racerflea

: thumbsup:

sirhk100

Well no pictures cause nothing too exciting visual wise and the ones I tried to upload last night for some reason this morning aren't showing up...

But in the last couple nights I got the brake pedal assembly 100% mounted up and ready to go. I got the remote reservoirs for the brakes mounted also. I might make a small change on those though as they affected the dash mounting and I'm not super happy with that. I got the brake system plumbed up and ready to simply thread the caliper lines into the hardlines at the frame. I do still need to make mounts for the lines at the frame but will do those once I get the suspension back on and calipers back in place. I pulled the OE proportioning valve off the rear and fished out the extra brake line running to it too. Basically I need one short low pressure brake line to go from the reservoir to the master and then just install the front end again and it should be ready to go. I'll actually probably even bleed it this weekend just to make sure everything works. In reality it'll be a waste of time on the rear to bleed cause I still gotta swap rear axles but it'll be nice piece of mind to know the brakes are ready to go other then that swap and rebleed hopefully.

The next couple days I've got a large list of small stuff to do like painting parts, buying final assembly hardware, patching up holes in the firewall, working on motor mounts, etc... Just doing the final stuff to button up the front end and have it ready for the motor to go back in asap. Might be a couple weeks still on the motor cause we're waiting on headers but that's outta my control...

Wiring will probably resume this weekend too along with laying out the dash possibly and maybe even starting to plate the cab to the cage inside. I still have a couple body holes to fill in the cab too. Once all that's finished, it's on to the rear axle swap, boxing in the rear of the frame, shock mounts and well, that's really about it in the grand scheme of things. There's about a million details between all those steps but it's getting closer! Seems almost like there mint be a tiny hint of light starting to show down at the end of this tunnel!

JBurt

Awesome! Keep looking at that light. It's going to be so sweet.

sirhk100

Thanks!

Hey, I just looked up the B&M 70264 Tranny Cooler that you have in your signature. By chance did you have a temp gauge in there before and after installing it? If so, how much of a difference did you notice?

Our plan of attack right now is to just simply put a gauge in for trans temp and run it with the stock cooler in the radiator. That'll give us a starting point. My thought is watch the temps and if they are too high for my comfort I'm thinking about trying to find just an auxiliary cooler off like a full size ford or chevy with a tow package out of the junkyard for like $10. I'm sorta thinking that option is comparable to the one you have. Then if we find that's not enough we'll dump out the big bucks for one of the badass big coolers with the fan.

Just curious though if you have any before and after info on that cooler your running with real numbers by chance?

JBurt

I don't but they are out there. The main reason I put it in was to bypass the stock cooler which has a history of failing and mixing transmission fluid and coolant, which means death for your transmission. I've wanted to put in a temp sensor. In 99's and up I think you can get the tranny temp from the obdii port. I tried and my 97 doesn't have that capability.

Here are two really good threads about coolers with placment and lots of numbers

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/b...cooler-126953/
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/t...covery-215128/

racerflea

Awsom man there id light u jist have to look realy hard lol persistence pays best

sirhk100

Looks so strange to me here!!! I'm not used to seeing it like this!




Well, installed the new rack with polyurethane bushings, got the front end back on the truck with all new hardware and got it all welded up and painted up.

Next on the list is to rework the brake lines I routed cause I failed to remember a bypass shock is going to be right where I was planning to connect the soft line from the caliper to the hardline on the chassis. No big deal, I'll knock that out tonight. I also will finish getting the steering rack hooked up. I need to put the lines back in place and have them ready to simply hook up to the pump once I put the motor back in. After that I need to get all the holes in the firewall patched up and then will probably turn my attention to the motor itself. I want to pull off the A/C pump and work on motor mounts for it so that when we get the headers hopefully I can simply install them and slap it back in place.

This is how it sits/looks right now. Roughly what I'm thinking for Reservoir mounts shown here also...



Oh, I also trimmed the mini fenders to clear the tires at full bump with full steering lock. I need to do a bit of detail shaping to make them look good but the clearance is there at least!

