Thanks Bill!
I had a good work day yesterday. There was around 6-8" of snow and ice on the ground, but thankfully the sun was out and it warmed up into the 30's pretty quickly.
I focused on a lot of little projects to make it road legal/safe. First thing I did was install longer 1/4" bolts in the door hinges. I tried 3" last time, but didn't have enough threads on the top hinge with all of the mirror brackets. I used 1/4x3.5" and those were perfect. Then, I had to install a new center pivot bolt on the right side mirror assembly. The nuts were rusted and seized on the old one so I located a good used bolt and installed it. Once that was done, I put on the new mirror heads. They are the most recent heads with the built-in convex spot on the bottom of the head. I won't need to install the big convex spots on the center pivot with that type. I aimed the heads and tightened down the bolts. At least I will be able to back up the truck now without worrying about crushing my Excursion.
I also stripped off the old soft top and rusty top frame in preparation for the new to me top/frame. It felt good to toss that nasty sucker to the ground. I laid out the new top in the sun to get it pliable for installation.
I also finished up some wiring issues. I shrank all of my heat-shrink tubing on the headlight harness. Then, I spliced some wires back together on the low-air-pressure sensor harness. I also swapped out the warning light cluster for a less crusty used piece and installed a good head on the air filter monitor.
The next big project that almost killed me was installing the passenger seat unit. I had to hoist that cumbersome mother up into the cab. Just when I thought I had it balanced so I could get a new grip on it, it slipped and peeled about an inch of skin off of my left index finger. I paused to give it a cussin' and make a homemade band-aid out of a piece of blue shop towel and some electric tape. Once that was on, I finished sliding the big *&!@ in place without shorting out the batteries. That was only half the fun because I then had to slip 6 little #10 bolts through the hinge plate into the compartment and start some nuts on them without the seat dropping on my arm and chopping it off like a guillotine. I finally managed to get them started and tightened down. Woo-hoo. Comfy seating for the Mrs. I'm sure she's excited
Last thing for the day was installing the soft top. The sun was going down by that point so it was cold and stiff again. I carried it into John's office to warm up for a bit while I installed the new frame. Once the frame was on, Pete stopped what he was doing on a bob-truck to help me wrestle the top in place. Between the two of us we got it battened down and latched.
I just had to take it for a test drive in the snow after that. I used my new rear view mirrors to watch the super-singles kick up mighty clouds of slushy goodness. That was a blast. I also got to test the braking performance of the truck in snow and ice as I skidded right past John's driveway
The good news is it skids nice and straight so I didn't have top correct any fishtails. I never drove my 923A2 with ABS in the snow so I can't comment on how different the two of them are.
Of course I have pics, but you will have to wait until tonight to see them!!