October
24, 2005
I
filled up with premium today. The truck does ping less climbing
the mountain, but it's not entirely gone. I'll have to futz with
the timing a bit to see if I can improve things without hurting overall
performance.
October
23, 2005
I've
had the truck for a week now. I traveled Monday through Thursday,
so I didn't drive it all week. I drove it to work on Friday, and
today we drove up to Napa in it. All is good still.
On
Friday I stopped at the tire store to inquire about tires and
wheels. I went to San Rafael Firestone because they have treated
me right over the years. I'm not a Firestone fan, but I'm a big
fan of these guys.
The
tires are not worn out, but they are a bit dry-rotted. The wheels
look really bad, so I want to get some new ones. I ordered some
new Bridgestone Revo tires and some American Racing Polished Mojave
wheels. Total cost, including taxes, mounting, balancing, was a
cool $1200. What was I thinking?
Well,
I have had four tires delaminate on my F250s over the years (three in
the last two years on my new truck because of the heavy camper I carry),
so I didn't want to mess around with the old tires on the truck. I
bought the Bridgestones because I think the tread rubber technology is
good. I know that Bridgestone tires and Firestone tires are built
side-by-side (I've been in their plants, as well as in Goodyear plants),
but I'm pretty confident that these tires will hold up better than than
the Firestone Steeltex tires that delaminated on me.
October
21, 2005
I
removed the old bed hardware. Most of it just unbolted, but some
of the bolts were frozen so I sawzalled them. The truck is much
quieter now. There are still a few loose bolts, but those will be
fixed when I bolt in the plywood.
The
engine does ping a bit under load. The previous owner said he
didn't run premium in it, but I think I will have to do so to get the
rig up Mt. Tam each day.
October
16, 2005
I
replaced the undersized plywood bed with a 4'x6.5' sheet of 3/4'
plywood. I still need to remove the old bed hardware. The
bolts and rails rattle like crazy when I hit the slightest bump.
October
15, 2005
After
driving 65 miles and braving a couple of typical Bay Area traffic jams,
my girlfriend, Lori, and I showed up exactly on time. The truck
was pretty much as described (which I will get put in here somewhere
soon) with a new aftermarket engine and the rest pretty much stock,
including a pretty straight body with no bed boards.
I
bought the truck for $3K. The drive home was uneventful (which is
good), and I am a happy man. The truck has about 2000 miles on the
engine. The odometer reads 70,490.
October
14, 2005
Making
a routine search of Craigslist, the '69 step-side was back up for
sale. The price was $1300 cheaper too. I sent the owner,
Ben, an email and we confirmed a meeting time for Saturday, the
15th. We made sure there was not miscommunication this time.
