Kick Start- Sort Of

It's time to get this project into gear! Yesterday I had some friends over to help get moving again. The plan was to get the garage cleaned up a bit (which I tried to get done in advance, with some success), start the truck, pull it out, then clean everything out of the truck. Also on the schedule was to pull out all the parts I've collected and make a complete list. Feeling ambitious, working on the rear fender from my last video was also tentatively on the schedule.

So We moved everything out of the garage necessary to get the truck out. it started right up with no problem . . .




But then I could not put it into gear! Any gear! It was acting like the clutch wasn't working at all. We tried to adjust the clutch linkage- the clutch has a mechanical linkage (as opposed to cable operated or hydraulic)- but the adjusting nuts were frozen onto the rod. So we came up with a creative solution-

Using a ratcheting tie-down strap, I pulled the pivot arm back far enough to get the linkage rod out, shoved a pile of washers onto the end of the rod and put it back. This significantly improved the feel of the clutch pedal, but unfortunately didn't fix the problem. I was going to add more washers, but the linkage happens to be right next to the exhaust pipe, so we decided to move on to the inventory while everything cooled off.
We started cleaning out the truck, and after a few minutes pushed the truck out of the garage to clean everything out of it. Once the truck was cleaned out, we went over it to kind of look at what was wrong with it.

Mockup layout of floor panels. More metal here than in the actual floor

After this video, we finished up the inventory and called it quits. We came up with a list that's three pages long! Turns out I have a few duplicates, so I can get rid of some of it to save space. We also laid out the new floor pieces I've collected so far to try to get some idea of how they go together.Still missing a few pieces, but Christmas is coming!





Overall, we managed to clean out the truck, inventory all the parts, break the truck, make a video, and manage to have some fun doing it. A pretty good day, I'd say.

Special thanks to you guys who came out that day- Mike, Bryan B, and Gabri