First off I would like to say welcome. I have been kind of bumping around on here from thread to thread trying to pick and put my T4R back together. Things are finally starting to move in a good direction with the truck so I figured now would be a good time to start a dedicated thread to my Zombie Response Vehicle, ZRV for short. I will get into the "Why that" in a moment.
Skip to the next row of stars if you don't want to read the history. ***********
A not so quick history refresher for those who did not see my first post on this forum. I bought this truck back in March to replace the perfectly good van my wife decided to sell. I fly R/C aircraft and I need to be able to haul stuff out to the field. With no van, nothing was going to fit into my then 2002 Miata. Being that it still was dark early I could only see the truck at night. The guy told me it leaked a little bit of oil, needed a front end alignment and new tires. No big deal, I can handle that. He said the heat and A/C worked fine which was the selling factor for me. I have a kiddo and I need her to be comfy. While test driving it the idle seemed high which I am thinking like a carburetor, no big deal, I can just tune it down. So I cough up $2200 for the truck and drove it home. Here is how it looked the night I brought it home.
During the drive I noticed that the heat was not getting hot. I called the guy and he said that it is because he took out the thermostat. OK. No problem, I will throw one in. Once I did, the truck started boiling over. Now frustrated and afraid I have a blown head gasket I take it to a local shop to test the compression to see if it is a blown head gasket and to go ahead and fix the idle and check the heater. After a weeks time they said the head gaskets are good but did not do a compression check, they replace the heater control valve but did not fix the heater, and said the throttle body was not the correct one for this truck, therefore they could not get the idle down.
I pay my bill and drive the truck home only to find they drained half a tank out of the truck and my brake lights no longer work.
The next day I get a brake light switch and tried to fix it but they would not come on. Now I have to chase a short. A neighbor of mine had a tester and knew what to look for so we gutted the interior chasing a shot only to find out it was at the fuse block due to a loose fuse connection. Yay!! So now irritated beyond belief I just park the damn thing. About a week later I am hit by a truck in my little miata and my car is destroyed. The driver never stopped and I walked away with some bruised ribs and a total loss on the car that I had liability only on. So now I have to choke down the cost of a new car, my first one I might add, but I also have to fix this truck. At this point I figure that I might as well do it right and have fun with it.
Shots of the wreck and her replacement. ;)
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So my original thought was to do just a primer gray instead of the white and I was going to go with a set of 32x11.5"Goodyear MT/R Kevlars. The tires that are on it in the previous pix were 32x11.5" After staring at the truck for a couple weeks I decided it was time to get back at it. Since the dash was torn apart I went ahead and pulled out the heat and AC units and cleaned everything. I mean everything. I put in a new heater core as it had sludge and rust pouring out of it. I left the AC condenser, It looked good and money was tight...since I just bought new rear springs and ranchero shocks all the way around. The previous pix also show her saggin ass and that just was not going to fly with me. I spent a couple weeks collecting parts as I could and I also began to paint the interior gray plastic black. Just a spur of the moment decision that I think I like very much now that it is done.
I will have to get some interior shots later but I still have more to do to it. I had done enough of the interior to get the dash in and functioning on the drivers side so I was able to keep an eye on the temperature gauge and move the truck around. I destroyed my MAF trying to clean it and put a new on on and I also replace my dashpot on the throttle body which was a $75 do nothing part it seems. However when I start the truck it runs well and while the idle is not where I want it, it is way better than it was. I feel that after I re route my vacuum lines and put back some necessary sensors like the EGR valve temp sensor and what not I will get a much better result. Alas, that is for another pay check. On with the other bits.
Now running, I took a 4 day weekend and tackled the suspension. I replace the shocks and the rear springs. I also replaced the steering dampener and the inner and outer tie-rod ends on the drivers side....Actually Sears did that when they put on the 33x12.5" Goodyear Wrangler MTs. I know that tire is different than before mentioned and the reason why is I ordered and payed for the MT/R Kevlars but they neglected to tell me that they were out of stock until July. SO they shipped the closet thing they had in the warehouse and hoped I would take it. They were right, I did...after they refunded me the difference and did a front end alignment and replaced my tie-rod ends.
