Its a boy

Last week I put on some of the brakets for the front suspension which also needed some frame patching and the front axle was dissassembled.

The engine has all of the pistons in.

Lloyd and Annika have given birth to a healthy boy, Tallon. Congratulations to them!

Obviously that means I'll be doing the next few weeks alone. Over the next few weeks I would really like to the have the suspension brackets in place, the front axle rebuilt, the chassis sand blasted and the engine completed. If anyone ever feels like dropping in for a day of work feel free to email me. Payment is a ride in the finished product :-)

Project Cost: $6100 (new pistons cost about $300).

Its Christmas in June

All my parts have arrived. 10 boxes of stuff from Trail Gear. They include front and rear suspension, front axle gears, and headers.

The chassis is ready to receive the components of suspension that need to be welded on. The next step after that is sand blasting.

Project cost: $5800.

Time to Fight Entropy

The maximum state of disorder has been reached and now it is time to put stuff back together. The engine has the crankshaft back in and the chassis is ready for welding on the brackets for the new suspension.

Project cost: $5800.

Welding

Not much to report, I've been welding in the nicks and groves that resulted from the IFS removal. Kind of dull picture and story wise, but very interesting work. Welding is a lot of fun.

Project cost: $5800 (All new suspension (front and back), Downey header, and Axle rebuild kit).

Axle

Got my new front axle today. It looks pretty damn tough, I managed to get one of only two years of Toyota trucks (1984 and 1985) in which the axle was reinforced with a truss. I'll post a picture soon.

Project cost: $2930.00 (return the Oxy-Acetylene Torch, getting a plasma cutter instead).

Full bore

A week ago I decided to cutoff the old IFS front suspension and go full bore with a Solid Axle Conversion. There are three main reasons, 1.> I have the body and engine out so there will never be an easier time 2.> The old IFS needed some repair with regards to rust, 3.> I would have to purchase an IFS lift kit which approaches the cost of the solid axle conversion which comes with 4 inches of lift.

So I'm going to order a 4 inch lift SAS kit from Trail Gear. And a 5 inch rear lift and coil to leaf conversion kit for the rear.

So I spent this weekend cutting off the old suspension components and griding the frame flat. I also had another guest appearance, my dad decided to join me on Saturday for some hard core metal cutting.



This coming weekend I'm going to weld the nicks and gouges in the frame and order the kits. Next weekend I will be in a motorcycle race school so the weekend after that installation will begin. I'll weld on anything that needs to be welded, sand blast and paint the whole frame then begin bolting on everything.

Project cost: $3030.00 (began the purchase of an Oxy-Acetylene Torch.)

Front End . . . Not so Nice

I've got another hangup. There are four nuts and bolts the nuts all come off but the bolts are seized into their bushings. . . all four. Pretty much the transmission bolt issue all over again..

So I have to cut all the four blots using a thin crack between the edge of the bushings and the chassis. Which was easier when Lloyd suggested lifting up the whole chassis with the engine hoist.



I just have to buy a large cutoff wheel and I should be able to get the front end off. At which point I have to make a decision on doing a solid front axle conversion. I am on-again-off-again on that subject. One part of me want to do it full bore especially since all the parts are off and I have ready access to everything. But the other, more conservative part, says maybe I should put it all together and make sure it works first before sinking more cash into it.

The engines are back from Constantine's. Looking all shiny :-) (I'll post a picture after the weekend) I've spent a little time cleaning up my pistons while Lloyd has been painting his engine block. This is where I learned that a wire wheel spinning on a drill on your skin hurts.

We are going to do one engine at a time with four eyes on each one, so I have until his is put together to have all my parts purchased. I need a new timing belt, timing belt pulleys, and headers.

Project cost: $2970.00

Nice Rear End

Removed the gas tank, rear axle, brakes and suspension this weekend. Front axle, brakes and suspension are half-way removed.

Also, Constantine's should be finished with the engine tomorrow.



Project cost: $1620.00

Nice Body

Got the body off the chassis on Sunday. Took some muscle, cutting, grinding, swearing and hammer induced persuasion but the body finally came off. Thanks a $1000000 Lloyd and Sushil (my brother) they devoted 5 hours of their time to the cause.

Certainly a nice milestone.






Project cost: $1620.00 (lumber to make a bench for the body)

Engine Prognosis

The report is in. Looks like about $1500+tax to bring the engine back to factory standards.

More then I expected and it would probably have been over budget if I had the foresight to make one. But I'm going go for it! Of course.

It turns out the cylinders were fine. So the usual cleaning and honing needs to be done, the deck and the base of at least one of the heads needed to be planed and the crankshaft needs some machining.

Project cost: $1585 (will double next week when I pick the engine up)