400,000 km

[PJungnitsch]

Two pictures for comparison 

Ouch! That does look like a pain. Was reading on Edmunds.com where their used Ferrari quit on a busy highway the other day and had to be towed. Their mechanic's verdict was a badly installed alarm system from the previous owner.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea0c8f

I'm going to cover my $5.00 fusebox with a bit of plastic, and avoid hitting it directly with pressure washer. All the contacts are greased against corrosion so it should be fine. There are a lot nicer integrally covered ones out there, ie:

http://www.amotostuff.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BS-5025&Category_Code=dl650_electrical

[PJungnitsch]

Wow, I think this is one of your best mods yet (the lighting). Give us some shots at night!

Doesn't really show in photos. I'd say the contrast is less, due to them being grouped with the rest of the lights, but they are higher and visible from the side, so better overall, more like a modern vehicle. And it let me integrate the fogs into the bumper edges.

I like the way the fogs look, although the low profile rectangular ones I used don't seem to provide nearly the light of the small rounds on the Tundra I drove last year. Too much reflector cut away, I suppose.

Did put small round fogs on the back to add to the weak standard backup lights. Really hate not seeing behind when backing up in the winter, and hitting the brakes occasionally to light stuff up gets old.

This mod worked well. Ran them from a separate fused power wire from the battery, with a relay controlled by the stock backup lights turning them on.

[safristi]

..I hereby AWARD him a PHj.. ..............Dr   Doctor.....DOKTOR......Mazd'i wait in the ante_room.....I need a FULL PHYSICAL.....STOP..in the name of LURVE....you'll be competing with  Arfur Dents RESTORATION @ the end of the UNI'VERSE ...Lethbridge
 HIGH....... .................

[mrthompson]

Great work, PJungnitsch.  Most vehicles I've owned/driven had poor backup lights.   

[safristi]

  who were ya FRONTING FER     .....Celine DIONNE and the Quintuplets......

[mrthompson]

 

[Arctic_White]

Congratulations!    Let's see - at my current use rate, I would need to keep the Yaris for another 27.5 years.     The car may make it, but I sure doubt I will. 

What a realist.


Congrats on hitting 400K! 

[PJungnitsch]

One final thing before winter was adding some gauges, always useful on an older vehicle. A pod I had laying around fit perfectly and gauges came on sale cheap. Interestingly they are LED lit and can be one of eight different colors at the push of a button; bright blue, purple, pink etc. I settled for the same orange as stock. Disconnect the battery cable for any reason and they revert to bright green.

[safristi]

..Playin PAC_MAN   whilst driving...............

[PJungnitsch]

Gave the truck it's first real test after all the work, 1700 km trip to the Shuswap and back. Pretty rough driving over the two passes on the way there, heavy snow piled up on the road, going past some nasty accidents, a good part done in third gear.

Conclusions:

The K&N 'pancake' filter picks up some snow in heavy going, had to stop every hour towards the end and let it thaw. Will switch back to the stock housing with pre heat on the next warm day.

Fog lights are very helpful in crappy conditions. These don't light up the front so much as the road edges, but reduced the driving strain quite a bit.

The headlight washers are great when driving at night in slop, nice to be able to wash off the crap without pulling over.

Extra gauges are ace, nice to check on rpm and engine load. Can drive it more like a motorcycle now.

Note, that's my brothers new GMC HD Duramax diesel. Nice truck! He really likes it so far.

[mmret]

Thats some nice driving scenery in the 3rd to last.

The only highway I drive regularly is the 401 and its quite terrible by that standard.

[PJungnitsch]

It is very pretty country, and the foothills on the Alberta side are good too. A much more relaxing drive in the summer though! My brother came down from the north the previous day and he said they lost count of the accident sites they went through from Jasper to Kamloops. It sounds like the heavy snow on the road was upsetting vehicles left and right.

[safristi]

YUP PURTY Country P.J....where MEN are Men till K.D Lang shows up in her HUMMER

[PJungnitsch]

Truck has been running well, 414,000 km on it now. The exhaust did get noisy on it after a trip to Manitoba.

As I've just moved to a new town (Medicine Hat) I didn't know a cheap muffler shop and money is short right now but...I found some cheap muffler parts from Canadian tire. so I ordered them in and went at it last Sunday in the CT parking lot.

Doesn't look so bad here



But this shows the issue



Have a resonator in place of the cat, and that was still in good shape



Can't complain about the pricing, but without those part numbers Lethbridge CT wanted 4X the price.



So I cut the pipe in back of the resonator with a hacksaw, mounted the tailpipe and muffler in, and joined it to the rest of the exhaust with a $10.00 extension and a couple of clamps.



Seems to be solid, sounds much better.

Besides the muffler and tailpipe I needed the mentioned 1 7/8 extension pipe and clamps, 2 @ 3/4" bolts for the tailpipe/muffler connection, and tube of muffler cement (no gasket supplied). A regular hacksaw, some files, and a big hammer came in handy. I raised the truck a bit eventually for working room.

I did the same thing back in 2003 when I was a broke student and it lasted 5 years. Seems like the same parts.

[PJungnitsch]

Note, for anyone considering Krown on a vehicle with rust already (like mine) I got the truck treated in the spring and as you can see it's completely off the undercarriage now. The dust over the summer soaked it up and took it off. I think that anywhere inside box sections it's working fine.

[barrie1]

As you winter drive the truck its impossible for the undercoating to stay stuck on to the bottom. I undercoated my 1972 truck 2 years ago now but it has stayed on only because I don't winter drive it at all. 

[dr_spock]

Nice work.  My cheapest muffler repair job used metal from an old coke can and a couple of clamps. 

[PJungnitsch]

As you winter drive the truck its impossible for the undercoating to stay stuck on to the bottom. I undercoated my 1972 truck 2 years ago now but it has stayed on only because I don't winter drive it at all. 

I got it treated in the spring (THIS spring), and the Krown came off the underbody during the summer. It's very light stuff.

I think I will spray a light coat of it now with the aerosol can I have (it should be a very good penetrant) and then cover that with the heavier chain lube, which seems to stick around.

[PJungnitsch]

Time for the trucks annual scrubbing (with Comet from under the sink, ha ha).

Once it's polished up a bit, the cheap and quick paintjob I gave it over two years ago is holding up remarkably well.

[safristi]

..Yer quite the LIL SCRUBBER..........coming to Cinemas NoV 3rd........ ..........