Builds Treebeard (2 Viewers)

[ntdb]

Had the same cooling issue with respect to temps - swapped out my thermostat and all gaskets and hoses. My thermostat was indeed broken and stuck open, so truck never warmed - using an IR therm, the top hose to the heater core wouldn't get much above 140 degrees. Result of swap, things are much better now. Heater is blasting hot air like a furnace now - 20 F outside yesterday and actually had to turn heat down!

Thank you! That IR measurement is really helpful, I'm going to compare to my truck ASAP. I'm definitely going to do the thermostat and hoses... I just have to start compiling a list of heater hoses that are still available. I also want to do a pressure test to make sure my heater core valve isn't leaking in case I need to replace that. I meant to do it last night but it didn't work out.

 

[ntdb]

Last night I decided last-minute to tear into my gutters. The first half of this week is rain-free and I wanted to do it before I installed my new carpet. Still... I didn’t think it through. Several hours of work to remove the old stuff, 24 hours for rust converter to dry, 12 hours for primer to dry, and probably another couple of hours for the paint to dry (the sealant is fast, at least). Leaving the truck at the shop that long is a bummer but I’m working it out. Thankfully the shop has a fun little Mazda that I’m able to use to get home each night.

I bought some 2k primer for the job and I know the gutters won’t need all of it so I’m also going to hit some of the rust spots on the body as well. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper, wire-wheeled where needed, and masked everything off. Later tonight I’ll hit that 24 hour mark since putting down rust converter and can put primer on all of it. I have a rattle can of 464 that I’m hoping will cover the gutters and the random body spots.

The best news is that there’s almost no rust in my gutters!

 

[MoaByte]

Last night I decided last-minute to tear into my gutters. The first half of this week is rain-free and I wanted to do it before I installed my new carpet. Still... I didn’t think it through. Several hours of work to remove the old stuff, 24 hours for rust converter to dry, 12 hours for primer to dry, and probably another couple of hours for the paint to dry (the sealant is fast, at least). Leaving the truck at the shop that long is a bummer but I’m working it out. Thankfully the shop has a fun little Mazda that I’m able to use to get home each night.

I bought some 2k primer for the job and I know the gutters won’t need all of it so I’m also going to hit some of the rust spots on the body as well. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper, wire-wheeled where needed, and masked everything off. Later tonight I’ll hit that 24 hour mark since putting down rust converter and can put primer on all of it. I have a rattle can of 464 that I’m hoping will cover the gutters and the random body spots.

The best news is that there’s almost no rust in my gutters!

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That's good news! You are getting ahead of it!

 

[red66toy]

Last night I decided last-minute to tear into my gutters. The first half of this week is rain-free and I wanted to do it before I installed my new carpet. Still... I didn’t think it through. Several hours of work to remove the old stuff, 24 hours for rust converter to dry, 12 hours for primer to dry, and probably another couple of hours for the paint to dry (the sealant is fast, at least). Leaving the truck at the shop that long is a bummer but I’m working it out. Thankfully the shop has a fun little Mazda that I’m able to use to get home each night.

I bought some 2k primer for the job and I know the gutters won’t need all of it so I’m also going to hit some of the rust spots on the body as well. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper, wire-wheeled where needed, and masked everything off. Later tonight I’ll hit that 24 hour mark since putting down rust converter and can put primer on all of it. I have a rattle can of 464 that I’m hoping will cover the gutters and the random body spots.

The best news is that there’s almost no rust in my gutters!

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Excellent work! Love all the progress

 

[87CRUSR]

Keep going!

 

[ntdb]

Late night fun with 2k primer (the door was open and the ventilator was on while spraying).

 

[ntdb]

Today I finished the gutters! Mostly. I went too heavy on the sealant and didn’t have enough left for the A pillars. I’ll go buy more tomorrow and get it put in before the rain comes. The 3M self-leveling sealant (08307) is extremely easy to work with. I put some 464 rattle can on top and it looks great.

I figured that since I had paid for some short-pot-life 2k primer that I would also repair some rust spots on the body. It went well enough but I’ll probably sand them down a bit and put more paint on when I can, they’re a little rough. It’s obvious that they were repaired by an amateur but I’m happy enough with them for now.

 

[ntdb]

The 1/2lb MLV is down and the cargo area is... finished?!? For now I mean. Tomorrow I’ll top it off with a Lloyd’s cargo mat and finish up the front of the truck.

 

[MoaByte]

Looks great!

 

[moclakens]

Looking great! I just ordered sealant for my gutters and am waiting for a nice weekend to start work. I need to order paint aswell, but my truck isn’t freeborn so I’m having trouble finding a top coat.

 

[ntdb]

I'm aaaaalmost finished with the carpet. I made a few mistakes that I'll document so that others can carefully avoid them. I also haven't finished the sill plates yet... once I do that and fix some of these mistakes I'll post decent photos.

