Builds The "Red Rocket" Troopy (12 Viewers)

[theglobb]

Literally, the second I entered the trails at windrock my starter stopped working... of course lol. Had to bang on the solenoid with a hammer every time I wanted it to start. Well up here in Appalachia, 2 minutes from where I live, the last of his kind is still alive and kicking. Jon's alternator and starter shop. He fully rebuilt, sandblasted, and painted my Mercedes alternator for $85. Only takes cash, etc.

Well I ripped my starter out took it to him, 1 day and $90 later I now have a rebuilt starter and a repaired solenoid, he said multiple wires had come loose in the solenoid box, and the starter was full of all kinds of crap. After putting this new one in it feels great, before everything was crunchy and grindy. Now it is just as smooth as butter. The last of his kind and very glad I have someone like this still local to me.

 

[sark]

Literally, the second I entered the trails at windrock my starter stopped working... of course lol. Had to bang on the solenoid with a hammer every time I wanted it to start.

I feel like this statement summarizes your life with cruisers

 

[Tigris]

Fantastic work on the exhaust. I am on the same path right behind you lol.

I already have a state of the art JDM stainless steel 2.75" bore full exhaust installed by PO in Japan, truly a work of art in terms of craftsmanship, design, and material used. My only beef with it is that it is post downpipe, so I still have the stupid gooseneck OEM cast iron downpipe terribly restricting exhaust flow and robbing me the benefits of the upgraded exhaust system.

So, I got me a tig welder, tons of 7xxx series stainless steel 3" piping and fittings and I'm about to delete the muffler, keep the resonator, and fabricate a downpipe to suit.

Let me know your observations on the performance post install.

Cheers!

Moe

 

[Tennessee Jed]

You're so right about those old school repair shops, stacked to the ceiling with ancient parts. It's the end of an era. There's one like that in Chattanooga - the old man stands on a thick rubber mat and grabs a big copper rod, bolted to a cable and live current, with his bare hand, and touches contacts to make starters and alternators work. I nearly came out of my skin when he did that but he just laughed and said "I ain't grounded son, I can touch all the current they is."

 

[Rigster]

Literally, the second I entered the trails at windrock my starter stopped working... of course lol. Had to bang on the solenoid with a hammer every time I wanted it to start. Well up here in Appalachia, 2 minutes from where I live, the last of his kind is still alive and kicking. Jon's alternator and starter shop. He fully rebuilt, sandblasted, and painted my Mercedes alternator for $85. Only takes cash, etc.

Well I ripped my starter out took it to him, 1 day and $90 later I now have a rebuilt starter and a repaired solenoid, he said multiple wires had come loose in the solenoid box, and the starter was full of all kinds of crap. After putting this new one in it feels great, before everything was crunchy and grindy. Now it is just as smooth as butter. The last of his kind and very glad I have someone like this still local to me.

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THESE are the shops I look for! Great find.

I have one of these shops in Vernon near me (20 min drive to town). Everyone working in there looks like a grandfather, they do not move too quickly, but they can pretty much fix any starter or alternator. Absolute gold.

There is only 1 auto shop around that I would trust my Land Cruiser to if I ever need someone else to work on it.

 

[theglobb]

Spent about 2-3 hours today fixing the trail damage done to the troopy. I'm quite amazed with the durability of an $8 walmart basketball, no idea how it didn't pop but it somehow survived. Worked well to get most of the dent out but the corner where the hole is I had to bang with a hammer and 12" 3/8 extension I have, looks a lot better than before but kinda pimply. The dent was so complex and fortified where the hole is I used a ratchet strap to pull it out. I think this has reached the status of the most beater troopy in the USA lol.

Now I'm left with the dilemma... do I JB weld the hole or weld it? I'm afraid of blowing through as my stick welder about blew through the exhaust and that's thicker than the metal left here. The lowest I can go is 40 amps and I think its a bitttt toooo much. All I know is it looks ALOTTTT better than yesterday

Before


After

 

[prwillard2]

You could always use metal reinforced bondo to fill in that hole. It's what I used on my rear quarterpanel when I put on my rear bumper. Just use a backing and fill up the hole. Won't be amazing, but you can quickly cover the patch with some red paint.

 

[robmobile73]

You could always use metal reinforced bondo to fill in that hole. It's what I used on my rear quarterpanel when I put on my rear bumper. Just use a backing and fill up the hole. Won't be amazing, but you can quickly cover the patch with some red paint

Prime it before using filler. Recommend the long strand kitty hair filler. 1 quart or less will do that. A smooth filler over the top to finish. If you don't want to repaint the entire LC and just want it to look OK from 30 feet away on the cheap, you can probably take your paint code to NAPA and they can put your color in a spray can for around $30. Cheaper than that you can take off your gas cap and have true value hardware scan and paint match your gas cap to a quart of their "XO rust" direct to metal rustoleum type enamel. Borrow or buy the $13.99 detail spray gun from harbor freight. Thin the paint with Naptha or coleman camp fuel(naptha) and spray it. Detail guns are awesome. They can spray very minute amounts of paint for model work if desired, or you can turn them up and spray about twice the volume and fan size of a spray can. You can wet sand and buff out the XO rust paint, but it takes several days to cure well. Real auto paint in the spray can is better.............You can actually buy 1/2 pint of car paint at Napa. I did this 2 weeks ago actually. Bought 1/2 pint of paint for our BMW. I already had some reducer. They gave me a few ounces of left over hardner in a leftover can. 1/2 pint of paint was $25 and that was a 2 stage eurothane for a BMW. For a simple synthetic or acrylic enamel it might/should be cheaper. You don't need more than 1/2 pint of paint for your damage.

