Lookin good! Just don't get her so shiny you are afraid to drive her.

 

I guarantee that now you'll want to touch up the hood paint, and will have to remove them...

 

Betsy won't be shiny for some time yet, but a little hood bling is okay.

I will be pulling it all off again whenever I get around to painting her... if ever.

Paint is in my future plans, but I've already put a lot more money into this truck than I thought I would at this point in the game. So, I'm kinda revising my original plan. Again. It's a never ending story.

 

Nice!!!
A little trim makes a huge difference

Looks great!
Bobby

 

Looks good. Now slide the main molding all the way into the new pointed molding. That molding is grooved for the middle molding to fit inside.

 

Thanks Ilya. I wasn't sure how far it was supposed to go.

 

I couldn't use the same method on the passenger side of the hood to install the trim. The pieces are original (spelled "old and bent") and I couldn't slide them on. So, figuring the clips are the wrong ones for 51-52 trim and must be for 48-50 trim, I had to rethink the process.

I figured since I couldn't just pop them on, I would coax them on with a small pair of vice grips on the inside of the hood. This worked remarkably well.

I had the trim on in about 15 minutes. I started thinking about the time I have invested in the truck so far. She's safe to drive but a long way from being "finished". I went back to my speadsheet where I track my work. Here's the list for anyone interested.

 

Joe, if hadn't been working on your truck, what would you have been doing with that time and money? And would you have enjoyed it as much or less? Any regrets?
Just curious....

 

Scott, anything I would have been doing with that time and money would not have been nearly as much fun or as rewarding. I really didn't know anything about this truck when I bought it. I had never heard of widow maker wheels, didn't realize how much fun I'd have learning to drive a crash box, never seen a drum park brake, or rebuilt a transmission. I had never attempted to rewire a vehicle from scratch or rebuilt a carburetor and had it run right. I admit I've learned some things the hard way, but it's all good. And I have FTE to thank for my successes.

My other hobby is High Power Rocketry, but I haven't flown a rocket in over 5 years now. I'm retiring in 7 weeks, and was discussing rockets again with one of my friends last night. It can be a very expensive hobby, but doesn't have to be if you fly the smaller motors.

I have no regrets with Betsy. I sometimes wish I had her finished already, but in one of my first posts in this thread I mentioned that my wife said this project would probably take me ten years to complete. She's usually right. And it's only been three years so far. I think all the "little" things are done now, and just the big ticket items remain. So I can drive Betsy until I have the money to do one of the big things.

I've driven her in two parades and may make it to next year's F100 Western Nationals in Anaheim. I won't be entering the competition, but it would be fun to drive her there.

So that's certainly a long-winded answer to a simple question, but I am listed as a blabbermouth.

 

Strap some big ol' honkin' rockets to the bed rails and let 'er rip! Two hobbies in one!

I used to be a licensed pyro. Some day I'll tell you the story of the day we "properly disposed of" drums filled with trimmings from a professional silicone-based rocket engine factory as they cleaned up to prepare for their site clearance inspection. But that story will never be "on record!!"

 

Like this one?

rocket powered trucks - Yahoo Search Results

I'd like to hear your story about disposal of the drums.

 

If you've followed this thread (for 3 years) you know I have been bouncing down the road for a while now. I accept the fact that Betsy is going to bounce because of the stiff suspension and no load.

But many, many months ago, I reported that I had lowered the tire pressure and was still being jolted by normal, every day bumps in the road.

I installed some of these tire valve extensions and rechecked my tire pressure.



Where I thought I had set them all to 40 psi, I had the fronts set at 50 and the rears all set to 45. So I lowered them all to 40 psi and went for a test drive today.

Betsy still bounces on every little bump, but at least it's no longer jarring.

So my question is this: Can I go down to 35 psi without hurting anything? I have 8R19.5 on the front and 225/70 R19.5 on the rear. With no extra weight on the truck, would 35 psi damage the tires? Maybe I should just try that on the front since the rears might "bulge" and hit each other? There's a pretty big gap between the rear tires.

What do you think?

 

I would drop them to 30 or 35 and see if you can even see the difference in the inner bulge between the rear duals (I doubt you would see a difference). Then maybe throw some static weight in the back to see the effects. Obviously won't show what happens when road irregularities are encountered, but will give you a baseline. A quick trip around the neighborhood wouldn't hurt anything to see.

I am sure some more knowledgeable tire guys will chime in though.

 

This may help. It is a pressure chart based on tire size (light truck) and weight. May get you in the ballpark.

http://www.goodyearrvtires.com/pdfs/rv_inflation.pdf

Here is a PDF from Toyo that shows the load capacity of all sizes of tires based on load index (shows how to get this) and tire pressure. Has passenger car as well as light truck.
http://toyotires.com/sites/default/f...-LT_102913.pdf

 

Joe - I have industry load limit charts for 8R19.5" and 225/70R19.5" tires at various inflation pressures, but I don't think they'll be any help to you. You need minimum inflation pressures that ensure the tires stay on the rims. The closest thing to compare to what you need would I believe be found at one of the rock crawling sites. Those guys run wide tubeless 16.5s as I understand and run very low pressures to give the grip needed to negotiate their trails. Some extreme applications require them to use bead lock rims, but there's got to be something on-line somewhere to give you some guidance. Stu