1978 Russet Metallic 4x4

[buffydores]

As folks know by now, I have a tendency to push the Blazer. 75mph....80...85. Yep, I may be guilty. Those darn aftermarket dumbo ears just can't stay put. And here's my next stab at fixing it.

So everybody knows there's a rubber insert and a metal clamp that cinches down on the stem/rubber to create the friction that holds them in place. Right? We also know the factory ones don't have the same problem.

Here's why. It's not the rubber insert that is the problem it's the clamp. The factory unit is painted with some kind of paint that has a noticeable coefficient of friction when compared to the bare metal of the aftermarket units. That's one friction surface solved. The other one is between the rubber insert and the mirror stem. I got that figured out too. Here we go:

I use this rubber stuff to wrap the stem with thin rubber. Wrap it tight and thin with not too much overlap.


I then put the rubber insert over the rubber wrap. Once you clamp things down, don't adjust the mirrors. This rubber does something over a period of a few minutes time where it really turns to rubber.


Then I insert it with a factory clamp. Perhaps you can paint the aftermarket clamp with some kind of self etching paint.


Don't forget the factory clamp screws because the aftermarket's are different.


Again, let it sit after clamping down on it. The rubber wrap material will bond with the rubber insert and really grip the stem. The factory painted clamp will provide the additional friction missing while still allowing some shear adjustment. Again this rubber tape is the lick: http://www.allelectronics.com/item/s...er-tape/1.html

[aggie91]

I saw your Blazer Friday while headed out to lunch with a buddy of mine. How was the BBQ at that 4th best BBQ joint in Texas?

[buffydores]

You totally should have come in and asked around. Next time introduce yourself.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by buffydores

You totally should have come in and asked around. Next time introduce yourself.

They looked busy that day, so we decided to head down the road to El Rincon to eat. Maybe next time.

[phillipm]

Glad you got the mirrors fixed! Ever since I put the factory clamp and friction sleeve on my aftermarket ones they've been great too!

Also, those picture are great memories! Really cool to look at, thanks for sharing.

[buffydores]

Time for another upgrade. As you can see from the old pictures above, we've had a pair of KC Hilites Daylighters on this truck from the beginning. Adequate lights for the time, but outgunned by modern standards.

While searching for a new set of lights, I came across this upgrade kit from KC Hilites that upgrades the guts of your original Daylighters to modern LED components.

I also ordered new rubber inserts to freshens things up.

For the benefit of readers I only installed one light to perform a comparison.

The first picture is the original halogen insert.


The second picture is the new LED insert and rubber.


Now let's look at the comparison.



I have the truck parked about 20 feet away from the garage door. The old lamp is in a spot pattern with a tight hotspot. I measured 2,600 lux in the hotspot. On the right side we see the larger spread of the LED driving light pattern. The hotspot on the LED is pushing 3,650 lux, with most of the pattern registering at least 3,000 lux.

Overall, the LED version is probably pushing more than double the light of the original light. This is a significant upgrade to the originals. It's not top tier performance, but it's certainly good stuff. And in my case, the character of the original lamps is an important factor in my decision. For comparisons sake, I have a pair of Lightforce 215 LED lamps on my Jeep. They push north of 12,000 lux in their hotspot in a flood pattern. I also note that KC Hilites shows different performance numbers than what I measured. I think it's two things. The halogen's performance has degraded over time and the distance I'm measuring from is shorter than their specs.

[mickeykreg]

good info, interesting what you found out.

I bought a pair of these.
http://www.kchilites.com/6-gravity-d...system-pr.html
Pricey, but I like the vintage look combined with new technology. They saved me from hitting a deer this spring while headed to Death Valley so I figure it's worth it. BTW, found them for $250 on Amazon, shipped direct from KC.

[buffydores]

Few more comments. One of my metal 4x4 rally caps walked off on me. Not sure if it worked itself loose or was stolen. I'm gonna loktite those suckers on going forward. I'm going to a little local car show tomorrow. I'm bummed that one cap will be missing.

My mirror solution was short lived. The part that must be able to shear/slip is the inner rubber sleeve surface to the mirror stem. My clever rubber stem wrap failed once you worked it a bit. I'm now running the factory clamps with factory rubber sleeves on aftermarket mirrors with factory rubber grommets. My bet is that they will still creep at speed regardless.

I went ahead and replaced the other halogen assembly in the other KC Hilites Daylighter. New but old. They look sharp. I measured the light at the speced distance (10 meters). The factory specs it at 1,130 lux for the driving lights. I'm seeing 1,430 lux in the hotspots, so I'm not sure how KC Hilites comes up with their numbers. These lamps, again, are gonna work well. Remember, a factory low beam is typically punching around 550 lux in its hotspot. And these lamps are DOT certified to be an auxilary headlamp.

