3538 vehicles in total at the show!  The second largest show in Carlisle's history!  We didn't bring my 88, instead we all rode up together in her '90.  It was probably for the best, we got there around 930 and it was packed, it was difficult to navigate the showfield in the morning to even get to the row we were supposed to be parked in.

I don't think we saw the whole field; it was sunny and 90-92° out, and with no escape from the sun/heat, was too much for the wife and kiddo to handle so we ended up leaving around 230 I think. Photo dump incoming:

That's most of what I took honestly, altho I know the wife took more. For sure there was a ton more really cool vehicles we didn't get pics of. It was like sensory overload for the kiddo with so much going on so we spent the day kind of just all over the place so he didn't get overwhelmed. Overall it was pretty cool, the vehicles were packed in pretty tight which made it hard to get pics of a lot of them, and it was just too hot for the kiddo and my Irish wife to survive all day. Also, I'd bet there were 2000 mustangs there, there were so many that we got bored of looking at them. Not the 60s of course those are cool, but the newer ones don't interest us much. Same as the 6G broncos- there were a lot of them there but we didn't look at most of that whole section.
The field was huge, it took us awhile just to get the lay of the land, and we never saw everything. There was a full swap meet too, but im told it would have taken most of the day just to walk that!  There was a dyno there that the mustang crowd was all playing on all morning, all the specialty cars (like the GT40) they were driving up to the grandstands for special displays, celebrity panels, there was a burnout contest up at the grandstands (that was after we left), and figure with 3500+ cars there had to be 4-5k+ people walking around. It was cool and everyone had fun, but it was a big show. Ive never been to a show so big before, it was crazy. Tack the heat on top and it was a bit much to take it all in. I had thrown some folding chairs in the back of her bronco that we brought along but i didnt think to pack a canopy, so there really wasnt much escape from the heat.  If it wasnt for that i think we would have stuck around longer, the crowd was really crazy at 9 because thats when gates opened to the public, but it calmed down and was much more manageable to explore the show after 11-12, it was just too hot by then.  You really need to go for multiple days to hope to see it all.

​The show field is huge, there's something like 3000 vehicles here

​Wifey's 90 has been running great since the PCM swap, so thats cool.
Getting ready for the All Ford Nationals this weekend, decided to swap the dry-rotted window felts on hers:

Much better!

Got hers all cleaned up and looking about as good as its gonna get:

And ive got mine all cleaned up and loaded up as well:

​Tomorrow is the kiddo's 9th birthday so we're taking him to Hershey Park, and then bright and early Saturday morning we're off to Carlisle!

​Reman ECU showed up Saturday but it rained all weekend so i got it swapped in this morning.

At least it looks nice on the outside

Cracked it open, looks good inside too

Much nicer repair job than the old one had

...most importantly though, it seems to run just fine!

​Drove it around this morning and so far so good. Gonna have to use it to run errands all week and see how it goes.

​So of course, her bronco got jealous and wanted attention too.

We were all over the place last weekend in it, and it wasnt running right. Warm idle is rough, and its running rich. Only code it threw was "system rich". Not super helpful at all!

So been troubleshooting it, and couldnt really find anything. This morning after work i pulled it up to the garage and dug in

​Did all the typical tests for timing, fuel pressure, TPS, IAC, etc, didnt find anything. It has a cardone PCM in it from a year or two ago, figured id pull it out to inspect. Well, its bad.

​Capacitor on the back blown, not even on the board anymore. On the flip side is one of the capacitors that usually fails, guessing the rebuilder damaged this one during the 'repair' and it recently failed. There are other suspect spots on the board as well, all near previous repairs. Dont have a spare 351/E4OD PCM so i ordered one from Blue Streak Electronics which is supposed to be here Friday. Here's hoping.

So im doing more prep for the Ford Nationals. Monday i pulled the top off the 88:

Having the flat bed makes it easy to remove/move/store by myself

Figured since were going to a bronco event, and theres going to be all sorts of stuff there, i might as well do something different and put the half cab on

Unfortunately on the last wheelin trip i sort of crunched the passenger b-pillar, and the half cab no longer fits!

The back side of the pillar appears to have moved in a half inch!

I messed around with it for about an hour and couldnt get it to move back even a little bit, so i said screw it and dug out the bows and tracks for the soft top. That was about all i had time for that day.
Tuesday morning on my way home my wife texts me. Its super important. The kiddo said i have to wait until he gets home from school to put the soft top on so he can help!

So me and him put the top on yesterday afternoon!

​Just in time too- its absolutely pouring right now, and its supposed to rain for the next 5 or 6 days i think.

The weather was nice yesterday, so we tackled something ive been putting off until it got warmer:
The "chrome" trim on her hardtop windows is all shot, cracked, broken, etc

​​Clearcoat gone, no longer 'chrome', broken.....this is pretty typical of both sides

Bought new striping sometime over the winter

Comes in one long piece, need to cut to fit for each window

i bought the stainless corner pieces too, just in case.  Turns out her's were in great shape so i reused them and put these on the shelf

I started on the passenger side...

...while the little dude worked on the driver side

..and done!

With the original trim removed i cleaned the dirt out of the track, and then with some soapy water the new ones went right in.  Looks way better now, and took less than an hour to do both sides.

​We got our packet from Carlisle in the mail the other day

​All the Broncos will be up front in the Blue Section. I heard over 300 Broncos registered for the event thus far!

We went to the 40th Anniversary event (and brought my big 88), then didnt go again until the 50th, but as spectators.  This time we will be there with not one, but two broncos, the wife's 90 and my 88. Gotta represent the bricknose crowd!

Got this back in the garage:

After doing the ML Toys Paragon 775 motor/gearboxes in th ebronco, it is clearly way better in the yard.  Not much faster, but the added torque makes it work so much better in the yard.  But, it could be faster.  So why not?
Looking in the rear, there is a decent amount of free room, im pretty sure we can remove that 6v battery, and fit a  second 12v battery in there

Looking in the rear left corner, there are these two embossments that dont do anything.  So let's use em!

So i made a simple bracket that screws down in place, and has a tab on the right that should keep the battery from sliding around

From there i cut a piece of plywood to set down to serve as a more solid base, and then simply set the battery in place!  I used a piece of scrap steel to make a hold-down strap for the battery

....and all rewired!

The rewiring was simple, i just needed to replace a couple wires because they didnt reach now that the second battery is off in the corner.  So, nothing left but to fire it up, and see how it runs!

Little dude zipped it around the yard the other day, and let me tell you, she gets up and goes now!  Im going to have to get some video of it and get it posted online.  Stay tuned...