I’ve done it! I’ve successfully remodeled 3 houses in a year! Now I’m a landlord and have the garage space to fix all the rusty junk in the world. Hello Rustlovers and welcome to my Garbage Garage.

Over the last twelve months whilst my efforts were redirected I hadn’t time to work on cars much but did buy (mostly running) and sell (mostly non-running) several. I even sold the ’68 c-20 to a guy in England! The good news is now I’m playing catch-up!

The vehicles onto which I focused my efforts when opportunity allowed were the War Rig and a friends war rig clone. I’ve teased a post and even have one partially written but this truck really is a near and dear project so I keep catching myself waxing poetic about minutia. Boring! So here’s a quick list of the big stuff: new cylinder head (old one had 11 cracks!), ARP head studs, FAST transmission coolers, autometer gauges, upped the boost, bigger injectors, new front suspension components with synergy track bar, all new a/c, wheels and tires, 4.10 gears, front locker, rear LSD, a front driveshaft rebuild, and a camper. Also I checked the KDP but it had already been done.

All the cracks!

Trans coolers!

One thing that I did that I have to mention is my custom install of the locker. In the front axle I used an e-locker from Eaton that is turned on with a dash switch. I powered the switch using a relay that is energized by the same ground signal from the body control module that turns on the 4×4 light so in effect the unit can’t be locked intentionally or accidentally until the truck is already fully engaged in 4×4. This prevents the dreaded “gearsplosion” that occurs when you lock your axle on the freeway at 70 mph.

I should also note that Castrol syntorq gl-4 manual transmission oil has been discontinued and I had to hit every dealership in town and pay $330 for enough fluid for 2 changes. The newer GL-5 fluids eat up the carbon fiber friction material on the steel syncros in the NV-4500 transmissions and Mopar engineering is now recommending the use of ATF +4 (this is not a joke and they gave me a print out, fight me) but I just couldn’t stomach using such thin fluid for such a heavy duty application. After I pull the trans apart and put brass syncros in, yeah but I’d rather horde the proper gear oil whilst I can get my hands on it.

I am so close to done on so many projects and I’m excited to do a bunch of rapid fire posts:

The geo needs some top end work, the Yamaha 80cc bike needs a petcock, the Scout needs an alternator, the mustang needs a distributor (YES, AGAIN!!) and I already have all the parts for all of those jobs.

Responsibility dictates I finish my friend’s cummins build first but I’ll probably sprinkle some other projects in too

Moving 18+ vehicles, a garage full of tools, and a huge collection of engines on stands was a huge feat and I’ve been discovering that organizing it all into a new space had been equally as difficult but I’ve reached a point where I can at least find most of my tools. I have all but 4 of my cars running and I have them all Tetris-ed into their new homes as well as a 40 foot storage container.

The cummins cadillac has its Chevy 1 ton front suspension all but installed including the firestone airbags which are to handle the weight of the cummins but… also allow it to go low. Low low. I’ve never been into low riders but wow.

On top of all of the fun I have planned, a friend of mine wants my help excavating a Dodge Dart. Literally. Excavating. He found a Dodge Dart GT buried on his property and we’re going to try to dig it up… and get it running??

Until next time Rustlovers, Can you dig it?