http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMRzyFI34es&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, May 22, 2011
ChuckSTruck on potato salad hill, Moab UT
Quick link to Moab wheeling video. Check out other videos of potato salad hill in Moab to get an idea of the difficulty of this obstacle.
Monday, May 9, 2011
I broke down on the way to work and it was awesome
Does that sound weird or what? Here's the story including all the details of how I broke down on the way to work and why it was one of the most amazing things I have experienced.
I was getting ready to leave for work on a rainy night in April. The battery was dead when I got in the pickup but since I had no other option that night I decided to try bump starting it, good thing I was parked on a hill right? I never park in that spot. It fired up after the second try which was good, but when I turned the lights on they were very dim. The wipers moved across the window very slowly. This means that the battery was weak and the alternator wasn't working. but like I said I had no other option that night, had to get to work. All was well until I came upon a car pulled over by 2 cops at the intersection of Hampden and University. Well I killed it. right in the middle of traffic at the worst possible time. I was that guy. Broken down in the rain. Causing you to be late. So, I prayed. I asked God to take care of me, to help me get to work.
I jumped out of the truck and gave it a push, to see if I could bump start it again. Nope. I was stuck, at this point I needed a new plan so I looked around, noticing that I was wearing my work uniform, I never wear my uniform home, I grabbed my flashlight on my belt and thanked God for my reflective, water proof coat that was part of my uniform. I popped the hood and looked around to see if anyone would volunteer to help me. No volunteers. I went to the only other pickup in traffic and knocked on the window, the guy didn't want to help but finally decided to give me a hand and jump start me. He backed his truck around and parked next to me in a safe spot, at this point I noticed one of the cops had moved his car behind my truck to keep us from being hit. So the man jumped out of his truck and threw on his reflective vest that was behind his seat. I asked, as I always do if he knew what he was doing with the jumper cables and he said he did this stuff all day and that he works for AAA and just got off shift and was driving home. Nice! So we got the old beast fired up but still no charging, still no lights. I thanked the man and took off to try to get the rest of the way to work before it finally ran out of electricity and really stranded me.
So there I was flying down the on-ramp onto I-25 in traffic with no headlights, no blinkers, no windshield wipers and no brake lights. Thankful to even be moving. anyways, I made it to work that day, I rolled into the big parking lot heading for the gate so I could pull the truck into a hangar to work on it. no such luck, it shut down in the middle of the parking lot and i coasted into a spot. Woohoo! I made it safely! I snagged my lunch box and headed inside to clock in, all other days I would have to dress out before I clocked in but as I said before I had worn my uniform home the day before and was good to go. I clocked in with 20 seconds to spare. I was so happy that I made it to work and after all that I was safe and on time.
I took my first opportunity to check online to see what a new alternator would cost. $40 bucks that aint bad! 30 minutes later a plane came in and I delivered a customer car, i got a 3 dollar tip, sweeeet that will help me pay for parts to fix my pickup! I ussually do not get tips just because of the time I work and the majority of flights are cargo or medical. The airplane was heading right back out and took some fuel, the pilot was thankful for the service so he gave more tip money! My new tip total was $10. Quarter of the way to my new alternator!
Later that night I went to pull the battery for charging and the alternator for replacement and discovered that the only thing wrong with the truck is that the alternator belt was missing. It had broken and disappeared. ussually when a belt breaks it causes the other belts to break too or at least jump off track but not this time. My plans changed, I no longer needed an alternator. I checked online and the price of 2 new belts, ya know, best to replace them all at the same time, $10. The price of parts was covered. Completely, Exactly.
SO!!!! a quick run through the details.
I wore my uniform home for the second time in history. which gave me a reflective coat and a flashlight.
I parked in a place that I never park, I don't know why.
The AAA guy was the one that helped me.
The fact that the truck even ran for the hour it takes me to drive to work without any charge is just nuts.
I didn't get pulled over for driving without lights.
I was kept safe even while driving in the rain without lights or wipers or signals.
I made it to work on time, without leaving early and after a breakdown in traffic.
I got tipped twice.
The price of parts was completely covered.
Weow that is a lot of coincidence...I can't believe that much coincidence... If you remember that part early in my story, when I first started my trip to work, I prayed. It wasn't a big amazing prayer, it was simple and small and seemingly insignificant... but my God loves me. This was just his way of reminding me.
