Rolled 80 Resurrection

[AaronM33]

My homemade valve spring compressor.

Wrinkle black paint on the valve cover looked so sweet before it got muddy.

 

[AaronM33]

There's a lot to catch up on still...

The truck came with some ugly moldings covering some uglier rust on the fenders. I de-flared the truck and fixed these rust spots, then I sanded her down and taped off for the Monstaliner. A friend gave me an used 2 gallon kit so there wasn't much color choice. Black it was, and it looked really good before it got dirty. The color change was no fun, and I swore I'd never do that again...

butt ugly moldings

 

[AaronM33]

Halfway through rolling I realized I was taking too long as it really started to cure on my roller fast. Some spots have a lot of texture now, but overall I think it turned out pretty good. I thinned it down and used a Schutz gun to spray a second coat and that made the difference.

My driveway spraybooth. Had to ask the neighbor to move his Tundra to avoid overspray.

Halfway through the first coat and it's drying FAST!

After breaking out the Schutz gun. I really thinned it out and had a nice fine spray pattern.

The finished product!

 

[AaronM33]

I'm starting to feel bad about all these images 'Mud is gonna be hosting. Guess I need to pony up for a paid account.

Anyway, after lining the truck black the first trip my wife and I went on was to Cape Henlopen State Park in Deleware. We had a great time, and turns out we weren't alone, either. When we got back from that trip we discovered that she was 6 weeks pregnant with our first child! This is my only picture of the trip, when the truck became part of our family history.

Here's one of the last pictures I have of it before rolling it in Vermont. Note the newly acquired CHSP decal.

And finally here she is after her second resurrection. I haven't had time, or resources (welder, more time) to finish the homemade front bumper yet but I kinda like the work in progress look.

 

[AaronM33]

So I ignored the poll and let my wife choose the color. She liked Freedom Fried so we went with that. This of course meant ANOTHER color change. I learned a few taping lessons and prepared myself better for the second round of Monstaliner. Also note in the first picture I got some new tires on the back now too, dammit. Now that I'm in my thirties I'm finally starting to learn some lessons.

Customer support supplied a custom tinted gallon of primer which I sprayed first using a Harbor freight HVLP gun.

Then we moved the truck outside and got to work with the Schutz gun again.

 

[AaronM33]

My brother-in-law helped me this time and it came out so much better than the first time I did it by myself.

My B-i-L acting a fool after we pulled tape and got it back inside.

Tailgate and lift gate back on. Working on the little details like fabbing this knockoff CB antenna mount. Wish I had kept the stock tail lights. For the record this was August 2015.

 

[AaronM33]

And finally here's the finished product after the Freedom Fried Monstaliner job, waiting outside of Old Gold in Fontana, PA to have 2.5" exhaust bent up. Somewhere in there I missed a Magnaflow cat and ditching the stock double stack cats. Old Gold did a great job, even gave me a stock take-off muffler from their pile and all said and done it was less than one Benjamin. The owner of the shop, Todd, is the landlord of the garage pictured above and he's super nice guy, always very helpful if we need to use the press or anything like that.

And here she is outside our new home in Philadelphia, PA.

Since my wife and I love the beach, our first family trip in the cruiser was to a beach, and we plan to fill the truck with kids this moniker came to mind... This Toyota truly is more than a car...

 

[AaronM33]

Before I moved my garage stuff down to Philly I did one last project at the shop in Fontana. Built a custom roof rack out of 1" EMT conduit. It has Yakima feet and a custom-made smoked Lexan fairing. These pictures show it bare but it's now Plasti-Dipped black.

I also installed these Amazon LED lights. They're really more flood lights than fog, so I might end up moving them if I can get ahold of some amber Hella 550s. I had those on an old XJ and they were awesome, especially in nasty weather.

I snagged a Slee washer bracket and 2nd battery box off the Keystone Cruisers Local for sale/ wanted thread and installed that awhile. No battery for it yet, but it makes a nice storage bin.

Also got a backup camera and 3.5" LCD from Amazon. Works really well for less than $30. You can also see my 3rd Gen 4Runner shifter, one of my favorite mods. After the truck was rolled I also did the Raventhai coolant gauge mod and that might be my second favorite.

 

[AaronM33]

By now we're well into fall of 2015. Had a blast on a freezing cold weekend in DE again, this time we brought the pup.

Here's the rack, 'Dipped and with some TEQ flair on the fairing. It was a marathon job to finish but I'm so glad I did. I can stand up there and it doesn't flex at all. Wind noise is greatly reduced by the fairing, too. It really howled before I got that done.

