Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Here's one of both my squares parked nose to nose this summer.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Looking good! Did you have to do anything to your plow mount to work with that lift? What's the story on your '87? Looks pretty tall.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

After the 4" lift the plow blade would easily trip. I like the clearance I had on the truck side from the plow mount to the ground so I didn't want to lower that. I ended up making some blocks that moved the pin holes up on the "A" frame 4". So now the "A" frame is parallel to the ground. So far it's been working well that way.

The '87 has 6" of lift and 33x12.5x15 tires. It's a hop to get up in the seat.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

That makes sense. Few rungs down on the chain and the lift cylinder doesn't know.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Couple of interior updates. I added boat grab handles.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also swapped the steering wheel for one out of a late '80s/ early '90s. I think it gives a bit more room.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Looks good. I like the handles. The wife unit would be very happy with a couple of those.

I think you are right, our plow controls look identical.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I like the handles because they give you something else to grab on the drivers side. I made a habit of not grabbing the wheel as it's hard on the column so it was kind of a trick to hop in before the handles.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Back to the build.

After fitting the doors it was time to install the rubber floor liner.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Then I threw the seat it and started gathering parts to bring it to the body shop.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Solid work. Does Warn make the front receiver hitch you are using? You are answering all kinds of questions for me.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks, Happy to help.

For the front receiver I bought a generic approximately 6" long 2" receiver tube and welded it to the plow frame. It put it just below the bumper and is plenty out of the way for the plow components.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Hello from Isanti,

This is great work, I'm waiting for a good snow to get my square out to plow for the first time. It has a 4" lift and I have not modified any of the A frame brackets, I hope it's not tippy.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks. Yeah not much snow yet. If your plowing fresh snow the blade shouldn't be too tippy. It's worse when there's a layer that's already been driven on. I've only put it one once this year so far. May use it this weekend to clean up some drifting.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Replaced the t-stat. Noticed the truck wasn't getting up to temp. Not a great thing when it's around 20 below.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Not much new to report. Just been driving it daily. The good news is that I was able to find some more pictures.

Here's wire wheeling the frame.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Here's the underside of the box painted.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

These show how much floor was replaced on the passenger side.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

And to continue on with the build, here's some pics from the body shop.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

This is the white on the roof and tailgate.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Good fun!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Figured I'd update the thread. Recently went to back out of the garage and found that the shifter wouldn't come out of park. Dropped the pan and found it was hitting the edge. This was pretty strange as the pans been on for more than 15,000 miles. Ground in some clearance and it was good to go.

Here's a pic of the mark it left hitting the pan.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

That's odd. Wonder if something with the shift linkage geometry outside the case...

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Forgot to mention I had retightened the bolts in the pan before it happened. I think the gasket may have collapsed just enough or the pan shifted slightly. Ive heard with these pans that sometimes more clearance needs to be added for the shifter. Just odd it happened after being on the truck for so long.

Luckily, the shifter linkages are all still tight.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I had reconditioned the original door panels when I reassembled the truck but they were showing their age and were starting to crack. So I ordered some from Rockauto. Pretty happy with how they turned out. I need to paint the kick panels to match.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also replaced the power window switches as the passenger side had started acting up.

Driver door.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Nice, those look the same as the ones I got for the front of my crew, in a different color of course. I popped the inserts off and recovered them in matching seat fabric which wasn't hard to do.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

And another pic of the truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks. The inserts on these be ones were glued on. Is that how yours were? The factory panels had speed nuts holding them on.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Yep. I popped them off, scraped off the loose adhesive, peeled off the fabric they came with and used 3M spray adhesive to put it all back together.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Nice! Is that the color the rock auto panels came in? Or did you paint them?

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

That was how they came. They had different colors available. This was as close to my interior as I could get. Now I just need to decide if I want to paint the kick panels to match the new door panels or vice versa.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Wow, just realized it's been another year of daily driving. Close to 30,000 miles on it now.

Here's a pic pulling the wheeler.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

How is the rust repair holding up?

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

It's holding up very well. I was pretty meticulous on the repair and painting. Also, it's very well mainted. It's frequently washed inuding the undercarriage, especially in the winter.

In the process of the repairs I figured out where the problem areas are (where salt, dirt, and moisture collect) and keep them clean.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Recently I've noticed an intermittent hesitation when taking off from a stop. I figured out the tranny wasn't always shifting back into 1st when coming to a stop.

To fix it I started by pulling and cleaning the governor which seemed to help. I still wanted to clean & inspect the valve body as it appears the trany's never been worked on. All I've done was change the fluid & filter and install a deeper pan. I figured while I was in there I'd install a shift kit.

Got it installed and went for a test drive. It's definitely shifting back to 1st. Light throttle shifts seem the same and heavy throttle has been improved. So it was a success.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Repacked the front wheel bearings. Also lubed the inner spindle bearing.

Spindle reinstalled and ready for the hub.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Hubs ready to install.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also replaced the auto locking hubs with manual. Had a couple times going down the road below 0 last year they tried engaging themselves. So it was time for manual.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Good looking hubs! I had lots of trouble with the auto hubs on my 83. Good marketing tool, poor idea in the long run.