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First order of business today was to turn the truck around so I can work on the other side and access the back easier. So got that done with a quick loop around the street.... So first thing - as I mentioned earlier, I've been getting a check engine light in odd circumstances. ONLY when the...

Exactly :) Plus, I'm not real big on washing my cars anyhow, so general dirtiness will help as well lol. I actually don't like "really nice" paint jobs anyhow. Then you have to worry about them and get upset when someone dings you or one of the kids runs into it with her bike. When I buy new...

I feel like I'm slacking with the slowing pace of things lol. I have a few interesting things on the way (well, interesting to me at least), but for the past few days I've been continuing on with some of the tedious work on the outside of the truck, including removal of all the 31-year-old...

The weather was really nice this morning and not much else to do, so I decided to go ahead and get started on the roof. So after a bit of sanding and cleaning, put down a primer-coat (via foam roller) after a quick re-seal of the raingutter sealant in a few places. So for a while, pretended to...

Didn't have much to do today. Fiddled with some exhaust stuff in preparation for installing a new muffler in the next week or so. Decided I might as well address the little rust-bubbling up on the front right corner of the roof. No idea why it's happening there (nothing similar anyplace else) -...

So I'm pretty excited about today's project, especially because I'm fabbing it literally with just a bunch of random stuff I have sitting around: Some 1.50" DOM tubing and some 1.75" DOM tubing left over from building the rally car's roll cage years ago. A piece of decking board (1.5x6 or so)...

how are the reverse lights working? I was thinking about picking up the same ones to put in my bumper (I'll have to cut holes of course).

Ok, so a bit more fun update today. Tires were mounted! To make it better, the tire shop that I use a lot told me the scratched the paint on one during balancing (big deal, I rattle-canned them!) so they basically comped the price and charged me for two mount/balances instead of five. So, can't...

oh, one other little thing I forgot: finished my front wheel well splash shields. The OEM ones were long-gone so cut some out of some scrap thin HPDE sheet, used some push-fasteners, and hit them with bedliner. Because keeping as much mud out of the engine bay as possible is always a plus, as...

UPS showed up this morning with the tires. I heard him coming so just went out and met him in the street so he didn't have to lug the tires up to my house and right into the Sequoia with the old wheels/tires Since the shop was busy and they usually give me the hookup, I told them I'd...

Just read this one, sad it didn't seem to end anywhere. I know he said he was building it for Rally America (now defunct)...I've been around the rally scene for a while (RA and now ARA) and haven't seen any Monteros running the stages in the US (maybe mine will be the first, next year, as our...

I have a build thread going on if you feel like adding it: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/pitchblack-rally-recce-raider-build.210863/

Not much going on today with the Raider, but I did get around to installing switches for the Hellas as well as three "blanks" for future accessories, etc. All of them are powered with pigtails on the three extras. And just for fun I used old head bolt washers to keep them from pushing through...

At some point I actually intended to put these on the Sequoia, but after mocking them up I decided they would look funny on a modern-ish truck like that (plus that thing already has a 40" LED bar among other lights. They actually look about the right size on the Raider. They looked huge on the...

Ok, so got some stuff done today. Well, after I took the rally car out for its weekly few miles at high rpms :) (mask only pulled up for the photo, I wasn't actually wearing it while driving...) So that got me thinking that I had some old Hella 3000 Ralleye lights that used to be on that car...

I basically found a small rubber vacuum hose cap that fit over the end of the injector snugly (from one of the little plastic boxes of various rubber caps from harbor freight). Drilled a small hole in it and then slipped the straw from my carb cleaner through it and sealed it up with some...

Yeah, so I've heard. Gonna take some getting used to for me - I'm used to the super-responsive steering on the rally car, 924, and GTI lol. And the Sequioa, for that matter, has really good/precise steering for something so big. But, not like I'm building this thing for corner-carving (well, at...

So, first things first: the Raider went for its first drive! Well, just a really short one out of the driveway, around the cul-de-sac, and back in. It has dryrotted tires with no tread so not going far :) This was just to make sure everything felt ok. Which it did, other than the ridiculously...

Just apply 12v (from the car battery sitting on my workbench) via mini alligator clips to the terminals (positive to one negative to the other). Once power is applied at holding them in the open position. then you have to rig up some kind of cap to pressurize the straw from your cleaning spray...

So mostly I just worked on finishing the deck today. So it's finished: The only Raider work was my new crank bolt came in. IDK if this particular older bolt was one of the "problem" ones (after all, it's lasted 30 years just fine) but figured might as well replace it with the updated part...