Moving Day Plus Seven!

Good news is to come.

I cashed out. It's over. The check has been received and cleared.

My hopes to have a diesel installed are essentially dead in the water. One of the main reasons I wanted a diesel was so that I could run vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel if fuel prices ever skyrocket, which I'm sure will happen sooner or later. I failed to consider that if fuel prices did skyrocket, I likely won't be driving my lifted, over-tired, old, designed-to-be-inefficient Land Cruiser. I own a Prius - hello??

Ok, moving on to better things and a company that shall be named - although, for the sake of me not knowing the future ever since my Magic 8 ball lost all its blue dye, I will not name the company - but they're the good guys. He runs a good company. I should've known something was amiss when the company that shall not be named provided me an estimate in an excel spreadsheet and this guy provides me a pdf with company letterhead and outlining everything he'll do, everything. I should've known.

I met him last summer when I was still narrowing my build options. He wouldn't do a diesel, so ultimately, I went with the company that shall not be named - who has two thumbs and made a bad choice - this guy.

So I met him last summer, got good vibes from him, got an estimate for a 4.7 Toyota V8 - interesting. If I am going to put in a V8, a Toyota is super interesting, but... it's more expensive to repair thanks to the dual overhead cam,  more expensive to install because it's not as available as the Chevy 5.3 Vortec, it's not as powerful as the Chevy 5.3 Vortec either. As much as I would like to stay all Toyota - I wasn't going to stay Toyota with the diesel, so why hang on now? The ball is rolling.

We talk a few times and nail down the details. His motor guy uses late model take-outs and can wire the motor according to the builder's needs, thereby saving him hours and me money. Ok, let's go with the 5.3 Vortec and automatic transmission. His motor guy had 50-60k motors available with NV4500 manual transmissions! We talk turkey and I end up with a 6.0 Vortec!!

I go from attempting to build a low powered, old, and likely worn out, inline 5 cylinder turbo diesel with over 300k miles and had 125hp and 180 lb-ft torque from the factory 28yrs ago to a 6yr old 6.0 V8 with about 60k miles. The motor was pulled from a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer SS! From the factory the SS came out with 395hp and 400 lb-ft torque!! The V8 will surely not get as good mpg, but it'll start every time I turn the key - no worries about freezing temperatures, no worries about fuel starvation while climbing a steep, rocky hill off road, no worries about getting parts, and to top it all off the build will likely only cost me a $1-2k more! Deal.

Lots of stress from the company that shall not be named, but if I had to suffer that stress to get to where I am now it was worth it. My truck will be so much better when it's done. I am excited.

Getting ready for shipping and just in time - not 5mins prior my neighbor asked me to move my truck

Happy days - I was going to have to spend $900+ for shipping to Utah, this guy - $60! 

There is so much work to do even when I get it back, but for now I couldn't be happier. 

Moving Day Troubles

Ok, so I finished the last post typing, "Pictures to follow tomorrow". Pictures did not follow tomorrow and I'll explain, but be advised I'm typing with frustrated finger strokes and scowling face - just picture Mr. Potato Head with his angry eyes and you'll get the picture.

Moving day was supposed to be Tuesday the 11th of December. I was hoping the guy would be in before noon, but noon came and went. I called the shipping broker - "Oh, he hasn't called you yet? That's strange. Let me call him (ring, ring....). Not picking up. I'll leave a message...."Great. Good sign.

The guy calls me after 3pm to tell me he's not going to make it today - good thing I didn't take off work for this nonsense, but he can be here on Wednesday or maybe Thursday - "What are you doing Thursday", he asks me and can I pretty much be available any time he wants to come to my house he wonders. Great. I happen to be off with my newborn, but this is nonsense. Glad I'm not working because this is just plain poor management, lucky for me I'm not paying for this service - oh wait, I am paying for this ridiculously, terrible service. He and I talk for a few more minutes to confirm that he is a poor planner and I am the one who has to live with it. I confirm that he knows my truck does not run and he will need a trailer with a winch - cue the dark ominous tones...

"What? They didn't tell me your truck doesn't run! I can't pick it up. They're going to have to schedule someone else to pick it up." Good thing I'm not paying for this terrible, poor-excuse-for-professionalism, service. Oh wait, I am paying for this terrible, poor-excuse-for-professionalism, service.

All ready for shipping

I pulled it out of the garage the night before in preparation for getting it into position near my neighbor's house

We can get you another truck by the weekend, I'm told. Great. I only have my truck parked in front of my neighbor's house, I'm sure he won't mind having my truck outside his dining room window for an undermined amount of time. I can't move the truck back to my house because my driveway's on a hill. Great! I'm so excited that your company is incapable of providing a timely service. Good thing I'm not paying for this terrible, poor-excuse-for-professionalism, service... you get it by now. I'm less than satisfied with my customer experience at this point.