I was getting ready to leave for work on a rainy night in April. The battery was dead when I got in the pickup but since I had no other option that night I decided to try bump starting it, good thing I was parked on a hill right? I never park in that spot. It fired up after the second try which was good, but when I turned the lights on they were very dim. The wipers moved across the window very slowly. This means that the battery was weak and the alternator wasn't working. but like I said I had no other option that night, had to get to work. All was well until I came upon a car pulled over by 2 cops at the intersection of Hampden and University. Well I killed it. right in the middle of traffic at the worst possible time. I was that guy. Broken down in the rain. Causing you to be late. So, I prayed. I asked God to take care of me, to help me get to work.
I jumped out of the truck and gave it a push, to see if I could bump start it again. Nope. I was stuck, at this point I needed a new plan so I looked around, noticing that I was wearing my work uniform, I never wear my uniform home, I grabbed my flashlight on my belt and thanked God for my reflective, water proof coat that was part of my uniform. I popped the hood and looked around to see if anyone would volunteer to help me. No volunteers. I went to the only other pickup in traffic and knocked on the window, the guy didn't want to help but finally decided to give me a hand and jump start me. He backed his truck around and parked next to me in a safe spot, at this point I noticed one of the cops had moved his car behind my truck to keep us from being hit. So the man jumped out of his truck and threw on his reflective vest that was behind his seat. I asked, as I always do if he knew what he was doing with the jumper cables and he said he did this stuff all day and that he works for AAA and just got off shift and was driving home. Nice! So we got the old beast fired up but still no charging, still no lights. I thanked the man and took off to try to get the rest of the way to work before it finally ran out of electricity and really stranded me.
So there I was flying down the on-ramp onto I-25 in traffic with no headlights, no blinkers, no windshield wipers and no brake lights. Thankful to even be moving. anyways, I made it to work that day, I rolled into the big parking lot heading for the gate so I could pull the truck into a hangar to work on it. no such luck, it shut down in the middle of the parking lot and i coasted into a spot. Woohoo! I made it safely! I snagged my lunch box and headed inside to clock in, all other days I would have to dress out before I clocked in but as I said before I had worn my uniform home the day before and was good to go. I clocked in with 20 seconds to spare. I was so happy that I made it to work and after all that I was safe and on time.
I took my first opportunity to check online to see what a new alternator would cost. $40 bucks that aint bad! 30 minutes later a plane came in and I delivered a customer car, i got a 3 dollar tip, sweeeet that will help me pay for parts to fix my pickup! I ussually do not get tips just because of the time I work and the majority of flights are cargo or medical. The airplane was heading right back out and took some fuel, the pilot was thankful for the service so he gave more tip money! My new tip total was $10. Quarter of the way to my new alternator!
Later that night I went to pull the battery for charging and the alternator for replacement and discovered that the only thing wrong with the truck is that the alternator belt was missing. It had broken and disappeared. ussually when a belt breaks it causes the other belts to break too or at least jump off track but not this time. My plans changed, I no longer needed an alternator. I checked online and the price of 2 new belts, ya know, best to replace them all at the same time, $10. The price of parts was covered. Completely, Exactly.
SO!!!! a quick run through the details.
I wore my uniform home for the second time in history. which gave me a reflective coat and a flashlight.
I parked in a place that I never park, I don't know why.
The AAA guy was the one that helped me.
The fact that the truck even ran for the hour it takes me to drive to work without any charge is just nuts.
I didn't get pulled over for driving without lights.
I was kept safe even while driving in the rain without lights or wipers or signals.
I made it to work on time, without leaving early and after a breakdown in traffic.
I got tipped twice.
The price of parts was completely covered.
Weow that is a lot of coincidence...I can't believe that much coincidence... If you remember that part early in my story, when I first started my trip to work, I prayed. It wasn't a big amazing prayer, it was simple and small and seemingly insignificant... but my God loves me. This was just his way of reminding me.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Snow Graffiti
Anyone know who wrote on my pickup at the park and ride on Saturday the 5th of Feb.?
update! it was my buddy Jesse, he was meeting people to go snowmobiling on the same day in the same place I was meeting people to go snowboarding.
update! it was my buddy Jesse, he was meeting people to go snowmobiling on the same day in the same place I was meeting people to go snowboarding.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Music Video and many miles
Since the last time I have written to Y'all I have used the truck mostly to drive to work and things, putting tons of miles on it, which is ok with me. I realized recently that it has been just over a year since I bought this thing wow time flies! Here are a few highlights from the year. Including some links.
1. drove a lot! to and from work and all around the city
2. rock crawling with some friends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXsnOGgiE4Q
3. 1 trip to Montrose from Denver
4. a camping trip including removing a fallen tree from a trail by dragging it with a chain. pretty awesome.
