Category: Reunion Wrenching

I took today off, mostly. And since the sun came out last night, we decided to back the truck up into the driveway to take advantage of the warm autumn sunlight. It was fantastic. And do you know what that means? The truck moved under its own power, which is even more fantastic. Though I worry we may have to bleed the clutch or brakes again.

I had a spare “universal” battery tie-down kit that didn’t fit the truck nor the Xterra, because of course it didn’t. I was able to get a factory replacement for the Xterra but the truck is still missing one. The part of it that doesn’t fit is that the screw posts are too tall for the hood, so Evan fixed that.

I spent almost the whole day on the passenger door glass tracks and window trim. The rubber seal around the closed window is also the the same piece as the glass track that runs down the inside of the door. That was fairly awful, but surprisingly not that difficult to deal with, just very slow going.

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The replacement doesn’t quite fit perfectly, but I’m hoping that it’ll stretch out slightly now that it’s installed. While I worked on that, Evan finished laying sound deadening panels on the floor and tackled my blinker problem.

Thankfully, that was a straightforward issue: my blinker lights have two filaments and thus two contacts on the bulb base. I installed single filament bulbs by mistake (I maintain that I bought what AutoZone’s reference book told me to…). Because of that, the base bridged both the blinker and parking light circuits, creating what was essentially a ground fault on the blinker relay. He swapped out the bulbs and applied some silicone sealant and glue to fix up the assembly, since it’s pretty busted.

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Then, at long last, the trim shop called on my bench! We ran by to pick that up and are storing it safely in the garage until we’re ready to install it. I think it looks great. It’s a good fit to the interior and strikes a good balance between being textured and still being subtle. I’m really excited for how that’s gonna class up the situation.

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After that, we called it for the day so George and I could attend a TU football game. This was likely to be my only football game of the season, given all of the 2020 happening this year. It was such a fun game to watch — the first half was a major letdown, then wow the fourth quarter was an insane nail-biter. What a rollercoaster. Go Tulsa!!

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When we got back, somehow we ended up watching Evan’s videos of the first and second trips. That was a fun little trip down memory lane. And hopefully an inspiration for him to make a new episode of the third trip.

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It was a slow morning… After having done the passenger door yesterday, taking care of the driver door trim this morning was not difficult. After that, I went on an AutoZone-O’Reilly-Advance circuit looking for the insufferable plastic clips to reattach the door cards while Evan put up vapor barrier plastic sheeting, which the truck also seems to not have had in a while. After putting the door cards back on and reattaching the handle trim and window crank, the truck is really starting to look like itself again. Then we went to put up the speakers and discovered that they kinda don’t fit.

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So we’ve punted it to tomorrow and shifted gears into Halloween and football mode instead. Texas squeaked by over Oklahoma State in overtime with a similar score going into the 4th as Tulsa had yesterday. When the win was announced, I put the Texas fight song on my phone and loudly walked around George. Meanwhile:

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Maple Ridge (this neighborhood) did not see its usual parade of thousands of trick-or-treaters but we did serve 435 kids — a record low, but a comforting hint of normalcy. We heard from some families that this was the only neighborhood even hosting. Sad days. But in addition to a metric ton of Nerds, we also handed out adult and child-size masks to anyone who wanted them. We gave out at least 100 kids’ masks and probably 200 adults. The folks who took them were gracious and immediately put them on. Many others showed up already masked, and everyone was keeping respectful distance. It was definitely a strange Halloween experience, but I am glad that we participated.

We started the morning by determining that the speakers, in fact, do not fit in the door. I’ll figure out what to do about that once I get home — the new speakers are the same size as the old ones. The old ones fit because the design of the cone is deeper and narrower compared to the frame. That’s not exactly a filter on Amazon’s product search…

So we moved on to mitigating three serious rust issues. One just in front of each door by the wheel wells, and one in the truck bed. The crap catchers by the wheel well look super familiar — the Xterra catches and holds onto mud in the exact same place. After taking a close look at what has become of the truck, I will start cleaning these out with a toothbrush…

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We’ve wire brushed down the worst of the rust and covered the surfaces in rust converter to stabilize it. Tomorrow, after it cures, we’ll paint it with some auto primer. It’s red-ish, or so I’m told. Ultimately, this is still a temporary fix, but it buys time.

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Meanwhile, we pulled and washed the middle seat belt, which I apparently have. It was disgusting. I’m pretty sure George and Evan can never use their sink again. Once it dried though, we were able to put the bench back in!

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After that, I drove the truck back into the bay, confirming that the clutch definitely needed to be bled again. At last, I refilled the transmission’s gear oil! That was an odd experience. And then we redid the clutch bleed.