1. I cut the hole for the rear heater too wide. Definitely start small, try fitting the carpet, and adjust as needed. Also consider cutting "flaps" around the sides to make it fit rather than making simple rectangular hole, you can tuck the flaps underneath the heater in spots.
2. I bolted the middle piece of carpet down when it was too far to the rear. I think the seat mount molds lined up pretty well but the front of the parking brake opening is getting caught in the parking brake teeth when it goes up/down. I think I'll need to solder new holes for the rear seat mounts and console mounts in order to scoot the carpet forward a bit. This might actually fix my heater mistake and the "bad" holes for the seat mounts shouldn't be visible.
3. I thought I could get away with lumpy MLV underneath my carpet. This is really only a problem on the front seat mounts. You can see the problem area in the second photo in post #448 above where the seat mounts and trans hump meet. I probably need to pull the carpet back, make some strategic slices in the MLV to get it to lay down flatter, and then re-do the seat mount holes to get the carpet to lay down better on the trans mount.
4. I soldered out holes for the shifter boots. If you follow @dnp's instructions he never says to do this but I thought I was being smart. Fortunately I also cut the holes for my shifter boots too small. This is part of the reason why the carpet on the trans hump is not laying down well but it should also be easily fixed by cutting them out more to fit properly.

Last night I rotated my tires and worked on sealing up the rear wheel wells to prevent water from coming in underneath my six layers of floor covering (butyl, foam, MLV, jute, carpet, floor mats). I used a wire brush to scrape the problem spots down really well, pulled off some of the undercoating and metal where it was loose, covered it in 3m auto body repair tape (thick aluminum tape), and covered that in some generic aerosol undercoating. This should keep water out for a few months while I work on developing my welding skills. It's deeeefinitely a short-term solution.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

@ntdb how many 200ml tubes for the rain gutter did you need?

 

[ntdb]

@ntdb how many 200ml tubes for the rain gutter did you need?

I could have managed with just one if I hadn’t gone back over parts of it twice to get the fill level that I wanted. I ended up using a different seam sealer in the drip channels on the A pillars.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I could have managed with just one if I hadn’t gone back over parts of it twice to get the fill level that I wanted. I ended up using a different seam sealer in the drip channels on the A pillars.

Great thanks. Not too cheap a product.

 

[ntdb]

I spent a few hours at the shop tonight working on little random things. I put new bulbs in the front running lights, the reverse lights, and the license plate light. The reverse bulbs were original Koitos and one of them still worked! I’m also really happy that my license plate light works. It’s such a small thing but I enjoy having it functional again.

I also removed the three remaining mud flaps. They’re in bad shape and mostly just made the truck look worse if you ask me. I’m hoping to put some presentable aftermarket flaps on before too long. I’m pretty sure I’m priced out of an OEM set at this point. I cleaned behind them, used a razor blade to remove the butyl rope used to hold them onto the body panel, and degreased whatever was left.

I also attempted to remove the trailer hitch from the truck. It’s surely not rated higher than class 1 and is only a ball hitch, no receiver. It’s completely useless now that the truck is lifted. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the rear tow hook off and had to give up for the night. I’ll try again later with a torch and a grinder.

 

[ntdb]

I replaced the oil in my transmission 9 months and maybe 5,000 miles ago. What would cause it to be this dirty after that time? Some of this migrated from the transfer case but that oil looked much cleaner. That’s the fill plug in the photo.

 

[MoaByte]

I replaced the oil in my transmission 9 months and maybe 5,000 miles ago. What would cause it to be this dirty after that time? Some of this migrated from the transfer case but that oil looked much cleaner. That’s the fill plug in the photo.

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I had that on my rear diff after tying that purple synthetic crap. Went back to the regular stuff, problem went away. Your oil isn't purple though.

 

[ntdb]

It's been a quiet few weeks...

I got the old ball hitch removed and am slowly working on getting my new 2" receiver installed. I just need to round up the correct hardware and drill the frame.

My voltage reading has been getting lower and lower over the last few weeks. I ended up pulling the alternator and took it, along with my spare, to Oreilly for testing. Turns out that they're both bad. We have a camping trip planned for Friday so I'm going to do my best to find another alternator to drop in before then. My battery is pretty new so I don't want to ruin it with a bad alternator.

With the help of a friend I got my RTT mounted back up and aired it out yesterday. It feels good to have the tent ready to go again! I don't think I'll remove it next winter, it's just not worth it considering that a replacement weather cover is only $150 from CVT.

 

[ntdb]

This morning I picked up a “new” alternator from Blanchard Electric near Seattle. They ordered a reman from Whatcom in Bellingham for me earlier in the week and managed to get it back just in time for me to install it and drive 150 miles to camp this evening. It looks great and performs well so far. I need to do some cleaning in my engine bay, would love for more of it to look like this!

 

[NookShneer]

This morning I picked up a “new” alternator from Blanchard Electric near Seattle. They ordered a reman from Whatcom in Bellingham for me earlier in the week and managed to get it back just in time for me to install it and drive 150 miles to camp this evening. It looks great and performs well so far. I need to do some cleaning in my engine bay, would love for more of it to look like this!

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Roll the beautiful camping pics.