Cute pair of vampires you have there chef... bet they were a hit going door to door...
too bad about little Jay... you could have taken Iron Man around in a stroller and collected for him... just told folks his power cell was dead... oh well there's always next year.
Those old cars had a lot more style the the chewed up gummies we have these days.

 

Thanks, Paul! They sure are... I put a long post down here and thought I had entered it... Now it's clear that I didn't and it looks like I never even answered you, sorry man.

I've been really busy, but the off road lights on the roof rack and the 130 amp alternator & headlights wiring harness upgrade are all in the plans in the very near future. I just keep getting hit with times taking duties.

 

No worries buddy... here's a little food porn for you...

a new recipe I tried Wednesday night, Orange Poppy Seed Pound Cake...

 

Oh yeah! You know, its funny, one of my great grandmother, grandfathers and mothers most excellent things that they cooked... Was actually a lemon drizzle poppy seed bundt cake. honestly? I have gotten that one down fairly well,... I didn't really designed the recipe... So I can't take credit. But my point is that I have tried hundreds of them, and I have yet to have one as good as my mom made. I do pretty well but I think there's just something about someone cooking something for you... Especially someone you love. What
a great gift, something you are given that actually sustains you and gives you energy and a feeling of comfort.... I definitely need to make sure when I find a woman to share my life with... She can cook! Lol. Even if she can't cook well, that's fine... I've never been picky for the most part. Make me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches... Maybe a couple of things to mix it up... And I'd be grateful for those occasional gifts.

Sorry for the tangent, but that picture just caused the bunch of memories to fly back into my mind.

 

Well, I have to admit that I've actually been posting them on Instagram... I haven't posted anything on the build. I will fix that today... But for now...

Juicy turkey burger... I've been making these for years and sold hundreds of them at Barmouche Rest. ...... I basically incorporated the portion of a turkey meatloaf recipe that I have into the burger, which helps hold together and it is seasoned in a way that pleases a white amount of pellets... Yes, Paul, its yellow mustard, and that's what they asked for... But it is organic yellow mustard and taste nothing like what you're used to. Hahaha....



Another night, recently, I made probably the best selling salad I've ever done... Its My "Craisy" salad.... It consists of good quality romaine or butter lettuce or both... Sweet red onions, fresh hot house tomatoes, Stilton blue cheese, english cucumbers, bloomed craisins and spicy candied pecans, I'll toss in a slightly sweet cranberry lemon vinaigrette, served with fresh baked homemade sweet potato muffins ....



I serve the salad with a marinated, panko crusted, Frenched, center cut loin pork chop, homemade cinnamon applesauce and jasmine rice..



Last night, they asked for the dish that I've been making for over 20 years... Sweet Italian sausage and Angus ground beef meat sauce with porcini mushrooms, vidalia onions, fresh garlic and other herbs, along with some homemade garlic bread and Italian salad which I've made for decades as well... No picture of the salad...





Get your grub on, peeps!

 

Yum! Can I eat my computer screen now???

 

Nice Chef, I'll have to try and repeat some semblance of these dishes around my vegan coworker...all 4 of em! Actually, 3 of them are trying the "vegan before 6pm" thing. I don't understand it. I like bacon too much!

 

Happy to give you the stroll down memory lane Mark.
Quick ? what are "bloomed" craisins?

 

Noooo, you will get really sick and have to go to the hospital! Lol. Thanks man, may you have great dining experiences more often than not!

Hahaha, you crack me up, bud! Lol

The real term is to "plump"... But I hate that word, and since it actually changes and opens up and grows and expands, I call it blooming the fruit by soaking it in warm liquor or water or both. In many cases I just sucks certain fruits and warmed up apple juice or white grape juice.... for cranberries, I usually use a little warm cranberry juice. Just to keep them from turning grey'ish... Especially do this when using raisins and rum raisin ice cream or other frozen desserts using dried fruit... Keep them from getting as hard . And that in particular is where you soak the raisins and wrong for quite some time until they become "liqueured".

 

I never though I'd get hungry off of a build thread, but you've accomplished it! Good work!

 

Woooooo hooooo! Lol

 

Well, I got a good look at a few things today, and I'm going to be heading full force into my electronics upgrades and LED roof rack lighting... As well as the switches that will all be changed out to the same LED soft touch switch That you've already seen...

First, today I installed the new Mike hanger on my console... I will get a picture of where to install that this is a side by side of the one that comes with the Cobra and the one I got that professional CB shop, AB mobile... I just want to say that you should avoid that hanger that comes with the kids if it's one of these, as the thing cut the crap outta me pretty good the other day. They're just cheap and they don't hold up to even the weight of the microphone over a short. Of time... They begin to expand and don't hold the mic tightly. This one on the right that I installed as no sharp edges and it is far superior and grips the crap out of the mic!....



