Builds Project Bush Cricket...

[jesus888]

Haha wow yeah autocorrect.. so there are the little white caps that adjust the play on the gears. If the spin in and out with the gears, in place of staying properly adjusted. The gears lock and your seat won't move. Adjust them back and find a way to keep them from spinning back out.

10-4 got it!

 

[clx16]

Once you get the cap screw adjusted, i took the smallest drill bit i could find and drilled a small hole that included the screw and the outside wall and then put a tiny screw in to keep it from backing out. Been working great for 4 years now.

 

[jesus888]

Ordered a few more things today in "anticipation" of needing them. FML. Only way this is all gonna happen is incrementally... small progress most days instead of a week of messing with it, because I'd probably murder someone instead of enjoying the process.

Siless		Butyl Sound Deadening (108 square feet)	$139.00	$0.00	1	$139.00
Siless		Sound Deadening Mat (3 x 36 sq ft boxes	$52.95	$0.00	3	$158.85
Lumiteco		Sounds Deadening Application Roller	$8.59	$0.00	1	$8.59

 

[jesus888]

In today’s installment of Project Bush Cricket, I got the 3rd row and front driver seat outta the truck along with the center console and gear shifter surround.

We bypassed the rear heater under the hood, so I’m gonna do a little research about removing that rear heater altogether, and if there’s an opening that needs to be filled?

 

[jesus888]

Progress was small today… but it was progress.

• I disconnected everything for the rear heater on the inside of the truck, and pulled the clamps down on the hoses under the truck but didn’t quite get the hoses off, so that’ll continue later
• I started the process of doing my best to recondition the “leather” seats before I get my seat covers, figure it’ll keep em plyable maybe a little longer… may buy some leather repair tape to take care of the driver front rips so they don’t get worse under the covers…
• I pulled most of the interior trim/door sill bits in anticipation of pulling the carpet
• Made some sourdough bread because I’m addicted.

Gonna be gone for a few days to the cabin in western NC that this byatch is gonna reside once I get everything taken care of… one day, she’ll come with me.

 

[davidp14]

I pretty much had to completely disassemble my rear heater to remove it. Maybe you'll have better luck than me. clean both sides of the body well and use HVAC tape o cove the hole, or weld shut. You'll have quite a bit a usable space under the PS seat when your done.

Impressive work so far

 

[jesus888]

I pretty much had to completely disassemble my rear heater to remove it. Maybe you'll have better luck than me. clean both sides of the body well and use HVAC tape o cove the hole, or weld shut. You'll have quite a bit a usable space under the PS seat when your done.

Impressive work so far

Awesome, thank you for the advice! And thank you for the compliment. Redoing the stereo as well so I’m sure I’ll be able to find something to go down there like an amp or something…

 

[clx16]

Redoing the stereo as well so I’m sure I’ll be able to find something to go down there

Why not a trapdoor to allow for longer drives with less potty breaks?

 

[jesus888]

Why not a trapdoor to allow for longer drives with less potty breaks?

This may be the way. "Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat" -Steve Jobs

 

[jesus888]

Ok… so let’s catch up. A little bit of life got in the way of progress, along with some frustration in fixing the front seat fore/aft gears…

We can start there. I had the gears, the tools, the video, it was all good and had all of the motivation, but I got some bind, didn’t want to strip out the new gears and basically did the process more than a few times and cleaned things up more and more each time. Happy to report both seats now go forwards and backwards smooth as butter (or white lithium grease)
Note: My lovely wife will franken-stitch the driver seat before I put some “learher repair tape” and ultimately my Escape Gear seat covers that are sitting close by in a box…

Next came the rear heater delete, which is finally completed, thanks to a friends help…

And lastly, the front carpet is out and I’m in “cleaning mode”… I have new carpet but after I trace all of the holes to cut, I’ll probably pressure wash the old carpet and put it up for sale (with my side steps and rear heater) since it’s still in good (but dirty) shape.

I’m going to continue removing interior stuff like the headliner and interior panels before I give the interior a solvent-cleaning, also before I start with the sound deadening… that’s gonna take a while, I know, because I’ve done it before…

Cheers… I’ll have more next week!

 

[clx16]

Great job and you are going to really enjoy that thing with the previous owner all cleaned out of it.

 

[jesus888]

Great job and you are going to really enjoy that thing with the previous owner all cleaned out of it.

Thank you! and you bet... he's a good friend of mine, but the truck definitely has its share of dirt/debris inside. My goal of the build is to basically keep it as-is on the outside, but look basically new on the inside and it be mechanically sound and off-road capable, and so far I'd say it's definitely mechanically sound (short of putting lots of miles on it to check everything else) and we're on the way to getting the inside in great shape!

 

[jesus888]

Today…
Got the rest of the carpet out
Vacuumed and cleaned with some cut simple green…
My wife put some stitching in the driver seat l, before I put some leather tape on it, before I put the seat covers on…

Let’s see what happens tomorrow…

 

[jesus888]

More work done… baby steps.
Put leather tape on the driver seat in anticipation of the seat covers going on
Pulled all of the seat belts, gran handles, and other encumbrances that can stop me from pulling the headliner… not difficult but a bit time consuming

Next Steps
Pull the headliner
Clean the headliner, visors, and ALL of the plastic trim that I’ve taken off thus far (and there’s A LOT)
Apply sound deadening to the roof
Reinstall clean headliner
Apply Sound deadening to floor (after plugging rear heater hole
Take doors apart to sound deaden and install new speakers / run wires for sound, all prior to carpet
Install carpet

I have a looooooong way to go… but I’ll just keep plugging along, and we’ll get there eventually…

 

[jesus888]

And a picture of the seat with leather tape for good measure…

 

[clx16]

Is the headliner dirty from smoking? Mine needs cleaning too but it isn't quite as dirty. I've wondered how it got so dirty.

 

[jesus888]

Is the headliner dirty from smoking? Mine needs cleaning too but it isn't quite as dirty. I've wondered how it got so dirty.

Na... I know the previous owner, and there isn't any smoking that's been done in this girl... I think it sat for 2-3 years in a garage and somehow that made it worse, maybe a bit musty? I'm not sure... we'll see what it takes to get it cleaned up. I'm hoping just a soak in some soapy water and maybe a brush for some of the more dingy parts will do the trick... we'll see!

 

[jesus888]

Progress… decided to do some cleaning today and got the headliner out…

 

[jesus888]

Its drying and gonna give it another coat and some agitation with a nylon brush…

 

[jesus888]

Well… I’m a little stumped. I pulled some of the jute down from the ceiling and I’m regretting it. I was gonna do the butyl sound dampening and ensolite there, but I just don’t think it’s that necessary.

and getting the jute down is a pain in the ass… and I’m not uninstalling the sunroof to put stuff under there, so I’m going to pull the plug on this piece.

basically I will put the ensolite on the back of the CLEAN headliner so somethings up there to warrant all of this pain but otherwise, not messing with the roof anymore.

I’ve confirmed that my sunroof drains are working, so I’m good.

now as far as the floor goes, and I’ve had cars with very little sound deadening but the stock stuff really does get rid of most of tbe vibration wherever it is and I don’t have rust issues so no need to remove it! I plan on basically putting it on panels that don’t have anything on them and in the doors and tire jumps for sure and then basically putting the ensolite close cell foam stuff EVERYWHERE…

I think that’s the next steps, along with getting the headliner back in, and cleaning the sunroof cover so it’s clean like the headliner…

also hit the headliner with another coat of 409 and a soft bristle brush and it’s so damn clean, it makes me happy