Hello I was wondering the steps you guys would suggest on restoring my 1986 pickup back to new. It runs perfectly fine i just want to start to make it like new. I thought you would probably want to rebuild the engine first and then so on. any suggestions? thanks guys. it has 275,xxx miles on it btw.

 

Are you doing the work yourself? What are your skill sets, tool, space, time? How far are you wanting to tear it down to. I enjoy restoring and in my signature below I have restored some trucks. Look at kawazak636 and slackers builds for some great information and steps. Several different ways and levels to do a restore.

Read thru several threads and see how others did their restore. You may not have to restore each and every piece. Sometimes a good cleaning or minor repair will work. I think you will find it rewarding when completed.

 

May I suggest you put truck-year-model-engine-transmission on your signature? This way others readily know what we are dealing with

If it runs "perfectly fine", don't fix it, yet.
Focus on:
Things that you know are already wrong. Prioritize
Make sure all necessary maintenance and inspection had been done. During your own inspection you'll find things you'd want to fix.
Compression check if you really want to know condition of engine.

If you have a 22R-E 5-speed, we already know of the cranking system design/wiring flaw (here). You can easily/quickly fix that before the cranking issue happens. Fix is here:

Connector shown is for starter relay inside right fender near windshield wiper motor.
Fuse should be wired as close to battery as possible. Details are on my signature.

Other known issues are:
Poor wiring of headlights (see 4Crawler's site). This should be fixed before upgrading headlights. Quick Clean fix is using an H4 harness conversion.

Dim stock sealed beam headlights. You can upgrade light housing from sealed-beam to ones that use your choice of 9003/H4 replacement bulbs. However, I strongly recommend fixing the wiring issue first.

Got rear-end sag? Zuk it.

 

Quite a lot depends on just how your using restore .

It can mean many different things to people.

Do you want it in top notch mechanical condition?/

Myself I start at the ground and work up.

Then maybe your more the $5000.00 paint job type with a super clean interior ?? Myself I am more several colors from different vehicles

Show vehicle that lives in a garage and ventures out in a enclosed trailer drives from the parking lot to the show area

No matter what you do it is going to be expensive