Daddyjeep Hauler - 85 K30 crew cab short bed

[daddyjeep]

Old faded door panels...

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Freshly coated with duplicolor fabric and vinyl dye. I used matte black for all the plastic. Grey for the fabric and high gloss for the stainless trim.

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[whitels1]

Lot's of work going on there. Door panels came out nice.

[Dads79GMC]

Yes, those panels look awesome!!! Great work!

[daddyjeep]

Thanks guys. I wanted to do something different with the door panels. I like how the different textures work together.

[NewType72]

Can't go too wrong with the shade tree at work with interior. Great stuff!

[daddyjeep]

I called me inspection guy to see if a rear bumper is required in this wonderful state of Pennsylvania, and of course it is. Since I have not shortened the rear of my bed yet my beat up factory bumper can't go on there. I have plans of building a nice custom bumper, just not right now. So....what scrap do I have laying around...

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Yep, that 8' long piece of exhaust tubing is perfect. I will weld on a license plate bracket and of course the required license plate light. I also have to pick up a socket for the tail light as it is worn and the bulb makes intermittent contact. I had to change a few bulbs, but all of my lights actually work.

Almost ready.

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[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work. It's always something isn't it?

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice work. It's always something isn't it?

Speaking of that....my tail light issues may not have been completely taken care of. I found some of those crappy clamp on splice connectors where the PO tied into the harness that were bad. I spent way too much time removing all of them and soldering all of the splices. Tomorrow morning I am picking up a new tail light socket and it will be ready to come out of the shop.

[daddyjeep]

https://youtu.be/wIEWpKq5Opc

That's all

[MTCK]

Congrats!!! That's a milestone.

[daddyjeep]

Lots of little things got done today. I finally got the rear door latch freed up and installed. What an enormous pain in the ass. I got the rear door panels cleaned up and installed. Installed the cowl. Fixed an oil leak. Finally, i cleaned all the glass. It is amazing how much better it looks with clean glass.

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I also picked up a cap for my favorite price...free

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[Dieselwrencher]

Looking nice! That has to be a good feeling to be getting so close on it. Clean glass does make something feel near new for some reason doesn't it?

[daddyjeep]

The things I get myself in to.... since my bed is somewhere between a long bed and a short bed at the moment I have to do some more cutting of other components. Maybe some day my schedule will allow me to do something at an appropriate pace and not have to do things twice. Here goes with modifying an aluminum cap to fit my 7' bed.

14" cut out of the outer skin.
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A couple hours later...
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Off to get the truck inspected this morning, then need to haul a couple tons of gravel.

[JoeinT.O.]

Congrats. Hope all goes well for the inspection!

[daddyjeep]

Well, it has been an eventful couple days. I picked up a couple thousand pounds of gravel and ran out of gas on the way back. When the truck is not running with hydroboost brakes, you have very little braking ability. It was a bit scary, especially with a load of gravel on. I got some gas from a bridge crew since I was, of course, where there was cell service. I finally made it back to town and blew a tranny cooler line. I had to reschedule my inspection for today. I get there for inspection and my radiator starts leaking. At least I got my sticker though. I get home to check out the radiator hoping I could fix it, but there is no fixing it. Thes are the things I expected with an old truck.

[daddyjeep]

New radiator is installed. It really wasn't a picture worthy event. I really hated to replace my original brass radiator with a crappy plastic one, but that is how it goes. I talked to my local radiator shop about re-coring the original, but they don't do it any more. They tell me it just isn't cost effective.

Now for the big news...I am not taking the truck to the Jeep festival. There are just too many loose ends and uncertainties. My biggest issue is poor braking. There are a lot of things that I could live with, but safety issues are a deal breaker. I have a soft pedal and my hydroboost is leaking pretty bad. I'm not sure if those are related, but will be rebuilding the hydroboost before going any further.

[whitels1]

You made easy work of the camper shell, it doesn't look modified. Bummer about the brakes, but at least you have something else to look forward to fixing... lol

[MTCK]

Awesome work on the camper. I'm about ready to throw my new brass radiator in the trash. I've had it out of the truck 3 or 4 times to the radiator shop and I find a new leak every time I drive it it seems. They pressure test it, braze on it and it's like whack-a-mole. Made in China...

[daddyjeep]

Well, the Jeep festival went as expected. I broke the Jeep the day before the festival before I even got to pre-run the trails. I sheared off a bolt on the track bar. That was a pretty simple fix. The next morning I was pre-running the trails and broke the engine before I got on the first obstacle. I am not sure yet what exactly failed, but it is time to tear down the engine and see. Maybe it is time for an LS motor. I have not had good luck with the 5.2 since I put it in the Jeep. I have been chasing electrical issues and had cooling issues for 3 years.

[daddyjeep]

I put the truck to work dragging my BBQ stuff to the World Of Outlaws late model race last night. The truck did good and I made some money. I realized the headlights are terrible on my way home from the track after midnight though. That was the first time driving it at night.

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[Dieselwrencher]

Awesome and I hope you do well selling the BBQ this year! Some new housings with LED bulbs are in your future.

[wildwilly4x4]

wire your headlights to a relay so that they can get full battery power. Also wire the high beams to a relay that will also fire off the low beam relay so that all four lights come on. I replaced all of my bulbs with the high beam bulb, did the relay mods, and now its much more like a modern vehicle. I think LMC maybe sells a relay harness pretty cheap for doing this.

My crew is a '90 model, so it has the goofy tiny lights that were terrible

[smpoulin01]

I installed the replacement bulbs from LMC with their light harness and it made a world of difference. No trouble seeing at night now.
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cc/865w/0101.jpg
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cc/865w/0103.jpg

[MTCK]

That's awesome you put her to work! Glad the BBQ panned out too.

[daddyjeep]

Thanks guys. I will definitely address the poor lighting at some point. I was looking at those LMC bulbs and they seem like a good upgrade at a reasonable price.

I noticed something in my picture that I need to clarify. Real BBQ guys would see it too. I DO NOT cook with propane...that is just for my warming oven. I really had to make sure you guys knew that. I take pride in my BBQ.