Project: Tow-Rat (Lil' Blue)

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by Jason 56

Everything is coming along great. I really like the lizard skin on the roof. Great idea. I like the idea of the black trim/black roof. With the other black in the interior. You’re making great progress!

the black trim and "headliner" appears to be an almost 100% opinion. the general consensus was that i'm crazy for going white/white/white on the ceiling. i just kinda figured with how crazy the rest of the truck is, that the ceiling could just blend away.

[6DoF]

wow, what a weekend! i feel pretty accomplished this morning. my shop is such an epic mess for painting, i can't wait till this is all done.

Friday i set out to get the LizardSkin on the floor and succeeded with the "first" coat. i found that if i lay down their prescribed 2 coats, twice, it does a WAY better job. soooo much taping, endless taping ... but it covered and came out pretty well. i'm excited how well it hid all the patches and smoothed over the seam sealer on all the joints of the tunnel.

[6DoF]

Saturday was all about the flat black bits and getting everything painted that wasn't the floor. dash trim, seat belt brackets, cowl cover, and finishing up my door panels. i love how the flat black laid on the dash and windshield frame repair. i painted all the way around just to make it even all the way around the rubber.

the door panels if you remember i ran out of white and needed that "one last pass". so while i was painting them again, might as well have fun with it. painted the orange last week, and just got the black trim around them. i actually really liked the fade painted on the tape and wish it wasn't tape! i also might have liked them a teeny-tiny bit better as just the orange/white without the black trim, but not worth going back now. the black trim makes the orange look darker and kind of pops less. i still love it thought, and the black i think gives it an older-era scheme feel too.

end of the day Saturday i also did my "second" coat of LizardSkin. i want to peal the dash and reveal the white/black so bad it's killing me! but no way i can un-mask anything before i hose the floor down with paint. that might be tonight, might be Tuesday, we'll see.

[6DoF]

Sunday i spent doing inventory ... i've bought so much stuff for this truck over the years that i'm loosing track now. i pulled out and organized all my air/fuel/brake/clutch lines and fittings. then went thru the truck, re-planned routing and necessary bits, measured for all my lines, and started ordering what i needed. i "should" have everything i need this week to complete the fuel system, brakes, clutch, and air suspension including be run by it's own compressors. i actually even have the battery cable bits to make them, so i should have enough on hand now to make it start/move under it's own power.

trying to layout the air bag line bulkheads ... i guess i'm just going to take up all the space under my seat for lines/switches so i can probably put some other control bits down there later.

[lower50's]

Wow sounds like a big struggle with the white paint. I like the idea of white under the dash so you can see better, might be an idea no matter what color the inside is. I noticed you improved your paint wall filters, them flat on the wall having issues? It really cool how the orange and black look on the white doors. Keeping inventory of parts bought is not easy.
Having it lift on it's own is a big accomplishment, let alone start and move all in a short time. You must be getting excited!

[6DoF]

so i watched a furnace air filter comparison that had some great data in it. long story short, this was actually better! these are the cheapest filters i could find, so any advantage is good.

filter set-up #1:
2 stacked filters ... was thinking why not double filter it. one filter area, but had to pass thru 2x the thickness of material.

filter set-up #2:
2 filters in a triangle for double the surface area, single thickness.

the larger surface area means slower air speed over the filter, less pressure to pull junk thru. you can also see a more even distribution of the dust, so it's using a larger area of the filter more efficiently.

these 20x20 filters are $11 for a 3pack at Home Depot, and there's no dust worth worrying about on the stuff behind my fans. the box fans can't generate much pressure like a squirrel cage fan, so they don't flow a ton of air thru the filters to catch everything. any dust they don't catch however is generally dropped on the floor between me and the filters for easy sweeping later.

[lower50's]

Ok cool good to know. I have a furnace fan filter setup in my shop to catch airborne particles, might have to try the 2 filter setup.

[6DoF]

first the unfortunate, but taken care of news with a PSA.

*do not lay LizardSkin too thick on inside corners without letting it fully cure before the next coat*

i really wanted the lizardskin to help smooth and fillet the tunnel corners, so i might have laid it on really thick in those lines. those spots took considerably longer to dry than the rest by a lot, and as they dried, they cracked. everything was still stuck well, just opened up, so i took the same 3M seam sealer i had to them and filled em all before painting. should hold up well, move well, and help adhere it all together. i tried to press it hard into the cracks, and keep from filing in the lisardskin texture. i'm pretty happy with how it worked. no pictures, but i had to do both sides.

[6DoF]

the Matt taping the truck gave ZERO fakks about the Matt who had to peal it all ...

but i'm super excited with how it came out! super clean tuxedo interior is a great contrast to the rat rod. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

[youngrodder]

Funny. I use that saying often. We had a owner of a company that I worked for that was a real tyrant. This right hand man said it once and it stuck.

Marc

[dsraven]

I did a complete redo on a buddies 77 ford 1/2 ton 4x4 and when the cab was done he had the interior sprayed with box liner really thick so the floor came out smooth. No rug or mats required and be would wash the mud out with a hose. It also made the truck really quiet inside.

