Hey, I just had a fabulous idea! For a Billings meet, why not all meet at "Gypsy's garage" (that would be me!) and have a fun, 'work-on-her-truck' day? Hehehe. Wouldn't that be great?

 

That sounds like a great idea............................uh, wait............have you seen what these guys have done to their own rigs Gypsy? You might want to be a bit selective in your invite........

 

Billings? Billings???? Ummm... where the heck is Billings?

OK..you come to the Kalispell meet this August and we'll discuss a Billings meet for next year. Right after the 2nd Annual Kalispell meet. Next year, we'll do a Monster Truck meet....and hope that Bigfoot comes. He may be here in Sept. too...that's when Checkered Flag is supposed to be here. The last monster trucks, last week, I didn't even go to. After you've seen the best... why bother? Heh!

 

Hehehehe. I didn't think of that.....Well, how about if it were a bit more of an organized event? We could do.....that dang fuel tank selector valve one time, then maybe another time we can do a lift.......hey, I've got these darn snaps down the box (for the snappy type tonneau, of which I DON'T have!) we could pry them off, then weld the holes shut (then I wouldn't have to listen to those things rattling) and PAINT!!! My honey keeps promising me a pre-runner bumper one of these days....we could just beat him to it.

Hey, I was just remembering that I saw an ad in the Thrify Nickel for the Mud Bog/Tuff Truck thing out at the Sports Park towards the end of the month (26-27????) Anybody taking their truck out there? If my husband can get his truck back together in time I'm thinking about running her. Whooo hooooo!


Edit to add: I'm guessing by Checkered Flag you're talking about Checkered Flag Productions that puts on the Monster Truck show? Man, I gotta tell you how UN-impressed I am with those folks. The last time they were here in Billings, they had the production managers TEEN son "helping" out and ended messing everything up. For the Tuff Trucks, they were off on the announcing, like our friend raced and they said he was the guy that went before him, then when my husband went, he was announced as the friend that went before him. They couldn't keep track of who had what time, etc. Hmmm, kinda makes it hard to tell who won then...... Not very professional.

 

You are just bound and determined to make us work aren't you? LOL

As President of the Drifters, here's another executive decision..lol ... under my watch, meets shall be deemed for fun, carousing, and ... and.. whatever else I think up tonight while Im out dining on some prime rib.
So there! (I can tell already, if she comes to the Kalispell meet, Im going to have to be quick on my feet to keep clean!)

 

What day?

i usually have sundays and thursdays off. I'm off by five most days, and by seven on wednesday and friday.

 

Hey gypsyrose, I've got a tank selector valve that needs changing on my 88 250 4x4. Maybe we could make a competetion out of getting them changed, or a relay race, or....or.... Park our trucks side by side and split up into pit crews.......yeah!!

Paint, what paint? These mid to late 80's trucks don't have paint.

(btw - if any of you repaint these, be sure to take them down to bare metal before repainting - Ford had primer/overcoat compatibility problems and I've seen very few repaints work right that didn't go all the way down)

 

Hey, that sounds like a superb idea! Now, I've done a little bit of research on fixing this darn thing and found the same info reading here. I've read that you either have to drop your tanks or take off the box. Do you HAVE to do one or the other? I was discussing this with my significant other and he's saying that he KNOWS we can just climb under the truck and get to it. I beg to differ but then again he knows more about this stuff than I do. And he tends to do things not just the HARD way but the HARDEST way.

Honestly, I didn't think I'd have any takers (thanks, Matt!). Heheheh. Fordlover, I thought working on the truck WAS fun!!!

Oh, and my truck actually has fairly decent paint still. There is a tiny bit of rust on the corner of the passenger door and then an even smaller amount around the dang snaps. Otherwise it looks nice. (Well, I could do without the brown stripes down the side!!!) I really need to put picture of it on here!

 

"Fordlover, I thought working on the truck WAS fun!!!"

Ahhh ... you said the magic word......WAS !!! When I was a younger pup, working on the truck did kinda be fun. But now that my age is what it is, my back is what it is... 'tain't fun no more. That's why I'm driving what I am driving...so I hopefully don't have to spend a lot of time working on it.

And... working on someone else's truck is even less fun. So there......

I do make a good sidewalk superintendent though. And I always have the best advice, most opinions on the easiest way to do things, a grin on my face and clean hands.

 

and by the time it's all said and done, your face and clothing is smeared with grease from the "supervisees" wiping their hands on you...that's what me and my buddies do to our g/f's when they try and supervise our mechanical abilities (or lack thereof)...lol

Michael

 

Well, actually, I always end up sticking my nose...and my hands...into most jobs. but if I don't know a lot about what's going on, then I'll kick back, watch and see if I learn anything.
But if I don't give gypsy a hard time, she'll think we don't like her.

 

Somehow I always end up dirty too. My husband needed help the other night on his racetruck (was putting the fuel cell back in and needed help bolting the brackets back on). My job was just to hold the wrench on the bolt (from up above) so he could tighten the nut on the underside of the truck. I just sat on the bed of the truck holding the wrench and STILL came out dirty/greasy. Never fails.

I don't have that problem of sticking my nose in every project but I've noticed that does seem to be a guy thing...as well as tearing the whole dang truck apart when its not neccesary. I was trying to change my lock and tumbler once and little brother thought it looked like I needed help. So he pushes me out of the way, tore apart the steering wheel, took off turn signal switch (oooh, thats a pain to put back together!), etc. Well, I had already READ the Haynes Manual (which is junk btw, most of it tells you: Take to dealership. Need special part.) and knew what I was doing. When he was done tearing it all apart, he left ME to put it back together as well as take a little screw driver and insert in hole just under the lock and tumbler to release pin. So my easy little project turned into a big ordeal because he had to get involved and was less informed. It actually only takes about 3 minutes to replace my lock and tumbler. His version of it took several hours. Heheheh.

 

Ahhh, but just think of the wonderful learning experience you had! And yes..putting all that stuff back in and getting it to work the same is a real pain in da pa-toot. And I agree...the Haynes manuals as are most of them now days, is basically worthless....but there are some nice pictures to look at while killing time trying to figure out what they said as compared to the pictures.

 

Boy, you're definetely an optimist. I agree it WAS a learning experience. I learned to never let someone else TAKE OVER my projects. If they want to help, thats one thing, but NO TAKING OVER!

So, if NOBODY likes the Haynes manual, why do they still sell them? It is kind of interesting to compare pics to the written instructions.

I tried to use the Haynes manual for a Chevy Beretta (glad to be rid of that POS!) once to replace the lock and tumbler (Does anyone else go through those things the way I seem to?) and the Haynes manual said to take it to the Chevy dealership to have it repaired because you need a "special tool"....so I called Chevy and asked to talk to a mechanic. He told me the part no. on the "special tool". I went to the parts store to have them look up the part no. The special tool was a pivot pin remover. So I bought the stupid thing (didnt' know we already had one!) only to figure out that you DON'T even need a "special tool". Is Chilton's actually any better though?

 

that pivot pin tool is actually a paperclip.