Project Little Green Turd

[prerunnerwannabe]

Thanks man I appreciate that, but I'm not a drinker and school is taking up all of my time
I'm glad you like the pics. It was stupid cold and windy up there

 

[wizkid00104]

No prob and I understand. It was damn windy when I went in to the mountains down here. It was 75 on Saturday and today it's like 40...

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

Haha yeah it was super warm on Saturday and this morning I woke up to like 3 inches of snow!! Freakin Utah weather!

 

[wizkid00104]

Minor status update...

Ordered brake line, flare fittings, exhaust intermediate pipe, Auto Gage Oil Pressure gauge, Auto Gage Vac gauge, and a pillar pod mount. Probably gonna order braided stainless brake lines tomorrow. Might as well gather parts since I'm 1800 miles from the project lol


Sent from my iPhone

 

[wizkid00104]

Got all my parts except the intermediate pipe for the exhaust. It will be here tomorrow. I am going home tomorrow to fix my F250 so it can pass inspection. I figured I'd post a photo of the gauges in the pod. I will probably get the truck on the road before I install them as they are not essential, but I will at least add the T for the oil pressure gauge.

These are Auto Gage (the 'affordable' version of Auto Meter. The build quality is very nice and I can't wait to install them... along with many things I can't wait for... like getting the Ranger on the road

I'll probably take Friday off work and hopefully get the first coat of paint on the frame.

Cheers!

Edit: this was the last photo I took in Utah and it is still breath taking!

 

[wizkid00104]

Well I got my Duff lines and got the Super Duty to pass inspection after a huge headache. Used up Ranger time on parking brake crap. Anyway, back in Detroit for work. Hopefully getting to the garage this weekend to begin frame painting. Also gonna put the new Ranchos on the F250. There is not enough time for all this stuff...


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[wizkid00104]

I got back to the garage for a few hours today. I got the Rancho 9000s on the F250 which was one of the easiest tasks I've had yet. I tried them on setting 1 and setting 3 so far. Three worked pretty nice. I am going to mess with them a little more and see how good I can get the ride. I also pulled off the little adjustor screws and packed them with bearing grease so they won't seize up.

New rears compared to an old one:

Installed (My bed cross members are not in great shape... add that to the todo list )

And for the Ranger, I got the exhaust all laid out. This is a Magnaflow Direct Fit Cat (all stainless), Dynomax 52083 Intermediate pipe (2.25" diameter instead of 2.00", it's for a 95-97 Ranger), Walker flange bolts, Cherry Bomb 2.25" x 12" glass pack, 2.25" aluminized pipe, and 2.25" turndown.

I got the Duff lines thrown on before I removed the front suspension. The build quality is great!

I am going to wire wheel the frame and begin painting hopefully Friday.

 

[1badexplorer]

Lets get this thing finished. I know you wont make the Dec or New Years westco rides but I expect to see a green ranger and green yota at the spring picnic this year. Get to work !!!

 

[wizkid00104]

Lets get this thing finished. I know you wont make the Dec or New Years westco rides but I expect to see a green ranger and green yota at the spring picnic this year. Get to work !!!

I am currently in the hotel in Detroit, Michigan. I've put a ton of thought in it, but I can't turn a wrench 300 miles away.

I am going to try and get some work done this weekend. You are welcome to help if you are bored... I'd be willing to provide beer and West Newton Pizza House pizza

And I plan on being there next year. I can't wait to get the damn thing done... I am not even bothering with the gauges and electrical fan until its on the road again.

 

[1badexplorer]

I may stop up. I'm in the middle of a heart tranplant for the bronco at the moment. I'll see if I can seek away for a few hours and stop up.

 

[wizkid00104]

I may stop up. I'm in the middle of a heart tranplant for the bronco at the moment. I'll see if I can seek away for a few hours and stop up.

Ok. I'll let you know when we get up there. Are you swapping in the 351 you built?

 

[wizkid00104]

Nick, unlike yesterday I actually got something accomplished today...

I painted the frame rails back to the rear cab mounts with Chassis Saver and cleaned up and painted the front axle. I used the biggest wire wheel I have ever seen and it had no problem removing anything that got in its way. And I have to say, if Chassis Saver sticks to the truck as well as it does to my hands... it is a great investment!

Before:

After:

I can say that the areas that were not pitted with rust were a little harder to get the paint to stick. The instructions say to sand bare metal to give it some texture, but it seemed like the wire wheel did a fair job. I am covering as much of the frame as I can. There is a lot of grease built up and I am not going to kill myself trying to get every last detail. Joey's little brother Jim is going to hit the frame with a second coat for me this week and hopefully next weekend I can get all the front suspension back on and get the new front brake line in. The clutch and the transmission will follow shortly after. I need to fix that rotted crossmember and remove the busted cat bolt from the header before those can go in.

Until next time...

 

[brinker88]

Lookin sharp my friend! One quick thing though. The first photo you posted of the driver side frame cleaned up looks like you have a stress crack. You might want to go look at it just for shits n giggles.

 

[wizkid00104]

Lookin sharp my friend! One quick thing though. The first photo you posted of the driver side frame cleaned up looks like you have a stress crack. You might want to go look at it just for shits n giggles.

I'll take a look. I didn't notice one... but I wasn't looking either

 

[wizkid00104]

So after some consideration and advice from Nick (1badexplorer), I called James Duff and ordered their new hardware kit for the body mounts. The original press fit sleeves are still on the forward cab mounts and I have to remove them. Destroying them will probably be the only way to remove them. I wasn't using them on the front any more and I cut my rear ones and put them back on. I decided to suck it up and do it right. The kit from James Duff was $106 for all 6 mounts, not including the polyurethane bushings. All the parts from LMC truck would be about 3 times more than that, so I considered this a good solution. I'll post pics when it arrives if anyone is interested.

This thing is going to nickel and dime the hell out of me, but I swore that if i was going to fix this truck up, I was going to do it right. That is why I waited so long to start and why it is still a work in progress. Oh well... In this world, there is fast, correct, and cheap. You can only have 2 of the 3!