My M35A2 Project aka Big Betty

[DeucesWild11]

Lookin good! I did the muffler upgrade too and noticed a big difference but I don't have a turbo on my truck. Also I couldn't get a good recording with my phone either. Now that you have the muffler on you may want to upgrade the air intake with one of these. However sadly Donaldson is not selling the ram air in the US anymore but someone here on the site is making them out of metal.

 

[TMNT]

Lookin good! I did the muffler upgrade too and noticed a big difference but I don't have a turbo on my truck. Also I couldn't get a good recording with my phone either. Now that you have the muffler on you may want to upgrade the air intake with one of these. However sadly Donaldson is not selling the ram air in the US anymore but someone here on the site is making them out of metal.

That looks good. A snorkel is on my list but I haven't gotten down to it yet. Is your entire truck flat black?

 

[dangeroustyz]

Scott, you got muffler off of amazon? What was it listed under, how much did it run you, and does it make a difference? Thanks

 

[TMNT]

Scott, you got muffler off of amazon? What was it listed under, how much did it run you, and does it make a difference? Thanks

Chris, I did get it on Amazon. Just search DynoMax 17724. I couldn't find it for less than about $85. Some guys have been posting prices around $50 but I couldn't find it that cheap.

It definitely makes a difference. I don't know how to describe it other than it reduces the exhaust noise quite a lot. It's a smoother, deeper exhaust sound that tends to get more quiet as the RPM's increase. It sounds more like a modern Diesel engine that you hear on a dump truck. I'll be glad to go for a ride with you while at Zout's if you want to "try before you buy."

Part of me misses the loud, unique sound of the straight pipe. Part of me likes being able to cruise at 45-48 MPH and talk to my son without shouting and using sign language!

If you're going to buy a muffler, search the deuce forum for the terms "muffler" or "Donaldson" or "DynoMax". Search "spiral" and "muffler" too.

Read up on the various options before you buy. I like my DynoMax because I have it and seems to do the job for me. Given my limited experience with it, I might like the Donaldson better for its smaller diameter and better durability.

 

[DeucesWild11]

That looks good. A snorkel is on my list but I haven't gotten down to it yet. Is your entire truck flat black?

Yeah the truck is all flat black. I may have done a camo job but the compromise to get it with the wifey was that it would all be one color.. I'm not complaining..

 

[dangeroustyz]

Thanks for the info. I do like mine loud though. Something to consider. I do want a snorkle intake.

 

[TMNT]

I was standing in my driveway after a long day at work, just having a drink a watching the kids play in the yard, and I decided to start sanding Betty's front bumper. (Kind of sounds kinky now that I read that!).

I've been cleaning and painting a bit of the truck at a time for a couple of weeks now, and I guess I decided to get rid of the old bumper numbers and other stuff that had been painted over in the past.

Here's what the bumper looked like a while back in its original condition:


I found these numbers under a couple of coats of paint on the driver's side:


I couldn't reveal the numbers on the passenger side. They were there but they were very scraped up and illegible.

I decided to put some paint stripper on and really clean it up before re-painting. I got it pretty well clean before stopping for the day. I realized that I had gotten so absorbed in doing the work on the bumper, it got my mind off of work and it's stresses and I felt much better.



Now I just need to do a little more detail work around the hardware, and then paint. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday.

 

[TMNT]

Bumper done. Now I can tackle something else on Saturday. Probably the fenders and turn signal guards.

 

[TMNT]

Yeah, what he said!

It's 36 degrees in Atlanta, GA on April 20! What the heck!

Got started on cleaning and prepping the drivers fender this morning. Taking a break to take one of my neighbors for a ride in the deuce. She's an older lady from New York that asked me if I would take her for a ride in the truck today. She's very ill. Her husband said he drove deuces in the Korean War and her son is a Army doctor in Afghanistan. The last time he was home, he gave my son two full sets of combat gear, pants,shirts, vests, backpack, hats, pretty much everything.

Anyway, she wanted to ride in the truck to see what it's like, so we're going for a ride. Never pass up a chance to do something nice for an older person.

Here's a few photos of this morning's progress.

 

[TMNT]

False alarm. She tried but was too weak to make it in the truck. She walked about halfway to the truck and decided she felt too weak to go. I told her that anytime she feels like it, we'll take a ride.

I'm back in the driveway and working in the truck.
Paint stripper is good stuff.

 

[TMNT]

Man, I'm tired. Had my boy's 12th birthday party this afternoon. Took my cousin's kid out for a drive in the deuce. He's 16 and been bugging me for a while to teach him to drive the truck. He did ok for his first time but I don't think my clutch will ever be the same.

Started back to work on the truck after everyone left about 1800 and just now getting finished at nearly 2200. I still have 30 minutes or so left of picking up and putting away all of the tools.

In the process of putting the parts back together, I fixed the wiring to the left turn signal/park light, upgraded to stainless hardware, and rotated the heater intake scoop to face forward and this time I remembered to put the screen in to keep critters out.

