details, details

Nothing too exciting here, but good progress was made. Ragan came over last week and helped with some exhaust and radiator work. No pictures, sorry.

After a couple of trips to advance auto, we thought we had the right exhaust tubing to connect the y-pipe to the muffler, but it was just too big or too small each time. But, after trial and error, the muffler did fit directly onto the y-pipe (which works better anyway). Still to come is the piping of the rest of the exhaust out the back from the muffler. Putting the muffler back on made a huge noise difference, so I am sure our neighbors are pleased.

Getting it to run quieter also enabled us to do the stop-leak for the radiator (truck has to run idle for 15 min to cycle it through). So we drained the radiator, poured in the stop-leak, and then the new radiator fluid. Then it ran idle for 15 minutes... a successful event in and of itself!

For what it's worth, there's nothing wrong with working on a truck while listening to Christmas music...

She's takin' shape

A big step taken this weekend, in my opinion, as we got the rear wheel wells cut and tires on (with new lugnuts - courtesy of Josh). Thanks to David's help (as always), we were able to mark it off with some old fender flares and then cut the metal using what I like to call a "hand-held jigsaw" and the angle grinder. It's actually starting to take shape and look like the envisioned truck... still a long way to go obviously.

Before pic:

After cut with old tire/wheel:


After cut with improved wheel/tire (hard to see in pic, but chrome lugnuts make it look great - thanks Josh!) Also, yes, I do plan to sand/paint the center black - some of the last remnants of camo (again I ask, where was this ever successfully camouflaged and hidden???):


Full view (gettin' there...)


I still need to get the fender flares (will be white), but that's a while out as they aren't the cheapest parts I need.

I also need to get back under the truck and finish the exhaust piping. Pending weather, that (or a badly needed powerwash) is nearing the top of the "todo" list.

No more cammo

This is well overdue, and the work was even done about a month ago, but I haven't gotten around to updating the blog until now. For all of you that wake each day in anticipation that this blog has been updated and feel lost if not (please note sarcasm there...), I apologize.

Lots of good things happened over the period of a couple weekends, especially one afternoon when Dave came over to help knock some things out. The last of the sanding project "eliminate cammo" has finally completed. Dave even got me started on the next phase, painting it red, with a can of Rustoleum.

Note: painting this truck is currently a 2 phase plan. Phase 1: sand off cammo, replace with temporary all-red rustoleum paint job. Phase 2: After body work is done (bondo, some pieces being replaced, etc) and when I have more time and expertise, I'll sand off the rustoleum and do a better paint job - still red, with some white trim/fender flares.



And yes, that is indeed a beach chair in the driver's seat - I'm not planning on putting the other seats back in until after the floor work... told you I was a redneck.

Another "milestone" was finally jarring the lugnuts loose on the old tires. Dave brought some additional leverage (longer pipe over socket wrench) to make that happen - a couple of sore backs later - and the tires were off! The newer ones definitely help the look. It took quite a bit of doing getting the new tires on the front - needed some 1/2" spacers and even then some angle grinding on the spacers... but they're on there now. Hoping to get some chrome lugnuts soon to help dress it up more. The back tires will go on once Dave and I do some cutting on the rear fenders (to be lined with fender flares).... still to come.

Oh yeah, and Dave's crafty cutting with the angle grinder got the Cat converter off (no pics needed)... I need to pick up some exhaust piping to get the muffler back on (Karen's not the biggest fan of me cranking the truck w/o the muffler, and I'm sure our neighbors would agree - oops!) ... also still to come.

The goal...

For sake of tracking towards a goal, this pic shows the closest thing I have seen to what I am hoping mine looks like down the road. I would probably drive mine more with the top off and a black roll cage / bikini top... but you get the idea.

Haven't had much time for work on the truck lately, will do more and update more soon I hope...

"You might be a redneck if...

you've ever used duct tape to double as a seat cover."

Well, consider me a redneck then... in cleaning up the original seats, the driver side needed a little TLC for some rips in the seat. Duct tape just seemed like the right answer (isn't it always the right answer?), and the whole seat bottom looked better than a few spots here and there... so there you go. This ought to be nice and comfy and not stick at all in the summer sun, huh? :-)



I also acquired some new (used, but new to me) tires and wheels from David (Higgins), pic'd below. The lugnuts on the truck are thus far showing to have a lot of stubbornness, but I'm hoping to get those tires changed out soon.




I finally got a new air filter/cover and breather (after looking all over Raleigh for the right size grommet). It dresses up the engine block a bit with some chrome, but it's not really worth a pic yet... I'll have to clean that up some more first.

minor updates

As far as updates go, this does not fall into the category of "exciting," nor does it have heavy visual progress to show for it. But, progress is progress, and I aim to keep track... big and small.

One thing that has bothered me since I got the truck was the frayed battery cables, which you can't really see in the pic below (battery on left side), but I wanted to put a "before" engine pic in here sooner than later.


So when the battery wouldn't crank, it gave me a good excuse to go ahead and get new cables, which can be seen installed below (I told you these pics weren't exciting, but you kept reading anyways). You'd be surprised how long it can take 2 guys (Dave Higgins helped) to figure out a way to get one grounding bolt threaded in its home, conveniently tucked deep in the engine of course... but it finally worked!



Of course, the problem with the battery still exists, and it'll be replaced soon. But, for the time being, and in order to get it turned around in the garage, we had to jump-start it (which initially caused a nice and fun mini-explosion... a little too much gas? Oops! good times). I wanted to get it turned around so that I could have enough room to sand the other side. My next step to take can clearly be seen below, more sanding. Not sure if I'm going to sand the tailgate though, as it will definitely be replaced.



Still feeling motivated and since we were already numb from the cold night, we pushed on to try to get the Catalytic converter off. It's basically clogged and not working anyways, so it was time to come off. As you can see below we didn't quite get there. Muffler came off without too much trouble, but the Cat was much more stubborn in its connection to the exhaust (to the right). We may have to cut... that should be fun.

1. Sliced bread, 2. Dual-action sander, ....

For starters, this post goes out to Josh, a good friend and my wife's cousin (so I guess he's my cousin-in-law? works for me... ), who called me out for being slack on the blog posts lately, and rightfully so! The Bronco work has been slow for a while now, but I've managed to get some things done this past week. Thanks for getting me back on it, Josh.

Another thing that has drastically helped my motivation is a Christmas gift (cue angels singing), a dual-action sander. I had no idea how much of a difference it made until Higgy (David) showed me, and now with my own, I'm sold. The hand sanding was taking far too long, which didn't help the motivation factor either. As can be seen in the pic, I worked down the rest of the driver side. I did (unintentionally) go all the way to the metal in a few more places, but the time saving is worth it - and of course will be painted before too long.

Hood, Grill, and one side down.... tailgate and passenger side to go...
Here's an old "before" pic for a reference point (sorry I didn't have time to edit out the clown in the background):



Oh yeah, and the driver's seat - it's finally out (Praise the Lord). I lost miserably and cried "uncle!" when I fought that one stubborn 30-year-old bolt with a socket wrench, but once I switched my weapons of choice to the drill and angle grinder, the bolt had no chance - ha, take that!

Here is the fully exposed interior, so now I know what I am up against with the floor and its rust: