i too am interested in the jdm fender mirrors.
link?

i was also thinking of s30 fender mirrors haha

 

So I figured i would make an update as to what Ive been up to as of late. First of all I dumped my old basket case 76 short bed. The reason being is I found another 76 that was less of a basket case.



So as you can see by the plates the truck hasn't moved since 1988 lol. The story goes that the OG owner was doing a clutch job and DIED! His wife left the truck sitting in the yard since. Fast forward to now, Im surfing ye old craigslist and find a guy named Tim looking to part out the beast as he couldnt get it running. I struck a deal through waiting him out to just buy the whole damn thing including all the extra crap he had. First i basically gutted my old 76 and stashed all the bits. Then I gutted the new one and touched up his terrible rattle can job with a better... er... rattle can job lol. The floor is in better shape than mine was with only one patch job and a majority of the OG floor in place. Stripped it down, hit it with some etching primer and rustoleum for a quick fix, ill do it right later as i also have to fix the carnage from the 5 speed swap.




I replace the driver door with my old door as the factory one was trash and rotting through the bottom. I also used the nose, headlights, and left fender off mine. Painted the rear frame after I yanked the bed and got my D2's on it as well as the fender mirrors.





On to the motor shenanigans.



Tim said when he sold it to me that he put a new timing chain on it, why i dont know, but being disabled he suspected that he missed a tooth or 7 and couldnt get it to start. Looking at it i immediately knew the vacuum lines were effed. So we got it back home and just ripped the motor out under the impression it would have been easier that ripping the damn thing apart and re-timing it. Got my 20R in in a day and she still didnt want to start, had to be vacuum related but it should have at least kicked over and just ran like doo doo. Later on we found that the vacuum pump was seized and totally useless. Got on CL and found a guy selling a Weber for a 20R not far from me so i snagged it for cheap. Dumped all the vacuum BS and it still wouldnt start! WTF! Ok, through some random tinkering, energy drinks and a carton of smokes we found the culprit, sitting since 88 we found the carbon canister/muffler had collapsed and no exhaust was actually getting out, so we got my performance header on and chopped the old one off and she fired right up, second crank! Whoot! Down side, the 4 speed was fried... f*ck. We all scrambled and got the 5 speed almost in by 6 am and called it quits as i had to make new holes on the trans mount of the 5 speed to get it to mount up.

Thats pretty much up to date, now ill just fill in some picks of what i have to clean up.






Other than that I just have to come up with a better way to adapt the linkage on the cable carb to my manual linkage and then dump it lol.

 

Pretty awesome man. I'm interested to see where this goes.

 

Nice truck. So what color you going to paint it?

 

so JDM i'm crying in tears of joy

 

Im still a little on the fence about the final job. Its going to be either a real nice pure white, or that FJ cream color but im not sure.

 

Lol wait till you see the exhaust

 

Just scored these on ebay, JDM turn signals, new. Its awesome the have 2 bulbs.

 

I WANT THOSE! Post a link for me? I wanna find them too lol

 

Should ship those wheels to me for free. their ugly you wont need them

 

Way ahead of you dawg, theyre already on the way

 

Thanks for the link. Let me know how well those lights fit before I order a set.

 

Yeah! Those look kick-ass! I wouldn't mind a set!

 

F'sho gentlmen, ill let you know as soon as they show up.

 

and replace the screws with like a security torx bit lol. I'm gonna use triangle nintendo screws on them and the tails. Lol.

 

The nintendo ones are only rated for 74hp. You need PS3 screws, they are good for 600hp.

 

Couple quick questions. Im getting ready to drop the front down, I've got 3" blocks on the back.

1) and tips on pulling the mid leaf?

2) want to keep it level, no rake, how many coils should I cut?

 

For the middle leaf, bend the clamps and pry it up with a big screw driver. It's real easy.

 

Little update, got the nose all painted and mostly reasembled.

 

For a non-H4 headlight, that all looks pretty bitchin. Just bomb can on the headlights? Maybe yellow window tint? They are the wrong color tone to be Benz or Saab/Volvo. The white looks sweet.

Personally, I cut 3-1/8 turns off the springs. 4.5" block, and a pulled middle leaf. Do that leaf when you put the blocks in. Cut 2 turns off the coils. Give it a couple weeks to "settle". When you cut a spring, it tends to sag a bit more. Less steel holding the same weight, it droops a little more. I got a decent amount just from that over the course of almost 2 years. Maybe another inch drop. For your drop, you probably won't have to hammer the inner fenders. Or roll the outer fender lips. But, any sharp edges and/or bolts aiming at the tire should get taken care of. I remember some emissions crap on the pass side and the coil bolts on the driver. And a pinch weld seam toward the firewall. I also had to hit pretty much the entire inner fender shape (including that weird thing above the LCA) away from the tire. I have 195/50/16s.

I really wanna see this thing dumped with those JDM lenses. You have a good chrome bumper for it, or gonna run a painted one?