neohic

Congratulations! Such an awesome truck and a huge thank you for supporting these truck the way you do.

Bit of an update on the shop… not much has changed. That’s okay though! I still consider this shop a “best of album” when it comes to having things dialed in just how I like it. What I’ve found with this shop is that I really like having work stations on wheels that get rearranged depending on what the project it. The welding table has gone through a couple changes over the years but it has never been just right. Unfortunately it also is a large, flat spot that collects things. In the past I added a shelf for grinder storage, a bench vice, and a pile of tabs and hooks for things. None of it was ever awesome. Time for a refresh! What I thought was that I originally made it too tall. The top is 42” and I always had things mounted to it. I always stand when I’m welding so the height there is good. The problem comes in with the bench vice. I recently picked up another, so my homemade vice is getting moved to a stand-alone mount. The new (very old?) vice got hung under the table and swings out to a comfortable work height. Then there’s the grinders… I’ve got space for five grinders without any of them sitting on top of each other and almost enough space for an appropriate amount of wheels. Years ago I was given a pile of cut wheels and I’m still working through them. I’m not a fan of cut wheels, but the price was right. The main reason for the table refresh was the addition of a fume extractor. I’d say that most of my fabrication projects happen when the weather isn’t so great and I find myself holed up in my shop. I’d be in there all day, take a step outside, and then that’s when I realize that the air inside is blue. I try and weld with a respirator on, but that doesn’t help much when ALL of the air in the shop is disgusting. Enter a fine extractor to catch most of the junk and heavy metals at the source. This also means that I need to cut a giant hole. My plan is to a turn big, single basin sink into a down-draft table. The big hole in the top will be cut into two lift out covers that sit on slats hung from underneath. When the covers are on, I’ll still have the whole tabletop to set junk on in the future. In the meantime, I’m waiting to cut anything until I’ve got all my material to finish the job.

Bringing sexy back… I pulled the original seats out of storage to have a good look at them. Why did I get rid of these in the first place?! They’re dirty. The seat doesn’t fold forward on the drivers side. All of the plastic touch points are either broken or missing. I feel like I could’ve tried harder when I was going through the truck way back when. Glad I didn’t get rid of them though! Overall they’re still in great shape other than the missing/broken parts. There is one small crack on the driver’s seat bottom. Otherwise these are a part of this truck’s winter plans.

These are beautiful!

I found that also. Lots of good info! A bunch of them have the look, but they remind me more of GM based products from back in the day. The allure of the Power Acoustic to me is that it doesn’t look like anything when it’s off. I think I can deal the fancy appearance when it’s on. Touchscreen isn’t a necessity for me, but I wouldn’t turn it down.

Yup. I was hoping he’d pipe in.

I’m on the hunt for a new head unit for my Eliminator and I love simplicity. Don’t think I’ve bought a new radio since 2005?… I’m a bit out of touch. What are the cool kids running these days? Here’s what I’m looking for: Auxiliary input that charges an iPhone would be nice Looks somewhat period correct if it’s got buttons and not like a spaceship Looking around online, I can easily find a ton of cheap junk. Right now I’m leaning towards the Power Acoustic CP-71w because it nearly looks like blank block off when it’s off, and I’m familiar with how it functions already being my ‘18 Ford Focus also runs on CarPlay. Are the usual manufacturers still the good ones or is there some whiz-bang units from cheaper sources that I don’t know about? Thanks, all.

Drove to work the other day and made a mental list of creature comfort updates. I think I need to take a look at what it’ll take to clean up the original seats (maybe seat foam, back rest handles, and the little plastic deals and frames to make them flip forward?) and figure a different radio. The auxiliary input I added to the factory radio worked… and then it didn’t. Always something.

That time of year again to put on the winter coat.

PSA: When you change your fuel pump, make sure the new assembly o-ring is the same size as the old one otherwise your tank will leak… a lot.

Posted this morning. It’s in a SEMA walk around video.

From Finnegan’s Garage YouTube, @OffGridResearch

Time for a VERY overdue day in the shop. When I first brought this truck home from its long storage slumber it sat for a little while longer because it needed the transmission pulled to change the input seal behind the torque converter. Was that all it needed?… nope. First in the list was pulling the fuel pump. Last winter it served daily driver status because the usual daily needed a water pump. The car was still under warranty which meant that it sat at the dealership for a couple weeks. Sadly, the truck let me down in terms of stumbling and dying a few times but I completely understand that this was my fault. Now that winter is rolling around again (we had 24” of snow fall over the past few days!), I figure it’s time to get it back to “reliable” status. What’s in the tank?…besides what’s left of last January’s gas?… … surprising not much. I was expecting to find a small, scummy pond! As for the pump assembly, I think I found where the stumbling was coming from. Classic case of a collapsed fuel line out of the pump along with an embarrassingly disgusting sock. Threw a new Carter pump and sock in the sending unit and even reused the high-speed, custom hose clamp I used to keep the pump together in a parking lot WAY back in 2006. Felt like bad luck to get rid of it! Next in the list was the lack-luster brakes. Again this was my fault. Cue the capital letters again, WAY back in 2010 when the truck was coming together again for its third life I never did anything but add a zip tie to the rear brake proportioning valve to get more juice to the rear disks… that was never actually enough. I did the typical delete and plugged the line from the distribution block. Will I need a prop valve with the rear disks?… stay tuned. A while back, Don had this same setup with good results. With the prop valve out if the way, we can clearly see the red overspray on the rear harness, the cheap Gabriel shocks that are surprisingly still hanging in there 14 years later, and the lack of bump stop extensions. Maybe some addition shop time on more upgrades? Maybe… maybe… Need to leave a little meat on the bone, ya know?

Reach out to @500 MJ. I’d bet he still has boxes of them.

There’s some good DIY shifter tech within the first few posts of this thread:

I love this truck!! Can’t wait to see where this goes next. VERY well done, sir!

Thanks, fellas!

Passed my inspection! 98% done though. The front door isn't happening this year but I do need to make a door for the crawl space. Very pleased with it!

Some good rear sway bar info here using a Blazer rear bar and axle brackets along with WJ links and chassis brackets:

Those seats are long gone. I never mounted them in anything so I traded them away years ago.

Time warp back to 2011, I tried a vinyl repair kit with good results.

Thanks! I’m ready to be done with the project. Not much else planned for outside stuff this year. Gearing up for redoing my welding table in the shop though. Highlights include a new (very, very old) bench vice, figuring better grinder storage (I might have too many), and turning a single basin stainless sink into a down-draft table with a small Lincoln fume extractor.