I'm going to pull all the windows off the shell and paint it white in the very near future. I figure after that I'll keep an eye out for a shell that's a better fit for the truck and when I find one I should be able to sell this one for prob double what I paid for it, at least.

Spotted a camper shell for $150 two hours after it was posted. Looked at it today, and while it's not a perfect fit for the Ranger, nor is it in *great* shape, the price was right. Spent the rest of the day scraping the paint off the windows. My hands are toast lol. Will hook up the brake light tomorrow.

Also installed a new billet grille yesterday. Led me to look closer at the headlights and realized they don't have DOT/SAE stamps, so I'm not sure they legal. Ordered new ones that are. #DIY

Good day today. Tore down the dash again so I could drop in a "new" dimmer switch. Pulled the cluster again, took out the new LED, flipped it around in the socket. Tested, lit up right away. Sweet. Put in the switch, tested the cargo lights, only one working. Pulled the housing, blown bulb. Pulled them both, put in LEDs. Closed up the patient then went to O'Reilly and got a battery hold down, installed that. That's all the "Must Fix" list done. Still need the fuel pressure code to clear. #DIY

I also pulled the blower motor out and checked it over to see why it was making a strange noise. Ran it while I held it and didn't see any wobbles or other reasons for the noise. Looked in the housing, just a bunch of leaves and shit in there, all up on the HEATER CORE, eek. Cleaned out the debris then stuck the motor back in and had partner run it while I held it in place, no more strange noise. So it was just the crap in there. Glad I didn't have to replace it or the heater core. yet. #DIY

and yes, that last pic shows what it seems to: FIVE of the 8 bulbs I replaced today were blown the fuck out, lol.

So I tore apart the dash today and swapped out the plain backlight bulbs in the cluster and climate controls for green LEDs. .. Almost a complete success, lol. Not sure what's going on with the fuel gauge. LEDs say you can get them "backwards" so maybe? The housing connection could be messed up too. Since I have to tear half the same shit off to swap in a "new" dimmer switch (Sunday), I'll just pull the cluster again and test that bulb/connection, see if I can't get it working. #DIY

How it started vs how it ended. That driver's side seat/the twist down console was as black as the driver's side floor. (Yes, the console around the stick wasn't finished when I took the last pic, is now.)

2 mechanical things left: something off with the blower motor. Hoping it's just a dirty fan. Will pull it soon, sits in the engine bay on the firewall so, easy to yank. Faulty dimmer switch, already have a replacement on the way. After that, it's on to amenities. Like say, a radio, lol. #DIY

@Skyye LotRO you have to pay weekly "maintenance" and if you fail to pay it goes into escrow for I think a year? before they "sell" it. So far I've managed to keep hold of my personal and guild houses for a couple years now. .. I really should play more lol. There's just so many games tho, it's impossible to keep up with everything as much as I want to.

@Skyye That'd be dad's doing. He built his own house, fixed his own cars, repaired anything he could, etc. Picked up a lot of that knowledge as I grew up and added to it as the world has evolved into a more tech based construct. I've built PCs, fixed stereos, game consoles/controllers. I just got given a stacking washer dryer and fixed it back to good working order in a day. If I can figure it out/find a teardown manual for it, I can probably fix it.

@Skyye 😀 Indeed! I like working on vehicles when it leads somewhere good, lol. Now I'm just waiting for the check engine light to go off. I'm hoping the new gas cap I put on will allow the fuel system to pressurize like it should, after I replaced the fuel tank filler hose assembly cause the old one had a huge hole in it. Prob take 100 miles of driving before the light goes of tho. only like 80 to go, lol.

✔️ another item off the fixit list for the truck. LED license plate lights showed up today. Nice setup on them: new housings that snap into the bumper, have a short wire that ends in a tiny PCB with left/right traces. Plug the board into the socket the old incandescent bulb plugged into. The old lights/housings were completely trashed so this worked out well for me. Wrapped the connections with some electrical tape to keep water from splashing up in there and corroding the board. #DIY

Electrical connectors I ordered for the ABS light issue showed today, and there was a break in the storm so I cut off the old brake fluid level sensor connector and installed the new one. Tested and the light stayed on. Checked the pins in the housing the connector goes into, corroded. Cleaned em off and filed on em with a nail file, tested again and the ABS light WENT OFF. I declare it FIXED FOREVER. Torched the heat shrink connectors and then wrapped em with 3M live rubber tape. #DIY

@Skyye Say, that's pretty nice yo. .. I need to check on my LotRO housing.. I think I paid rent till like Oct, but now I'm not sure lol.

@corlin Heh, no sweat. I play a LOT of games. Being disabled means I gotta fill the time somehow. I put 1700 hours on my PS5 last year, must have been at least half that on Xbone. Still play WoW and LotRO, and now that I have a Steam Deck I'm putting some more time into that ecosphere.

@corlin
Some of the best indie-ish games I've played the last couple years:

The Witness
Spiritfarer
Tinykin
Norco
Pentiment
Somerville
A Memoir Blue
Omno
Sable
FAR:Lone Sails/Changing TIdes
Exo One
TUNIC
Gorogoa
The Pedestrian
Unpacking
Carrion
Lost At Sea
The Pillar
Golf Club Wasteland
I Am Dead
Spirit of the North
Last Day Of June
Toem
Stray
Encodya
Relicta
Planet Alpha
Disco Elysium

#DIY Drove to my parent's place today, 40 miles one way. Ran a scan, still coding fuel system pressure, but all the other self tests were done and came back green (EGR, CAT, etc). Checked the gas cap and no pressure *whoosh* when I opened it, so I'm going to buy a new one tomorrow. Not gonna clear the code this time. If the cap is the problem it should clear itself in about 100 miles of driving. The stuff I ordered to fix the ABS light is "lost". Will contact Amazon about it tomorrow.

#DIY ✔️ 2 more items off the truck's fix it list today. Found 2 broken vacuum hoses. One broke an inch from the end, was long enough to reach the connection. Other broke in the middle, had to bridge gap. Cobbled up something suitable with a piece of window screen "cord", sealed it in place with live rubber tape. Truck's vent control works again. Also received a "new" dome light from eBay, installed it. It's a 3 bulb, middle + 2 map lights. Stuck LEDs in the maps, super bright, no need for middle.

#DIY I was correct, the fuel filler hose was blown. Got the bed up, cleaned the top of the tank off, was filthy. Pulled the old hose, clamped on the new. Bed down, got the nozzle receptacle into place and bolted on, tightened that clamp. Bed bolts back in. Ran scan, came back clear. Done in 2 hours. Drove truck around, stopped to get a copy of the key. Check engine came on during drive home. Ran scan, same code as before. Checked gas cap, wasn't seated. Cleared code, see what happens tomorrow.

Not all bricked WiiUs are equal. Here's Voultar with a method to unbrick your console if it's throwing specific error codes, using an $8 Raspberry Pico board:

https://youtu.be/14n5r1rRB9s

#Gaming #CoSoGaming #VideoGames #WiiU

Fuel tank filler hose assembly arrived yesterday. Partner picked up a new brake fluid level sensor connector today. She works 9-1 tomorrow. Hopefully by this time tomorrow night I'll have fixed the check engine light and ABS light errors. Ordered the Haynes manual for the truck. I'm gonna need it. Next job: finding the vacuum hose leak(s?) that've caused the truck's HVAC to default to only blowing out the windshield defrost. I'm glad I'm handy, saving $1000s not taking it to a mechanic. #DIY