5. it was used in a music video for a friend. copy paste this to see the unfinished portion. http://vimeo.com/18045569
6. rearended a guy. no damage to my vehicle only smashed the other guys taillight out. LMAO! says Dave who was riding with me.
1. drove a lot! to and from work and all around the city
2. rock crawling with some friends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXsnOGgiE4Q
3. 1 trip to Montrose from Denver
4. a camping trip including removing a fallen tree from a trail by dragging it with a chain. pretty awesome.
5. it was used in a music video for a friend. copy paste this to see the unfinished portion. http://vimeo.com/18045569
6. rearended a guy. no damage to my vehicle only smashed the other guys taillight out. LMAO! says Dave who was riding with me.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
what I have done lately
It has been over a month since my last post. The main reason for this is that I have spent significantly less time on this project recently, with much of my work being non-voluntary problem fixes. here is a short list of the things that have been done since the last post. I have obtained and installed updated seatbelts. I have finished the bucket seat conversion and installed carpet and shifter boots on the floor. I replaced the junk bed with a different used one with a decent tailgate. i installed new wheels and tires. I replaced the fuel pump. I have a new fender and nice trim to install when i really start on body work. I now have a good spare tire and have ideas on how to mount that tire to keep it secure. oh and a new dash pad too.
wow, now that I have written all of that down it doesn't seem like such a short list...
here are some details.
the bed- the bed i got was from a '78 f-250 and is in pretty good shape. it has some pitting and rust in the floor but it is pretty light and much better than my other one. the front panel is in perfect shape and the bed rails are in good shape. the tailgate is in working condition but needs some tweaking to get it to work smoothly. There is the normal light rust over the fender wells but nothing too bad. i spent a little bit of money on the bed but it is a vast improvement over the previous situation. the guy i bought it from helped me remove my old bed and install the new one which was really nice of him.
the interior- pretty self explanatory. i changed the seatbelts out for over the shoulder style, because i believe they are safer and they surely work a lot smoother than the old junk lap-belts that didn't even adjust tightly. I put in a fitted carpet with insulation that has really quieted down the road noise and with the new shifter boots the cab has become far less drafty. One thing I have noticed is that every time I fix the obvious culprit to any problem a secondary/smaller but still significant cause to the same problem shows its face. For example i noticed a cold draft while driving, I assumed maybe it was the holes in the floorboards at my feet, after patching them I find air pouring in through the junk shifter boots, after replacing them I notice a strong draft coming from the corner vents that don't seal correctly. the things that are left on the interior are to clean up wiring and sort out some minor issues. the dash pad needs installed and I plan to paint the instrument panel to hide scratches and dings and instal the new dashpad. At some point I will make a third, center seat that will could house some storage space, a small subwoofer, or at least some cupholders. I plan to eliminate the fuel tank behind the seats and go to dual tanks. oh yeah, i am going to replace the steering wheel and fix the horn eventually too.
the fuel pump- I had noticed a small drip coming from the fuel pump a week before it actually stopped working and expected to be replacing it soon, which just happened to be on the connecting ramp from 6th avenue to I-25 southbound on my way to work. the truck picked a bad place to quit on me. and the silliest time too, because i left extremely early for work this thursday night for no good reason and the same day i chose to take all my tools out of my truck. So when it quit on me the first thing I did was chew a piece of gum, to help me relax and think clearly, said a prayer, and then decided i had a plan that would probably get me to work at least. The previous owner had installed a secondary electric fuel pump on the frame rail to help pull fuel out of the aux tanks, i noticed it when cleanin up some wiring and seeing the shoddy way it was installed i just disconnected all of the wiring and left the pump in place and I am glad I did because i was able to quickly reconnect the wiring and begin pumping fuel again. I had to use the on/off switch to the pump to regulate the flow of fuel into the carb minimizing the excess that was coming out of the failed fuel pump. anyways, i made it to work, on time even. I spent the next morning when I got off at work with borrowed tools replacing my fuel pump. I didn't leave until after 1pm and was only able to get +/- 2hrs of sleep that day. ugh.
wow, now that I have written all of that down it doesn't seem like such a short list...
here are some details.
the bed- the bed i got was from a '78 f-250 and is in pretty good shape. it has some pitting and rust in the floor but it is pretty light and much better than my other one. the front panel is in perfect shape and the bed rails are in good shape. the tailgate is in working condition but needs some tweaking to get it to work smoothly. There is the normal light rust over the fender wells but nothing too bad. i spent a little bit of money on the bed but it is a vast improvement over the previous situation. the guy i bought it from helped me remove my old bed and install the new one which was really nice of him.
