Street Truck Project

Guy on my local off-road forum just listed a 5.7 Hemi swap for $1000 obo.

https://nc4x4.com/forum/threads/2005-dodge-hemi-complete-swap.201601/

That's a hell of a deal. I'd rather go for a newer Hemi with the TR6060 attached, but that would be a great way to get a swap started for cheap. 

Just a quick idle/rev sample with the phone camera. V8 growls with some snap, crackle, pop. If I get around to it, I'd like to bust out the GoPro knockoff and get a rolling video. The WOT sounds are just too good. 

Looking for seat updates.  My F body needs something better than stock soon.

I'm hoping to have them in my possession by the 4th of July. They said up to six weeks, so that would be my window. I'm looking forward to them. I had Corbeau Moabs in my old Jeep XJ and they were pretty great. These ones cost a couple hundred more than the Jeep variants, but they are more complex in design. I was going to get the fixed-back version given what little room I have to recline in the truck, but the reclinable version was actually cheaper and only a pound heavier, so I ordered those instead. I will definitely post pictures and impressions when I get them in. 

When the body shop repainted the tailgate, they decided not to paint the backside of it. I made the mistake of telling them I was going to put bedliner on it, so they just skipped it. I finally got around to lining it over the weekend. I chose PlastiKote after watching a series of videos where they performed durability tests on a bunch of different DIY brands. I wanted something that wasn't very shiny and that was durable. This one checked all the right boxes, so I ran with it. 

I taped off all the edges, sanded with 120 grit, and sprayed about four coats on it. I think it turned out well. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

That looks damn good. How much texture does it have?

It has quite a bit of texture to it. It feels like skateboard grip paper. It sprayed on nice and evenly. 

I've been chasing a random squeak coming from the front end of the truck for a couple of weeks. It seemed to have started after the exhaust install, so I was convinced the exhaust was rubbing somewhere. I kept putting the truck on ramps, crawling under, and shaking things around. No squeaks that I could recreate. It was getting worse and I noticed a clunk going over a speed bump about a day ago. Yesterday, I bounced on the door sill and shook the truck. The squeak happened on the driver's side, but not the passenger side. I lifted the driver's side, removed the wheel, and did a nut and bolt check on all of the front suspension parts that I could reach. It was then I noticed that the top nut and large washer that hold the shock to the body had actually vacated the premises. I have no idea why, other than maybe I didn't tighten them enough. I still find it odd that they'd back off that much on their own; it's not a short shaft.

This was definitely the source of the clunk, but is it causing the squeak? I don't know yet because I had to order a new shock. I might have been able to contact Belltech and get just the nut and large washer separately, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have an extra shock on hand. Plus, the threads on the top of it might be messed up from rubbing up and down on the inner fender hole this whole time. I should receive the new shock by the weekend and I'll find out if it's causing the squeak or not, shortly thereafter. 

I installed the new hardware for the shock (in 100 degree heat, no less) and all is well again with the truck. No more squeaks, which is great. Fortunately, the threads on the shock weren't all chewed up, so I could reuse it instead of replacing the whole assembly. 

Seats should be here on Wednesday. 

Seats are in!

After waiting more than a month, they finally showed up yesterday and I immediately went to work installing them. 

They went in without issue and they fit great. 

I'm a big fan of Corbeau seats. They are great seats for the price. They cost twice as much as the cheaper seats, yet half as much as a set of carbon Sparcos, so they're somewhere in the middle. Miles ahead of the E36 M3 you find on eBay. They also carry rails for about a million different models, which is super handy. The company is in Utah and they're really easy to deal with. These particular seats, called the "Evolution", sit super low and have high bolstering. They're perfect for my truck, because the stock seats sat too high and had no bolstering. These fix everything while classing up the interior quite a bit. They feel great. 

My next project involves some matching vinyl to rewrap the fabric on the door cards to match the seats. Then I have to redo the headliner with some black cloth. I've redone a headliner before, so I'm pretty okay with that. The door cards may be more challenging, though. It's a small area to cover, but I really want it to turn out looking OEM, so I'm going to be picky with the outcome. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

Wow those look incredible!  I'm still wondering how much autocrossing my F car is going to suck on stock seats.

The seats would be great for an autocross setup. Harness slots and all. Also, I'm a bigger guy (width-wise) and I fit fine in them. They carry more hardcore fixed-back seats that weigh less if that's your thing. These weigh about 25 pounds each (without brackets), which is basically the same as the stock seats in my truck. I highly recommend them. 

Thoes look super comfy. 

Super comfy indeed. They're very supportive. The lower driving position took a little getting used to, but I like it a lot better than the previous setup. 

So the headlights that came on the truck had started to yellow and one of them actually leaked a little during heavy rain. I've been looking for a good set of black replacements, but they're all either really cheap looking, or of really poor quality and light output. I compromised and went with a more old school all clear look. They brighten the front end up a little and I think they look pretty okay. They're Anzo-branded lights, and they're supposed to be fairly good quality. I went with amber bulbs, but with a chrome cover on them so they don't make the housings look amber when not lit. For whatever reason, I'm not a fan of amber lenses. The corner bulbs are LED and they're super bright. I'll get better pictures after I wash the truck. 

Before. 

After:

I actually prefer the black housing look, but I just don't want to deal with inferior quality housings.

The new lights look great, as do the seats!

Thanks!

This weekend I changed the diff fluid. I used Mobile 1 75/90 fluid and a bottle of Mopar LSD friction modifier. Here's how it started.

The cover came off easily and the fluid wasn't milky or terrible. There was a good bit of metal powder at the bottom of the diff housing, but overall not too bad. I've seen worse. Instead of using the standard RTV method to seal it up, I decided to give a reusable gasket a shot. These are from Lube Locker. They cost about $25 and they don't require any sealant for installation. It fit well and sealed it up perfectly. 

When I changed the diff fluid in my old Jeep XJ, I painted the rear cover like this. It's just something fun I like to do to my vehicles, as sort of an homage to some of my favorite Stephen King stories (turned into movies), like Maximum Overdrive and Christine. The drips and splatters didn't run quite as nicely as they did on the Jeep cover, but unlike that one, you can't really see this diff unless you kneel behind the truck, so it's whatever. I know it's there and it makes me smile. 

Like in the Jeep, I expect to pick up a small MPG improvement. Hopefully that LSD additive keeps the diff happy. And here's a parting shot of the truck with the new headlights.

No updates in a while because, well...

I plan to get back to this thing in the spring.

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

Time for snow tires, little bed weight and slides