mattb73lt

It still amazes me when I look back at this truck when I found it to what I built out of it. I have to admit the transformation is remarkable. I spent the afternoon finishing a lot of small things. I also ordered a whole bunch of new tie down equipment for the deck. I had a lot of hand me down stuff in the other truck, but figured I'd boom up and get some new and matching chains, binders and straps. All that will get organized and put into the new storage boxes once I get them mounted. I had to reschedule my meeting with the sign painter to this Thursday. I was hoping I could get the lettering and striping done before the first show, but it'll get done in a few weeks, once we settle on what I want to do to it.

Also looking at Bethlehem, 6/8&9, Brooklyn 6/23. I'm thinking about Macungie, 6/14&15, but I'm going to need a couple of days for that and that's right at the start of my busy season.

Here’s a little NH220 Backdrop music for your auditory pleasure. My friend caught me leaving his shop this afternoon.

On 4/13/2024 at 9:31 AM, mechohaulic said:

another question :: what did the 73 end up with for tail/ stop lights??? last picture showed a "temporary" bracket set up . all frontal pictures show where it's going ; how did the back section end up so we can see where it went . LOL

I kind of copied what was there, but added better tail light assemblies that had side markers on them. This whole thing moves and is somewhat susceptible to damage depending on what you’re doing. I may change it in the future, but this is what I’m using for now.

I'm going to stick with cable. I have seen others doing recoveries with synthetic rope types, but for what I do this is probably best.

 Busy week with the B73. Wednesday, reinstalled the winch and got it operational. Not the easiest install as it has to be loaded in from underneath. It fought me a little bit, but it's in. Finished some other details and added some Cummins crosses to the hood. Thursday, drove down to North Haven to have a winch cable cut and installed. The winch drum will probably take around 100'+ of cable, but they recommended staying with 60'. The shorter length will give me less trouble over time, was their opinion. That's fine, I usually use about 20" or less when loading cars. Today, ran over to Wolcott to check the alignment and had a bad day. The King pins turned out to be too loose to do an accurate job. So that stopped things pretty quick. They were inspected and determined to be serviceable and were tight when assembled, but they now had noticeable play. That's going to be a bit of a headache, but not a game stopper. They're safe, but should be redone. Now, to hunt for replacements and figure out when to do this when I can. I hate doing things a second time, but the spindles will need to come out for bushings. A little setback, but It'll get fixed. Oh, they joys of bringing an old truck back to life!!!

I did find a 10% grade on the way home and needed the Jake brake to come down it. It was on and off at the top, then was needed for the last half mile. It certainly saved my brakes, but that was the longest period it was on solidly yet. I think I woke the Western side of the state up!

I always liked these trucks. Never drove any, but was stationed with an Australian Special Forces Unit and they had a whole fleet of them at Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan in 2013. I didn't have a camera, so was limited in pictures I could scrounge of their trucks. All of them had air conditioned armored cabs. Other than the radiator, they didn't look a lot like those you posted.

1 hour ago, mechohaulic said:

think the fact it is solid red with silver radiator shroud and period correct chrome bumper  just sets it out. others have two tone/ fenders dif color ;; which is also nice and other combos . it's one of the best style cabs having proper amount of chrome and alum. only thing it's missing is "updated" clean alum/ chrome can for exhaust . LOL

When I first got it I wasn't sure how I would redo it. All green was one way, red with black fenders, green cab and fenders with red frame. But, in my minds eye, I always liked the stock look. So after a while I settled on the original all red. I was always going to polish the radiator and fuel tanks and I wanted the right mix of bright work. I picked certain things to polish, like the windshield frames, to brighten up. Added the bumper and really lucked out finding a complete set of stainless mirrors and brackets. The other thing I went back and forth about was switching to aluminum rims to finish the brightwork off. I like the Daytons but wanted the aluminum rims for this project. The B42 has them and finding the hubs is no easy task. That swap was a whole separate project.

To finish it, my next headache and worry will be the lettering and pin striping. Again, I have a picture in my head of what I want and hopefully that will really make it complete.

3 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

jake in the Hartford tunnel! had to be the best sound. 

The guy I thought was going to cut me off couldn’t get away from me fast enough!!

It was crazy loud!!!!

Here’s a video of me leaving the house in October. Please excuse the hop over the curb, I had a car coming and the truck requires a second shot out of the driveway due to length. You can hear the truck echo through the neighborhood. It was only partial throttle as it wasn’t warmed up yet as I disappeared behind the neighbors house.

Let me know if it doesn’t post and I’ll redo it when I get home.

My little cheat sheet until I get my RPM/speedometer set right. On the flats it just chugs right along. Not going to get close to 2100 in 5th Hi Split. I did push it once, downhill, to 1900. That was enough.

