Woah Black Betty, the Danger Ranger!

[strugbus]

So my wife and I have had our 2004 2.3l 5 speed since 2008 when I traded a wrecked motorcycle for it. She's been very good to us but looked rough when we got her. 10 years of hard use did not do her many favors. Early last year she blew the clutch slave cylinder and sat unmoving for a year.

It was a long term dream to build her out as an overlander for longer range off the grid trips. The time has finally come and we're showing the old girl some love.

 

[strugbus]

Ok, so I've been cheating. I'm already quite a ways into my build now. I'll lay out the plan and bring the thread up to speed over the next couple of days.

Ok, so here is the goal. Create a long range "base camp" style vehicle capable of navigating fire roads and BLM lands for rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, rock hounding and camping. I also need to charge drones, cameras and run lights etc.

Plan as it started:

• Add a bumper (been Meaning to do this for a decade)
• Paint her, bedliner the entire truck.
• Clean and re-do interior
• Buy some batteries & solar, wire in a fusebox to run lights and charge gear.
• Build a custom enclosed living space that's insulated and contains 4 season capability with a comfy bed
• 10+ gallons of on board Running water for cooking, cleaning and drinking.
• Built in cooking with pot/pan storage etc.
• Upgrade rear to 8.8 and put in a locker.
• Lift her
• Add lighting, a winch, swing away full size tire mount, roof rack/basket, awning, gmrs and cb radio installation.

Some of my progress so far!




Bumper installed!

Test fitting the rack:



Then I went on vacation with my girlfriend to Joshua tree. I'll post some more updates tomorrow.

 

[strugbus]

Hey look! It's tomorrow! Funny how that seems to work.

So prior to any actual work pictures I also replaced the clutch, the slave, the timing chain, oil, transmission fluid and aired the tires (brand new BFG k/o's)

Ok, so I got the bumper on which only took about 10 years. How bad can rebuilding the rest of it be?

Ok so shell off and sanded!



Then it's time for new paint. Rustoleum bedliner in a giant rattlecan ftw!



Have to say the Rustoleum works really well if you prep enough!

Sanding down the fiberglass fenders for paint!



These sat with nothing but rattlecan for over 12 years. There was some really nasty pitting going on. I sanded down into the glass mat and filled with epoxy and chopped mat. My neighbor shapes surfboards and gave me a clutch assizy. I didn't grab any pictures of that because of this next one.



More later!

 

[Curious Hound]

Hey look! It's tomorrow! Funny how that seems to work.

So prior to any actual work pictures I also replaced the clutch, the slave, the timing chain, oil, transmission fluid and aired the tires (brand new BFG k/o's)

Ok, so I got the bumper on which only took about 10 years. How bad can rebuilding the rest of it be?

Ok so shell off and sanded!
View attachment 52791
View attachment 52792

Then it's time for new paint. Rustoleum bedliner in a giant rattlecan ftw!
View attachment 52793
View attachment 52794

Have to say the Rustoleum works really well if you prep enough!

Sanding down the fiberglass fenders for paint!
View attachment 52795
View attachment 52796

These sat with nothing but rattlecan for over 12 years. There was some really nasty pitting going on. I sanded down into the glass mat and filled with epoxy and chopped mat. My neighbor shapes surfboards and gave me a clutch assizy. I didn't grab any pictures of that because of this next one.

View attachment 52797

More later!

Your fingernail polish is chipping off pretty bad.

 

[strugbus]

Your fingernail polish is chipping off pretty bad.

One of the downsides to rock climbing and wrenching is I can't keep nail polish on to save my life! My Manicurist loves me!

 

[strugbus]

Ok so, I got the fenders sanded an epoxies but had to wait for them to dry and cure. What's a girl to do? How about install some lights!


Button, button who's got the button?



Mounted



Powered up!

Ok, the next day my fenders were dry, so time for bedliner!



I bed linered both sides because they are old and felt a bit flimsy.



Fenders are back on the truck!
More later!

 

[strugbus]

Now that the shell is painted it's time to mount the rack. I did this off the truck because I'm short and I had to do some square tube bending to make it all work.

Test fit:


Fabbing awning mounts that double as basket reinforcements for the Arksen basket I got off Amazon. For the price I think it's a stellar buy.



Cutting aluminum for the mounts and notching so it will bend with the shell curve.



This was a 2 person job, my wife lent a hand and it was really appreciated.



Basket attached with awning in place!

More laters!

 

[sgtsandman]

Nice work so far!

 

[strugbus]

Ok, well with the truck back together I took her on a short climbing trip to see how she handled the extra weight being so high. In short, she could use some new suspension!

Going climbing:


What the hell!?! I just put that shell on there!



Fine, be like that...


Full repaint of the bed and flex seal of the shell to the bed. Repainted the rear of the truck cab as well with bedliner.

Back together for a moment!




Not bad for an under $200 paint job. Whole truck is triple coated in bedliner including the shell. Much more to come!

 

[strugbus]

She's just like one of my girlfriend's! Turn your back for 5 seconds and things start flying off!

I live about 12 blocks from the beach. I fished out of a kayak for a decade in this truck. I am absolutely shocked at how well she held up paint/frame-wise!

More strippage! Take it off baby, take it all off!

Little bit more painting to do!

 

[strugbus]

Ok, so I set myself up as a paint bay. The fluorescent pink became a fluorescent orange due to the underlying beige. Oh well we don't make mistakes, we make happy little accidents, right?

Fatmat installation:

Little pic of her look at the time:

Moving her so I can start working on my rear bumper fab:

Of course after no rain for months it rains as I pulled my welder out!

Oh well, we make do with what we've got I guess!

Work has continued! There is more coming though! I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a donor truck very soon!

 

[strugbus]

Breaking real-time news! Something followed me home...

 

[strugbus]

Merry Christmas everyone! We took a family photo!

 

[strugbus]

Ok, so with wet weather you have to get creative with your painting solutions!

Oooh do you see what I see!?! Pre-made swingout hubs!

These will come in handy later.

I ordered BLACK boat carpet. I got grey~ish boat carpet. Not pleased and don't have the will to return and fight with it atm.

Interior and going in and carpet being fitted:

Seats back in place baby. Covers are on order, damn slow shipping ruining my aesthetician!

More trim, waiting on headliner which was being a stubborn sob. I used special glue and reused the original pan with heavy duty boat carpet. When that didn't behave I reinforced it and stapled the ever loving hell out of it.

fall apart now you SOB.

Getting preeeeetty close to caught up now!

 

[rumblecloud]

This person is batshit crazy....I think I like this person...