$50 paint job on the highboy

[67mann]

Dave...sorry to hear for a speedy recovery.

[hazelnut]

Thank you for the support and well wishes, Its been 4 months now and i can say without a doubt i feel 10x better than i did before. I was lucky i got help when i did, Doctors said if i had of got to the hospital 20 minutes later i would have died from the heart attack they call the "widow maker".

I was haveing problems with my blood pressure and it would jump up if i tryed to work normal for 5 minutes and doctors kept telling me my heart was clear and i just needed some blood pressure medican. I can say without any doubt that the doctors that i was useing were full of **** and didnt know thier ass from a hole in the ground On january 13th at 12:30am i had a heart attack and got rushed to the hospital. My heart was 100% clogged on the front 2 arterys and the other 2 were 95% and the hospital said there was nothing they could do for me except make me stable and i need to go to another hospital fast. I told them where i wanted to go to henrico doctors hospital and a for hire ambulance was called and a hour later took me there running about 90 with lights and siren going wide open. Went 53 miles in 35 minutes. Once at henrico doctors hospital i was put in ICU waiting to see the doctor and being told to not move because i was in critical condition by the nurse's. When the doctor came in he had a clipboard and said i have to have quad bypass surgury or im going to die, And i need to sign a paper to be schuled for surgery, needless to say i signed. And had open heart surgery on january 16th for about 8 hours. I stayed in ICU for 7 day and came home to recover, On the 31st of january i coughed a blood clot in my right lung and had to go back to the hospital to be stabed in the lung (nothing for pain until after) to drain 2 liters of fluid off my right lung and layed in ICU for 8 days. About 2 weeks after i got home i thought i was haveing another heart attack at 4:30am because I got the same feelings before my heart attack again, Sick to my stomach, cold sweating, dizzy and no balance. Only lasted for 10 minutes but was a scary 10 minutes. Called the heart doctor at 8am and said i wanted to check back into the hospital to find out whats going on. Said it sounded like a bug going around and i was dehydrated, told me what to try and to keep him posted how i was doing and would check me in if i didn't improve. Did everything doctor said and felt better by that night. Ive been feeling better everyday since and could see daily improvements. I went from 206lbs to 165lbs in a month, 2 months after surgery i felt great but my chest wasn't fully healed yet. 3 months after surgery i felt like i was fully healed and have had no side effects at all. I think god for pulling me through, I don't ever want to come that close to dieing again.

After feeling like i could do light duty work i tryed to find things to keep me busy without over doing it, I started redoing the trim pieces for my truck. Ive finished everything trim wise and still need to finish painting the truck and put everything back together again for the last time and go out and enjoy it. Ill get some pictures of how far the truck has came since the last post and hopefully keep posting (w/ pictures) as the truck come back together.

[jzjames]

Good news. You sure didnt do it the easy way.

Glad you survived, and I know what you mean about some doctors. Dont just trust everything they say. They are overwhelmed with patients, all with problems. Enjoy your days and your blessings.

[hazelnut]

Thank you jzjames, I enjoy everyday to the fullest now. Was a real wake up call about how fast life can change.

Ive been saying im going to do a update for a while now and got a few pictures today to show how the truck is coming along. Ive redone most of the trim pieces for the truck but still have more trim to work on. I need to clear coat the grille and redo the ranger grille thingy. The bezels are DC 2nd's and i bought them for 1/2 price when i was at the auto fair The sun visors are in good condition so i repainted them, Im thinking about useing 69 MACH 1 seats and they have the red line so they would blend right in. The dash is put back together but im still working on the stereo system, Going to be putting a EQ in the A/C glove box and a antena booster, Im don't know how im going to mount speakers in the kick panels yet but going to get them in there some how Ive still have to align the doors and bolt down the cab. Ive got the outside of the bed painted and need to paint the inside and install on the truck so i can line everything up and bolt them down for the last time and put in my old school rollbar. I don't know if the 360 in the truck still runs or not, ill check that out next week.
Im going to be building a 390 with around 350hp maybe a little more for the truck when i get the body finished. Ive got everything for the engine just need to buy the other things to go with it like headers, ignition and a few small other things. Im going to pull the front back off and repaint the inner fenders inside and out, I bought some zink galvanizing spray for the underside of the inners, Hoping that will stand up to the test of time.

Anybody haveing a problem with photobucket ? Im trying to post a pic by left clicking the IMG code to copy but not haveing any luck, Has PB change the way you post pictures ? This sucks, i wanted to show an tell as i went Guess ill just have to post a link. Anyone that can help me with this please do.

EDIT: Ive done a scan on my computer and now it seems to be working again Couldnt even get the site on my computer for 2 weeks.

[Ranchero50]

Truck looks good and it's good the hear that your health has gotten straightened out. Coming up to Carlisle this weekend?

[hazelnut]

[ Image ]

Truck looks good and it's good the hear that your health has gotten straightened out. Coming up to Carlisle this weekend?

Thank you, Im trying to talk a friend into going but he's got to see if it's OK with the other half. Chances are good, She don't try to stop him from doing what he want to.

