The Road Ranger. 1997 SEMI

[Rick W]

Cover it in vinyl wrap… it gives it that little extra touch it needs.
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Will the vinyl wrap stop the bleeding?

 

[Snoranger]

Will the vinyl wrap stop the bleeding?

Yes… if you apply it properly.

You can trust me, I’m basically an expert. My grandmother was on the team that invented J&J flexible fabric band aids.

 

[RobbieD]

Will the vinyl wrap stop the bleeding?

Yes.

1) Cut a 1" strip of vinyl wrap 24" long.

2) Tie the vinyl wrap strip around the limb above the wound.

3) Insert a stick or similar object under the vinyl wrap.

4) Twist the stick to tighten the vinyl wrap band until the bleeding stops.

 

[Rick W]

Sometimes one must sacrifice for art's sake. Cut off the bottom 1" of the door.


No, seriously. The flag graphic looks good to me. I like it (frankly, it looks MUCH better in the photo than what came to mind when you described it). Don't rip it off yet. Besides, dogs don't know art (however, cats do . . . ).

The switch panel is looking good. I think it still needs a "little" something, and @snoranger has a good suggestion with the vinyl wrap. Back when I did car stereos and accessories I would use black wrinkle paint sometimes on panels like that. Smooth file and/or sand the perimeter of the face and you get a nice silver color framing around the black wrinkle finish.

(as an aside, Rick, do you know / remember the old Auto Radio and CarTunes shops in Buckhead, Sandy Springs and Roswell?)

Keep beatin' on it, man. That's a really cool truck, and it shows that you've put your heart, mind (and blood) into it.

I DO remember the shops. I used the one on Roswell Road several times, great guys, knew what they were doing. I miss them.

I thought of the crackle paint, but no matter how carefully I do it now, I know it will rub off around the switches I use most. I think the vinyl wrap is an excellent idea.

I’m going to do a similar concept switch panel below the dash and above the hump in the 78 Mark V, and I got some vinyl that has the little fuzzy backing, so it will have a little padded texture. I’ll have to think it out, but I appreciate the comments, because I obviously I want to do it before I wire the beast.

What I’ve done with the overhead consoles before is, after it’s all wired and installed, I actually make a thin sculpted wooden insert to fill in the sides, and then I cover those panels and the CB sides with felt (like in the trunk of your car), held on with Velcro. It covers everything up, but it also allows quick access if there’s an issue.

 

[Rick W]

Yes… if you apply it properly.

You can trust me, I’m basically an expert. My grandmother was on the team that invented J&J flexible fabric band aids.

Wow, no kidding. When I came back from Africa, and I finished my degree, my first post college job was working for J&J Jelco labs. It’s when Jelco was a start up making needles and catheters. And my brother work briefly for Ethicon. Maybe one of us knew granny!

 

[RobbieD]

I thought of the crackle paint, but no matter how carefully I do it now, I know it will rub off around the switches I use most. I think the vinyl wrap is an excellent idea.

OK, I can tell that you'll be doing more fondling than admiring. Vinyl wrap will work work much better in that case . . .

I DO remember the shops. I used the one on Roswell Road several times, great guys, knew what they were doing. I miss them.

I worked for that group about 12 years, '70s and '80s. Fun as hell job and times; and back then, Buckhead was a REALLY happenin' place.

 

[Rick W]

Sometimes one must sacrifice for art's sake. Cut off the bottom 1" of the door.


No, seriously. The flag graphic looks good to me. I like it (frankly, it looks MUCH better in the photo than what came to mind when you described it). Don't rip it off yet. Besides, dogs don't know art (however, cats do . . . ).

The switch panel is looking good. I think it still needs a "little" something, and @snoranger has a good suggestion with the vinyl wrap. Back when I did car stereos and accessories I would use black wrinkle paint sometimes on panels like that. Smooth file and/or sand the perimeter of the face and you get a nice silver color framing around the black wrinkle finish.

(as an aside, Rick, do you know / remember the old Auto Radio and CarTunes shops in Buckhead, Sandy Springs and Roswell?)

Keep beatin' on it, man. That's a really cool truck, and it shows that you've put your heart, mind (and blood) into it.

And THANK YOU for liking the truck. I think just about every piece and thing I’ve done on the truck and I’ve done on the trailer, I’ve done it all before, but this is the first time I did it all on a single vehicle/project. I’m sure the biggest reason I’ve been able to get this done is because I’m semi retired, and I can just go outside and work on it whenever I want to.

