Ford Truck Fan
Well I found my dream date
I was checking out the blogs looking for others with an interest in trucks (Ford, hopefully) and I came acrose this one,
Amanda's Blog, and if I lived in Florida, I'd ask her to mary me :) There is nothing sexier than a beautiful woman (which she obviously is) in a 4WD, especially one who really knows how to use it. Amanda, will you marry me? Will you at least go four wheeling with me? :)
Hitting the skids
The
wildland firefighting skid unit was finally loaded into the back of Project Responder this weekend. It's been nearly two years since the skid unit was built. It was delivered earlier this year and now it's finally in the truck. The best part is, with the new
custom leaf springs from Carrier, it's still sitting pretty and it does not sag. The skid unit still needs to be secured to the bed before it's filled just to make sure the skid won't shift under normal operations.
One interesting note, the choke control lever has a small red vinyl
plastic cap on it which is made by Mocap, as well as the spark plug boot. It's kind of ironic that these parts should end up in the back of Project Responder. They were made in Park Hills, MO, shipped to who knows where, installed on a Briggs & Stratton engine and now it's back in Missouri and it's owned by someone who works for Mocap. Go figure.
Thank heavens is was a three day weekend.
Holy cow, you talk about a crap load of work. Taking the
custom leaf springs off of Project Responder over the Labor day weekend was hell. At least the weather wasn't too bad but the work was a killer.
We did one each day so the truck would only need one jack for support at a time. We started with the driver's side spring pack once the truck was made level. The spring came off and it was taken apart, stripped and painted by 6pm. The next day, the newly painted leaves were put back together and put back on the truck. Instead of the small Superlift blocks, we went with a set of monsterous 6" blocks from off road unlimited. Then we changed sides and did it all over again. Only this time we were tired. I sure wish I could clone myself. We got the second spring cleaned and painted by 4pm and then we called it a day.
On Monday, we put the second spring back together and got it back on the truck with the new lift block. Finally, we were done. I'm not as young as I used to be and my poor body was singing the blues. Stiff, sore and scraped up. But it was worth it. It would be a crime to have gone to all this work over the last three years just to take a shortcut with the springs and let them rust for no good reason. I just wish the factory would have painted them to start with.
Painting leaf springs
This weekend will be spent painting the custom rear leaf springs that were provided by Carrier Spring. I was surprised to see that the leaves were not painted individually and were painted as a complete unit. This means that there is no paint between the leaves. This equals rust just waiting to happen. So it means the springs have to come back off and be taken apart so they can be completely painted and then put back together and re-installed on the truck. If that sounds like a lot of work, you'd be right. It does not make me happy, but when you're getting something at no charge, it makes it difficult to complain. So we do what we must to make it right. I think we'll repaint the driveshafts while we're at it since the cast blast paint from Seymore Paint is total crap.
So much for getting rescued... it's more like just getting screwed.
Well Ecco told me they would get the lenses cut and shipped two weeks ago. Then they said they'd have them out by the end of last week and that they would arrive by Wednesday. Guess what, they don't seem to have a clue what's going on and I had to wait until Thursday of this week to finally talk the VP of sales who said it would not be a problem, he'd have them cut and sent out asap by three day ground service. I'm not holding my breath, but I am much more optimistic now than I was when this whole problem began.