Normally I would brag about a score like this. Out of respect to the very nice man who didn't want to part with it, but changed his mind after seeing my enthusiasm for it, I will keep it between he and I.

 

Well I got my inspection, got it titled, and got plates. I drove it about 20 minutes and noticed the water pump was leaking. I managed to find one online for a lot cheaper than I expected. Needless to say I'll have plenty of time to clean things up since I can't drive it at the moment. I did some cleaning up of some wires in the engine bay. There's a lot of extra harnesses and stuff that can be tucked away which are not needed for the diesel versions. I hit the outside with Simple Green and scrubbed away. There was a couple years worth of junk all over it from sitting under trees.





Does anyone know of any methods or products that will help me out with small and larger surface rust spots? Here's what I am working with in a couple places:

 

you could tape off the rusty areas, sand them down to bare metal(dremel makes it easy and accurate), and prime them. That would look better than rust, and theyd be protected for a little while. check automotive touch up dot com for touch up paint, from their site it looks like youre paint code is 3A, but double check. you can buy a 2oz bottle of touch up paint for $15, or an aerosol can for $20.

edit: actually doesnt look like 3A. let us know the paint code, im curious. 4D maybe?

 

Is there a product out there that dissolves rust? Sounds like a miracle formula but I think I recall seeing something like that before.

 

you could try CLR from any home depot or probably even the grocery stores cleaning aisle. Not sure how agressive it would be though, never used it. Another alternative is oxalic acid. I used it extensively to remove rust from BMX parts when I was a collector. I imagine its harder to find though, pretty sure I had to have it shipped.

 

Sand down the spots you can and spray it with rust converter, then prime and paint

 

Being the "survivor" that it is, I hate getting real envasive. Was hoping to just halt the deterioration and make it pretty. It would be impossible to color match 30 year old metallic gold.

 

"Naval Jelly" is used for dissolving rust. It is indeed a miracle worker!

 

Do you have a maaco nearby? If you will take care of the rust spots and then take the truck to them, they can respray the entire truck for a couple hundred bucks...at least that's what it used to cost. Either way, you can get rid of the rust and freshen up the truck for probably under $300.

 

I'm not interested in painting it. If I did it wouldn't be at Maaco. I wanna keep it kinda "barn fresh".

 

Sooo cool, great find.

Sub'd gotta follow this jem & see how it ends up.

Did I miss the mileage? What's it got on the odometer? Was that Diesel engine used in any other vehicles? Sooo interested.

Lucky bastard!

 

190k true mileage. I believe, I may be wrong, the only other applications were in the small Winnebagos. That's the reason for there still being parts available.

 

Well my water pump got here in less than 24 hours. Needless to say I put the wash supplies away and got the tools out. It's too hot in my garage and I have the Z28 on jack stands so I'm gonna tackle this French-***** in the driveway.







Just a water pump swap, sounds easy right?
And....



Snapped a couple off. This should be fun.

 

Are those studs?

 

Doughhh. Son-of-a- #^*>&euro;£¥£>?~|.,<<<?&euro;££|. And now we all know where this is going. Down the ol' XJ road...... Buy a ton of parts and spend tons more cash....

Keep us posted how it goes. We're all still envious.....