The Bigger Red Pig

[lstzephyr]

Its very cool to see all the places you've gone and I love your old dodge. Thanks! It has been fun

I also had a few quick questions on your paint:

Did you thin it or add anything to it (hardener, ect.) I thinned the first couple coats with acetone but towards the end I got lazy and just used it straight. I couldn't tell a difference but I wanted it to be flat. I didn't want gloss.
How long was the dry time I would put a coat on in the afternoon then wait until the next day. I think it was dry to the touch after a couple hours.
How many coats 4 or 5
What did you use to cut in. I don't really understand what you asking. I used masking tape and a steady hand to make the edge for the black. I rough sanded most of it but after awhile I got lazy and just painted it.

The paint has held up well so far. It has flaked in a spot on the hood but I hit a mailbox so I'm not sure that is the paint's fault. 4 bucks for a spray can and it is good as it ever was. For as little prep and effort as it took I am very happy with it.

Thanks for posting those pics Zephyr. Its great to be able to see your travels and the old Dodge, which seems to be running great!:Wow1: you might want to get some kind of grill on that truck soon, as your radiator is very exposed and fragile!:Wow1::ylsmoke:

I'm glad you like them! I actually put a grill back on it a week or so after the last post. I am about to toss an update on up. I had almost forgotten about the thread.

 

[lstzephyr]

Well I've been slacking on updating the thread so ya'll will just have to bear with me and step back in time to about last November. I had just gotten back from the motorcycle race and got to work on the next set of mods to the truck.

Here is a better picture of the new back window. It worked perfectly! I should have replaced the old one a long time ago.

I slapped back on the grill after a fresh coat of rustoleum. I fiberglassed the cracks and filled in the dodge lettering. So far it has held up without cracking.

After that I set my sights on the old bed frame. I had intended to go back through it again and I had a bunch of ideas. First things first I took out the main side boards, added some supports and then covered them in fleece.

Before

During

I started building top supports with cutouts for some doors but I didn't get time to cover them.

I threw them together as best as I could, put them on top of the boxes and bolted it all down. Eventually I will pull it apart again and finish it up. Everytime I seem to work on the truck last minute before I leave on a trip and this was not an exception. I got the boxes 80% done though and the new setup worked pretty well. Somewhere in there I made up a whole new set of curtains with velcro sewed on to hold them in place. The new curtains worked great but the very back curtain needs a bit of perfecting.

After that was all tossed in the truck I threw a mattress in the back and headed up to nashville to pick up a friend. We ran up north to Kentucky to check out Mammoth cave. There is a nice state park up there so we parked off in the woods and planned to take a tour in the morning. In the morning we woke up to a nice little campsite off a dirt road. Not a bad place to camp.

The cave tour was very cool. We ended up taking a couple different tours and staying an extra night because we enjoyed the first tour so much.

We ended up going back to the same spot in the woods to camp again. It worked just fine. We had a movie to watch on the laptop, some beer, food, and a nice crisp night air. It was very nice.

The next day after our second cave tour we headed out to Maker's Mark to take a tour there too.

The Maker's mark tour was really cool! They gave us a couple samples of some of their brews and I have to say if you get a chance to try some I would definetly recommend the maker's mark 46. After that we headed back out to Nashville and caught a little live music.

Fun Fun.

All too soon though it had to end and she had to fly back to Cali. But it was a great weekend and one I will remember fondly.

After that trip I found an acceptance letter to the local college's nursing school sitting in the mailbox. Ever since then I have been pretty busy with class but I have found time to fix a thing or two. My grandmother offered me her car to drive to class so the truck has been getting some attention to the steering. So far I have added a new u-joint to the steering shaft, replaced the tie rods, replaced the kingpin springs and bushings, and pulled the seat to start upholstery. At some point I will take apart the system in the bed to finish upholstering all that and I just got some taller rear blocks to level out the truck a bit more so those have to go on sometime. A month or so back my bike's engine developed a pretty loud knock so it is on the bench right now too.

I'll take some more pictures next week and get an up to date post up. So far all the fixes to the steering have made an amazing difference.

