Next things on the list only happened because there was some really great online only deals for black Friday. I have wanted to upgrade the battery for awhile as there is plans to upgrade the front end and attach a fully hydraulic plow to the front. Only problem being that while it does fit into the stock battery box tray, it does overhang enough that my ammo case battery box cover would no longer work, so I had to start figuring out what I planned to do there to replace that, as I didn't want the new battery open to the world to see and access. Undoing the terminals also revealed that these were cheaper terminals as they broke apart unbolting them. With that find I also managed to find a black toolbox that actually fits the dimensions of the bed and cover side to side as close as possible. Toolbox is a Deezee DZ8546B. Huge tacky plastic logo the company puts on had to be removed right away.
The rear hatch in the bed, the old rubber seal had totally hardened and was cracking and didn't want to stay attached to the door when it was removed. I found a alternative on amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00NBXKWZG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . This rubber with the little bulb on the end worked perfectly for sealing the bed and was thin enough to slide around and hold itself tightly to the edge. As mentioned a few posts back, when I removed the air box, I found a little bit of pooling oil in the bottom, so I had ordered a catch can to bridge from the CCV to the intake. just found a cheap catch can online, https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B072JW82S1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. The problem came figuring out where to put it. There was no where directly that could be used and the space is rather minimal. I grabbed a scrap piece of metal I had laying around and made a little angled bracket that the can would be able to be mounted to at an angle, to avoid any sharp bends in the lines. The can itself had a small baffle inside and the base actually unscrewed to empty it. I cut up a stainless steel scrub pad (https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B002CQTXBC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and stuffed it into the baffle to help with cooling the oil vapors. Picked up a drain valve (https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00HTV2DQC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) that I could screw into the bottom to make draining the oil can much easier.
With most of the exterior upgrades done, the time came to put the dash back into the truck. While doing so, I made a few changes. I relocated the 4wd button off the shifter and moved it onto the dash and installed new speakers. The original truck came with only a driver side speaker, so I had to run new lines over to the passenger side. Just found some cheap 4" x 6" speakers that I made fit as the old speaker seemed to be a 3.5" x 5" weird dimension speaker that fell apart like rice paper when touched. The shifter as well was very sloppy, and noticed there were no bushings at all. I ordered new ones from Megazip (https://www.megazip.net/zapchasti-d...-system-7090022#/il-164757274-5221572-5221572) and it really tightened up the slop, making the shifting feel like brand new. A couple of days after doing so I found some leaking coming from the passenger side rear shock, so it was time to source replacements. Monroe 31000 seemed to the choice from what I read at the time. When I ordered them they had double eyelets. The top eyelet was too thick and the rubber needed to be ground down flush. I cut the eyelets on the bases and welded on little arms to create the u-bracket bottom. They fit on nice and snug.
Was your dash black originally or did you repaint it? Looks good in black. Three out of my four shifter bushings were shot. For the bushings at the shifter I was able to source a replacement from Mcmaster for the left side one- https://www.mcmaster.com/6679k12 . This is a metal sleeve with a PTFE liner so a lot less play than the original nylon. The right side bushing had a larger OD, 11mm vs 10mm, on my truck so the bushing didn't work for that one. It looks like the parts diagram only shows one size. Wonder what's going on there? I machined bushings out of Delrin for the rear trans bushings. I could make more of them if you're interested.
Dash was originally gray, pulled it out and dyed it black. The two bushings at the rear on mine were fine and still intact and not worn out, if they ever go, you will get a message from me tho as you do great work. The two closest to the shifter on the left and right of the knob were the only ones missing. I didn't take a picture of them before I installed them, but they were little brown silicone/nylon based material that were very pliable and slid into the eyelets with a little bit of protruding ends to be quite snug, both of which I would assume were the same size as the part numbers were exactly identical. Bushings were the same as the ones used here.
When putting the dash back in, I also replaced all the incandescent bulbs in the instrument cluster to leds and any other dash light to led, with the exception of the battery light as I soon found out, it results in that battery light always being partially on when the truck is running, due to there always being a low enough voltage to light up the led bulb partially which led me to take it all back out, put the original bulb back in and put it all back together again. Dash took I believe nine 74 LED bulbs and two 194 LEDs Added a broadway 270mm mirror to improve the line of sight which is surprising how much more you can see out of, even at night time, the glass just seems, higher quality? than the stock little rearview mirror. Because these little trucks on highways are like thin popcans to every other vehicle, I upgraded the horn to something closer to a transport horn, following the motorcycle ideology, being louder saves lives.
I spilled coffee in my 4wd button and now it sticks. I have to wiggle it back and forth a half dozen times for it to pop back up. I'm going to try to get it loosened up, if not, I might relocate mine to the dash as well. Looking great!
