elricfate

Well.

Bought some Mini H1 projectors, but they're V 5.0, so I think I may sell them and buy a set of 7.0s from TRS with all the rest of the goodies (right now I still need shrouds, bulbs and ballasts anyway). I also got a spare set of headlights so I can take my time with a retrofit.

Since I don't have the money for a new exhaust system, yet, I picked up a new exhaust tip, at the very least. Might as well go for subdued looks (I refuse to have the tip further than 1" outside the underneath of the truck) until I can get the sound I want.

Also bought a Smittybilt light bar from someone on the forums here so I don't need to do a bull bar. I did this for two reasons.

1) The extra weight of a bull bar, even though it's relatively light, was not something I wanted if I could help it, but I wanted the ability to mount lights to the front on the outside.

2) The light bar I got follows the contours of the bumper, so it is relatively low profile. I'm thinking about, potentially, trying to find a 40"+ curved light bar to mount on it, on the top side, and something else underneath, to get maximum amounts of light and usage from it.

elricfate

Installed . Unfortunately I don't have a new exhaust system in yet, so this will have to do for looks.

That's as far back as I could get it. I would've liked it another inch under the truck but it hit the bend in the factory exhaust and I couldn't tap it home any further. It's in line with the bumper edge and is only sticking out about two and a half inches, but that's an inch longer than I would normally like.

I'm sure I'll learn to live with it until I get a proper exhaust in place. In fact, I'm still deciding what I want to do right now. I want to make it so it's able to breathe outwards a lot easier, but I feel like in order to do that I do need to go with my original plan and get a catback installed instead of just replacing the muffler on the stock system.

I see a bunch more google searches in my future while I try to figure it out.

elricfate

I added a smittybilt light bar to the front of the trunk tonight. I am thinking about a couple of configurations for lighting.

It's 30.5" between the last two tabs, 10" between the front two tabs, and 10.5" between the front tab and the side tab on either side.

They make adjustable LED light bars and curved light bars, but I'm having a hard time finding an adjustable mount curved light bar. Therefore I'm thinking I might get a 30" or 32" curved, attach it to the two outer tabs, and then attach two 9" flood/spot combos to the outer tabs, from underneath, and point them at about a 30-35* angle.

This would give me a curved light bar for spot/flood output up top and two guaranteed side lights that don't block my front plate.

It's still a thought in process.

elricfate

I made a thing. It's an ugly thing, but it's a thing. I also ugly stitched it in place. I triple stitched it in place. It's not going anywhere until I want it to. Considering it only took two hours of my time to do it all by hand, it's not a waste. It's just my own ugly touch.

I made it too big at first, including the part for the shifter button. Second try, though, was perfectly sized.

I don't hate it, but it's not professional. It's not like the ones I saw made by an actual leather worker. It's not even as nice looking as the replacement Mark LT shifter ****. But for now, I don't care. It's my own touch.

elricfate

Just dropped my spare and checked my FPDM. As you can see, I'm truly surprised it's functioned after several heavy rains with me driving on the highway and after several car washes with underspray.

Oh well, ordered a . Will be here on Sunday ($58 from amazon vs $104 at autozone AND advance). I can wait two days to save $50 for the same dorman part.

elricfate

Ordered a , new and some . Plan to drop the pan later this week or next weekend.

Also ordered some new . Going to pull off the faded vents and repaint, then add the new cowl ends. This seems more economical to me than my experiment last night hitting it with the mequiars plastic restore.

Annnd. I also ordered a bunch of stuff to do lights on the light bar.

I was out of , so I got more of that. I got a that I'm going to center on the bar itself. I got two to angle outwards so I get a lot of flood to the sides of the road (easier to see deer by). Got a couple more and some for easy of connecting it all up.

I also got some to replace the spot pods on the back of the truck, along with an so I can add in a relay to control if I want it on in reverse, off altogether, or on whenever I want them on. This will also pull them off the reverse light circuit and I'll re-ground them up in the engine bay instead of where they are on the frame in the back.

That means I might repurpose the pods on the back for something else. I just haven't thought of it yet. I also have that original 20" lightbar kicking around that I don't have a use for yet.

elricfate

Well, after having a switch that didn't work after all this time, I finally got it to work. Seems the ground was bad, so all my previous efforts of replacing the relays and fuse and checking all the wires, did squat.

Anyhow, after repairing the ground and hooking up a test light bar, the relay will only activate on high beams with the switch in on. Which means those two relays will be perfect for powering all the lights up front that I want to put on the bar. And since I only ever plan on using them if I'm using high beams anyway, it's just about the perfect setup.

elricfate

Man. Mequair's Ultimate Black Plastic Restorer works pretty well. I forgot to post pictures of it, post-application and pre-application.

The one thing I think I am going to do though is just degrease the cowls and paint them. I don't think they're worth applying a bunch of it to. However, you can see the difference between restored vs non-restored in the last pic.

elricfate

Man am I glad that the new FPDM came today. While reaching up to put the socket on the bolts to remove them, the old one literally crumbled into my hand. The only thing holding it up there were prayers and sheer will.

The plug broke near the retaining hook and then when I pulled it off, finally, I found one of the old FPDM pins had corroded enough that it came off inside the plug. After ten minutes of digging at it and hitting it with some PB blaster, it finally came loose and dusted apart.

Plugged in the FPDM, siliconed the part where the plug broke off completely (so it has better water resistance) and called it a day. One of these days I'll change the plug out too, that day, however, is not today.

Also hit the cross member with some rust reformer, alongside the spare tire. Needed to be done.

elricfate

Well after two trips with the new FPDM I can say that the sluggishness I used to have between 35-45 is now gone and it's pure power all the way through the band. That contact must have been broken well before now and was causing a short, enough to make it not provide enough at WOT, but not enough to throw a CEL.

Also, while I wait for the big light bar to get here, I cut about five inches off the antenna, basically down to where the wire wrap begins, and affixed the corona ball back onto it with some JB Weld. Going to let that sit over night and then hit it with some black satin rustoleum tomorrow.

In the next few days I'll do the transmission, replacing the pan with the new one, attach the lights to the already wired relays/switch, re-wire the reverse lights while replacing them with the flood bars I just got, and finally pull apart the windshield cowls and re-paint them with the rustoleum trim and bumper paint I picked up today.

Oh, I'll also put the shifter cover back on. I pulled it off, undid some of the stitching, redid some of it to make both sides even, and when I get my black waxed thread, I'll reattach it. I really dig the white thread on the black leather, and using the thicker natural colored thread I have on the trigger area seems to have given it a good amount of rigidity.