Rembrant

Jim, you just reminded me of that Chris Rock bit where he talks about the difference between being rich and being wealthy. He said that Oprah was rich, but Bill Gates was wealthy. He said if Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah's money he'd jump out of a skyscraper window...lol. (This was back when Jeff Bezos wasn't known for his wealth like Bill Gates was). Interesting reading you guys talk about UPS and Amazon. I've watched that action play out in much smaller scale around here. Pretty common practice. Big company buys from smaller company, and eventually becomes their biggest customer...the kind you can't live without. Then, big company offers to buy them...or choke them out. Most of the time, if they are aggressive enough, they don't even have to buy the company...they just take over their product line. In fact, one of the big companies I deal with just tried to do it to the company I work for...they went straight to the manufacturer and tried to take our products from us. There were some conflicts of interest, so it was dismissed, but they'll try again after a while.

The good news is that you can swap a Bullnose front clip on it easy enough, ha!

Thanks for the feedback. That's interesting. I guess I'll wait and see what mine do. If they don't settle in, I'll go around the whole thing and see if I can find the real tight spots and maybe then trim them if I have to. I don't think we have much in the way of options do we? I bought the complete kit by Fairchild. I kind of assumed that everybody is selling the same kit, but that was just a guess.

Gary, I'll give them a little bit and see if they settle in better. I remember reading the thread below on the topic... http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Door-seal-tp24618.html I think part of the problem is the aftermarket driver's door...it doesn't quite fit as well as the original. I'll get it sorted out eventually. Now that I have the truck driving nicely, I'm on mission to get the interior finished (and quieted down).

I think that's what I've been afraid of...lol. I don't care about the passenger door as much, I'm mostly alone in the truck anyway. I DO need to get the driver's door to close better, so if for some reason it doesn't settle in better, I'll be trimming it with a utility blade...lol.

Ok, thanks Jim. I'm going to check with Napa locally once they open back up;). I have a couple original DSII boxes, but they are really crusty looking underneath and I'd like to have a new box and keep one of the old ones as a backup. Finally laid my 36 year old door seals to rest tonight. May they rest in peace at the landfill. I've been avoiding installing the new ones since last year because the doors are so damn difficult to close. I trust these things will flatten out OK? Holy heck the doors are hard to close, and until the seal flattens out in a couple spots, I've got some gaps that are barely sealed at all atm.

I honestly think it just the looks different in the two images. The cabs are probably the same in that area. I'll check this week and confirm at the junkyard.

It's up on the B-Pillar. I might run out to the junkyard tomorrow and have a look at the newer trucks...they have a bunch of the 92-96 versions out there, and according to ACC, they take the same floor mat from 1987-1996.

He mentioned that. He said with the mass backing that the carpet has a better, more defined form, but at the same time is much less forgiving. I'm fine with that. I think the big difference is in the pictures and that the 87-96 carpet is not folded up to fit over the hump behind the seat. Did you buy the carpet with the mass backing? And if yes, did you install some other sound deadening material under it?

Gentlemen, Hoping to lean on the experts here for info/advice. I'm planning to order an interior carpet soon, and I just had a chat with the ACC rep and I left with more questions than I had originally. I was planning all along to order a 1988-1991 carpet so that it fit my 5spd tunnel cover properly. The ACC guy looked at the pics, and he seemed to think that the carpets are different in the back (behind the seat area) between the 80-86, and 87-96. Do any of you know what the difference is? I know everything else is pretty much interchangeable as far as the floor is concerned, but I'm fussy enough I want this thing to fit properly, so measure twice, cut once...lol. Any other concerns? They should be the same on the firewall end ya? Where the seat mounts the same, etc? Here's a screen shot example, with the tan color being 80-86, and the blue being 87-96.

Who is this old guy in the old blue truck???...lol. It was weird seeing somebody else drive the truck. I must do a video next trip Chris so I can hear how the old Bull sounds from the outside!

Those pictures look great Rusty! So, according to my post on FB, a lot of people seem to be really pleased with the ColorCoat off the shelf "Bluemist" color, and I'm really impressed with your pics of the "Shadow Blue" version. So...I'm going to do a little experiment this coming weekend. I called the Canadian distributor, and ordered one can of each...it was actually all they had anyway...lol, and I'm going to see which one matches up to mine the best. Worst case scenario I will order some custom mixed stuff (Dk Harbor BLue) out of the US, but if one of the off the shelf colors works, then it will be far less expensive for me to do. Bluemist color applied in a couple other pictures. PS: Matt, sorry for the thread hijack man!! Gary can possibly move my portion out if you want it cleaned up.

