Pity7700 Build thread, why not? pic heavy!

keep your drill sharp and a spray bottle of water handy. This is one of those times a drill press comes in handy.

 

yea i probably should have though of that before but i didnt know this would happen till after the bed was put on lol.

 

got bored and had to take my mind of things so i decided to start cleaning the wiring up under the hood today. plus its too cold out to mess with finishing the little stuff left on the bed.

I needed a wire big enough to handle a good amount of amperage for my aux. fuse panel. i had a 10 gauge wire on there but that wasnt big enough to handle a set of 55w hella 700s, a set of 55 watt pencil beams, a set of 55w fog lights, my fans and my subs when i had them in. wire size might be a tad over kill but o well lol.

wire looks sloppy how i had it originally



so i decided to take the panel off and hid the wire behind the plastic cover that the panel is mounted too.

on the panel there is a stud sticks out on the front where you hook your 12v power source


i took a drill bit, drilled a hole directly under that stud so i could pull it out from the bottom and flip it the other way around.


drilled a hole out in the plastic cover where the panel is mounted to so the stud would go through and mounted the panel back on and hooked the wire to the stud.





made sure i had a good connection and i just like playing with my DVOM, looking like i may need to check the electrolyte level and charge the battery. 12.26V is like 50% charged if not less. could have to do with the doors and hood being opened though lol


black cover with panel installed. looks much better.




ive got a tad extra wire now though. ive still go some cleaning up to do. the terminals are a tad messy. wish i could hide the big red wire with the ANL fuse better for the big 5 upgrade but oh well.


engine needs to be cleaned big time. might tackle that tomorrow.

 

Looks good!! I did swapped my battery terminals today because I was bored lol how do you clean your engine bay? I know people do it all different ways..

Sent from my Galaxy S3

 

Great routing of the aux. fuse panel wire Chris.

 

i take the battery out, wrap the battery cables with plastic bags and wrap/cover any other electrical components that could get damaged by water like my fuse panel. i always wash mine with the truck off and the engine cold. i use the garden hose and just a light mist of water making sure not to shoot water directly to the COPs. you dont want to get water on top of the plugs, itll damage the COPs. i use Dawn dish soap and scrub away with an old car wash mit, spray down and repeat if i have to.

i also wash my battery off with a damp towel to get any corrosion off the battery. its good to use baking soda and water to clean it but youve gotta make sure you dont manage to get it inside the battery. baking soda will neutralize the electrolyte in the battery.

a simple test can tell you when you need to clean our battery. we called it the "dirty battery" test. take a voltmeter and put the negative lead on the negative terminal. take the positive lead and touch the top of the battery in various areas. you shouldnt get a reading more than .5V. if you do its good to clean it. the electrolyte boils out of the battery from charging.

while youre at it, clean you battery cables

thanks joe. ive got more work to do still. was going to buy some wire loom but its like $5 for 2 ft of it. going to check amazon.

 

Awesome I may need to try it like that to see how it does for me.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

 

Rockauto has wire loom, 100ft for $11+ plus shipping.
They have smaller lengths way less than box store prices.

 

i couldnt believe how pricey they were amazon also has 100 and 50 ft legnths for cheap and free shipping. think i might order from them.

 

alright so now that the bed is finished and isnt going to rust, i now have to repair the underside of the damn cab.

you cant really tell in this picture but the metal above the block is buckled and bowed out. this is the reason the bed is higher than the cab on the passenger side. the only reason i can think of. its bowed pretty good.



this is to left of the block.



this is the drivers side. the block on this side is fine but its rusting out pretty good.



the center of that support bar is still good solid painted metal.

do yall think with my minimal welding skills i could tackle this project? the cab isnt going to come off of the truck though. i dont have room or time to take the cab off...i also dont have another vehicle.

what should i use for this? some of the 1/8" steel tubing i have or should i bend some thick sheet metal and weld it in place?

help out guys!