I finally unbox the 130 amp alternator that I got from Ace alternators.... I'm really impressed with the apparent quality it has and he even included several notes in there on suggestions of how to do it properly. Very great guy to deal with! Great guarantee is well and if I have any problems within I believe two years, he will take it back no questions asked and send me a new one ....



I then unwrapped the ceramic connector headlight wiring harness upgrade... They look like very good quality relays with clear covers and metal mounting brackets. That looks pretty straightforward, but I'm still going to try and look up that diagram again... Having trouble finding it... It, as well, looks like a very nice kit....



I then, finally, made a little L bracket two extremely securely mount the new Toyota mounting bracket hold down clamp for the battery... I gotta admit it does look better... But more so, this thing is going nowhere, period, end of story! ..... I did a little video after the picture that explains how I made that vent piece of aluminum. All I did was cut a section of an old aluminum roller that I had, slit about a third of the way into a large life that I have and then took BFH and large flat heavy wage so that I could bring it over and make a perfect L bracket with a couple smacks... I cut the aluminum ruler with my angle grinder and then filed down very smooth on the corners... This way, the whole down for shin of the existing clamp is pushing up against that bracket and the top portion that holds the battery down is distributing the way to evenly across the back of the battery for a few inches... I can rock the entire truck from either the bracket or the battery! I also explain the video how I think it's a good idea to get the battery spacer if you have one of the newer batteries to swap in the sink down into the engine bay. I personally feel the factory hold down kit is perfectly adequate, stays out of the way and is extremely secure, as long as you make it work the way its supposed to.... Here you go ...




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God willing and the Sun comes up tomorrow... I should be working on a few things with Richard. He might come over and hopefully help me weld a couple tabs on my roof rack. Then the real difficult stuff will begin by routing the wiring through the truck and up to the roof with quick connects for the roof lights, so that way I can just unplug them stuff, them in my little hole on the roof I'm going to make of a waterproof, auxiliary lighter plug( there is already a hole behind my sunroof where the previous owner had an antenna mounted for CB) ... Also, gotta do Three separate relays plus the two relays for the headlight wiring and then a wiring upgrade for the alternator. All of that can come later as long as I get the tabs on tomorrow. I was thinking about using the grip type clamps for mounting the lights on the square tube... But, at my estimation, that would be quite a bit more expensive to go that route..... And I don't think it would be as secure. I'm excited! Thanks a lot for your offer to help, Richard! I appreciate it deeply... It's always more fun to work with others anyway.. Well most others, you know what I mean? Lol. There are some people that I will absolutely never work on their truck again, nor have them over to help me with mine! Haha.

 

Your cooking looks great. I am hungry now.lol Your runner has to be one of the most upgraded runners on here and things that come in useful when out on the trail. I know you will have this upgrade done in a short amount of time.

 

Good Morning! Great little kiddo and car pics! Okay, coming back for more later.

 

after looking at your headlight upgrade it. i can easily make one and is basically what i had in my mind if i was to do it.

you just plug the upgrade kit plug into the stock wiring headlight plug. than plug the upgrade kit plug to the head light bulb. than the loose red and black wire goes to the battery

when you turn your headlights on, it just tells the relays to turn on and it will allow power straight from the battery to the headlights.

similar to what you have been doing for your off road lights, compressor, and what not

 

i need to get my headlight harness upgrade my headlights are already really bright but i dont want the stalk switch to be carrying all those amps

 

Hey mark, I'm sure you had info in here on the alternator but is this a direct replacement, and how much?

anyhoo I hate your food pics makes me wanna go look up stuff on the internet to surprise the lady with..

 

After I thought about it for a bit I had the idea that "bloomed" had something to do with plumping them in booze or something... for use in the salad I'd probably use vodka for a neutral boost or perhaps gin for a martini-esque twist...

I make a rum raisin spice cake with coffee icing and I soak the raisins and sultanas for about two days in Navy Rhum. Makes for a very tasty cake...

Your headlight kit looks very similar to the one I have in my truck... you might check my headlight harness upgrade thread for ideas on wiring it up... toyotech's post is on point too.

 

Conversion harness is plug-and-play, guys.

Also, Mark, if you haven't rewired the alt to battery wire, yet,I'd like to ask the others for their opinion on connecting alt direct to battery instead of through the FL and fuse network (fuse block), considering worst-case-scenarios I posted earlier here.

Mods look good, Dude!

 

looks like im gonna see about making a plug and play kit. should be too hard to find the connectors. i have tons of free relays from removing old alarm systems and tons of free factory toyota wiring from replacing harnesses hehe