Project: Over My Head

[Kim57]

Pics open in your links.
Looks good.
Kim

[yossarian19]

Hah I didn't think anyone was going to click through there... I think I'm up and running with Imgur now so I'll give this one more try.
Here's the rear bumper, tail / turn buckets made from 4" exhaust pipe and a die grinder. The trickiest part was cutting it off flush once I'd welded it in. The thinkin' man's way to do it would have been to measure for depth, cut it so the pipe would stand proud by 1/16" and minimize the cutting / grinding later. Next time, I'll do it that way.
After that, we've got some sound deadening. I used peel & stick flashing form the construction yard. It's ~1/3 the thickness of the typical Dyna Mat hot rod stuff but it's so much cheaper that I can use three layers and still come out ahead. I guess you have to weigh that savings vs the time you spend putting down three layers instead of one...? Also hung a new engine cover on the 4.8 and put the booster / MC on the firewall. Frees up a bunch of room underneath, makes bleeding easier, etc.
As an aside, I've still got under a thousand miles on the truck and man, am I looking forward to some kind of IFS setup. I don't mind the ride quality, I don't mind the handling (it's fun) and in fact I really like driving the truck as-is under 50 MPH or so. Past that... this thing gets spooky. Behaves weird. Not confidence inspiring at all.
I'm thinking longer term, i want to either
Crown Vic front end, 12 bolt rear, redrill the Vic front end to match rear pattern
Industrial Chassis' Dakota IFS, 3/4 ton Dodge rotor + 14 bolt rear axle
Or maybe a full frame swap.
It's going to be a while before the time & money come back so I guess I don't need to make my mind up any time soon. Anyway, on to the pics.
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[yossarian19]

I got a bit tired of the buzzy / droney sound driving the truck. I love to hear the exhaust note when I'm getting on it but the level of noise just getting down the road was incredible. So I used some reflectix foil / bubble wrap, some 80-mil sound deadening sheets (Noico brand, from Amazon.com, highly recommended. Cheap & effective!) and $36 worth of black auto carpet from a local store and got a floor put down. Still a little trimming to do but it worked wonders for dirt cheap.
I also cut up a free yoga mat, ~ 1/2" thick foam, and trimmed it up to fit against the firewall. Sleezey but it quieted the truck down even further. I'll probably finnesse and patch it together a little here or there but I can say "Firewall pad: Check" Now I just need some windows and maybe a hood liner.
Oh - and pay no mind to stray wires or zip ties. They are just waiting their turn

[Advanced Design]

Sounds like a very economical improvement. Thanks for the share!

[Kim57]

Nice fix.
Kim

[Zoomin]

Great ideas on the sound deadening.

[yossarian19]

Well, it's been a gray and rainy winter. Like, a record-setting, sinkholes & mudslides gray and rainy winter.
Since I hadn't ever gotten wipers installed in the truck this dampened (hah!) my enthusiasm a bit. Then one day with my daily driver dead in the water, I was driving the backup Truck (yeah, it was raining) and pigeon-holed myself into getting on the freeway. In a downpour. With no wipers.
I survived, and bought a Newport Engineer wiper kit. I took pictures but they came out poorly. If you want to see it, you can either picture an electric wiper motor or click here I'll say it was a really solid kit with the usual "we didn't hire a technical writer" directions. Far better than average aftermarket fitment.

Another issue I've had is gear oil dumping into my right rear brake drum, which obviously isn't great. I looked at what a wheel bearing cost, added in the cost of a press or having the machine shop do it, and then realized that ideally I want a positraction rear end as well as one that didn't leak.
So I bought a Dana 44 from a Wagoneer, picked up a posi carrier, tore it all down and decided not to use it.
Here's a Dana 60 with six-lug Dana 44 outers. The gent dropped it in my driveway and took off, so I had Clay come help me (in the rain, again) and wrestled it into the bed of the truck. I darn sure wasn't going to drag it into the garage. $400! Score! Came with a power-lok diff in it, monster center section & I think (hope) it's even a bolt-in fit for the '57.

