The old girl is wore out--time for a change.

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So I got the tie rods on and got the ram de-stroked and brake lines are made up...

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Got the front all stripped and cleaned and painted up. Been many years since these diffs have seen a fresh coat of paint...

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When both your shops are full and you have lots of property ya find a spot to hang and paint parts,lol...

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Was time to get the tranny/t-case finalized and ready. Separated them to not only made it easier to work with but I had not sealed the one side of the adapter. Pulled the pan so I could make a bung plate for the 2 sensors(temp gauge and fan control) I needed in the pan. I originally planned on them on the back side of the pan but didn't realize there was not enough depth due to the valve body. So I opted for my second choice. I also used pan sealant we use on the newer dodge's with no pan gasket...

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So I decided to try this VHT exhaust paint that has to be backed on. I am glad my wife loves me--the smell actually want that bad... So the headers are done and had my oven been bigger I would have tried to make my y-pipe fit...

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So the assembly has officially began. Got the motor in and the rear links cleaned and rear housing in...

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So when I got the motor I thought it would be a good idea to replace the flex plate so I ordered one and threw it on when I originally put the motor/trans in the car. When I went to bolt the converter up it felt like the converter had to move too far to reach the flex plate. So before I slap the tranny back in I figured I would check it and glad I did. The new flex plate certainly wasn't 100% correct and threw the old one back in since there isn't anything wrong with it.

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So I got the front end fully assembled and under the rig and the tranny/t-case in.

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I got the headers mounted along with the Y-pipe. My first attempt to make the stock dipstick tube fit with the headers failed so I ordered a replacement and was able to make this one fit to a tee thanks to my prior mistakes,lol.. Once the y-pipe was in I was able to get the motor skid in and it went in far better than I was expecting.....

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I got the main power feed and brake lines ran. Only thing left on the driver side to run is the arb line.

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I swapped the oil filter for the shorter version. In the a/c delco line the pf52 is what the motor calls for but the pf47 is the shorter version and will work just fine.

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Got the front winch and p/s cooler installed....

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This took a bit of time to pull the fuel lines off the cradle and get it painted and then got the tranny and fuel lines/pump back into the rig. Ya know how it is when ya build something complex and remove it and back in and happy with how it fit right back into its proper spot..

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So I am going to concentrate on getting the back of the car done. Started by getting all the big parts in (batteries,trans cooler and winch) and then onto getting the rear wiring harness built and ran forward.

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I got the rear arb line and vent hose ran. I always leave extra line at the diffs in case of a needed repair.

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Harness going forward...

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Battery cables done.

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Harness going forward and to the back of the motor where I will stop for now--will get back to that soon.

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I got the exhaust done and cut the tail pipe back since I felt it hung too far down.... Thats off the list...

[calcagno45]

As well as you document this, I'm expecting a nice DVD quality video of the maiden voyage as well!

How much time weekly are you devoting to this project?