Dang I am not jealous that you're in Louisiana right now.

Truck sounds like it's gonna be awesome. Reminded by the Cougar...You gonna do anything for a stereo in the Dak? I'm kind of into audio (sound quality, not just bass)...one day the Dakota will see some work..

 

I have a head unit in now, a pair of WalMart special 5x7s in the B column and a pair of Kicker 5.25" in the door.

Bass? Whazzat? *grins*

I have a 8" under-seat sub I'll be putting the wiring in also while the seat's out being recovered.

Why, yes, I have some carbon fiber pattern vinyl, some leather pattern vinyl and two sheets of very firm foam for my nephew to use; I have some blue HidEm / welting coming in also.

It should run just like new.

The driver's outer tie rod is sloppy, so new inner and outer tie rods, and while it's up, new upper and lower ball joints.

I'm hoping to keep mechanical maintenance down to oil and filter changes for at least a year or so.

(The Pioneers I've put in the Cougar are also going into the Dakota; they're nice, but having grown up playing cello in front of the upright basses and the tympani, they ... lack a certain ... je ne sais quoi , shall we say?)

RwP

 

Magnaflow Y-pipe came in today; it's a 2-part design.

Heads, not so much; they were supposedly on the truck for delivery, but not delivered today.

Drats.

RwP

 

Heads just got delivered; am delivering them to the mechanic as soon as I can get there with them.

RwP

 

Excited to see it all come together for you Ralph!

 

Took the Y-pipe out of the box.

1) It's a 1987 design, no O2 bung. That's easy enough to fix, though. Just ... an additional cost.

2) It's ... bigger on the inside of the outlet then the outside of the catalytic converter's inlet.

THAT'S fixable; but DANG IT!!!

RwP

 

Having a reman'ed set of heads, the machine shop knocked $450 off the motor overhaul.

The heads cost me $375 delivered ($374.sumpin')

They charged an additional $35 to de-carbon my intake, so I can get EGR back on the highway.

I count that a win overall.

Motor is back at the mechanic, I may have the Dakota back by Monday!

RwP

 

Oh, and all the vinyl is in to redo the seat; so as soon as I get it back, I park it again

RwP

 

And so it goes...with project cars. "Yay I can drive!" nNext day...hmmm I should do this. Week later... "Yay I can drive!" and again..ad infinitum

 

We always just resigned ourselves to the inevitable.... and tore it down completely. Then reconditioned each and every part before it went back on...... Takes a while, but, when you are done, there are less incidences of 'oops, that needs to be fixed', and its undriveable again.