Daily driver.........first impressions.

[wallytoo]

These things were made to work! Under the shinny paint and wax, it's still a truck! My truck rides nice with some weight in the bed also. I feel that since having some having some weight in there, it has softened the ride, working off some of the rust between the springs. I like all the pictures on here of people using their trucks, and I really like how you put your truck together for daily use. 

nice doodlebug (and dodge, too).

[Jeff Balazs]

Well it has been a couple of months since I started using this truck on a daily basis. Other than an issue with the starter motor things have been trouble free.

This week I made a seat cover from a pair of saddle blankets. My little friend approves. I like it too.

 

Jeff

 

Last picture should be titled watching for the fuzz.

[Don Coatney]

Button on the shift lever?

[HanksB3B]

think it's an indian head nickle or something...? uh ? Jeff ?

 

hank 

Edited November 21, 2015 by HanksB3B

[Jeff Balazs]

Button on the shift lever?

Back up light.

[pflaming]

Love the seat covers, are they LA originals, or did they come from a Watts flea market? LOL

[Jeff Balazs]

Love the seat covers, are they LA originals, or did they come from a Watts flea market? LOL

Paul.......Buddy don't got no fleas man. They are real Indian saddle blankets though.......from India.

[HanksB3B]

Back up light.

 

Now there's something I don't have...a floor shift ! 

 

Good Idea,

 

Hank 

[Jeff Balazs]

Now there's something I don't have...a floor shift ! 

 

Good Idea,

 

Hank 

Or I would guess the NOS Mopar back up lamp that I mounted on the rear bumper. It can be used to discourage tail gaters as well.

[HanksB3B]

Or I would guess the NOS Mopar back up lamp that I mounted on the rear bumper. It can be used to discourage tail gaters as well.

 

Jeff don't forget this is LA. My wife is always on my case for letting the LA idiot drivers get to me. The other day somone turned right in front of me and the only explanation I have is that I must have taken an invisible pill and it made both myself and my truck totally transparent only explanation I can come up with. She has to remind me people shoot people on the highway these days.

 

Watch out !

 

Hank 

[Jeff Balazs]

Yes Hank I know and I will only use it as a last resort. I added it as a legitimate back up light and it seems to work well as such. I know some of the lighting package I added to this truck goes quite a bit past the stock arrangement. But I have to say I am satisfied and very pleased with the increased visibility it has provided. The amber cab top lights and extra tailights make one heck of a difference.

 

Jeff

[pflaming]

I have duel lights also, modern drivers are not accustomed to seeing lights so low. When a center, high tail light was mandated, rear end accidents declined. I will add one yet, just don't know what or where.

Maybe in the bed side top tubes.

Edited November 22, 2015 by pflaming

[Jeff Balazs]

Paul I agree the stock lights are too low. Besides the stock type lights I have an extra set mounted higher. I also added a "third" brake lite that mounted at the bottom of my rear window from the inside. It is a 6 volt LED so it is nice and bright. For turn signals and emergency flashers I added seperate amber fixtures. My approach to using this truck as a daily driver was to add features that other drivers are used to seeing.....that way they don't have an excuse.

 

Jeff

[Jeff Balazs]

Well it seems like the wipers are going to need some attention. I did have the motor serviced and it sort of works......under test conditions. But this morning when the sky was finally leaking here I only got about a 1/4 mile before it went into intermittent mode. Doesn't seem to be the switch either. I got it to work...sort of... by the time I got to work. Fortunately it was just sprinkling. I guess it is time to dig out my spare motor and get it checked over by someone local. Maybe the shop that re worked my starter that had supposedly been rebuilt? They seemed like they knew what they were doing.

 

Good thing this is SoCal where it hardly ever rains........

Everything else is working as it should so this won't stop me. Besides what good is an old truck if there is nothing to tinker with?

 

Jeff

Edited December 22, 2015 by Jeff Balazs

[John-T-53]

Make sure the motor has a good ground to the dash. This is often painted or rusty, or both. I forget if there's a ground wire but I remember the motor bracket contact to the underside of the dash being the culprit in mine. After cleaning it down to bare metal, the motor worked like new.

[John-T-53]

Paul I agree the stock lights are too low. Besides the stock type lights I have an extra set mounted higher. I also added a "third" brake lite that mounted at the bottom of my rear window from the inside. It is a 6 volt LED so it is nice and bright. For turn signals and emergency flashers I added seperate amber fixtures. My approach to using this truck as a daily driver was to add features that other drivers are used to seeing.....that way they don't have an excuse.

 

Jeff

 

Have any of you seen some of the tailgate LED light bars on new trucks? They are aftermarket but I think they look cool. I doubt there's a 6-volt option out there but I would like to see if it's possible to install one of these someday...

[pflaming]

Does the oil line provide any grounding benefit or does the guage eliminate that?

[Don Coatney]

Think about how rubber works

 

Does the oil line provide any grounding benefit or does the guage eliminate that?

How does rubber work as in isolator from many things?

[Plymouthy Adams]

I think I have read here that the trucks do not have the particular rubber flex lines....so on a truck...with no rubber flex line....the ground potential is present the entire run..not just on either side of the rubber as for the applications that use this flex line

Edited December 22, 2015 by Plymouthy Adams

[Don Coatney]

I think I have read here that the trucks do not have the particular rubber flex lines....so on a truck...with no rubber flex line....the ground potential is present.

Good point. I stand corrected.

[wallytoo]

if you are referring to the oil pressure gauge line, then no, no rubber for the trucks.  steel line all the way from gauge to sender.

[John-T-53]

Does the oil line provide any grounding benefit or does the guage eliminate that?

 

I'm sure it would, however I would prefer to keep the electrical system separated.

[Jeff Balazs]

I have very good ground on my truck. Made certain of that when I had it all apart. It is amazing what all new fasteners will do for this condition.

Maybe they just needed some exercise. Worked OK all the way home. I think they need an upgraded blade though if we get the kind of El Nino storms predicted this winter. Certainly not state of the art in this department.

Also have a bit of a leak on the lower part of the passenger side windshield. Bummer as I had spent a bunch of time on that already. The fix it list grows.

 

Jeff

[Don Coatney]

The fix list never ends

[Jeff Balazs]

Knock on wood.......another month has gone by and the old beast is still performing it's duties.

It has taken some time to get used to driving it. But it is runnin' good and not making any funny noises so I guess it is all going to work as planned. More or less.

The wipers could use a bit of help now that we have something to test them with. So I will focus on that over the next month. I have another wiper motor just about ready to swap in. We will see if this one is a little stronger. Also I want to see if I can adapt a better wiper blade. The original style arm is not exactly state of the art.

 

Jeff