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02/11/2006 Archived Entry: "Breathing new life into and old truck"

BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO AN OLD TRUCK

Howdy folks, Blogispondent Ian checking in. I'm pleased to report that this will be the first in a series of hopefully-informative articles about my revival of an '83 Nissan pickup from tired junker into reliable gulchmobile. I'm no master mechanic by any stretch, but I'm pretty confident that most vehicle work is actually relatively simple. I hope that aside from making myself a badass truck, I can also dispell the illusion that you have to take a vehicle to a shop to have anything done to it.

The sum total of my car mechanicking experience is:

Replacing the water pump, thermostat, and main belt on a 12-year-old Nissan within the last month, using garage-sale tools.

If I can do this, anyone willing to try it can.

Of course, the next question is why someone would want to. To me, the answers are obvious: to save money by not having to hire mechanics, to really grok how my vehicle works, to have a vehicle set up exactly the way I want it, and to be able to point at a badass truck and say, "I did that."

So stay tuned! Installment 1 (why this Nissan is a good platform for a gulching vehicle) will coming very shortly.

Posted by Ian @ 02:59 PM CST
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