The Cinder Block Loses a Wheel VIDEO ON P. 15

[Blasphemous]

so what is the shop saying about the electrical gremlins and brakes?

No word from the shop yet, but then again, I did drop it off at 10pm on a Saturday night, when the lot was already full of vehicles to be worked on before mine. I'm sure I'll hear by the end of the week. I told him I wasn't in a huge hurry.

Unless you know the mechanics, that's a major faux pax. That means they can put it off over and over again. I've learned not to do that; don't tell them to rush it, but don't tell them it's no hurry either.

[ZombieSoldier01]

Crypto, lookie what i found ye!

http://cosprings.craigslist.org/pts/2205008673.html

[crypto]

so what is the shop saying about the electrical gremlins and brakes?

No word from the shop yet, but then again, I did drop it off at 10pm on a Saturday night, when the lot was already full of vehicles to be worked on before mine. I'm sure I'll hear by the end of the week. I told him I wasn't in a huge hurry.

Unless you know the mechanics, that's a major faux pax. That means they can put it off over and over again. I've learned not to do that; don't tell them to rush it, but don't tell them it's no hurry either.

I do know the mechanic. He's wrenched on my old XJ many times. I trust the guy implicitly.

[Resolute]

[Blasphemous]

so what is the shop saying about the electrical gremlins and brakes?

No word from the shop yet, but then again, I did drop it off at 10pm on a Saturday night, when the lot was already full of vehicles to be worked on before mine. I'm sure I'll hear by the end of the week. I told him I wasn't in a huge hurry.

Unless you know the mechanics, that's a major faux pax. That means they can put it off over and over again. I've learned not to do that; don't tell them to rush it, but don't tell them it's no hurry either.

I do know the mechanic. He's wrenched on my old XJ many times. I trust the guy implicitly.

That changes the whole game then. Now if you know the guy, he'll normally (in my experience) do a better job on it since he can spend more time on the work and do it at his leisure.

[Vicarious_Lee]

Just wanted to say: That ride looks absolutely magnificent!

I can't wait to see what you're gonna do with it over the next few years.

[Paladin1]

If you are thinking about stripping it out and painting the interior, exterior etc. ie, going all the way. Then I would suggest, (from experience ), that you look into a painless wiring kit and just rewire the bitch.

Tracking down shorts in very old wiring, just to have more crop up later on will drive you mad. When I did a full restore I just ripped it all out and started over. You get better wiring, labeled every few inches with what it is.

In other words, the wire from the front right headlight, says "right front headlight" right on the wire from one in to the other. Easy to wire, easy to maintain, and upgrades to modern relays and fuse box put anywhere you want it.

On the cage, I concur with Jamoni, basic loop bolted through frame rails and backing plates. With gussets tying it into the side pillars and roof. Drop in a cross bar for lateral stiffness, and if you really want to tie it together, run two rearward tubes through the back of the cab out to the bed.

[Entrenched_Position]

I see nobody has thought of this yet... What are your plans as far as upgrading the lighting? I don't mean auxiliary lighting, I mean the headlights. Make sure you upgrade you headlights to some decent modern units (don't cheap out, good one's cost, but they make a world of difference, believe you me), a good set of non-coated bulbs, and a good quality set of relays and wiring and connectors.

I've had good dealings with Daniel Stern in the past. Might want to check out his website, and send him an email.

--------------

Great Truck, btw! I'm lovin it! I long for the days of simple automobiles, but alas those are long gone. Good luck with all your work, and I hope everything works out well.

[crypto]

I'll probably eventually put a full wire harness in the thing, but that'll be a while off. Damn things are like $700 though, so thats a ways off once I finish fixing shit thats actively broken.

I havent really considered replacing the lighting with anything extravagant, certainly not to a degree that would involve a custom lighting consultant. (his website is down as of 2130 CST, btw)

I guess I figured someone made halogen replacements for the OEM bulbs. They're just sealed beam round bulbs, so I figure theres gotta be some non-yellowish ones on the market.

[ZombieSoldier01]

I'll probably eventually put a full wire harness in the thing, but that'll be a while off. Damn things are like $700 though, so thats a ways off once I finish fixing shit thats actively broken.

I havent really considered replacing the lighting with anything extravagant, certainly not to a degree that would involve a custom lighting consultant. (his website is down as of 2130 CST, btw)

I guess I figured someone made halogen replacements for the OEM bulbs. They're just sealed beam round bulbs, so I figure theres gotta be some non-yellowish ones on the market.

if you want more modern lighting send me a pm... i will get you hooked up with what you need. i do custom lighting on cars for fun, on the side....

[Blasphemous]

There are some good sealed beam, non-yellow units on the market.

Check out EZ Wiring for cheaper entire wiring alternatives. This is what I'm using on my '73 Plymouth.

