Buying '78 Lil Red Express Truck

[TFucili]

Yes, retro, not ghetto like the big chrome Supertach on the steering column of my Mustang with a hose clamp

 

[GCroyle]

Darlington is about 20 min or so east of me, I had a chance to drive by the Lady in Black mid day but chose not to, cause it would have been a busy road.

As some might say, conveniently located in the middle of nowhere. This is the time to shine and make $$$$$$ for the City of Darlington.

 

[Wayne M.]

Yes, retro, not ghetto like the big chrome Supertach on the steering column of my Mustang with a hose clamp

I don’t think that’s ghetto, Tom. It may not be proper, but that’s how it was done back then. It’s part of hot rod history.

 

[Wayne M.]

Darlington is about 20 min or so east of me, I had a chance to drive by the Lady in Black mid day but chose not to, cause it would have been a busy road.

As some might say, conveniently located in the middle of nowhere. This is the time to shine and make $$$$$$ for the City of Darlington.

I was there a long time ago when it was not hosting anything, saw the grandstands and museum. I had broken my foot the night before visiting my aunt in Colombia, and didn’t know I’d broken it yet.
Gary, I wave as I go by every time, last in April as I was in Disney.

 

[TFucili]

We were in Charlotte for race week late 80s, and we took a day to drive down to Darlington. The museum was pretty cool, and when we were leaving the grounds crew had left the gate open and were mowing. I snuck through the gate and walked out onto the banking. It was pretty neat... right up until I started to receive a serious butt-chewing and had to beat it. Had lunch at a Hardees in Florence owned by Cale Yarborough. Should have gone to The Thunderbird Hotel. On the way back to Charlotte on a two-lane I was passed by an R-Model Mack with Sentry Hardware livery(we were a Sentry store)that blew my doors off not too far from a town and was out of sight like Phantom 309. As we approached town the speed limit dropped and I killed the cruise, and was coasting down, when here comes the local constabulary. He read me the riot act, and I thought I was about to get shaken down, but I kept my cool, and didn't ask about the Mack. He simmered down and let me go. Out of state tags, I guess. Pretty funny now.

 

[GCroyle]

If you time things right and I don't know the secret on this they have had a guard on duty at the west of the museum and if it's open you just sign the log/waiver/good boy book and you can walk up to the top of the edge of the track and look at the marbles and go WOW!

Lots of folks make pilgrimage trip to The Track to Tough to Tame and get a T shirt etc.

What's amazing to me is that this monstrous facility has one weekend a year if I'm correct to shine. They host some non race events and once in a while a charity lap ride on the track.

And that brings back a memory.

Shortly after I bought my CTD the track held a charity run. You donate and you get about 3 laps on the track. GOTTA DO IT!

The entrance to the track is a tunnel so first go UNDER the track and follow the cones to the waiver, pay and then staging area. Cool.

They told me to go to this line and stop. OK, got it.

When you are staged and the conga line is full a pace car ESCORTS you. No hot dogging no FN around cause the local blue lights have final say to any smarty pants.

Our group was ready, the pace car eyeballs me and my CTD and my new 2005 Dodge Ram 5.9L NV5600 truck was wait for it, here it is:

I"M FIRST IN LINE AND I LEAD OUR GROUP behind the pace car of course.

No chance for screwing around but I did put it up on the banking and I'm sorry if my exhaust blew a little black smoke as I "cleared the pipe"

Fun was over, exit here and thanks for donating. IIRC it was Red Cross but could be wrong.

And on a slightly different note our oldest daughter reported that the WM in Florence SC bread aisle was already cleaned out courtesy of Dorian. I think it was Irma they used the parking field as a staging area for all of the power co lineman trucks as a staging area.

Kinda like the Waffle House storm index, if it's closed it's a bad day. The bread and beer isle is a good indicator here for storms and OMG any snow threat!

Nice day today, but got a few days to go before it gets in our area we're about 90 miles or so inland.

Didn't know Cale owned a Hardees but his name is on a Honda dealership.

