a curb full of happiness

[Longhorn Man]

I sent a photo text to a newer member on here... he had never seen any photos of the 'ole longhorn. Sent him a shot of the longhorn at the carwash. I sent him some links to older threads, but I figured I'd at least post a few new shots. Besides, I have hardly posted any longhorn pics since I painted it 13-14 months ago.
*keep in mind my digi-cam bit the big one... these are from my cell phone*
Yesterday was fairly warm out and I got off work early. I knew the weather was gettin ready to get crappy, so I thought I'd try to get the sucker running.
Turns out the burb was planned perfect. The Longhorn's starter/flywheel were so kerfaggled, I was able to start the truck 4 more times... then... nothing. Luckily, I located the spare starter I had laying around. I had searched for this thing a few times last summer, but obviously, i never found it. Who would alooked in the closet in the bedroom? Who woulda guessed?
So i tossed it on there yesterday right there on the side of the street. Woulda been WAY too much work to put it in the driveway (move 2 minivans then try to push with the burb... oh yeah, i was alone too)
Got it on, and it runs. Now I need to drive it to work so I can pull the tranny and swap out the flywheel. The front main seal is pretty much doing nothing too. Some idiot confused caddy 500 parts for caddy 425 parts in the last engien swap, and the ballancer that's on there now is a smaller diameter than the seal. So I need to pull that off and see if my guy at NAPA can source me a seal that'll work. (since I can't find any 425s locally, and don't want to trust some one on line who would say a caddy big block is a caddy big block)
Ok, whatever, you gys wanted to see happiness on the curb!

The wheels and tires are the ones i drove from washington on in the burb. They aren't in the best of shape, they are mis matched in size and brand and tread pattern and wear, so i put the better ones on the burb. (the burb rides MUCH better now too) So now the longhorn has 16.5's in back with some 16's up front... crappy combo.
I do have a set of chevy (yellow bowtie) hub caps coming my way... so the GMC caps will end up back on the longhorn at least.
But I did discover the rear tires break loose easily on dry pavement goin into second gear.
heh heh heh
The longhorn must hate me.


The 1/2 ton front suspention that is goin under the burb is still in the back of the longhorn. Mostly becouse I haven't had the funds to rebuild it, and it is simply too friggen heavy to unload out of there myself. I'm scared to death of messin up my nice tailgate too... so it may stay there all winter as snow/traction weight. Maybe it'll get done up in the spring. *sigh*


I was amazed at huw much I missed a few things on this ride. the small steering wheel and tilt are a given... already have a tilt set aside for the burb... but I desperatly need a steering wheel. The seats are so comfortable... my back LOVES these seats. Wow, a place to put my dew instead of between my legs... imagine that! The blue LEDs on white guages (and working aftermarket stuff in the bottom of the new bezel) are quite refreshing after the dull crappy lookin 35 year old stock ones in the burb. I have a new bezal full of white guages sittin here on my dresser... maybe when I get the column out...
I sure didn't miss the manual drum brakes hooked to the wrong hole on the brake pedal. (not enough mechanical leverage.... gotts push HARD)


Yeah... I know.. no air filter. The front main leaks so bad, the air filter was getting clogged. you can't see it in the crappy photo, but the firewall is covered in oil too. I can drive it on surface roads all day with minimal embarasment, but as soon as I wind it up to 60 or so (traffic flows at 70MPH) the oil starts gettin blown by the fan and onto the exhaust... so it smokes and the tailgate gets semi-covered.

That's the caddy 425, and yes, it's painted ford blue. Looks better than the dull caddy blue, black looked retarded, the pastel blue that was a corp color just looks gay, and it would be retarded to paint it chevy orange. (not a huge fan of orange anyways)
Besides, the blue does actually look nice whn it isn't covered in oil.


And there's the kids sittin on the curb.
My baby sister was ticked when i was pointing out her now yota is missin 2 hubcaps, so she was quick to point out that i am incapable of owning a truck that doesn't have an orange panel on it somewhere.
Ouch... very ouch.
Anyways... that's whats goin on in my life in truck world.