Tow rigs are built not bought!!

Frame was cut to fit a short bed on the truck. These only came in long bed from the factory.


Headliner is staying fine so far.

 

Fired the truck up briefly today. Radiator leaks......JB weld!! Trans leaks.....new fittings......no fuel delivery.......not sure what is going on there. I have a new fuel pump. Just not sure the switching valve is working right.

Tossed the new bed on the truck. Kinda like the color, maybe the whole truck should be that color. Strange thing is that the bod holes are off from the original short bed. (??????)
Couple of quick pics.

 

I'm diggin the multi color aspect there....

 

Keeps the crooks away!

 

Heck yeah.

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like you cut the frame like...maybe...3" too short or something?

 

How do you figure that? (according to our measurements it si actually about 0.5" too long still on the back half.)




So today I bench tested both pumps......

The brand new electric pump makes noise but does not actually pump!! The cam lobe on this engine must be just flat enough to not pump enough through the mechanical pump either.

Bought a block off plate today, exchanged the bad electric pump for a new one. Wired it all up and it fired right up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! For the first time in a YEAR I pulled it forward into it's storage spot UNDER IT'S OWN POWER!!!!!
I still have lots of things to do before trying to drive it. But that was enough for today.

 

After a weekend of work with Brigham I took the truck on it's maiden voyage today. First around the block, then to the autoparts store and then to the closest dirt to take a few pics. Still a LOOOOOONG way to go with lots of work but it was nice to get it out of the garage.

 

Just some more progress and a couple of pics.
-Fully sound deadened the front two doors with RAAMat BXT and Ensolite. (Thanks to Rick at RAAMaudio for donating the stuff to the project)
-Installed an old Sony stereo I had laying here. (Radio only, CD broken).
-Bought some 6x9 speakers to fill the holes in the doors and have some sound.
-Figured out that I am missing a "Heater Relay" under the dash so I can't get the heater to work.
-Installed the front cab vents. Passenger side works great, driver side is broken.
-Sparyed the hood to keep the raw metal out of the elements for the moment.
-Replaced one of the two rear windows that were broken. Need to replace the other one and have them tinted.
-Temp install of the Nordskog GPS Speedo. VERY VERY COOL STUFF. Now I just need to do the rest of the gauges.
-Installed front seat belts. They are blue........ugly but safe.
-Have a pretty big oil leak from the oil pressure sender.......guess that will be next.

 

Looks great I like the blue glow from the gauges.

 

Here is a better pic.

 

I like the 270* sweep on the fuel guage. Wish everyone did that.

 

Where did you get those guages? How much? They would look sweet in my K5. What dash mods were needed to install them? Your 3+3 is gonna be sharp when finished.waytogo

 

Thanks man.


I got the gauges directly from Nordskog. Prices vary a bit depending on what you want and where you get them from.

 

Well the truck got dropped off at MaxAir (e470/I-25) yesterday for Rhino Lining. I'm not even really sure what they are going to do. They were excited about the project so I gave them a bit of artistic lisence.

These are the same guys that did my Jeep about 7 years ago for this article on Rockcrawler.com. They did an AWESOME job on the TJ.
http://rockcrawler.com/techreports/rhino_tj/index.asp

 

Stopped in to check on the progress today.
MaxAir got the bed shot. Bottom and bed are done. (paper masking is still on the truck). They also did the inside of the rear fender wells.
Couple of bad camera phone pics.

 

The guys at MAXAIR did a great job.
Bed is all done, they did the rockers all the way down the truck and the inside of the front and rear fender wells. Amazing how much quieter it made the truck. Combined with the tons of RAAMat sound deadening I put in this truck it is actually really quiet to drive.
They did the bed a little extra thick since we were going to be using the truck for real work. Also did it over the bed rails.

Still ugly as can be. But the Rhino looks nice on the bottom. Now it just needs a little real paint on the rest of it.

 

Looks nice, really needs a 12 valve!

 

Would love to do a 12v swap. Just have not found one in my budget yet.

 

TIRES!!!!

Toyo liked what we were doing with the truck and stepped up with some tires. I had to pay a few hundred bucks in shipping, but nothing to complain about really.
I know some of you are going to hate me for this but I'm putting 35x12.50R17s on the truck and the 37s that are on it now can finally go back on my Jeep where they came from in the first place.
While I think the 37s were cool. I think the 35s will be a touch more practical for a rig meant to be loaded with trash on a trail and not really a hard core trail rig. Trust me when I say that it took a very strong fight against my own testosterone to put smaller tires on it.

I only had time to mount one tire tonight. This is going to be a project all by itself. The Allied beadlocks have 32 bolts per wheel and I have 10 of them to mount......yes.....10! I have to take the 37s off the beadlocks and mount them back on the Allieds for the Jeep. So that is 320 bolts just for the beadlock rings. Now throw in the 32 wheel bolts on the truck and the 20 on the Jeep and you get a fun day playing with 372 bolts!!!!!!!!!!(not counting spare tire lugs, valve caps etc)




Here is one of the 35" Toyos mounted next to the 37" MTR on the truck now. (also a neat shot of the Rhino lined rocker)


I finally got tired of the Red/Black/Blue/Silver/Grey paint job and did a temporary black paint on the front of the truck. Still debating what color to really paint it. If anyone wants to photoshop this picture with some suggestions feel free. (hint hint)