Alabama 1994 Revival - Bless it's Heart (1 Viewer)

[booradley]

Another resto-mod. Starting this thread to document (for me mostly) everything I am doing. And since I have less than one banana skills, I will certainly hit dead-ends and have questions; help always appreciated. Maybe this will help when I sell it one day (lol). I have had five land cruisers, all bought on impulse without much thought, investigation, or research. This is my first 80. I have been wanting one for a while, found this truck here on Mud, and off I went to Michigan.

Loaded up 04/22/2023:

Got to see Hinkle Field House (from the movie "Hoosiers") on the way home:

Pros:
- 1994 K294 triple-locked
- Carfax checks out (220K, four previous owners, Texas until 2010, Michigan since 2010)
- tolerable rust level (looks like it was kept washed underneath. Surface rust but nothing that can't be easily mitigated)
- does not appear to be wheeled much (still had brush guard and running boards, no discernable carnage underneath)
- body is straight as an arrow but for one panel
- Price ($2500)

Cons:
- seized (you'll see why below)
- lockers are not working (missing front harness)
- AC is out, which might have been OK in Michigan, but not OK in Alabama
- paint is shot
- seats are shot
- it's drivable with the current suspension and tires, but these must be addressed soon

I am excited about this thing! Going to get it running and DD it for a while and keep the miles off the others.

Home in driveway after first mod (brush guard delete):

 

[booradley]

One week later (04/28/2023). Mud member @fourtrax had a spare 1FZ-FE, so I took off to NC to pick it up. He already had it palleted up for me! Enjoyed shooting the breeze with him in his shop for a while then hit the road.

This is what it looked like when we set it down:

Story on this motor (@fourtrax please correct me if I get it wrong) is that this was in a LC until it got about 120K on it, then the cruiser was rolled, and it then spent about 10K in a buggy of some kind), so it has about 130K on it.

 

[booradley]

This was the one body panel that was going to be unworkable:

05/26/2023 - After a trip to the junkyard in northwest AL:

Truck is having an identity crisis now.

 

[booradley]

Flash forward to mid-June 2023. Truck is at OTM Cruisers, who just opened up their third (big, bigger, just right) shop in two years. They are setting things on fire around here with the new shop just east of B'ham in Leeds, AL.

Found out why the motor was seized:

Yeah that's not good.


Like looking into the chest cavity of a dead person:

 

[booradley]

In the meantime, I removed some window tint that had gone bad on the driver and front passenger window. If you are ever removing window tint I can confirm that the "ammonia, trash bag, hot day" method works awesomely. I have done the steam, heat gun, scraping methods before, but I was amazed at how good the ammonia and trash bag worked. Google it if you need to take tint off.

Also deleted running boards:

 

[booradley]

OTM got the new 1FZ-FE in and running about three weeks ago. New seals, gaskets, belts, hoses, starter motor, battery, long list. No leaks so far.

I had a big reveal video to brag on how good it is running and sounding but I don't have a Youtube account. But got it registered last week and it's moving under power now!

New hood struts (Amazon).

Fan shroud 16711-66031. Two bolts 90119-08539.

 

[booradley]

Baby steps from last weekend:
Before:

After (Nevr-Dull):

Wheel was down to the metal in some places. After some rehab and Wheelskins:

 

[booradley]

All of a sudden my driver's knuckle started spewing. I am attacking the front axle this weekend and emptying diff oil, doing both knuckles, changing rotors, and refilling diffs. This is a big deal for me because again I am one banana. This is a new to me truck so needed to be done and don't know what I will find.

Rookie question: how can I check and know that the diff breathers are not clogged? They are not extended (that will be later). Can I simply take the hose off and blow some air through there while the drain plugs are out?

Thanks,

 

[BILT4ME]

All of a sudden my driver's knuckle started spewing. I am attacking the front axle this weekend and emptying diff oil, doing both knuckles, changing rotors, and refilling diffs. This is a big deal for me because again I am one banana. This is a new to me truck so needed to be done and don't know what I will find.

