Project - "Rock Trac" Restoration

Well the original plan when I bought John's truck was to go ahead and disassemble it and use it for parts for mine. I decided instead to go ahead and keep it together and replace what needed to be replaced, and mine can still stay the road queen that it is hah.

So I thought I'd post up some pictures so far....

How the Trac stood when we arrived to pick her up.

Another...

Getting her loaded up on my Tahoe...


Randall trying to figure out where we can stuff more of the parts that go with her...


Kris double checking Randall's tie down work to make sure it doesn't fly off while we're driving back home


Late night entry into the garage after a very long haul to Houston and back home - Large thanks for Kris and Randall for all their help

Current status in my garage

As you can see, a little bit of rust, but we'll go ahead and go over that with some good old rustolem


Header panel on the drivers side cracked and full of holes - hard to keep the headlamp/turn signal and fender back on it

New header panel next


New header panel in my make shift paint booth haha


Needed a new fan clutch

Had to cut the fan shroud off to get the fan clutch off - as John taught me the correct way to rebuild our plastic parts on our Trac's haha - Zip Ties!



More to come as I get further into it. Plan is for this Sunday, Kris will be coming over to assist me in taking the superlift off the front and dropping it back down to original suspension up front as the superlift knuckles are ruined.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Sounds nice man.

I gotta get a video of mine, everyone ask's me what size V8 I have in it and can't believe I have the 4.0 V6 in it until I open the hood.

Did you keep the V8 Cats on it? Just a turndown under the cab for now?

 

[Govna47]

great work man!

 

[TxPlates]

Kept the cats from the V8 - dual in single out - kept the rest of the exhaust the same as it was.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Did you do anything special to the frontend suspension to handle the V8?

 

[TxPlates]

Nope, all stock up there.

 

[TxPlates]

Well Eric came over last night, and we fiddled with the horn wiring and figured out that OEM connector was bad, even though it was getting power and ground, so we spliced around it, and boom horn works.

Then we took it up to get inspected today, FAIL. Guy gave this list :
- Power steering fluid too low
- Gas cap not working
- Water in the left headlamp
- Tail lamps/license lamps not working

So we head back to my place, change out the headlamp (thankfully had the orig that is broken on the back side and we zip tied it back in), add some power steering fluid, bought a new gas cap. We go to check out why the tail lamp and license lamps don't work. No idea, break lights work, front park lights work, reverse lights work. Kris came over later on today, he joins in the search and we still can't figure it out. So to get things rolling, we spliced into the front park lamps and ran that to the rear - boom we've got tail lamp lights and license lamps. Take it back up to the inspection station and...

 

[BigRondo]

Holy crap!! I thought they used a microscope in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, but you guys got it rough!!

Glad to see that you got it inspected. Keep up the good work.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

gas cap not working.......really???!!!!

 

[MidnightRebel07]

You gotta love emmissions testing. Boo !!!

 

[Govna47]

Brother failed for not enough tread on tires. and Jersey failed my X for tinted front windows...Nevermind the Honda behind me who had half a front bumper and a headlight out, he passed perfectly.

 

[TxPlates]

Ha, I love out where we don't do emissions testing, but they do test the cap. I have a feeling this place I took it has a bad tester, they use to make me replace my other gas cap in my old Sport Trac, and when I went to get a new one for the Rock Trac yesterday the place I got it from said they have received other complaints as well from this place, so that'll be the last time I go there.

 

[Govna47]

Ha, I love out where we don't do emissions testing, but they do test the cap. I have a feeling this place I took it has a bad tester, they use to make me replace my other gas cap in my old Sport Trac, and when I went to get a new one for the Rock Trac yesterday the place I got it from said they have received other complaints as well from this place, so that'll be the last time I go there.

But we all know that they will never admit to having a bad tester. It's always going to be a problem with your vehicle, their machines don't need maintenance or checking up on. YOUR vehicle is always the problem. Right?

 

[TxPlates]

Well now that we rigged it, it's having a few more issues. So I'll cut the wire that we ran so hopefully that'll correct the other issues and then we can get back to figuring out the actual issue.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Good luck man, hopefully things work out for ya.

 

[zavaral]

But we all know that they will never admit to having a bad tester. It's always going to be a problem with your vehicle, their machines don't need maintenance or checking up on. YOUR vehicle is always the problem. Right?

Back when I was doing inspections the computer tested itself. And it would lock itself out if out failed.

 

[DB_1]

gas cap not working.......really???!!!!

Probably not sealing properly is what that means. Also a good way for these shady shops to make money by selling you a new cap.

 

[TxPlates]

Well I'm sure this place is shady, but unknown for this particular reason. They don't sell gas caps. But they have failed each year my previous sport trac, and when I went to NAPA to get a new one for the Rock Trac they said they've had numerous complaints about this particular place with gas caps. Strange isn't it? - Note to self, don't go there again.

 

[TxPlates]

Well took the Trac down to Houston this past weekend to meet up with up Randall, Kris, Mike, Russell, Justin, and Dan to the accident site and place a memorial for John for the one anniversary. Very sad, but nice to be able to spend the weekend with friends who loved him as much as I did. And the Trac did extremely well, not one issue there and back. Kris and Russell also fixed adjusted the tac for me so it's reading correctly with the 5.0.

Next, just gotta save to do the solid axle swap on her!

 

[OffTrac]

Very fitting.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Man, it's been a year already, damn.

I think about John all the time, everytime I go up the street from my house there's a guy that drives an Explorer Limited exactly like John's all down to the explorerforum sticker on the window. I haven't stopped to talk to him yet but think I will this week.

Glad to hear the Trac is back on the road, John would be amazed at all the work ya'll have been doing to it.

Can't wait to see the SAS project. What setup are you going with?

"Keeping the dream alive".