Meet Mr Rusty

[cucvrus]

The brakes were tight and the wheel was hard to turn. I se why now. Easy fix. The tightening wedge is broken. I have extras. I pried the brake caliper away from the rotor to get some free play in the caliper. The slide surface tells the whole story. I have DOT 5 in mine from bleeding the brakes. It helped a bit but wire brushing them with a rotary brush cleaned them up nicely. I added a new inner pad clip. It was Made in USA. Autozone. Slide surfaces all cleaned up and smooth. They don't need replaced. But I have new ones if they did. I used copper never seize and applied it to all sliding surfaces. The left side is complete and my Wife called me for lunch. Now onto the Right side. First obstacle. The stripped bolt in the bracket. I used a chisel and it came right out. Steel recycles and new ones are available. That was easy. Another tip. I brushed never seize on the back of the wheels and the hub face where the wheel contacts the hub. The wheel was very rusty at the center and when I removed the very rusty 8 lug nuts the wheel came right off. I will add a bit of Copper never seize to the lug studs also again. Have a Great Day and Be Safe. I want to finish this right front brake and move onto another project in the woods.

 

[cucvrus]

After a full week of thunderstorms, extreme heat, high humidity, and hard work I am ready to go back to work on Mr. Rusty. I had some down time waiting for a block heater to arrive. I also wanted to take the time to clean up my shop and get all my tools accounted for. After working outside for 3 weeks and throwing all my tools at the doorway area I decided to clean up. In the past 6 months I have lost 3 sockets. Not bad but still losing tools sucks. I would rather break them. I bought 5 gallons of ATF, 2 gallons of 15 40, 3 gallons of Dex Cool and will begin replenishing the fluids bright and early tomorrow before the temps feel like 107*. I want to get Mr. Rusty back home and out of my driveway. I may do some spot sanding and painting on a few spots of the cab just to slow the decaying process. Have a Great Day. Stay Cool and Be Safe and Productive.

 

[Tracer]

After a full week of thunderstorms, extreme heat, high humidity, and hard work I am ready to go back to work on Mr. Rusty. I had some down time waiting for a block heater to arrive. I also wanted to take the time to clean up my shop and get all my tools accounted for. After working outside for 3 weeks and throwing all my tools at the doorway area I decided to clean up. In the past 6 months I have lost 3 sockets. Not bad but still losing tools sucks. I would rather break them. I bought 5 gallons of ATF, 2 gallons of 15 40, 3 gallons of Dex Cool and will begin replenishing the fluids bright and early tomorrow before the temps feel like 107*. I want to get Mr. Rusty back home and out of my driveway. I may do some spot sanding and painting on a few spots of the cab just to slow the decaying process. Have a Great Day. Stay Cool and Be Safe and Productive.

cucvrus, At this time I think I've got more than 3 missing. Good thing is I know there not on the truck.

 

[cucvrus]

i started out early today. At 0800 it was 80*. Getting the old block heater presented a challenge. It is out now. It was dug in and hanging on. Very little coolant remained and I lucked out and was able to retrieve the crossbar that holds it in. It wwas laying inside the hole and I just reached in and snagged it out with my phalanges. In to change my clothes for the second time. And back out at it. I am enjoying my day and getting a lot of odds and ends completed. despite the heat I have the whole day to myself. I hope none stops by to louse it up. Making slow steady progress on jobs I procrastinated on. Going to have my outside work bench cleaned up for the first time this year. That's progress. With a little luck I may get to work on my M1009 project. I found out a while back I am in no rush. Have a Great Day. Stay COOL and Safe. Hydrate.

 

[o1951]

96 F. and very humid here.
Staying inside.
When I was in engine room on ship in 'nam and the other ****holes in SE Asia, we
used to put Kaki's in sink and soak with water.
Feels a little strange, but the wet Kaki's would cool you as they dried in the high temps.
If I HAD to work outside in this heat, that is what I would do.

 

[Tracer]

96 F. and very humid here.
Staying inside.
When I was in engine room on ship in 'nam and the other ****holes in SE Asia, we
used to put Kaki's in sink and soak with water.
Feels a little strange, but the wet Kaki's would cool you as they dried in the high temps.
If I HAD to work outside in this heat, that is what I would do.

o1951 your spot on. The weather here has been in the high 90s to low 100s but not too humid today. I find if I soak my cover and a cotton shirt not a synthetic one, I can get 30-40 min. of comfortable work time outside. Repeat when necessary.