[Vicarious_Lee]

I'll probably eventually put a full wire harness in the thing, but that'll be a while off. Damn things are like $700 though, so thats a ways off once I finish fixing shit thats actively broken.

I havent really considered replacing the lighting with anything extravagant, certainly not to a degree that would involve a custom lighting consultant. (his website is down as of 2130 CST, btw)

I guess I figured someone made halogen replacements for the OEM bulbs. They're just sealed beam round bulbs, so I figure theres gotta be some non-yellowish ones on the market.

if you want more modern lighting send me a pm... i will get you hooked up with what you need. i do custom lighting on cars for fun, on the side....

On that note, I can help with a bitchin' stereo. Have angle grinder and fire extinguisher, will travel.

[Oneswunk]

Lightings easy,
Screw a couple rails to the hood and snap on a couple TLR1s. You can even add some little nuts.

[crypto]

LOL, I got to dan sterns website.

I am unconvinced that I need a bunch of 10-gauge wire and German relays to get decent light output. Anytime someone tries to sell me a line like "Oh hey, you know the way the entire industry does something? Well, it's horrible, and you should buy some of my shit to make it better" I tend to be pretty skeptical.

At 55W of power (9006 bulb standard) I'm only drawing 4 and a quarter amps. Thats fine for OEM wiring, which is why OEM wiring is the gauge it is.

I'm going to stick with the original idea of either sealed beam halogens, or just putting in a modern 9006 bulb and a reflector assembly.

Thanks for the tips on the EZ-Wiring, though!

[Matsuo]

BTW yur Truck said Hi!



Nice rig, looks bigger in person.

M

[Jeriah]

so what is the shop saying about the electrical gremlins and brakes?

No word from the shop yet, but then again, I did drop it off at 10pm on a Saturday night, when the lot was already full of vehicles to be worked on before mine. I'm sure I'll hear by the end of the week. I told him I wasn't in a huge hurry.

Unless you know the mechanics, that's a major faux pax. That means they can put it off over and over again. I've learned not to do that; don't tell them to rush it, but don't tell them it's no hurry either.

Steph and I have some mechanics and we "know them" only as regular customers, we don't know them personally or anything. But we have a pretty cool system with them. We schedule our major repairs for when we're going out of town for a while, as that's the only time we can be without the car for even a few days: I HAVE to drive to work on Mondays and Wednesdays, because I am at three places and there is literally not time between one and the next to take public transportation. So we drop it off right before we leave town, tell them it's no hurry, that we're going out of town and will be back on X date, hoping to pick it up then. They call us on our cell phones while we're out of town, and tell us what they're doing, and then we pick it up when we get back in town. Last time we actually took the train directly from the airport to the shop to pick up the car.

This works great but of course only for repairs that can wait. If something needs to be fixed RTFN, that's a whole different story.

[crypto]

BTW yur Truck said Hi!



Nice rig, looks bigger in person.

M

LOL!!

[Oneswunk]

Fuck hill.

[larmus]

Fuck hill.

HAHA!!! i saw that too!!!

[Czechnology]

This thread needs WAAAY more pics.

[Resolute]

Like this?









(Let me know if I need to take it down, OP... I couldn't resist)

[URBAN ASSAULT]

Awesomer and awesomer, and it'll be interesting to follow your progress on this build!

-urban

[crypto]

I went by the shop today, to check up on The Brick, and got some surprising news:

There's no electrical damage at all.

As far as they can tell, what I thought was an alternator grenade was actually just a bad engine backfire (its got headers and no exhaust currently) that caught some engine oil sludge on fire momentarily, and jarred the engine enough to temporarily break connection on the already-loose battery terminal for a few seconds.

The subsequent dead battery was another oddity that we're still trying to figure out, as follows:
There is a thin-gauge wire jumper running from the connector plug on the alternator that terminates in an alligator clip. When it is clipped onto the battery terminal, the alternator charges the battery, when it is not clipped onto the battery terminal, the alternator does nothing. (I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of this setup).

Anyway, I dont know why its there, the only thing I can think of is these two scenarios:
1. whatever circuit this completes causes some sort of slow battery drain through the alternator, and a previous owner removed the jumper for storage, and it should be replaced with a more secure removable connection like a spade lug.

2. This was a really shittilly-done aspect of the engine swap, to make up for a missing piece of wire harness, and should be replaced with a proper permanent connection.

Anyway, with the jumper hooked up the battery charges just fine, the truck starts up and runs normally, and the junior mechanic at the shop used the truck to smash down some snow piles while testing it out. Tomorrow they start tearing the brakes apart. So far I'm somewhere around zero dollars.

As requested: a few more pictures:





Like Matsuo said, its bigger than it looks. Use other cars for scale. And keep in mind that those are 33x12.50 tires on it.

[Dawgboy]

It's about as fast as that double ended turtle...

Also, I WANT your bumper! That would bolt right on my waggy. As for the wire, Alternator Exciter wire?