This beast must be getting close to running!

 

Man im chopping that list down fast. Buttoning up a lot of loose ends every single day.

 

Waiting on the dash frame, diff flanges, tcase mount, fuel tank and fuel pump box to return from the paint shop. Between now and then I’ve surfaced, wet sanded then polished a bunch parts starting with 400 then 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000. Refinished the distributor and all its little parts, the oil pressure sending unit, exhaust mounts and a bunch of misc supporting pieces.

Also cut new insulators out of stainless for the front lower triple shock mounts and gave them the same procedure. All the hardware for the shock mounts has been replaced with full stainless with nylocks cut down to fit then polished, then covered with the original but re plated chrome caps

 

What was was supposed to be buy bolts and throw on turned into cut down to fit, surface, sand and re polish. The nuts themselves were sold as “polished” but they did a horrible job so I spent a couple hours polishing everything myself. When I had the hardware ready I had to carefully hang the exhaust and bolt it on.

Almost nothing on this truck has been a pull, re finish and slap back on. Everything has had some sort of hang up or the ocd forced me to go the extra mile on the detail and added weeks to what could have been bolted back on then and there.

 

definitely a labor of love.
The transfer case crossmember is just in there temporarily? hence one missing bolt?

 

I had the T case out to repolish and re seal it while I sealed and polished the transmission. It also made it easier to build the fuel system with the extra room in there. It’s all bolted up to the trans for good just waiting on the rubber mount to be back from the paint shop so I can snug down the crossmember.

 

Holy hell man! Thanks for the update!
Really love to see the progression on this incredible truck. It would be amazing if you could take this to SEMA or some other large shows. I guarantee you'd put all the bro dozer trucks to shame.

 

I am planning to take it to the following SEMA as soon as it’s ready. I’m getting really antsy now, not far at all from a start up. Just waiting on parts at the painters so I can finish bolting up the fuel system. Bout to wire up the distributor and starter.

 

I found this thread while going though the headlines and all I gotta say is "AWESOME!!! You have done a LOT of work to get your old dream truck back into shape and looking good. Glad you were able to save it and bring it back to life. Congrats and good job.
Any updates on this? Hope all is going well.

 

Thanks! It has been an adventure to say the least and im getting very impatient to finish it haha. I just started work on it again. Ive been waiting for 9 months to get my dash frame, drive shaft flanges, fuel tank, fuel pump box, disc brake conversion and more parts back from my painter. Luckily I should be getting them this week, FINALLY!

 

The steering wheel adapter was pretty scuffed, scraped and corroded so I refinished it today. Had to sand some of the deep scratches out with 80 and 150 grit. Then chucked it up to the drill using a 14mm bolt and wet sanded it with 220, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and finally 3000. I like the finish but I may do a good polish before it goes back on. Night and day over what it looked like this morning so I’m happy.

 

I got all the scoop linkage sorted and on after an hour at elliot’s hardware deciding on what chrome bolts I wanted. I’m going to take it back off now that it’s all fit up and polish the aluminum tie rod. I may even cut it down some to bring the lever down and correct the angle between the scoop and carb linkage. For now it opens very smoothly and works well but my ocd wants to take it further.

 

Can't wait to see this back on the road.

 

At least...until now

That was a great story, and nice attention to detail with all the work. Looking forward to seeing it run

 

that is true haha, I still haven’t found another picture of the weld wheels either. Gonna get those refinished here soon.

 

Summit racing is less than an hour away so I walked in and picked up some parts. They had the Lecarra dark gray steering wheel which is supposedly the one it had in it back in the day. I’ve been on the fence about what steering wheel to go with but it looks pretty good. Now to get some stainless hardware and polish them up so it can be mounted

 

The truck came home 3 years ago today! What an adventure this whole deal has been. Never thought I would find parts I needed to complete it let alone the originals and now it is super close to the first fire up in 2 decades.



after waiting 9 months I’ve just finally got my dash frame, fuel pump box and fuel tank back from being painted. I had the tank painted a while back but I had to go back and modify the fuel filler and get a few scratches fixed so it was painted again. Now that I have them the rest of the fuel system can be completed and I can continue wiring the gauges.

I am also in the middle of having a custom radiator built and will be shipping mine off anytime now to be replicated out of aluminum. It’s going to have 4 electric fans which will allow them to clear the water pump pulley. Since there is 4.5” between the nose and back of the radiator support I cannot fit 1 large fan. It will finally have the cooling it needs to be streetable and it’s going to glow like a core with blue lights inside

As soon as the radiator comes back and is installed it will be down to running a starter wire, wiring the distributor adding fluids then show time.



Oh and one more thing, I bought another toy a year ago that I’ve been building in between. Some may remember this truck from the 80’s when it held the world record for loudest sounds system in 88/89. Once the 80 is done this one will be getting brought back to glory and I’ve already started

 

I am so jealous!

 

Are you going to restore the new monster's sound system as well or just the interior and exterior and make it a good driver?
Good to see progress is still coming along after three years time restoring your dream truck. Will need to post a video of you driving it and update/ recreate the picture of you with it. Again, congrats and good luck.

 

Thanks! I think with the blue truck being such a handful and excessive with detail I want to build the 4Runner into something I can actually play with. I want to clean it up as best as possible without getting out of hand and spending a ton of time and money like I have on the pickup. It would be nice to park it wherever and occasionally run thru some mud holes/creek crossings. It will mostly be used for cruising with the top off and might daily it to the shop off/on. I would love to have all the speaker towers back in it but I think I’m just gonna build a simple clean sound system for now.

I will definitely be making video of the first fire up and drive. I just now got done mounting the gas tank in the truck. I waited 9 months to get it back as well as my dash frame which I just installed a couple days ago. Now that these 2 major parts are in the truck things are gonna start moving fast. The gauges can be wired and from there I’ll be able to simply install the column cover, steering wheel, hub and dash pad. There’s just very few things on this truck I’ve been able to quickly toss on. Seems like everything has run into a hang up from having to make modifications to then get repainted or chromed etc etc. I also now know how long the fuel line needs to be to reach the pump, so those will be made ASAP.