Hi! I've had a couple other pickups, the most recent being about 15 years ago. One was an all stock 1989 22RE with 63k miles on it, and the other was a 1989 22R that had a 4 runner front clip, suspension, whees, etc. Since selling my last one, I always wanted to get back into one. After selling my most recent VW project I found this gem and decided to pick it up. It's a 1982 longbed, 100k miles, and owned by a couple older gentlemen before me. The truck is in crazy good shape! My plan is to drive it for a while and button up any issues that pop up and then slam it on air suspension. I'll be doing all the work on the truck myself.









The first issue I found with the truck was a pinhole in the fuel tank. I drove it home from purchase without issue, and then gassed it up before driving to the DMV to get it registered. After I parked in the garage when I got home, my wife noticed a strong fuel smell when she went out into the garage. I went out there to check things out and found a large puddle of fuel under the truck. After some investigation I found that some crud had probably fallen down between the cab and the bed a long time ago and came to rest/decompose on the lip of the fuel tank. I pulled the tank, and and currently waiting for my replacement. I could not for the life of me find a 1982 tank, so I ordered an 84-88 tank for a long bed and after doing some reading on this forum, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to make it work.

While waiting for the tank I decided to start working on the interior. I pulled the original vinyl and to my surprise I found the original tar board and floor to be in amazing shape. After some consideration, I decided to remove the tar board and replace it with some more modern sound deadening. I also ordered some blue carpet to replace the vinyl to try and stay with the OEM theme on the inside.



I'm on a long stretch at work but when i get home I will have some new parts waiting for me and will get new pictures uploaded!

 

That may be the first dash I've seen in such condition. Are you just picking away at the tar board? I'm doing the same.

 

Yeah I’m just using that hammer and chisel in the picture and going a little bit at a time. I’ve read some people use an air hammer or other tools but this seems to be working, albeit slowly.

 

Well I can confirm that an 84-88 gas tank bolts right into this truck. Got that all installed and when I get some time in the garage I’m going to get the new carpet installed. After that the clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, rear main seal, etc is up next!

 

Made a bit of progress on the truck over the past few days. I finally got all the tarboard chipped off and moved ahead with the application of the Kilmat. I'm blown away at how good of shape the floor of this truck is in! The spot you see not covered on the drivers side will be covered after I finish treating a little surface rust with some Ospho and paint. Now I'm working on getting the carpet put in. The color is going to look OEM which is what I was looking for. After I get the carpet buttoned up I'm going to get working on the clutch which should be pretty straight forward.

 

C

Carpet is most of the way in, just have to figure out what I’m going to do with the area behind the seat and cut seat bolts/shifter hole.

 

Looks good!

 

I realized I never posted a pic of the interior finished!



I've been plugging away as time permits. I work a ton of hours and have a 2 year old at home so any time I get out in the garage is precious! Clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, pilot bearing, throwout bearing, housing gasket, etc. were at the top of my to do list. The toughest part was wrestling the transmission back in. Also my attempt to do the rear main seal housing gasket turned into a damaged pan gasket, which then needed to be replaced. I flushed a bunch of nasty fluid out while doing the slave cylinder and replaced it with clean fluid. So far so good!


After all the transmission stuff was buttoned up, I finally got to drive it work for the first time since I've owned it! Lucked out and parked next to a coworkers much larger project.


I've been doing some other small stuff like fixing the horn with a 22LR cartridge, and giving it a nice wash!


Now that the transmission is back together, I'm going to make it my daily driver for a month or 2 and see if any other urgent maintenance issues pop up. While I'm putting around I'll start collecting parts to bag it. So far I'm thinking of staying with the stock wheels, plating/swapping the control arms, and building my own notch for the rear. I think I'll go with Slam Specialties bags but am still getting the management and stuff figured out. I have a REALLY cool idea for a tank, but I need to find out if I can get the tank I have in mind tapped for the fittings.