I’ve always been a car collector, and I always liked weird stuff, and always like doing a little customization. This is one of four vehicles I can remember where I have to add in 45 minutes or an hour to whatever I am planning because people will actually stop me to talk about it and look at it.

There are two big challenges with playing with this one. I don’t have the room on my property to turn it around or jack it around. So every time I take it out, when I return, I have to pull in truck first. I have to place my other vehicles strategically in advance, so I don’t block anything I might need, and I need to also have my turn around behind the house open. Then I have to drop the trailer, manually push it back, and then pull it up next to the truck. Then I can back the truck out of the way. Then I have to physically turn the trailer around. And remember I’m pretty much an old fart.

The other thing that’s happened to me when I’ve had vehicles like this is that someone else will like it more than I like it. I love them, but I don’t fall in love with them. A lot of times I’ll get 90% down the road on a project, the kind of projects somebody else might want, but they would never do themselves, and then they start waving cash under my nose. That’s already happening with this one. One guy is offering me three or four times what I have in it, but a second guy is talking some serious cash.

The final thing on this is that I am semi retired, I don’t need the cash, and I’m enjoying playing with it. All my life when I’ve done these, maybe I needed cash for the kids, college, or whatever, and I never had enough time to do them the way I wanted to do them.

The saga continues, but seriously thanks for the compliment and encouragement. I wish you could talk to sweet pea. She does not share your sentiment…

 

[Rick W]

OK, I can tell that you'll be doing more fondling than admiring. Vinyl wrap will work work much better in that case . . .



I worked for that group about 12 years, '70s and '80s. Fun as hell job and times; and back then, Buckhead was a REALLY happenin' place.

I don’t know the last time you were in Buckhead, but it’s still a happening place and a blast. You just need 10 times as much cash to enjoy it these days…

 

[RobbieD]

I don’t know the last time you were in Buckhead, but it’s still a happening place and a blast.

The last time I was in Buckhead, 400 was only 2 lanes both ways. So , , , it's been a little while.

You just need 10 times as much cash to enjoy it these days…

What? No more dollar beers at the Brandy House?

 

[Curious Hound]

Yes.

1) Cut a 1" strip of vinyl wrap 24" long.

2) Tie the vinyl wrap strip around the limb above the wound.

3) Insert a stick or similar object under the vinyl wrap.

4) Twist the stick to tighten the vinyl wrap band until the bleeding stops.

No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. A 6"-8" wide strip wrapped tightly around mid and lower head, sealed tight to mouth and nostrils stops all bleeding. 3 layers is best.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Amputation at the neck. Let it bleed...

 

[Rick W]

Thanks for keeping me honest. It’ll only delay this item a day, and Lord knows there’s a pile of other things to do.

 

[Rick W]

Well, after all the pressure and the veiled threats, murmured laughter….

….I gave in.

I went out to shop and slaved for 20 (or maybe even 25) minutes, pulled all the switches, glued the vinyl down, let it set, and then I cut it out, and put the switches back in. Whew!

So maybe it looks a hair better…

In the bottom of the picture is my air horn switch device. This is also from scrap out of the free junk truck box, part of the support member under the lid. On the right, you can see the little pivot that I created, screw slightly loose with E6000 on the nut, and the switch is mounted facing down. So when I put a string on the left end, sticking out, there will be toot.

When I rivet it into the gas grille door back mount, I will rivet it through two crimp eyelets that will attach the ground wires to all the switches and circuits.

I also crimped together my ground circuit (so LED indicators work), and my hot loop.

On both of these, they will be grounded/hot wired from both ends for a back up. When I’ve done this, in the past, I brought a hot circuit from the battery, and a hot circuit from the ignition. This is so things like the rotating beacon with the halogen lights won’t draw down the battery. Since I have a second battery I could cut out in this truck, everything will be wired to that second battery. I plan on pulling four extra wires for the four extra switches, and two extra hot wires, just in case. It only takes a minute now, but if something shorts out…

And I want you to know with all of this doing stuff twice pressure to satisfy you guys, I’m not sure if I’m going to get my money’s worth out of my E 6000:

This tube is only a couple of years old.

Edit: do you like the way you all my little tiny clips blend with the switch colors? That was baby’s idea…

 

[RobbieD]

Much better!

All that you need to do now, is to stain and clearcoat that 2x4.

 

[sgtsandman]

I put the 2X4 between the roof and the headliner for my CB instead of between the switch station you made and the CB. It makes the installation look more professional and keeps the head liner from getting crushed.

The mount with the switches looks great BTW!