She's done! - mostly

She's all done. painted, put back together. all except the winch. just have to paint it, put it back in and take a picture.

I finall sandblasted the M-37! It only took me all weekend. It took me about two weeks to prepare for it too. No time for details, we're getting ready to go to Bremerton this weekend. hopefully the pictures are self-explanatory.

finishing painting the hood

after doing the body work, I painted everything with primer.

I sanded the primer to make everything look smooth

then I put a sealer coat on and covered that with two coats of color enamel.

the color doesn't match the old faded paint, but I plan on painting everything else to match the hood.

TADA!

painting the hood

I've been working on the hood for quite some time. out of all the panels on the truck, the hood was the worst, so I started by working on that.

first I had to strip the hood of all of its paint, then I removed the big dents with a hammer and dolly and a stud gun. then all of the remaining dents, I covered with bondo. I sanded the bondo until it was nice and smooth.
these are the nuts, bolts, brackets and hinges that go on the hood. I sand blasted them to get the old paint off.

Utah Lake Excursion

This is My friend Wolf's Rig pulling his trailer and his M-37 ontop and my M-37 being pulled behind. Wolf's friend Aaron came with his M-37 too.



This is Wolf's rig about to come down a fairly steep hill. We just put it in 4-low in first gear and let the engine take us down the hill. there was a ledge near the top that you just had to fall off and hope for the best. it felt at times that the truck was going to flip over, but then the back wheels would hit the ground and you were fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISELsrsW55I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_5g9ZDw6Co


We stopped here after the Hill descent to grab a snack and rest up. you can see our tracks in the grass on the hill where we came down.





We picked up some stow-aways on our way down the slope. Aaron was going to run over a dead tree, but at the last minute he stopped. he backed up and went around and later looked at his radiator. he discovered that a branch had poked through and came close to puncturing his radiator.

Me on the left, Aaron in the middle, Wolf on the right.

Here's some more videos from our trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksnXPxgdnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6VOoqz6xf8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWR5fZ511uU

Jennifer pleaded for me to install seatbelts, so I took a trip to the junkyard and got a few things I needed.

At the junkyard, I picked up the seatbelts out of a van. and found this rear view mirror in a mail Jeep. I made this shifter knob out of a 3/4 in. socket. I welded a nut into the socket and welded a bolt onto the end of the shifter. I took the socket and covered it in epoxy clay, then stuck it on the end of a drill and spun it real fast while applying sandpaper and it smoothed it right out. I think it turned out pretty good.

I finally got my blinkers working. I hooked the switch up to a flasher and to the battery and also to the turn signal lights. It all works great now.

the tail lights work as both brake lights and signal lights.

I fabed up some brakets for the front turn signals. they turned out perfect.

My son sure likes playing with the truck. so many buttons and levers. he's in heaven

We got to take it out in the dirt to test it out. I was very impressed!

Here are some youtube videos of our off road excursion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipNDde12G1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuLm07JRsOg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpsdNqkpXo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQulxRlbryw&feature=related

Brakes and pinion seals

I'm finally finished installing the master cylinder and wheel cylinders. I decided to go with the Chevy 1 ton rebuilt MC so I could get a dual circuit going. I hope this turns out to be a good decision. we'll see when it comes time to test it out. as you can see, I drilled holes in the frame so I could plumb the lines through.

I had to drill some new holes in the running board arm because the original holes don't match up.

I plumbed the brake light switch into the line. It's always good to let people know you are stopping.

I added two residual pressure valves (Magenta) to keep a little pressure on the shoes so I don't have to keep pumping the pedal. I also installed an adjustable proportioning valve (Bottom). this will keep the back tires from locking up on me when I brake.

tada!
I also had a chance to put in a new pinion seal. It was a pain in the rear getting the old one out. I had to bend and brake it to get a hold of it with a puller and then I finally got it out.
a friend of mine at work let me borrow his puller and another friend let me borrow these washers to help push the new seal in the dif housing. I'm excited that it's all coming together.