I love everything about that truck Zero. I never thought brown/brown two tone could look so slick.

Have fun on the dunes

 

The blacked out look wasn't my first choice but doing the custom grill led to black. I am on a budget with this truck and it is our fun vehicle so getting things chromed was not realistic. There is some chrome left, door handles, and windshield trim. However they may end up getting painted as they now look out of place. We definitely like driving it, very fun.

 

So in the last two months I have replaced both gas tanks. Spectra tanks, made in Canada. Hopefully these will last a little while. The originals lasted since 1992-ish. All this while we move and are in the process of building a new home for our family.

The front tank fuel level never registered quite right. If you filled it up completely after running it completely empty the gauge would work. If you switched off of that tank or refilled it before it was empty, gauge would not work. After replacing both of the tanks and sending units everything works great.

I ditched the skid plates as they seemed to help cause all of my leaks. Trapping sand and debris against the tank with no easy way to clean it out. Both tanks started leaking in areas where the skid plate was in direct contact or close contact with the tanks. The new straps are nice and hopefully will be trouble free.

Truck is performing well on the highway and in the sand this summer. We have been busy burning the fuel with the 460 and 4.56 gears, but loving every minute.

p.s. My wife helped tremendously with getting the new tanks in the truck. Cut down tremendously on the time it took to get the project done. I love that she picked out this truck to begin with and is still invested in building and maintaining it.

 

Great lookin truck! zer01.

 

Wow. I've seen your truck in other threads & it always made me wish I lived near driveable sand.

Never got to this thread before though. Nice build with a purpose. My deepest sympathies on your loss.

One of my chapter buds came up with a fix for the latch release if interested.

I didn't see a source or cost on the replacement bumper. Was it a plain painted item?

 

Bumper is a stock replacement bumper without holes. Painted first with Rustoleum Hammered finish black, then top coated with a gloss black Rustoleum Tractor paint. I used the hammered paint because it is tough. I have had rims, bumpers, trailers painted with the stuff and it holds up extremely well. We went with the stock replacement with the hopes of replacing it one day with a heavier duty bumper. I think we paid $99 for it. Waited for a deal on Amazon. It came primed ready to be painted.

 

I was skeptical of your build at first, but it turned out looking great! Sorry to hear about your brother. Awful. Great way to remember him though.
Keep up the great work!

 

Reasons for the skepticism? Thanks for looking. It has been a long road, still not a finished product.

 

I've always been deathly afraid of letting my truck rust. I live down south so not much chemical gets put on roads, but when it does I always wash my truck immediately after use. Kinda asking for it on an old car. Fixing rust is uncharted territory for me. So when I saw the rust spots on yours when you first bought it I thought it was gonna be just another junker 4x4. Rust repairs turned out great tho and I love the color combo! Overall really impressed. Love the custom grille too.

 

Thank you. Rust sucks, it now spends most of its winter life in the garage. Never want the rust to return. Our kids like the big brown truck too much. Body guy did a great job. Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully RSK to come this summer.

 

Thanks for keeping us updated! Great to see someone put their time into these trucks. Keep it running!

 

We removed the carpet when we bought the truck due to stains and cigarette burns/smell. We stripped it all down and bed-lined the whole cab. I accumulated research on this site and went to stock interiors .com. Their selection is really good and I liked the option to add mass backing to the carpet. The truck floor got really hot in the summer playing at the sand dunes and driving around. 460's run a little warm we discovered. So after finding a good heat shield and sound deadening underlayment we went to work. I took a couple pictures during the process. Pretty straight forward. Everything fit really well. The only hiccup was trimming to fit since I did not have the original carpet. Took my time and it turned out great. Keeps the truck a lot cooler and quieter. What a difference.

 

Finally getting around to doing the RSK on the front of the big brown truck. We bought our kit from SKY to retain our lift springs in the front. It is their kit using obs springs and providing 2" of lift. I think it lifted it more than that but we'll see once everything is back on the ground. Ran into one issue with the pinion angle needing to be adjusted. A couple of 6 degree shims and the axle now sits just right for everything to be happy. Great opportunity to wire wheel and scrape the chassis. A coat of new paint and we are looking good so far. Will try to update this asap.

 

Is it back together yet. Let's see it

 

Is it back together yet. Let's see it