96 C3500 RCLB aka Stumpy

[Stumpy]

Cheap lights, doing what cheap lights do...

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3 of the four were like this, so figured they're no good like that, might as well open them up. My apologies for not taking pics along the way.
Since these were "sealed" with a silicone type substance, I heated them up with a heat gun, and took the lens off. Then took some of the same LED lights I used in the dually fenders, cut the mounting flanges off, and they fit perfect inside these housings. Glued them in with black adhesive, sealed the lens back on, and sprayed some VHT Nite Shade on them. Went over that with several coats of can clear, wet sanded them with 1500, and shot 5 more coats of clear. Still not as shiny as I'd like, but that's all can clear is going to do. Still turned out pretty good.

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Hopefully I'm done with working on the front lights for a while.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Cheap lights, doing what cheap lights do...

You must be registered for see images attach

3 of the four were like this, so figured they're no good like that, might as well open them up. My apologies for not taking pics along the way.
Since these were "sealed" with a silicone type substance, I heated them up with a heat gun, and took the lens off. Then took some of the same LED lights I used in the dually fenders, cut the mounting flanges off, and they fit perfect inside these housings. Glued them in with black adhesive, sealed the lens back on, and sprayed some VHT Nite Shade on them. Went over that with several coats of can clear, wet sanded them with 1500, and shot 5 more coats of clear. Still not as shiny as I'd like, but that's all can clear is going to do. Still turned out pretty good.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

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Hopefully I'm done with working on the front lights for a while.

Looks great! You made lemonade with those lemon lights. I like your dually, it's really sharp with the shades of silver, chrome, gray and black.

 

[Stumpy]

Thank you. I thought about getting some stock orange corners, but I started liking the blacked out look. This is the first time I've smoked lights. I usually don't care for it, but taste changes, I guess.

 

[frito-bandito]

You’re famous on FB lol

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[Stumpy]

LOL, picture pirates. I had that same thing happen with another vehicle I had. Guy was using it in an ebay ad.

 

[LTC_]

Same here. My old Roadmaster was used in someone else's Craigslist ad.

 

[Stumpy]

Engine swap is on hold for a while, so I ordered the rear main seal, intake gasket set, and intake bolts, for the 5.7.

It runs too good to get rid of, I just need to get it to retain it's fluids, and we'll be good. Been debating on whether to pull the engine, or drop the trans for the rear main seal. Leaning toward the trans, but we'll see.

 

[stutaeng]

Engine swap is on hold for a while, so I ordered the rear main seal, intake gasket set, and intake bolts, for the 5.7.

It runs too good to get rid of, I just need to get it to retain it's fluids, and we'll be good. Been debating on whether to pull the engine, or drop the trans for the rear main seal. Leaning toward the trans, but we'll see.

I'd drop the tranny as well.

 

[Stumpy]

Well, after a couple days I've changed the intake gaskets, and rear main. I'd like to give a shout out to the jackass that ground the flywheel bolts down so thin, a socket or wrench wouldn't get a bite on three of them, so I had to grind the heads off to remove the flywheel, then screw what was left of the bolts out.

Other than that everything went pretty good. Also went ahead, and ditched the leaking ass oil cooler line setup, and converted to a traditional oil filter mount. Very easy swap, had it done in just a few minutes. Spent more time cleaning the gasket from the old setup, than anything else.

But it's not all good news. With everything back together today, it wouldn't crank. Lots of popping or dragging. Realized I had some spark plugs wires mixed up, so it'll now idle, but is popping the whole time. Not convinced I have the distributor in right, maybe a tooth off or something. I marked all that before I took it apart, at TDC, but the engine got turned when I had to grind the bolts, so had to find TDC again.

Too tired to mess with it any more today, I'll hit it again tomorrow.

 

[Stumpy]

Stumpy is alive and running well again. So tired yesterday, I overlooked two plug wires being crossed. After going over them again this morning, spotted the error, and fired it right up.

Also, I had seen about a possible gain in oil pressure, deleting the cooler lines, and having the filter mounted straight to the block, like normal. Not sure if it helped me, or it was stopping the massive oil leak, but once completely warmed up, I'm at 20psi idling, where it was 10 before all this.


So far no fluid leaks, so feeling good about all the hard work.