And maybe 2007'ish I was asked to drive our 1997 Dodge 3500 and tow our really nice but that day empty car hauler and participate in the Darlington Car Haulers parade. It forms up in Florence and some haulers (not the race car these are support haulers) from the race and sponsors send a few "lucky" rigs over to the civic center, stage, BS, eat, get pics taken and maybe a few legends show up and believe me the locals really enjoy their special day cause the out of state crowd is too busy getting sloshed.

And at the appointed time the rigs line up and slowly drive to Darlington and the locals line the route hoping for anything that the rig has that they might toss to the kids, candy, anything! And after you go past the reviewing stand in downtown, it's clear the pipes and head for the barn.

Well one time my best half joined me at the Car Haulers Parade and I took some directors chairs and we sat and said hi to folks showing off our Perfection Clutch ZOOM car hauler rig. We was celebrities!

A Dad and his son maybe about 5-6 years old and dressed in a driving race suit and carrying a miniature race car hood approach and son is looking for autographs.

He approaches me sitting in that directors chair and wearing a company shirt and with puppy dog eyes holds out his hood, please mister?

I gulped and eyeballed dad and whispered, I'm nobody. He nodded and indicated, that's OK sign it please.

Sharpie in hand, a script Dr. Clutch was applied to his autograph collection. Dad smiled. That was an honorary title given to me back in 1997 or so by my best friends in the clutch industry.

Gary

 

[Wayne M.]

That was cool, Gary and Tom.
Phantom 309

 

[Wiredawg]

Friends

While visiting local auto parts stores looking for fuse tap that could be modified to work in my factory firewall electrical plug, which I didnt find, I did find rubber license plate light plug that I was able to modify to work in the voltage and vacuum dash panel using same dash LEDs as rest of dash.

Forgot to take pic with plugged in and bench tested.

EDIT: I think I'm going to wire in some LED lights under the dash to light up the floor whenever opening the door. Just an added touch.

One more step towards completion.

Cheers, Ron

 

[TFucili]

No color changing LED "mood lights", Ron??

 

[Wiredawg]

No color changing LED "mood lights", Ron??

No mood lights, but had thought about having red dash illumination lights. Can't remember vehicle that came stock with red instrument lights, but they were cool. The factory is oversize blue green bulbs built inside the instrument panel that lights fit into so decided to keep them stock color. I would have had to open the instrument cluster and decided that could be destructive. I like the soft white LEDs, and so will use them for the floor lighting.

I upgraded to LEDs in and outside of my 2014 Wrangler and really like them.

I actually have all the bulbs to upgrade all exterior lighting to LED, and am looking at updating headlights to halogen bulbs.

EDIT: Its hot outside and time for a nap.

Cheers, Ron

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

No mood lights, but had thought about having red dash illumination lights. Can't remember vehicle that came stock with red instrument lights, but they were cool...
Cheers, Ron

Other vehicles with red instrument illumination besides a B-52 would be Audi and I believe BMW. Back in the 60's you could get bulb tint. I carefully removed the green light filter plastic from the instrument lights and tried the red bulb tint in my 65 Mustang Hi Po. Looked sharp but took away from the instrument brightness, especially at dusk, and made it hard to see the needles. Actually had a "State Revenue Enhancement Officer" question the color one night. He was a car guy and thought it looked pretty cool though. No revenue donations from me that night for the original reason for the stop...whew!

 

[dieselshadow]

Nissan does the same.

 

[gsbrockman]

@Wiredawg
I found it. Give me a pm if you wanna try this out. You’ll need to make sure your satellite radio device has a 1/8th inch plug, then you’ll need a cable with the 1/8” plug on one end and RCA jacks on the other end.

 

[Wiredawg]

Thanks Greg!

Well, every day I find something that needs replacing. Had to buy a new headlight switch. Came in today along with 6x9 speaker baffles for the doors. I was a little PO'd the speakers in the door were blown, but never connected. Just a little integrity issue from the seller to make it sell better, IMHO.