The shop where I was shipping the truck - the shop that shall not be named as it will be referenced from this point forward, was expecting the truck on Thursday. I wanted to contact them to tell them of the delay, but not until I had an ETA. When Thursday came and I still didn't have an ETA, I decided to just drop a short email. I sent the email late afternoon, so I didn't expect a response on the same day.

Friday morning - cue the dark ominous tones, again...
My response email from the company that shall not be named stated that they will not be able to do my engine install... That was it. I initiated conversation with the company that shall not be named in March. I would bet that I've exchanged 30-50 emails with the company that shall not be named. I would bet that I've had 15-20 phone conversations with the company that shall not be named. My truck was supposed to arrive on 12/13. On 12/14 I am informed that they will not perform my engine install - via email. Let me spell it E-M-A-I-L. They tell me by email that my plans to have them do the work wasn't going to happen. They tell me by email that the build that we had discussed and discussed that they accepted was not going to happen. They told me by email?! The email didn't explain why - nothing. They're not going to do it and that's it. Email. They sent an email. Completely unprofessional. Utterly irresponsible. Embarrassing business practice. Email?

At this point they did me a favor. Any company that fails to realize that I am the one who pays for the lights - I am the one who pays for the insurance - I am the one who puts braces on their kid's thumb-sucking-teeth - me - the customer - you work for me - you are a dancing monkey on a street that I'll drop some shiny coins into your top hat after you've entertained me with your freak show - any company that fails to consider that it is the respect of the customer that shall be, at all times, reaching towards -  will die and likely by their own sword - it won't be pretty, but I'll do my best to suffer through the show. He told me by email. Classy.

Good thing I'm not paying for service from the company that shall not be named - oh wait, I had already spent $1,700 in parts that they had in their shop! The brief email stated that they needed to ship my parts to me, but there was no mention as to who was expected to pay for this shipment - remember they thought it best to communicate this information to me by email.

Immediately I called the office. Voicemail. Five minutes later I called again. Voicemail. I then replied to his email - asking him to call me immediately so that I may understand what is going on and what I can do to get my parts and so I can just figure out what the hell was happening. He replied in about 3 minutes - we're closed on Fridays, he responded. Classy. Responsible. Good business. "We're closed on Fridays". I'm still struck by how lemonade-stand-in-a-subdivision-on-a-weekend this company is operated. "We're closed Fridays"? Who's closed Friday?

A number of emails later, he says that he'll attempt to call me quickly - it was 11:45am. He called me at 16:30ish or about 5hrs later and later at 20:40. At least he tried getting in touch with me - something he should've done before sending the first email. I missed the calls. I have a 2wk old daughter. I missed the call. I was so upset I was trying to stay away from the phone. Silly me, I believed him when he said he would try to call me very soon - 5hrs later he called - nonsense. Later email exchanges he said to just call on Saturday anytime.

Saturday morning
I call him at 9am - nothing, 5.5hrs later I call him again - nothing. Later he returns my call. Nonsense. All nonsense. He did offer to pay me for the items I'd purchased and shipped to them or to pay for shipping where ever I wanted. A bit of silver lining for all the bullshit. Hum...

The motor I purchased had waayy more miles than I initially thought - thank you Carfax, too bad I didn't look at it beforehand. I probably paid too much for the stuff too. Hum... Should I cash out or should I pay a ton of money to have a 28 year old, underpowered, motor into my project - doesn't make much sense any more. How did it make sense, ever? This nonsense could be a huge blessing. I could get a fresh start.

I cashed out, but now what to do? What motor should I have installed? Where should I go to have the work done? Where to go? What to do? I'd wanted to install a diesel for so long, but getting one licensed in Colorado is extremely restrictive. What to do?

Moving Day!

I spent all day on Monday getting the truck ready for shipping. I planned to get a ton done before it was pulled onto the trailer - no problem - I only have been sitting on these little side tasks for months, oh and there's a new, little person in my house now, no problem.

I've found that people with kids LOVE to tell you that 'oh, you're not going to have any time when she comes along'. No kidding. I am firmly planted in my thirties. I understand the change that will occur when we have a baby - haven't yet experienced it, but I understand that some change will occur to my free time. I get it. 'Oh, but you don't understand how little time you'll have once she comes'. Yea, yea, yea, I get it.

I didn't have any free time. Happy now?

The wife has set me loose to work on the truck. I had some guilt associated with her taking care of the baby while I got to fuss around in the garage. I took her up on it on Monday. She didn't want me to wait till the last minute - You'll get stressed out, she said. I got stressed out. Many profanities were exchanged between me and inanimate objects.

• Finish the front end - I snapped some electrical connectors, but it's done. 
• Finish the rear end - It didn't take too long - easiest part of my day. 
• Install the rear seats - Ah yea, didn't get done. 
• Install the rear seat belts - Ah yea, didn't get done. 
• Install the front seat belts - Mark that one in the 'win' column. 
• Install the HVAC panel - Ah yea, didn't get done. Ugh, mark that in the 'profanity' column. 
• Load the truck up with parts they'll use at the shop - Done. Thanks to my buddy Josh for helping to muscle up the transmission/transfer case. 
• Install ... was that it? Geez, I'm in trouble. I'm going to forget something extremely necessary. 

