2011 Pics n Slips
June 21 - Worked on the V10, installed new plugs, wires, air filter & gave her an oil change
July 1-2nd - Friday/Saturday finally got my butt in gear. Did some light sanding under hood on the firewall & passenger side fender where over the years some of the paint was worn off from contact with the wiring harnesses as well as some minor damage from disassembly. Gave 3 coats of paint & 3 coats of gloss clear coat. Picked up a new HVLP gun, used my touch up gun for the paint & used the HVLP for the clear coats. Unfortunately I did have a couple runs, good thing is they are in areas that wont be seen.
Fairly pleased with the outcome. Should of done a test piece first to get use to the new gun. Think Ill extend the stripes on the rollpan next. Already have the factory paint match for it, just need to get more clear coat & better mask/respirator.
July 3-7 - Last fall I had the tb hat for the Procharger decked by the machine shop. (where it contacts tb) It had some fairly deep gouges in it where it was clamped to the milling machine. Took the palm sander to it to get rid of them for the most part but never did the final sanding (looked nasty). This week spent 8hrs wet sanding it back to smooth & then polished it.
July 23-24 - Forced myself to put some time in cleaning up the drivers side fender on Saturday (VERY hot/humid) Couple areas had some paint rubbed off & brake fluid had damaged the paint around the PDC & on the firewall. Also a bit of surface rust where the battery tray was & daytime running lights relay up front as well as bottom lip of the fender at the front.. I didn't do the firewall cause its just too hard to get to. Sunday temps/humidity finally broke & I got the area all roughed up with scotchbrite & sanded down the rust. Papered up & used rustcheck primer where there was a bit of surface rust (battery tray location) & lip at the bottom front of the fender. Put down a couple coats of PCH paint. Hope to get to the clear coats on Monday if I have time.
Wet sanded & roughed up with scotchbrite before Rustkiller primer coat (forgot to take pics w/primer)
Painted but not clear coated
July 25 - Got 2 coats of clear on the drivers side inside fender this evening(take some pics tomorrow). Going through my supplies I noticed that the POR15 I used on the frame rails isn't UV safe :(.
July 31-Aug 3 - I got the clear coat(2) on the drivers side fender, unfortunately I think I sprayed the paint coat on too dry. The clear doesn't look that great, bit bumpy in spots. (just ahead of pdc) Not going to redo it. Repainted my motor mounts yet again this time I used the proper PCH factory paint (caliper paint looked so so) Gave them 2 coats of flex/filler/primer, 2 paint & 2 clear coats. They turned out really good. I also redid the cover for the pdc. Gave it 2 coats of flex/filler/primer & wet sanded the top of it smooth & then 2 coats of paint. The 2nd coat bubbled badly so I had to strip it down to bare plastic & redo it. Looks great now (2 clear coats ontop also).
Aug 5 - 7 - Not that I want to but have to give the frame rails in the engine compartment another 2 coats. Originally I used POR15 gloss paint unfortunately the one I used isn't UV safe. Put it off as long as I can lol. Scuffed up the frame rails & papered everything up to protect it. Doing one side at a time. Using POR15 Top Coat gloss black. Its going to take 2 full coats to make sure I get it all covered. Don't want to risk having the hood open in direct sunlight & have the gloss turn to flat black where ever the sun hits it.
Aug 27-29 - Put the Precision Industry billet torque converter in the trans. Its the Viper 9.5" with 3800rpm stall (35lbs w/1qt of trans fluid). They supply spacers to mount between the trans & mtr that are 1/4" thick so I polished them (like anyone but me will see them lol). Knocked out the dowels from the mtr & put the longer dowels PI supplies in the trans along with studs. Their instructions were a bit off & studs they supplied were the wrong size. I ended up cutting some studs from 1/2" threaded rod I had. I reorganized the garage & put a bunch of stuff outside (file cabinet/stove/etc) so I could install the 408. Unfortunately I only got within 3" of having it installed when I had the crane against the bumper. Had always used Jim's (HP Indy) crane to pull/install my motor & obviously the one I bought is a bit too short on the boom. The motor is now back on the engine stand. Removed the front bumper & seeing its off Ill be cleaning up the last bit of the frame out front before I finally put the mtr in.
Sept 3-4 Cleaned up the frame (behind bumper), degreased & took the wire wheel to it, treated it with POR Metal prep (Zinc oxide) & gave it 2 coats of POR15 gloss so it matches the rest of the frame.
Sept 10-11 Dropped the 408 in & bolted it to the mounts & semi bolted to the trans. Took me a good 8hrs. & 2 attempts (lots of bruises) & unfortunately scratched up some of my fresh paint work. Had to move the trans back a bit from where I had it. 2 of the supplied studs that came with the Precision Industries Viper 3800stall tc were the wrong size. When I got the motor in the studs just spun when I put the bolts on so had to cut new/longer ones so I could also add nuts on the back side of the trans case to try & keep them from spinning. Another part of PI's instructions wanted the dowels removed from the block & pressed into the trans case. I followed the instructions regardless of my thought they would just push out when bolting the motor to the trans. As I feared, the block pushed the dowels out the back side of the trans case.. Tried to pound them in from the back side (heating engine block) & no matter what I tried they wouldn't go back into the block.
Sept 15 - GOOD BYE to my 99 2500 V10 4x4, after 11 faith full years she has been replaced. Now the proud owner of a 2011 1500 Bighorn Ram 4x4. Ended up going with silver seeing there was so much chrome on it & the fact that blue or black (contemplated both) would take a lot more work to keep looking clean. Pictures of the new truck coming.
Sept 20 - Got distracted with the new 4x4. It came at a good time as I needed a break from working in the garage. Really annoyed with the 408 install. As it turns out probably for the best as I found out HP Indy wasnt able to get the ICS Titan head gaskets to seal on his 408. I yanked the mtr back out & have it on the stand again. Pulled the dowels out of the trans & re-installed them in the block (where I knew they needed to be). Its going to make installing the mtr even trickier next time cause the dowels in the trans case would hold the spacers in place. Now Ill have to add them while the mtr is still hanging from the crane.
Oct 1-2 - Worked on fixing the paint & clear coat on the firewall & both motor mounts that I damaged trying to get the motor installed the last time. Add some pics later
Oct 30 - Went out to Toronto Motorsports park with the 2011 just to see what she would do. The track condition wasn't that great, they only opened one lane & were only timing to 1/8m (not full 1/4m). They didn't start running TT till just after 1pm. Considering the truck only has 3800km (2375miles) on it & about 1/2 tank of gas in completely stock form the factory it ran pretty good. It was consistent at 9.8/72mph when I didnt spin off the line. Wife took some video that I will load later when I get a chance to edit it.
Based on ET & MPH this would be approx 15.1-15.3 et on the 1/4m which IMHO is pretty decent for a 5500lb truck w/33" tall tires & 20" rims & 3.55 gears.
