Building a work truck ( slowly)
- Thread starter mybigwarwagon
- Start date
aardvarcus
Adventurer
Looks great. My "project" vehicle is a 1994 Suburban.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
Yes. The current headlights are aftermarket and don't fit properly and self adjust. I don't have to swap the cores even though everyone says you have to. I ahve had that WT grill of a couple of different trucks.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
I have had 3 94's no real problems out of any of them.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
And now on IT'S A WORK TRUCK NOT A SHOW TRUCK, the epic saga of one man's demented determination to beat a truck into submission.
This morning, Heath and I went to the scrap yard. On the way back the dash nearly fell out of #7. These GMT400 trucks had a major flaw in the dash design. There are two 10mm bolts that hold the bottom of the dash up. And there are three small screws that hold the top. The three small screws go into steel, the dash is plastic, the mounts break, especially if you do much driving on rough roads ( or non existent roads).
You can buy premade clips to repair it, but I am cheap.
I dug through the metal pile and found a piece of aluminum. Marked it
I put it in the redneck bandsaw, and used the worlds dullest hacksaw blade.
Then I changed my orientation to make cutting a bit easier.
A pass through the redneck Bridgeport.
My super high tech angle finder.
Then a run through the redneck metal break.
Finally a few of these odd sized washers for the two mounts that were completely broken off.
And finally the clips installed.
It wasn't bad except for the bad sawblade. Total time invested one cigar.
This morning, Heath and I went to the scrap yard. On the way back the dash nearly fell out of #7. These GMT400 trucks had a major flaw in the dash design. There are two 10mm bolts that hold the bottom of the dash up. And there are three small screws that hold the top. The three small screws go into steel, the dash is plastic, the mounts break, especially if you do much driving on rough roads ( or non existent roads).
You can buy premade clips to repair it, but I am cheap.
I dug through the metal pile and found a piece of aluminum. Marked it
I put it in the redneck bandsaw, and used the worlds dullest hacksaw blade.
Then I changed my orientation to make cutting a bit easier.
A pass through the redneck Bridgeport.
My super high tech angle finder.
Then a run through the redneck metal break.
Finally a few of these odd sized washers for the two mounts that were completely broken off.
And finally the clips installed.
It wasn't bad except for the bad sawblade. Total time invested one cigar.
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mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
Yesterday morning we headed down to the scrap yard. I had a full day booked and no time for nonsense. Of course, the truck had other plans. The drivers front brake started grinding. It was just going to have to grind. I had brand new rotors on the parts truck so I could replace them when I got home.
200 miles later I got home and found a glitter factory.
The pads on the parts truck were a bit thin, but everything was closed so they got put on. I ordered a set of ceramic pads since this truck tows every day.
200 miles later I got home and found a glitter factory.
The pads on the parts truck were a bit thin, but everything was closed so they got put on. I ordered a set of ceramic pads since this truck tows every day.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
Paused for a glamor shot in front of Mt. Asphalt.
And brought home 10,000 pounds of old roads.
And brought home 10,000 pounds of old roads.
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mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
No work on the truck, because the truck has had to work.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
If you give a gorilla crayons and tell him to draw a schematic.
Now I just need a dry place to work.
And if you need professional drawings done....
Now I just need a dry place to work.
And if you need professional drawings done....
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
It runs better
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
No work done on the truck. But I did decide to look and see if there was still paint under all the mud today.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
I forgot to update this post.
I was supposed to start a large job on the 17th. It fell through, so suddenly I had a fairly free week.
#7 had a list of small problems that needed to be addressed and that I didn't want to do. Something screwy in the front end, alignment was garbage, muffler was rusted out, exhaust manifold had a broken bolt, the wipers worked on some odd circadian rhythm of all their own, and something else that I forget. Maybe Steph will remember. So we took it to the shop. When I pulled in the parking lot the belt started squealing, so I added that to the list.
With my back problems it was smarter to let someone else handle it.
So I did something that was really needed on the wife's truck.
FedEx had dropped off a package for the wife's F150. The stock mirrors were way too small to be useful for anything but driving straight ahead. With a trailer they were useless. $187 on Amazon and we were in business.
Tada
I thought about leaving it like this
Done
And extended
The hooked right up to the power and adjust perfectly. I can actually see behind the truck.
I was supposed to start a large job on the 17th. It fell through, so suddenly I had a fairly free week.
#7 had a list of small problems that needed to be addressed and that I didn't want to do. Something screwy in the front end, alignment was garbage, muffler was rusted out, exhaust manifold had a broken bolt, the wipers worked on some odd circadian rhythm of all their own, and something else that I forget. Maybe Steph will remember. So we took it to the shop. When I pulled in the parking lot the belt started squealing, so I added that to the list.
With my back problems it was smarter to let someone else handle it.
So I did something that was really needed on the wife's truck.
FedEx had dropped off a package for the wife's F150. The stock mirrors were way too small to be useful for anything but driving straight ahead. With a trailer they were useless. $187 on Amazon and we were in business.
Tada
I thought about leaving it like this
Done
And extended
The hooked right up to the power and adjust perfectly. I can actually see behind the truck.
mybigwarwagon
Rarely serious
Since we don't have a lot of jobs coming in we are concentrating on cleaning up the mess that happened in the 9 months of rain we had. We would get back from a job, toss everything in a pile, and then flee inside the house before the mud swallowed us whole. Things outside got bad.
The next day Heath told me he had read the owners manual and wanted to learn to drive the tractor. He then proceeded to tell me what every lever and control on the tractor did. He did the work, so I taught him. There has never been a happier 8 year old on earth.
I gave him a job to do with it. There were lots of riding mower tires laying around from where we jerked them off a mower to take ti to the crusher. Then all needed to go in a building down the hill. So he drove around, loaded the tires up, and then took them down and put them in a building. He worked for about 4 hours straight and loved it.
The next day I actually did some work on #7.
And yes, the carport did actually get... mostly
The next day Heath told me he had read the owners manual and wanted to learn to drive the tractor. He then proceeded to tell me what every lever and control on the tractor did. He did the work, so I taught him. There has never been a happier 8 year old on earth.
I gave him a job to do with it. There were lots of riding mower tires laying around from where we jerked them off a mower to take ti to the crusher. Then all needed to go in a building down the hill. So he drove around, loaded the tires up, and then took them down and put them in a building. He worked for about 4 hours straight and loved it.
The next day I actually did some work on #7.
And yes, the carport did actually get... mostly