Pictures to follow tomorrow!  

Tires!

I got some new tires!

I got suckered in to the deals after Thanksgiving. I was going to get them anyway, so might as well get them while the deal is good. I ended up getting them from Discount Tires. Those guys are usually willing to give you a deal, although very small deal, when you mention having looked at other places.

I ended up with BFG All Terrain T/A 33x10.50x15 (33in tall x 10.50in wide on a 15in wheel). BFG used to have those tires in a 9.50, which was what I really wanted. I love the look of tall, skinny tires. Those trucks were designed and built with tractor motors, literally, so I think the skinny tires fits the original intent of the vehicle rather than fat, clunky, mud tires that you can hear a mile away. They fit the truck really well. I did want the thinner tires, but the 10.50 look good too. I wanted the tires to stay tucked inside the fenders and these do, so I'm happy. They're 50k tires, so they should last for a while - the way I'm planning to drive it. They're all terrains, so they should do decent off road - lots of guys run these tires. And they're rated for severe weather conditions, so they should do good in the snow and ice. I'll believe the snow handling when I get to drive it on some snow pack.

Now with the tires on it's a rush to get the truck finished, or as finished as it's going to be before it's shipped off. December 11 is fast approaching and boy do I have a bunch to do. I have decided to have the truck shipped back home, so I don't have to worry about finishing everything completely, but the more I get done the cheaper it'll be in the end.

Photos to come on shipping day! Tuesday. This Tuesday. Oh, no... I type as my perfect, 10 day old, little girl sleeps on my lap.

Steering Gear

So when I pulled the body off the frame one little piece just refused to allow me to actually remove the body from the frame - the steering gear, actually it was a few pieces, but overall it was the steering gear.  I was able to get the steering gear off the shaft, but I really hated the shaft hanging from the firewall, so I went to work and by 'went to work' I mean I broke something. The steering yoke busted. The steering yoke connects the steering column, by way of the steering shaft, to the steering gear. The shaft was completely rust-fused to the steering yoke. A little heat from a torch. A knock here. A knock there and the steering yoke lies dead on the ground.

I wasn't too worried about busting the steering yoke, because it was surely going to be soo long until I needed to worry about how to fix it. The time has come for me to worry about getting the steering to work again. The suspension is done. The brakes are bled. The tires are bought (!) - next blog. It's time to make it steer again.

The yoke was broken clean along a seam - easy. I'll use JB Weld - no luck. A local shop would weld it together perhaps - no luck. On to the salvage yard - jackpot! $15 later and we're set.

The yoke was already dying on the cold, concrete, ground when this photo was taken - there was so little time

U-joint removed - I only wish I knew what I was doing... 

Ah, the u-joint after I got done with it - nothing a 4.5in angle grinder won't solve 

Next up - figure out how in the world to install u-joints. Thankfully NAPA has old part numbers and for once my '84 LandCruiser has parts that are readily available.

U-joints installed - oh what a pain. 

So I install the new yoke to the new, greasable u-joints, but now I can't get the shaft to attach to the u-joint because I already have the shaft attached to the steering gear and because the shaft was designed to be the correct length - I couldn't jimmy the thing on. I had to remove the u-joint from the yoke and reassemble the whole thing. Oh and after reassembling it I realized the steering gear has a cover, damn. No picture of that, but I had to take the thing apart again to get the cover on, damn.

The Surprise Visitor

He's older than me, alway has been. In fact, if time stood still for him, but not for me and I caught up to his years, he'd still be older and wiser and smarter than me. I guess there's just some people who you never outgrow.

He called me shortly after the suspension was finished. He wanted to help. He was willing to fly from Fairbanks to Denver to help me. It had been 3yrs since I had last seen him. He and his family were traveling through Colorado to pick up a truck. He bought the truck on my word that it was a good purchase. I, reluctantly, handled the logistics while he took care of the costs. They stayed long enough to have a meal and rest before they headed out, 16hrs perhaps. Three years ago.

We often speak of cars and building them and driving them and wanting to own more of them. He's far surpassed me in the purchasing department. I don't think I've owned a fraction of the cars that he's owned. I've often wondered what is it about cars that links us together and why do we always want something we don't have in our driveway, another time perhaps.

We've talked about my build and the various directions I've considered. Too many choices I say, but really I'm just so indecisive. My wife's been so good about my changing moods and directions the last thing I want to do is make this build too expensive. Expense is relative and so is my budget, so talking with him has been good for me because it's kept me grounded. I think the evolution of the suspension was too much for him.

I tried to set up the project so that when he arrived we could just roll. Where the rubber met the road - I had the front suspension done and that was about it. I got 2 wheels painted up in gray in preparation of the new tires that I was surely going to install on the second day of our work. I could get the other 2 wheels painted when we finished putting the body on the frame, which would surely take us about 3hrs of solid, beer-in-hand work. If everything went according to plan we could have the truck ready for the shipper before I took him to catch his plane.

