1984 Peterbilt 359 EXHD Project *****UPDATE10-4*****

[badger]

Gotcha. What kind of work do you have in mind? Local stuff like grain hauling or what? I doubt most OTR companies would be interested in a rig that old, regardless of condition.

You should throw in a pic of the frame underneath so we can see just how bad it is. Your truck already looks way better than the tractors of similar vintage that I've seen laying around up here in Wisconsin. Trucks up here tend to have a much shorter lifespan thanks to the rust problems we have to deal with.

[359er]

Jan 5, 2015 1:24:59 GMT -6 badger said:

Gotcha. What kind of work do you have in mind? Local stuff like grain hauling or what? I doubt most OTR companies would be interested in a rig that old, regardless of condition.

You should throw in a pic of the frame underneath so we can see just how bad it is. Your truck already looks way better than the tractors of similar vintage that I've seen laying around up here in Wisconsin. Trucks up here tend to have a much shorter lifespan thanks to the rust problems we have to deal with.

Own authority and pull either a drop deck or bull wagon. If not, then some local companies around here would lease it. I know of an 86 hauling pipe locally and an 88 that hauled a tanker. Generally the smaller companies don't care if it's well taken care of and reliable. Now days a mechanical motor is 100% more reliable than a new electronic one. At least mine if anything goes wrong that's not major I can fix it on the side of the highway or at least patch it enough to get me to a town.

The biggest problem is it was a factory daycab and one of the owners put a cutoff on it. They bent the flanges up, slid the cutoff in then bent the flanges back down and welded around it. It actually was in MN until 01.

The new frame is actually going to have all the rails, cross members, and everything that doesn't have to move rhino lined.

[badger]

Did they stretch the wheel base when they installed the sleeper or was it unmodified?

Also any idea where you're going to find a 110" Double Eagle sleeper?

[jab]

Jan 5, 2015 1:34:24 GMT -6 359er said:

Jan 5, 2015 1:24:59 GMT -6 badger said:

Gotcha. What kind of work do you have in mind? Local stuff like grain hauling or what? I doubt most OTR companies would be interested in a rig that old, regardless of condition.

You should throw in a pic of the frame underneath so we can see just how bad it is. Your truck already looks way better than the tractors of similar vintage that I've seen laying around up here in Wisconsin. Trucks up here tend to have a much shorter lifespan thanks to the rust problems we have to deal with.

Own authority and pull either a drop deck or bull wagon. If not, then some local companies around here would lease it. I know of an 86 hauling pipe locally and an 88 that hauled a tanker. Generally the smaller companies don't care if it's well taken care of and reliable. Now days a mechanical motor is 100% more reliable than a new electronic one. At least mine if anything goes wrong that's not major I can fix it on the side of the highway or at least patch it enough to get me to a town.

The biggest problem is it was a factory daycab and one of the owners put a cutoff on it. They bent the flanges up, slid the cutoff in then bent the flanges back down and welded around it. It actually was in MN until 01.

The new frame is actually going to have all the rails, cross members, and everything that doesn't have to move rhino lined.

You might have already answered this, but do you plan on changing any of the lights to LED?

[359er]

Not sure if they stretched the original rails or not, the build sheet doesn't specify an original frame length. It's about 255" right now, taking it to about 310". A guy I work with actually has a 110" DE on a T600 but I don't think he'll get rid of it. I've seen 2 for sale at 4-states for about 5K a piece. I'm sure I can get one cheaper if I just search. I'm not too worried about the interior, I'm gonna gut it and redo it anyways, but that won't be for a year or 2. I want to take out about a 10K loan this summer or fall and get the frame done.

All the lights will be LED. I'm gonna buy the big nice LED markers, but want my roofcap first. I'm putting Vortoxes on it so I'll put new air cleaner lights on and I'm going to have cab and sleeper bars custom made, but I have to get the bedroom first.

That's almost the exact look I'm going for, just different paint and swap the sleeper boxes and tanks around.

[badger]

Try to find one with the factory side door, makes getting into the sleeper a lot easier without having to crawl through the cab.

