What a Relief!

This weekend was the big day... taking off the wooden bed. Taking off the bed exposes most the frame and most of the components in the rear end making it a lot easier to work on everything. Now that I purchased a new metal bed for the truck I can sell the one that was on it. Someone had a listing on craigslist about wanting to buy a wooden bed for a Toyota Pickup so I replied and he's gonna come check it out soon.

When I bought the truck the seller, who is a good family friend, claimed the frame was rock solid. I believed his word but until I could fully see it it was hard to fully believe. Once we took the bed off it was a huge relief to see the frame was as solid as we thought. It still has original paint on it and isn't all rotten. I think I'm gonna take the extra step and fully re-finish it; scrape off all the dirt and rust and then give it a coat of POR-15, black Rustoleum spray paint, and then oil the living hell out of it so that it can hopefully last another 30 years.

Before I do all that I'll replace all the rear components that I need to like shocks, leaf springs, maybe brakes, and all that good stuff, then once that's done we'll get to work on the front end and painting the frame.

The End, But Not Really

The school year is basically over but this project isn't. This is me explaining where I am in terms of my oral exam and what my future plans are for the truck.

In terms of my oral exam I'm about finished with preparing for it but I have a few finishing touches to add. I have plenty to talk about so that should go pretty great.

With my truck I have a lot more to do and I will continuously still be working on it. I'd like to still make blog entries just as a way to document my progress but we'll see if I'm able to keep updating this regularly. But, I pan on doing all the things I said I was going to. I'm gonna install all new suspension, brakes, and get it driving like its supposed to. Last week I purchased a bed for the pickup as well, I plan on getting that sandblasted, and repainted to match my red pickup. So once the truck runs and handles correctly it'll be time to repair the rust on the cab which isn't too bad hopefully.

Good and Bad News

This week I've been trying to track down the rumored fiberglass bed that the Russel, guy we bought my truck off of, had mentioned. My Dad talked to him at work and on Tuesday we met up after work and Russel brought us to the guy who was selling the beds house. It was 10 years ago that he was thinking of buying it but in hopes that it was still there I brought $500+ cash to buy it on sight.

Not the actual bed since I haven't seen
it yet, but very similar to what it
should be like.

We got to the dudes house and right away there was a good looking 93 Toyota Pickup with a plow in the driveway with loads of other parts scattered around. Russel went and knocked at the door and someone came out, it was the Dad of the guy who was selling the bed. We talked to him for a while and introduced ourselves and he told us all the cool projects his son does with Toyota trucks and 4 runners and how he strips down trucks and has tons of parts. This could be a great new connection for advice and parts if I need to buy some!

Later that day Russel called the guys dad but his son still wasn't home, so he said he'd ask him about the bed and give us a call back the next day. Eventually we got a call and sadly the fiberglass bed was already sold, luckily he said he has a steel bed in good condition and I could buy it for $300. Steel is just like the original which means its about as good as a fiberglass one is; it'll look exactly the same. At the end of the week we're gonna go check it out, pay for it, and load it onto a trailer and haul it to my place down the road. Russel also said that he'd sand blast the bed for me too and then help me repaint it red to match my truck. It'll be rust free and look just like new, how awesome!

What my truck should look like new with this new bed

Old to New

My goal for today was to remove the steering arm off of the parts truck. On my 88 truck this piece seems to be bent so the tie rod is rubbing on the frame and messing with the steering. New this component is around $90, luckily this one is in great shape and should fit the other truck.

The steering arm I removed today

it was only held in with about five nuts, one on each tie rod (2), two on the steering pivots, and one on the stabilizer. Once I cut the coder pins out I used a breaker bar to loosen them up, after that i zipped them out real fast with an impact gun. After that I had to get a tie rod puller and hammer it in between the rods and the steering arm; they simply popped right out.

After we took most the parts off the truck we tipped it over to get
under it.

I managed not to bend the arm either so I'll most likely sand it down a bit and give it a fresh coat of paint and get it ready to put on the truck when we go through the front end. Everything coming together but I got to figure out what I want to do tomorrow, maybe more interior work or engine diagnosis.

The steering arm fresh off the parts truck

What's Draining the Battery?

I forgot to write a blog for what I did on Friday so I'm updating it a few days late whoops. But Friday I focused on more research in the morning to try and better understand how the temperature gauge in the truck works and what I can test to fix it. After that I packed up my car with my toolbox and headed to my Uncle's place to get something done.

When I go to work on my truck I load up two tool boxes,
my power tools,  and other fluids that I'll need 

I decided to first check all the sensors that connect to the temp gauge. Temp sensor replacement, this is the video I used to get the idea of where they were. Once of the sensors were loose but other than that everything looked like it had a solid connection so I moved on to the next troubleshooting. I looked inside and found a ground by the fuses; it was getting rusty so I took it off and cleaned it up with a wire brush. After that I turned the key to light up the dash and everything looked the same, the I decided to test out the turn signals and they worked! I accidentally fixed that issue which was great, I just gotta replace the blinker bulbs, which luckily I have some in my parts bin.