Happy accident and I got money back. After 4 days of work and about $2,000 later, here is how it sits.
You will notice that there is still a little bit of rear end sag but that has gone away now that I have driven it regularly and the shocks have charged up. Other things you will notice is that the factory running boards are history and a lot more oil leaking than I wanted. Also some of that is a leak from the rear diff input shaft seal. I fixed that too while I was at it. A whole lot of socket roulette at the local parts store. Turns out it is like 1 1/8" if memory serves me correctly.
Anyway, last weekend was memorial day weekend and I got the interior finished for now and all of it back in. Again, I will get pix when I can. Well about a month ago some friends of mine and I were watching the some repeats of the Walking Dead to get them caught up for this season. We were joking about on the possibility and what we would do if it ever happend...which it is NOT physically, scientifically nor realistically possible. But it is fun to think about the kind of badass you would be or not be. ;) Well the comment came up that we would all just pile into the 4runner and get to a friend farm for safety. I chuckle and figured it was a good idea considering the possibilities of the vehicle. It certainly wouldn't get high centered over a few bodies like the charger did in the show. LOL. Plus moving around clogged highways and roads would not be a problem either. It was at this point that I decided to call it a Zombie Response Vehicle. I also had decided against the primer gray paint and have now settled on a nice OD green.
Well this weekend I started with the paint. I figured I would start with the tailgate because it had the most crap to get off of it and hardest to get it off. After some wet sanding and smoothing out of the bad areas I taped it up and began to paint.
Untaped
Tailgate back together with all the plastic chrome bits painted a nice flat black.
I think this green and black combo is going to work out nicely over the whole truck and I have a pretty cool vinyl that I plan to put on the sides. I am not doing much body work to it but only in the areas that really need it. You can see the back end is wrinkled up. I need to chain it to a tree with a come along and do some winching to it to pull out the body panels. It is not pretty and the rear door gaps. A tree branch also fell on the roof. I have already pulled off the luggage rack and knocked the dent out of the roof but I need to fix and paint the luggage rack before I put on a new rack to carry the spare.
Other things I need to do is replace the top half of the motors seals to stop the leak of replace the motor with something better. I heard mention in another thread of a 4.3 V6. If it can be done without swapping the tranny or anything else then I am in. I need to bleed the fron brakes because it pulls to the right on braking and I think the idler arm needs to be replaced. I have slop in the steering. Probably the passenger side tie-rod ends too. I am also in need of a bumper jack, the factory one just wont cut it. I have to hook up and recharge the A/C. I also want an 8 ton come along. Not a fan of the heavy bumpers and winches so an 8 ton come along and some good old fashioned man power should suffice. I may change out the brush guard on the front, it is kinda rinky dink. I will be replacing the fabric on the doors with a rubber matting that can be hosed off. That will happen as I paint the doors. I will also be removing the carpet and replacing it with a rubber flooring after I put in some heat and sound padding. I forget the brand right off hand but I want that done so I can just hose out the blood and guts...I mean, mud and rocks that may get in. LOL! There is this great product that I use to water proof my electronics on my RC Aircraft that I fly off water. I will be using that to water proof my buttons and switches so when I get muddy, I don't ruin the electronics.
Well that is it for now. I have been wanting to start this thread for a while now and I feel like I have made enough progress to share it with you all here. My expendable funds are low for now so the most you may see out of me is an update with painted panels or interior shots. I will update this first post as I go along to keep it all on the front page. Thank you for stopping by and Any comments or critiques are welcome and encouraged.
Orion
thats what i drive as well as my 94. My neighbor just sprayed his gen 2 that same green. Looks pretty good, digging the theme interested to see whats up next!
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