Ugly Truck Part Deux

In keeping with captdownshift's advice to spend time with loved ones, my son and I did a mini-adventure today. Sadly, we returned home with no 1950s buses, race cars, sports cars, challenge vehicles, motorcycles, or other cool wheeled devices .

However, as a consolation prize, we now have this occupying a large swath of driveway (I don't think it will fit all the way in the garage):

As a bonus, it is equipped with these controls:

As part of father-son bonding, after securing the new wheels, we engaged in gluttonous battle at my son's version of Nirvana:

Mongolian BBQ in Dublin, OH; up the street from OSU airport, where all you can eat IS a challenge. Sadly, I could only eat two bowls, and thought I was going to puke; he inhaled 3.

So, after arriving home and having a herd of shrieking 12 year old girls descend upon the truck, we ventured into the local school parking lot for primary instruction:

Verdict: not as easy as he thought . He's been riding clutched dirt bikes and four wheelers for quite awhile, so he'll figure it out. Just takes a bit of practice. To be fair, none of his friends can drive a stick, and we haven't had one in the family inventory for over a year now.

Details on ugly truck II: 1999 extended cab/short bed RWD, 4.2 V6 with Mazda 5spd (I think), has 3.55 open diff with 4 wheel discs. 180k, but it has actually been maintained. It has a new clutch, new rotors/pads, ball joints, rad hoses and coolant. It's kind of banged up, but still has some metal in the rockers. It does need a passenger side exhaust manifold, a whopping $50 from RockAuto, plus some other minor issues.

I don't plan for this to be a project, just fix the problems and drive

Rallycross? Because you two should rallycrss that. Bonding and what not.

Looks like fun.

Awesome idea! Bonding, science, safety first, etc .

Honestly right now he's not interested in going fast. Seems to like going slow and sideways, though, so maybe rallycross is a good fit. I had to keep slowing down on the way home to wait for him because he was driving like 68 in a 70. A tandem passed us, and it took awhile to reel it back in.

RX is good even if you're not fast. It teaches you to react to a car that is moving under you. If he's driven bikes and quads he'll feel at home, but it will give him a set of skills that are hard to safely learn on real roads. You have snow up there so he'll get some slippery training in no matter what, but it really is good fun. All of my kids are going to rallycross at least one full season as part of their drivers training. Some are looking forward to it, some are reluctant. I'm looking forward to it.

OK I just googled 'full size truck rallycross' and came up with this :

In Russia, medium duty truck jumps you!

In this GRM thread: 2WD Truck Rallycross

I really need to stop spending time on GRM

Seriously, though, if it can tick off more boxes for possible uses, all to the good! Having this happen is a concern, though: Although I guess a fullsize is about 2ft wider than an older mini.

Regarding training, he's done TireRack Street Survival, and I'm hoping to send both him and his mom to MidOhio teen driver school this year. We haven't had much snow, but had a couple days that were good for impromptu car control classes.

OK, off to find out what's around locally for RX, and when it starts up!

Edit - Detroit region in Wauseon, OH 3/20, and I'm not on call that day. Evan or Knurled, how Large-Marge friendly is this venue?

XLR99 wrote: OK, off to find out what's around locally for RX, and when it starts up!

The first one is on March 19 in Greenfield, second is April 23. Trucks may not be allowed to run, it would have to be approved by the safety steward if it seems safe. We had a lifted Cherokee show up that was too tippy to let run but stock height may be ok.

XLR99 wrote: Edit - Detroit region in Wauseon, OH 3/20, and I'm not on call that day. Evan or Knurled, how Large-Marge friendly is this venue?

I've never been there (Knurled has) but is is a dirt oval track. Generally hard packed and smooth. I know rangers run with Detroit region but you would have to check on a full size truck.

Thanks Evan! I'll probably shoot someone from the region an email and see what their thoughts are.

So, some more driver's ed today after going to an orchestra concert with my daughter. Talk about total opposites!

I may try to borrow one of these from the ED tomorrow:

He said it feels like when he first got his temp license again . He did get us home about 5 miles and only stalled once, so we're making progress...

A cup of water in the cupholder is a good visual for a manual learner to learn to be smoother. Obviously wait a week or so, to make sure the carpets don't get THAT soaked.

Edit: Wait maybe just use a water bottle.

that might be one of the better kinds of vehicles to learn to drive a stick in. with small, light cars its easy to get it moving and with a big truck with a torquey engine its easy to get it moving. being a full size truck with the smallest engine available it brings an extra challenge, but a good one to conquer.

Brief update since it's been a ridiculous week here. After some more training time I cut him loosefor solo ops . God save us all. Getting better, he just needs seat time.

In other news, Large Marge seems to have stuck. No one can say it without starting to crack up.

Ordered a bunch of filters from Rock, Haynes manual,and a hitch receiver. This weekend we'll start digging into the to-do list.

