Nix Mixin's 1982 Pickup Build-Up Thread
05-03-2011, 04:17 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Nix Mixin's 1982 Pickup Build-Up Thread
I have been a lurker on here for a couple years. 
My name is Nick and according to the title under my name to the left....I AM a "Registered User"! lol.
I have a family member that is a 1982 4x4 longbed by the name of "The Mule". She was originally purchased brand new up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by my Uncle's next door neighbor and after about a year of use, sold it to my Uncle. After that, my dad started borrowing it to haul firewood all the time and finally, my dad bought it from his brother (my uncle). When I turned 15, my dad taught me how to drive a stick shift in The Mule on an icey narrow hill in the woods. I have been in love with her ever since. :-)
I drove her threw my high school years and then left the nest... and The Mule with my dad who punished her through 200+ thousand miles of abuse. She went through the gears in the 5 speed that she was born with and my dad found a carcus with a functional 4 speed and frankensteined it into her. The tailgate hinges rusted out and he tossed the tailgate entirely. After the years of abuse, my dad finally parked her under a tree to die a sad lonely death for a few years on his ranch where she became the home to numerous wasp nests, raccoons, spiders and who knows what else. Finally i convinced my dad to give her to me. I walked over and opened the hood to discover that valve cover was barely on and had been driven that way for a few years prior to parking her. So, a couple of decades of puking oil and caking on dirt made the front end of the motor evolve to a giant blob of 1/2 inch thick goo. The water pump, altinator, fuel pump, belt tensioner and oil pan was one huge chunk of what can be discribed as a dry "brownie-like material". So, I wrenched on it for a few hours and revived her. Then drove her 9 hours here to Las Vegas. During the drive I was made aware of the needs she had.
No turn signals, high beams, horn, heater / AC, power steering, windshield wipers or tail lights made the journey interesting. In addition to that, the tires were severly rotted and seperating and pulled drastically to the right.
Once I got her home, the work began...
The Mule came with no power steering, very basic gauges, no AC, and a crap-ton of crazy vaccuum lines to a ridiculous California emition regulated carb and exhaust system.
I started by removing the dash entirely and found a 1980 "doner" shortbed that had all the OEM goodies that I wanted The Mule to have. There is no rust on the organ doner and I quickly began with ripping all the EGR crap out and de-crusting the motor. I replace the intake manifold with a Offenhauser racing intake and Weber carb. Then ballanced the block on the other side with a nice set of equal length long headers, high flow cat and 2 chamber flowmaster. Swapped over the doner truck's power steering and tilt steering colomn in addition to the ever so fun job of figuring out the wires to swap over the nifty gauge cluster from the 80 to the 82. Tachometer, oil pressure, and voltage were made functional as well as the basics that weren't working before like the turn signals, high beams, marker lights, tail lights and horn.
The doner truck also had a nice aftermarket 3 inch suspension lift that quickly made their way to The Mule.
Now she runs perfect and starts instantly. I am in the process of swapping over the factory AC from the 80 and intend on rebuilding the motor with beefier pistons and new (non leaking) seals before adding a supercharger to get a little more oopff out of her. When I do remove the motor for rebuilding, I will be giving her a new spritz of color back to the beautiful blonde she once was.
I do have pics and will be posting them soon. I am a novice in all this car restoring and have already learned tons from lurking around on this site. There are some extremely knowledgable people on this site that are far more tallented than I am. I am hoping to lean on you guys for guidance and info in the future to complete my project of re-newing my Mule.
Thanks for the help in advance.
Nick
My name is Nick and according to the title under my name to the left....I AM a "Registered User"! lol.
