Hi Kenn, Looking good, you should not have to worry about that tank freezing with all that foam. Been trying to get down your way again to see your progress, but seems like summer is sliding away fast. Making any progress on the upper unit?

Dave

slow progress
 

Hi Dave, I have been trying to finish everything on the truck before paint. I had to replace a rear wheel seal and S cam bushings on the drivers side. I put new drums and shoes on the rear and shoes and air canisters on the front. I also replaced the pin and bushing in the clutch pedal. Yesterday I polished the grill and worked at putting Hush-mat in the cab. Last week I replaced the headlights with single round lights and put the turn signals on the fenders to give it the old school look. I hope to have the truck painted in the next week or two. I also finished the fresh water tank. It took a long time but I like the way it looks.

primer
 

Today I primed the truck and all went OK but not great. I used an epoxie primer and I can't seem to get if to spray as well as I want. I will sand the primer before painting the color (white). My make-shift spraybooth worked good with very little overspray. I had to be creative in order to get the hood and cab of the truck with a few feet in between in my 30' floor space.

SWEET is all I can say!!

You're chewing on a lot of project Kenn. It's been a fascinating read thus far. Attaboy!

it is white
 

I finished the white paint last week and it came out OK. Every time I paint I am reminded that real painters are very skilled people. As I add more chrome and black trim to it, I like the look more. I finished the last of the 90 + square feet of "HushMat" on the inside of the cab. A lot of $$$ and labor, I hope it helps with the sound and heat. I also managed to break on of the windshields while cleaning it. I had a glass guy make and install the new and old glass. It looks good with the new black rubber seal. Next up is the new wing vent on the drivers side and the floor.

That white looks very clean and with the old school fender mounted turn signals and the single bucket lights it's going to be sharp when you're done.

more pictures
 

I have been trying to finish off the cab before the weather changes. I have all the windows in with new weather-stripping. I started on the floor. I am using rubber coin flooring made for trailer and garage floors. The picture on the garage floor with yellow tape shows how I marked the rubber to cut it to fit around the steering shaft, brake, clutch and throttle pedals. The Peterbilt floor has a front and back section with stainless trim that covers the joint. My sister Sue came out and helped mount the brake valve (all of the air line still attached) to the underside. Once everything was in place the flooring should not be able to move. It worked pretty good but was a lot of work. While Sue was on hand we mounted the grill and grill bars. The picture of the mirror shows the new rubber seal for the hood and the vissor. After taking the old mirrors and brackets apart to polish I decided to replace both mirrors because the wires to the heated and motor mirror (passenger side) had been cut, spliced and taped.

Floor looks great. So does everything else, but I like that flooring material.

looks nice ! really nice !
did you use hushmat on the floor too ?

why not some carpet & padding (to reduce the noise) ?

Hushmat
 

I did use Hushmat on the floor. I put two layers on the firewall and the section under the pedals. A large (17" x 44") piece of 3/4" plywood goes between the pedals and the seats with the gear shift in the center of it. To make the floor flush with the wood, I used three layers of Hushmat. The Hushmat is 1/8" thick and I have been told that multiple layers work well. The metal floor is held in place with small machine screws that have round heads. I cut the Hushmat to fit around the screw heads in an attempt to have everything flat when finished. My truck did come with carpet but I wanted something I could wipe off with a damp cloth. The pictures show the floor behind the drivers seat and if you look close you might be able to see that I used many small funny shaped pices. I tried to not waste any. I also did the iner part of the door and the door panels that screw to the inside of the door frame. Smaller pieces are easier to use than large ones in tight spots. I drove the truck with no carpet or upholstery other than the seats and it was not bad. I hope the new door panels, head-liner and wall corner pieces help control the noise. Hushmat claims that it cuts the heat as well as sound.

the floor is in
 

Today I finished putting the rubber floor in the truck cab. The rear piece was rolled up in a clod room and won't lay flat. It should flatten out with a little time in the warmer shop. I put new stainless trim pieces in and they are not the same width so the cross piece sits forward just a bit. With a lot of head scratching, I was able to get the coins to line up pretty good between the two peices. Next up is to mount the speaker and run wires for them and antennas for the CB and AM/FM radios along with wires for a back-up camera. I also finished installing the air horn valve above the drivers head. I am running the air lines out the back of the cab.

