The Ballad of Ol' Thumper

[Basslicks]

Separated the wheels and tires in preparation for painting them. Took the wheels to the car wash thinking the pressure wand would get 'em cleaned real good.... yeah not really.





Meh... I mean, it cleaned 'em up a little, but I wasn't satisfied. So I returned to my old trick of dollar store oven cleaner. Yup, you read it right. Lemon-scented (ha yeah right) Easy Off oven cleaner from the Dollar Tree. Spray it on, let it soak in for a minute and wipe off with a rag. You'll be amazed by the results.



If it weren't for the nicks and chips in the paint, these wheels would look brand new. SO... they're getting scuffed, primed, and painted.

 

[Basslicks]

Had to change out one of the battery terminals. Completely broke free from the clamp one night. Found out when I went to go start my truck up on a break.

Did a temporary fix until I can order a set of military terminal clamps.



The ground clamp looks cruddy, yes, but it will only be on there another week or so. I'll solder on new ring terminals like I did with the positive cables, then bolt them to the military clamps. Much easier and more effective. I'll, of course, post up pics of that progress as well.

 

[Basslicks]

That pretty much catches everything up. It'll be a slow roll from here on out, but keep checking back if you're interested.

In the meantime, check out my IG pages and my YouTube channel (links in sig).

 

[MADDOG]

It's great to see an old truck get revived.

Keep after it!

 

[Basslicks]

It's great to see an old truck get revived.

Keep after it!

Thanks, bud!

 

[BTD07]

You have put a lot of TLC into this. Kudos to you for seeing the vision when you bought it. Its turning out nice

 

[Basslicks]

Thanks man. Much appreciated!

 

[MattHemi]

Awesome jobs on giving that old truck the TLC she deserves. Way to go.

 

[Basslicks]

Thanks buddy.

 

[Basslicks]

Finally got a new grille badge. Opted for the 3rd gen "3d style" badge that came in all gloss black.

Had to shave it down to make it fit, but it didn't turn out too bad for a rush job... and for using a horse-hoof rasp.







I might hit it with some body filler later on, but for now it looks better than a grille missing a badge.

 

[Basslicks]

Finally got around to throwing the lift on it.









Driver's front



Passenger front

Lift is a 3" coil spacer "kit" made by Supreme Suspensions.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L14RVAU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Basslicks]

Driver's side rear



Passenger side rear



Yup... as you can see, the rear is about 1" lower than the front now. So I'll need 1" blocks for the rear to actually make it level. I'll probably go 2" just to give it a little more of a factory-like stance to it.

In the pic above, the slant of the driveway makes it look more squatted than it really is though.

Made a quick how-to video of the install if anyone else is considering a coil spacer lift for their 2wd.


About the ride: it's a little stiffer in the front now, yes, but it's not to a detriment. I might find a set of 2500 springs for the rear to match the ride quality and get the height I'm looking for. The track width on the front does change a little too, so I MIGHT get a set of 1" wheel spacers... we'll see after I put the "new" wheels on it though.

 

[Basslicks]

Figured I'd give you guys a teaser of the wheel refurb progress...


Before



After

Decided to go with a bronze color. Inspired by a set of Method Race wheels I really like...

 

[Basslicks]

...and now for the rest of the story.



285/70r17 Toyo Open Country ATII's. About 1/2 tread. Bought them at a local tire place used for 200 mounted and balanced out the door.









Completely changes the look and attitude of the truck. And the tires ride like the truck is on a cloud. Definitely very happy with them.

And after seeing that one picture of the white balance getting thrown off by the sun and the silver rocker "disappearing" and making the truck look all white, I'm definitely going to go all white instead of doing the rockers black like my original plan. Still keeping the bumpers and grille black and going with black flares, but I think black rockers along with that will be too much and the all white body is looking a lot better in my mind.

 

[Basslicks]

Replaced the rear "Y" with a Flowmaster 40 series dual outlet. Interior noise level dropped significantly and it doesn't have that annoying "popping" that's typical with straight pipes anymore.


Huge improvement for sure.