Normal bondo is a very smooth easy to use/sand filler, but it has talc in it and will absorb water. Do not put it on your metal. Your initial fill is better to use a polyester resin type filler after primer. Do some research on this.

I wouldn't try to stick weld a car body. I don't see the point. Back when wire feed welders were really expensive they used to make a device called a stitch welder to use a standard stick welder on body panels. You have a hole small enough to fill surrounded by good metal. Probably best to fill it.

 

[OGBeno]

Battle scars. Leave that shĩt.

 

[bj70bc]

chicks dig scars

 

[Tennessee Jed]

This can all be a fun learning experience on basic body repair. Or you can leave it as is. Just make sure you have a hole down at the very bottom rear corner so water can drain out. Hit it with some spray paint now and again and it'll last forever.

 

[Tigris]

I am not the guy to give you advice here as I am firmly entrenched in the camp of "proper metal patch body work with no/minimal skim filling". So, I guess maybe just rust proof the gash and live with it until you get your hands on a good mig.

Great work taking the curse out of that dent BTW

 

[theglobb]

Went camping this past weekend cause a friend of mine from the 1st cross country trip was in town. The leaves are starting to change colors... not excited at all about that I want it to be green for another month or 2. The Cranberry Iron Mines are nearby, one of the largest iron ore mines in the US during the 1800's, supplied a big majority of the Confederate army with iron for guns and cannons during our Civil War. Mud limits the amount of photos I can post but here's a few

Yes this campsite we found has a bathtub that has constant spring water flowing into it... made a great cooler and dishwasher lol

 

[RHINO]

awesome young man, just all of it.

 

[theglobb]

Was foggy on the parkway the other day, went for a ride and got some cool shots. Peep the 2nd shot to see how the rock damage turned out

I am not the guy to give you advice here as I am firmly entrenched in the camp of "proper metal patch body work with no/minimal skim filling". So, I guess maybe just rust proof the gash and live with it until you get your hands on a good mig.

Great work taking the curse out of that dent BTW

Yea I agree with you, I'm just gonna leave it be until l can properly fix it. Primered the inside, clearcoated the outside, cover it in fluid film once a week and made a drain hole for the bottom.

 

[robmobile73]

Went camping this past weekend cause a friend of mine from the 1st cross country trip was in town. The leaves are starting to change colors... not excited at all about that I want it to be green for another month or 2. The Cranberry Iron Mines are nearby, one of the largest iron ore mines in the US during the 1800's, supplied a big majority of the Confederate army with iron for guns and cannons during our Civil War. Mud limits the amount of photos I can post but here's a few


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Yes this campsite we found has a bathtub that has constant spring water flowing into it... made a great cooler and dishwasher lol

Really cool find on those mines!. When I was at Clemson in 89' I discovered stumphouse mountain tunnel and occonee state park. Stumphouse mountain tunnel was started in the civil war and never finished, later on it was used to lock up insane people in, and later it was used to hold/make cheese for Clemson U. In the 80's it was for satanists, wiccans, and other dope smoking misguided teens to hang out in.........No mater a tunnel 1/2 mile into a mountain is cool to explore with your girlfriend and an old lantern...... Back then Occonee state park had 2 bedroom with stone fireplace log cabins built by boy scouts during the great depression that rented for $130 4 days 3 nights.................They're of course alot more now, but still a good deal...............There's some cool off road trails on a system known as "the Georgia traverse that is near/convenient to that". Clemson U is about 40 or so minutes away. To combine a trip there with a home game weekend night out would likely be alot of fun.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Nice job on the body repair! There's nothing more permanent than a good temporary solution.

Our mountains are so gorgeous - and great photography. Never heard of the Cranberry Mines - definitely a must see.

 

[theglobb]

I've been losing about 1/8 of my brake reservoir in fluid every day for the past couple of days now. No visible leaks anywhere so I figured it was my brake cylinders in the rear. Took them off today and everything is bone dry... hmmmmmmmmmmm one of the rubber bits was torn but not leaking anything out. No idea where its going. I would suspect my master is failing and leaking into the booster but the master is only 2 years old and OEM. My braking hasn't become any worse just loosing fluid. I guess the next couple days to weeks will tell whats happening.

later it was used to hold/make cheese for Clemson U.

this reminds me that the US has 1.4 billion pounds of government cheese stored in caves
Why does the U.S. government have 1.4 billion pounds of cheese stored in a cave underneath Springfield, Missouri? - https://www.deseret.com/2022/2/14/22933326/1-4-billion-pounds-of-cheese-stored-in-a-cave-underneath-springfield-missouri-jimmy-carter-reagan

Nice job on the body repair! There's nothing more permanent than a good temporary solution.

Our mountains are so gorgeous - and great photography. Never heard of the Cranberry Mines - definitely a must see.

I'd never heard of them either until a friend of mine who is a local showed me back in February. Not much info online about it, a couple ancient photos and some obscure info, pretty cool

 

[LDowney]

I've been losing about 1/8 of my brake reservoir in fluid every day for the past couple of days now. No visible leaks anywhere so I figured it was my brake cylinders in the rear. Took them off today and everything is bone dry... hmmmmmmmmmmm one of the rubber bits was torn but not leaking anything out. No idea where its going. I would suspect my master is failing and leaking ...

Master does sound like your most likely culprit. Good luck

 

[gilmorneau]

Make sure your hand brake is working so if your brakes fail you can still stop.