cab interior
 

I have been unable to post any pictures because my computer lost it's hard drive. I got a rebuilt computer and all of the software is a bit different. I think I am getting better with it. I have spent the last week working in the cab. I had to fine tune the fit of the headliner and move the speaker holes (I need a hole slider). I have installed a Pioneer AM/FM chepo radio, a Cobra 29 LXBT CB and a back-up camera and lots of wires. Both of the radio antennas will run through the boot of the walk through so I have a lot of speaker wire and antenna leads hanging from the back of the cab. Next up is to install the seats, panels and then put the hood back on.

cab interior
 

Today I put the door upholstery on and the last pieces of trim. I like the overall look. The seats are not the same but after the upholstery guy covered them they look fine. I bought some pricey wooden armrest and when I looked at them in the truck I decided to put the old chrome grab handles back in. I put all new air lines for the seats and also added a blow gun. I still need to install the fire extinguisher and triangles. I put some bright red vinal behind the Pete 359 plates and they show up better.

more pictures
 

I filled several holes in the heater box and repainted it then put on a new plastic plate and a new A/C decal. A lot of $$ and a bit of time on the phone with Peterbilt to find all the small parts. Hard to get any good shots of the seats. I put a shifter cover on to prevent snagging those small air lines. It all went well until the windows would not roll all the way up. I will try to get that worked out.

Now that is a great idea. You never know when you're going to need it and its handy.

Kenn's big lift # 2
 

Yesterday my sister helped me put the hood back on the truck. We also lifted the lower unit off the work trailer and backed the truck under it. We took our time and all went well. Today I started putting the U-bolts back on and then moved the truck outside to take a picture or two.

Looks great. Love those roll up doors.

Those roll up doors are nice, pricey I bet. Looks like a nice build your doing there, you cleaned up the interior nicely too, that rubber mat is a nice touch.

I like the roll up doors too. I've been coveting them looking a fire trucks, which are almost always natural aluminum. Didn't know how much I like the painted ones, they really, really nice. I would think that rollup doors make much more sense than either top or bottom hinged.

Do you think they are going to seal really tight?

We had the roll up doors on a couple of the fire trucks in the station I was part of, one of them had 6 foot high doors. We never had a drop of water get in, and ran the rigs in all kinds of crappy weather. They are great because you never have a door sticking out in the way. Only real disadvantage is you lose a bit of height in the compartment due to the rolling mechanism. we had both painted and clear anodized and both held up well. I am not sure what look I like better.

Kenn does great work, I have not been down in a while to see his progress in person, but what he had done last time was first class. I can't wait to visit and see the progress in person next time I can get down that way. Best part is he is actually getting it done, where mine is going to be stuck in the design phase for a while longer yet...

Dave

Doors
 

The total for the five doors was $2918. and $251 shipping total 3169. I don't remember how much the painting was. I will be adding some rubber seals to the door so it makes better contact with the bodywork when the door is closed. I don't remember any of the fire rigs that I worked with that ever leaked. The sales lady at one of the roll up door places told me that hinged doors had not advantages on roll up doors and I told her that on a rainy night you can't stand under a roll up door and you can with some of the tall hinged doors. Dave you are welcome anytime. I was hoping to have the truck road ready next week when my brother visits but I don't think it will happen. I might leave the truck with the lower unit on it in the shop and build a carport beside the shop before I start on the box.

Moor body work
 

Last week my brother was in town for a few days so I had him help me install the rear body panel. We used a new rivet from Huck that is called a Huck Magna-bulb. These rives are 3/16" and are very strong in sheer. I borowed a huck tool from a friend and found out that I needed a $400. tip to make it pull the rivets. The salesman from (Dean Lewis fasterners in Vancover Wa) said if I had a strong air riveter that I could save the $400. He sent me a few samples and I was able to pop the rivets with my cheap air riveter from Harbor freight. I tried to pop one with a hand riveter and could not get it to move at all, strong rivets. We did about eight rivets and then the tool would not grip the rivets. My brother took the tool apart and found that I cracked a steel cone shaped part. I put it in the vice and tig welded it and we did another six before it cracked again. I welded it for the second time thinking we would be making a trip to get a new tool. We tried again and this time I lowered the air pressure to about 80 psi. The tool said 90 psi max and I have my air set at 110 psi. We keep adding pressure 5 psi at a time and found that the rivets need about 95 psi so we were able to do over 100 rivets by shutting off the compressor at 97 psi. I like the way the rivets end up with a strong steel pin locked in place. I then switched to aluminum rivets to hold the LPG access door on.