 

[chilliwak]

Wow:Wow1:Zephr, your pics really tell a tale about your adventures. Happy to see the truck is coming along nicely and that you have a grill back on her. Your pics make you feel like you are right there in the middle of your trip, so thanks for posting up. I especially like the pic showing the caves, and it does not hurt that the woman in the blue shirt is taking care of the `Tail end´of your excursion....

 

[Balzer]

Very nice. I enjoyed this whole thread and almost wish I could live like you do. Enjoy your freedom Man!

 

[lstzephyr]

Thanks guys!

The truck has gotten a bit more work. I replaced the steering shaft, the tie rods, the kingpin springs and swapped the tires around. The truck had developed a death wobble and the combination of those fixes got it back to driving right.

All I had was red paint, so the steering shaft is red.

I tore out the entire interior back in January. The ripped seat cover was annoying me and it all snowballed from there. I cut the old cover apart and made a new seat cover out of some marine vinyl. I ended up fixing an old professional sewing machine to do the upholstery and I managed to get it all back together a few days ago.

While I was at it I cleaned out a couple decades of dirt and mud. I added some new insulation to the floor and the back wall too.

You may have noticed the motorcycle parts everywhere. That is because my bike is currently torn down for a top end.

The valves were toast!

Somewhere in between all that I got out to an airshow with my dad. My dad is a flight instructor and a passionate aviator so it was cool to spend time with him checking out all the planes.

I still have a bit more interior work to do and I need to get the blocks in the back installed. Also I need to get the truck registered in Alabama. I'll get around to it all eventually.

Fun fun.

 

[redthies]

I go into most of the air museums I pass by, but never seem to get to an air show. It would have been awesome to see and hear that B29 fly past!

Your truck is looking good! Did you paint your door panels? I thought you had a red interior?

 

[Rot Box]

Valve time on the pig?! Man you do ride that one a lot :bike_rider: How does the rest of the top end look?

The truck is looking great. Thanks for sharing your adventures with it--Maker's Mark?! Yummy!

 

[DoMiNiC1]

I am born and raised in Bardstown Ky! Love the makers pics!

 

[lstzephyr]

Valve time on the pig?! Man you do ride that one a lot :bike_rider: How does the rest of the top end look?

The truck is looking great. Thanks for sharing your adventures with it--Maker's Mark?! Yummy!

The Makers Mark was awesome! That 41 stuff was the best liquor I have had since Baca nora. Baca nora tastes like gasoline but for some reason it is still my favorite.

The top end is smoked! It has detonation marks all over the piston and a few on the head. The exhaust valves were leaking, the rings were ridiculously loose and the cam chain practically fell off when I took the rocker cover off. I should have rebuilt it about 5k miles ago I guess. I'll add some more pictures in a day or two about the bike.

I go into most of the air museums I pass by, but never seem to get to an air show. It would have been awesome to see and hear that B29 fly past!

Your truck is looking good! Did you paint your door panels? I thought you had a red interior?

Nope its always had a grey interior but I've slowly been covering everything in nice black marine vinyl. I love the new seat cover I made as it really feels plush for a 20 year old truck. I've been tempted to make some new doorpanels and cover the dash too.

Airshows are awesome! I've been to a couple of the big ones like oshkosh and sun n' fun. They are pretty neat. The pictures above are from this years sun n' fun. I've only heard a b-29 twice and it is impressive! They said it was the only one left flying so it may have been the same one that woke me up while sleeping under a tree back in 2010. I doubt my generation will get many more chances to hear those old radials run so it really is a treat.

 

[lstzephyr]

I've done a bit more work on the truck. I wired in a new stereo then I switched it to my beater car and wired in a different stereo. Now both the four wheeled stuff have bluetooth, ipod docks, and fancy stereos! I really love bluetooth, it is so nice to just get in and have the music play from my pocket. Pretty snazzy for a beater old work truck.

I finally put the 4.5" blocks in the back to get it closer to level. It still has 1" smaller tires on the rear so until they wear out it will still be a little nose high but it is better.

