A combined shite send off and delivery thread - my Deranged days are Rover but I've had a (Power) Stroke of genius

[mat777]

Long day at work count: 1.  Knock off energy drinks count: 2

It's been a long 3 weeks. I had a shite swap arranged with a friend, on the basis of me not finding a buyer first. I then found a buyer but after a price negotiation very much in their favour, it's been a nightmare of missed appointments and communications. 

However, I now appear to have a 3-way (ooh err) deal going down tonight at my workshop, with a nuclear backup "I'm swapping with him and you can fuck off" option should I get any more grief. 

What will go? What will arrive? Stay tuned to find out.....

[mat777]

Co op Meal Deal Count: 1

 

Big empty space in the workshop count: 1

 

Range Rover Count: -1  (I'm now down to just one ex-Autoshite R-Rover, albeit a stone dead one) 

Yes, the nice chap from that there Darn Sarf Plaaace finally arrived to take the Deranged Rover away - for his planned FrankenDeranged Rover body swap (his nice standard shell, onto these special underpinnings).

 

Shite Deal Part Deux is going to be another hour or so yet, because (I quote):

"This looks sketchy as fuck on the trailer and I'm not going on the motorway with it" 😅

[mat777]

Well, it's here and well, it looked smaller  in the photos..... (that's an 18ft trailer it's not quite fitting on!) and the towcar smelled rather hot.....

 

She's mechanically all there, but in need of a little bit of cosmetic TLC due to an incomplete overhaul /refresh that that previous owner ran out of time, money and space for. 

The bed and cab are absolutely stuffed full of brand new spares.... And some empty beer cans, as it is after all a proper redneck truck! 

 

But what's special about her? Well...

Yup she's a bit of a bit of a unicorn.... A 7.3 diesel in the lesser spotted short cab, short bed, 4x4 flavour - by far the most practical for UK use compared to the more common long bed 2wd duallies that are only of any use for showing off. 

"Breathe in!" - 6" of space fore and aft, I need to get it on skates and swivelled in properly so it's not blocking various other things.....

 

Overall I'm pleased though... My thoughts could be summed up thus:

 

[320touring]

Oooft! Ace, well played.

Now remember to pronounce it DEEESIL

[Dyslexic Viking]

Nice.

These have such a strange injection system, injectors are fired by oil pressure and there's electronics in  all this too if I remember correctly. So a completely different world to the old simple IDI engines that the Power Stroke replaced.

[jonathan_dyane]

Excellent work 

[mat777]

2 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Nice.

These have such a strange injection system, injectors are fired by oil pressure and there's electronics in  all this too if I remember correctly. So a completely different world to the old simple IDI engines that the Power Stroke replaced.

Yes they've a few quite unusual features. Front and rear leaf spring suspension too, it's like a monster sized Series Land Rover 😅 . The oil fired injectors serve as a handy servicing reminder, when the oil needs changing it takes a few seconds of cranking to start because the carbon content slows up the injector operation! 

They are a genuine million mile engine though, and this one has only 120k or so on it.... I'm told that these trucks are now worth a fortune back in America as the supply of low mileage, rust free ones has dried up - so it's well worth me going through her properly and making everything in this refresh as top- notch as I can

[Volksy]

11 hours ago, mat777 said:

Well, it's here and well, it looked smaller  in the photos..... (that's an 18ft trailer it's not quite fitting on!) and the towcar smelled rather hot.....

These are BIG even by US standards.  Most of these you see over there are either Utility/Work Trucks, or jacked up Bro Trucks. 

At Swissport we had a couple of De-Icing rigs on the F450 chassis., they used the 7.3 Diesel and always fired up, even after months and months of being laid up over the summer. 

 

[jonathan_dyane]

I'm sure another reason they are in demand in the US is that the later than this (ie everything except the 7.3) Powerstroke engines are all terrible.

[warninglight]

16 hours ago, mat777 said:

Well, it's here and well, it looked smaller  in the photos..... (that's an 18ft trailer it's not quite fitting on!) and the towcar smelled rather hot.....

 

Mr Duncan has been trying to persuade me to buy that 322 off him recently. It was already a no, but after seeing that pic, it's a double NO!

Cool truck though.