Nope. Not a mechanic. Learning as I go along.....slowly.
Pennsylvania.....about 1/3 the world away from you. shipping to you must be painfully expensive or slow or both.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

Yeah, Bondo is easy to work with, just have to work at it to get it right. Start a thread about your truck and shoot me the listing....post some pics nd you will get lots of input.
As far as $1000 to spend.....good job.......wheels and tires are esential, I had good luck with BF Goodrich all-terrains, wore like steel...wheels are a personal preference...whatever you like. for like $300 you probably could rebuild the top of the engine and for a few buks more the top and bottom and keep it runnng for a long time. Timing chain and head are my current jobs. Considering that an estimate of $1300 for just doing the head from a garage, this is a worthwhile project.

whoa, that's WAAAAY beyond me. I'm gonna say it's moe complicated that that, such as have to get a new ECU among other things. Not a bad question though since I am sure alot of people that are seasoned at working on engines would far prefer adjusting a carb rather than messing with the EFI. My question would be, why would you want to do such a thing. sounds like the proverbial "can of worms".

Its a 4cyl. Work in progress, but I pretty much stole it. I don't know if you saw the thread I started. You can search threads started for it.

But thanks man! Cheers!

haha you know it!

love yotas all my life doesnt matter truck or car repping hawaii offroad