GT (Grandpa's Truck) Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[mike1305]

D21FJ60 referred me here... hello! While I don't hate mud personally, I leave the dirty work to my other trucks. This one does, in fact, H8 Mud.

1982 2WD SR5 short bed. Has factory A/C (still works great... unreal) and the high altitude compensation kit.

Winter 2018 before driving it home to Colorado... looks pretty much the same today.

And home:

It was my grandfather's truck since 1984 until he passed away, at which point I inherited it. Always loved it since I was a kid. Excited to give it to my grandkid someday.

It's salvage title, some extensive body work was done in the late 90's / early 00's when my grandfather got in a hit and run. Apparently he decided to sit in and document the process, lol. Only him.

After a few years of leaving it "as is" I decided that it's my truck now, and I'm going to mess around with it my way. A lot of inspiration came from finding this bad boy on the internet some time back, always saying "I want to do that someday, but not on this truck...".

Well I've decided to stop being so precious and do what I want with it. But instead of pre-runner baja style, more of a street rod style. Especially after discovering LC Engineering... time to blow that bonus money! Here's a s***ty photoshop.

Not sold on the paint yet, but the first things I'm buying later this week are the new wheels/tires, and some go fast bits. It's a CA truck, so it has all the smog crap on it... not sure how crazy I'll get. Probably will leave on the HAC for sure, and Air Injection / EGR, haven't really decided yet. Seems like with the LCE block off plates, everything could be re-installed if I ever move back to a city that requires emissions tests.

Fronts will be 225/60R15, rears 255/50R15, on 15x8s. white lettering was a must, so Radial T/As for a cool hot rod look. lowering it an inch or two in the front for a cool stance depending on what the tires end up doing naturally.

Go fast bits will be LCE street headers, new muffler, not sure about a CAT yet, and a Weber 32/36. Don't know how to tune a carb, but this isn't my commuter car, so I'll have plenty of time to figure it out!

Anyway, I'll post again once I get to work. So far I've just got some new marker lights, tail lights, and other bits in the mail. Expensive stuff soon. Will probably repaint some of the black trim this week too, like I did on my Pathfinder.

Cheers and sorry for the lengthy first post!

 

[msahr]

That's gonna be great. Following!

 

[ntsqd]

Welcome! I'll let others give you the official 'Mud salute!

Suggest leaving the Cat on unless you want it loud are going to go with minimal muffling. I have a truck with no muffler, just it's two cats, and a turn-out ahead of the RR tire. When I bought it I thot for sure that I was going to need to put a muffler on it. Not true! The cats do a good job of muffling it while letting it roar when I have my foot in it. Not to mention that a modern cat, unlike the early cats, is almost zero flow restriction. Before KA got stupider I used to order them from Summit.

 

[mike1305]

After some photoshop waffling I decided to swap out my tired, OEM grill (right, albeit with all the blemishes edited out) with the 4WD grill. I am just hoping it's a direct swap. Will allow me to undo some superglue McGyvering my grandfather did to the clips that broke over the years, assuming the part I bought comes with the clips... haha.

Also trying to remove the rear bumper, since I won't be towing anything with this ever... the wiring my grandfather did was a bit excessive, but guess it had to be that way for whatever trailer he used to tow his little boat up to Tahoe and back.

The 19's bolting it to the frame are STUCK, so I bought some penetrating fluid, breaker bar, and a new socket set to replace my hodgepodge of crap tools I have laying around, as well as a nice torque wrench since I'll probably want that when installing the headers and other hardware to spec.

I'll post again once I get the rear bumper off, new grill installed, and all the new lights on. Cheers!

 

[mike1305]

Welcome! I'll let others give you the official 'Mud salute!

Suggest leaving the Cat on unless you want it loud are going to go with minimal muffling. I have a truck with no muffler, just it's two cats, and a turn-out ahead of the RR tire. When I bought it I thot for sure that I was going to need to put a muffler on it. Not true! The cats do a good job of muffling it while letting it roar when I have my foot in it. Not to mention that a modern cat, unlike the early cats, is almost zero flow restriction. Before KA got stupider I used to order them from Summit.

Yeah I was debating how far I want to go with the desmog. Figured I'd leave on the cat (why not, and noise), as well as the air injection since that doesn't really rob power. On the fence about EGR delete. I'm sure there's 10 other systems in play too. The YotaTech tutorial is for "full wholesale" removal (link), and the only nice video I found explaining some of the components was for a later 22RE motor (source here, fantastic stuff)

 

[D21FJ60]

Glad you made it over here. This site is what I always aimed to make NPORA while I was on there, so long ago. But glad I have Toyotas now. Truck looks nice!

 

[joseywales]

Nice truck! One suggestion I have is if you’re not sure on paint,maybe do a wrap? That way you could return it to stock, and it looks like the paint is mint!