One thing leads to another one thing and we barely spent 3hrs on the truck the first day. Run here. Run there. Run back. Then do it all over again. I had the best intentions to have everything - tools, parts, and whatnot ready to go, but it was inevitable that I was missing one or two items.

The body was on the frame the first day thanks to John. I was so excited to get the body off the frame I failed to realize that there were 2 types of body mounts, but 12 locations, uh that was for John to figure out.

I learned from pulling the body off - take...off...the...wheels. Body mounts in place - thanks John

We ended up having to lower the rear to about 3in off the ground. 

The body went on with no drama - none. I had to get my 34wk pregnant wife out to operate the engine hoist while John and I lifted and pushed/pulled the body to get the body mounts to line up right. I don't know how John is so clean?

I kept John working while I stood there - I think I was looking at the clock, it was about dinner time.

 The body was resting securely on the frame and that was the first day. I had an appointment in the morning that I thought for sure I'd be home by 9:30. My 'quick' meeting ended up taking all morning. I didn't get home until it was time to get some food for lunch. I do not pass up an opportunity to eat. I love to eat.

The doors were on by noon on the second day. John lubricated my door and window hardware. The inner fender would be painted before the install, oh yea. 

I think it would've been a good idea for me to have parts undercoated and painted before John got to the house, but yea, that didn't happen. Why do something alone when I could do it with my brother. I waited and it was wonderful.

Brake lines installed! Brakes bled!

Once we got the driver side doors installed - ok, John let me help install the driver side doors. I was worried I'd have to hang the doors by myself and meanwhile it was John who had to essentially hang the doors alone. It really wasn't too difficult, but I'm glad that I had him to lead the way.

Inner fender - painted. Radiator support - painted. 

Installing the inner fender. Note me doing the work - yea I did some work. 

Hood - installed, but I almost amputated John's fore, middle, and ring fingers... oops. 

I like the undercoating/painted look. 

Look at that! 

My brother John - another one for the wall. 

When the weekend was over 'we' had installed the body, doors, fenders, hood, radiator support, tires, and front seats. If it were up to John we would've installed the carpet, dash, lights, grill, and installed the motor and transmission. We didn't get as much done as he wanted, but as much as I wanted, so I was satisfied. I was satisfied with the progress on the project, but most of all I was so blessed to get so much time with my older brother. It'd been 3yrs since I'd seen him, but about 19yrs since I'd known him. I love the guy, my brother John.

Front-End Troubles

Following the weekend with Jarred and getting the suspension done, I wanted to move on to rebuilding the front-end. My plan, of course, was to finish it over a weekend. Yea right.

My steering wheel transmitted some shimmy from about 45-60mph or more specifically when I could get it up to 60mph which required a nice smooth downhill. The forums suggested that perhaps the shimmy was from either the tie-rod ends, the knuckle bearings, or the tires. The tires will be changed later, but in the meantime a front-end rebuild will handle the other two possibilities.

All the parts laid out for the front-end rebuild - wheel bearings, kunckle bearings, wheels seals, bearing races, birfield seals, gaskets, towels, disc rotors, brass drifts, towels, grease, gloves, towels, seal puller, brake cleaner, and some more towels. 

The passenger side tore down nicely. I put each of the bolts from each section - hub lockouts, hub, knuckle, steering arm, and brakes. All the parts cleaned up nicely. I used my favorite new paint - Rustoleum Grill Paint - flat black and good up to 1200F, which is 600F more than expensive caliper paint, yea, I'm smart.

The passenger side went together with little effort or trouble, but... I failed to realize the old bearing races that needed to be punched out and reinstalled with new ones, so I got to do the tear down all over again. Apparently, my sub conscience was not happy with the efficiency of my work and figured that I would benefit from doing the work all over again. Oh and since I failed to read all my forum-sourced directions, that seems familiar, I got to order new seals. 

Passenger side ready for new paint and bearings/seals. 

I was so clean. The picture must've been taken shortly after I started working that day because I was a mess, a complete mess. 

That wheel sure looks old. What to do, what to do. 

 After figuring out the passenger side the driver side was a breeze. 

The next update - a surprise visitor and a space gets cleared up in my garage: 

It Moves!

This past weekend I had some help. I am never the one to turn down good help, but this time was my buddy from high school - dare I say my oldest and best friend and yes, I am sadly old enough to use those two words in succession (oldest and best). I have had some much welcomed help in the past - Rob (x2) and Denny and each one was extremely fun and helpful, but it was this weekend that I've been thinking about for months. (Rob I think about your visits for months too, but usually for other reasons...)

I had my frame all painted - heavy duty anti-rush (that was later mostly removed b/c I messed it up), 2 coats of rubberized undercoating, and 2 coats of rust encapsulate (internal and external x2). My frame was ready to receive the axles yet again.