Lights work
 

I had my brother help me with running four conductor cables for the headlights and the front turn signals. I used a new junction box. I left all of the rubber plugs in place as they are for seven conductor cables. I milled four 3/4" holes so I could run each cable through a grommet. Both headlights and turn signals have three wires so I used three of the four conductors in cable each cable. I had to fab up a bracket to hold the four cables in place because they are wire tied to the hood hinge that rotates ninety degrees when the hood is closed. The picture of the open box shows from left to right 1 ground white 2 marker lights black 3 right turn red 4 low beam green 5 left turn red 6 high beam black and 7 ground white. The grounds are connected with a jumper. It took a bit of doing and I wish both light mfgs used the same wire colors. It all worked and it should be water tight after some sealant. The picture of the fender underside shows how I ran the cables along the edge with clamps. The fenders have a heavy liner that is about 1 1/2" below the fenders. You can see the end of the turn signal with the red, white and black wires. It all worked.

train horns
 

I got the train horns installed and working. Wow!!! they are loud. I mounted them from above and if I need to work on the air lines after the body (living quarters) is welded to the lower unit I might need to cut a hole in my floor. I have been doing some small stuff waiting for a day warm enough to paint the back body work.

Nice work. What kind of a hand riveter did you use? Handles as long as a Channel-Lock? I used some big rivets recently and borrower one that had handles about 2 feet long and that really worked slick. Never used an air riveter. I wanted to borrower one, but they guy who loaned me the big one said don't use the air on big rivets. Use a BIG manual riveter for the big ones. Worked fine.

Did you consider using aircraft bucked rivets? Probably more work.

Only three lights in back?

Nice train horns. Is it common to mount them pointing down like that? I suppose you don't have any room above the cab with the attic.

I suppose the way the train horns work there is only ONE volume ... LOUD! Or can you control the level of sound?

The hand riveter I tried was a small one. I used a lot of solid aluminum rivets on my race car tub and seat. I was able to get to the backside with a buck. The panel on the rear of the truck is riveted to tubing so I needed to use some type of blind rivet. The Huck steel rivets are stronger than the aluminum solid rivets in sheer.
The lights will be two red stop, turn and tail and a white back-up on each side. The back-up lights will be controlled with a switch on the dash so that I can have light with the truck out of gear for hooking up to the trailer in the dark.
You are right, no room on the roof for the horns. I tried to find room under the cab but decided they would be out of the way on the end of the motorhome. I pointed them down so no water or dirt would get in. Sitting in the shop I can control the air valve pretty good and not give them a full blast but driving down the road may be another story.

Train Horns
 

As I type this ... I'm listening to a train horn on a real train about 2 miles away! Sometimes I think the real, underlying reason I want a truck conversion is so I can put train horns on it!

cold weather painting
 

Today the weather let me paint the back of the body work. I had the truck almost all of the way out of the shop and masked off the back. I used gas heaters and with the outside temp at 47 I got the shop up to 60. I shut off the heaters and shot the primer. I used small electric heaters after about an hour. I shot the white at 3 pm and by 5 I was able to use the electric heater and the paint is dry to the touch. We are in for a could spell so it feels good to have the paint done.

love the progress !

water pump
 

Today I mounted the water pump and a small cooling fan. The first picture shows the fan mounted to the back wall of a compartment. Below the fan are four 7/8" holes to let the air out of the pump box and back into the compartment. The next picture is of a cover to protect the fan from being damaged while driving. I used a small stainless steel dish and punched about forty 1/4" holes around the edge to let air into the pump. Below I used a round fog light grill to cover the return air holes. I tested it and it moves enough air to keep the pump cool (I think). The third picture is of the pump mounted on the back side of the compartment. You can see the fan hole above the pump and the four return air holes below. The last picture is of the box I covered the pump with. I used putty tape to seal it to the compartment. The inlet is on the left with a small screen/filter and the discharge is on the right.

This fan is for cooling the water pump used for showers and what not? Why? Doesn't the water itself transfer heat adequately? Just wondering.

Looks neat, Kenn. But, I'm not sure you need to worry about cooling the pump. My pump is mounted under the bed in an enclosed compartment that gets no air flow. Been working great for 10 years. I think they must use the water to keep cool.

My old motor-home had the pump mounted in the compartment that held the water tank. The area was much larger than the small (10 x 4 x 6) box that this pump is in. The mounting instructions say "the pump should be located in a ventilated space" so I added the fan.

i just had a shurflo pump fail....ive pulled it apart & am awaiting parts (valve body)...

