Got one dave ship out friday. Happy hoildays!

 

Thanks Al! That would be perfect as I am at a stand still with mounting the fenders and hood until I snag the plug. Still have my address? Merry Christmas pal!!

 

Merry Christmas everybody! I just got done doing my Santa duties for my son so I decided that 2AM on Christmas Day would be a great time to clean up some parts. I took all of my pedal assemblies apart to sandblast and powdercoat. Also took apart my brake booster and master cylinder so I could get the brake booster freshened up. Got rid of all the obnoxious overspray from a PO paint job (If you paint your truck, keep the next owner in mind and don't get overspray all over every part that your should have removed prior to painting) the scuffed it up really good for paint. After a few coats of Ceramic primer and ceramic semi gloss black, the brake booster looks brand new again. Not bad for 30+ years old...

From this:



To this (paint hasn't dried all the way yet so the photos look blotchy):



Also got these gems in too:


Both Aisin MC's. Apparently Advics is the company that took over the Aisin stuff. Both MC's have "Aisin" stamped on them. I'll powdercoat the pedal assemblies and brake booster spacer and have them installed in no time!

I hope the Toyota Santa brings you all everything you wanted!

 

Dude... after reading this build for so long and seeing this pic... this is all I could think of:


Excellent work Dave. I was wondering if you know what wiper arms you're going to use for this? Stock ones or the "J style" arms?

 

I suppose it's time to give you all a much overdue update...

Well, thanks to Al (Thanks Al!!), I got the plug I needed for the rocker panels so I mounted the fenders and valance last week.






Unfortunately, after I got the fenders and valance mounted I realized that my driverside door was hung about an 1/8 of an inch too low and I don't have enough adjustment on the door side of the hinges so I have to yank the valance and fender off to adjust the cab side of the hinge to raise the door - the lack of access to the cab side of the door hinges is a very inconvenient design flaw by Toyota. I'll get that done later.

Over the holidays I decided to go on a little bit of a blast cabinet binge. After about 4 hours of standing at the blast cabinet I got the clutch pedal/assembly, brake pedal/assembly, wiper motor plate, brake booster spacer, battery tie down, headlight buckets, tow hook, bumper stays, power steer cooler and power steering reservoir all cleaned up.


Then last night, I went on a powdercoating binge. This is what I call "baking cookies"


And fresh out of the oven:


Today I reassembled the headlight buckets, brake pedal assembly and clutch pedal assembly:




The power steering reservoir turned out great too. I was a little hesitant about powdercoating it, but figured if it didn't turn out then I could get an aftermarket one.


Now it's a matter if putting the pieces back together. This all seems small, but it is a HUGE hurdle when it comes to reassembly. More to come soon...

 

Dave....thanks for the update and Happy New Year!!! Your on the home stretch :-)

 

Pedals installed:


Clutch master cylinder, brake master cylinder and power steering reservoir installed:


Headlight buckets and power steering cooler installed:


Moving right along....

 

Isn't this the best part? I remember doing as much work as I did staring!

 

Took apart my heater core tonight to clean it out. Unfortunately the plastic housing is extremely oxidized. After I gave it a thorough cleaning and scraped as much of the oxidation off as I could with plastic razors, I then broke out the secret sauce...

Here's what the oxidation looks like before:


And then I lathered it up with the high tech special sauce:


Yes, Ladies and Gents, that is peanut butter. Go ahead and laugh now, but when I rub it off (perhaps recruit the help of my dogs) in the morning you'll be like "damn... That actually works!" It's an old dirt bike plastic remedy that I used to used. I'll go ahead and let the suspense get to you all for a little bit...

 

So the peanut oil moisturizes the plastic?

 

It not only moisturizes it, it actually removes the oxidation too. This isn't like putting lotion on dry skin to make it look better until it dries out again - this is like removing the dry skin completely to get to the fresh skin underneath. Works wonders on most all plastics and is a fix not a cover up like products such as Back to Black

 

With a little bit of strawberry jam that would be one tasty heater core plastic cover! hmmm

 

Yep! I imagine that my truck will have a nice nutty scent to it when the heat is on too. Who needs air fresheners anyway?!

 

Just a FYI for you all, about a hour ago Toyota revealed the 2016 Tacoma bodystyle ahead of thr Detriot show. I most certainly WILL HAVE one of these in my driveway! I love that they look like a modernized version of my 2005 Tundra! Here's the MotorTrend link for more photos:
http://m.motortrend.com/wot/1501_see...ta_tacoma.html

 

thats really cool about the pb. ill have to take this to the panel see if she'll let me do that to the plastic bits in our 4runner. the drivers door handle is pretty oxidized
.

 

I finished cleaning up the heater core assembly. My wife yelled at me for using the creamy peanut butter so I had to go with the chunky (my son and wife don't like chunky PB). It still worked all the same but was a little more inconvenient with the chunks of peanuts.


After a quick rinse and a run through the dishwasher I then gave them a good wipe down with a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and paint thinner (basically like a long lasting ArmorAll for plastics).


I cleaned up the motor and all the internals, powercoated everthing and reassembled. It's like brand new now and I am super happy with the results:


Also cleaned up the washer tank and coolant reservoir. These looked terrible before I started! They were covered in grease and paint overspray (again folks, do your truck's next owner a favor and properly mask off or, better yet, remover components before you paint!). I wish I could get rid of the yellowing, but I suppose this will have to do:


Also, last night I ordered my radiator. I ended up getting an all aluminun radiator for a 2nd gen pickup. Supposedly, it should fit with very minor modification, but I guess I'm going to have to find that out shortly. My old radiator was fine, but I really didn't feel like cleaning up and paint it plus I like the look of the aluminum.

I should be getting my steering column and heater core installed within the next couple days then I will move towards getting the wiring back in (which is already cleaned up and stripped of all emissions wiring)

 

looking great Dave .. restoring the coolant tank and washer tanks on these is a pain , I wish replacements were available


.

 

1. That truck looks fantastic, great work. Square headlight first-gens are the best. The red paint is also excellent. Imagine how pissed off you'll be when you get your first scratch...


2. The peanut butter trick is now hardwired into my memory, thanks for the tip.

 

amazing work, thanks for keeping this updated, I know it takes a good bit of time just for the photos.

but I vote for round headlights.....just one man opinions

 

No to round headlight - I don't like the grille options that come with round headlights - you see in a minute....