Palf's Little Blue Jimmy

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

What Bill is using is good for reducing resonance. It dampens the sound waves that are amplified by the bare sheet metal. It does offer a small amount of thermal protection, but its minimal. You need a composite barrier to reduce both resonance and thermal transfer.

In addition to the sound dampening, the bituminous layer provides a thermal break and is also somewhat of an insulator. The foil backing works like the expensive stuff and reflects the radiant heat. So it is effective and does what the more expensive stuff does, just not quite as well. It's a matter of degrees...

So to speak.

[Palf70Step]

Been beating my head a while on this AC stuff, but I think I finally found the issue with the new compressor. From measurements and visdual you can see the factory recommended belt is too skinny. The 3/8" wide belt recommended would sit at the bottom of the compressor pulley and never touch the sides. It actually shock/wobbled in the pulley, causing it to screech,slip and eventually break.

I replaced it with a 1/2" wide V-belt and it fits the pully great. works on the engine pulleys also.

Hopefully you can see the difference in the pictures.

So far it seems to be fine. I picked up some pusher fans that I also am going to run evenetually to help cool the condenser so it will cool even better.

[Palf70Step]

Next part of the week's projects was to install a factory front sway bar. It's not super huge (1 1/16") but way better than what was there. It really helps the ride/handling even with the small bar.

I also put on a new front air dam, the deeper 4x4 version. I think it really helped clean up the front end look.

[Palf70Step]

Last of the projects was fixing up the windshield wipers washer system. I had an old generic pump lying around, so I hooked it up. Even though I replaced the wiper motor too, I went with the generic one for 2 reasons. 1-my factory plugin connector would not plug into the washer motor. 2-I never really like the factory washer motors. They seem to die quickly .

The other thing I did was to get a set of wiper arms off an 86 (or 87...I can't remember now) C10. They have the washer squirters built into the arms and they had a much better blade connection method.

I had to drill out/open up the little slot in the cowl to allow the hose to come thru. Other than that they go right on to the older assembly mounts.

They work good. The 80's style wiper arm covers were on the truck so I reused them since I need to touch up the flat black paint on the lower portion of the wiper arms.

Now back to driving it.

[smbrouss70]

You've been busy! But yeah the belt should never touch the bottom of the pulley, I'd bet that you have solved your problem.

[OutlawDrifter]

Great work Bill, all good updates/repairs.

I need to do a washer motor and blower resistor in the daughter's pickup.

[Advanced Design]

Very good updates...and a nice diagnosis for the belt issue!

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Very good updates...and a nice diagnosis for the belt issue!

Lot's of head banging, hair pulling, and adjective hollaring. But finally my brain put it together.

Thank you

[RDrancher]

Thanks for sharing your up-sized belt idea. My compressor has a slight wobble/groan at idle that no amount of realigning has stopped. Maybe this is the fix.

[Whamo]

Good stuff!

[Palf70Step]

Cleaning up the shop mostly today, but did do one little update on the truck. Since the only thing running to it any more was the gas tank vent, I decided to remove the Vacuum/charcoal canister. Truck is a little slow filling, so figured the canister in its 37 years was a bit clogged, so out she went. That thing weighed a bunch. I can't ever remember getting a truck that still had one, so the weight kinda surprised me.

I added a motorcycle vent so that no dirt daubers or whatever gets in and clogs the vent line up.

The fill is not real bad on the 81, but I had no fill issues at all on my 83 using the cycle vent, so hopefully this will improve it some.

[Whamo]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

I added a motorcycle vent so that no dirt daubers or whatever gets in and clogs the vent line up.

I was pondering this very issue this morning...great idea...gonna copy...

[Palf70Step]

Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-rrooooooooooooooooooom



Now it truly is da-bomb

[Palf70Step]

Beautiful and HOT day for a good cruise to a car show. Soooooooooooo glad I have AC. One of the car clubs was having a car appreciation day show north of here at a state water park. Lots of nice rides The GMC ran flawlessly. That swaybar sure helps the ride and handling. Few shots, plus the link to the photos I took today.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LjqQ5WeVQCisVY9m8

Oh did I mention it is SO nice to have AC!

[Palf70Step]

Not much done on truck lately. between woeking on wife and son's cars, plus the pilgrimage to my home land in Pittsburgh the truck rested. After visiting family a few days, we took the round about way to Mississippi thru Niagara Falls. My wife and son had never seen them. So we had fun on both sides of the falls.

