Day 87 - 28 Chev Ute Restoration (28th December 2015)

A few jobs on the go today.

Firstly I assembled the front hubs.

This

Came from this

And this

Came from this

 

I fitted the passenger side hub so I could spin each of my available wheels to find the best 4 to use. Very pleased to see the hub ran true, and the brake drum as perfect as a pressed drum could be.

Could not say that for the drivers side hub, more about that further down the posting.

A very scientific piece of wood with a three inch nail as my measuring gauge.

 

First one was as straight as an arrow, both front and back.

Out of the 9 wheels I had to choose from, and yes, allowing for the fact that I am pretty fussy, and want to use the best parts available, I was able to find 4 wheels that I was happy with.

The main things I was looking for was as little run out as possible on each of the front and rear edges of the wheels.

A couple had rust holes right through, a couple more had the same degree of run out on the front and rear edges in the same spot, indicating the wheel may be bent from the center.

I was lucky I had a few wheels to choose, otherwise I would have a lot of work ahead of me.

Now getting back to the passenger hub, that as I mentioned I am not happy with. Way too much run out, even for a pressed brake drum, and not convinced the hub is running true either.

Yes, these old Chevs can occasionally be a pain in the ..............but we still love em.

Not a mad rush, but I will build up another hub and brake drum and see what that is like, the main reason is I don't want to be knocking wheels studs in and out too much.

I had selected the best hubs out of 5, but very quickly pulled a spare front end apart to use the hubs, and depending how they come out of the molasses bath, the drums as well.

The two hubs below were very quickly cleaned up and both have good threads for the hub caps and the bearing shells were firm to hard to remove, meaning the outer shell has not been spinning in the hub, something I have come across a few times, not good.

The next job was to remove a pair of running boards from the molasses bath, and put in another pair.

 

With a bit of repair here and there I should be able to get a serviceable pair out of the 4.

 

The first photo is straight out of the molasses bath and washed down with the hose, and you can see the surface rust starting straight away.

 

The second photo is after they have been wiped down with rust buster, which will keep them rust free until I start working on them.

 

This pair were amongst the spares that came with the ute, and surprisingly  the ones on the ute are in better condition.

 

 

 

The next few days will be spent working on the 4 disc wheels