"Tinker Toy" - Soon to be headed to a new WGM member near you

[ProGrade]

going to have it at the mounds anytime soon?

Maybe closing day. I have a lot of little things to do on it

[ProGrade]

I had stickers made, using the oldest tinkertoy logo I could find, I think they turned out sweet.  I have more stickers from Big Daddy that have not went on yet.

Wheels are painted now, and I remounted the tires, sealing the beads with RTV.  48 hours in, all 5 have full pressure still so hopefully it stays that way.  Its now on 15x10's all the way around with wheel spacers up front instead of the home-made 15x8's that were up front.  

I tore out the interior and powerwashed it and it came out nice and clean (it was smelling funky).  I'm going to get waterproof seat covers, and I took the rig up to the carwash and powerwashed the inside and undercarriage too so I can do some welding and other work.

[ProGrade]

On the way to the carwash...I really wish this trailer was mine.....

[four_by_ken]

How wide of spacers did you go up front?

[ProGrade]

How wide of spacers did you go up front?

2"  when I put them on I noticed the front wheel bearings are already sloppy, so I need to do some work there.

[WHITE KNIGHT]

sweet ride

[ProGrade]

Thanks cliff!

Now that it's cleaner inside I noticed what I thought was rubber padding on the floor was loose at the edges. I pulled it all up with a pry bar and it's actually a composit plastic. It had trapped some water below it, but everything is still solid. Now that I have pulled more trim panels I have found more holes, but all are repairable, and none have affected the structural integrity of the cab.

[ProGrade]

Its been a while since I udpated....probably because I haven't done much work until yesterday.

I have all my floor holes cut and have started making the patch plates.  3 out of 4 for the floor are done, then I have a couple other parts to fit up.  Then its body caulk and rivet time.

In between cutting the floor I get sick of the metal dust so I remounted the radiator and changed the fan out.  it turned out pretty sweet if i do say so myself.  I made supports up the side of the radiator and riveted them on with nylon spacers for flexibilty and to eliminate metal on metal wear.  then I made brackets that attached to the frame with rubber spacers for more flexibilty.  The hoses actually line up correctly now.  I also took out the rinky-dink fan and put in a better one I had laying around.  See pictures.

[ProGrade]

For comparison, here is the engine bay before and after

[BIG TODD]

Looking good

[ProGrade]

Well I've been spending my time on this trailer I picked up to haul the tinker toy.  I did some slight mods and painted her up pretty.  Just finished spraying today


Inbetween prepping and spraying I visited Pete (mudpuppyracing) and picked up a hydro steering setup.  The steering problems on the tracker are all about to be deleted.  this setup is OVERKILL.  Just the way it should be.

[BUDGETBOGGER03]

sweet

[ProGrade]

finally got a little done on the tracker.  lilred came over and pulled the trans and changed the front seal for me, and we put it back in today.  The fun part is we found a lot of scary like crossthreaded or loose bolts.  There were several "spacers" made from large nuts, sockets, and stacked washers.  Whoever put the trans in initially cobbled it up pretty good.   The front driveshaft has been slamming into the bearing in the t-case and is all chewed up on the face so I need to shorten it.  The kickdown cable was never hooked up so I need to set that up as well.  We also broke the cam sensor, which had been RTV glued together previously.  

So now I will be going over the entire truck with a fine tooth comb to make sure this thing isn't going to kill me out on the trail.  

The good news is I got coils, a tracbar, and link arms (thanks again Kevin) for my future plans to 4 link the front.  My plans were to do that later, but I'm not sure now.

Looks like Tinkertoy will not be making its debut for a while....

Derik for all the help this weekend!

[RIP_K52007]

defiantly needs a few things to be "safe" I'm surprised it held together at all before. 

[danwheeler660]

any updates to it yet?

[ProGrade]

Haven't touched it since July, we've been going through restructuring at work, among a million other things.  Had it up for sale for a bit. Hopefully will get it back in the garage this winter.

[WHITE KNIGHT]

good luck hope to see it on trail if u decide to 

[ProGrade]

Well with everything ive had going on, and will have going on for a while, I have all but accepted an offer on the tracker...it will be in the garage of another WGM member soon!  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[ProGrade]

And she's gone...

[BIG TODD]

and shes here