TiK ToK, TiK ToK, TiK ToK.
TiK ToK, TiK ToK, TiK ToK.
My garage is kind of like Viagra for trucks. Next to stock s10 2wd at the parts store.
The rest of testing was for the majority good I still had thing's pop up but I could work around them. Snapping the speedo cable resulted in 4 hours at a speedo shop and a custom adapter cable made from stiffer housing, then I drilling holes in the steering column to get it bind free. Replace this bolt with that bolt and lock washer and/or nylock so it does not come apart. Trim sheet metal, adjust steering to center wheel, make mud flaps, attach fender extensions find out there still not enough to be legal or keep mud from flying. Another neighbor gave me a name of a cousin who pained so I bought the paint to get the cap to match the truck. I stripped everything off and while he had the cap I cleaned parts and tinted all the windows. I was trying to drive the truck to get parts every couple of days so I could put miles on it and check it all out.
With the clock ticking I knew I need to finish the front bumper as it was going to make the look of the truck. I had been almost a year since talked to Jason it Sinister Fab Works about bending a hoop to match the hood lines of the s10 at the time he said yea it's tricky but doable. I had looked at some of the other stuff he was building and thought he understands how something need to function and look good at the same time. A phone call and a day later I am pulling in to the shop, it's a little intimidating to take something you built in your garage and show up to a place where their lively hood depends on what they build, within 30 seconds I was put as ease. After the questions and normal off road BS and one of his customers commenting on the magazines to which my reply was “be nice, maybe but it's built to go not to show”, the radio turned on and we got busy. Over the course of the next three hours with a lot of holding, measuring, angle finding and just tweaking here and their. What looks to be 3 bends is really 5 complex bends that anyone who has ever put tube in a die can appreciate. The tube follows the body lines to the point of almost blending in, but like the rest of the truck the closer you get the more you realize it not for show it has function. My vision was getting clearer Prius move over, rock wall I am going to leave a mark, tree your coming down. But most of all, I had a place to hang my underwear to dry out ofter washing :wings:.
The trip to Sinister let me get the truck up to 70 mph and see if it was stable and stayed straight on the highway and it was and I even ran it up a little faster (ok a lot faster:smiley_drive
and it just got better. One thing I did notice was their was a ton of heat coming thru the passenger floor. I had already placed a heat pad on the firewall by the down-pipe and wrapped the first 3' of the down-pipe in heat wrap but it looked like more was one the way. In the end I also had to wrap the exhaust manifold and my extension all while in the truck not how I wanted to spend 3 hours but it looks good, solved the problem and I can get to all the bolts.
Years of wrapping road bike handle bars when I was a kid payed off.
Front drive shaft to cross-member clearance, hope it doesn't rub at full droop.
I had delayed leaving on the trip by a week and went into multi tasking overdrive, fabricating the rear bumper system out of mostly scrap, paint this, get front drive shaft, tweak on that, bang head on wall over this and that. Neighbors were helping, bending the rails for the cap roof rack supports. Another spent 4 days working on an insulating cover for the fridge so my salad would stay cold. As the crack of garage door light never seam to turn off others checked in to see how progress was going and that I was not trapped. I fabricated a sleeping platform in the bed and wired the cap for 12v switched and constant, put switches in the dash all a long the way trying to get some miles. Then I realized just throw the small parts in the truck and install them on the way, big stuff was out of luck. My longest test drive had been just under 100 miles round trip to a friends house, the one who helped me decide on buying the truck to begin with. With it's photos taken kind of like a new born leaving the hospital he got the first ride and we shot some video.
When I got home that night I installed the $50 pawn shop stereo and started loading up basically every tool that was on the bench, into a Rubbermaid or tool bag. Not just little stuff but the big stuff also saws-all, grinder, mapp torch, sandpaper, rear axle shaft, ujoints, hydro lines, fittings, nuts and bolts on and on and every fluid I had left in the cabinet I was not taking any chances. Now by no means was everything on the truck perfect but at some point you just call it.
This turbo oil return line leak kicked my butt everyday. Every night I reworked it, this was the least number of fitting I got to and it still leaked. Think it a little close to the frame.