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Then we did some odds-and-ends in the engine bay, sealed everything back up, did a light cleaning of the garage, and got ready for a test drive! Not gonna lie — mildly nervous.

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We took a short tour through the neighborhood and back to the house. It was great! The brakes are still squishier than I feel like they’re supposed to be, but we also still maintain the did the bleed correctly. Otherwise, the clutch is happier, the transmission sounds happy enough, and no signs of coolant or hydraulic leaks. And the bench is comfy! Also the whole cab has been really cleaned out and looks nice. Still wish I had a radio, though.

We did discover that the left front blinker was out until we fixed it by wiggling it — so clearly that socket needs to be replaced. Also one of my reverse lights is out. But I’m content to keep those on the to-do list alongside the radio and speaker problems.

The only thing that remains is the tailpipe replacement. It’s a welded component. So I guess that means two things: we do have to out-source one part of this adventure, and I won’t be leaving Tulsa on-time. Rats. Whatever will we do? Play video games all night? Sounds good to me!

Today, we’re all back to the office after a three-day weekend, but the to-do list is short. We knew that the tailpipe replacement needed to be done at an exhaust shop, and then we had to paint over the rust converter we laid down yesterday. With the help of the time change, I got up before work and ran the truck over to a shop in West Tulsa that Evan recommended.

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The original tailpipe was entirely rusted and made of holes, some of which coughed their way out at the start of this enterprise. But the exhaust shop called me mid-afternoon to let me know that it was worse than I realized — because of course it was. The muffler was a) also full of holes, and b) too rusted to have a new pipe welded onto it anyway. But for less than I had feared, he could replace the whole business and he could do it today. So I asked him to proceed.

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The new tailpipe doesn’t stick so far outside the body of the truck and both it and the muffler are properly drained to that steam and condensation can drip out. On further inspection the catastrophic rust in the old system — and potentially the epic steam clouds I get when I start the truck in cold weather — could be blamed on no drain holes anywhere on the old muffler or exhaust pipes.

I should also point out that it was fun to drive it around town.

Back at the house, I went out for a run before it got dark. Then we laid down a few layers of “rusty metal” color primer in the rust spots we treated yesterday. Between coats, I ran down to UHaul to fetch another tow-dolly.

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The paint job is pretty contained and the color is decent — but definitely noticeable. It may not be a good look, but it is definitely not the worst area of paint damage. It also buys me a good amount of time to figure out what, if anything, I want to do about all of that.

As I walked back in, Evan and I came to the realization: The Truck is finished.

Well, this round anyway.

Happy Election Day. After work, I trailered the truck again — easier and less scary with spotters. I also disconnected two things: my phone and the truck’s propshaft. Again. But this time, I used bailing wire to attach the rear end of the prop shaft to some structural elements under the bed rather than pulling out the whole business. That way I don’t leave another trail of gear oil and I can use the truck to get its ownself off the trailer back in Austin.

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With phone notifications muted, I was able to remain largely unaware of national news. And pulling a trailer down I-35 is sufficiently mentally occupying that I didn’t feel compelled to add more to my plate in the moment. No difficulties, and little traffic. I got in around 2am and immediately regretted checking the news.

The week was a great success! I think the truck has been given a new lot in life. It’s finally gotten cooler here in Austin, so I’ll be putting a lot of miles on it this fall. I’ve still got a list of projects, but now I have momentum.

• Find speakers that fit and reinstall
• Decide of the speakers from Amazon can be returned
• Return the brake parts that Amazon sent me late
• Return the brake parts that RockAuto sent me that were incorrect
• Replace the 3D printed brake line channels
• Design and print a coolant expansion tank cap
• I found new vent frames and vents to install into the dash. I may not be able to fix the airflow diverter, but just the aesthetic improvement of cleaning up the busted dash will be pretty fantastic. It does involve pulling the whole dash, which I’m intimidated about, but I think it’s achievable.

And who knows what else I’ll find. One thing this week gave me an appreciation for is how simple a lot of the truck is to access.

Since returning to Austin, I haven’t driven the Xterra even once. I would feel bad about that, but Xterra the Younger is fixin’ to drive to California over the next four nights, so I felt he deserved a rest after dragging his elder back from hospital. Which is to say — I’ve put about 120 miles on the truck in the past week or so!

Last night, I had dinner with the folks and they wanted to see some of our tinkering. I popped the hood and was pleased to see that coolant, clutch, and brake fluid levels were all exactly where I left them back in Tulsa! That means we successfully resolved the leaks.

I also received a piece of mail that had been waiting for me:

So now I have team shirts and Matchbox cars for both! The other thing waiting for me at mail call was a package of vents/vent covers to start making the dashboard look a bit more civilized. Looks like I’ve got a December project!