Another weekend down, but it drives!

Well this weekends progress turned out to be pretty decent. My wife and I started off by trying to polish the old faded paint. After we got it, are you ready for this, we decided to wash it... hmm think we should have done that first? Well its ours and our choice so too bad ;-) Anyway, yeah we decided to wash it inside and out, and ya know it looks great now. So after it dried out I pulled it into the garage once again. This time I planned on pulling the transmission to measure for a new clutch. Well, first thing I found out, the emergency brake which resides on the back of the transmission needs to be removed before you do this so it doesn't hit the floor of the cab, and second, I was an idiot to do this on my own. Anyway, I did get the transmission pulled about 6 or seven inches back, but I ended up running out of time and patients so I never got the clutch removed, I just put everything back together. So after many hours tearing it all apart, then maybe half as many putting it all back together........ I get it, start it, step on the clutch just for grins and what do ya know, it slides right in gear. I ease out on the clutch and she starts to roll back. I decide hmm if the clutch works I might take it for a drive, so I again step on the clutch, put it in first and take off down the drive. I get to where it sounds like time to shift, push in the clutch and slide it into second, then the same for third, and once again for fourth. I get as far as the edge of the pasture and decide to downshift and turn around. I push in the clutch, pull it out of gear, then have to let go and push the clutch again to shift to the next lower gear. I get back to the house and again, just because I can, I stop, use the clutch to shift to reverse, and back into its parking spot. I am absolutely amazed that the clutch now works so I pull forward and back a few times. Anyway, I also think we have decided to go with a flatbed, but keep the dump gear there to make it a dump. Here is a picture of a bed we like.



We shall see what happens, but I think for now our progress may be a bit stalled.