Hey guys,
I haven't had my 'runner very long and in the short time I've driven it I have found a few things that needed to be addressed. After doing a lot of reading here, I think I know the direction I want to go with it.
The most important issues are......
- Dead Master Cylinder
- Broken E-Brake Cable
- Broken Leaf Spring
- Bad Drivers Window Regulator
So here's what it looked like when I got it.
Not too bad looking but the more I looked the more I saw that the PO just loaded it with filler, not cool.
I will be getting new front fenders soon enough and then seeing how bad the rear quarters really are. After I address the body work I'll be rolling it with Monstaliner, the kids want it Predator Green.
Here's the poor thing for now. Sitting out back waiting to be worked on.
I decided that the 35's were to big and heavy for it to lug around even with the 4.88's so I'm looking into some 33's. I swapped the 35's for some 33/10.50 BFG AT's which I put on my Bronco for winter until I can decide what I want on the 'runner. I'm thinking Duratracs, Grabber AT2's or Cooper STT's. I don't need anything too hard core for the 'runner, it'll only see mild off-roading and the Bronco will be the one I beat up.
The Chrome spokes had the typical rust thing going on so I had to take care of that!
After a good cleaning and a wipe down with thinner I hit all the bad spots with a wire cup brush on the drill. I then sanded what I could with a DA and then hand sanded the rest. A couple of coats of etching primer first. After that I masked off the lip with printer paper so I could spray the center only with spray in bed liner. I did this to texture the spokes just enough to "hide" any flaws the rust caused in the chrome. After the liner dried I resprayed with more etching primer and then 4 coats of Duplicolor Graphite followed by 6 coats of clear.
Here's the rear spring set up.
Broken leaf clamped together.
You could feel the axle wrap on this side pretty bad and this is the biggest reason I stopped driving it for now. I'm not a fan of the 3" blocks. I'll be going to the boneyard and getting some chevy leaves very soon and throwing this junk away!
That's all I've got so far but I'll post as it progresses, it just won't be moving too fast for now.