Baby-mama LOVES Christmas so this was my gift to her.

Now we're just working on odds and ends, I have a front axle job to do and lots of little things I can live without like a working antenna or oil pressure gauge. I started an OBA setup before she was born and hopefully soon I will be able to finish it. Planning on getting a beach permit to do some fishing and relaxing this summer...

 

[AaronM33]

Things were going well, I bought new Terrain Tamer birfs and axle parts from Beno and was planning on doing the front axle job over my spring break. Well the beachbus had different plans. My wife said it was running rough "like an antique car at Hersheypark". Cyl 6 was a dead hole, so I checked compression: 30 psi on 3 puffs.

Looks like my cheap head gasket cooked between cylinders 5 and 6, the fire rings are both totally gone and it blew a good 1/4 gap in the gasket there.

Here is the gasket and .020 shim that UCF had laser cut for me. I decided not to reuse the shim.

Here's just the gasket, totally gone between 5 & 6. I wonder if that's just poor quality, or has something to do with clamping force or the shim being there.

On deck I have a Mr. T gasket and Supra head studs from ARP.

On another note, PO let the coolant get funky, and the water jackets are kinda rusted still. Anyone have a cheap way of dealing with this?

Tomorrow I'm gonna clean this stuff up and check straightness, then begin reassembly. I'm not touching the valve guide seals since it hardly burned a drop of oil. And I'll be reusing some easy stuff like the TB gasket and the plugs. They're super easy to do later if I need to. I still have summer classes to pay off and I just spend some coin on this neat license plate.

 

[AaronM33]

After much procrastination due to beautiful weather I have finally begun reassembly. Surfacw prep went like this: Sea foam spray> eat lunch while it soaks in> razor blade scrape> copious paper towels and more razor blades> brake clean soaked rags> chase the threads with my tap from MSC> super fine sandpaper> final solvent wipe. The surfaces look great so I put down my grey RTV and HG and finally the head.

Since I used the Supra head stud kit & the studs were a touch too short to thread down to the shoulder in the block. I had to install them all the way and then back them out 2.5 threads as I've read elsewhere on this forum. Installing the nuts caused some of them to thread back into the block all the way so I held the nuts with a box wrench and backed the studs out with an Allen wrench until flush with the top of the nut. I have no extra stud length protruding from the top of the nuts, but that's OK. I just didn't want to trim them so I decided no Opel kit for me. Others have done the same with success.

Torquing them down was no fun (nerve wracking) but easy and there were no hiccups. 30, 60, 80 ft lbs in the FSM pattern, ignore the TTY angular stuff. All my studs are protruding by half a thread or so from the top of the nuts and I'm a happy camper.

A little assembly lube and the cams go in, detailed and methodical work but also pretty easy. If you've never done this just follow the FSM and be even handed as you tighten down the first 2 bearing caps. The cams go down straight and you've done your job. I don't remember having to do this the first time around, but once installed I had to rotate my cams almost 180 to line the chain up. Again just follow the FSM it's not a big deal. Got my tensioner installed. A best practice when doing timing chain/ belt work is to slowly rotate the crank 2 full revs by hand with the plugs out and make sure your cam timing marks still line up perfectly. This is more important with belts but I always do it anyway. Don't forget to cut your zip ties off the chain/sprocket first.

Installed the semi circular plug, tapped it down flush (gently!) with a hammer and called it a day. Tomorrow I'll wrap up all the peripheral stuff and hopefully get the beast running again after a month off. I have another day off on Friday so I might try to tackle my front Birf job then and get these big jobs out of the way while I still have a garage. Lease is up in April and I'm not signing again. I'd rather spend that money on tools and wrench in the driveway on sunny days.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Dude. I'm digging that front bumper. I hate the super elaborate facemasks that everyone (including my recently acquired ARB) has up front. I'm going to copy you!!

 

[AaronM33]

Dude. I'm digging that front bumper. I hate the super elaborate facemasks that everyone (including my recently acquired ARB) has up front. I'm going to copy you!!

ARB is worth way more, but I'd gladly trade you. Mine feels unfinished and I fear the deer.

and thanks

 

[AaronM33]

Daddy's little helper.

 

[AaronM33]

Well, I decided to sell my 80 and move on to something else. I'm too busy to keep tinkering with things and I need something with a little better fuel economy. Going to look for a cheap 5 speed RAV4. My buddy Cortes decided he loved the yellow color and the bumper less rear end so it's his truck now. Maybe someday I'll own it again. Here it is with the proud new owner.

 

[jvazquez53]

It took me a lot of $$$ to bring mine to life. Worst; bent frame, bent front axle.