Prepping the rear axle - following rust converter. The garage was still clean... 

I got the front axle all rubberized. The rear got done with Jarred's help. Once the axles were all cleaned and painted it was time to move them back into place and put the $2k in suspension parts to work - and Jarred. Thank you Old Man Emu for your Medium Duty Lift Kit - thank you, I say after I had to pay you a ton of money, but thank you anyway.

We first tackled the front suspension. Thank you Jarred for reading the instruction for the greasable front shackle assemblies. Ah, yea, they're not that bad I thought. I'll admit my shame when Jarred immediately grabbed the instructions while I just looked at the box of parts. I would've gotten to the instructions after about an hour or two, but Jarred grabbed them right away and read through. Didn't I just do a blog about the importance of reading instructions? Geez.

We rolled the front axle out and secured the spring to the rear perch. The plan was to roll the
suspension back in and then secure the spring to the front perch - good plan and it worked.
Note the blue tape on Jarred's shoes - genius. 

We look so professional with the nitrile gloves. The toughest part was getting all the
packing/shipping tape off my brand new springs. 

Good thing we started the day with a healthy breakfast - donuts! 

The front suspension went on without a hitch - pretty much. We had some trouble aligning the front shackles, but with a little pushing and pulling we got the bolts to line up right. Again - Read Your Directions! Thanks Jarred for the reminder.

Whoo-freakin-Hoo! The front suspension is in place! No busted hands or fingers! 

The bushing in the shock was the toughest part of the front or rear suspension. 

Still working on inserting the bushing into the shock. Why can't they insert them from the factory?!

My hands still hurt. 

Finally! One down, three to go! 

I think we were flying by the time we finished the front. It didn't take too long. I was learning suspension geometry from Jarred. Things were good, but the day was getting long after the side-tracking from painting the rear axle. We trugged along though and I am so thankful.

I needed to run out for some bolts, so Jarred kept busy assembling the rear greasable shackles. Again, first things first - read the directions thank you very much. I get back from my bolt run and we're ready for the rear!

Well, by this time our little 4hr work session was quickly turning into a good solid 6hrs, so I'm feeling the pressure. I don't want to keep Jarred working on my truck all day when he and his wife flew out to see us. I wanted to make sure that we could still show them a good time. Jarred and his wife were more than willing to chill at the house. I guess a house without their kids is something of a vacation in itself, so no need to fuss - awesome! Jarred and I kept working. My pants are quickly becoming dirty and my professional looking blue nitrile gloves have long since been abandoned - ungloved hands always work faster right?

We got the rear suspension in place - good, moving along. We did have considerable trouble with the shackles this time. The directions, however often they were referenced, were not clear for the rear. I'd already called my parts guy for help once, so I didn't want to call him again and I know the forums are ripe with incorrectly installed shackles. After installing them twice incorrectly we finally got it figured.

So glad the body was off for the rear install! 

Sooo, how does this shackle go? Ah, we'll figure it out eventually. 

The shocks only extend so far which wasn't far enough. I guess Old Man Emu didn't expect
that someone would install their shocks without the added weight of a body. Once the
body gets installed the suspension will settle, but in the mean time - I had to do some
jumping on the rear to compress the suspension to get the shocks to mount. 

I think we started around 10am and had it rolling by 4pm - not too bad. My having to run for some bolts set us back a good 45mins and those damn rear shackles added at least an hour to the job, but not bad overall.

I honestly wanted to cry I was so happy. It would've easily taken me a good 2-3 weeks with the rate that I work to have done all that alone. I was happy to get it rolling, but I think I was more happy that I finally got to turn some wrenches with my oldest and best friend. The wives were happy spending time together at the house - they didn't rush us and in fact they often told me to stop worrying about me commandeering our day with my truck. What an amazing display of support from our wives. I am so thankful and so blessed. I only wish we could do it more often. Everything just seemed to fall into place. We had the tools we needed (mostly). We had the parts we needed (mostly). We had some wonderful photographers (thanks Babe) and we had the support we needed to get the job done. I couldn't be happier.

Jarred suggested we strap some buckets to the frame and ride it down the driveway. 

Here's the photo to summarize their trip and it's going to get framed. 

Every now and again you have an experience you know you'll always remember... Ah, we live too far away from our family. I love you guys.

Make sure you read the directions

Before the wife and I left for home for the 4th of July I had a push to get the frame painted. I wire brushed and scraped and rust converted and rinse and repeated a few times over. We're good to go. Angie thought I should paint it in the garage, but I was hesitant. I knew (and still know) that she was right, but I didn't want to have to deal with protecting the garage from overspray, so I decided to spray it outside - it's just the frame, first mistake. It rained on it the day after.

I ended up spraying the frame with some heavy duty anti-rust (one pint of black, one pint of amber (should've read the label perhaps to make sure Eastwood send the right colors)) about an hour before having to finish packing for the flight home. In my rush to spray it, I had ran out of acetone so I had to use mineral spirits - second mistake.