Tach gauge was next on the list. Went with the 2" glow shift gaug, because it was the smallest I could find that could be mounted in the bezel region and also be colour matched to the rest of the instrument cluster. Installation was pretty straight forward, with the green wire tapping into the solid yellow wire on the main harness under the dash. And because you can never have enough cup holder's, I found these cup holder's that mount to the center dash air vents.
Adam, Great job! So what did you clean the dash material with, and what kind of dye did you use? It really looks nice! Limestone
I used SEM Vinyl prep to clean all the pieces, any wax and grease remover will likely work. I had leftover U-POL adhesion promoter from doing the bed liner work, so I applied that once everything was good and clean. For the dye I used the SEM black vinyl paint, and then let it cure for a week before doing anything else with the pieces.
After I installed the tachometer, I wanted a way to keep an eye on the oil temperature. Since these little trucks run to at such high rpm's and because I'm consistently running it at 110km/h or more daily, I wanted to see IF it would be beneficial to install an external oil cooler on the truck or not. Work begin getting the sandwich plate installed and the line temperature wiring ran upto the cab. Wiring was pretty straight forward, like the tachometer, everything could be tapped into the exact same lines except the green wire for this gauge goes to the positive temperature sensor wire. Mounting the gauge on the A pillar, I thought about riveting it in, but I wanted it to be removable, so I just used tap screws, not ideal but it does the job for now.
A little bit, but the truck has been sitting for awhile due to the salt on the roads here. I didn't oil spray it this year due to all the work that was planned on it. I didn't want to have to deal with wiping oil off of everything. Once the spring rolls around, I'll have some solid numbers on high end temperatures.
The back up light was rather poor, so I figured a few extra lights would help. Tapped them into the rear light so all of them come on in reverse. These are the flood version of the pod lights. They don't look as bright as the singular back up light, but that might just be the angle. I attached them to the sides of the rear cover so they go up and down as the door does.
I didn't like having the battery on the side of the truck and quite low to the ground. I don't like keep the battery out in the open for easy access, as with only two nuts on the cover and 2 nuts for the terminals, the battery would surely grow legs. New location for the battery was inside the toolbox. It makes it easier if I ever need to use the truck to boost anything, and just hooking up additional lines for accessories and what not, there is much more room to work with and it's not so close to the frame and fuel tank. In order to do so, meant extending the battery cables. I found a company that makes nice longer battery cables, Spartan power. Made in the USA these cables were pretty rock solid. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B074NZJLYQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 I kept the battery box frame with the ammo case cover where it was for now, the plan is to build a full length underbed toolbox to occupy that full side.
Adam, I like the way you think! That project has been on my master list, in my boggled mind, for a while now. Not exactly like the way you did, but along those lines. Great pics, and info. Thanks! Limestone
If you want to save money for 25$ you can buy 20 feet of jumper cable of the same gauge. Cut the clamps off and add the proper terminal. That is what I did for my winch and hydraulic power pack for the jump bed. As a bonus you get clamps to hold small parts for welding!!!
So puttering around town this past week and non major highway travel the oil temps sat around 180F. Travelling on the major highway here cruising @ 110km for roughly 2 hours each direction, oil temp peaked and held at just a tad over 220F. This is using a 5w-30 full synthetic.
Few more cosmetic mods to post up, while I waited for the upgraded springs and other goodies to arrive. For a long long time I've always been a ford truck guy. With that being said, all my other trucks are fords, so I thought it would be amusing to have the littlest truck join the others. Was interesting applying vinyl overtop of bedliner. I wasn't sure how it would adhere, but surprisingly with just a little heat and lots of smoothing it down over the texture, its held up perfect, even with a pressure washer jet hitting it.
Have had good luck with Ford'S, my whole life! Pretty neat! But, it's a mini, probably not Ford Tough! LOL!!!LOL!
Work began on getting a tonneau cover built so that I could actually carry things in the bed without them going flying out or getting wet in the rain. At first I was considering using metal but with avoiding adding as much additional weight as possible, I opted for 1/2" exterior plywood. I haven't added any gas shocks yet, so it has a stick prop that stays in the bed for now. Raptor linering it was a no brainer, to hide the plywood look and blend it in with the bed sides, honestly can't even tell its plywood. Someone had posted awhile ago about using rubber latches to fasten it down with, which I thought was a great idea. I used these ones https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0087PBZOK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They fit very snug and hold everything in place really well and allow it to be pulled off really quickly. I had leftover raptor liner, so I decided to use it up on the front bumper getting that sprayed in as well.
Really looks nice! I've had a lot of experience, with the rubber latch tie downs! They do work great! Down the road, as you'll notice the rubber getting dull, and a little firmer,(hard), you'll want to rub a little petroleum jelly on them to re juvinate em, and keep them supple, as the UV rays will start to affect them!