 

[ntsqd]

When EGR works as intended you'll never notice it, except possibly as a slight increase in fuel economy. The problem with it seems to be that with a carb the logic that controls it is all vacuum. Not the best way to go, at all. With EFI the EGR control becomes part of the whole rather than being a separate system trying desperately to synchronize with everything else, and the wear and tear on the parts that comes with age doesn't help.

 

[mike1305]

Nice truck! One suggestion I have is if you’re not sure on paint,maybe do a wrap? That way you could return it to stock, and it looks like the paint is mint!

It was repainted in the last 10-15 years after my grandfather got t-boned, so it's not original anyway. it was also poorly done - it's holding well, but you can tell it was done on the cheap. The black paint on the bed is bubbling up, and there's white overspray in the bed too lol. I'll probably just add some cool stripes like in that photoshop, but it'll be last after engine, wheels/tires, then paint - as you mentioned, it looks great still!

 

[mike1305]

When EGR works as intended you'll never notice it, except possibly as a slight increase in fuel economy. The problem with it seems to be that with a carb the logic that controls it is all vacuum. Not the best way to go, at all. With EFI the EGR control becomes part of the whole rather than being a separate system trying desperately to synchronize with everything else, and the wear and tear on the parts that comes with age doesn't help.

Looks like I need to delete it in order for the new Weber 32/36 carb to be happy, so it's going bye bye.

 

[mike1305]

Say what you will, but the 4WD grill just looks better.

 

[mike1305]

Christmas in July

 

[gnob]

Shoulda went FI.

 

[mike1305]

Shoulda went FI.

Yeah I have no idea what I'm doing. Gonna try the best I can before calling @Manitou Decline for help

 

[mike1305]

Got the exhaust manifold out on Saturday.

 

[mike1305]

Was originally going to do it in phases, installing just the header, then add the new muffler, then the carb.... but said **** it and just started ripping vacuum lines out.

Obviously a ways to go. I started getting bored and started messing with the new plugs and wires. For some reason the old plugs and the new ones I got through LCE have different socket sizes, so it took three trips to the parts store just to get those swapped. The wires are blue, which matches the baby blue interior, so I think I'll repaint the valve cover blue as well and go with that color scheme

 

[mike1305]

Evening updates. Got the first three spark plugs in. Gonna wait til I rip out the rest of the air injection hard lines before going after the 4th because life is hard enough already

Also, why the hell is the drain plug directly over a giant piece of the frame? I should have Googled some pro tips before dumping coolant ****ing everywhere, but I didn't, so enjoy.

Also I took some random piece of smog crap off the intake.... this doesn't look factory spec, LMAO. I think old GT was about to have a heart attack with this clogged artery. I bet my emissions system wasn't doing s*** at this point. I'm going full desmog now. Spark plug #1 looked disgusting as well. Perhaps an engine out is in order.... next summer

Haynes manual: "just go ahead and remove the EGR real fast." Thanks, dipshits. This took a half an hour and every socket extension/bendy thing I had to get the **** out.

Me reaching wits end with the hard lines

Finally, some seemingly unrelated nut holding the carb in place magically freed them all up at once. Propped the camera between my knees for the double finger.

Still haven't got the intake manifold off yet. the bolts on the bottom part seem.... challenging... and my back was starting to hurt. Better luck tomorrow. Also, I accidentally removed the full plump (please click that link..... lmao) having no idea what it was.... I thought they were on the top of the gas tank? Oh well, no more smoking cigarettes in the garage for a while... whew!! Guess I can reattach that later when I figure out where the **** everything goes for reassembly.

Did I mention I have no idea what I am doing? Never even changed spark plugs before this....

 

[firefighterjed]

dude, mike! What happens next???

 

[mike1305]

Holy crap! Apparently I forgot how to use the internet. There are updates, finally, after 9 months of winter/laziness. Got a friend to come help me put humpty dumpty back together again, rolled it over to the exhaust shop, took it to my mechanic to ensure I hadn't created a fire hazard (and fix the temp sensors I butchered and lost). Going into the shop Thursday for a new steering rack since I have no idea how that works. I also moved into a new home, so I have more room for activities! It's been helping a ton with the move, shlepping things to and fro, moved a dresser today. Only mishap so far was that I never really connected the throttle linkage back to the carb, so it rattled itself out in traffic. Driving along and realizing the engine is WOT and the pedal is on the floor... that was exciting. Nothing a ziptie couldn't fix. Here are some photos FWIW.

Not sure if @Manitou Decline still has my old Toyota grill badge, unsure if it would fit in the 4WD grill anyway.

Next up is cleaning the engine bay, the steering rack as mentioned (sloppier than me in college), fixing up the bedliner, rust prevention on the frame, wheels/tires/paint...

 

[Manitou Decline]

I gotta see where Zac put it.