It turned out pretty good. Are there rules with having brakes fitted to trailers where you are? I know if there's a certain load capacity it'll need assist brakes. Getting rid of the truck axle and using one for a trailer will save some weight.
It turned out pretty good. Are there rules with having brakes fitted to trailers where you are? I know if there's a certain load capacity it'll need assist brakes. Getting rid of the truck axle and using one for a trailer will save some weight.
Thanks geezer. Yes the legal limit in Florida is 3000 pound trailer needs brakes. I will be nowhere near that weight with my particular contraption.
I have towed several small cars with my max and a 2 wheel dolly so I know the truck can haul. Just have to leave plenty of room to stop. I dont imagine that I would even be able to stuff enough cargo into the small bed of my home made trailer to equal that much weight. The springs would collapse under all the weight and just ride on the bump stops.
Ive had starion/conquest seats in the max from when the turbo swap went in years ago. They worked ok I guess but never really fit very well. The other day I saw somebody use bmw seats in a starion and got me thinking that would be cool in my truck. Then last weekend I was in the junkyard looking at a ram 50 but it was already missing whatever good parts it had left. I just happened to be leaving and noticed a 2002 bmw 325i at the end of the aisle with damn near perfect seats. Couldnt resist since I cant just come home empty handed.
Theyre leather and full power. Up/down ,forward/backward, and reclining. Problem is that you have to go all the way back to remive the front bolts. Then all the way forward to get rear bolts. I took a peek under the seat, guessed at which motor did each action. Stripped some wires and used the battery for my cordless drill to get the seat moving.
I think i actaully made it harder than it should've been. The switches and control parts are all built into the seat. So if you just hook up battery power to the 2 main thick wires under the seats then everything will work with the switches on the side of the seat. Just didnt wanna start hooking up too many random wires before looking at a diagram.
They actually fit the stock floor pretty close. I had to trim a small piece off at the rear end of the inner track on both seats. They will not bolt to the factory seat holes so I will weld some nut plates to the floor.
Seats look great and having them power optioned is a cool mod for the truck. What's the sitting position like behind the wheel? I've got my hands on Peugeot 306 Xsi seats and the sitting position is pretty low (which is fine for me as I'm tall)
Id say the seats sit about as high as the factory bench but I dont have one to compare it to. They're really comfortable. Could use a bit more side bolster. Im only 5 1/2 feet tall so foot and head room isn't a problem for me. I have a small sub woofer box behind each seat as well. The starion buckets were sitting on pieces of 2×2 square tubing in order to get them high enough. Ended up cutting them out to mount the bmw seats directly to the factory floor seat humps. Also used to have my speaker amps under the starion seats and out of the way. The amps will not fit under the bmw seats because of the electric motors. Not a deal breaker just have to rearrange a little.
I dont know if you all have already seen/ done this but I saw it on Facebook and thought it would be an easy and inexpensive mod for a custom touch to the engine compartment
Nothing wrong with a stock hood prop rod but why not have some hood struts.
They're from a Honda accord. I think 98-02. Some accords have a prop rod but some have the gas struts. Maybe its the Ex models? Not sure exactly, I just kept checking all the accords in the junkyard. It was 12$ for the pair.
I used some random brackets from my junk parts bin. Bolted them down using the rear bolt hole for the front fenders. Once I had the strut installed to the lower bracket I lined it up to the hood and drilled a hole for the top mount and tack welded it in.
The lower bracket would not stay in place though since the hood struts are very stiff so I had to weld the lower brackets in to get them to stop shifting under load when closing the hood.
It still needs fine tuning but they currently get the job done. The hood stays open as high as it did with the prop rod but the metal is flimsy in the corners where the lower brackets go. Noticed it flexes quite a bit so I need to work on my bracing there.
Hood struts are a good add on. I bought a pair from ebay to suit a Hilux/Vigo for my Gen 1. Unfortunately one leaked but even then they still hold up the heavy chunk of metal. I anchored the actuated end of the rod to the hood hinge using the existing bolt holes and the other end I mounted mid way down the frame channel. Got a link to the post -
http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...ll=1#post66536
Impulse buy!
Walking through the junkyard and came across an 01 nissan frontier with a bed cover. I did get the bracing for across the middle but no canvas cover. For 25$ I figured I could make something work and wasnt gonna pass it up.
It fits pretty well just a bit long at the end but the frame is aluminum and just needs an inch or two cut off. It will go right back together since the corner pieces are removable and the frame is the same shape the whole length. Very light weight so the gas struts still lift it easily and hold it up to load and unload things into the bed.
I called the company that makes it to see if a replacement canvas cover is still available and after waiting on hold for 10-15 minutes I just gave up and sent an e-mail. No reply. I doubt they make it anymore and would probably be too much $ anyway.
Now I have to find a supply store that sells a large enough piece of vinyl to cover the whole thing. I really dont wanna try and stitch multiple pieces together. Gonna hit up an old friend that works at a marine supply warehouse and see how large a piece of vinyl they have.
A friend if mine has a 96 Tacoma and I thought the center console would look good in a mighty max. Went searching through junkyard but couldn't find any good ones. The 4runner console is similar but couldn't find one of them in good condition either. Spotted a 1987 nissan maxima with a body kit on my way out. Really liked the look of the console. It's japanese and period correct so in the wheel barrow it goes. Unfortunately it's got the emergency brake handle slot but I can fill it up or maybe one day move the cable from the dash and make it functional. It fits better than the 94-01 integra console I had already. Once I get the carpet back in I can adjust it where needed to fit.
