Wait, what? Are you suggesting he use hydrofluoric acid?

Anyways, I've been reading this thread and enjoying it very much. You're doing beautiful work!

 

HydroFLUORIC Acid !!!? I sure nope not.

I assume Brian meant, HydroCHLORIC Acid, which is in people's stomach and used for various industrial purposes. I've used it to clean motorcycle fuel tanks, and rusted parts. It's nasty but usable in the right concentration, with the right gloves, safety glasses, clothes and ventilation.

on the other hand...
HydroFLUORIC acid... is about as nasty as it gets. DON'T GO ANYWHERE NEAR IT IF YOU ARE NOT TRAINED.
(It's hydrogen flouride dissolved in water)

I doubt someone will just simply find this stuff and try use it on auto parts, but here's a quick overview.
It eats Calcium for example. Get it on your skin and it eats you from the inside out. You won't even notice at first.
Even a TINY amount is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
A quick google search will fill in the details on it.

here's an example from the CDC:

That's the end of today's Safety PSA

---------

Thanks for the kind words about the truck project.


I'm currently still testing the rear harness, when I get spare time.
I'd hate to have the cab fully mounted and find that a wire is broken or shorted.
After that it's removing the body lift and installing the new cab mounts.

 

Yes, thanks for the PSA for those who didn't know. I've come across it in my work as an engineer and heard simply horrible stories about it. No layman should ever have a need to use it. On Breaking Bad, they used it to dispose of a corpse in one episode (but just between you, me, and the lampshade, using lye would be far more effective for that purpose. HF is nasty stuff but not particularly corrosive in the way laypeople tend to think of acid eating through everything)

If you're REALLY ridiculously thorough about testing your wire harness, you could do a dielectric withstand test with a handheld tester like those made by Fluke. It basically just puts a high potential across things which shouldn't be in electrical contact and looks to see if any insulation breakdown occurs. But those units are not cheap, so if you don't already have one, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

LOL Naw not going that far as to buy one. Unfortunately the shop I work occasionally at, doesn't have one either.
I figure if a typical multimeter can't show a problem, then it "should" be fine.
There still might be some insulation cracks that I missed on the visual inspection, that aren't actually shorting. But I'm willing to take a chance.
While I'm a bit fussy about some things, I'm not that fussy. Besides, my wife says she want's the engine in the truck by easter. (she's dreaming)
I did do a quick visual check on the harness, but I don't trust that alone, so I used a meter while flexing the harness.
Edit: I should mention, I did consider putting the middle of the harness in a bucket of water and test for shorts, but I got lazy. My punishment for that misplaced confidence will probably be lifting that cab off in a couple months.

 

Thanks for the e-mail on the shocks.

When mechanically connecting any wiring (not soldering) I use GB OX Gard (GB = Gardner Bender). They make a lot of electrical tools and small parts. Home Depot stocks it.

I starting using this in a house I had with aluminum wiring to prevent corrosion when connecting aluminum to copper fixtures and wiring.

A small tube is about $4.00 and goes a long way. I use it on battery terminals as well. It's like a light grease but it conducts current and stops corrosion.

This will prevent any future corrosion in your wiring harness.

The truck is looking great, and is pretty rare here. I've only ever seen one other.

 

Thanks for the heads up ! I've always used dialectric grease on plugs/sockets etc

That OX gard looks to be a great product to use on non-soldered permanent connections like the back of trailer plugs. (which don't seem to last at all)
http://www.gardnerbender.com/en/ox-100b

There were a few dakota convertibles in lower mainland BC, but I can only assume that, like everywhere else in Canada, they have disappeared.
One in North Van was for sale about 5 years ago.
I know of 2 that were in Langford on Vancouver Island.
There were 6 of them in Winnipeg when we bought our truck back in the early 90s. They are all gone, except for this one, and a second one (which recently appeared) owned by a guy who seems to commute into the city with it during the summer.

 

Build update:

After much hassle, I finally found someone competent, and available, to come to the shop and do some welding on the cab.

On the passenger side, where the firewall meets the floor, there were two cracks. (one had been previously "repaired", aka "mangled a bit then covered with bondo outside in the engine compartment" :P )

Here's a shot of the floor with seal sealer partially removed, and the damaged area.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6...%2520Floor.jpg


I found a gen 1 dakota extended cab, and cut a patch section out of it, but...... AFTER I CLEANED THE SEAM SEALER AND PAINT FROM THE PATCH PIECE, THERE WERE CRACKS IN IT TOO, IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE.

Shot of the partially cleaned patch panel, with cracks highlighted:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-R...%2520PANEL.jpg

So it's obviously a design flaw... check the floors of your trucks !

They can't been easily seen unless you have the transmission out of your truck, or you remove the seam sealer at the joint in the interior floor

The longer crack occurs, in the firewall metal, on the passenger side. (mine was 2 inches long)

The floor sheet metal has a notch in it where it meets the spot weld flange on the firewall. That notch created a weak spot at the flange, which likely cracks due to flexing over the years of driving. (Sorry, I neglected to take a photo of the factory made notch before the panel was repaired)

The second, much smaller, crack was in the same area, a few inches closer to the transmission tunnel.


I had the welder fix the cracks in the patch pieces, reinforce the spotweld flange with a plate made of some 14 gauge he had, then lap weld the patch in place.
He was going to but weld the patch in but we figured the since the location is more or less unseen, it was better to doe a much stronger lap joint welded from both sides.

It's much stronger than factory now, and those cracks should be gone for good.

 

The OX Gard does indeed appear to enhance conductivity while preventing corrosion, but here is a caveat for dielectric grease, which is very different.

Hint: Dielectric = insulator = non-conductive!

For those following this build who might be unaware, you are supposed to put dielectric grease where you DON'T want electricity to flow. For example, you put dielectric on the inside portion of the rubber boot of a plug wire to help prevent undesired arcing from the wire to other objects. Don't slam a bunch of the grease down into the metal contact inside the boot or onto the contact portion of the spark plug, or your cylinders could have trouble getting a spark.

An added benefit to using dielectric grease is that it makes the plug wires easier to remove later on.

 

DukeDomB: That's what I've always found a bit weird about dieletric tune up compound. Like the name implies, it meant to be used as you say.

Yet, I know a bunch of professional mechanics, who repeatedly told me that I should use it on other connections like bulb sockets, after cleaning the contacts.
I have done so, on that recommendation, since before I knew what dielectric compound did. It's always seemed to work.

I can see, if used in tiny amounts, how the the compound would keep water out and prevent shorts, and the mechanical connection would push the compound away, enabling the connection.

Even then... i've always thought their emphatic recommendation to use it on sockets, a bit worrying because I've always worried about increasing the resistance and all the problems that entails.

Thoughts ?



P.S. From the description, it sounds like like ox-gard, would create a short if used inside a bulb socket. (as opposed to a 1 to 1 connection like the rear of a trailer socket, or butt connectors.)

 

Hey Robert... This build on hold due to cold weather?