You see, painting it in the garage wouldn't required me to do too much taping. I probably could've gotten all I needed done in less than an hour - an hour I didn't have before getting on the plane. And acetone is used to clean the metal of all dirt, dust, and grease before painting. Mineral spirits is good for grease, dirt, and dust, but it doesn't vaporize like acetone, it stays on the metal. I wiped the frame and left it sit in the sun for a good 15mins, ah that's good enough, besides I've still got some underwear to pack for the trip home. We're good. No worries. I don't need to put it in the garage and I can use mineral spirits.

So where did it go wrong? Let's see, it rained the next day for one. When we got back 4 days later the paint was still tacky to the touch. Damn. Perhaps the mineral spirits was still under the paint and didn't allow the paint to cure. Damn. Good thing mineral spirits takes off paint too. The paint never did cure. I ended up stripping all the paint I had just sprayed, while in the comfort of the garage.

Should've read those paint directions a bit more closely. Oh, so it's supposed to have a clean and DRY surface before spraying. Good to know.

About that Prius

So I didn't want to steal my LC post away too much by talking about the Prius purchase. I know it's very yuppy of me to talk about buying a Prius. Allow me to disclose - I am so not a yuppy, I don't have a trust fund, I don't like wearing polos with little horses on my chest, I don't know how to play croquet, and I'm quite terrible at golf, but I do like efficiency.

I've filled it up 4 times now and I have yet to put more than 8.5 gallons in the 10 gallon tank, which equates to less than $30 thank you. You can argue all about the environmental impacts of the batteries - I won't argue. You can argue all about buying a cheaper, used car that gets 40mpg - I won't argue. I wanted a Prius so I could have an extra battery pack installed and so I could run pure ev (electric vehicle). There's a local company that adds packs and then allows you to run many miles on just battery alone. I believe in diversification.

Once I get the truck done, I'll have a diesel that is capable of running on veggie oil, a Subaru for gasoline, and then a hybrid. Perhaps I'll start a Prius blog when I get the truck all done. I could talk about all the benefits of running pure ev for my 24 mile round trip commute. Maybe after that blog I could start one about the benefits of capturing rain water or canning or using natural deodorant (or none at all)...

So about that Prius, I'm at the dealership negotiating my poor, injured TSX. I'm an honest fellow, so I don't lie about anything. I tell them everything. I'm a firm believer in you bring goodness into your life by believing in the goodness in others, so I didn't lie about anything. I told them all about the problems I'd just learned.

• Them - $2900
• Me - Oh no. Gotta do better than that. 
• Them - Oh, we called around and we could do $3500
• Me - What if I bring it from the Acura dealership to you to check it out? 
• Them - Well we won't go below $3500, so it won't hurt you to bring it. 
• Me - Ok, I'll be back. 

I pay my bill at the Acura dealership. They washed it for me or more accurately for the Toyota dealership, nice. I remember seeing the car come around the lot looking all clean and shiny. I took the wife over to the Prius to give her a run though on the controls while the porter brought my pretty car to a spot, of course he backs it up. I'm a backer-upper, too. I think it always makes a car look good when it's backed into a space. I kinda respected the guy for backing it up for me. Meanwhile, I'm talking to to the wife about this button and that and here's how you adjust the seat and I hear a strange sound. It sounded like he drove the front valence over a curb, but he wasn't parking it facing a curb... 

I turn around and see him frantically pull the car forward. 

Ah, comon! Are you kidding me??! I was not quiet. 

Yea, he wrecked my car. The car that I was trading in, trying to get the highest trade-in value I could, and the damn porter backed my car, my beloved car, into a pole. The passenger tail light was busted and the bumper was scraped. The porter suggested that he could use some touch-up to cover the bumper scrapes - ah, no dude, you're done. Keys please. 

After some loud talking in the dealership - I didn't cuss, but geez did I want to - the general manager came outside to assess the damage. They were good. He offered to buy it from me. He offered $4000. 

I guess I could've really taken advantage of the two dealerships, but as I said, I just don't think that way. 

The Toyota dealership offered $100 more to beat the Acura dealership - good for us. 

I was a bit hot after the exchange, but it really did work out for the best for us. I don't know if we'd gotten $4100 for the Acura had the porter used the mirror when backing up. The Toyota general manager really liked it. He said it was nicer than he figured it would be, so that was a nice little validation for me. I was so sad to see the Acura go, but I'm happy with the new purchase.

Shifting Priorities

I just read through my last post. Geez, it's been over a month since I last updated my this blog. I feel as though I owe everyone an explanation. We're having a baby!

If you're a car builder you're likely thinking "Well that build is over" - not so fast. My wife is pretty ridiculously awesome. The only change in the build is now Proffitt's will have to fab up some baby seat anchors - that's it. I don't foresee me painting it now, so that's changed, but it's been my decision. I may get some cheap work done, but nothing too entailed. I think it'd be a waste not to take advantage of all the work that I did to disassemble it and not get it freshened up - maybe I just won't get a clear coat. I really like the flat dune beige look (it'd save me some $ too).

