Reassembly of River and some painting!

So I got River (My Truck) put back together with the exception of the distributor Oil Seal which I am getting tomorrow. After I get that Oil Seal I can fill her up with oil and antifreeze, put the spark plugs back in, and fire her up! After 6 weeks of being without a vehicle I'm ready to be driving her again even though it is a piece of crap. After I found out I couldn't get the part my girlfriend Cat and myself started painting up my skid plate to be LOUD. We started with a bright yellow base then used almost 2 rolls of painters tape to tape off the designs.

Here is the skid plate once painted yellow. It could be better but its going

to take a beating anyways so who cares? Before I go too far with the skid plate I am going over the reassembly of River, a few pictures here and there will have to suffice.

Here I am putting the clutch fan on...

More fan... Moving on.

Center frame is the distributor, It needs a small rubber oil seal that goes around the housing... nobody in the area carries it either...

Basically fully assembled at this point, only missing the fan shroud and some radiator hoses...

This box of bolts was a lifesaver I tell you the stupid, ignorant kid who I have intense urges to beat to death with heavy metal objects previous owner left quite a few things off including some quite important things that hold my engine in place... Like a lower transmission brace, Flywheel dust cover, A couple bolts here and there, Exhaust hangers, Engine lift points, cable stays... I can keep going... But I'm stopping so that I don't get too mad and can let it go, really, I'm ok with some stupid kid leaving things that cost me obscene amounts of money out, or fire hazard wiring... It doesn't bother me one bit... nope, perfectly fine! Anyways...

All assembled, The radiator has a small (very small) leak in it, this is also the second radiator (neither were new, but oh well...) that has graced the engine bay since I have owned it... I really wish I could swap to a 1KZ-TE 3.0 I4 Diesel but those are expensive and I'm about a grand in debt from this stupid truck...

The interior is still torn apart from fixing the radio (which, by the way thanks to the previous owner was just sitting in the slot not bolted in or anything... ra-tard.) I just haven't put it back together. Hayne's manual is also a lifesaver.

Parts and fluids have been sitting back here so it's a little messy as well... I'll detail it when I: 1. Care. and 2. Have a running truck.

Here is how she sits as of now, If she wasn't completely cold and heartless was running I would feel bad that she was neglected like this, but oh well... You can also see Cat working on taping the skid plate up in the left bottom corner

This is why I really need to get my truck running, My dad's truck has a flat and if it rains he is not going to ride his motorcycle to work...

His truck is also newer, nicer, and better maintained than mine... And he has a sweet front hitch mount. Soon the tow hooks on both my and his trucks will be painted red, I also want to convince him to let me paint shark teeth on the hitch like the P-40 Warhawk.

And the driveway is getting full... That trailer needs to go in the back yard out of sight...

The girlfriend thankfully was open to giving me a ride to school today since I had no transportation...

Such nice basically new tires going to waste on my truck makes me sad, If you look closely you will see that there is still markings on the tire from when it was new (roughly 1500 miles or so ago...) Now, enough rambling, on to the skid plate!

 This is what we started with, a quick sketch and a REAAAAALY rough pattern to go by as to which way everything was going to face... scary...

Cat made it work though... Basic pattern laid down... In the end I wish we would have done it inverse of this, but oh well, I can always sand it down and re-paint it...

 

Grid being taped out, You can also see a Tow Hook that I sanded down right after this picture... I forgot to put primer on the tow hooks before paint... whoops

This is what I was going for, except this is on my Pelican case that usually goes in the back of my truck. It is in the garage because all the spare parts were where this normally goes. I'll post about what is in here soon... Also, this sticker is now paint, I just used some metallic silver spray paint over this sticker and it's drying now.

These stickers are also on the truck, Tidewater Tactical and the Military Aviation Museum, a great private collection of vintage aircraft (Including quite a few of my favorites like the P-40, P-51, B-17, PBY Catalina, Dragon Rapide, F4 Corsair, and many, many, MANY others. Seriously, If you like vintage airplanes and you live near Hampton Roads, go check it out!) I will end up either almost stickerbombing this case or just going all out, I haven't decided yet...

Here is the Skid Plate all taped up! I love the Grenade logo and while I don't really care for their clothes (I do have a T-shirt from them but I think its just too loud, I usually wear muted tones and designs...) I will but those stickers whenever I see them!

This project ended up going until after 10pm! I never want to see that much painters tape again!!! Here is Cat putting a Monster logo style tear across the front.

This heat gun kept us from spending days on this project... It was awesome, and as a bonus because it was freezing after the sun went down it kept us warm!

Halogen lights kept us going as well...

Aaaaannnnnd, DONE! The Monster tears did not show up very well and are distracting over all but that might get fixed soon... Cat put her name and the year on the right top corner here, the pin of the grenade is a red D ring as well. All things considered I like it and it's going on my truck! I also plan on painting the entire truck Olive Drab bit by bit and de-chroming the thing too... Mall Crawler Style I guess...  Stay tuned for the Pelican case layout and hopefully Cat will finish some pin up style stuff for River as well... Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel... Well... Maybe not the time... I'm tired. Peace.