[hazelnut]

Ive moved the truck from the hidden spot beside the garage, Pulled the bed off so i can make a battery mount and install a mustang tank in it. I tryed to start the truck but she didnt want to turn over, the motor is locked up. So a freind come over with his tractor and we tryed pulling it to break the motor lose, I dumped the clutch in high gear and only slid the tires while he drug me around. So we moved the truck to the best spot in the driveway, Right beside the steps getting on the rear deck. Now the highboy is front and center as soon as i walk out the door. It was looking a little dirty from not being washed in 2 years so i gave it a bath inside and out.
I don't feel like building a 390 for it yet so i pulled the radiator support and pulled the heads off. Nasty looking rusty crud in 2 of the cylenders. I cleaned up the rusty crap and scraped off the rust on the cylender walls sprayed the pistons with some PB and let them sit for a coulple hours, Got out the 2' breaker bar and worked the engine lose again. Im going to pull the pan and pop out the pistons and clean everything up and put it back together. Same rings,gaskets and plugs. Im thinking about raiseing the roof on the exhaust ports to try and help the engine get a little more power than what it had. Its a 360 thats been bored .060 and looks like it was a reman engine that don't have to many miles on it. I think i will spend a little money on the motor though and buy some new valve seals for it. Ill get some pictures of the engine before i pull the pistons out and post after i get the cylenders cleaned up.

[67mann]

Dave it's great to see that your back at it My buddy's talledaga is on the road & that 390/4spd set up is Bad Azz

[hazelnut]

Thank you Jerry. I bet he's haveing a blast driveing it, I know i would I'd like to rip through some gears myself. But the only way i can get my fix at the moment is at 2:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiXJ89qr ... re=related

Ive still got the engine apart and haven't put it back together yet, Need to buy a few things for it. One of the compresion rings is broke so i need to new rings for one cylinder, one valve is mushroomed so i tossed that one and the rockers don't look to good so im going to replace them with a different set ive got. The heads don't look to bad, At some point and time the valve seats were replaced and whoever did it got the seats resest in the heads. Im grinding on the heads a little to fix that and opening up the ports and cleaning up the bowls. Here's some pictures of the head and cylinders.



Ive got a project in my garage that im finishing the bodywork on and hopeing to get paint on it in 2 weeks so i can have my garage back. I went and bought paint for it today, I had $512 on me and spent $504. I thought i was going to put something back because i didn't have enuff, But i walked out with a few one in my pocket Im ready to pull the highboy inside and start finishing it up, This other project need to get finished and sold

[hazelnut]

Been a while since i've done a update, But here's a little one.
Ive got most of the body put back together again but have to pull the bed to seem seal the underside before mounting it and the rollbar. The front clip has to come off one more time to be painted and install the motor. I just hung the fender on there to keep it in place.
Started building the 390 for it. Ordered the last of the parts need to finish the short block. The C8AE-H heads i got greedy and cut into the water jacket on the exhaust side so there trash and had a set of D2s laying around so i started cutting on them to use. Going to take them this weekend and CC the combustion chambers and finish putting together. Here's a few pictures of how its sitting now. I'll do a update again when ive got the engine together.

[CrypticRacer13]

Looks great man

[F100builder]

Yes...looking great so far! Glad to hear you're doing well health-wise too!

[hazelnut]

CrypticRacer13 & F100builder, Thank you for the compliment. Its been a slow process but moving foward little by little. Being healthy again and spring time should make some progress on the truck.

I finished porting/polishing on the replacement heads today. The valve seats were sunk in to far when a rebuild shop replaced them so i had to cut some relief around them to help the flow some. I checked the cc of the chambers and thier 76cc. A friend is taking them to a machine shop for me so i don't have to take off work to have a 3 angle valve job done.
The heads are a little bigger than i wanted because of the seats so i had to order .030" steel shim head gasket to get the compression to 9.6 and have a quench of .046". Im going to be running a 268h cam and a autolite 4100 1.12 so im thinking its going to be making about 360 HP or somewhere around there. I know i could get a few more ponys with a different carb but those autolites get good mileage and im hopeing for 15 mpg I've atleast got to have a goal
I'll take a picture or 2 before the heads go to get reworked. I can't wait until i get to drive around the yard with open headers.

[hazelnut]

My old computer crashed last year and went in the trash. I bought a new one about a week ago so i'll be back around more.

Nothing to report with the truck except the engine is built and sitting on a stand waiting on me to put it in. Think it's going to be a nice 350 hp engine.

I'm back in business for myself again and working on a project that's schudeled for me to be finished by may 22. I honestly don't think i'm going to make that date because of the weather over the winter and me taking on to much work. Been working 7 days a week for the past 3 months from sun up to sun down trying to catch up. But on the bright side of everything, my health is good and no ill effects from open heart.

Going to the autofair at charlotte nc in a few weeks and going to go buy all the trim I need to finish from dennis carpenter while i'm there..

[BlueOvalDave]

Really really happy your in good health, and the truck is looking good. I fell off my buddies house when we were putting a new roof on (stepped on a piece of cut plywood and it was off to the races) and 4 months later had a blood clot in my left leg from the ankle to the groin that I wasnt aware of. Had pain behind the knee and my calf was a little swollen, and was getting really winded playing hockey. Finally went in to get the leg checked out and thats when they found it. Parts of the clot were breaking off and hitting my heart and lungs. The hematologist told me that I should play the lottery, cause one out of two people that get to that point drop dead. Scared the **** out of me. Made me think of your situation.