Last edited by crvtec90; 07-03-2021 at 12:40 PM. Reason: pics
That's actually not badIt's not un-doable to convert a truck to a floor mounted 'E' brake and get rid of the stupid parachute handle thing. I like the fact that the forward section of the console follows the same angle as the lower section of the dash. And a place to rest your elbow! A blast of dark grey vinyl colour spray and it's almost perfect.
I did buy some paint for the truck a while back but been busy painting my brothers car. Hopefully get the practice in and then do even better on my truck. Getting to be too cold for painting so not sure when I'll get to it. Hopefully I can at least get started prepping the body and work out some rusty spots / dents
Meanwhile the transmission is acting up. It's hard to get into gear when cold and gets better as it warms up. I've also got fairly loud noise at highway speed which I suspect is from the transmission.
Found a replacement this weekend. 145,000 miles. No idea if it's any good but that's how it goes sometimes. Need to get it installed and shift through the gears before the one year warranty runs out. I'll open up my old one and take a peak for issues.
Are rebuild kits even available? Like bearings and synchros?
Last edited by crvtec90; 11-15-2021 at 07:38 AM.
Puttin in some work. Loaded up and headed to scrap yard.scrap.jpgscrap2.jpg
Good job bro..!Originally Posted by crvtec90
Overdue for rear brakes. Resurfaced the drums. New shoes and Flex hose. Found an Ebay load sensing proportion valve pretty cheap. Hopefully not a total piece of garbage and leak fluid but we'll see.
Original master cylinder was actually still working but not sure for how long. My rear wheel cylinders were rusted shut along with the adjusters. Feels much better now.
Last edited by crvtec90; 03-20-2022 at 07:55 PM.
Oh man, that master cylinder was crusty. Way beyond worth trying to rebuild. The load proportioning valve seems to be the go-to part now. Hey, if it stops you without having to use a stationary solid object or send you sideways under brakes and it doesn't leak, I'd call that mission accomplished
No a/c in my truck but maybe one day. The heat barely works and I hardly ever use it since this is Florida. The other day I was comin home and figured Id turn it on just to try and warm up a bit . Well it warmed up real good........A little too good.
I smelled burning and thought " Is that me"? Nah couldnt be me.
When the smoke started I realized yup its me.
I pulled over near the hotel on the corner trying to see what was happening and it just kept getting worse.
Jumped back in the truck and hauled A$$ down the street as the smoke flowed all out the dash vents
Luckily I was right around the corner from my house so I pulled in the driveway, grabbed the garden hose and proceeded to Fire Marshall BILL mode.
I could see the blower motor and Hvac box were in flames so I ripped out the glove box and flooded everything I could see.
My truck had sat under trees for so long that the Hvac box was packed full of leaves. The perfect mix of fire kindling sitting right on top of the blower motor resistor which gets pretty hot when you turn on the fan.
Shame on me for not cleaning it out a long time ago. Scared me big time and I consider myself lucky it isnt worse. Need to get a small fire extinguisher to keep in the truck just in case.
Oh sh*t, I was only talking about this on another thread recently too. It was related to cleaning out the heater/blower case while descaling the heater core but an actual FIRE wasn't on my list of concerns. Lucky you managed to put it out quickly! Replacing the heater case is minor compared to your entire truck being reduced to a smoldering canoe on the side of the road...
Extinguishers are cheap insurance but you'd mostly want to have one handy for other driver mishaps
Junk yard score.
grille , clear turn signals & marker lamps , NRG steering wheel , dash clock and smoke vent visorsmmstuff.jpg
Been a while since you posted. Nice haul from the yard
Many years ago I bought some ebay headlight housings with H4 bulbs . Pretty sure they still sell them in different variations . They were getting pretty dim and time for renewal . Recently I bought a pair amazon led H4 replacement bulbs so we will see how that goes . Pretty sure you are not supposed to put an led bulb in a regular housing because of light scatter and other scientific light properties but I did it anyhow. So far nobody is flashing their high beams at me or screaming that my lights are too bright so I will call that a win . I do notice there is some shadowing in the beam but seem to work just fine . Much brighter than before.
Now there are complete led lamps assemblies available on ebay , amazon etc. I wasnt sure of the quality or if you are able to change out just the bulbs when they do go bad. The complete sets are about twice what I paid for just the led bulbs.
Here is a side by side pic of comparison from my old h4 to new h4 ledlights.jpg
Last edited by crvtec90; 03-03-2023 at 03:54 PM.
You can get the H4 LED inserts dirt cheap. I've been using C6 H4 LED's and they have good light penetration and are pretty bright. Reflective road signs stand out from miles away compared to halogens. Don't know how they stack up against more expensive LED's...
Wow it's really been a whole year. All I do is abuse this truck. Pretty much just goes to home depot , junkyard , or scrap yard. Sometimes the occasional furniture hauling.
Finally got around to installing new tires that I bought last year. Wanted to clean up a spare set of rims first. It takes a long time to sand off all the clear coat and get down to the corrosion of the aluminum. Then sand sand sand....buff buff buff. They look much better. Not perfect. Your results may vary
Love that wheel, looks like my old one
I used aircraft remover to get the clearcoat off my rims. Then starting with 220 grit and working my way up to 1000-grit, after that came the polishing starting with black rouge, then white and then jewelers. I am no pro, and it took me 4 weekends. My back did not appreciate it.
So now I have the matching pair of wheels on the bed trailer and two matching full size spares.
The trailer bed leans back a bit more then I want . Might take the lowering blocks out to see if it gives me a better rake.
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