I primed the carb on my folks' 1200 pickup, stuck a vacuum line back on that had fallen off a can on the firewall, and fired up that truck for the first time in about 6 months. Added a quart of tranny fluid to it, and took it for a drive. Dang farmer bias ply tires on the back must have been square after all that time. It REALLY bounced....
Then, I decided I liked the way the hood on their pickup opened and stayed open without a stick holding it up like mine required, so I became motivated to swap my old rusty hood for one I bought from a vendor 6 months ago.
Had to grind off the bolts holding my old hood on, since the nuts on the inside of the hood all twisted loose.
Went to put the new hood on, and remembered that the vendor had cut the hinge off, rather than unbolting it. So, I put a wrench on the bolt to unthread it, and realized why it was torched off, instead of unbolted. The rear passenger nut was twisted off as well. So, I ground that bolt off, and watched the rust start cascading out of the hood. A HUGE pile of rust came out of it. I need to drill a hole on the driver side and *drain* that rust out as well. I suppose I should have filled the hood with bedliner or something and sloshed it around to keep down further rust, but that was too much trouble.
Once I had the hinge torched off, and the rust drained out, I put the hood on. MUCH nicer to be able to open the hood by just tugging on the release lever, instead of having to reach inside the rusty lip of the old hood, risk lacerating my wrists on the sharp rusty edges to grab the coat hanger hooked to the release lever to finish opening it. A liberal coating of axle grease to the hinge pivot points, and that hood opens smooth as silk, and stays open.
On to tech.
I am almost finished with my diff cover armor. I need to pick up a bit more plate and weld it to the front of the cover I am working on. Then I can weld all that to the existing cover. Should give me a lot better protection from caving in the cover against the ring gear when I bump it against rocks.
I know, I know, Rusty keeps telling me that if I would learn to drive, I wouldn't be caving in my diff covers, but... we all know I can't really drive..
In the works for this week are plans to finish up the diff armor, weld my muffler support bracket back on, weld my front shock mounts to the spring plates (they are currently just bolted in place) and a couple other minor tweaks. Some maintenance type stuff (grease on the driveline ujoints, tie rod, drag link, etc) tie up some wiring issues.
I know, nothing hard core, or high tech. Just a monkey with a wrench on a nice weekend...