Been doing a bit of work to the truck lately. My bike's transmission has a serious issue so I haven't been riding it much and driving around instead. This has kicked my butt in gear to get some stuff done. That and on the 3rd a friend of mine is flying into Tucson to road trip with me to Utah, Nevada, and eventually LA. From LA I will be driving across the country with all my stuff and ending up in Alabama. Probably.
No pressure.
Back a couple weeks ago I was trying to fix my non-working odometer and forgot to close the hatch before pulling out of the garage. I caught the door, bent it slightly and broke the hatch hinges off my cap. I went to a local shop and they told me that there was no way I was going to find a replacement part and I should just go to a hardware store. After asking another shop and getting the same answer I went to Ace and got a large oversized metal hinge.
I decided I wanted an oversized one so I could cut it down a bit and keep the beef. While I was cutting it I went ahead and painted the gap between the cap and the back of the cab. I had been putting it off, but since I am moving and needed to get rid of the paint it was now or never.
Pretty sad state of affairs.
I spent a bit of time with the grinder cutting the hinges down to size.
Before and after
I was getting frustrated with it after I broke a cutoff wheel, and a couple other parts. So I pulled out the camera, set it to timed setting and everytime I would get up to get a tool, or water or something I would hit the timer. I got some interesting pictures in between the painting and installing the back hatch again. Looking at the candid pictures kept me from getting quite as frustrated, as then even if I kept breaking stuff and not making progress I at least had some cool pics which is progress.
Drilling out the original rivets and removing the broken hinges.
I threw a coat of black paint on the hinges, and tossed them up on the roof.
I added some heavy grade eight fasteners with locknuts as well. I didn't want it to fall off. I sealed up the holes as best I could with some rtv also.
Then to install the hatch.
By this point it was getting pretty late and I called it a night. But I got the hatch on and it was now painted. Progress.
The next day I spent a bit of time working on an idea I had the night before. I had read about people using bicycle parts for a hand throttle so I went around to different bike shops to get some pieces I needed, and some other parts.
I used a rotary thumb shifter attached to the gearshift. That and a 6 foot shifter cable, plus some electrical crimp connectors and viola.
I can use it sitting in the seat with my hand resting on the shifter. It works great as a cruise control so far, it ratchets into place and I adjusted it so that it releases with a firm push. It keeps me from throttling up and down while cruising so it should improve mileage a tiny amount.
I vastly prefer it to a normal cruise control. The motorcyclist in me is perfectly comfortable driving around using it as a throttle and not even touching the pedal. I can think of a couple ways it could go horrible wrong, but I don't think it will.