The best thing about the loud exhaust is it keeps assholes away from you. Several times I thought I was going to get cut off on the highway by some idiot 4 wheeler. I set the Jake off to start to slowdown and the car rapidly left or slowed down to leave my vicinity. Yesterday I did it in the Hartford tunnel on I84 West. It was mind numbingly loud in there. Everyone stayed far away from me!!

1 hour ago, mechohaulic said:

what are you using for a muffler or it's a straight-out pipe? not that the masterpiece needs anything else; but a classy pinstripe would put it over the top 

I have an insert in the vertical stack. It helps, but it is very loud. I'll probably end up with an under frame muffler or resonator to preserve my hearing. It does sound awesome the way it is.

Good work out for the truck today. Empty, I ran up I-84 eastbound to the state line in Massachusetts and back to the house. Ran with some moderate traffic up I-91 through Hartford to I-84 to Manchester, where the road opens up and traffic gets lighter. Up through Tolland you run into some pretty good grades with rolling terrain and you climb up towards the Mass Pike. The return trip is easier as you're coming down a lot of those grades. The truck did well staying with the traffic. It does fall off a bit on some of the hills, but a quick downshift to 4th, Hi-split will carry you over. It falls off like other naturally aspirated engines do, like my old END-673 I had in the B42. Adding a T590 turbo to make it a 262 would give me a little more Power and torque, but I don't think I'll do that. I ran it pretty hard and put over 120 miles on it, to push it. The drive line is pretty quiet, the compound gearshift rattles kind of loud at certain RPM's. Post test run, the driveline is dry. The rear axle pinion seal may need some attention in the future as it had a little oil on it. Wheel bearings are cool and nothing got hot. The upper tank on the radiator was hot to the touch, but the bottom tank was almost cool. So, it does a really good job losing heat. That was kind of a surprise as I thought it would be pretty warm. The temp gauge was showing about 160* the whole time and really didn't move much, up or down hill. Only one grade caused me to drop two gear, to 4th Direct, but it still kept up with traffic. The good thing is the top couple of gears are so close that the down shifts are effortless. and with no clutch. The clutch does need to be adjusted, again. Some of the free play I had in it tightened up. I just need to keep driving it and and adjusting everything to get it dialed in.

Upcoming things for it are a complete alignment check at a nearby shop. When I assembled the frame, I checked all my alignments with a tape measure and had everything within 1/16" to include the toe-in and checked it several time as everything was tightened up. It just needs to be checked for my piece of mind. It holds the road very well, no shimmy, pulls or drift and after 1400 miles I see and feel no obvious wear on the tires. My underbody storage boxes should be in soon. The winch needs to be installed and a cable added. Some electrical work needs to be completed, too. I've got a local sign painter I've contacted about Lettering the doors and a pinstripe job to dress it up a little, but nothing too flashy. It's all coming together and the truck is very comfortable to drive. As I get used to it, my B42 seems smaller every time I drive it. I really love both trucks, but that L cab is a home run for comfort and visibility.

Both cabs are identical and would interchange without much issue. One difference is the cowl area on the passenger side depending on the air cleaner arrangement, it may or may not have cut outs for them. Most B81 arrangements pass through the rear corner of the hood. The main difference is the depressed floor under the driver's feet. Those couple of extra inches really make the cab more comfortable for taller drivers.

I saved this picture from somewhere on the internet of a repair someone made to their depressed cab floor. I thought it was a decent repair using heavier material to do it.

2 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

thanks for the update pictures AND  5/5 info . show is up street from candle shop  ;not in their yard if I recall. drop wife off (if we are still together) at candle shop then to show I go. how did the toolbox idea end up ?? 

Good, they're on order. I'm putting two 5' long by 2'x2' Merritt boxes on each side. Later, I'm going to add two DEF storage boxes to the header board for additional chain storage on the deck. That should give me a huge amount of storage and fill the undersides of the body. I'm hoping they show up in time so I can mount them before the show.

Back home again after a four month slumber. After checking it over it fired right up after very little effort. I had a friend go with me to drive my car back. He said,”Damn, that thing is fast!”. I thought I was just chugging along and shifting it easy, keeping the RPM’s down while I got used to driving it again. The speedometer is a little off and I was just moving along in traffic, but he said we almost hit 80 a couple of times. It really doesn’t feel like it at all.

But, now to get a few things wrapped up on it for its first real truck show at Yankee Candle on 5/5!!

Pretty impressive. I've seen some pictures around the internet of this truck sitting in this yard. I'm glad it's not getting scrapped. The size of that truck is daunting, I mean what do you do with it? That looked like Gary Mahan in one of the scenes. If restored, I would guess it would be a static display, because how would you move it around?