BigTex
Observer
I've been poking around on here for several months now, but haven't formally introduced myself. I'm BigTex, I live outside of Dallas, Texas with my Wife and two kids. Daughter 5, and Son 3 mos. I have a 2002 F150 Supercrew for a daily driver, that I'd like to set up for a camping/backwoods/fireroad rig. With my wife and 2 small kids, the 4 doors come in really handy. It'll never be a SAS'd rockcrawler, just a good all around family camping truck. I bought it from a kid that couldn't afford the payments anymore, and Daddy was making him sell it instead of bailing him out again. It's probably seen every mud hole in E. Texas based on some parts I've had to replace that shouldn't have been worn out yet in my opionion. It had 124K on it when I bout it, and it just turned over 170K. It was filthy dirty, needed a rear passenger door due to his GF putting it into a car port pole, and a tailgate, due to him backing into a trunk mounted bike rack on another vehicle. I got it for about $3k less than they were selling for at the time, had it detailed, found a white tailgate at the wrecking yard, and had my body shop buddy do the door skin. I sold the blazer in my avatar, and was able to pay cash for it, and it doesn't owe me a thing.
Here it is as it currently sits: The torsion bars are cranked, it has a quiet Flowmaster muffler that the PO put on, and is currently sitting on 285/70/17 Treadwrights. And although it's ExPo taboo, I actually added the chrome step bars. Remember it's a family rig. This was my deciding factor on installing them, other than they were a cheap CL find.
ExPo = No step bars, Pregnant and Short Wife = Step bars.
I built this little light bar (although there aren't any lights on it yet, so the wife asked if I can still call it a light bar) mainly to work on my fab skills. I have a little mig, and wanted to try my hand at bending/fitting/welding pipe for future mods i'd like to do to this truck and the Chevy. Aaahhh, the Chevy.......
I'd like to build a custom slide in truck camper like mexitripper did:
Ok, so here's my "little red truck". It's history through present:
Dad bought this when I was in high school from a buddy of his to use to do construction/home remodeling/fence jobs on the side. It's an '83 model. It was a 6.2L diesel short bed. Looked great, got 20mpg, and was a great 3rd vehicle. Fast forward to 2001 or 2002. I had spent every Saturday for a year helping my Dad build their house. One day he asks me what he owes me for all the help, and by now the '83 had been sitting, becuase he had a '98 dodge he was driving everyday. I ask him what he's gonna do with the little red truck. He says he doesn't know, he hates to sell it, but doesn't need it anymore. Why do you want it? Uhh, yeah! So he gave it to me for payment. Now for it's dark period. It was a c10, not a K10, I was younger, and dumber, and always wanted a hot rod, so out comes the diesel, in goes a 350 that rocked the whole truck every time the cam hit, and it was lowered 5" front and rear. It stayed in this configuration until about 2009, when I saw this truck:
I came home, told my wife that I was selling the 2wd and am gonna buy a 4x4. She threw years of me telling her that I'd never sell that truck becuase Dad gave it to me in my face, and said, if you want a 4 wheel drive, why don't you just make that one 4 wheel drive! Hmmmmmm.....the wheels started to turn, a few internet searches later about this sort of thing, and the process began! It's been a slow go, and she just gave birth to our second kid, ( a son this time) in November. So hopefully one day, it'll look like this, or maybe Dirty Larry's rig!
Here it is as it currently sits: The torsion bars are cranked, it has a quiet Flowmaster muffler that the PO put on, and is currently sitting on 285/70/17 Treadwrights. And although it's ExPo taboo, I actually added the chrome step bars. Remember it's a family rig. This was my deciding factor on installing them, other than they were a cheap CL find.
ExPo = No step bars, Pregnant and Short Wife = Step bars.
I built this little light bar (although there aren't any lights on it yet, so the wife asked if I can still call it a light bar) mainly to work on my fab skills. I have a little mig, and wanted to try my hand at bending/fitting/welding pipe for future mods i'd like to do to this truck and the Chevy. Aaahhh, the Chevy.......
I'd like to build a custom slide in truck camper like mexitripper did:
Ok, so here's my "little red truck". It's history through present:
Dad bought this when I was in high school from a buddy of his to use to do construction/home remodeling/fence jobs on the side. It's an '83 model. It was a 6.2L diesel short bed. Looked great, got 20mpg, and was a great 3rd vehicle. Fast forward to 2001 or 2002. I had spent every Saturday for a year helping my Dad build their house. One day he asks me what he owes me for all the help, and by now the '83 had been sitting, becuase he had a '98 dodge he was driving everyday. I ask him what he's gonna do with the little red truck. He says he doesn't know, he hates to sell it, but doesn't need it anymore. Why do you want it? Uhh, yeah! So he gave it to me for payment. Now for it's dark period. It was a c10, not a K10, I was younger, and dumber, and always wanted a hot rod, so out comes the diesel, in goes a 350 that rocked the whole truck every time the cam hit, and it was lowered 5" front and rear. It stayed in this configuration until about 2009, when I saw this truck:
I came home, told my wife that I was selling the 2wd and am gonna buy a 4x4. She threw years of me telling her that I'd never sell that truck becuase Dad gave it to me in my face, and said, if you want a 4 wheel drive, why don't you just make that one 4 wheel drive! Hmmmmmm.....the wheels started to turn, a few internet searches later about this sort of thing, and the process began! It's been a slow go, and she just gave birth to our second kid, ( a son this time) in November. So hopefully one day, it'll look like this, or maybe Dirty Larry's rig!