No pics, but I figured I'd share a moment of pride;

I found a used Haynes manual from Goodwill for $5. I came home today to find my son actually reading thru the book, looking at what's involved in doing the exhaust manifold . He had previously researched where one would find a blower motor resistor. I almost fell over. Usually, his M.O. has been to go to youtube for everything, or just play stupid and say 'Uh, can you do it?'

He replaced the blower motor resistor, filled in the chip in the windshield so it doesn't crack, and we installed the toolbox. Exciting stuff.

Sounds like this is a great vehicle to start learning on and getting the tinkering bug.

He'll want to do a Lightning swap in no time.

To provide photo evidence that I still occasionally work on cars and not just surf GRM and make irrelevant commentary, I submit the following:

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I ended up changing the right side manifold myself last weekend. My son ended up getting a job, which has reduced the amount of time he's around to act as minion.

As a working man, he also had to pay for his first 25gal tank of gas yesterday , using his own money from his own debit card. Grown-up stuff... Probably should have billed him for my time and a day's rental of my car too.

Pretty easy access once the fender liner was out:

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The source of the leak ended up being a combination of the EGR tube being cracked, and the flange between manifold and cat having a 1/8" gap. So, new studs all around, new EGR tube, a leftover Saab 9000 O2 sensor, and done.

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yeah ford egr tubes all do that.

chiodos wrote: A cup of water in the cupholder is a good visual for a manual learner to learn to be smoother. Obviously wait a week or so, to make sure the carpets don't get THAT soaked. Edit: Wait maybe just use a water bottle.

You folks with your fancy cup holders. Dad would set his Big Gulp on the floor by the shifter.

Forgot to mention - this combination of HF items is well worth the $30 cost of entry:

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Close quarters drill with a set of the left hand drill bits. Shown with a recently removed V6 exhaust manifold stud on the end. Not as good or low-profile as my dad's battery powered Makita, but still useful. I did take it apart and add actual grease before the first use, though. Not much lubricant in there from the factory.

I've done basically nothing in the past few months, but we needed to get the pinion seal changed because it was starting to leak more and making a mess. After a brief conference with dad and uncle, we dived under the beast and set to work.

Even though he claims to be too big to fit underneath, my son managed to wedge himself under there:

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Driveshaft yoke off, then we marked the flange, nut and socket with whiteout:

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On to the back side to pull off the diff cover:

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I built a seal driver out of a 2 x4, reassembled, loctited, and torqued everything. And for a bit of bling (for an 18 year old beater) he painted the diff cover before putting it back together:

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Selection of actual tools used today:

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Tools Nick, aka Jezza Jr., would have used without supervision :

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He was doing something underneath when I put the maul down, and said 'What do I use that for?'

And, his proudest achievement of the day, because 'Murica

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Supposedly tested up to 70mph, because I told him it would blow off above 45.

I honestly feel the 4.2/5spd trucks in that body style are one of the best modern full size trucks out there.

I am surprised you havent had to rebuild the front end yet, though.

My father bought me one of these trucks new when I got my license, 4.2 5 speed WT. I'm 31 and it's in my driveway right now with a proud 241,891 miles on it. I've only done a fuel pump, OG clutch.... Damn fine trucks

In reply to Vigo:

Front end was rebuild a few thousand before we bought it, but there's already a sloppy inner tie rod end. Ball joints still seem tight, though.

So far the only thing I don't like about it is the fact that they cranked out millions of these things with what looks like 70s-Fiat-spec rustproofing.

Brief update: the truck now has abit over 185k on it.

We've done a bunch of rust remediation recently. Sprayed most of the underside with ospho, then rust reformer primer and rustoleum. I got one of the FluidFilm kits, and we'll hose the whole thing down as a final layer in hopes that the truck won't dissolve completely by spring.

As part of the rustoration, I figured I'd dig out the mig welder and try a quick and dirty patch job on the rust holes in the bed. No before pic, but here's a 'during' shot after the small patch was in, and after cutting back to clean metal on the big hole.

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After finishing my extremely poor welding job, we sprayed on some bedliner. I got one of the UPol kits from Ebay that come with a schutz gun, based on the recent discussion on GRM about bedliners:

After sweeping out all the mulch, tree bark, etc, some pressure washer action, a quick round with a wire wheel, and wipe down with prep-sol, We masked off with a roll of HF masking paper. Brief delay to do an unscheduled starter change, otherwise it was a 5000lb lump in the middle of the driveway.

The UPol stuff is so easy to use a caveman can do it, however, the stuff smells nasty, so I used a respirator, gloves etc. and had my helper stay out of the garage except when necessary. I was able to do the 6.5ft bed with a pretty heavy coat, and had a little left over to shoot the inside of the toolbox.

End result:

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And the side with the patched areas. It looks better than jagged rusty holes in the sides, but still pretty crappy to my eye.

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My son loves it, and was going around showing it off to his friends, boss/co-workers, and anyone else who will look. He's all stoked to use it as their tailgating base of operations for homecoming next weekend. Guess that's a win!

Does that stuff actually go on green, or does it just look green in the photos?

No its definitely black in person, probably the greenish tint is due to fluorescent lights combined with phone camera?