Moving on

As it stood - before the death in my family - my TSX has entered the great beyond. 

I've cleaned up the frame and cleaned up the frame and cleaned up the frame. I degreased everything. My hands could attest to the degreasing work. Degreasing removes grease - similar to fat in your body. My hands were tight (like I was wearing nitrile gloves that were one size too small) and red for about 2 days afterwords. I wire wheeled the hell out of it.

How cool is that?! I've always wanted something to pull apart and make better. I am so thankful that my wife let's me make a spectacle in the driveway. 

My super clean, super cool TSX is in the background! Pardon me while I wipe the tears out of my eyes. Geez, I miss that car.

I found my frame stampings under the grime on the passenger front side. 

I tried to catch the grease from the knuckles. What the catch pans didn't catch, the carpet scraps and tarp got (mostly).

I sanded the tough stuff off the frame. In hindsight, I would've been fine just cleaning it and wire brushing it. Sanding some areas and not other areas messed it up because I took it down to the bare metal and then I had to use rust convertor to cover the bare metal. If I would've painted it after I cleaned and wire wheeled and sanded it I would've been fine. I don't really work that way and here's why - 

In addition to the baby news, which we've known about since March, my Acura died on me. I loved my TSX. It was an '04 and had 150k, so it was no spring chicken, but it was paid off and looked good and ran good and I like it. I really had no intention of getting anything to replace the TSX. Until my a/c went hot.

My a/c has gone out before. I was lucky when it was a $25 switch that kept the cold air from the vents. I was lucky. I was hoping for luck again, but it was not to be. I dropped the TSX off at the dealer to have it checked out. I got the call about 45 minutes later - cue dark ominous tones.

Service Writer - You're a/c compressor is seized.
Me - Oh no.

SW - Yea, it doesn't get much worse. We're looking at about $1,200 parts and labor.
Me - Ohhh. (me thinking - I have to buy tires this summer which will be $700 if I'm lucky). Would that be it?

SS - Well, sometimes when compressors seize they send metal shaving throughout your a/c system.
Me - Sounds about right. How likely is metal shavings?

SW - Not too often. We wouldn't know until we get the new compressor in and if the system isn't charging then we'd have to start figuring out what else needs to be replaced.
Me - Oh no.

SW - Worst case, we could be looking up to $3,500 total.
Me - Oh no (me thinking - that's $4,200 for a car that is likely worth $7k if I'm lucky). Ok, we'll let you know.

I hung up and the wife and I had a talk over our eggs at The Buff in Boulder. We decided to see what we see. Maybe we'll get lucky. We already knew that we wanted a (deep breath) Prius.

I've wanted a Prius for a while now. Back in '08 we had one on loan for a few days from a local dealership. I could not get comfortable behind the wheel of that car - so we ended up with the TSX. I really liked the next generation when it came out in 2010. I liked the 2010 - more adjustability with the tilt/telescoping wheel and the adjusting seat pan height and the interior doesn't look like a concept from the 1980s.

I didn't want a basic package 2 or 3 Prius. I wanted a package 5 - with the 17in wheels, leather, HID headlights, navigation, bluetooth. We got lucky. The dealer had 2 - a black one w/ about 25k miles and a red one with 57k miles. We ended up with the red one. The previous owner bought the car from the dealership. We talked to the salesman who sold it to him. That guy owned 4 Pri before and was an older guy with no kids or dogs - good thing. The black one was just a mess.

I've never been afraid of miles. I'm afraid of poor condition. One look a the all terrain sport Michelin tires and I knew the red one was the better car. A helpful tip - no one puts sport tires on a Prius unless they recognize that it's important to put quality parts on your car. The black one had discount winter tires - nope.

Just brought it home. Red was about 3rd on the list of colors, but it's doable and I still like it. 

So we bring the Prius home to a full garage. One side was the body and the other side was the rolling chassis. I was planning on continuing to make a mess with the chassis, so it was time to move it to the area beside the house. Thankfully, I have an area that enclosed with privacy fencing, so I don't have to worry about my crabby, nosey neighbor.

It's been cleaned and cleaned and now rust convertor is sprayed over it - everywhere. 

I used the hose to (attempt) get all the dirt, gravel, everything from inside the frame. I tried using air too. I'm sure there's still 10lbs of dirt hidden inside the frame rails, but I got what I could with what I had so it is what it is. 

Before paint - after rust convertor. 

It's back in the garage now and painted. I've got my suspension and front-end rebuild kit. Geez, I've got so much work to do.

And Then There Were Two

It has been a bit since my last update. Truthfully, it's really been just sitting in the ol' garage. We had some guests coming to the house, so I was kept busy getting ready. And by 'busy' I mean my 4-6hrs per week that I actually do work on the truck, instead I spent 2hrs procrastinating and 3-5hrs actually working on the house. If I spent half as much time actually working as I do thinking about working - I'd been done with this thing already. 