And if you can't laugh at yourself what good are you? Stupid move of the whole weekend went down last night! Totally unneeded and useless move ended up with blood and gore!!! LOL Ziptieing that resi in place in that picture above, the first ziptie broke as I pulled it tight and I guess I was pulling a bit harder then needed cause when it broke it sent my fist right into my nose! LOL Whoops!!! All in the name fun I guess!

racerflea

U might wanna consider a different religion if it gives u a bloody nose lol

sirhk100

LOL, Didn't even think of that! Funny thing is rather then listening to my normal mix of punk and rock like Bad Religion or Social Distortion I was rocking country, oldies and classic rock all day yesterday. Maybe the different choice of music was my issue cause I think I came close to breaking my thumb at one point yesterday when I got in a fight with my 1/2" monster drill earlier in the day... It won...

racerflea

Yikes!!

sirhk100

Yeah, I've had my share of small cuts and knicks here and there thru the build but really have been injury free so far. Yesterday though, the nose bled pretty good for a bit do to my solo fist fight and the thumb war could've been much worse. Still a little swollen and sore today but not too bad. Put it this way, the drill got pissed off enough that I bent the crap out of the 3/4" drill bit that was in it!

racerflea

Torquey arnt they!!! Lol

sirhk100

Just a little! OUCH!!!

sirhk100

Well, my goal is to have the front end 100% done and just waiting to put the motor in once the headers show up. Last night I didn't do a whole lot. I pulled the hardlines for the front brakes off and I redid them as I wasn't happy with how the first ones turned out. A lack of forethought landed my first brake line routing right in the way of the bypass shocks. No biggie, redid them and I'm happier with how the 2nd go around turned out anyways.

Tonight I want to start patching up holes in the firewall and that's really about it.

sirhk100

I've got one more plate to put in on the firewall. I basically welded sheet metal over any holes that were in the firewall and not needed. Had to cover up the hole where the brake system came thru, holes where heater hoses went thru, old harnesses not needed, etc... All of those I welded up with plates. The one remaining though is under the cowl where the heater/ac intake was. That one I'm just going to use some silicone on a plate and a couple sheet metal screws to secure and fill in. I don't know why but I feel like that one should be removable in the future just in case... Why? No clue... LOL

I also started on the plate work from the cab to the cage last night. Got the a-pillars all buttoned up. Sorry, they aren't all dimple die blinged out. I actually don't really know how people do that cause the sheet metal strip I used wasn't really wide enough to dimple even if i wanted to. Makes me think people dong that possibly don't have their tubes that tight to the cab maybe? Anyways, I might have the rest of the cab plating finished up tonight. If that's the case over the weekend my goal is to fill in a couple holes in the rear of the cab I've been procrastinating on. Fit 2 tubes up front in the engine cage that I'll do the install on while motor is going back in but I want to have them there and ready to go. And then I'll probably work on installing the shifter, center console and then start laying out the dash and mounting gauges, GPS, race radio, intercom, pumpers, siren, etc...

racerflea

Starting to look like a truck again!!

sirhk100

If things go really well this weekend the inside might actually almost look somewhat finished very soon!

j prich

Ok so taking a minute to provide a quick update of sorts. First, thanks to everyone who has checked us out and provided encouragment to this point. It's very appreciated!

Regarding race plans, my original goal was to get in a race before the end of 2012 and that was probably remotely doable but in order to make that timeline we'd have virtually no test time on the truck and zero seat time for me. And in spite of how eager I am to get in the truck after parking it in October 2010 and moving across the country, the right move was to hold out until 2013. This will allow us plenty of time to test and tune, and get me some much needed seat time.

So as it stands I'll be taking a Vegas weekend over Veteran's Day weekend and the truck should be about 90% done. Going to sneak down to Laughlin to catch the HDRA race so excited to visit some people and see a little racing action. Living on the east coast for the last two years, I can tell you that live trackers and feeds aren't that fun! (No offense to everyone who works so hard to make those things happen!).

Anyway, I'll be back out in December at which point the truck will be done and should have a few testing/shock tuning trips on it. We'll plan a long day or two dedicated to getting me some quality time behind the wheel. After that we'll come back out in early January to make our debut at the HDRA Primm race. It's been a long road for me as a dream I've chased for a long time, a long time for Khris who's been slaving away after hours on a solo mission in his garage to get the truck built, etc. But the light at the end of the tunnel is getting much brighter and it's pretty exciting to think that we're just over 90 days out from making this thing a reality.

Thanks again to everyone who's followed to this point, look forward to seeing you in the desert soon!

racerflea

Good luck im rooting for yall but i wont be there i live on south east coast :p

sirhk100

Well, one missing thing made it so things didn't go well... Actually, that's wrong, things went fine. Just not in the direction I was planning. All progress is good progress and rather then focusing solely on the inside and the dash today and tomorrow I'm going to be working on filling some more cab holes and then probably move onto motor mounts and engine prep to put it back in. Will probably get back into the cab setup early next week once I get my hands on some parts I didn't know I needed. LOL But hey, check this out! We can't get lost at least!