Those pictures look great Rusty! So, according to my post on FB, a lot of people seem to be really pleased with the ColorCoat off the shelf "Bluemist" color, and I'm really impressed with your pics of the "Shadow Blue" version. So...I'm going to do a little experiment this coming weekend. I called the Canadian distributor, and ordered one can of each...it was actually all they had anyway...lol, and I'm going to see which one matches up to mine the best. Worst case scenario I will order some custom mixed stuff (Dk Harbor BLue) out of the US, but if one of the off the shelf colors works, then it will be far less expensive for me to do. Bluemist color applied in a couple other pictures.

Took the old Blue Mule on a road trip today to visit Chris so I filled it up this morning before hopping on the highway, and had to fill it up again on the way home, and both tanks calculated at 16.9 mpg. The second tank was all highway at 65 mph. The truck cruises along just great, I'm very happy with it. I was at one point hoping to hit 20 mpg with it, but I think that might have been a little too optimistic. So, all things considered, I think 17.5 mpg is possible, and maybe even 18 under the right conditions, but I'm pleased as punch with 17-ish.

Very nice Jon, and very spendy...lol.

I saw Jason comment on FB just a few days and I thought he said he wasn’t making them for JBG. He said JBG basically pushed him out of the market and he was only selling 30-40 braces per year. He must have been selling a lot of them before JBG got into it.

Just make sure you keep enough half ton 4x4 stuff kickin' around in case I have to convert a 2wd...lol.

I will likely be up your way this week Chris...possibly even tomorrow. Do you still need that pedal set? I might get the Bull out to put some highway miles on her if the weather is good.

Well look who finally showed up! ha! Did you tell Gary how many Bullnoses you have collected???>..lol. Gary, Chris lives in my hometown about 125 miles northeast of where I am now. My folks are still there so I still get up that way on a regular basis.

Ok, thanks Jim. I'm going to check with Napa locally once they open back up;). I have a couple original DSII boxes, but they are really crusty looking underneath and I'd like to have a new box and keep one of the old ones as a backup.

Jim, Have you ordered from here before? I am not familiar with THEEXPRESS4LESS...

Man that's a fine lookin' parts truck.

That Shadow Blue looks really good Rusty. Thanks for the details, I appreciate that.

What is the code for the SEM Midnight Blue that you used? That looks pretty good. Does it look like a factory color to you in person? Is it one of their pre-mixed colors, or a custom? I just did a bunch of research on interior colors this week, as I'm not happy with what I have seen (and done) so far. My interior door panels were painted with a Dupli-color fabric/interior paint before I bought the truck, and it was way to pale and dull. I recently RE-painted them with the Color-Bond blue from LMC, and while it applied nicely, I don't like the shade of it...it's too dark, and the shade is way off for my 1984 blue. I did a bit of a deep dive the week researching SEM availability here in Canada, and it turns out there are no retailers mixing the Color-Coat product in the whole country. It has to do with the new national VOC regulations, but they are not allowed to import the bulk product any longer. Canada has outlawed these products. What SEM is offering here is the Sure-Coat product, which is supposedly the same thing but in a water-based forumla. They don't mix it in regular rattle can aerosols, I would have to buy it buy the quart or gallon, and then spray it with my own gun or buy a Preval kit. It was all sounding very promising, until I found out that the 3042 Dark Harbor Blue was one of the few colors SEM was not able to create a formula for when converting from Color-Coat to Sure-Coat. Oh well. My point in all that is that I am now looking for some SEM color recommendations. I can order the pre-mixed color aerosols here, and worst case scenario I'll see if I can get Vinyl-Pro or one of them in the US to mix up some Dark Harbor Blue for me.

Two weeks later and I filled the old Bull up again last night and again hit just a hair below 16mpg. I guess that is where my "run around" mileage is. Its not highway mileage, but it's not stop and go crawling traffic either. I guess I'd call it mixed, so that's not bad. Now to get some highway driving in so I can get an idea where that will be.