[buffydores]

We have a winner. Copying Phillip, the way to go is factory clamps. The rubber sleeve didn't seem to matter. I also grabbed the original rubber grommets for the stem, because they're way better than the aftermarket. The only thing you need from the aftermarket is the mirror/stem plus the bracket cover.

Also, figured out why I lost the cap. The wheel was about to fall off. Torqued everything down to 80 ft-lbs.

[buffydores]

Still working on my plan. I'm probably gonna swap the fuel system out for a intank setup from Aeromotive. They have this Phantom kit that looks trick.

[phillipm]

You should think about doing a OEM fuel module like I did. I've had a 50% failure rate with Aeromotive products and will never use or recommend them. None of the aftermarket companies have a fuel pump that will even come close to the longevity and engineering of a GM OEM designed module.
Posted via Mobile Device

[buffydores]

Originally Posted by phillipm

You should think about doing a OEM fuel module like I did. I've had a 50% failure rate with Aeromotive products and will never use or recommend them. None of the aftermarket companies have a fuel pump that will even come close to the longevity and engineering of a GM OEM designed module.
Posted via Mobile Device

OK. What's the setup you recommend. Could I swap out the Aeromotive pump and swap with an OEM in the Phantom kit. I ordered a AC Delco Sending Unit.

[phillipm]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=693077

Here is what I did. I could help answer questions if you've got any.

[buffydores]

Hmmm. May leave well enough alone and keep a spare inline pump in my saddle box.

[buffydores]

Let's see how the native gallery works:

[phillipm]

Is that a grill you're towin?

[buffydores]

That's our smoker. I'm pretty good on it.

[buffydores]

And again, behold the awesomeness of Phillip. After our earlier conversation, I asked Phillip if he could put together a solution for me. He was kind enough to send me an exact parts list (very detailed) and I had everything shipped to him. Here is what he produced. I can't tell y'all how grateful I am. We have a solid community.

[buffydores]

I forget to show y'all the addition of the Vision X LED headlights. The Vision X LED headlights required me pulling out the crappy HID equipment, resoldering fresh lamp plugs and cleaning it all up. Should have took some pictures. I didn't wire in the halos. I just can't handle that much trendy. I could always hook them up to a relay/switch later on.

The low beams are good. The high beams are great.

I also pulled the batteries and cleaned the terminals. I only needed to POR15 the auxiliary battery tray. Apparently, the factory tray never saw any acid.

Just as an FYI, using the [Go Advanced] button and then [Manage Attachments] is a super easy way to add photos from your phone. It automatically adjusts the size of the photo. I'm hoping the admin will allow us to use this function to repair our threads. No more crappy Photobucket.

[buffydores]

Just as a heads-up, I pretty much restored all the pictures on this thread the hard way. Painful, but who wants dead links.

[phillipm]

You'll have to send me a tutorial on using the native image hosting. Can't figure that out to save myself!

[buffydores]

Originally Posted by phillipm

You'll have to send me a tutorial on using the native image hosting. Can't figure that out to save myself!

I'm probably describing it poorly. When I mentioned native gallery, I was actually not talking about the gallery, I was talking about the ability to embed. The only drawback to that is that you loose the ability to edit it after 10080 minutes (1 week).

The more flexible way to do pictures is to upload them two-at-a-time to your gallery on this site. There's a 500kb limit on size, so most people will need a phone app to resize their photos. I have an Android phone. I downloaded a free app called "Photo & Picture Resizer" to help me handle the duty. Strangely, most of the free photo editors don't allow you to resize your photos, which seems terribly strange to me. If I need to do edits on the photo, I'll just use a free photo editor app and then resize. It, honestly, sucks. It would be cool if the upload functionality of this site were more robust, but I'm still happy they're willing to host all these pictures.

[buffydores]

Purchased this twin stick kit from Offroad Design. When the NP203 comes back from rebuild, I'll have the shop install this. Kit comes with simple black knobs. I had it powdercoated flat black. Don't want it to be distracting:

[buffydores]

So the Offroad Design kit came with this glossy, vinyl, faux metal sticker. A bit disappointing for the price of the kit. Who do we call for an upgraded plaque? That's right....Phillip. Phillip took a digital image of the sticker, redrew it in his vector software, made a few subtle improvements and is producing an appropriate plaque. I'll post when I receive the finished product.

[buffydores]

The TH350 is being rebuilt, the NP203 was shipped off today for rebuild, ECM was sent off for reflash, delivered the fuel module and twin stick kit to the mechanics.....Now we just wait.