First picture is a retreat near my sisters out side of Pittsburgh. Rest are at the falls. My son dangling in Canada. No issues except 3K+ miles in the baby bus (wife's CRV) in 8 days is rough for my size 14s and legs. No issues and Canada let me in and out, twice. Just had to remember the 40 on the sign was not the 40 on the CRV numbers. Luckily I didn't get caught

Back to trucking things this week I hope.

[62 short step]

Nice pics!

[lower50's]

You where only 2 hrs away from me in the Canada land.

[Palf70Step]

Saturday the Jimmy and I made trip to Baton Rouge again. It wasn't too bad, The weather stayed mostly dry on the way there. Luckily on the way back it did not rain at all because the truck died on me at a rest stop. It acted like battery went dead and wouldn't jump. After a few tries with jumps and all, a young kid came by and offered to give me a jump. Even though it had failed several times already, we tried again. Same thing. When The kid was pulling off the jumpers, he noticed something I had missed.

Yep, The ground cable had vibrated loose and came disconnected from the block. Thank the Lord for the extra eyes to see what I overlooked. Bolted it up and on the way again. Just about an hour in hot sweaty (but no rain luckily) weather. Once I got home, I undid the bolt with booger-ed threads and replaced it with one that is good. Some lock-tight and double nutted it to the bracket. Let's see it come off now (I hope it doen't take that as a challenge)

Yesterday and today while waiting for our Tropical storm, I did some electrical. I had a HD Relay/Headlight harness in the stash from the days of my 70. So I worked it into the 81's stsyem and now the cruddy/corroded factory headlight sockets are gone. Things look like the work very well now. My front park-lights/turn signals were also very cracked, faded and crumbling, so I put on some new ones. They are aftermarket customs. They look way better than what I had. Hopefully they will hold up a good while before they fade on out.

When I was digging in the stash for the headlight harness, I also noticed my air horns, so since the one remaining original horn barely bleeped, I hooked up the new horns. Way better. You will now hear me!

Glad I dug thru and found all this old stuff (some of it is10-12 years since I bought it..

[Palf70Step]

The truck and I have been mostly playing the last several days. Officially today was the start of our 8 day event called Cruising the Coast. Had a few small meets and shows leading up to it also

Here are links to some of the photos I took.

Cruising the Coast 2018

C10 Mississippi Meet

It's a random mixture. Most are trucks (some not Chevys).

The 2 showing are my truck and another guy from the club I am in.
Blue 81's both of them, mine does NOT have the topper.

Time to go rest up for day 2.

[Palf70Step]

A couple from today's gathering I thought were worth showing.

First one is one you don't see to often, square step with the fender spare, I LOVE it.

2nd : Square crewcab with step bed

3rd: Love the graphics on this one.

[Palf70Step]

Had a great time at Cruisin' the Coast. Put on about 600 miles during the week. Only issues I had was the power steering belt broke. Soon as I found one, it was back going again. I was surprised how cool the engine radiator and all were, especially since we were in the mid 90's and high humidity all week. Truck is a blast to drive. I did an autocross in it and needless to say, 6 popper, 250 CID, T350, 2.73 rear gear and 31x10.50 tires do not make a good combination. I stunk as far as I was concerned. Not sure what a good time was but I was at 87.1 secs. I believe old guys in walkers were faster.

I have been acquiring parts for it. Besides a better and working gauge cluster, I picked these up this week. Offenhauser 4bbl manifold and a Holley economaster 450 cfm (L-7455) carb. Carb was free from a friend, so after a rebuild if I don't like it I'll probably get an Edelbrock 500CFM.

Still have a few more things to gther up before I do the head swap and upgrades, but I am getting there.

Pretty much till November I will not do anything but drive it. Got one mre big event I want to have it together for in 2 weeks,

[OutlawDrifter]

Very cool on the Offy intake!

[rusty76]

Nice score on the parts

[Palf70Step]

Great day. 3 hr cruise over to LA to meet up with a bunch of truck heads. Truck ran great. 1st time the wife was able to attend an event with me. She enjoyed the drive and day also.

Picture of me with the GMC, the other 2 were a great view to see starting the day.
Pictures I took today.

[Advanced Design]

Looks like a great day with nice trucks! Thank you for sharing.