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Project DD/Sleeper/Budget Build

wentz912

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Location
Kelso, WA
So after my 84 pickup was stolen the first week of December last year, I picked up a Subaru to drive for a while for $900 and put another $100 into it in CV axles.

Then in April I swapped it and $500 for this.

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It had some sort of 3 inch lift springs in the front, 1.5" wheel spacers in the front. And a weird ass add a leaf in the rear when I bought it, along with some IFS offset wheels that rubbed the 35x12.5 BFG ats into the rear leaf spring when I bought it, but it came with a set of 15x8 solid axle white wagon wheels, an extra 3.90 diff (stock ratio for 80 and 81 pickups), and an extra factory early style intake and distributor.

Got the wheels all painted up and some other little tweaks

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Got a rear bumper made up. Nice and simple, 2x4 3/16 wall mounted to some modified stock mounts and added some d-rings and bracing.

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Then this happened. So had go find me a new motor. $1000

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Then this happened.

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Yes, that's the wall of a McDonalds.:looser:

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Got it all straightened out for the most part though. Rear left wheel was bent to **** but had a spare in the shop. and had to cut off the bumper and the old mounts and work up some new ones red neck style. :redneck:

Used 3/8 plate to go from main hoop to body mounts. and then made some 1/2 plate "feet" on the bottom supports to bolt through to the 1/2 thick stiffener plate I made for the front crossmember. Now I can lift the truck by the front bumper:cool:

Then I decided that I was tired of dragging the ass end around on trails and such so 11 inches of bed went bye-bye. :flipoff:

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My first time doing any sheet metal work and the right side had GALLONS of bondo in it so my work isn't the best, but then again, it hasn't fallen off yet either.

The reason I cut that amount out is I've got a canopy off my 84 shortbed that wasn't on the truck when it was stolen sitting out behind the shop. So it's going on this one.

Had problems with the shocks that were on the truck limiting down travel and the front springs were toast as well so bought some used 3" NWOR's from a buddy for $200 with some better front shocks.

With the suspension I bought it with:

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Now the front is MUCH better but the rears blow big donkey balls so I'm going to make some bastard packs for the rear out of the 5 or six different toyota packs I've got lying around the shop :cool:

I'm thinking that I will use factory toyota top 2 leaves, 3" lift third leaf from NWOR pack, and the factory over load with the u-bolts that keep the leaves from fanning out.

Also need to re-wire the ass end because I've got a short somewhere that keeps blowing my tail-lights/gauges fuse, and the left blinker comes on when I put it in reverse, and the right side reverse light blinks when I turn left. :mad:

Will post up pictures with the canopy, and how the suspension works when I get that stuff done.
 
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You spun a bearing so you bought a new engine for $1K when you could have fixed it for the price of a set of bearings and some gaskets :eeek:

Otherwise nice rig :cool:
 
You spun a bearing so you bought a new engine for $1K when you could have fixed it for the price of a set of bearings and some gaskets :eeek:

Otherwise nice rig :cool:

I was kinda thinkin that, but maybe the motor was in need of a total rebuild by this point. No point in throwing new bearings in something that's nearing the end of it's life anyhow. Too much work for nothin.
 
You spun a bearing so you bought a new engine for $1K when you could have fixed it for the price of a set of bearings and some gaskets :eeek:

Otherwise nice rig :cool:

Well, first off, all four bearings had spun, and #3's bearing had been smashed up so bad that it looked like a thrust bearing, AND #3's rod journal had been hammered so bad it was like .030 smaller than the largest oversized bearing I could find anywhere. And then to TOP it all off, I had a goat **** engine. It was a post 84 (laser cast) block with an early style head on it that had been shaved down WAY farther than it should have been.

I kept the weber and header for the new engine though, just had to move the weber from old intake manifold to the new one. that and removed a bunch more of the emissions crap.

I've already gone through one HG due to a cracked water pump on this motor too. and I'm eventually going to have to replace the timing cover.
 
You spun a bearing so you bought a new engine for $1K when you could have fixed it for the price of a set of bearings and some gaskets :eeek:

Otherwise nice rig :cool:

I was kinda thinkin that, but maybe the motor was in need of a total rebuild by this point. No point in throwing new bearings in something that's nearing the end of it's life anyhow. Too much work for nothin.

What's the point of putting new bearings on a chewed up crank :rolleyes:
 
is that mcdonalds the one in south park? becuase they had rewards sings up for a while....
 
Ok so here's the story on the mcdonalds incident... Which was in longview by the way, not south park.

Was turning right onto the street that runs parallel to that wall, which is the one that has the drive thru yada, yada, yada.

It was the first rain in a couple weeks+welded rear+bald ass tires+too much right foot=kicked the ass end out and slammed left rear wheel into the cent divider curb, ended up pointed straight at the side of the building, had enough momentum to bounce over the curb and into the drivethru driveway and eventually into the building. While in panic mode I brought both feet down on the clutch instead of clutch and brake so I just rolled with what momentum I had into the side of the building. I missed hitting a bus stop full of people, two trees, and a packed drive thru line.

Ended up with a Neg 2 ticket that I'm still paying off.

And the truck will eventually be getting a sprayed tag on the side with the Mcd's logo with one of the circle slashes over it like they used to do on fighter planes lol
 
Woohoo!

