How about painting yourself black and forgetting the bag? 8-/

Didn't know that, I always thought the bright white was "chevy
white". Ever see a white ford with the bright white spoked wheels
on it? I did before I boughi my 16x7 wheels, I went with chrome.

I haven't been able to get ahold of my friend in Douglas, might
end up painting mine myself too. I wonder if Imron is cheaper in
Mexico? DuPont R12 was $8 a can a year or so ago.

I hope you didn't get carried away with that and hope that was where
all your play was both. Mine was in the sector shaft bearings (or
lack there of!) and had my orignal steering gear housing line-bored
and bearings installed. The sector shaft play was my last bit of
play mine had, I eleminated it from everything else, even the
steering column.

I betchu! I set my own toe-in as close to straight as I can
get it but less than straight (1/32"?). It handles best that way.
I use a couple 4"x8"x16" solid cement blocks leaned over to hold a
couple straight 4 foot pieces of 1+1/2" thin-wall square tubing
against the tires... and a tape measure.

It may be totally wrong! But I didn't settle for crummy handling
because the tape measure said it's right, I try different
adjustments and "box in" what's best, just found I can trust it
after all these years doing air-cooled VWs (front -and- back).

Mine are stock stainless steel "low mount, swing lok" and whistle
at high speed if they are set a certain way. I couldn't have the
"western style" since i wanted to go through brush and up in the
mountains etc. Their swinging out of the way and re-adjusting with
the positive locking positon features sure have been nice over the
years!

The bolts and acorn-nuts weren't stainless steel tho. I replaced
them years ago with some from Ace Hardware after grinding off the
words etc and refinishing the bolts' tops installed new nylon
washers too... all of it was cheap and easy.

I really liked ramva (r.a.makers.volkswagen.aircooled) because of
the sharing and learning of other's ideas they came up with for
fixing and improving their cars. I was hoping for something like it
that was for old ford pickups. Like I spent ~8 hours figuring out
how to keep my tailgate braces from rattling in an "elegant and
straight forward way" and then finally spent about 15 minutes
actually installing my idea. It's really cool, so why should
someone else have to re-nvent it? And the same... why can't I learn
what they worked out, maybe stuff I didn't even notice was "wrong"
before. The old VW were so much alike and old too that I guess
it's only for them?

The little ranger owners kinda have that here, I'm jealous. :/

Alvin in AZ

alvinj (AT) XX (DOT) com wrote in message news:<be7e9m$7re$1 (AT) reader1 (DOT) panix.com>...

It seemed to do the trick. I didn't have to adjust too much. I just
did a little bit at a time, until it felt right, and the returnability
was still there. If you get too tight, your wheel won't return to
center like it should. Also you can ruin it, if it's too tight for too
long. You have to be careful on those. Just a wee bit at a time.
I tried setting it myself before I took it to the shop, but I found it
to be difficult. Hard to keep the tape held correctly, etc...I got it
close, and let them finish it. I've got a puter printout of all
wheels, specs, etc. I was off a good bit on one side. My toe after the
alignment was 0.66 o for the left, and -0.40 o for the right. My total
toe is now 0.26 o, where 0.12 to 0.38 is the accepted range. My cross
caster ended up perfect at 0.00, right in the middle of the range. The
guy said being I rebuilt the whole front end, it made his job easy.
Didn't have to bend any axles.
I wouldn't settle for crummy handling. Thats how mine was after I got
through with it. After the alignment at the frame shop , it feels
great. Straight steering wheel too. The only downside was the guy
broke my plastic horn retainer plate trying the take the steering
wheel off. I had to order one from LMC truck, which I got the other
day. I'm just glad LMC had them. Those would be tough to find
otherwise for a '68...
I'll probably just get some of the aftermarket "streamlined" mirrors.
A friend of mine has them on his '74, and they seem ok.
About the only other place for old trucks I know of is
alt.autos.classic-trucks

MK