Ok folks, I feel like I owe you an update!
Things have been busy for the last little bit, and I have not had a chance to get much done on the swap. Catching up on stuff that has been needing to be done around the house, like a full on re-stain and clear of all the exterior, and building a new deck out back - both of which are about year overdue. Now, with those out of the way it's back to Cruisers!!
First the deck, since we all know if I don't post pics, it didn't happen... 16'x 16' PTP... That's a lot of screws, but worth it in the end!
Next I broke out my latest Monstaliner chips, and compared them to what's already on the truck. Jungle Love, and Envy... Obviously this is not part of the diesel conversion, but as you know with one thing leading to the next, this is next...
So, looks to me like Jungle Love (the darker one) is a pretty close match to what's on the outside right now.
But, under the hood it seems that Envy is the better match for the original. So now another decision. I hadn't planned on doing any painting on the inside, and the firewall and underside will be black with chassis saver, so using Jungle Love would allow me to do that and not have to paint the interior, but I think the Envy looks better! This is going to take some deep thought.
So, to make some forward progress on the project, it's time to start pulling the heart out of my 60. Figured I'd start with a before pic, but I didn't figure that until I had already started, so I guess this is a bit more of an "almost before" pic.. (Just missing one headlight fairing and turn signal.)
Bit of a sad day tearing this apart - I've enjoyed a lot of miles in this truck, plenty of adventures and met lots of good people, but it's reached the end of its useful life for me. For a long time I had considered finding a southern 60 shell and swapping everything over. Never really formulated, and since I had the 40, well... That just made sense. I hate to take apart a classic, but knowing that the heart transplant is going to give new life to my other cruiser, and hopefully some of the other parts can help keep other cruisers on the road, well, I guess the legend will live on.
So, got the hood off, all intake, the turbo and intercooler hoses off, rad, shroud, and fan off. Power steering is disconnected, throttle cable and linkages are removed and secure on the engine. Batteries, fuse block and ground buss are out, alternator electrically disconnected along with the vac pump, oil pressure gauge and EDIC switch wiring, temp gauges unplugged, pyro and boost gauges are disconnected as well.
What's left before I un-bolt the mounts? Drive shafts, veggie and diesel lines, and the coolant connections to the heater. Pull the shifters, speedo cable, tach connection, EDIC and starter wiring.... And I'm sure a whack of stuff I have forgotten.
On the bright side, my white Monstaliner (for the roof) is here, my new suspension bushings are here, and so are the new body mounts. And, since I haven't been actually doing work on the truck, I have been ordering stuff.... Gallon of Chassis saver on the way, and disturbingly, Cruiser Corps decided to put a bunch of stuff on sale... So now I have a new weatherstrip for the windshield top, kick vent seals, full set of lug nuts, hood hinge gaskets and two battery hold down kits.
However, the best news of all is that I have located a "new" rear crossmember and corner gussets for my frame, gotta love Mud classifieds! Even better than that, a friend/co-worker/fellow mud member is passing through the area as I type this and will pick it up and mud ship it home! Psyched!
More to come soon....
