I finally bit the bullet and ordered panels for the front doors on my 3500, sick of watching it rust away, company on ebay.com ships to the UK using Ebays GSP, $289 for left and right inner and outer panels, just shy of $440 to my door.

I've got a mountain of work to do on it to put it back on the road and some of it not of interest here as it's a 5.9 V8 but here's the list anyway

Intake manifold gasket, I have the kit just never got around to doing it

Front door repairs both sides

Dent in right front fender

Bumpers front and rear, may make a pair

New battery

Passenger side rear door won't open, (this one is the one here thats not used) have the parts

Passenger side rear inner door handle cable broke (from trying to get it to open) have the cable

Rear propshaft output shaft seal leaking been leaking since 2004 have the seal since 2004 

Bed rear corners or take the bed off and make a flatbed

Hip running lights

Brakes. Have more than enough front brake pads/pistons/seal kits to last 5000 years I think at least a 100 of each

Flexi brake pipes, have the pipes

hard brake lines, will make them out of copper

Radiator, have a Northern aluminium radiator and twin spall fans thats the right configuration from when I imported parts 

And anything else thats gone west while it's been parked for 3 years or so

 

And all on top of, keeping my 2500 running, running my own business fixing mobile plant, keeping my brothers 1500 ram on the road, building my brother 56 F100, starting on the 390 rebuild for it next week even though I keep telling him it is to big and heavy, hopefully when the 490 is done he sees sense and sells the boat anchor for a 56 Y block or 289/302

Oh and my wife wants an En Suite doing (french for small bathroom )

 

I bet I get sidetracked but at least I know the heights of the door panels now so once the rust gets to 6" on the outside and 2" on the inside then I have to do the doors as the panels are 8 and 3  

Now thats a sizable to do list.

That list sounds like my 95 1500 that I started to put Dana 60s under. Now I have a 5.9 to rebuild instead of the 5.2. And decided to redo the interior. It’s a rabbit hole. 

6 hours ago, Towrigdually said:

That list sounds like my 95 1500 that I started to put Dana 60s under. Now I have a 5.9 to rebuild instead of the 5.2. And decided to redo the interior. It’s a rabbit hole. 

Yes and that list is just what I know of, my wife keeps hinting I should sell my 3500, I've had it since 2003 ish it won't be sold

Fetched the 390 back to my house, it's now in my workshop on the engine stand, crank fitted and torqued to 50lbft, will leave that overnight and find the correct torque for the mains tomorrow morning, hopefully won't take long to build this thing, I'm aiming for done before the weekend 

 

Got the crank torqued and pistons/rods in, camshaft in and core plugs fitted today,  Had a tight rod bearing, not enough to stop the crank turning but a tad too tight for my liking, this thing is a bit strange as when I stripped it the rod markings were anyhow with cylinder numbers either not on the rods/caps or in the wrong place and this is over 2 years ago, it's had a crank grind/rebore/ new pistons/rings/bearings, I should have had the rods resized but here in the UK that's a PITA so I figure with everything renewed all will be good, the tight rod bearing took a little glass paper on the rod/cap.

It is a little tight though on the main bearings, I have good side to side on all rods with fingers so it's not the rods, I'm going to take a look at the thrust cap as I'll bet a £ to a pinch of ~~~~ that the place where it was ground just ground the journals and not the thrust area.

This is what happens here all the time, machine shops have not got a clue on American stuff but hey they talk a good talk, I'm now going to remove main capos to see where it's at starting with the thrust cap