sonicss42

Your projects look amazing. Do you ever sleep?

noli

Agreed!

Larry, your capacity to turn things into gold is boundless

KEVLARKAT32

Thanks guy's !!! To be honest I sleep till 9 every day but up till 2 am . Most progress is done when everyone leaves me alone and that is 10 pm on

noli

looks like you changed the black moldings to sth taller?

And the side view mirrors got swapped out also, are they from a newer Dodge truck model?

SS930

Mine is a 97, good shape for the year, but the rockers and rear bubmper are just now starting to rot... pretty common on these trucks. All stock other than a K&N and sliding the plate forward. I want to say I have 135k on it, never any issues other than loosing an o-ring in the trans once which temperorarly caused it to lose OD. Other than that, just oil and filter changes and it's been 100% problem free. Great truck.

Updating to the new body style sounds trick, although I wonder what the resale value would be after putting all the work and money into it... unless you can get the donor 2004 for next to nothing.

KEVLARKAT32

I could care less about re-sale , I just want a more modern look , I fugure I could do it for around 1K - 2 K I just missed complete 2004 cab for 500 dollars . Yes the mirrors are from 2001 newer and are power, direct bolt on . At a min you need to install a torque conv lock-up switch as well as 3200 Governor spring kit . If you need any help let me know . I have 325-70-17 ( 37 inch tall ) and this truck will burn tire down the street

KEVLARKAT32

Here is what was done this week . Most know that I'm supper fussy about my rigging and this is the reason it takes my forever to complete . All outboards have rigging tubes and the Opti cowl has one oversize tube kit from mercury and with offshore clamp trim pump is in boat and every other boat . I have re-engineered the trim lines to be run in the rigging tube . All H-P outboards use wing-plates for steering and to do this the stock cowl pans have to be trimmed to install and 99% of the time everyone leaves area under plate exposed and unfinished . I made a one piece skirt from two halves of a lower 3 Litre pan that were carefully trimmed and glassed together and to install you just kind of spread the front in install . Most know of heads up or (pop up ) indicators from say Stainless marine , well I bought their sticks and made my own panel with clean screw-less bezel . Here is the big change , mine will operate with 1/16 stainless aircraft wire and Teflon jacket , that is the easy part . I'm in process of working out a few details on redesigning the outboard actuator that is large , unsightly and the use a 33 series cable that again is ugly and has its own entry hole . With my actuator it will be hidden , use a super this easy glide cable that can make super tight radii with impeding cable movement which will enable me to run Trim Actuator cable in rigging tube . I also new Mercury swivel pins and lower yoke and wanted much better corrosion protection on bolt other than Plated bolts supplied from Mercury . The lower solid mounts and yoke were over-sized to 5/8 armor coat grade 8 bolts and upper were upgraded to armor coat grade 8 as well .

KEVLARKAT32

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KEVLARKAT32

I also wanted to clean up the Mercury offshore clamp and remove casting slag and bump out on top that is used when those stock tilt levers are swung out to keep in up position. First off those levers are ugly and cannot be used on most boats because the engine would have to be tilted up so far that the cowl would smash the motor well ( that is how I found pair Opti cowl cheap ) Part of my Mock-up was to determine the max-tilt for trim ram so alum limiter can be installed in ram to prevent over trimming and wiping out transom and or engine cowl . Any one who has these levers should check upper pin as I have found 9 out of 10 to be cracked in half because mercury drilled orig pin for locator and this is where they break in half . I make a lit that includes solid stainless upper pin as well as block off plates

KEVLARKAT32

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