to seat the glass in the channel. The assembly was turned upside down in the vise and the process was repeated for the bottom half. Finally, a new blade in my utility knife made short work of trimming the excess glass setting tape and electrical tape remnants.

I had forebodings on how the glass setting tape operation was going to go but it turned out to be easier than anticipated. The windshield was then masked for painting. The windshield frame could have been painted before assembly but I have a bad history of marring freshly painted items and I wanted to avoid that fate if I could.

After masking the glass, the frame was PRE-paint prepped and given two coats of Eastwood's Self-Etching primer. This was followed up by four coats of Duplicolor's Black Wheel Paint.

January 30^th 2020 Got the dashboard detached from the wiring. I did have to snip some wires when getting at the connectors would have required an excess of cursing and contorted body angles. Was happy to get the water temperature gauge capillary tube out intact. Beer of the day was Christian Moerlein Brewing Company's Barbarossa Dark Lager.

January 31^st 2020  The weather seal was pressed into its channel with the help of a plastic pry tool, starting at the bottom center of the frame and working around it back to the point of beginning. It was tedius work and I'll have a bruised palm for a day or two.

Some of the primer got under the masking tape and that still has to be cleaned off the glass with lacquer thinner. Smudges and fingerprints from the hand-to-hand combat with the weather seal also have to be cleaned, then I can mark finished to this task. Okay, out with the old windshield and in with the new windshield when the cab painting is done. Up on the shelf until then.

February 3^rd 2020 Next small task is the rear cab window. The trim piece is a cast item, held in place by clutch head screws from the interior side. For those not familiar with clutch head screws, they are a fastener anybody working on an old Chevy eventually encounters and it is usually a whiskey tango foxtrot moment. They are similar to Torx or Allen head fasteners but instead of a star or hex shape, clutch head fasteners are bowtie shaped. I purchased clutch head screwdrivers and bits long ago.

When I got all the fasteners out, the rear window surround came off the back. The glass was still held in place by the rear window seal. I gave the window a couple of whacks with a rubber mallet and it didn't budge. Examined the glass and rubber  and found the glass to be clear and the seal to be intact without sign of cracking or hardening. I decided to leave the glass and seal in place. Beer of the day was Spencer Brewery's Premium Pilsner.

February 4^th 2020 A few weeks ago when I saw that the cab bodywork was creeping up on me, I used it as an excuse to get a shiny new tool, the Eastwood Contour SCT Surface Conditioning Tool. I decided to get my feet wet with this gadget by using it to take the paint off the rear window surround. It did a good job. Took about fifteen minutes at the lowest speed setting. I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

February 5^th 2020 Got some more items off the truck. A frame cross member that Tony fabricated that does not support the transmission but has to be removed to get it out. My friend Gato put the cross member in last time when we replaced the clutch. He also lifted the T5 five speed above his head, by himself, to install it at that time so you can imagine how tight those bolts were.

The mechanical speedo cable, tach, turn signal director and fire extinguisher and support were also removed.

I managed to keep the wiring harness about 75% intact taking it out. I gained new admiration for Tony's wiring Kung Fu as I cussed my way thru the task. Beer of the day was DuClaw Brewing Co's Everything is Taken Hoppy Lager.

February 6^th 2020 Finished with the rear window surround. As with the windshield frame, it was PRE paint prepped and given two coats of Eastwood's self-etching primer followed by four coats of Duplicolor black wheel paint. It can now join the windshield on the shelf until the cab is painted.

February 7^th 2020 Continued stripping down the cab interior, removing insulation and various doodads. About the only thing left is the crotch cooler cowl vent. Need to study that a bit. The headliner and remaining interior trim will stay but everything else comes out for painting ops. Beer of the day was Adirondack Brewery's Iroquois Pale Ale.

February 10^th 2020 Freed up my tranny jack from the gas tank sitting on it and got the Borg-Warner T5 Transmission out. I try to schedule the heavy lifting for the weekends 'cause, after twelve hours in the Krash Kubicle on the weekdays, I usually don't have the gumption to roll around on the floor and get greasy.

The Jimmy 302 engine block and bellhousing will be the last major Item to exit the chassis. We are now basically down to bare bones. Most items now coming off the truck will be cleaned up and put right back on. We're movin' into a scraping and painting phase. Beer of the day was Fulton Brewery's Lonely Blonde American Blonde Ale.

< Back to IntroBraking Developments >

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued  Monday February 10, 2020

copyright © 2008-2020 Larry R. Kephart all rights reserved