Archive for the 'Shop Truck' Category

Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 5: Engine Teardown

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

What the hell’s been going on with the Toolmonger Shop Truck Build? Well, for a while, a lot of nothing. You may have noticed that the economy isn’t exactly stellar, and honestly we just didn’t have the dough to mess with it for a while. But we’re off the dime, and the truck’s on the move again.

Once we got the engine out and on its stand we discovered we had a lot of work ahead of us. (Remember: a “free” truck is never free.) Time did a number on this truck, and its previous owner had ridden it hard and put it away wet more than once. Under the hood was just as rough as the interior and body work. In fact, it was worse.

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Posted in Automotive, Project Garage, Shop Truck | 12 Comments »

Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 4: A New Transmission

Friday, August 21st, 2009

After a bit of a hiatus we resumed our search for a transmission for our shop truck project. We learned several things in the process, not the least of which is this: transmissions can be expensive.

Thankfully our luck held and we managed to find one in the local area that would suit our purposes — but not without first looking damn near everywhere for one that fit both our budget and level of desired risk.

The simple fact of the matter is buying a new tranny would cost about as much as the entire build put together, so we decided to look for the used/rebuilt solutions. These, however, come with the knowledge that you could be right back in this position sooner rather than later. We broke it down into several categories.

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Posted in Automotive, Lubricants, Project Garage, Shop Truck | 24 Comments »

Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 3: Building An Engine Stand

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Once we’d lifted our shop truck’s motor we knew we’d have to pay some serious attention to it to get it up to ‘workhorse’ status again.  Because we’d blown our wad on parts for the motor, we decided not to spring for an engine stand but build one ourselves from a few casters and some plywood.

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Posted in Automotive, Project Garage, Shop Truck | 13 Comments »

Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 2: Pulling The Engine

Thursday, August 21st, 2008
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Remember our budget shop truck? We just took the next step in resurrecting it from the (almost) dead by pulling the motor and assessing the real damage to its components. This would be a major undertaking even for a truck in good condition, and after 235,000 miles of wear, tear, and generally getting beat to hell, our big blue “piece of Chevy” is showing the signs of Mother Nature and Texas roads.

Gunked (or rusted solid) bolts made for a fun day, but any day in the shop is a good day, right? Read on to see how we fared and what issues took us by surprise.

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Posted in Automotive, Project Garage, Shop Truck | 10 Comments »

Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 1: The Truck

Thursday, August 7th, 2008
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At Toolmonger, we think of a shop truck as a vehicular multi-tool — as necessary to an active shop as fire and the opposable thumb. But what if you don’t have $25k burning a hole in your pocket? All isn’t lost, especially if you’re willing to turn a wrench and get your hands dirty.

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Posted in Automotive, Project Garage, Shop Truck | 12 Comments »