Small Disturbance

It's hard to believe something so small and insignifigant looking could create such a disturbance.
This is the failed starter relay from my truck. After looking online this morning, I see it's also know as the Starter Solenoid Switch. Last Sunday I took a trip to Lincoln to visit family. Since I was a little early I stopped at Wilderness Park since I always wanted to check it out. When I got back the truck would not start. After lunch my brother Steve and I checked everything we could including taking the starter out to get tested at Oreilly Auto Parts. It passed. Then we arranged a tow to Tuffy Auto South in Lincoln. By the next afternoon they had it running. I want to thank Tuffy's for getting my truck right in on Monday AM and taking good care of it. But even more I'm fortunate and grateful to have a family that cares.

Harbor Freight Headlight Lens Repair Reviewed

My old truck had headlights that where yellow, hazy and scratched. Harbor Freight sells a Headlight Lens Repair kit for $14.95. You don't get much in the kit: drill attachment, 2 resurfacing pads, 1 polishing pad and a 1/2 oz. bottle of polishing gel. This is a 4 step process:

Step #1: Wash surface. I just used a glass cleaning wipe.
Step #2: Insert Drill attachment
Step #3: Resurface 3 min. each lens with damp resufacing pad
Step #4: Add small amount of the polishing gel to face of polishing pad and polish for 3 min.

With clean up and before after pictures it took about 25 minutes. I like the results and my lights should be brighter now.
Before...

After...

My '97 Ford F150 Carpet Project (Continued)

Today I sized up the new carpet against the old mat I removed.

I cut the hole for the 4X4 shift lever.

The carpet is mostly installed now. Just need to do some trimming and reinstall seats and belts. Seems like it will turn out good. I'm happy with the fit so far.

I would recommend the supplier http://www.sandsclassics.com/ because the price was good and the shipping was fast - $135.00.

New carpet for my '97 Ford F150

With the price of food and fuel going up like they are it's looking like I'll be driving my trusty '97 F150 for a while longer. I decided to replace the original rubber mat floor with new moulded carpet. The mat was ok but due to a leak there was a mold problem.

These are some before pictures of the nasty dirty stock rubber flooring.

At this point I've removed the rear seat and the cd changer. Seat Removal is required in this project. To do this, the seat must be unbolted from the truck's floor. This is done from inside the truck and accomplished by removing the bolts located in the seat tracks. The original rubber floor covering is used to line up bolt holes for the new carpet.
Thank God for air tools! A couple of the torx bolts holding the seat belts in place were rusted bad. The only think that would break them free was an impact wrench.


I took the new carpet out of the box and so I could lay it flat in the living room. I cleaned up some of the factory debris that was on it. I'll keep it out to remove the wrinkles that formed while it was in the box.

The old nasty rubber mat is removed now. The next step is to clean up the mat a little so it doesn't get the new carpet dirty. I will place the new carpet over the mat to determine if it is almost an exact match in size and shape.

There will still be some cleaning, rust removal and priming to be done in the cab before the new carpet is installed. Funny how what seemed like a 2 day job is going to turn into a two weekend job. Oh well, at least it won't smell like cheese gone bad in my truck anymore. More to come this weekend if the weather is decent.