Rebirth of Monster Mudder

Been a busy two days here at the shop. Where to start...

The bedsides have been painted and put on the truck.
Radiator is installed and the water lines all hooked up and ready for water.
Trans coolers are mounted but need to get some 90's for them.
Fuel cell and fuel pump are mounted. Just need to drill the holes in the floor to run the lines under the bed.
Rear portion of the diamond plate is cut and put as well as the spaces to fill the gap between the shocks.
Shut off switch is mounted in the rear.
Brake booster rod has been cut off and shortened 1 1/2 inches
Brake pedal installed
Wiring run for everything in the engine bay
Hose clamps installed on hydraulic return lines
Grill primed inside and out
Hood primed inside and out (needs bodywork on some dings)
Battery support bars primed and painted
Rear bed braces primed and painted
Rear fenders painted
Rear fenders braces installed













































Tomorrow I plan to do the body work on the hood so I can get it and the grill painted, finish figuring out the throttle and do some more wiring on the truck.

Managed to get quite a bit done to the truck today:

Mounted both rear fenders
Mounted support bars in back for the batteries
Mounted the battery boxes
Installed the batteries and hooked them up to the truck
Finished all the body work on the hood and it's ready to be primed tomorrow evening
Installed my switch panel
Drilled the holes for the battery cables to come through the floor
Drilled the holes for the fuel lines to go through the floor
Mounted the inside relay block for the switches
Mounted the negative distribution block in the cab
Installed rear bedside support braces

Need to pickup some larger grommets for the bed of the truck for the battery cables, fuel lines, water lines and transmission cooler lines. Also need to pick up some 90's for the AN fittings on the transmission coolers to better route the lines.

Wow... Does paint make a difference or what! Looks awesome!


And where did you get that relay block from with the fuse spot? I like it.

Yeah, the paint has made a huge difference on the truck.

The relay block I think I got it from Summit Racing. I've used them before in the past on my 99 to control different things on my truck. One thing to note on them, they are setup to be negative switched. So if you want light up switches, they won't work correctly right out of the box, you will need to rewire the relay block and solder jumper wires and break traces on the circuit board to make it positive switched. I've done it for the 99 as I wanted lighted switches.

Looks great, I love seeing the progress pics.

NakeDiesel said:

Yeah, the paint has made a huge difference on the truck.

The relay block I think I got it from Summit Racing. I've used them before in the past on my 99 to control different things on my truck. One thing to note on them, they are setup to be negative switched. So if you want light up switches, they won't work correctly right out of the box, you will need to rewire the relay block and solder jumper wires and break traces on the circuit board to make it positive switched. I've done it for the 99 as I wanted lighted switches.

Click to expand...

Cool! Thanks for the info.

Shot primer on both the hood and the grill after I wet sanded the grill. It needed another coat after I was done.

Mounted the ice chest and water pump for the w2a intercooler and added.

I decided to test out the por 15 epoxy tonight to see how it was going to work on the lower window frame. I'll check it out tomorrow to see how it worked. If it's going to work, I will finish filling in the rusted out portions of the window channel tomorrow and get it reshaped into the a workable piece so I can get it painted and install the lexan windows.

Minor setback today, the hood ornament I'd ordered weeks ago and been waiting on to come in seems to be on perpetual back order, so I canceled my order today and ordered something different from another place. Not sure how it's going to look on the truck, but will see when it gets in.

The por 15 epoxy putty worked great in filling in those rusted out holes in the window frame. I worked on it off and on today getting the rest of the it filled out and built up. Fixed the hole with the broken off easyout in it, and retapped the threads for the window crank. I sprayed them in epoxy tonight along with another coat on the hood after I wet sanded it with 400 grit. I'll sand the hood and grill down tomorrow with 600 grit and see where they are at, but I think they are ready for paint.

I need to do just a little bit more sanding on the lower window frame where I put all the epoxy so I might end up spraying another coat of primer on it tomorrow night after I'm done. Once I'm happy with the grill, hood and window frame, I'll get them all painted orange and will be done with the orange paint.

I drilled out the holes where the battery cables come through the truck bed floor so that I could put some conduit ends in place and run the cables through them.

I also mounted the shifter tonight in the cab of the truck and started on some of the wiring inside the cab. I'm replacing the ground wires up to the switches as I've had problems with the old wires being too big and coming out of the screw terminal on the end of the relay block. I dropped down to 18 gauge wires and they fit good.

I also made templates for all of the windows I would need for the truck and cut out the front and back windows out of the 3/16" lexan. I still need to make sure of fitment on the door windows how I'm doing them and then I will get them cut out.

Also I ordered all the graphics for the truck today and we designed our Tshirts for this season. My wife is going to go by and get them ordered tomorrow.

Didn't get much time out in the shop tonight, but I did get the lower frame sanded down and reprimed tonight. Looks like I'm going to have to add a tiny bit more filler to it tomorrow and then shoot one final coat of primer on it and then on to orangifying it, the grill, hood and other parts of the window frame.