Anyway, while checking voltages, I'm seeing about a 2VDC loss through the fuse panel. Wires feeding it are really tight, so going the see where I can find a little more slack. If not, I'm going to determinate everything into and out of the fuse panel, cut out bad connectors, splice in extra length with solder and heats shrink with new connectors. Didn't work on the truck today, but have supplies to work a while on it tomorrow.

Cheers, Ron

 

[TFucili]

Apolgies to Wiredawg for further highjacking, but after the Darlington exchange above, the local paper had a short "looking back" blurb about a local racer who did OK, and in a Mopar, no less. Hope it's legible.

 

[Wiredawg]

Tom,

No problems... I like taking detours too. Especially since I'm lifelong Mopar.

Cheers, Ron

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Thanks Greg!

Well, every day I find something that needs replacing. Had to buy a new headlight switch. Came in today along with 6x9 speaker baffles for the doors. I was a little PO'd the speakers in the door were blown, but never connected. Just a little integrity issue from the seller to make it sell better, IMHO.

Anyway, while checking voltages, I'm seeing about a 2VDC loss through the fuse panel. Wires feeding it are really tight, so going the see where I can find a little more slack. If not, I'm going to determinate everything into and out of the fuse panel, cut out bad connectors, splice in extra length with solder and heats shrink with new connectors. Didn't work on the truck today, but have supplies to work a while on it tomorrow.

Cheers, Ron

Ron,
Between my three sons and I we have owned several Power Wagons and Ramchargers from this era over the years. Sadly, no droolable Little Red Wagons made it to the stables - was heavily into off road, 4x4 goodies since the crusin' scene was under heavy scrutiny by the social do-gooders causing silly laws like not passing a point twice in 20 minutes in town without heavy revenue enhancements to the local coffers ...BUT, pictures on the garage walls...OH YEAH!
My experience with the wiring and fuse box in this series of trucks (Power Wagons and Ramchargers of 73-79) is that the fuses heat up pretty bad, especially in the top row. There is a lot of "heat corrosion" in the wires, spade connectors, as well as the fuse clips. The wires may or may not readily show the effects of heat on the insulation. The main heat points in the wiring that I have found are:
Main power wire in the firewall connector. You will notice a melted wire cavity and toasty spade connectors. High resistance = high heat. Gets worse over time.
Fuse block loose fuse clips that don't hold the fuse tight due to excess heat. Gets worse with time. Fuse block back side will show more evidence of high heat than the front side. Wires crunchy inside insulation which may look like an old, dried out spätzle noodle.
A lot of the wiring heat issues are caused by extensive use of the heater/AC HIGH fan speed and an old fan motor pulling a lot of current. The current flowing through the fan switch is prone to fry the fan switch, its plug, as well as the heater fan resistor block, and roast the fuse block. Check wiring one to two inches back at all connectors.
Any circuit that was added for aftermarket equipment that used high current will toast the associated truck circuit's connections if a relay wasn't used, so a detailed inspection is recommended.
Headlight switch connector, and switch, especially the high beam wiring.
Electric choke connector on the carb.

Good luck in your endeavor with that beautiful beast.

 

[HPSimpson]

Sounds like maybe have replace more wiring for speakers, check wiring going to tail lights on both side of the Lil Red Express TRruck for peace of mind.

 

[Wayne M.]

Apolgies to Wiredawg for further highjacking, but after the Darlington exchange above, the local paper had a short "looking back" blurb about a local racer who did OK, and in a Mopar, no less. Hope it's legible.
View attachment 115174

And I thought I knew all the Mopar independents. That’s a great story.
Here’s another great independent NASCAR guy, the very last one- Dave Marcis. If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare, check this out.

 

[TFucili]

Dave Marcis was always so laid back. Drove with dress shoes.

I remember going to Dover, and there amongst all the big haulers was a dually wedge truck hauling the last of the Mopars at the time, Buddy Arrington. Even though I was a Ford guy then, I had to take my hat off to a guy with that much determination.