Tofer

well i finally got time to wash and take some pics of my new 81. i got it from aunt cuz it wouldnt pass smog. its been sitting in her drive way since 91 with limited useage. i ran a can of sea foam through the carb and in the crank case, but i think "cleaning" it ended up blowing out the HeadGasket.. so now i have a much bigger project. hopefully this spring break i will be able to rebuild it.


front view

side view.. i am tempted to take the top off but i am not sure. you can see the lil bit of body rust thats on the bed. my final plans are to sand it down and repaint it.

surface rust on the bumper... i will de-chrome it and paint it black. other then that there isnt much rust on it.. its been in CA for most of it life. so the frame is clean.

the lil 22R

for being 25 years old,, the inside isnt in too bad of shape

122K on the odo..

jethro

Awesome "new" truck man. I've never seen anything like it.

I thought the odo said 22,XXX miles on it. Actually I still do...

Anyway, have fun with the new project.

Edit: I'm and idiot, obviously the odo just rolled over. That one had me wondering. I guess I'm used to the new fancy technology these days.

Silver_Truck

nice find! I like the buckets and the tach and the wood grain and...wow that thing is alot nicer then our brown shop 86. What makes you think the HG blew?

Tofer

it over heads even tho i have pulled the thermostat and the oil is milky colored and water is "disappearing" from the radiator....

stevrock

That is awesome, looks like it's in good shape, expecially for an 81.

Elton

so whats the plans with it

Tofer

rebuild it, get it to pass smog. take the canopy off, repaint it. have it as a DD / back up truck. and then MOD the crap out of the runner

OR....

rebuild it, get it to pass smog, repaint it, and sell it. then buy an 80-85 4x4 and do it all over again. and De-MOD the runner to have it as the DD



*edit* oh ya add a Cherry bomb Glass pack since the stock muffler is shot

kyle_22r

i'd stay away from the cherry bomb, they tend to sound awful. i'd ditch the junk stock manifold(84 and older were garbage designs made for a forklift) and put a header and a good 2" exhaust system on.

nice little truck! once the head gasket is fixed, it'll be good to go for a half million miles

Phssthpok

two questions:

1) Does the 'junk' status apply to the dual-outlet Celica manifolds as well?

2) Would a regular 'turbo' style muffler behind a glasspack still sound terrible? I had plans for a 'collector-flanged' glass-pack backed up by a 'turbo' style turned out to exit in front of the tire.

kyle_22r

the "junk" manifolds i'm talking about are the 20R/some 22R pieces with a single outlet and one large chamber that all 4 ports feed into. i know the '85-up trucks uses a manifold with 4 primary tubes that merge into 2 pipes where they exit the manifold, and are usually combined back together further down in the exhaust system, like a full length tri-y header.

if you can stick your finger in the #1 port and see it in the #2 port, it's the cheesy one.

i know that some turbo mufflers sound really good with a proper exhaust system. actually, even a cherry bomb could sound OK with a full length system -- mine sounds really bad, since it dumps right after the muffler itself magnaflows are always recommended from what i've heard.

Phssthpok

AHHhh... Kinda like how a classic Flowmaster needs the extra piping after the the outlet to modulate the sound, or it winds up sounding like a 'fart-can' muffler. (found THAT one out the hard way on my Sebring )

Beast

water is going in to the cylinders

pull it apart or you are going to have rust problems if you let it sit to long

good luck

Tofer

ya... i am in the process of replacing the Head Gasket and timing chain now. with limitd tools, limited knowledge, limited work space (the paking lot you see behind it in the pics) limited time,...... its a slow goin process but i am makeing progress.

kyle_22r

shouldn't have to worry about the timing chain -- being that it's an '81, it's got a dual row chain with steel guides.

Tofer

the timing chain was $13 at autozone.. since i have it that torn apart might as well..

Scofco

Next stop: BLINGSVILLE!

Tofer

thats sweet... whats sad is i thought that was a bad PS job then relized it wasnt... i was going to give you some major PS props.

kyle_22r

LOL, there's some younger guys(still probably older than me) up the street in a rental house, it looks like their hobby is chopping and dropping old toys like that and chevy luv trucks.

i don't know, i just don't think those trucks look very good lowered...maybe an '89-95 would be better for that.

Tofer

OK I will turn this into my “build up” thread. Over the last 2 Saturdays I have taken the radiator out, fan stuff, valve cover, and carb. I am working slowly, with a lot of stopping to look and memorize how I did it. The way I look at it, I am not in a rush to get it done, so I can take my time and do it right. I have been working a couple hours on it the last couple Saturdays but with spring break coming up an couple weeks, progress should be made quickly. There isn’t much to take pictures of, but once I get the engine rebuilt, the plan to strip off the ugly pin stripes, pull off the canopy. (Although its been nice to have a place to store the “extra” parts during the rebuild, since I don’t have a garage.) I also want to Line-x the bed. Pics will follow as the build up of “Blue Thunder” progresses.

Tofer

ok we;; its been oh 4 months now... finally got the HG replcaed, and running again. (the 81 took a back seat to finals, work, my sas, ect...) but she runs lil rough but i need to tweek the timing a little bit mroe. well my mom said she would take it for a while and use it to take stuff to the dump ect. but heres what it looks like now





who says 2wds cant flex.