jodawill

I got the new keys cut a few weeks ago, but obviously I'm not posting pictures of them here. They look great though. The blue one looks almost completely identical to the key my grandpa used every day, but I like the green version of that key, so that's my copy. I've been juggling a lot of projects recently. I replaced all of the heater hoses, the radiator hoses, and the coolant reservoir. I'm about to go flush the radiator also, but I'm waiting until I'm ready to pull it out onto the driveway. I also have a new heater valve that I'll be installing when I do the flush. The bench is removed right now, so it will be interesting trying to back it out of the garage. The heater hose tee was in rough shape. I took this picture when while I was midway through sanding it down. I sprayed it with Rust-Oleum primer then sprayed a black enamel paint on it. I've given up on the stock stereo for now. As much as I want to keep the vehicle as original as possible, I'm just tired of dealing with that thing. I picked up this discontinued JBL Celebrity 100 for $50. I'm very happy with it. I chose it because out of all the reputable brands, it was the one that clashed the least with the interior. It's much more practical than the cassette deck, although I'd still like to get that one repaired at some point. I replaced the original factory speakers with Infinity Reference speakers. The stereo doesn't have enough wattage to power them properly, so I'll need to get an amplifier at some point. A subwoofer would be nice too. I removed the carpet and pressure washed it. I found two of the three clips that had broken off the courtesy lights, so I was able to repair them! I just some Dynamat Xtreme and some Dynapad today, but I have to wait until my POR-15 comes before I can install it.

I love the rectangular displays on the dash!

Thanks. I just ordered the degreaser, metal prep, and clear coating. Apparently this stuff is hard to find locally. What do I need to know before I use this stuff? Do I need to pull out all of the old sealer and apply some fresh sealer? I'm spending a lot of money on sound dampening materials, so I don't want to make any mistakes here.

Thanks! That's really interesting because I think the only other light I've seen in my cab is the glove box. I wonder if I have some burnt out bulbs I wasn't even aware of.

Does anyone know what type of bulb the courtesy light originally came with? Mine are 11005, but I don't think it originally came with those. Amazon says it should be 212-2. Can anyone confirm?

What do you do with the POR15? Does it work as a cleaner? Do you just use it with a rag to clean the rust off?

Thanks. I guess that won't be coming out any time soon. I decided to install Dynapad Xtreme and Dynamat. Maybe I should just put the Dynapad as far up underneath that firewall mat as I can reach without removing it? Do you know anything about that hole in my previous post? Is that supposed to be there?

How do I remove this rubber mat along the firewall?

The passenger side has a hole in it. Is that supposed to be there? What should I do with it? The driver side has the same circle, but no hole.

It doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it?

I'm concerned about the sound dampening material causing moisture issues. Would it be a good idea to just add some to the transmission hump, the rear wall, and the doors? For the rest, maybe I should just throw that white insulation back where I found it and replace the original carpet padding.

I plan to keep the original carpet. It's in pretty good condition. What would you recommend for the padding? It seemed like the original carpet padding didn't cover the whole floor, but I'm not sure which parts weren't covered. It came out in small pieces. And what about that white padding in the bags? Are those original?

Here's one of those white pads I mentioned. I'm not sure whether these are original. It seems odd that they're in bags.

Do you have any tips on installing the Dynapad? Do you know how much I'll need? Are there areas that you didn't cover? I noticed that the original carpet padding didn't cover the entire floor. Also, there were two plastic bags with white padding in them at the front of the cab. I'm not sure whether those actually came with it or if perhaps someone added it later on. Do I need to keep those or use additional carpet padding beyond the Dynapad? When you say enamel, do you mean something like Rust-oleum clear enamel? I'd like to keep the original gold paint if I can. There's a very small amount of rust around a few bolts that I need to address, but I don't want to spray a bunch of colored paint and ruin the original finish. (Yeah, I won't see it, but I can't stand the thought of ruining that factory finish floor.) I might just clean up that small bit of rust with a rotary tool and use a stencil to spray the rust converter only on those particular spots.