the interior- pretty self explanatory. i changed the seatbelts out for over the shoulder style, because i believe they are safer and they surely work a lot smoother than the old junk lap-belts that didn't even adjust tightly. I put in a fitted carpet with insulation that has really quieted down the road noise and with the new shifter boots the cab has become far less drafty. One thing I have noticed is that every time I fix the obvious culprit to any problem a secondary/smaller but still significant cause to the same problem shows its face. For example i noticed a cold draft while driving, I assumed maybe it was the holes in the floorboards at my feet, after patching them I find air pouring in through the junk shifter boots, after replacing them I notice a strong draft coming from the corner vents that don't seal correctly. the things that are left on the interior are to clean up wiring and sort out some minor issues. the dash pad needs installed and I plan to paint the instrument panel to hide scratches and dings and instal the new dashpad. At some point I will make a third, center seat that will could house some storage space, a small subwoofer, or at least some cupholders. I plan to eliminate the fuel tank behind the seats and go to dual tanks. oh yeah, i am going to replace the steering wheel and fix the horn eventually too.
the fuel pump- I had noticed a small drip coming from the fuel pump a week before it actually stopped working and expected to be replacing it soon, which just happened to be on the connecting ramp from 6th avenue to I-25 southbound on my way to work. the truck picked a bad place to quit on me. and the silliest time too, because i left extremely early for work this thursday night for no good reason and the same day i chose to take all my tools out of my truck. So when it quit on me the first thing I did was chew a piece of gum, to help me relax and think clearly, said a prayer, and then decided i had a plan that would probably get me to work at least. The previous owner had installed a secondary electric fuel pump on the frame rail to help pull fuel out of the aux tanks, i noticed it when cleanin up some wiring and seeing the shoddy way it was installed i just disconnected all of the wiring and left the pump in place and I am glad I did because i was able to quickly reconnect the wiring and begin pumping fuel again. I had to use the on/off switch to the pump to regulate the flow of fuel into the carb minimizing the excess that was coming out of the failed fuel pump. anyways, i made it to work, on time even. I spent the next morning when I got off at work with borrowed tools replacing my fuel pump. I didn't leave until after 1pm and was only able to get +/- 2hrs of sleep that day. ugh.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Driving
Just a quick note on how this truck is being used right now to clarify for anyone that I don't see daily. This is my daily driver so it gets used a lot. I live approximately 25 miles from my job and I drive there 4 times a week, not to mention all the other running around Denver I do. I would estimate close to 200 miles a week on average. This means that I cannot leave it torn apart in the garage for a week like many people. I sometimes feel like I am on those car shows where they have a deadline and a big project to complete before time runs out. Except in my case its just me doing the work and the clocks expires at 9pm on tuesday when I have to drive the truck in to work. Happy Easter everyone!
Rear Main seal replacement
I was finally tired of pouring 1 qt of oil through my engine and onto the street every week so I decided it was time to tackle the rear main seal that has been the major cause of my oil leak problems. I did not take pictures because as you can imagine this job is super messy, too messy to take pictures. I am not going to go into extreme boring detail as to how the process went but I will include some pointers for anyone who might attempt a similar project. The seal is actually in 6 pieces, 2 pieces that go around the crank and 2 straight pieces that are located on both sides of the mounting blocks and 2 "nails" that go behind the straight seals.
Here's the tips:
1. GET AN IMPACT WRENCH! If you don't have one buy one-borrow one-steal one! I used an 18" breaker bar but I am not kidding the bolts that hold on the crank are tough! I am a pretty big boy and it was all I could do with the cramped spaces and oil all over the place to get the bolts to break loose. An impact would have saved me sore muscles and tons of time
2. The half of the seal that goes above the crank can easily be removed without pulling the tranny if you loosen each bolt that holds the crank shaft in place -I said loosen not remove- you can rotate the old half of seal out and insert a oiled up new one in its place. To remove the old one I began by screwing a drywall screw into the seal and yanking on it with some pliers to get it out enough to get pliers on it.
3.Disposable gloves are amazing! the ability to shed off greasy nasty gloves when you need to grip something clean or grab the phone or whatever is awesome! It keeps you under the hood working instead of running to the sink to wash your hands.
