I wish I had the picture we showed the boss a few years ago when he asked when all the welding clamps were.
We bent a welding rod so it looked like legs and clamped a cig butt in it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. He was not impressed.

 

Back on topic...
Had a dead battery when leaving work. Had to pop the hood and short across the solenoid to get the juices flowing for the jump start and noticed my serpentine belt was missing 3 ribs.
After getting it started I stopped at Advance Auto to get a new belt. FNG behind the counter assumed 5.8 engine and when I installed the belt it was to long. I got the correct belt and installed it in front of the store.
Then hooked up to my 20ft trailer and drove 70 some miles to pick up a bunch of donations for wf's FB group and then back with no problems.

 

Today I replaced the tailgate support cables and interior passenger door handle. Hoped to remove factory side steps but my help decided to hang with friends tonight.

 

You guys wanna see what I did today?


I won a trophy! Best Modern Truck.

Apparently my 78 was the newest truck at the show.

 

Congrats Dylan!, good job .

 

Thanks Encho, I wasn't too confident considering the shape it's in and I think half the people who filled out the ballots left the "Best Modern Truck" category empty. Mainly because there wasn't any new trucks there. But it feels good. Now I just need to win a trophy with the Beetle and I will be happy. My 88 Ranger wasn't much of a show vehicle, it was more or less a hauler for the Chairs and tent and such. But I've gotten a "Junk Yard Dog" Trophy for the 82 mustang I had, now I have this one. next is the beetle.

 

X3 my sockets just magically grow legs and walk away.. I had like 4 picks for hubs.. No clue where they went

 

Anyways gonna order $35 motorcraft calipers off rockauto

 

I scored at the junkyard yesterday. For $83 and some change, I walked out with a factory inside spare tire holder, Cadillac horns(Just for a bit more class lol) and a rust-free, fully loaded tailgate.(tail gate with newer seals, tinted defrost window, all the wiring, regulator and motor. trim panel is still pretty nice still. just a couple nicks, minor dents and surface rust. most cause from having to kick the gate, and prying the body. Such a shame, a really nice 89' that experienced a rollover.

 

Hey Dylan, nice job bro. The bronco is looking sweet!! Are those Kevlar tires? If so, I had a set once on one of my bronco's but when the top was off they were so loud it sounded like a thunder storm going down the road. haha

 

Thanks Scott they most certainly are the MTR Kevlar tires. I really like them but they don't howl a whole lot. Now if I am rolling at a good speed then shut the engine of you can really hear the tires, otherwise the engine pretty much covers the noise.

 

Well today I did some reconstructive surgery on TGM. I went to that car show and afterwards the exhaust started sounding a little off. I wasn't sure what it was but it seemed like a pipe had come unhooked so today I was able to investigate. Here is what I found.




The flex pipe is rusty and broke somehow. I had a hell of a time getting the small bit off the manifold.


After getting that part off I cu 2 slits in the cleaned up portion of the pie and slapped it back together. It's probably not going to last long this way but it will work for now.




It sounds normal again and has a normal amount of pressure moving out of the end of the pipe. Good enough for me

 

That would've been bad Dylan if a El Camino won the best Modern Truck.

 

Maybe it's time to treat TGM to some new pipes, custom bent. Congrats on the trophy!

 

I would have cried. There was one that showed up late but I don't think they entered it in the show.
It has been a long time int he making but I don't have the $$ for pipes. I've got the headers and I've got the mufflers, just not the money for pipes. I plan to run duals all the way back but haven't planned it out yet. The T-Case is a big obstacle and I wanted 3" pipes bu it probably won't work that way. People say to just Y-pipe it then do a single in dual out muffler, I just don't want fake duals... It's easy to tell what's happening on each side of the motor with true duals. If something isn't firing right on one side, you can check the wires for 4 cylinders instead of all 8....