It didn't run when I got it. First thing I did was put a good battery in it. I noticed the battery cables were pretty junky, so I swapped them out too. I had a nice used set in the shop that I had been saving for just such an occasion. Even with all of that, still no dice, so I finally figured out the wiring at the starter was broken inside of the insulation. No big deal there, a few minutes under the truck with the soldering gun and heat shrink tubing and all is good as new.
After all of that, it started right up. I ran it awhile but it slowly developed a miss that steadily got worse. The problem was old gas in the tank. Once it gets a few years aged, it becomes closer to varnish that gas. So, I added 10 dollars worth of fresh stuff to the tank to dilute it somewhat. To deal with the miss, I removed the spark plugs which had fouled from the old gas and bead blasted them clean. After re-installation, it started and runs very smooth now.
With that out of the way, it was time to give her a bit of a facelift.
I removed the old bent grille guard and threw it in the scrap metal pile. The grille itself was broken in three places and not even held into the truck at all. Once the guard was removed, the grille simply fell out onto the ground. I spent a few hours repairing the grille with epoxy and braces behind the broken places. A little sanding and some fresh paint and it looks pretty good. I wish I could have just bought a new grille but they are 39 dollars which I don't have to spare right now. New screws and mounting clips were 2 dollars at the hardware store.
Almost as good as new.
A few more pictures of it after the first drive.
I think it's going to be a good work truck for me. I've needed a heavy duty truck to pull trailers with and this is it.
If you haven't figured out the "Six Leg Sally" deal, the truck has 6 wheels. Get it ?
No comments:
Post a Comment