 

[Basslicks]

So if I didn't mention it, that muffler was used. And unfortunately, one of the chamber plates broke loose inside the muffler... Rattle rattle rattle rattle.

Anyway... Installed new headlights. Just not feeling the projectors.



Also installed a new TPS. Shifts better now and got rid of the TC shutter.

New oil pressure sender, but unfortunately it's worse than the one that was in it.

And new cap, rotor, and plug wires. Old cap and rotor were so bad, I'm surprised it was still running. I kinda had a feeling though being as the way it would start when it was already warmed up. Would barely stumble to life.


Old cap vs new. Really worn terminals with a lot of carbon buildup.


Old rotor vs new. Severely worn terminal with carbon tracking off the sides the center prong.

Needless to say, runs much better now. Smoother idle, better throttle response, and seems to use less fuel.

 

[Basslicks]

WOW! Been a minute since I updated this thread... lots of changes have occurred since.

Moved to KY....









Realized my rear was sagging after lifting it and it was driving me nuts, so I threw 2" blocks in it...



Added some fog lights... (even though they sucked and didn't do anything)



Then I got a job about 35-45 minutes away (depending on traffic) and decided to get rid of the lift... plus the front shocks were blown out since I didn't extend the front shocks after lifting it so it rode like crap... not that I didn't expect a harsh ride anyway but.... well I guess you could say I'm getting a little too old for the dump truck ride.



Upside to that was, I realized I could fit 33's with no lift

More to come...

 

[Basslicks]

So the whole reason for removing the lift, other than the crappy ride, was to put smaller tires on it for fuel economy. Going back to the topic of harsh ride, in Florida it wasn't a big deal. Most of the roads are flat and they don't get destroyed by the winter. Kentucky is a completely different story, and on top of that, a lot of the roads are pretty narrow compared to Florida. So when you're not used to driving them, it's a little nerve-wracking driving down the road in a bouncy castle.

So anyway... yeah... smaller tires.... 255/65r17 Ironman RB SUV.... they're cheap, but they ride good and shed water pretty well. Totally a street tire, but since the truck is a commuter at this point... street is what I needed.






So now the truck is at factory height. Ass end sticking up in the air and itty bitty 30" street tires making the gap in the wheelwells look big enough to throw another tire in there. Well, what are ya gonna do, right?

 

[Basslicks]

Came to the realization that at this point, I had owned the truck for 2 years and hadn't done a thing about the transmission fluid and filter (bought the truck in June of 2018 and it's now February of 2020). Time to drop that pan, change the fluid and replace the filter!



Oh goody.... broken pieces of snap ring.... wonder how long that will last. Only one way to find out, right! Send it. (remember... this is February of 2020).

 

[Basslicks]

So the pandemic happened.... ya know... in case you weren't aware.

Got laid off from the job I had just started. Low man on the totem pole is always the first to go. Props to my supervisors though, they fought to keep me. But corporate responded back with, "We can't keep a technician on the payroll to clean shop equipment and mop floors. Either find him a forklift to work on, or let him go."

So I loaded up my box and all my tools and headed home for lockdown. Thankfully, my dad has a 2500 square foot wood shop with a concrete pad in it and a space cleared out for me to work in. So I went to work.... just like it was my job.... every day for nearly 3 months while I waited for state unemployment to keep fixing mistakes and pay me to be a good little boy and stay at home.

To keep my mind right, I turned my attention to the truck. Started with a 2" rear drop. Figured I always wanted a sport truck anyway, so I may as well take this truck and turn it into one.





The bronze wheels had worn out their welcome. Stripped the paint off them and began cleaning them up. Wasn't exactly sure if I wanted to do silver or black, but I knew I just didn't want that bronze anymore.







The more I worked on them though, the more they started to shine...



....and the more I realized chrome would look really good. Obviously, I don't have the means to chrome plate them myself, and there's no one around that's not shut down that could do them for me.... so I polished them to a chrome finish and clearcoated them with 2k clear.





Also stripped the center caps and painted them with bumper chrome. Obviously not a lustrious chrome finish, but they still shined pretty well.









Also painted the drums and the hub flanges high gloss black and got new chrome lugnuts.



Didn't look half bad.