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Stewart

 

Here's an update for today. Got about a full eight hours in and got lots done. Before I distract y'all with pictures, we added a little more PS fluid today and it is much quieter now. It still makes noise when I turn the wheels or press on the brake, but it isn't nearly as loud as it was. I guess it just needed some time to settle.

I also put about 1.1 miles on it today driving it around the driveway. What a ton of fun!!! I am noticing the brake pedal still pulsates a lot when I step on the brake. I turned the wheels and my grandpa looked, but saw no crimped brake lines anywhere. But I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Thanks all for the suggestions!

When I had it out, I tested the 4x4 system and the blend doors in the blower system. Both worked flawlessly, other than the shower of little glass pieces and dust when I turned the blower on dash. I was shocked that the hubs engaged correctly, but it did bind on a turn, so I think it's good.

A quick summary of today: Took both fenders off, prepared the one to scrap and got the one ready to sell. Then we completely stripped all four doors and took them off. All door panels, window motors, latch mechanisms, bumpers, seals, etc were removed from the doors. They're just bent up steel boxes now. Then, I cleaned the rest of the second row seats and removed the front captain chairs. Lastly, with the seats out, we used the 8 ton hydraulic ram from the engine puller to stretch the driver's side roof out. It's pretty close to stock height now.










Completely removed all cladding with no damage to it! Wasn't easy though.

















Probably will start removing engine Monday.

Videos to follow from my fun play time today. Nothing like listening to a 7.3 Powerstroke with no windows, no windshield, and no hood!

Jon

 

Here's the first video. Driving it in 4low got it to go through a couple years that way. I have limited space without going on the main road and it was somewhat icy, so I didn't want to get going too fast, especially with the questionable brakes.

Yes, the steering wheel is really like that when going straight.

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Here's a short one. After doing all those runs in 4 low and 4 high, I shut it off and started it again right away, just to see how easy it would start after being warmed up. It took a little longer than I thought it would. Perhaps the old fuel?

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Killer update! Looks like it's coming apart without too much trouble. What did you do to get the cladding off? I am thinking about removing mine and line-x the same profile.

 

Definately subscribing to this one. I am in the process of starting my own V10 to 7.3 swap. Mine will be a little different though as I am going to put the V10 X body on the 7.3 chassis.

Looking forward to seeing how things play out for you. Keep up the good coverage, there seem to be a lot of people curious about this swap.

And cudos for not taking the cummins route, i hate it when people do that.

Good luck to you.

 

I love this project. If only I had the time, room and money

 

Putty knife and hammer. Started with just putty knife and my hand got really tired of pushing so hard about half way through the first door.

It has one strip of a double sided foam adhesive tape along the very top edge for the width of it, then another about an inch down or so also all the way across. Then, there's a strip along the very bottom.

Toward the end, my grandpa was helping me by holding a screwdriver around the area I was working to split the gap a little more and make it easier on me.

Be careful not to pound the putty knife down too far. If the handle part hits the top of the cladding, it can dent it. I did this a couple times on the first one, but they aren't big and probably would be hard to see on the door. If you aren't wanting to keep the cladding though, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Yeah, everything has gone pretty smoothly so far. The glass has been annoying to work around, which I expected. I'm glad the doors are off though because every time I'd slam one shut (the only way to get it to close a little), more glass would fall inside the door and inside the truck. The next battle will be dropping the headliner, which I think will bring down more yet.

I have to say, it's amazing all the parts there are to the doors...

 

Thanks for the tip, Ill rep you up when I get out of jail. I debaged a few cars in the past using the fishing line and heat gun trick but not on anything as large as the cladding.

 

Subscribing...

You drove it in the cold with no windshield? Man, that must be cold. No wonder you didn't go fast. LOL.

 

I haven't removed the rear quarter cladding yet, but I did for the one front fender that was damaged. The cladding from it was fine though and can be sold. It had a bunch of push in things that look like screws but aren't all along the wheel well line. Then there were a couple actual screws too. If you don't have a 5.5mm wrench or socket, you'll want to get one. I can't remember if those were for the fender or for the cladding though. I have a wrench, but at home, so I did this with a crescent and it was tough with the tire on. With your lift though, it probably wouldn't be a problem. On the body panel area along the curve, it just had a thin tape line along the top side. I didn't have to really pry that off though because it was already falling off...

 

Yeah, it was between 32 and 35 I'd say. It snowed most of the day, and it was when I first took it out, but it was lighter and actually quit while I was out. You can see some of the snow flurries in the first video.

 

You're lucky the misses don't give you a hard time about you spending more time with your Ex's than spending time with her and kids. I see it in my wife's eyes when I tell her I need to change the oil. LOL.

 

Not to that stage yet. In fact, I don't have a girlfriend right now either. As my dad says, as long as I don't, I may as well have something like trucks to focus on. Still trying to figure out which would be more expensive though!

Hopefully after all this, I'll have the major work done and when I do get to that stage, things will already be the way they are, with me happy

 

Man that 7.3 sounds awesome! What a cool project for you and Grandpa!