THIS POST IS TOTALLY UNRELATED TO THE TRUCK... but it's what I do in life, and this truck as well as the site has become such a large portion of my life that I felt like sharing whats going on (and what is keeping me from working on the truck!)...

Felt like it's been longer since an update. Not a whole lot going on in terms of the truck, but will be back there tomorrow for a long day of working... this week though I had some large accomplishments that I want to share...

I had the unique opportunity to present the research that I made on Alzheimer's (the same stuff taking me to Japan) at a local nursing seminar. Our presentations were judged and mine happened to win the award for best student research presentation

Me and my award for best research presentation:


Me with the poster presenting the research I did:


And my group and I with our professor that facilitated the research, in front of our professor's award winning research, which she is taking to Japan as well! This is the prof I am going to Japan with and the other student going with is on the left:

 

Matt congratulations on your award, the truck is really looking good. Enjoy your trip to Japan!

 

Thank you! Japan will be in May, so it will be a little bit yet (hopefully this blasted truck is done by then!).

Anywho, today, I got everything ready to get the brake caliper brackets welded up... Got the brackets all tacked and the TIG all hooked up and looked at the gas... we somehow lost 1100 psi over the course of a week... D'OH! No welding today...


So, being frustrated with this whole disc brake conversion, I shifted my focus to figuring out how to mount the new radiator. I cut some aluminum 0.75"x0.065 tubing that will make a frame around the radiator and will mount to the core support of the truck. The coolant reservoir and washer reservoir will mount on either side of this frame. This frame should allow me to mount the radiator a total of 1" further back, and the extra support of the frame SHOULD allow me to cut some of the core support out which will allow me to mount the intercooler an additional inch back, which hopefully will allow me to put the stock grille on without cutting it. All this work to avoid cutting a grille...

Here you can see the tubing partially cut. I will either be welding the two vertical tubes straight to the radiator and will be basing the frame off of that, or I will weld some tabs on so I can take the radiator off of the frame if need be, instead of replacing the whole thing.



Also, we found one of the front locking hubs to be extremely wore out. Most likely due to the extremely wore out U-Joints in the front end, but it needs replaced, regardless. I am going to hold off on this since we put the wore out hub on the passenger side (which doesn't spin since the front is an open diff). So we got that put together. Started putting together the front calipers and found out one of the calipers is not like the other... ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER!!!!

So, that put a hamper on the rest of the progress that we could make for the day... seems like another day where not a whole lot got accomplished, but it's still progress, I guess.

 

If it was easy everyone would do it. Hang in there, and dont get discouraged.

 

show that dodge some love man. and be careful. rust is like cancer. if you try and cut it out and don't get it all, it just seems to come back worse. good luck

 

Thanks man! I get upset when I only have one day out of the week to work on it and nothing can go my way. I know that's the name of the game, but it's just been getting ridiculous lately! I'm not giving up and my dad is retired now so he has much more time to help me on it, so it will get done, just a matter of when...

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That's what I have been doing for the last 3 years....

 

sweetness

 

Well, got a little done today... spent half the day at the gun range and a quarter of the day working on my Mustang.

Got the caliper on and got one side of the rear all situated...


Got the axle gasket made up...


Had to restore the nuts in some acid...


And fun science when you mix limestone with Muriatic acid...


One more caliper to go on, brake lines to run Master cylinder changed, then the radiator mount, side skirts, and I think I might have her pretty close to done.

 

Brakes are DONE and bled! Dad has been doing a great job getting the brakes all finished up for me. Now I need to concentrate on the radiator support and the bed needs a few finishing touches, then I need to finish the side skirts and a few misc interior parts, wiring in the reverse lights and I think that is pretty much it and she'll be on the road!

It's been a long road, but should have it out by my graduation in May