When I first installed the heater last fall, I oriented the scoop to face down. I thought that would do a better job of keeping water out. The problem is that the scoop dug into the fender when I lowered the side panel.

I filled the previous holes and drilled new ones so the scoop faces forward now and it doesn't dig into the fender now.

I also used a little redneck engineering and hooked a come-along to my radiator guard and "tweaked" it back into a more or less correct position. Now the side panel doesn't conflict with the guard and it opens and closes pretty much hassle free.




The colors look a bit bright in the photos but that because the paint is fresh and I'm flooding it with 1000 watts of halogen lights. It'll look right in the daylight.

 

[TMNT]

Here's my radiator guard adjustment tool.

 

[TMNT]

Here's a better photo. Colors look mo' better.

 

[dangeroustyz]

Looking good Scott..... Think i got all the bees worked out of mine. Between the garden and yard work i havent did much to truck. Baby steps man. Baby steps. I dont know if i should replace the wood on my troop seats with pt deck boards or just refinish them. When i do finaly work on her i will hit you up with ant questions. Thanks

 

[TMNT]

I drove out to Clinto's place last Sunday and picked up the donor J-Pipe that would allow me to get my stack back to "tall" status. We had a great visit as always talking trucks, jobs and even a little politics.

Monday night I worked on my son's science project with him for a little while and then decided to turn up the pump another little bit. I've driven it for months now with it barely bumping 900 degrees EGT. I figured I'd see what happened with another 3-4 flats.

Definitely stronger and more smoke when pulling and the EGT is about 50 degrees hotter at the peak of pulling a long, steep hill at 48 MPH. It topped out at maybe 950 but was mostly right at 900 degrees.

Tonight I cut, cleaned and painted the J-Pipe section and after battling to extract the old pipe section out of the muffler, I put the new piece in and reinstalled my original turn-out stack. It was too dark and I was much to hungry and tired to take pictures. I'll get those later.

Still need to tighten up the alternator belt and put on new wiper blades before heading out to Zout's Saturday morning. I'm hoping I can take Friday afternoon off work to finish getting ready to go. That is if I don't quit or get fired first. That place is driving me crazy these days.

 

[TMNT]

My Tapatalk app wouldn't allow any photo uploads for a few days but I reloaded it and now it works. I can catch up on a few happenings here.

I still had problems with the exhaust stack. It came loose again and almost fell off on the way to Zout's last Saturday. It happened right at the Military Depot on Hwy 140, so I stopped in their parking lot to assess the problem. Drew came walking over and offered help. I decided to just take the stack off and finish the trip to Zout's without it.

Boy, soot all over my mirrors and mirror frame. Dave helped do a field fix with some self tapping screws to get us home. Thanks Dave!

This morning, I went to one of my favorite local shops and we took the whole stack, muffler and all off. We cut the boogered-up parts off and welded it together and put it back on the truck. No leaks and its on there good and solid now.

I'll get it cleaned up and re-painted on Saturday and be good to go for the Gainesville Touch-a-Truck event.

I bought a set of brand new Hummer seats that I plan to install in the deuce in the next couple of weeks. That should be a nice upgrade.

 

[TMNT]

Here's a couple of pictures of Betty taken at Zout's. Minus the exhaust stack at that point, but otherwise looking good.

 

[TMNT]

I scrambled around Wednesday evening and cleaned the diesel soot from my mirror frame and mirrors, and re-prepped and painted the muffler and stack. On Thursday evening I cleaned and polished all of the glass and checked the fluids and belts in preparation for the Gainesville Touch-a-Truck event. Ron called yesterday to say it was postponed due to yet another rainy weekend. I was prepared to go rain or shine, but I guess the public turnout would be kind of thin if it was raining.

Maybe it will be dry enough on Sunday to start installing the new Hummer seats..........?

 

[TMNT]

I got home at 6:30 and by 7:00 I had the old seats out of the truck and sitting in the driveway.

By 7:15 I discovered the new Hummer seats are not drop ins. At 7:15:30 I officially cussed Dan for the first time on this project. It was just a mild cuss word, muttered quietly to myself, but it was a start.

The second time I cussed Dan happened about 5 minutes later when I discovered the drivers seat is not a springer type seat. That's not necessarily Dan's fault as he never actually told me it was a springer. It looked like a springer but it only adjusts for height. I cussed Dan anyway.

Taking a break to wolf down some improvised dinner and then the measuring and cutting starts.

 

[TMNT]

The Hummer seats aren't going to work without some fabrication and welding. The original seats are going back in tonight. I'll have to get an adapter plate made up to adapt the mounting bolt patterns between the seats and the truck. The seats have mounting bolts on a 10" x 10-1/4" pattern and the original seats were on a 14" x 16-1/4" pattern. I looked at using the hardware that came with the seats and I even started cutting and drilling on some of the aluminum plates that came in the installation kit, but I was not happy with the weak structural integrity of that solution.


I'm cussing you, Dan. The next time we get together, there will be stories to tell!