Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

It was so good to meet you last week Chris!

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

I am with you 100%. Makes such a huge difference when they look ‘right’
More little things, see below...
Likewise. I am ready to meet the Jimmy, now that you’ve met all of my junk :D

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

More “little things”. It has a good running motor, but it was ug-ly. Stripped it down and treated it to a rattle can rebuild and a new set of valve covers. Also replaced and re-routed a bunch of stuff. With the new plug wires, there’s no longer a miss and with a new coolant sender, the temp gauge now works :chevy:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Yes, before anyone asks, I will paint the booster/master :lol:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Real nice, Chris!!! That simple stuff goes a long way towards making it more appealing, not to mention operating better.

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Thanks, it’s so true. I just want to not be embarrassed/enjoy driving it :lol:

More little things:

- booster/master painted, installed new reservoir cap
- correct not-chrome air cleaner lid (needs paint)
- new wheel center caps, polished the wheels/lugnuts/hubs
- aligned the hood at cowl area via the hinges (personal pet peeve that drives me nuts. I’ve seen high-end builds with the sticky-uppy hood and it ruins the look of the whole truck...)
- and brightened up the tailgate with white letters to match the soon to be white hardtop

It will never be perfect, but it’s looking soooo much better now :chevy:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

That looks great...I need to get those things taken care of too...I kinda fall into the rut of concentrating on the big picture and lose sight of the little detail things that look great & fill in the gaps between the big, labor intensive jobs. Thanks for the positive reminder! :cool:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Looking really good Chris! I’m lost on the whole wheel discussion, but I have no doubt that you have a vision and a plan.

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

My sentiments exactly. The 2wd conversion is not happening right now, but it can at least look/drive decent in the meantime
Thanks! Story goes: pausing the conversion on this one to focus time/money/efforts on getting the truck running. The wheels were an unfortunate casualty of that process. It might all work out in the end :lol:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

More little things: the shocks were junk, so I slapped on a set of KYBs. Bit of a pain, as apparently there are lots of the old, white gas-a-just shocks still sitting on vendors’ shelves. Had to send two back, and go through two different suppliers to finally get four silver shocks, as mix-matched shocks just won’t cut it :lol:

Also freshened up the gauges and got the previously non-functioning temp and fuel readouts working. Temp gauge was disconnected under hood, and once connected, did not work at all. New sending unit fixed her up. Fuel gauge was likewise acting weird, swapped in a fresh sender, new fuel sock, re-wired the ground, and replaced fuel hoses while I had the tank out. Put in $50 worth of corn-free non-ethanol fuel and the dash reads 3/4 full :chevy:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

There’s just something about a fresh coat of 521 white that makes me smile :D

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Great improvement!!!

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Looks MUCH better!

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

looks good!

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

I spy what I believe to be a '67 beetle in the garage... I never knew you were also a VW guy.

White top looks much better!

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Thanks fellas, I feel MUCH better about it now. This is how it’s supposed to look :chevy:

As for the bug, I may have tricked you a bit. It’s my wife’s ‘66 in bahama blue, though I hung a set of “rare” ‘67-only towel racks on the rear bumper. It’s a great little car that has had a decent restoration. It has been a dead reliable interim toy while we search for her ‘69 Camaro. Amazing how much fun you can have driving with only 40hp.


Only pics I have available on my phone:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

You blazer looks amazing! Any chance you’ll be adding the lower mouldings? I think that would complete the look.

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

You and I think a lot alike :D I have thought about it, and would like to, but it’s not in the cards currently. Plan is to do some interior freshening, now that I have it mechanically sorted, then I’ll concentrate funding/efforts on the truck, which is feeling lonely and neglected.

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Seriously, where do they get off charging people money for this hot garbage?! The normal aftermarket filler neck grommet basically disintegrated. The new one oozes quality. Buy from Classic Heartbeat once and buy it for life. No joke, the grommet is $10 and carries a lifetime warranty :metal:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Wow, Chris! It's really taking shape...like I said in a previous post, it didn't look bad before but it just looks that much better now! :cool:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Truck is looking awesome Chris! Any prep on the top other than a spray of the 521 after a thorough cleaning?

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Thanks, I’m feeling much better about it, especially since it’s no longer “marking its territory”.
Thouroughly cleaned with dish soap and a red 3M scrubby, then filled some minor dings/divots/cracks, sanded with 240 grit, then cleaned again before finally applying the white. Light grey primer may help with coverage, but I just laid it on thick.

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

Well, this one went down the road today, sorry to get everyone excited about nothing. Maybe another time...

A few parting shots:

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

sold???

Re: How To: Ruin a Perfectly Good 4wd
 

It looks way better with your touches on it! Sad to see it go, though...