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Hi guys, recently I found a 79 in pretty decent shape. This is my first restoration and I've started tearing it apart and I'd love to post about it here!
This is how it was right after purchasing...
So the first thing I did was take out the awful seats it had, and weld in some old MR2 seats I had lying around..
I'm still learning to weld... Definitely not the best welds but they'll do for now!
The floors were disgusting! I hit it with a wire brush and simple green and they cleaned up decently. At some point someone welded in floor pan patches and then they started to rot..so that's on the list!
Not bad!!
Next, I rigged up a little bracket for a new radio and wired that in. Also did Amber LEDs for the dash! And an LED for the dome light.
On a side note, here's the engine bay as it sits. It looks like they added a Weber carb.
I put in new headlights, side marker clears and LEDs, and painted the grille.
I certainly want to get new tires and maybe new rims too.
I picked up a sweet compressor for a little over a hundred bucks.. it should have plenty of juice for sandblasting!
Going to have a ton of parts in today, going to have another update soon!
Last edited by BootySlam69; 11-08-2019 at 07:30 AM.
Had a 4-day weekend so I've been super busy working on the truck and the shop...
First, I fixed the nasty old shift bushing.
WOW what a difference! It feels great, but I have yet to drive it because I'm working on the front suspension and shocks and all that.
Here's a comparison of the two bushings, old and new: I also added some fogs! I'll have that wired up to a new switch soon, but first I've gotta do a little bit of fabrication.
Also painted the wheel wells, and hit the frame and suspension bits (carefully) with POR15. Road salts are a big killer up here...
My oscillating tool with chisel bit, and a 12 dollar harbor freight heat gun did wonders. It's not perfect but certainly good enough.
A little preview of a project soon to come! I've had this big steel swing set here for a while and I cut it up before snow hit yesterday. I'm planning to fabricate a bar to mount some Hella driving lights to.
On a side note, my buddy and I got that air compressor to run on starting fluid. I put a new carb on it today and I can't wait to get it all ready for sandblasting stuff! Certainly will be useful for restoring parts on the truck. A preview of what's to come... Just waiting on some tie rod sleeves to come in tomorrow and I should have a good update by the end of the week! You can see that $120 Speedaire 5f564 compressor I mentioned before that lives on the truck for now.
All of this started out as just replacing the front shocks..but it turned into much more than that.
I cleaned up the rust and grime from both front wheel wells with a wire brush, then I hit most of it with POR15 and painted. I replaced the ball joints, rotors, pads, and tie rods too. I painted my calipers and I plastidipped my wheels because I'm not a huge fan of the chrome.
On top of all of that, I wired in the new fog lights and some switches for stuff I have in the works for later.
Also, I added fender mirrors 😎
A media site contacted me and they want me to do an interview about my truck so they can feature it on their site!!
I should have some nice pictures of the whole truck this week.
At some point I think I'm going to have to tear the carb apart. I have a rebuild kit for it already so I guess it wouldn't hurt. It diesels like nobody's business when you shut it off so I think I need a fuel pressure regulator too.
Last edited by BootySlam69; 11-17-2019 at 07:45 PM.
I have been crazy busy but I have found some time for the truck!
The other night, I made a new shift boot:
Last night, I put in a new clutch master cylinder (old one was leaking) and I bled both the brakes and the clutch.
For some reason, the front markers don't work (the ones next to the headlights). I took a quick look last night and everything was connected..Im probably going to try to troubleshoot that tonight.
Some progress! Prepping the floor pans for patches and paint. That old patch was put in at some point, and the welds were all boogered up so it started to rot again.
Last edited by BootySlam69; 12-18-2019 at 04:49 AM.
Made a bunch of progress this weekend!
I got my new tires and rims in so I mounted and balanced them myself myself.
I also finished priming the back half of the cab. Going to leave the front bare for now because I'll be cutting out the old rotted patches and welding in new. Then, I'll treat the front half with POR15.
Please pardon the mess in the pictures
A comparison of old to new
I also sandblasted and painted my manifold. New exhaust bits are going in this week!
Continued with the floor pans...for my first real welding project I don't think I did too bad. Skipped some of the grinding due to space constraints and to be honest I was exhausted by the end of this side. I picked up a new metal bandsaw and some air cutoff tools and grinders to help me get in to tough spots. I learned quite a bit from this side so I'm looking forward to doing a better job on the driver side!
Pretty clean truck for snow country! Nice work, keep at it. And nice Speedaire, is that one of the Champion pumps or Campbell Hausfeld? Might need to adjust those center light down so you don't blind oncoming traffic.
11-08-2019, 07:28 AM
