Brush-waggling and tinkering

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Filed under: truck by tamber
13 Mai 2024 @ 00:53

Didn't manage to grab my drill from work, because my saturday morning shift turned into a most-of-saturday driver cpc instead. And without my drill, I can't make up the other injector hold-downs.

Painted a bit, instead. And, just as the rain rolled in, loosely bolted the front wing on for the time bean, to keep it out of the way and also so I can double-check there's no missing bolt-holes I need to fix before I paint the underside of the footwell vent panel. (Spoiler alert, there's some bolt-holes I need to fix. But that would also require a drill, so...)

Also loosely bolted on some other bits n pieces, like the braces that go from the footwells to the front wings; which reveals another bolt-hole I'm missing in the passenger footwell panel. The intake manifold was also refitted again, so I can run the truck if needs be; which might be helpful for testing things like the compressor, or scooting the truck out to start work on the driver's side floor... which I spent several minutes staring up at. I'm glad it's not as bad as the passenger side, but there's still a good few hours work in it yet.

Pulled the passenger mirror arm off so I could straighten it, and prep the bottom of it to receive a new threaded section. May also take advantage of it being off, and reinforce the upper mount on the door, too, so it doesn't risk tearing out.

And, having made that clevis up for the footbrake valve, I went and fitted it; which reveals that the mounting bracket for said footbrake valve is not in line with where it should be, and it's also too flexible. (Which I suspected it would be, but I didn't want to brace it all up before I tried it to see if everything was in line; and now I'm very glad I went that route.)

It's nice to see more of the truck going yellow again, because it's an extremely visible marker of progress; even if it does feel like it's going to take ten coats of paint on everything...

So, mirror arms! The nearside was already in pretty decent shape, I just had to replace the bolt at the top and weld a new bolt to the bottom of it to be the new lower mount, and that's that sorted.

The offside took rather more work. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten a picture of what it started like, but it was incredibly well-bent to the point that it almost looked to be installed upside down.

With the addition of some heat, though, and careful bending... and tweaking... and hitting it with a hammer... and also welding on a new bolt to the base of it because the one I'd done previously was crooked...

Not perfect, but 85.53% closer!

The mirrors are in line with eachother again. Bumper is definitely offset to one side, though

I did the obligatory sit-in and daydream about reaching the finishing point with this project. Definitely plenty to do before I get there, though. Messing about with the mirror arm reminded me of how much I've got to rework that driver's door; but I'm confident I can do a better job this time, so it's not too much trouble.

Other minor things included spiral-wrapping and running the plastic fuel line up to the engine bay, which was an easy enough job. I've also dug up a filter housing and spin-on filter that I'm planning on using; just got to find a good place to mount it, and get some more fittings! Yay!

I was hoping to tinker a bit more after work today, but I've spent my morning at work in excruciating pain -- thanks to my joints -- and loaded with painkillers; so I nixed those plans, just went home and turned into a pumpkin.

Might draw up a template for making the fuel pump mounting flange for the tank, come to think of it. Then I might be able to assemble enough of the fuel system that I can run the truck from the actual tank rather than a little can.