After shooting primer, I worked on running the water lines for the w2a intercooler going from the ice chest/pump up into the cab of the truck. On line is about 1 foot too short, so I have to pick up a piece tomorrow and splice it to finish hooking it up.

I also worked on more wiring in the cab of the truck and started figuring out the wiring for the bed of the truck. Making good progress on it. Just need a few more hours of working on it.

awesome as always

I love working from home. Stepped out this morning and sanded the window frame. Then went out at noon and shot primer on it after I wet sanded the hood.

This evening, I shot 2 coats of orange on all of the parts in the paint bay. The window frame and all it's pieces, the grill and the lower grill piece, the rear window frame and the hood.

I'm hoping I have enough paint to get a good coat on the underside of the hood and grill tomorrow. There isn't much paint left out of that gallon.

Once I get those painted tomorrow, all I have left to paint is the two front fenders.

I picked up the piece of hose I needed today and just need to connect the hoses in the cab.

Worked more on the wiring. Spent an hour searching through my disorganized piles of crap in the shop looking for a roll of heavy gauge wire I wanted to use for. I knew I had it, just couldn't find it. Eventually did when I was shutting the shop down for the night.

Yesterday was spent finishing up wiring all the fans, fuel and water pumps in the bed of the truck and supplying power to the relays.

The fuel lines are hooked up now and the transmission cooler lines are laid out, but I need to pick up a couple of more clamps to finish hooking them up.

I put the rear window in the truck and put the front windshield frame together and have the windows in it and siliconed into place.

I also painted the underside of the hood and grill, so hopefully they will be ready to be put on tomorrow or the next day.

The cowl vent is now bolted in and I fixed the way it connected to be opened by welding a washer in place of the broken piece. I then cut out the rivet and drilled a hole through the pivot piece. I made a handle out of some scrap metal so that I can open and close it.

While I had the welder out, I welded my throttle linkage together, the threaded end on one side was almost broken off.

Wiring wise, all I need to finish up is hooking up all of the gauges.

I also finished up the installation of my shifter down on the transmission

Got more of the truck together today. The grill is on, the hood is on. Mounted the gas pedal from the 93 dodge, and cut the square hole for the throttle cable. Also got the oil changed in the engine. Still need to change the trans fluid and check the diffs and transfer case. I cut and welded up the exhaust pipe for the internal stack. Started wiring the gauges in the cab. Mounted the front shock reservoirs.

The list is getting smaller, on what needs to be done. I started cutting out the hole in the hood for the hood stack mount and broke my last scroll saw blade, so I'll get it finished tomorrow.

Finally got the front windshield installed, noticed that the drivers side lower cracked when I bolted the two pieces together. Going to have to fix that somehow.

Worked on getting the hood stack setup on the truck today. Ran in town and picked up some more saw blades and cut the hole out and drilled bolt holes in the hood. After messing around with it for a while I think I have it about a straight as it's going to get with the way the hood is sloped. It's not straight up and down, but don't think I can get it any straighter.

I also took a small paint brush and painted the grill bars black.

We filled the radiator with antifreeze and water, and fixed a few loose clamps we found.

Installed the drivers side inner fender.

Started working on the front fenders, gave them both a full skim coat and have them mostly smoothed out. There are a few places that need a little more work on one. The other has it's finish coat on it now.

I also had to shim the brake booster down about 1/2 an inch so it would clear the hood. Guess I didn't have it fully sucked in when I test fit the install location when I was mocking the truck up.























I've got to pickup another quart of black paint as I'm afraid I don't have enough to get both fenders at least two coats of black.

Wow...I think I like the stack with the angled look. This is coming together great.

Looking pretty freaking sweet!


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I want to see it covered in mud! When is the first event?

MAMR's first race is may 3rd at Tulsa Raceway Park. There are two races in Kansas this coming weekend, but I'm not going to be ready for them.

Tonight, I got a little sanding done on one fender and have 90% of it ready to go. Working on that front edge a bit more tomorrow and it should be done. The other fender I have the finish putty on and will sand it off in the morning when I get up.

Had my son help me bleed the brakes on the truck and a sigh of relief was heard when they started building pressure, so it looks like the junkyard master cylinder is good.

Great build. Definitely inspirational seeing you and friends/family doing all the work on your own

Thanks. I enjoy building the trucks and then tearing them up during race season. I'm cheap as well, so doing things myself allows me to save money.

Tonight, I finished the bodywork on both fenders and then took them, the power wagon emblems and the hood stack upper mount into the paint bay and primed the underside of the fenders and the hood stack ring. Then I shot 2 coats of black on all of the pieces.

tomorrow night I will flip the fenders over and get them primed and wet sanded. If there is enough time, I'll get them painted as well.

I'll get the hood stack finished up tomorrow and mounted on the truck. I need to do a little more work on the hot pipe out of the turbo to get things to fit perfectly.

I finished putting the clamps on the transmission cooler lines tonight as well and put the longer bolts in that lower grill piece tonight as well.

I filled up the fuel cell tonight in preparation of starting the truck and found the bottom fitting is leaking. Will have to pull the fuel cell and see about getting the leak stopped.