So This weekend was very eventful. I replaced the headlight, and rear broken window. As well as a few other things. I got a bigger battery with 750CCA, The one that was on there was the wrong kind, and only had about 550cca, which explained why I never seemed to have enough amps to start the truck without cranking for about 20-30seconds sometimes. I also added some diesel 9-1-1, which ungelled the fuel and probably helped free up some gooked up injectors, I noticed a lot of smoke coming out the exhaust for a minute, and went away as the truck was warmed up. A little WD40 unstuck dump gate on the garret, with some tapping from a pipe wrench(gently of course, we couldn't find the rubber mallet) but found a crack in the back of the turbo housing, so exhaust leak.. Kinda wondered why i saw smoke coming out from under the hood, which almost scared me big there for a second!! But no big deal really, I know, its a big deal, but i thought it was something else. a little exhaust tape int he meantime will help it. But I was going to get a new turbo anyway. So She idles nice and smooth now, no more chug chug chug, and engine vibrations from He'll!

Here is what I got done this weekend. I'm finally starting to turn a rough around the edges truck into a good looking truck. Piece by piece. I'd like to think so, but I know I've barely began to touch the icing on the cake, it just feels good to get my hands dirty .

So, here we go. Got a new window about a week ago, finally got to installing it today with the help of my good buddy. Solid pane, safety glass, carlite, - 65$ at the salvage yard. It's not perfect, few scratches and smudges, but it works and it ain't broken. Luckily the gasket seal was still in good shape from the old window, considering the age, that and we didn't break it getting the broken window out.

Time to fix and replace: about 3hrs.



Replaced the headlights, here are the originals for comparison



The new headlight type(just had the one put in before it got dark, so the other will go in tomorrow after I get released from work. The header panel is broke in a few places, so it's missing some screws, and won't sit nice and snug, but it works for now, but I got another on the way, with a new grille too. Which will most likely be when I put in the 6000k HID's I have. No picture of the broken panel though. If you want to see it, PM me or post here, and I'll show you whats going on.



And comparison of the new headlight housings. stock on the left, new on the right. You can tell a noticeable difference, with original stock bulbs, are much much brighter with an all clear lens'!




So not bad for a weekend. Considering it was barracks parking lot work, and limited tools, time and 30 degree weather. More to come in the coming weeks, time to stock up on some parts! Cosmetic beauty will have to wait unless it involves taking off the running boards.
After today, engine has taken priority. I just needed to get these few things done to pass an inspection.

 

Did you retrofit in projectors or just HIDs?

 

Those are just stock bulbs right now, with clear lenses installed on the driver side, amazing how bright they are now right?! The HID's will be installed at a later time. The HID's I have are bi-xenon telescopic's, if I have to, I saw a thread that had retrofitted projectors, and install those if I have a scattered beam shot.

It was too cold in the parking lot to mess with it this weekend, and we were running out of light pretty quickly today, so half the headlights are done. But the header panel is broken in a few places(you can see it kindof how the grill sits, and the lights sit in my new headlights picture above), so I am waiting on that. Replace that, and do HID's at the same time since the lights will be taken out anyway, killing 2 birds with one stone figuratively speaking. Gotta start working in a garage though, I just need the go-ahead to drive from my chain of command to do that.

 

How hard is it to replace the light housings?

 

Pretty easy actually, Direct bolt on replacement. You undo the chrome trim bezel, and side marker and turn signal lights come out attached to that, it should only be like 2 screws to take the bezel off.

And then you can get to the main headlight housing. a little twisting, pulling, and maybe unscrew a few things, and you have your headlight out.

To get the marker and turn signal lights off, there are 4 screws you have to take off, and then you just have the bezel they screwed onto.

And for never doing a headlight replacement before, once you take them off, you know how to put them back on, it's pretty easy. It probably took me an hour or 2 for the whole job, just because it was cold and I needed to warm my hands up before I finished up, as well as find 2 screws that were missing and never there in the first place to hold the marker cover in.

But if you had a garage, a tool bench and the right tools, should only be an hour to do the whole job.

I only needed a size 6 Philips and needle nose pliers to get the job done, but I might have to go in and readjust the lights a bit to get them to sit right for now.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks a bunch bud!

 

Not a problem, If you ever feel the need to replace your window, I got a few tricks and tips for that too!

 

Lol I've done that a time or two. I learned one really needs a headache rack lol.

 

My buddy has one on his truck, it looks nice, and help keep prying eyes from seeing in. What does yours look like? Does it keep the window protected pretty well?

 

I get to do that in my brothers truck soon.Done them before...still not really looking forward to it...Good luck on the project,ill be keeping an eye on your progress.

 

Thanks Fordman! It will be slow moving, but will try to keep updates on it regularly.

 

Looking good Dually! Progress!

 

Its part of my flatbed. The slider section is open, and the two sides are angled slats. Looks real nice and works good.

 

I didn't know if there was more than one style or not.. I saw a weird looking one in the junk yard today while i was scouring for parts, that project is in the next post though.

 

So, License plate lights work now. You can see the whole write up for each picture in my gallery if you want to check it out, I'm just posting a quick update before I hit the rack, long evening of work and got a stubborn injector to start working right, she now will hit 3k instead of 2k, but still get a big turbo fart because of boost loss in 1st.

Here's what I did, sorry for not detailed step by step, I'm getting better at taking pictures at each turn, but sometimes We get ahead of our selves and just want to get out of the cold and go for a spin!

Here we go, what started the quick project today.





Hmm, no harness or relay, and no license plate lights to be found, guess it's a trip to the salvage yard! Guess previous owner wired it so the license plate lights were deleted into the trailer lights.. interesting..

Sorry no pics of the harness, you just have to look under the bumper of your truck if you don't already know. Not directed towards you that do, just in case somebody stumbles here trying to figure out WTH is going on.

Get a good work space set up is key! Minimal tools required for this. Wire strippers, a Philips screw driver some wire crimps of various shapes and some electrical tape. WD40 for some unruly screws in the tail light housing(checking for a burnt out reverse light bulb, it was pretty rotted, but will replace that later) and some nice I believe it was either 16 or 18 GA wire for the splice from the tail lights, and extension for the ground.



Sorry if this was sideways, I rotated it, but I guess it didn't change when I uploaded it, its supposed to be straight up and down. Either way, extension of hot lead from splice in tail light.



And there, the wire harness, using the connector, just cutting off the rest so we had something to wire into, brown was POS, and black is well ya, ground. Hot was wired in, and then ground went back the connector plug in the first picture, only we removed the female plug, and spliced those 2 wires to the harness. hot from the tail light, ground to the existing plug.. no problems. It either doesn't go anywhere, or was meant for the license plate lights anyway.



5$ at O'reilly auto parts for 2 working bulbs. 10$ for harness at scrapyard in Junction City, and now I just need the housing for the right side, but for now the bulb just dangles there against my plates.

Sorry for the hasty write up, but I'm tired and I'm sure I called a harness a relay and vice versa. I'll edit it later.

For now though, good night.