Long Project: Orange Julius

[nibs]

Somebody here put an MSD AtomicEFI on their wishlist for Christmas... Hope Santa has deep pockets!

[nibs]

So, Ive been working and thinking and trying to figure out things that I could build for the truck while out on the road. Since I am working on making this truck have a retro look, but have the latest and greatest in technology(that I can afford) I have decided to make my Google Nexus 7 tablet as the head unit for my stereo.

I am taking a little bit different approach to this project, so I will describe my method of madness... I plan to have the tablet basically as the visual piece of it, communicating to a standard head-unit(via bluetooth) that will be mounted inside the glove box. This is so that I can still use an AM/FM radio, or be able to connect to my phone to play the music on it as well.
Now, the beauty of our trucks is the nice flat canvas of a dash! I purchased an "official" Nexus 7 dock for a whopping $20. The neat thing about the dock and the tablet have little prongs that give you an option to charge the device while on the dock in landscape mode(w/o the cable sticking out the bottom). So I bought a cheap plastic snap case to build onto the dock. I will use some 1K carbon fiber that I have at my disposal to reinforce both sides of the attachment area. I will be photo-document the project! Here is some pics of the parts and disassembly so far. More to come tomorrow

[nibs]

finished up the tablet mount today! At least the structural part of it anyways... I have some finishing touches to work on, but I love what I have so far.


I decided not to reinforce it with the carbon. It is pretty strong as it is! The adhesive I used is called Click-Bond. Its a 2 part epoxy that is next to bullet proof, I love the stuff. I did make a mistake though... When I used the tablet to align the white piece to the base, I layered the tab with non stick composite tape, so the added thickness affected the way the white piece holds the tablet, so I have to add something to the base to kinda give it a boost.
Enjoy!

[nibs]

Beautified it a little bit today, and attached some studs to help me attach it to the dash when Im ready!
Looks alot better now that its black and the background changed

[Redhouse]

So, did santa bring you the EFI?

[nibs]

Well, I dont know quite yet... I dont get to open or see my santa deliveries until I get home in a few weeks

[NobleSix]

wow. pretty much just wow. and subscribed!

[nibs]

Originally Posted by NobleSix

wow. pretty much just wow. and subscribed!

Thanks man! I really appreciate it

For those of you awaiting progress, it looks like I am headed home a couple weeks sooner than expected. So it looks like I might get back to it sooner than later

[nibs]

So, Im not sure if this is my boredom speaking, but I have been attracted to a different set of wheels...
These are on another member's truck made by Circle Track Wheels, but American Racing makes a set as well. Custom backspacing and all! And about 2/3 the price of the Intros.
Hmmmmmmm, what do you all think?

[jeffg1010]

Originally Posted by nibs

So, Im not sure if this is my boredom speaking, but I have been attracted to a different set of wheels...
These are on another member's truck made by Circle Track Wheels, but American Racing makes a set as well. Custom backspacing and all! And about 2/3 the price of the Intros.
Hmmmmmmm, what do you all think?

OOOOOOOOO, I must have.

[nibs]

Originally Posted by jeffg1010

OOOOOOOOO, I must have.

Do it!!!

[slick copper]

Hey man! Glad to see you're still around. And I've been the same way. Bought a house and been settling and doing projects trying to keep the wife happy. But this year it's time to start getting more serious on the truck. Tired of it just sitting in the garage.
I think those wheels would look sweet. I'm going for a retro look to, but less modern than yours. More of a budget build.

[nibs]

Originally Posted by slick copper

Hey man! Glad to see you're still around. And I've been the same way. Bought a house and been settling and doing projects trying to keep the wife happy. But this year it's time to start getting more serious on the truck. Tired of it just sitting in the garage.
I think those wheels would look sweet. I'm going for a retro look to, but less modern than yours. More of a budget build.

Yea... Im still alive and going! Ill tell you what, these house project sure do take up time, but are so worth it in the end. I just cant wait to have a nice solid truck to go out and enjoy now! This is going to start taking on a budget as I am not deploying anymore, therefore the money really isnt going to be the same as it was. As long as I can get her going
Good to hear from you again! Happy New Years

[Redhouse]

go for the rallies! they look awesome! that pic is convincing me to run 20's instead of 22's.

[nibs]

Originally Posted by Redhouse

go for the rallies! they look awesome! that pic is convincing me to run 20's instead of 22's.

Thanks man! Im very seriously considering them. I love 20's on this year of truck, you can really get some nice tires on them!(and they are cheaper!)

[nibs]

Santa definitely delivered!!

[JNJchev77]

No doubt, your gonna love those Sketchers!!....

Oh, you mean the Atomic EFI... ya that's cool too...

Congrats!!! Love this build so far!

[Redhouse]

Originally Posted by nibs

Santa definitely delivered!!

yes he did!!!

[nibs]

Originally Posted by Redhouse

yes he did!!!

[aggie91]

Very nice on the santa gift. I here that Atomic efi can even self learn to run with boost to some degree...

jkeating1 - I think that is just some "grunge" on the cross member. In all the ones I have cleanned and redone, I have never seen a crack in that area. It just looks like that one was not 100% clean in that area...

[71' Custom]

When I took mine off it had two cracks on the front side, but they were horizontal and quite normal from what I have seen. I have never seen one like that before though.

[nibs]

Yea guys, that is actually a nice big ol grease and dirt spot. Lol the crossmember was in really good condition.
Aggie, I believe you can run boost with these, however the tuning software is limited to a certain HP number. I can't quite remember what it is though

[nibs]

Well finally after a log time coming, progress is being made!
I took the LS2 heads to the machine shop for a valve job, everything looked great. Installed my new dual valve springs and cleaned them up.
Took the cam out of the block only to find that the cam bearings were completely shot... I guess nobody carries them in stock either, so those took a nice 3-4 days to get here. Once we started to put in the first bearing, we realized that the 1 and 5 bearings were the wrong ones... WAY too big, like almost 1/16" diameter too big.
Got the replacements for those in, and wow! Such a difference.. Should be working on getting the crank/rods/pistons back in one night this week followed by the heads and a nice shot of fresh paint
I am soo excited!!!
Pics to come this week

[nibs]

HAHA! Finally a new update!!! Engine has been completely assembled and is ready to go in the truck. Huge thanks to my father in law...

I now have to pull all the test fitted PB parts to send off to my powdercoater(hopefully next week)

Here is some eye candy

[mcbassin]

Great looking power plant!