Small update from the past few weekends of working on the truck.
We have pulled the bed off and on about 8 times now with at least one more repetition left.
We repainted the back of the cab, got a lot of runs in the clear.. sanded them out flat then burnt through the clear, paint and down to the primer.. so another repaint of the back is in order.
The bed wood has been re stained and re cleared and looks a hell of a lot better.
Fixed the door dings (both doors) due to lack of door checks, as well as where I took about an 1/8" out of the top of the passengers door because it didn't fit. aka.. re paint.
Got a new water pump pulley that actually fits the Stewart Stage 3. Jones Racing helped me with that and the customer service was awesome.
I re did the fuel line along the frame rails.. I was never really all that happy with all steel braided. So I got stainless steel 1/2" tube from
http://www.mcmaster.com/
A 37 degree Parker flare tool, and tube -8 AN fittings. The parker tool says not to use on stainless.. but I've used it to make about 10 flares so far and it does fine. I'm guessing the stainless might wear down the tool so it won't work but hey, I now have hardline stainless tube rather than aluminum.
I also redid the intake manifold seal as I had a small coolant leak and it wasn't making me happy.. so I pulled it all apart and redid it. I still have to time the motor.
I got an HID kit from Dapper Lighting and installed that just this past weekend and it's really nice. It took me a while as I wanted to make sure the wires laid out nice and clean but I got it done.
Last things to do (hopefully)..
- reinstall doors and guts for windows and latches
- Time the motor
- Do an oil change
- paint front rims red
- Turn brake rotors
- test HID's and new tac / water temp gauge
- secure the bed and re attach rear fenders
- 3M trizact the whole truck and buff
- wax the truck
- Bring it home at what I'm guessing to be 8 mpg. Ok ok.. maybe 12 with the TKO-500
Alex