So now for an update after all this BS-ing

Got the rear springs that I bought it with back on the truck and things are SO much better.

Flex shots:

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:cheer::cheer::cheer:

The springs that were on there were all kinds of ****ered up. The right side pack had slid around on itself and the shackle andgle was so bad it was actually pointing forward at ride height.

and you might be able to see in this picture that I didn't cut QUITE enough out of my bed for the canopy to seal up against the back of the cab like it is supposed to, still trying to figure out how to take care of that one. maybe some kind of headache rack, dunno yet.

Still need to re-wire the back end, probably actually do it tomorrow but picked up all the stuff for it today. got another bag of heat shrink butt connectors, and 12 ft. of 4 wire line like they use on heavy diesel trucks and such, saves money and time from having to loom up four seperate wires
 
So, got some more stuff done with the truck, unforunately all the pictures are on the camera I left at Padre's house. Will get those up ASAP

First off, busted the window out of my canopy, and I'm too cheap to go get it replaced so that came off and put my cheap ass Truck box back in.

Then I scored a pair of BFG MT's and a full set of 15x10 Aluminum wheels for $100 from my uncle so got those all figured out. Now running ATs up front and MTs in the rear til I can afford actual NEW tires.

Got my lights all wired back up too. Wasn't as clean as I had hoped for but everything works and is out of the way from falling apart again. Still need to replace right side trun signal bulb and splice in plate lights.

Getting up tomorrow to strip carpet and other un-necessary **** out of the interior, get the floor sanded down and hopefully spray some bedliner stuff on, seal up the windshield, pull interior door panels and get cardboard templates made. And if can convince dad to let me borrow the welder, get some gussets made and installed on some stuff I've been putting off.

Also, here is the list for future high dollar mods.

List:

-IFS Steering Box = $100
-TG Crossover Steering Kit = $300
-TG U Bolt Flip kit x2 = $100
-ARP Knuckle Studs x8 = $72
-Shock Hoops = $50
-Shocks x4 = $300
-Longfield 30 Spline Kit = $630
-Longfield Inner Hub Gears x2 = $130
-Aussie Front Locker = $250
-Dual Case Adapter = $300
-Second Gen Trans and case = $500
-Set of NEW tires = $1000

Total = $3832


Current Investment in truck is at:

$1000 (Subaru put in for trade)
+ $500 (Cash on top of Subaru)
+ $1000 (Rebuilt Motor)
+ $100 (Nice Aluminum Wheels and better rear tires)
- $50 (Sold spare Dizzy and Carb that came with truck)

For a total of....

= $2550

So, unless something else catastrophic happens...I will be into this highly functioning, reliable wheeling rig for a GRAND total of:

= $6382

And of course I am going to sell some of the extra CRAP this truck came with to help cover some of the expenses.

Will get pictures up tomorrow.
 
Got all the rubber crap wire wheeled out of the floor and the bedliner sprayed down. God that crap is horrible. ended up EVERYWHERE! :rolleyes:

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Also found a good spot to really max out my suspension on the neighbors back lot, that I DO have verbal permission to play on.

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Still piddling away with little stuff htat I don't have pictures of, used the same spray on beliner stuff on my front bumper. Really like how that turned out. Also mad a tow point for the front that I actually trust now.

My stock shock towers are starting to crack so need to lay down a couple new beads on those. Also need to figure out a new plan for front springs, these ones are starting to look a little tweaked. Wish I could afford crossover and I'd just go ahead and do RUF buuut not in the cards right now since I'm unemployed.
 
Got bored while having a couple beers last night.

this marlin bumper USED to have a hoop on it :stirpot:

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And got tired of some of the sheetmetal in the back. :redneck:

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Next step is to make some wrap around qrtr guard type deals to mount trucker style combination lights in.
 
So I decided that since two months have gone by it is probably time for an update.

Things that have happened since the last update:

got new wheels and tires, 315/75s on 16x7 alloys.

performs WAY better with the narrower tire/wheel combination.

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Picked up some marlin 5" front springs a while back, in the process of fabbing up a new hanger for those and will be buying a cross over kit when I get my taxes back. Also found some 52" jeep springs for cheap so I think I will be trying those in the rear.

Will also be fixing the mismatched gears by installing 5.29s in my spare diff.
 
didnt see it listed anywhere sounds like a good idea so far .... id recomend some gears for it though if it doesnt have it . Also funny mcdonalds parking lot story made me giggle as i did teh play through in my head while reading it throttle and a random oh **** look hah anyways nice first gen keep working at it itll be mint soon :awesomework:
 
haha it will never be mint ever again. i care little enough about the sheetmetal to be willing to bounce it off some trees. And the gears were mentioned in my last post. It currently has 5.29s in the rear and 5.71s in the front, bought it that way and will be fixing it with tax money.
 
Well in that version it is already mint! I have yet to point it at something and not make it eventually :fawkdancesmiley: Helped a buddy do his rears up front and chevies and crossover and all that today so I am itching to get mine done BAD, just waiting on the money.
 
Well, been hunting around for options and it seems as though chevy rears and RUF is the best bang for my buck as far as a flexy suspension goes. time to start scouring the junk yards.
 
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