I see that Kenn is running a strainer but i'll reiterate anyway - make CERTAIN youre running a $8 STRAINER or youll shorten the life of the pump/valve diaphragm too.

our pump is under the bed too...close to the tanks (twin 60 gallon-ers)...ive held the pump when its running....theres little or no heat in it (and its SEALED, w/ out any vents in the casing)...even running the pump (in my hand) w/ no water flow thru the pump did NOT generate enough heat in the motor/casing to speak of.

from what ive witnessed - theres little if any cooling effect from the flowing water to the spinning motor case...id call it ZERO but ill be conservative and anticipate that the water flowing thru the aluminum diaphragm case MIGHT transfer some cooling to the case of the electric motor...its negligible at best.

these pumps also have built in thermal protection & overload circuits (which i also witnessed)

for those that arent aware (i wasn't), these pumps dont SPIN water thru (like the typical impeller pumps im used to)...they push/pull it thru via diaphragms...which is why they dont have much lift.

fwiw, if you care - in my case the diaphragm was leaking slightly & moisture got to the bearing & eventually took out the bearing. If your pump is periodically running (even w/ the faucets off) & you cant find a leak....suspect the diaphragm...they dont last forever !

as they say....its always somethin' ! ;)

https://www.truckconversion.net/attac...647a68ae3b.jpg

https://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...rainer-mpt.jpg

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water tank
 

Today I mounted the water tank. I tried to use 1/8" rubber between the straps and the tank but I had to use 1/16". I used soapy water on the rubber so I could adjust the straps after I got the bolts started. It all came out fine. I like the look. Next us are the rear lights.

wait...im confused...i didnt realize that the water tank was gonna be in the position of one of the fuel tanks.

how much fuel will you have (for highway/genset) ??
how big is that water tank ? im guessing 60 gal ? is that the only water tank ?

water tank
 

When I bought the truck it had two 130 gallon fuel tanks mounted behind the cab. The tank on the passenger side was a split tank with about two thirds fuel and one third hydraulic oil. Below the passenger door was a tool box with steps. I swapped the tank and tool box for some of the labor cost of removing the front drive axle and building a new driveline. The fuel tank on the drivers side had a wide set of steps. I cut down the steps and mounted the passenger side tank brackets under the pass door. I will end up with 130 fuel for the truck, 50 propane for the genset and other stuff. The water tank is 55 gal. My old motorhome had a 40 gal water tank and I never ran low on water. By putting the water tank in the fuel tank I was able to free up space for larger storage compartments.

Just don't go filling up your tanks when you are super tired or the morning after too many beers....you may end up with funny tasting water, and a truck that does not run...lol Funny as it sounds a few years ago I had a new firefighter fueling up our engine, and they ended up topping off the widow washer tank with diesel. On our freightliner fire truck the washer tank filler is on the same side as the fuel tank, and even thought well labeled they still managed to fill the wrong one. I know something was wrong when the firefighter asked me why we had to fill up because it only took just over a gallon... Drained and cleaned the tank and it still smeared the windows for a very long time.. Made for a good blooper award at our banquette though.

Seriously though, I think what you have done is a great use of space, and 130 gal of fuel should be plenty. First class job on getting the plastic tank inside the fuel tank, and some hard work polishing it all up too.

Dave

Couple of comments ...

First: I was confused, then I thought I had it figured out, now I'm confused. I've figured it out that the water tank is below the driver's door. Is the water being held in the aluminum tank? Or is the water being held by a plastic tank inside the aluminum tank? I think this is a good idea. The only downside is that if and when it gets cold, the water outside the truck/motorhome is more likely to freeze than if it were inside the motorhome box, say under the bed.

Second: We crewed for an ARCA/NASCAR Cup stock car team for a few years. Their hauler (semi-tractor with 53' lift gate race trailer) had a modest sized tank for race fuel (110 octane) which was a separate tank mounted behind the regular fuel tank on the pax side and it had a filler with a small cap mounted "far back"; hard to get to. They were racing down south and contracted with an experienced truck driver to bring the rig back to Wisconsin while the crew flew home. At the next race they went out for practice and the car ran for crap. They couldn't figure out what was wrong. No power. Finally the spotter, who had climbed down from the spotter stand and was looking at the motor leaned over, touched his finger to a little liquid on the side of the carb, smelled it, and announced confidently: DIESEL FUEL!. Engine builder said, "Change the engine." You guessed it ... the substitute driver had put diesel in the race fuel tank.

Did you move the 130gal diesel tank on the driver's side forward too? Watch your weight on the front axle. I'm curious how much moving that weight forward will impact front axle weight.

Keep up the good work!