I have a family member that is a 1982 4x4 longbed by the name of "The Mule". She was originally purchased brand new up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by my Uncle's next door neighbor and after about a year of use, sold it to my Uncle. After that, my dad started borrowing it to haul firewood all the time and finally, my dad bought it from his brother (my uncle). When I turned 15, my dad taught me how to drive a stick shift in The Mule on an icey narrow hill in the woods. I have been in love with her ever since. :-)
I drove her threw my high school years and then left the nest... and The Mule with my dad who punished her through 200+ thousand miles of abuse. She went through the gears in the 5 speed that she was born with and my dad found a carcus with a functional 4 speed and frankensteined it into her. The tailgate hinges rusted out and he tossed the tailgate entirely. After the years of abuse, my dad finally parked her under a tree to die a sad lonely death for a few years on his ranch where she became the home to numerous wasp nests, raccoons, spiders and who knows what else. Finally i convinced my dad to give her to me. I walked over and opened the hood to discover that valve cover was barely on and had been driven that way for a few years prior to parking her. So, a couple of decades of puking oil and caking on dirt made the front end of the motor evolve to a giant blob of 1/2 inch thick goo. The water pump, altinator, fuel pump, belt tensioner and oil pan was one huge chunk of what can be discribed as a dry "brownie-like material". So, I wrenched on it for a few hours and revived her. Then drove her 9 hours here to Las Vegas. During the drive I was made aware of the needs she had.
No turn signals, high beams, horn, heater / AC, power steering, windshield wipers or tail lights made the journey interesting. In addition to that, the tires were severly rotted and seperating and pulled drastically to the right.
Once I got her home, the work began...
The Mule came with no power steering, very basic gauges, no AC, and a crap-ton of crazy vaccuum lines to a ridiculous California emition regulated carb and exhaust system.
I started by removing the dash entirely and found a 1980 "doner" shortbed that had all the OEM goodies that I wanted The Mule to have. There is no rust on the organ doner and I quickly began with ripping all the EGR crap out and de-crusting the motor. I replace the intake manifold with a Offenhauser racing intake and Weber carb. Then ballanced the block on the other side with a nice set of equal length long headers, high flow cat and 2 chamber flowmaster. Swapped over the doner truck's power steering and tilt steering colomn in addition to the ever so fun job of figuring out the wires to swap over the nifty gauge cluster from the 80 to the 82. Tachometer, oil pressure, and voltage were made functional as well as the basics that weren't working before like the turn signals, high beams, marker lights, tail lights and horn.
The doner truck also had a nice aftermarket 3 inch suspension lift that quickly made their way to The Mule.
Now she runs perfect and starts instantly. I am in the process of swapping over the factory AC from the 80 and intend on rebuilding the motor with beefier pistons and new (non leaking) seals before adding a supercharger to get a little more oopff out of her. When I do remove the motor for rebuilding, I will be giving her a new spritz of color back to the beautiful blonde she once was.
I do have pics and will be posting them soon. I am a novice in all this car restoring and have already learned tons from lurking around on this site. There are some extremely knowledgable people on this site that are far more tallented than I am. I am hoping to lean on you guys for guidance and info in the future to complete my project of re-newing my Mule.
Thanks for the help in advance.
Nick
Last edited by Nix Mixin; 05-03-2011 at 04:23 PM.
09-21-2011, 03:16 PM
#2
Registered User
Thread Starter
Finally taking the time to mess with photobucket!
here are some pics of the work so far...
http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/c...in/The%20Mule/
here are some pics of the work so far...
http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/c...in/The%20Mule/
09-23-2011, 07:01 AM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
Yeah, I drive it eveey now and then. It needs some tires and I gotta swap my trans back to the 5 speed. I got the 5 speed sitting here, just havent done it yet. Runs and starts really good. Got more body work done yesterday but ended up spending most of my "project" time on fixing a bad air line on my air compressor. I will be updating and working on my truck more now that the weather isnt as hot here in Vegas.
Hey Wabbit, your truck looks great! why was it sitting since 09? Those tires are HUGE.! what size?
Last edited by Nix Mixin; 09-23-2011 at 07:03 AM.
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