[FAKKY]

and ?
Build threads require updates my friend

[yossarian19]

Hah!
There isn't much to say. I've used the truck to haul sand, sheet rock, dump runs, etc and it hasn't changed much.
The car seat fits in there pretty well. It's Clay's favorite car, to the point where he's disappointed if I make him get in the Subaru.
I've got 3,500 miles on the truck, finally have the electric fans working from the computer's trigger wire. Painless botched the tune and had the Fan 1 temp set to 283*F, which I thought was just a tad high. I hardly ever see 210* but now the fans come on when I get there.
The truck still shakes at 50-60 mph, I should check the toe again and make sure it's dialed. I also need to re-work the kingpin bores in the front end.
I switched projects since this one drives and have a '75 wagoneer that I'm putting EFI on.
Wife and I also moved in to a new house in the same area. 5 acres, 36x36 barn, there is also a house but who cares? So the barn + wagoneer have occupied most of my wrenching time lately.
I have a retaining wall to finish building and I think I'll tear down the front end on the truck and see if I can tighten things up a bit. Maybe at 10K miles I'll go IFS - but I just don't have the money or time for it right now.
Oh - and photobucket is just about unusable on my 10 year old laptop, so that pretty well killed forums for me.

[FAKKY]

Well - thats a good update though
Nice t hear a build after its been on the road for sometime going well.

Good to know you like the wiper kit - I thought about replacing mine whilst its all apart but since it works - think Im going to roll with it for now ...... just get some good blades.

Weird that painless did that one the tune - think Im goign to buy HPTuners just so I can do it myself and delete VATS and update fans etc as I need rather than keep resending back if I dont get it right. Tune itself though - not sure yet.

5 acres - nice !! Thats a huge friggin barn ........... whats sort of EFI for the wagoner - a Fitech ??

Good to hear things going well ....... I'll let you know the Dakota IFS whenever I get the truck on road - but heck - you will probably beat me You could awlays stick a chinese gopro under the truck to look for whats moving on your computer - did that before on a truck once.

https://www.amazon.com/NeuTab-Wide-A...6%3A1253504011

[yossarian19]

I went with a GM 454 / 7.4 liter TBI unit, a crank trigger wheel welded to the crank pulley, some Ford ignition coils & a Megasquirt 2 computer to run it all.
It's an AMC 401 with computer controlled fuel & spark. I'm really happy with the geek factor. I chose the MS2 because I wanted to learn new stuff and because it gives a lot of flexibility / more features than a Fitech type unit. Distributorless ignition + ability to run MPFI if I keep the thing long enough and get the itch.
The learning curve to get it all set up and running was pretty steep but I'm sure a "read the directions" sort of guy would have a much easier time of it.

[FAKKY]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

I went with a GM 454 / 7.4 liter TBI unit, a crank trigger wheel welded to the crank pulley, some Ford ignition coils & a Megasquirt 2 computer to run it all.
It's an AMC 401 with computer controlled fuel & spark. I'm really happy with the geek factor. I chose the MS2 because I wanted to learn new stuff and because it gives a lot of flexibility / more features than a Fitech type unit. Distributorless ignition + ability to run MPFI if I keep the thing long enough and get the itch.
The learning curve to get it all set up and running was pretty steep but I'm sure a "read the directions" sort of guy would have a much easier time of it.

Well thats pretty friggin interesting. Yeah bet the learning curve was steep !! lol.

https://www.diyautotune.com/support/...crank-trigger/


Wonder why it triggers of the crank rather than the CAM just meaning that different cams with different profiles could adjust when it needs to inject right.

[yossarian19]

UPDATE:
I read that Industrial Chassis was cancelling their parts business and going to focus 100% on in-house builds. This was heartbreaking, as I've long been thinking that when I get the chance that I'll put a Dakota IFS in my truck.

Well, I emailed Steve, and guess what? He had exactly one left on the shelf.
This is what credit cards are for.

So I guess I'm gathering parts for a second build on this truck. Now that I know a little better, I'll call it something else if I start a 2nd build thread. Maybe Project Mulligan ?

Tentative plan, as time & funds allow, is 4L80e, turbocharger on the 4.8, Dana 60 in rear (on leaves or trailing arms, unsure) and Dakota based IFS.

First, moving out the house (life's complex) and finishing the Wagoneer once my back is 100% again.

[FAKKY]

*Get Some*

Actually sounds awesome. Id love to turbo one day ...... but we will see.

Looking forward to it when do you think you'll start....

[yossarian19]

Welllll... It's going to be a while.
I've got to get my career in order. I'm also moving out, like I said, and unlikely to be able to afford anywhere with work space (see #1: career)
If Industrial Chassis hadn't quit making crossmembers on account of our Glorious Leader's steel tariffs, I wouldn't have jumped at buying the last one right now - but I knew long term it was what I wanted and should have done in the first place, so I pulled out the plastic.
I probably won't start on the truck again until 2020 or maybe later. Only way I'd start sooner would be with a frame on jack stands, putting together the whole roller with a junk cab & core support on it for mockup. Get everything positioned just right before taking the now drivable truck apart, I think.

[yossarian19]

(whoops. Mod, please delete if you see this. Wrong thread)