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I did a complete redo on a buddies 77 ford 1/2 ton 4x4 and when the cab was done he had the interior sprayed with box liner really thick so the floor came out smooth. No rug or mats required and be would wash the mud out with a hose. It also made the truck really quiet inside.

yeah, i have to do a floor patch on my 93 that i drive daily curr4ently and plan to spray the whole thing down at the same time. any bit quieter would be a plus.

[lower50's]

Unfortunate about the cracking but I like how you fixed it should be good. Ya the black and white looks great.

[Jason 56]

I like the tuxedo look. All that lizard skin should make for a solid sounding ride.

[joedoh]

perfect!

[Father&son56project]

Lookin' great!!!

Good tip about the lizard skin in those corners where it can build up real thick.

The comments about using white paint UP UNDER the dash (where it can't be seen) are valid. I used black carpet, firewall pad and kick panels, and I left my dash underside alone (it was painted very dark from the factory). I now need a flashlight to see anything under that dash!

Your progress is just flying along!

[6DoF]

so after buying a metric crap-ton of fittings and hoses ... i have realized i forgot to buy about a standard crap-ton. i feel this becoming a theme for the rest of the build, haha. also after finding fittings in a different pile that i had just re-purchased ... went thru and organized eeevveerryything.

got the doors on and aligned, seat in (for now, it needs recovered), pedals, brake booster/master, drilled for the air line bulkheads, laid out the air lines ... and made a list of bolts and fittings i'm missing.

[joedoh]

are those firestone manual paddles?

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by joedoh

are those firestone manual paddles?

"yes" just not sold as firestone

edit: my thorbrosDOTcom url get edited to a broken link ... why are they on the profanity list?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

"yes" just not sold as firestone

edit: my thorbrosDOTcom url get edited to a broken link ... why are they on the profanity list?

i had firestone paddles on a toyota in the late 90s, I could throw a mean side-to-side in about 14 minutes manual vales are the BEST, I have always used them, firestones, MIC toggles, little larry/airjax paddles. very very rarely electric


thorbros probably blacklisted because of their neverending backorders on parts. which is funny because when jason started it, their motto was "this aint no d*mn corporation" and he only sold stuff he had in stock. then everyone started ordering his s10 arms, and eventually the wait stretched out to a year. i guess he is a corporation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by joedoh

i had firestone paddles on a toyota in the late 90s, I could throw a mean side-to-side in about 14 minutes manual vales are the BEST, I have always used them, firestones, MIC toggles, little larry/airjax paddles. very very rarely electric


thorbros probably blacklisted because of their neverending backorders on parts. which is funny because when jason started it, their motto was "this aint no d*mn corporation" and he only sold stuff he had in stock. then everyone started ordering his s10 arms, and eventually the wait stretched out to a year. i guess he is a corporation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

he doesn't care much about he website and updating it because he's not corp ... the number of times i've called him and everything was available, or available the next day is more than not. my assumption is he gets enough business still by phone it doesn't matter.

[6DoF]

got a reasonable update from the weekend, and found a lot of other little bits i was missing or bought the wrong thing.

made a mechanical tuner for the mechanical injection. lets me have 2 "tunes", one full-on, and one limited for a cleaner, smoother drive. there is a bypass valve for full-on. then there is an adjustable orifice to slow down how quickly the pump see's the boost, a pressure regulator to limit the max boost the pump will see, and a gauge to visualize the "tune". there's a diesel shop that sells the same thing in a fancy AL box for $450, but this was only $100. still need to make a sexy mount.

- batteries grounded
- battery + tied together
- main power run to the starter as a distribution point (loop by fuel tank for future battery cut-off)
- starter installed
- clutch master installed ... need a longer hose
- replaced the tappet cover with one that hopefully won't leak
- new injection pump oil line ... fitting in the block, ordered different bits
- oil priming pump made from the old stock one and tested with new oil (dipstick depth worked out great)
- fwd section of driveshaft installed, axle is now tied to the motor.

and i 3D printed a template and centering hub to make timing marks on the balancer. this will let me adjust away from the stock "pined" timing.

[joedoh]

i would be lying if said i didnt do a truth table for your bypass setup

nice solution on the degree marks too

[6DoF]

hit up a huge car cruise this past weekend and saw one of those fender bikes in person, i feel like i need one now!

got the injection pump timed 6deg before stock, should be about 20deg advanced now. got that locked down and buttoned up the whole front of the engine.

-ran the oil prime pump for a few minutes
-swapped in new oil pump
-new front crank seal
-new timing cover seal
-power steering pump is on
-injection lines are back on
-intake partially bolted (need to fab the pipe inlets)
-clutch master installed with full line (need to swap an AL coupler for steel)
-brake lines run (needs a line lock mounted, more mounting points, and a -3an coupler)
-coolant plugs where the auto trans cooler used to be

more to come tonight!

[lower50's]

Ooo Baby I love this part where things get to go on for the should be last time lol.
I have had a 2 stage tune switch on my IDI for years. I used a 12V pneumatic switch with 2 flow controls, works great but I'm finding I have it flipped up more than down now .