 

[cucvrus]

Getting the block heater out proved to be a real challenge. Once it was out I used the rotary brush on the drill and cleaned the hole really well. It did have a spot on the element where it was in contact with the cylinder inside. I read that it must not make contact with anything inside the engine.

 

[cucvrus]

I did manage to get the nuts and the rusted flange from the left exhaust manifold. I choose to do that before I sent it to the exhaust shop so they could just heat the manifold and get the studs out. I was laying on cardboard in 100* weather and the exploding rust particles were a real joy. I did not get burnt and suffered no injuries today. All in all Mr. Rusty is NOT a bad CUCV. It is not any rustier then a lot of others I see. It runs and drives great. I am finished with my part. I gave Mr. Rusty a complimentary scrub down inside and out. I took it for a 10 mile drive it drives nice and shifts perfect. It has 373 gears so it can run along at 70 mph really nice. The lack of exhaust is very noticeable when pulling out but cruising it just goes away and seems like a loud muffler. My part is done for another year. I did put 1/2" rubber hose on the door strikers and oiled and greased every moving part on the truck. I pressure washed out under it good and it still has slag falling when you hit the frame with a hammer. Ready for a few more years of plowing. It is still a decent truck and is up for the job. Everything under the hood is stock and the entire electrical system is as it was made. It still has AC Delco 13 G glow plugs. This is living proof that they will just keep going and don't need any modifications at all. Well the bed that rotted off. Th trailer bed seems to fit and holds up well. Have a Great Day and Stay COOL. Today was 3 complete changes of clothing and 2 extra white shirts. All done now and in the A/C.

 

[cucvrus]

I drove Mr Rusty to the exhaust shop and dropped it off for new exhaust. Still not going with SS exhaust. Waste of money at this point. It is almost double the cost. And Mr. Rusty like any other 35 year old hard road driven vehicle has the time bomb is ticking away. Anything could happen. Yesterday in the sweltering heat wave I did manage to get some help from my family and friends to rearrange my barn and get a lot cleaned up. I had a 2 CUCV owners there and made their day with some parts they were excited to have. Many freebies and easy come easy go items. And much to my surprise I found not 1 but 2 sets of preformed original OEM GM automatic transmission lines. They look like new and had the clip that attaches them to the flywheel cover. I needed 2 of them clips. I found many things that I had forgotten. Sadly I found a couple yards of the original vinyl seat material and it was mouse chewed. Oh well. That's life. I keep the cats out of my barn for good reason. Some go in to die and that is worse than a few lost yards of vinyl. Have a Great Day. Be Safe. Stay Cool.

 

[cucvrus]

Hard to imagine but I was ready for bad news from the exhaust shop. They were able to get the studs out of the left exhaust manifold and replace them. I was already to replace the manifold if it needed to be done. Mr. Rusty is back in the owner's possession. The mufflers were replaced 4 years ago and one was rusted thru. I removed the mufflers from Big Red and dropped them off at the exhaust shop. That is repurposing everything I can at it's best. They were worth about $.05 as scrap and $60. as mufflers. The truck ran, looked and sounded great. Lets see where 4 more years brings us. The owner picked it up paid the bill and tipped me for my efforts. He text me on the way home and said it ran perkier and drove great. I can contribute the perkiness to the unseized calipers and drove great because it was not running wide open exhaust. That old 6.2 needs some back pressure to run good. Have a Great Day, Be Safe and Stay Cool. It is going to be another HOT one here today. I used coppe5r never-seize on all the slides and the caliper brackets. 4 more years. The exhaust shop complimented me for removing the nuts from the manifold and all the nice clean painted parts on the underside of Mr. Rusty. It's all a simple task if you set your mind and sometimes your wallet to it.

 

[cucvrus]

Mr. Rusty has been serviced and released for another year of hard work. And YES the hydraulic hoses I used as transmission cooler lines still look like the day I installed them. High and dry. I ran them over top of the transmission. Meet Mr Rusty | Page 13 | SteelSoldiers

 

[cucvrus]