Nice truck / find, good posts about your progress.

Good thing about a "stole it" price...gives you room to put a few more $$ in without it being a major investment.

As you drive around noticing pickups stuck back in the weeds, you have to wonder how many were parked because of some misunderstood minor problem and are rotting there 20 years later.

 

Half of the vehicles we have gotten cheap had a simple little problem.
for example 85 Pontiac 6000 paid $100 for it no mechanic could figure it out replaced 4 relays and it ran and drove great after that. Sold the car a few months later for $1000. LOL
Anyways sorry for getting off topic.
Trav

 

I've been doing a lot of fixing that doesn't really show in a picture. New wiper blades, spark plugs, serpentine belt, cap and rotor, oil and filter change. Not without minor problems, one of the screws on the plastic distributor cap adapter was stripped out, so it was loose. I replaced it with the next size larger sheet metal screw, so everything is secure now. Also replaced the driver's door release cable and added a large washer behind the inner door handle bolt to support it. Now I can open the door from the inside.

Waiting on a new driver's mirror to come since the base is cracked. Also waiting on a new blower motor. It sounded like it had leaves in it, but when I pulled it out it was clean, the motor bearings are bad.

I'm having no luck finding a drive shaft. Went to a local yard that doesn't break them, but they didn't have any that were the right length. This drive shaft is turning into way more of a problem than I anticipated.

Whenever I get the drive shaft I want to flush the transmission and change the filter. Also flush the coolant and change the rear axle oil.

Going to change the fuel filter tomorrow. Also realized that the rear tank gauge sender or float is bad, it always shows empty.

 

Got the fuel filter changed, and all I really have to say is if I never see one of those spring lock connectors again it will be too soon. I've done the filter before on my Mustang and all it had were the safety clips. Didn't give me near the trouble this did.

Pulled off my sad looking wiper arms



Sanded, painted and put them back on.



Pulled out my bed liner to make sure it wasn't hiding rust.

Found this, a bunch of pens, some change, and a wrench. Thankfully no real rust.

 

Also got to work on these nasty looking wheels.

Started here:



Took off the center cap, polished everything with steel wool followed by chrome polish. Also polished the center cap insert with plastic polish from a headlight kit.

Finished here:



I did all four:



Also spent several hours cleaning the interior and windows. Windex seems to work fairly well at getting nasty cigarette tar buildup off of plastic. It turns from blue to brown immediately and starts running off. I used over a whole roll of paper towels.

 

Truck got very cold for the south.



This picture is before it got really bad. In about a day and a half we had over an inch of ice buildup from freezing rain, no snow at all, trees down everywhere. It was a real mess in my area

Put the truck to work on storm cleanup.



This wasn't even half the stuff in my yard. Power was finally restored to my house after eight days, but in the meantime all my food spoiled and my tropical fish died.

Went to the junkyard last weekend (everything had melted and not much to do without power). I got a blower motor resistor so the fan runs at different speeds now.

Finally found a drive shaft, spent a lot of time crawling under cars with a tape measure. It came from a mid-90s V8 2WD Explorer. It has the same transmission and axle and measured the same length, so I bought it and dropped it in. The drive shaft is closer to the body on the Explorer so it didn't get destroyed by the forklifts moving the car around the yard. The drive shaft seems to have the same u-joints but a larger diameter tube than the old one. Its isn't close to anything so the bigger tube diameter shouldn't cause any problem I haven't thought of, right? I've driven the truck some and it seems fine.

 

great job one the wheels

 

I changed the radiator and radiator hoses trying to solve a coolant leak. Upgraded to a two core radiator. Also changed the transmission filter and flushed the transmission. Think that was a bit overdue?

 

I replaced the front wheel bearings, rotors, calipers, brake hoses, pads, rear shoes and hardware. Also have since replaced the shocks with Monroe sensatracks all the way around.

 

Nice job on the rims and the brakes. Changing my brakes is on my list of things to do as well...

 

That looks a little different from the one on my truck. I followed this video:


New cable was about $10 on ebay. Not a bad job.

 

Finally found a good dashpad. It was blue, but the vinyl paint I got from the parts store was a close match.



Also found a dash surround that didn't have all the mounting points broken off, so no more things flopping on the dash.



Swapped on a set of front and rear anti-sway bars. That would have been much easier if it didn't require swapping out the front lower spring perches to get the mounting points.



I love what it does for the handling though. Much nicer in turns and sudden moves.

 

Your dash looks super clean! Guess I need to follow your lead and get working on mine.

 

It looks really good.