Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

Phil Waterman · #1 06-03-13, 17:06

Hi Alex

Bolt alignment trick using 1 1/2" x 1/4 x 20 in this case to quickly align the bolts going into the captive nuts, came about while I was having to constantly installing and removing panels to work on them and putting in all the pan head screws was killing my wrists. The bolt with a nut on it is so quick to install and remove run in by hand then just a quick twist on the nut with a wrench and it is tight.

Even if the panels are warped you can get a lot of them to come into line loose then tighten up the individual top nut. Once you are ready for finial assembly tight them all up, then replace them one at a time with the correct bolts.

Cheers Phil

Bob Carriere · #2 07-03-13, 03:48

Meant to ask you Phil....

You had used a bunch of very low grade Chinese Grade 0.5 bolts if I remember.. did you spot weld the nut 1/2 inch up the 1 1/2 inch bolt for speed.....?

I have replaced all my old captive nuts and procured new SS domed head slotted screws..... which I plan to dip the heads in rifle blueing acid to hetch them for painting.....

It is a trick to figger out all that slack/looseness from original oval bolt holes and the worn elongated ones..... maybe I will drive it around to shake things in place....hihihi

Bob

Alex van de Wetering · #3 20-03-13, 00:22

I picked up the shocks from my mate about a week ago. As mentioned earlier the press made swapping the C8 arms to the replacement shocks I bought online an easy task. I marked the arms and pins with a white marker, so the new arms could be installed at the same "time". Now I only have to replace the rubber bushes. I bought some rubber bushes from a Dodge a while and hope they will fit.

Disassembly of the C8 continued and I dropped off some parts at the blaster...rood, seat frames, grille and some other small bits. I was very happy when I heard that there was actually something to pick up after the blasting

All four springs have now been refitted to the frame. pictures to follow in a few days.

Alex

Alex van de Wetering · #4 20-03-13, 00:24

By the way, does anyone have some good pictures of the radiator cap outside and inside as fitted to the ealier Chevs? My cap is missing and before i can have my rad examined I have to get that cap sorted. The cap looks a lot like a fuel tank cap doesn't it???

Alex

Bob Carriere · #5 20-03-13, 03:28

Hi Alex

Will need to take some pictures of my cap...... Brian Ashbury may still have some NOS...... they are similar to the gas cap but externally very different.

Bottom line if you can find one that fits the locking tabs you are in business as they are not menat to seal tight as modern rad caps anyways...... should fit snug enough that if you use an expansion tank it will flow properly..... my overflow is a plastic pop bottle for the time being.

I am amazed at the fine spline work on the shock absorbers no wonder they rust weld so nicely. We have tried on a few occasion to remove the arm on some of ours and never succeeded maybe we did not use enough force....... we tried heat but you can only heta them so much before you cook the seals....... we just did not want to ruin any of them. In most cases once drained and refilled with car jack oil they seemed to stiffened up nicely.

Cheers

Bob

Alex van de Wetering · #6 27-03-13, 00:19

Attached are some pics of the rear spring work

One of the clips actually broke while removing the remains of the old bolts. Bob mentioned earlier in the thread that they were quite easy to make from flat stock, which is what I did. Some bending, hammering and drilling later the clip was done (and grinding as the flat stoch was actually to wide).
I used the grinder to cut the head of the old rivet. I cut a slight oversize hole in the new clip, chamfered the hole and welded the new clip to the old rivet. The lot was then assembled with new nuts, bolts and bushes/spacers.

Alex

Alex van de Wetering · #7 27-03-13, 00:26

Installing was quite easy, although you have to make sure the spring pins are properly aligned before hammering them into the spring hangers! One pin slightly rotated and it was a bit of a *(&(* to get it a aligned to get the locking bolt in.

@ Bob. here you can also see the spacers a C8 uses to fit narrow leafs to normal spring hangers.
Two of the spacers from my C8 were pretty worn, so I had two new ones made by a machine shop, along with two brass bushes for the spring eyes. Earlier in the thread I mentioned that the replacement spring eye bushes were to small for the spring eyes...in the end this was only the case with 1 spring. Somehow this spring had slightly larger spring eyes....I guess it musy have been replaced some time during the life of my C8.

@ Bob (sorry...again)...Brian was indeed able to help me out Thanks! So, a 216 doesn't use a high pressure cooling system? Does that also mean the stress on the rad is less, so I only have to gravity test the rad in stead of pressure tesing it by an expert....? Or am I cutting corners there?

Alex