4. Buy a complete gasket kit for older engines. I could have spent nearly 50 bucks on just the seals I needed but found the complete Fel-Pro gasket kit was only 65 bucks and it includes every seal for the engine. Which was handy when I replaced the thermostat and forgot that I needed a new seal to re-mount the thermostat housing. Good thing I had the complete kit!
5. Clean mating surfaces of gaskets well. Old cork seal chunks or globs of nasty silicone sealant can cause leaks. It also helps detect any imperfections in the mating surface, scratches, dents or cracks.
6. Plan well, gather tools and parts and enough time to complete the job before you start.
cheers, chuck
Here's the tips:
1. GET AN IMPACT WRENCH! If you don't have one buy one-borrow one-steal one! I used an 18" breaker bar but I am not kidding the bolts that hold on the crank are tough! I am a pretty big boy and it was all I could do with the cramped spaces and oil all over the place to get the bolts to break loose. An impact would have saved me sore muscles and tons of time
2. The half of the seal that goes above the crank can easily be removed without pulling the tranny if you loosen each bolt that holds the crank shaft in place -I said loosen not remove- you can rotate the old half of seal out and insert a oiled up new one in its place. To remove the old one I began by screwing a drywall screw into the seal and yanking on it with some pliers to get it out enough to get pliers on it.
3.Disposable gloves are amazing! the ability to shed off greasy nasty gloves when you need to grip something clean or grab the phone or whatever is awesome! It keeps you under the hood working instead of running to the sink to wash your hands.
4. Buy a complete gasket kit for older engines. I could have spent nearly 50 bucks on just the seals I needed but found the complete Fel-Pro gasket kit was only 65 bucks and it includes every seal for the engine. Which was handy when I replaced the thermostat and forgot that I needed a new seal to re-mount the thermostat housing. Good thing I had the complete kit!
5. Clean mating surfaces of gaskets well. Old cork seal chunks or globs of nasty silicone sealant can cause leaks. It also helps detect any imperfections in the mating surface, scratches, dents or cracks.
6. Plan well, gather tools and parts and enough time to complete the job before you start.
cheers, chuck
Friday, March 19, 2010
Cold Air Blowing
I spent the majority of the winter driving around in a truck with a worn out blower motor and luke warm air trickling in, I put up with it for too long. I had enough and decieded to replace the blower motor and while I was in there I cleaned out the ducting and did a once over on the linkages and things before re installing it in hopes that it would warm up the cab a little. Well it didn't. It silently blew barely warm air. I also had noticed that the temp gauge in the cab always reads at the coldest reading, there was only one time where it jumped a little bit after driving for a long time, I had assumed that the gauge was just broken but I was wrong again! I decided that the thermostat had to be either broken, and stuck open or there was nothing there at all. I was right, there was nothing in the thermostat spot, hence the "broken" temp gauge and cold air blowing. Now I have a temp gauge that reads in the norm and enough warm air blasting silently into the cab to make it uncomfortable! word!
Before I go 3 things:
1. My tenses in my blogging are all wrong and I know it but whatev, gimme a break! I'll work on it!
2. Thermostats have a right and a wrong way to install them. FYI the spring goes into the engine and the "point" points out at you.
3. I have noticed, and its not a suprise, that the heater core has devoloped a slight leak that I can smell with the heater on. It is not enough to make a mess yet but you can expect an update on the fix. Good news though! I happen to have an extra one of those that came in my box-O-junk I got from a guy on craigslist a while back. YESSS!
Before I go 3 things:
1. My tenses in my blogging are all wrong and I know it but whatev, gimme a break! I'll work on it!
2. Thermostats have a right and a wrong way to install them. FYI the spring goes into the engine and the "point" points out at you.
3. I have noticed, and its not a suprise, that the heater core has devoloped a slight leak that I can smell with the heater on. It is not enough to make a mess yet but you can expect an update on the fix. Good news though! I happen to have an extra one of those that came in my box-O-junk I got from a guy on craigslist a while back. YESSS!
Passenger Floor done
I cleaned all of the rust away from the area and sprayed it down with some rustoleum to prevent further deterioration.
Driver side patched
The black paint around the under side of the patch is some Rustoleum flat black paint to keep the rust away. I used steel rivets with backing plates. The metal I used was very thin so I may end up making new patch plates when I obtain more material.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I lied to you!
Ok well just as I was preparing for a very expensive axle replacement or worse I discovered that by some miracle, literally have no other explanation, the 4 wheel drive decided to work. So I will still service the front end of this thing next but at least it will just be brakes bearings and seals... Maybe u-joints too but they seem pretty tight so far. I'll keep you updated! Word homies
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