Also, you gonna go old school on the interior like the pic or do something else?

[BIGmick]

Jan 5, 2015 11:31:31 GMT -6 badger said:

Try to find one with the factory side door, makes getting into the sleeper a lot easier without having to crawl through the cab.

Also, you gonna go old school on the interior like the pic or do something else?

please don't do mcdonalds colors! haha Gotta love the old school though. But please, no mcdonalds colors

[badger]

I wasn't talking about the color. More like that type of pattern for the interior liner. Whorehouse velour red is probably more appropriate for the time period.

[359er]

Why would I get out of the truck to get into the sleeper's side door when I can just go between the seats? It's not a crawl through. Most 359's past about 76 aren't. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the sleeper upholstery yet, I might just have the factory Double Eagle pattern redone in the buckskin 359 color.

[Hillbilly]

theres a 110 inch sleeper on ebay right now off a peterbilt. Don't know if you was interested or not. It looks like its off a reliable carriers truck.

[359er]

It'd be cool if I had the money ready. I'm more concerned about the frame right now and getting it where it'll at least pass DOT. After I do the frame then I'll get a bedroom. It's not exactly the Double Eagle style I'm looking for either. I want something close to the truck above and that I can add some diamond or teardrop windows to.

[359er]

Well it turns out the guy I was going to buy the entire set from sold them out from under me. So I hopped up to Wilkins in Tonkowa OK yesterday and grabbed a Rockwell SQHD. I'm going to use chunks out of it to rebuild mine. $300 for the entire 3rd member.


I also couldn't help my chrome addiction. So I spent $150 in knobs and locks, and bought a brand new boot and boot ring, which I actually did need.

[359er]

Inland Truck Parts here in the city wants $2,050 to swap out my front and $1,650 for the back. I can't just swap the front unless by some off chance they have the exact ratio mine is to swap for it. The guy said usually when they get rebuilt it comes out less than a swap charge but that just depends what's really wrong with it. I think the power divider on the truck now is what's making the back rear feel like it's popping. Either way, I'm thinking it would just be cheaper to take the front one out of the truck, take it down and have it rebuilt and see if having this 2nd core would help bring down the cost some. Or see if they'll use it for a parts piece if the spiders are the problem.

So I visited a local salvage yard a few weeks ago and ended up finding this little jewel...to me anyways...
379 that had a cab fire, engine has been pulled, hood has been sold, but I could give a shit about anything else but the frame which still looks to be in good condition. Has the low leaf suspension, rear ends, steer, all that nice shit from a 379 like I was wanting anyways. I don't think the fire got the frame hot enough to really effect it since the air lines aren't even melted off. I might go back and see how much they want for it.





On a lighter note, just like Johnny Cash, One Piece At A Time...

[Mr. D]

Not gonna lie....I feel worse for that western star thats sitting right next to it on its drivers side

[359er]

Hopefully going to look at this in the near future. Possible parts truck. I have most of the money he's asking but was going to use it to fix my axles.

oklahomacity.craigslist.org/hvo/4879904807.html

[359er]

Well I ended up getting the truck. Here's some more pics of it. I'm going to keep the tanks and all the brackets, luberfiner, and the frame. I'm going to have someone stretch the front of the frame to accommodate a long hood, it only has to be stretched 8" in the front and the rest I'm going to have stretched in the back along with the low air cutoff whenever that happens. And a lot of the interior parts as spares. I have a lot of other parts that I can use too if I need them.




The tanks are absolutely perfect. 29" 150's which are hard to come by. They're a grand a piece new for 26". Not counting all the brackets and mounts.






Although it has no motor or trans, I think it was a good buy for the money I paid. I might have already sold the hood too.

[badger]

Think you'll use the sleeper on this one? What's the shape of the interior? Any nicer parts like seats or upholstery?

[359er]

Feb 17, 2015 15:38:31 GMT -6 badger said:

Think you'll use the sleeper on this one? What's the shape of the interior? Any nicer parts like seats or upholstery?