Ok, back to the work that I did, well my father-in-law and I did on the truck.

What's he going to do with that cherry picker? 

I'd thought and thought about how I was going to pull the body from the frame. Most guys do some sort of cinder block/ 2x4/ 4x4 post conglomeration where they jack up the body and slide the boards underneath then roll the chassis away. I'm not going to work on the body with it off the frame, but I have no interest in keeping my thousand pound body on a series of 2x4s and 4x4s on top of cinder blocks - sorry. I went one better - how about $7.99 rolling carts from Harbor Freight. More cheap tools, I know. My father-in-law rigged up some cribbing for the carts. I want to be able to move my body around my garage, if need be. Lesson learned on the cribbing - buy the boards you think you'll need then buy a few more, just in case. I had some extra 2x4s laying around that we were able to use, but there for a minute I thought I was going back to Home Depot to get some more and I hate having to leave a project mid sweat.

The rolling carts were rated by Chinese best and brightest at 1,000lbs a piece, so I thought with 4 of them with cribbing screwed to each cart we'd be in business - and we were. Once we got the body off the frame.

Rented leveler secured to the floor board via seat belt mounts 

So I rented the cherry picker from the same rental joint. I was hopping for more than 1,200lbs, but it was the best they had so I went with it. Thanks to some guys on the forums I learned that, likely, if I secured the hoist to the seat belt mounts I'd be able to lift it off the frame. Needless to say, so why say it, but here it goes, lifting an object without first finding the center of gravity is a long road to hoe. Not only was the pick point closer toward the front of the cab, but the back of the cab was way heavier, so pulling the cab was under less than favorable conditions.

We were able to get the cab off the chassis rather easily. We were able to get the height we needed from the cherry picker, so that was easy and good. The imbalance of the pick, though, made the job rather stressful. I thought we were going to lose it once and at that point in time I was pretty alright with the thought. The trouble was lifting the cab, which extends roughly 9inches lower than the frame, high enough to clear the rear tires and the fuel tank is attached to the body so it had to clear too.

We approached the pick from the passenger side, so it cleared the frame first, but it took some fiddling to make it. We had to lift and lift, but it kept just pulling the front higher and higher. The back was off the frame, but sagging down. Damn you gravity! We were able to seesaw the front driver side with the back passenger side to get it to clear. Thankfully, my rear driver side quarter panel was already a bit pushed in from the previous owner, so I wasn't too concerned when was had to skid it across the spare tire support bracket. Oh boy, it got hairy for a bit when the passenger side was cleared from the frame, while the driver side was hung up - it was the fuel tank. The point that was hung up in addition to the pick point caused the passenger side to dive toward the ground. Oh No! Desperate seesawing took place, but we kept it off the concrete. Until we had the carts positioned.

All four rolling carts, with cribbing in secured, in place. I wasn't too worried about keeping it level, but there are two carts in the back too. 

We were able to find better pick points once we got it down on the carts. Lesson learned - um, figure out the best pick points before pulling it - com'on Joe think. 

And then there were two!

After we got the body off, which took a bit longer than what I planned, but not bad. The seesawing was effective, but not the way I want to put it back on - I'll deal with it when I'm done with the frame and suspension. 

Now that we have the body off the frame, we had to pull the bellhousing off the block. My shop - Proffitt's Cruisers(!) is going to use the bellhousing with my H55 (5-speed) swap, but they need my bellhousing and flywheel and transfer case. The transfer case is for them - it has value for them, but the H55 will have the transfer case with it. 

The bellhousing took a lot longer than what I figured, but I had help for which I was/am so thankful. After we got all the work done it was time to clean up. I was ready to die afterwards. I know, I know, but I'll be the first to admit I was worked under the table. Working with my father-in-law made me think about working with my Dad. My father-in-law worked me under the table and so would've my Dad. It made me miss him. I was thinking of you Dad, promise, more often than not. 

Ok, that over and a bit teary, good news continues. 

I bought a motor and it's at Proffitt's waiting for MY truck. I bit of research with the State of Colorado, I learned that if I want to put in a diesel in my truck it has to be at least my year or newer and it can't be out of a heavy duty chassis - so no 3/4 ton or 1 ton or bread van w/ a 4bt Cummins. Guys can get away with it in other states, but not in Colorado. A light duty truck with a passenger car diesel, though, is alright! I bought a motor from a 1984 Mercedes Benz 300d - an OM617 turbo diesel Mercedes! 

It's a bit low on torque, but if the diesels that were available in Land Cruisers in 1984, such as mine, in Canada and Australia were 3B and 2H diesels - both of those diesel were lower in horsepower and torque and had a lower usable rpm range than the OM617. It won't be a monster, but it's perfect for the character of my build and I am extremely super excited to have it in my engine bay. 

Angie and I took some degreaser and scrubbie to the frame, so it's ready for getting the surface rust off.