Most of the bumpers I find here are bent and banged up but occasionally I find a really straight one.

 

Mine doesn't have a ding in it. But the finish is absolutely horrid. The chrome all along the top turned white and it's rusting and falling off.

 

Me and the neighbor got out the porta power today and got the cab corner straightened out. Got the driver door hung and window swapped out. Not too bad looking now considering what a wreck I started with.

 

We did manage to punch a hole in the trans tunnel with the porta power but after a few minutes with the hammer and dolly my neighbor had it back to mostly normal.

 

Chris - That is really coming along. Good job!

 

With the purchase price I'm now into this beasty a total of $2,934.97. Not including the obnoxious amount of gas it drinks either.

 

Still cheaper than the down payment on a new vehicle, plus the full coverage insurance!

 

Correction, now it's $3,000.20. Forgot about the radio and interior parts last trip.

 

Driving to WV yesterday Darth got 12.15 mpg so that's a 21.5% increase over the Holley and C6.

 

Very impressive increase. How much of that is due to the OD and lockup convertor?

 

Probably a bit of it, around 1800 rpm at 70 mph. Climbing over the Blue Ridge Mountains on I-70, and listening to the big block "moan" as it went up the grade in 4th maintaining 70 all the way.

 

I'm not knocking your EFI setup, but I'm thinking the E4OD is a big part of the improvement. With your gearing you would be turning close to 2800 @ 70 with 300 RPM slippage in the torque convertor. So, dropping the RPM by 36% (1000/2800) is a huge deal. And, the lack of slippage helps as well.

 

Where I will get better results is once I get the new engine done and in, 9.2-9.5 range for compression, probably a roller cam (setup for low end torque) and the better flowing F3TZ heads. I am hoping for around 14 mpg (what Matt gets with his Excursion) running empty or light loads.

 

That's really good. Hope you get there.

 

Went to the pick a part and got some nicer headlight bezels and a couple of taillights. One was a near new repop. Put the new parking light lens in the bezels and it's much brighter now up front.