Hello rustlovers!
What a gloriously hot summer this spring is turning out to be. Here in the hills east of San Diego the days are getting longer and so are the hours of my garage. I recently purchased some wheels on Craigslist for the jeep. They are 2″ wider and the back spacing is 1 1/2″ inches less than stock so with some nice 30″ off road tires they fill out the wheel wells nicely with minimal rubbing.

The next step is to straighten the frame then build the roll cage. For some reason my brother ‘B.B.’ decided to go to Hawaii with his family instead of helping me with his frame rack so the jeep will have to wait.

So, on this momentous occasion, I introduce to you; The Gamble.
About a year ago, Understanding Wife spotted a $600 suburban on Craigslist. Although it didn’t run, it cranked but the distributor rotor turned in little bursts so I knew the timing sprocket was missing some teeth. It could just be the timing set and I would make a quick thousand bucks or it could have chunks of valve bristling out of the pistons; it was a gamble.

Woah, another project??? Does this guy ever finish ANYTHING??? How many wrecks does he have???
I know, this blog has A.D.D. And I have lots of wrecks but as the true rust addict knows; one does not simply finish a project car.

As you can guess by the long timespan that I’ve had the car, it wasn’t just the timing set. The first week I had the truck I changed the timing set and the water pump then cranked over the huge 454 only to hear it spin effortlessly with absolutely zero compression. So it sat. And sat. And I bought and sold myriad cars. And it sat. And Understanding Wife delivered our first child (my greatest creation to date!) And so something had to be done.
Sunday was 105 degrees outside and I ventured forth to conquer the beast. In breathtaking heat I pulled the intake and the drivers side head then today the passenger head. All of the intake valves are bent and one of the cylinders is slightly scored but I’m gonna run it! I ordered some new valves and a gasket set, so when they’re delivered I’ll be lapping the valves and jamming the heads back in.

Will this project run? Will Jeff switch to another project again? Tune in and find out, after all, there is always another car… Or motorcycle…