I might use the sleeper for a little bit. Im still going to a Double Eagle in the long run. My interior is in better shape. It's honestly not too bad as is, just needs new door panels and headliner but I'm going to replace all of it anyways. I'm getting Atlas Elite 80 heated seats for mine. With the fold away arm rests. That would be hell in a 359 without them. I'm going to rob all of the toggles, rockers, breakers, etc just as spares for mine if I don't use them.

The main things I'm going to use are the 29" 150 gallon tanks which are in perfect shape, the brackets and straps. I might use the air tanks under the doors if they're aluminum and I can polish off the black paint. I'm going to use the frame. I'm going to have that frame stretched, move the cab mounts, steering box, tanks, battery boxes, etc back 8" so I can put my EXHD on it. I'm going to bag the steer and low leaf the back. That luberfiner is like a gold mine. Going to frame mount it in front of the battery box.

This is all months and months down the road. My main concern is still put a set of working rockwells in mine so I can get to and from the house, and so I can trash around town a little too.

[359er]

Well I finally got to a spot this weekend financially where I could get some work done. Saturday morning I had one of my friends take me to get my truck. The goal of the weekend was to pressure wash the frame, drive home, take the axles out. If it snapped an axle (best case scenario) I was going to buy a new one, put it in and be on my way. Worst case was take the rear end out and have it rebuilt.

On the way to get some diesel.

I sold them out of diesel...

Blasting the back of the frame

The frame looks 100X better, the body and aluminum is still terrible though.



Well I got back to the house and got the axles pulled out. It wasn't an axle of course. I noticed all the metal shavings in the oil.

When I pulled the drain plug in the banjo housing, this is what the magnet on the inside caught...



I did get to play with my new toy for a little bit though


So after that short shaft has been in there for god knows how long, there wasn't anything we could do to get it out of the yoke. So worst came to worst and we sided with buying a yoke and doing things the "direct, fuck it way"

Cutting the yoke

Finally got the 3rd member out. The ring, pinion and axle splines look good so that leaves the spiders as to be about all it could be.


We got the 3rd member loaded up in my pickup, got the housing chained up, leveling valve adjusted and everything put back together to the best it could be.


I dropped the rear end and the short shaft at Inland Truck Parts this morning. They said it should only be a few days before I'm able to get it back and the rear repair will run me about $400 and the shaft a few hundred for new U joints if the rest of it is good. I still need a new yoke for the back of the front rear where we had to cut the drive shaft out. Anyone know by any chance what size that socket is off the top of their head? Rockwell SQ100 3.55.

The next thing on the list is new tires. Whenever I do end up getting the tires, I'm going to take the truck down to get everything machine polished and have the new tires put on instead of them putting the old ones back on.

It's slowly coming together.

[Nathan P.]

Its definitely around 2", I think its 2-1/4". I know the front is like 2-5/8" i'm pretty sure but just check to be sure.

[BlackAce]

Interesting project. I was just wondering wouldnt it be a whole lot easier to tear down the whole truck? That way youd have better access to the tranny, axles, etc. And then you could properly sand blast, weld and paint the frame. Also rewiring and new air lines could be a bit easier to put in that way when theres nothing in the way. Could be a bit difficult on a driveway though. Id probably hire a tractor or some small crane to lift off the cab, sleeper and the motor and tranny if necessary. Then put the frame on stands to remove the wheels and possibly the axles. Then get a truck to pick up the bits and take them to sand blasting and painting. But it depends on your budget really.

[Hillbilly]

Cool pics, love seeing this thing come together.

[Mr. D]

I think there's a old rockwell around the shop if they havent already junked it, if I can find it and its the same one ill get the sprocket size for you

[Corby]

All these kinda make me wanna go back to GF less status.....fffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu



I actually love my GF, so will not happen... but still, i may be a little jealous. i always wanted to restore an A model.

[359er]

Apr 4, 2015 15:33:21 GMT -6 Corby said:

All these kinda make me wanna go back to GF less status.....fffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu



I actually love my GF, so will not happen... but still, i may be a little jealous. i always wanted to restore an A model.

Just make sure she understands there's another woman. Never hurt to have an iron mistress.