Rookie question: how can I check and know that the diff breathers are not clogged? They are not extended (that will be later). Can I simply take the hose off and blow some air through there while the drain plugs are out?

Thanks,

Remove the hose, unscrew the fitting from the axle housing, then clean out the fitting. Poke a wire into the hole in the housing to make sure it's not plugged.

Then you can blow air (with your mouth, not compressed air) into the breather hose (breather is on the frame) to see if it is clogged.

If it is clogged, get about 5ft of 1/4" fuel hose, a fuel filter, a couple hose clamps and some zip ties and bypass it up to the power brake booster.

Do NOT blow compressed air into the axle housing.

 

[booradley]

Remove the hose, unscrew the fitting from the axle housing, then clean out the fitting. Poke a wire into the hole in the housing to make sure it's not plugged.

Then you can blow air (with your mouth, not compressed air) into the breather hose (breather is on the frame) to see if it is clogged.

If it is clogged, get about 5ft of 1/4" fuel hose, a fuel filter, a couple hose clamps and some zip ties and bypass it up to the power brake booster.

Do NOT blow compressed air into the axle housing.

Thanks very much! What kind of fuel filter? Standard in-line?

 

[BILT4ME]

Thanks very much! What kind of fuel filter? Standard in-line?

Yes. Standard inline fuel filter. Place the filter up by the booster, route the hose up by the frame, (make sure you don't get it too close to hot things) and make sure there's enough length for the axle to droop and not pull off the hose. The filter purpose is to keep it from sucking debris into the housing during cool-down.

 

[booradley]

So I did this several weeks ago. It was a major undertaking for this 1/2 banana paper-pusher. Glad it is done. Don't want to do it often.

 

[booradley]

Spare under the truck was in very bad shape.

I tried my best with stripper, sandpaper, even a brass wheel, but it was beyond my ability, so I took it to a local wheel restorer:

Beauty. I can make do for now with the others as-is, but one day I may treat myself and get the others done like this.

 

[booradley]

Rear heater was capped off previously by someone, but still in the truck. No more.

 

[booradley]

Interior is out. New carpet and seats inbound.

Don't know if this will help anyone, but a couple of tips:

This nylon brush is the bomb for getting old carpet mat fuzz off both the truck floor and the carpet itself.

This stuff works miracles on headliner stains and dark spots (disclaimer: not an endorsement. I do not have an NIL deal with this company, etc.).

 

[booradley]

Baby steps to DD status:

Before:

After:

Got one of these in this weekend (I will hit the vents soon with the AC refurb):

 

[booradley]

Finally got the lift on. Basic Ironman FCP 2", heavy coils.

Skipped leg day. Working on it.

 

[booradley]

FLARES OR FLARELESS OR BOTH?

Without creating yet another thread would appreciate opinions on this.

Truck will be an extra vehicle/fun truck. Mostly Starbucks parking lots but wheeled fairly strenuously 3-4 times each year at Windrock, Hawk Pride, etc., where it can get narrow. Personally I like flares, but my fear is that I get the truck painted and immediately start ripping flares off.

Would it be too involved to try to have it both ways? Get the truck and flares painted, leave the holes, and then take the flares off before each wheeling weekend? It's about a 45 minute job to get them off taking the front headlights out?

 

[booradley]

By way of example:

Hawk Pride, day before yesterday. This 100 scratched up the front bumper, popped the rear bumper out, and snapped a front axle right here. So I'm thinking flares would be a liability on these types of trails, but otherwise nice in the Starbucks parking lot.

 

[jpoole]

I like the flares but yeah, you'll end up ripping them off if you wheel very much around here.

It would take some doing but I'd guess that you could change how the flares are mounted to make them much faster/easier to remove and install. Rare earth magnets for most of the connections and then tool free quick release connectors in a few spots to ensure they don't blow off on the highway should be doable but I've not seen anyone go through the effort to do something like this.