WB-PDX

Don't worry, this thread is Jeep related, it just has to start with a Toyota!

Some people say I have an addiction to fixing things.

Some people say I am a glutton for punishment.

I got tired of my motorcycle breaking down on me and needing to rely on friends to come rescue me every week. I also sold my shiny new-ish 2003 Xterra and got rid of my not so shiny car payment and insurance payment. So, the logical next step was to buy a pickup so I could move my own ****ty bikes.

I'm from NY, and love old cars, so living in Portland, OR has been a mind-eff for the last two years. In NY, nothing is older than about 15 years, and if it is, at least half the body is missing... or it's a show car. As soon as I moved out here I bought a 1977 Volvo, but that's another story.

For this adventure, I would need an old, imported pickup.

Enter Craigslist.

The ad was terrible, the photos were terrible. The seller admited to buying the truck at auction, only to discover it had a blown headgasket. And boy did it ever. It would start easily, but only run on 1 or 2 cylinders depending on the moment.

It was a 1979 Toyota 1/2 Ton Pickup. Five speed, good tags, some rust, a shot interior. It was perfect for $450.

I tried to drive it home from the sellers house a mile away. I made it half way, when, in a giant plume of steam, it was over. I had to be towed (by the seller) the next 1/2 mile.

I pushed it into the garage, and tore into it the next evening.

This is the beauty after arriving home:



This is the worst of the body:



And this is possibly the worst interior ever. The drivers seat is actually entirely collapsed. You drive with your butt wedged between the door and the remnant of the seat. Oh and animals have been living in it.



Learning my lesson from my Subaru, Volvo, and other days, I decided job one was taking off the hood. Not only does it afford more access, but you get more light.



I set about taking the head off. On most cars this would be an all day project. I easily had the old 20R torn town this far in an evening. Without a repair manual, or any experience with this motor. In other words, it was cake.



You may be able to see the problem. The GIANT SECTION missing from the headgasket. Also, that's a lot of coolant in the cylinders.

Also, you'll note the zip ties on the timing chain sprocket. This was a brilliant on my part, and meant I had 0 worry about the timing upon reassembly.

So, I went to the auto parts store where they had an ENTIRE top-end and head gasket set for about $70. On the shelf. Try that with your Volvo, Subaru, etc. With some gasket remover, oil, coolant, and plugs, my total was $100. I had some copper head gasket spray at home from my multiple motorcycle rebuilds.

I had the entire reassembly job done in about 8 hours. It would have taken 3 hours, but the other 5 were spent removing gasket remnants and looking up torque specifications. Also, it took me quite a while to drain the nearly THREE GALLONS of water that came out of the drain pan.

It took two or three tries, but when the truck started for the first time, it was buttery smooth. A ride around the block was all it took to convince me I had a winner. The best part; the five speed gearbox shifted flawlessly and the clutch felt great.

Next I decided I had to at least give cleaning up the exterior a shot.

Here is a demonstration of polishing a turd. The right side has been polished, the left side hasn't. I actually drove the truck around for a few days like this:



Eventually I finished cleaning up the outside.






The back end is pretty bad, but taking the rear bumper off helped in a big way, and I bought another tailgate.... but that's part of phase 2.



Remember that lovely animal infested interior? Well, I found these seats on craigslist for $20 out of a three-door Saturn (which means the passenger side flips forward for access behind the seats.) I modified the brackets and bolted them up. I also washed all the carpets and cleaned the floor of all the animal crap.

WB-PDX

Now, I mentioned Phase II... Phase II is using this well-documented multiple-year-old method of cheaply painting the car. Call it 'roll your car' or 'the $50 paint job' it involves using foam rollers and thinned out oil based paint to slowly build up a paint job. It takes a lot of prep. It also looks hilariously bad after you apply the first coat (over a differing color especially.) I chose a dark blue at Tru-Value that was on sale for FIFTEEN DOLLARS a gallon. I am a huge cheapskate, so you can imagine how that appealed to me.



Sadly, as I was working on the paint, the truck was making it clear that a pickup isn't really what I wanted. I have a dog and a girlfriend, and having to choose between the two wasn't really working for either party... I listed the truck for sale and instantly had a buyer.

