I feel like so much has happened to this truck in the 12 years since the last post in here. This is what I could find on my phone to give it an update.
I picked up a black ARE camper shell for $600 a couple years ago... and LOVE the thing. It totally changed the demeanor of the truck.
End of last year... a lifter went bad and was stuck.
Initially we were going to swap a new-to-me 6.0L in... and then I'd have a play engine to learn and rebuild. My dear buddy in Albany, Clair... had a few lying around so he gave me one. So I flew up North... rented a truck and loaded the donor up and truck'd'r back home.
This is Clair. Without him... I would likely ne'er modified a car e'er... and certainly ne'er got into drifting... and none of any of this place would exist.
Ryan got the old motor out LIKE A BOSS.
Meanwhile, I stripped down the donor motor and got it cleaned up the best I could.
The only hangup here... was that there was fungus/mushrooms growing on top of the valves of the donor motor. It had a bunch of dirt/mud inside it. So we collectively made the decision to just rebuild the one that came out of the truck... since that motor was in great shape. So Ryan got that motor stripped down to 'bout nothing and got it all refreshed/rebuilt like a champ.
I cleaned up the engine bay the best I could while it was out.
Motor back in. Ryan really was a rock star with all of this.
I've put a LOT of miles on this ol' rig. It feels good to know she's got the same ticker she came with... just fixed up.
Shortly after she was back up and running... I wound up on 129 headed back home from a gig in Tennessee... so I got a couple Killboy jammies.
We just put a Flowmaster cat-back on the truck... which is something else I shoulda done from the jump. It ain't too loud... it's just enough.
I just bought enough Raptor liner to spray that horrendously chipped front grille down... and rid the bumpers of the last of the chrome. Snagged a fresh set of headlights as well to really give it a nice new look. The paint is feeling pretty worn out. The roof is actually starting to rust... so I think a paint job'll be next whenever I can get around to that.
