(LONG POST INCOMING
Had this truck for a little bit, but now we are finally getting into the rebuild of ol' Leroy.
I purchased Leroy in the fall of 2018 from Salida, CO. Found it on craigslist for a fair price and decided to take a better look at it because ya know, Colorado desert means no rust. Had to buy it sight unseen, since I wasn't about to fly all the way out for a potentially meh car. Given the low purchase price and no rust, I jumped on it. Title was mailed to me, and the truck was loaded onto a car carrier for the trip east. A couple of weeks later I picked up the car in the Walmart parking lot. Literally not even drivable. It was dark out, didn't know what the shift pattern was, and it would stall going 45 down the highway and buck like a bull ride at the Texas Fair. Somehow made it home and the fun started.
The truck sat for a while. I was excited to jump right into it, but I was busy and didn't feel like working on a car. It sat for about 3 months, then I took it to a shop to get the rear main seal and all the fluids changed (coolant, trans fluid, diff fluid, oil, etc.) At the time, I didn't know how to do anything except change the oil and spark plugs. Now, I could probably fix anything on that car easily. It's been quite an experience. Here a picture of when I first bought it and what the engine bay looked like. I'll try to upload a pic with each step.
The engine was fully original, fully smogged with 258k on the clock. I was planning to do a rebuild anyway so the mileage didn't matter as much as the rust on this car. Honestly, it was just a vacuum leaking mess. Smog lines were old, smog pump was nearly seized, EGR stuck open, you know the deal. Just neglected. I think that it sat for a while before I bought it, and it was cleaned and sold to me.
After it came back from the shop, it sat for a while again. I thought that the shop did okay work. Had them change the fluids, smog pump, etc. Without telling me, they also changed the carb to a Weber 38 (yay!) and then they sold my OEM carb (no!) so now I was stuck with the Weber. That thing was a mess. Whistled like a demon and it didn't seal up to the OE air cleaner properly so I ended up taking care of that later. Here's a pic of trailering it back from the shop because I didn't trust driving any more than 10 miles in this thing.
A few months later, in about November of 2019, I began to really tear into this thing. Bought a Haynes manual (Not very helpful) and started crawling around on MUD. That's where most of the help has come from. I started my desmog process by removing the air rail. Not too hard since it wasn't rusted too bad. Plugged the holes with bolts and called it a day. Took off the stock air cleaner and bought a lil Weber filter. Stuck a little filter on the end of the smog pump and called it a day. Not too bad.
And of course, I got my signature vanity plate
Had this truck for a little bit, but now we are finally getting into the rebuild of ol' Leroy.
I purchased Leroy in the fall of 2018 from Salida, CO. Found it on craigslist for a fair price and decided to take a better look at it because ya know, Colorado desert means no rust. Had to buy it sight unseen, since I wasn't about to fly all the way out for a potentially meh car. Given the low purchase price and no rust, I jumped on it. Title was mailed to me, and the truck was loaded onto a car carrier for the trip east. A couple of weeks later I picked up the car in the Walmart parking lot. Literally not even drivable. It was dark out, didn't know what the shift pattern was, and it would stall going 45 down the highway and buck like a bull ride at the Texas Fair. Somehow made it home and the fun started.
The truck sat for a while. I was excited to jump right into it, but I was busy and didn't feel like working on a car. It sat for about 3 months, then I took it to a shop to get the rear main seal and all the fluids changed (coolant, trans fluid, diff fluid, oil, etc.) At the time, I didn't know how to do anything except change the oil and spark plugs. Now, I could probably fix anything on that car easily. It's been quite an experience. Here a picture of when I first bought it and what the engine bay looked like. I'll try to upload a pic with each step.
The engine was fully original, fully smogged with 258k on the clock. I was planning to do a rebuild anyway so the mileage didn't matter as much as the rust on this car. Honestly, it was just a vacuum leaking mess. Smog lines were old, smog pump was nearly seized, EGR stuck open, you know the deal. Just neglected. I think that it sat for a while before I bought it, and it was cleaned and sold to me.
After it came back from the shop, it sat for a while again. I thought that the shop did okay work. Had them change the fluids, smog pump, etc. Without telling me, they also changed the carb to a Weber 38 (yay!) and then they sold my OEM carb (no!) so now I was stuck with the Weber. That thing was a mess. Whistled like a demon and it didn't seal up to the OE air cleaner properly so I ended up taking care of that later. Here's a pic of trailering it back from the shop because I didn't trust driving any more than 10 miles in this thing.
A few months later, in about November of 2019, I began to really tear into this thing. Bought a Haynes manual (Not very helpful) and started crawling around on MUD. That's where most of the help has come from. I started my desmog process by removing the air rail. Not too hard since it wasn't rusted too bad. Plugged the holes with bolts and called it a day. Took off the stock air cleaner and bought a lil Weber filter. Stuck a little filter on the end of the smog pump and called it a day. Not too bad.
And of course, I got my signature vanity plate
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