I finished painting the tailgate, and installed it (with the new handles) for the new owner. It brought a tear to my eye seeing how nice the paint came out (and I hadn't even finish-sanded or polished it) considering I know in a matter of weeks, the entire truck could have looked that nice.

Remember, this used to be Yellow and I painted it with a roller (and a lot of work!)



Then on Craigslist, exactly what I had been looking for got posted for sale, for very nearly the selling price of the truck. It had a trailer hitch already, and EVERYTHING electrical works with no issues (other than the passenger mirror)

The body is obviously pretty darn nice (other than the rear hatch)





One tear in one seat, but way better than the truck. Power seats work awesome.



For whatever reason the front door cards don't match these super awesome ones in the back:



And the rear hatch is a little nasty.

Needs brakes, and a hitch-mounted-motorcycle-carrier.

WB-PDX

I replaced the oil pressure sender, gave it an oil change, new air filter, some new pads on the front brakes, and greased the u-joints. Then it was time for new shocks and struts. I went to replace the crank sensor but discovered a new harness and new sensor had recently been installed, which is nice. All the ignition parts are new, so is the fuel filter, so that saved me some money.

So, it was time to address the main problem, the fact that the rear hatch looks like crap, and doesn't lock because it's been broken into at least once.

$60 at the junkyard got me a nice hatch from the same year and color, and some good side-window-wipers to replaced my cracked and leaking ones.



The rest is going to come when Flickr stops being weird...

taythegibs

you have upgraded to a higher tier in your vehicle coolness level.

WB-PDX

Time to get the party started. Figuring out how the wiring and spray-hose came out was a PITA. I had to cut some of the wiring, but it worked out well.

The new hatch didn't have power locks, which is a problem since the main point of this project was to have a locking hatch.

On the old hatch, I drilled out these rivets holding the power-lock-actuator



Then I tested it with my most handy power supply... Luckily, it worked!



However, the terminals were loose in the black-plastic-potted housing, and the connector had helted right off the darn thing. No wonder it didn't work when it was installed in the hatch. I used some of my favorite plastic epoxy to fix the casing, and soldered on some new wires. Some sheet metal screws will work to replace the rivets.



I had a theory that water was getting in... and that the hatch was actually cracked on the inside worse than the outside.

Both turned out to be correct.

And now I know why the speakers weren't working AT ALL. My replacement hatch has perfectly working speakers, which is nice, although I've already bought some 6x9s to put back there.



New hatch on! Just redoing the wiring here, had to solder about a half dozen connections, not too bad.



I tested all the lights\wiper\etc. and then spent some time monkeying with the latches to get it to close easier. Looks like I need a new bumper, the hatch draggs a little on the rubber part. Luckily the cherokee I got the tailgate from also has a chrome bumper... I'll grab the bumper when I go back for my lift parts.

I put the wiper on a few minutes later. Just have to put the interior panel on, but I am going to set up the 6x9s first...



I am so pleased everything works, even the plate illumination. I still have to put my nice chrome trim on it and take off the Cherokee logo, but I'm mostly there!

kellan_musseau

I totally thought this was going to be some wild cherokee build that started as a yota haha. Nice jeep, looks like a great start.

WB-PDX

Got the 6x9s in after cutting up some fibreglass. Working good, then suddenly my power door locks stopped working. Tore everything apart only to find that the passenger side lock-switch wasn't working properly, and stopped both the keyless and door-switch from working. I just flipped the door switch around, cleaned the contacts and used some dielectric and all was well... Too bad I tore the entire car apart tracing through the possible faults.

Also discovered I have little tweeter speakers in the lower dash. Neat.

Also discovered that my door panels aren't out of a different car, they are just rattle-canned-black. Over the entire thing, fabric and all.

WB-PDX

Starting to gather up budget lift parts... Picked up a pair of swaybar brackets to reuse as BPEs.

Also got a XJ rear spare tire carrier. It was a lo of work to get it off and get all the brackets together. I put it on craigslist because I'm not sure I want to cut my Wagoneer up just yet.

At the junkyard there was a beautiful 88 wagy just like mine, but with the wood still intact on the sides, and a really, really nice leather interior.... Except someone had taken it mudding and filled it up with water\mud. Too bad, it WAS a really nice car. Still haven't found a single XJ with the same color interior as mine yet...

I have a *lot* of little projects I want to get done on the Wagoneer, but I am starting to think about picking up a newer, HO XJ project...