'88 RCLB C3500 "Roscoe P. Coltrane"

[Erik the Awful]

I had a few minutes yesterday and I finally put the tailgate handle and hardware together. I had to buy the plastic clips that hold the latch rods onto the handle. Amazon has a 10-pack for $7, and they fit perfect. I still need to put an anti-theft hose clamp around the tailgate socket.

www.amazon.com/dp/B09SBGB78X

 

[Supercharged111]

I had a few minutes yesterday and I finally put the tailgate handle and hardware together. I had to buy the plastic clips that hold the latch rods onto the handle. Amazon has a 10-pack for $7, and they fit perfect. I still need to put an anti-theft hose clamp around the tailgate socket.

www.amazon.com/dp/B09SBGB78X

Will those work on an interior door handle too? My clip is obliterated, makes for excessive pull travel to open it.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I have no idea. My door handles are intact and the inner door panels are in place, so I'm not inclined to go yanking them apart just yet.

EDIT: I looked in the illustrated parts breakdown (page 18-50) and I can't even find those clips in the door, but I know they're there. Ugh.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I worked on my daughter's CR-V yesterday and today, but I have to head to the Toyota dealer and get a $3 clip for the door handle to get it back together. It's been a clusterfart of minor problems just to fix the door lock. Since I hit the "waiting on parts" wall on that, I've been working on Roscoe.

I got a carpet from Pull-A-Part and have it mostly cleaned. As soon as it dries I'm going to paint it like I did with WCJr's carpet.

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I also tackled the bumper mounts today. I discovered the center bumper mounts I got from Pull-A-Part are worse than the ones that were on Roscoe. I thought that was a factory bend until I put them back to back and compared them to the original mount.

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I had a bear of a time getting the driver's side mount out. I finally decided to quit dorking around and put a cheater pipe on my breaker bar.

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I also used the mini-sledge and a piece of solid bar to hammer the body mount mostly straight. I really wanted to cut it off, weld it back together, and then weld it on the truck, but we're in a high fire danger right now, and there are piles of leaves all around the truck. I'm kinda thinking I'd like to just cut it off and replace it with a new one.

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[Erik the Awful]

Ordered.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08218W6DQ/

 

[Erik the Awful]

Not a lot of progress, but some progress. I got the old bracket off and painted the frame and new bracket. I'll have to bolt the new one in place, then wire-wheel it so I can weld it in place. The problem is that the holes are so wallered out that I'm not sure exactly where it's supposed to weld on. I'll have to measure it against the other side and hope.

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[Erik the Awful]

I got the bumper bits finished up and tried installing them, and nothing fits. I even got the hood stuck closed. I looked at it, and the hood was pushed back a bit compared to WCJr, so I got it back open and readjusted the hood. The driver's side fender is definitely pushed back, but since it's hitting the door and wrecking it, that was a given. The hood is now straight, but the hood latch is a little off.

The bumper does not want to fit at all. I tweaked the driver's side bumper mount quite a bit, and it's still way off. Now I can't even get the inner bumper mounts to line up. So I gave up for now. I'll have to go back to Pull-A-Part and see if I can find some outer mounts that are less tweaked than the two bent up sets I already have.

Instead I went into the cab. I have the HVAC box ready to mount, but I bought some new actuators I need to install on it first, and the firewall needed a little Rustoleum. I finished mopping out all the mud that accumulated in the interior in the last year and touched up the paint where it needed it. There was some moisture in the cab, so once I start putting it back together I'll really need to get new door seals.

I do still have some drilled out threads stuck in the passenger side upper seat belt mount, and I ordered a couple of hard cobalt Bosch drill bits off Amarazoran. I got the larger of the two today, but I want to try the smaller one first and then see if I can get the tap through it. I'd really like the seatbelt anchor to have all its threads.

Once the HVAC box is in place, I have two more wire harnesses to install and repair.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I went to install the HVAC box the other day and got it up into place and it felt like both studs went through the firewall. I walked around to the hood side and one of the studs was through, and the other was almost through. I put a nut on the first and pulled on the heater core tubes to pull the second stud through.

It shifted, fell loose inside the cab, and broke the first stud off.

Doh!

It broke the corner off both the upper and lower half of the center box. So now the HVAC assembly is in my living room again and I'm trying to epoxy the stud and broken plastic bits back into place. I'm considering whether this is a sign from God that I need to go to Pull-A-Part and get another center box and then also replace the heater core and evaporator with new parts instead of good used pieces. I still haven't made up my mind.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I drew this up in TinkerCAD just to see if I want to do it. I have an old 12" Infinity sub from my '69 Cadillac, but the box is too big for Roscoe. I took measurements behind the seats of my son's truck and this looks like the max size. Having seen someone else's sub and shelf setup, I decided that's what I want. I looked up enclosure sizes, and it looks like I'll want between 1.25 and 1.75 cu/ft of volume. This is right at 1.5 cu/ft, and that center section looks huge.

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Now I'm seriously considering whether I'd rather have an Infinity Basslink under the seat. I don't have an amp for the sub, and a 4x8 sheet of MDF is $50, so I'll be halfway there by the time I build a box.
www.amazon.com/Infinity-Basslink-Powered-Underseat-Subwoofer/dp/B09PSMGHNM

Heck, I haven't even finalized what I'm going to do for seats. The Caddy seats in WCJr are very nice, but so thick that I'm closer to the steering wheel than I like. I definitely need thinner seats for Roscoe, but they have to be comfortable enough for long trips.

 

[MrPink]

@Wh4t3v3rs may be able to give you some more insight into this he does car audio for a living.