I'm still redoing the engine of my bike so the truck has been the adventure vehicle for the summer. I've been working as a rock climbing instructor and trying to get outside to camp, climb and enjoy life as much as possible.

The summer started off with a quick hop down to the bahamas to do some scuba diving with my parents and sister.

We got out by the river after I got back.

I went to go check out a national motorcycle race with a couple friends.

Some camping at the top of a climbing area and cliff. It was a couple mile slog through some mud and tight woods to get to it. We drove in at night to top it off! I had a blast.

Wandering around the local wildlife reserve and farmlands.

A couple climbing pictures

And a landscape beauty shot to top it off

I even washed it! I've been working on improving my photography too. I have a few more things I want to get to on the truck so maybe I will get back to "building" it a bit more soon. Maybe.

Fun Fun!

 

[AA1PR]

really enjoy your ride(s) & the thread photos, that truck is tough as nails

however, I didn't think it was too safe to run different size tires with a 4X4, If & when you go into 4WD, it will throw the gearing off from the front ot the back, they will be working against each other & the transfer case will most likely fail

 

[lstzephyr]

Thanks! I enjoy sharing it all.

Yep that is correct about different sizes affecting the transfer case. I only use 4wd in mud right now where it isn't an issue. Otherwise the hubs are out and I am powering through in 2wd. It isn't ideal but clearance is more important around here than traction most of the time. I use 4wd as more of a backup when I can't get it done it 2wd. The transfer case in this truck is gear driven and the binding on anything tacky is very apparent. When it binds I have to deal with the binding by backing up or finding a way to spin the tires to remove the tension. It is annoying but I'm a broke college student currently so it is what it is. The tires on the back are older and more worn so they will get replaced when I can and the binding will be less of an issue.

 

[lstzephyr]

I still have the truck. It looks about the same.



Over the winter I changed the exhaust housing to a 12cm. It makes the truck much quicker to respond and it drives like a much more modern truck. I also installed a denny t stage 1 pin. It smokes a bit more if I am careless with the throttle but as long as I don't bog the truck it runs doesn't smoke much. The combination of those two parts made the truck much quicker and it now drives quite well. I am quite happy with the power now.





It started to develop issues starting back in February so I replaced the starter and swapped in a group 31 interstate battery. It starts great now. I also replaced the back tires with new 235/85/16 bfg a/ts. The local climber area parking lot can get pretty muddy and my old worn out tires weren't cutting it. The new a/ts have a ton more grip so I rarely need more than 2wd around here.



It has done the normal work of pulling bikes around. I helped my buddy pick up and rebuild an old Honda xr600r. It was cheap and a pretty quick project. It runs great now and makes a good bike for him to learn to ride.





My bike works finally. It took a good few extra months to track down what failed but I replaced the camshaft and my moto now starts and consistently runs well. I'll update the other thread on what all was involved in fixing that but it took some effort. I fought it for about a year all total. The engine rebuild took a couple months and after finishing rebuilding it last summer it only ran two days before the cam failed. I spent the next 6 months troubleshooting it in my spare time. I never would have suspected the cam so I went through just about everything before replacing it. I bought a bunch of parts I wanted anyway to rule out components so it has new harness, stage 1 cam, high rev ignition, rewound stator, new ignition, pumper carb and a few other things. The bike is now really fast and is a complete blast to ride. A fresh engine is a good thing.

I also took a couple trips to Roatan and to the Oshkosh air show.









Other than that the truck is still used for general camping and screwing around. It works well for what I want from it. I still want a smaller truck from time to time. I may go through and fix the window seals and perhaps repaint it again. I might just continue to beat it up and fix things when I feel like it. So far so good though and it does what I need it to. Fun Fun.

 

[Bushcoat]

Wow dude, Im still loving your rig! Glad to see another couple huge trips on the odometer.

 

[lstzephyr]

There hasn't been too much new and exciting happening on this truck. I'm fixing little things from time to time and I have a new lift pump on the bench waiting to go on. I still try to get out into the woods when I can but I'm mostly busy studying.






When I moved here I transferred all my debt to the truck and started nursing school. I'm now 3 months from graduating and I made my last payment on my loan last week. I'm stoked.