I've lost track of my timeline, but I believe it was this past long weekend I replaced a pipe that went up to the first floor WC because it was leaking at the pipe union I tied into and there was no way to get a wrench on it to tighten it up any more. So I just replaced it with a short piece of 1/2" PEX up into the bathroom above. It's all being torn out this summer for a bathroom remodel/expansion.
Oh, and in order to replace that section to the WC, I had to buy a new Dremel. My old one crapped out. The design of the new one is definitely improved over my old one. And I added the little adjustable chuck.
Now I only have one minor leak and it's at the inlet of the whole house sediment water filter. About a third of the reviews mentioned this leak. When you tighten the fitting enough to set the threads, the housing where the female insert is begins to leak. I put a nice bead of silicone caulk around it and let it cure for several days. Still drips a drip about every two to four hours. Not major, but enough to annoy me. So eventually I will spend a little more on a better filter, but for now I'm going to bypass the filter, vent all pressure, and scuff the housing around the fitting. then I'll roll a small bead of magnum steel epoxy and press it into place to fill the gap between the housing and the fitting. After that cures, I'll scuff it all again and apply a nice coat of JB Weld over that. If it leaks after that, well, it won the battle, but I'll win the war when I toss it in my garbage can.
I started removing more of the old pipe last weekend too. I was surprised to discover that the run into the kitchen crawlspace was a complete 20'+ piece of pipe. I couldn't pull it completely out of the crawlspace into the finished area of the basement that is 19' long. So i have to get the recip saw out and cut it into 3 pieces to haul outside. I'm just piling the old pipe out behind my trash cans for now. Too cold or raining to take the time to cut it down into 3-1/2' sections for the trash can.
3 weeks ago this Saturday I went indoor rock climbing for the first time. My arms didn't work a week after the first time. Now I can climb twice a week. My son and I have been going twice a week for the last two weeks and we signed up for a trial membership that includes the gear. Our trial converts to a regular monthly membership on Feb. 4 and we'll need to buy our own harnesses and shoes. The gym offers a 15% discount in their pro shop with the full membership, so we'll buy the harnesses there, but we'll order our shoes from Amazon this time. Once we get better, we'll buy our next shoes from the gym since they only sell shoes for more advanced climbers.
Over the past weekend and this week I've pretty much finished building my trail rig. I'm waiting to order a few more upgrades and one of the guys who makes aftermarket links is going to work up the links I need for my stretched wheelbase to work with my '76 F150 body. He has the truck and the same body, so they'll be dead on the money when I get them.
Last weekend we hit up the LHS for paint for our vehicles. My son picked out a metallic dark blue for the VW Beetle. I grabbed "Racing Green". Wednesday I was in St. Louis and stopped by a shop there and found a light green for my second color.
This truck is the inspiration for my paint colors since it's an original, survivor truck:
Here's the paint I have:
The light green is a little too light, but the neat thing about painting Lexan bodies is that you paint them on the inside and then back the colors for the final finish. So depending on the backing color, the main color changes slightly. If you paint a light coat you can really change it with the backer. I'm going to paint the light green in a very light, even coat, then back it with the dark green. That will darken it up a lot and change the tint to be more green as well.
I'm going to just do a simple stripe in the light green down the side of my body. I haven't decided if I'll do the roof in the light or dark green yet. Here's an example that is closer to what mine will look like:
The weather here is supposed to be colder on Saturday so I may not get to spray the body this weekend. I might crank up the heat in the garage and bring my heat gun out there too. I'm really wanting to get the body painted. I'm dying to see it on the truck. After the body is painted I can add the magnets to hold it on the chassis. I need to order an interior 'kit" to add more scale detail to the body and I need to make a scale cover for the bed. The final details for the body will be a roll bar from the sister truck to my kit, better rock sliders for the sides, and LED lighting. I need to pick up a front bumper with a winch fair lead too, but that's not critical until I'm ready to take it on some rocks.
Here's the chassis as it sits right now, with the 12.3" wheelbase. It needs to be 12.8" for the F150 body:
The shocks will eventually be replaced too. They're great shocks, but too shiny and too blue. I'll either convert over to a bronze/black set or a grey hard anodized/black set. I haven't decided if I'll keep the center spinners on the truck. There are black Nylon locking nuts under them so the wheels are on nice an tight and they look more scale since everything is black. I've had those spinners for years tho, so I put them on for fun. If they stay, i need to add thread lock to them.
In the future I will be swapping out the steering knuckles to these:
And the rear axle will get brass bearing retainers and scale brake rotors too:
I need to order the aluminum drive shafts still too. I discovered that the company that makes them offers them in a bright green in addition to the black or grey:
I'm tempted to order the green ones, but I'm buying a second '76 F150 body as a basher body that I will run without all of the scale chrome pieces or LED lights and it will be painted with a purple to blue fade in my traditional livery. Not sure the green drive shafts would look good with that... and they'll get scratched up. With the black shafts, it's pretty easy to repair the scratches, or at least hide them with a paint pen.