I finally got around to pulling up the carpet to check for rust. It looks pretty good. Now that I have the carpet out, I have two questions: 1) What else should I do while this is taken apart? 2) What should I do about sound dampening? I've seen concerns that Dynamat may trap moisture on the floor. What should I do?

I tried using regular hoses first. The problem is that out of all six of the hoses, only one of them is actually the same size on both ends. I tried going the route of using tees and adapters, but it turned into an unmanageable mess. I suppose that's the route I'll have to take if the hoses from Rock Auto don't work. I'm assuming that the specs on that double elbow hose are wrong. Hopefully it all works out.

The specs for this hose is contradictory: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1332841&cc=1181720&pt=6892&jsn=3243

According to Rock Auto, this is what I need for the heater valve assembly. This appears to be correct. I think I was wrong about that long one being a double elbow. I still have an issue though because the double elbow one that connects the tee to the water pump says 5/8" to 9/16", which is not what I measured. It should be 5/8" to 3/4". Perhaps this is a data entry error?

I'm trying to track down all of the heater hoses for the original configuration. The hoses I'm finding online just don't seem to be correct. Rock Auto (and everywhere else) lists this 9/16" to 5/8" hose. But my measurements put it at 5/8" on the tee and 3/4" on the engine. Should I buy these and stretch them to fit? There's this 5/8" to 3/4" elbow, but the original has two angles. Here's my understanding of what I need: The heater valve has three 5/8" connections: Goes to the 1/2" connection on the side of the reservoir - straight 5/8" to 1/2" hose - FOUND Goes to the 5/8" connection on the heater core - straight 5/8" hose - FOUND (common hose) Goes to the 3/4" connection on the water pump - 5/8" to 3/4" double elbow The tee also has three 5/8" connections: Goes to the 7/8" connection on the bottom of the reservoir - maybe stretch the 5/8" to 3/4" elbow? Goes to the 3/4" connection on the heater block - maybe just stretch the 5/8"? Goes to the 3/4" connection on the thermostat housing - 5/8" to 3/4" double elbow Could someone shed some light on this? Thanks!

The Dorman vacuum hose assembly is garbage. I ended up using silicone to get the connections to stay together.

Wow. That's a wildly simple solution. There's several options here to consider. The Pioneer stereo seems like a great solution functionally, but it's definitely not the look I'm going for here. The aux input would keep the original stereo in place, but feels kludgy. I'm not sure which route I'll take yet. If it wasn't my grandpa's truck, I would probably just replace it and move on. If anyone reading this knows how to repair the original stereo, please reach out to me.

You're probably right. They were completely flattened, flush with the metal. I never saw oil dripping from it, but it probably had a very slow leak.

Are those mounts supposed to be the same? The difference between them seems a little wonky. Is it riding a lot smoother now? I can't remember what was on the other side, but I recall it being something that looked more difficult to remove, so I just went with the old setup. Now that I know it's an issue, I'll plan to do the motor mounts and the oil change at the same time. It was just really annoying because I had already changed my oil twice in less than 1,000 miles and I had to drive to the store to get some oil. Now that I've done it once, I feel pretty confident that I could do this within an hour next time. It seems like the majority of my time on this truck has just been spent figuring out how to do things. Any time I have to redo something, it goes pretty quickly. I also replaced the oil cap and the o-rings on the filter housing. I'm sure they were original as well. I'm not sure whether they were leaking, but I love replacing things before they become a problem.

I tried, but there was something in the way (just barely) on the other side, so I just put it back the way it was. And apparently that's the way it came from the factory because that was the original motor mount! It's running MUCH smoother now.

Thanks for the recommendation! I might pick up the cheap Pioneer for now. I don't love the way it looks, but it does at least have a dimmer for the lights. I haven't seen that before. Do you mean the bluetooth dongle plugs directly into the antenna jack? Does it only work on a specific channel? I've been using a bluetooth FM transmitter in the cigarette lighter, but, because the backlight doesn't work, I can't see the display to change the channel when there's interference.