The Ground that I cleaned off
under the dash. On Toyotas
the ground wire is black and white

The Gauge Cluster on my Pickup

Next I figured I might as well take out the whole gauge cluster and see if its rusty or any screws have become loose over the past 30 years. I didn't get any pictures of this but luckily it was very simple since all the dash panels are held together with screws, not plastic clips like new cars are. Toyota Pickup Complete Dash Removal is the video I used to help me here. Once the dash was out I tightened all the screws and didn't see any severe rust so everything looked good, I put everything back in place and moved onto the last thing I wanted to do that day; take out that damn aftermarket radio.

Before removing the radio

After, with no radio installed

The radio itself is actually a pretty nice after market one, its got a disc player, aux, and a clock, but someone robbed the speakers out of this truck, and it also doesn't have a radio antenna, so its pointless at the moment. But the main reason why I removed it was because it was always on, even when the key was turned off and out. Removing it was very easy, it was only like 6 screws and it was OUT, and I might eventually put it back in but I'm not sure yet. I plan on re-doing this whole area of the dash since its been so heavily modified with the plow controls and after market radio, but that's for a different day down the road. 

Lastly, another thing I did a few days ago that I forgot to mention was put the new seat in! It's insane how much comfier it is than the one that came with it. Its got a lot more support and firmness but it does have some rips which I will be patching in the near future before they get any bigger. The seat isn't even bolted in though, its just sitting there so we can easily drive it in and out of the garage but it'll be properly installed once we remove the old rotten bolts and fix the rusty drivers side floor.

Important Troubleshooting

My agenda today consists of mainly research, not much hands on work today. The first thing I want to dive into today is contacting the company that makes those bushings, energy suspension, and see what they have to say about that bushing seeming big. It will fit if I force it, but if its not supposed to go in there I don't want to mess it up.

The second issue I want to look into is my temperature gauge on the truck not working. There should only be three reasons why its not functioning; The water temp sensor is dirty or busted, then there are two sending units for the temp gauge, one by the dash and one by the ECU, one of those could be cut. When I go to work on the truck next that's gonna be the first issue we solve because the last thing we want is for this new engine to over heat.

I'm also hoping that maybe the temp gauge not working would explain why the engine is running rich, it might be tricking the computer into thinking its always cold (When you first start up your car it uses more gas cause its been resting and is harder to start.) We also need to tune the idle speed as well because it is out of whack. Plus who knows how old the gas that's in it is, old gas alone will make it run like junk. If we're lucky, playing around with the mix of those things will improve how it runs,

Bigger isn’t Always Better

Today my main focus was installing the new polyurethane bushings since I didn't get to it yesterday. I read the instructions supplied in the box and it said to make sure the bushings were lubed up with the super pre-lubricant that was supplied.

New bushing vs the old one

Before I insert the bushing it gets coated in grease

Inserting the shackle bushings was super simple, they slid in half way with just the force of my hands and then I pounded them in the rest of the way with a socket and a rubber mallet. Where I ran into a problem was with the other side of the spring. The bushings for this side, the hanger side, are larger than the shackle ones, they're so large that they're a little bigger than the hole but they should fit if I use a hydraulic press (my Uncle has one that I can use) but if that doesn't work I'll just use the smaller ones and they should work just as good.

Installing the shackle bushings

How they look installed, two in each, two on each side

After I was done for the day I did some more research on these bushings and was impressed with how they work. Stock rubber bushings tend to be more flexible and don't last as long; these are made of polyurethane so they're more rigid to reduce body roll and last more than twice as long as rubber competitors. The quality seems very nice and hopefully I can get that other one installed soon to get these ready to be installed. Tomorrow I might do some more research on fixing the temp gauge or something to help the engine run better.

Stuck in There

Today was the first day of our “fieldwork” and I knew it was gonna rain so I planned ahead. On Friday all of the parts I had ordered came in the mail, I right away installed some of the simpler ones like the distributor cap, the cap rotor, and the new spark plugs and wires.

A new spark plug I installed next to an old crusty one

The new wires and distributor cap

While I was at my Uncle's I grabbed the leaf springs that he had, long story that I'll explain in another blog post; but basically the ones on my truck are junk and these ones are like new. My project for today was to take out the old dried up bushings and replace them with new red performance ones I bought.

The new leaf springs

The old junk bushings that I'm removing

These new bushings came in a kit with every single thing I need to replenish these springs. I could either get them in black or red and I figured red matches the truck so that's what I got. The quality of them seems awesome, they're made out of polyurethane and are all the correct sizes.

At about noon I finally got to work in my barn, first thing I had to do was pound out the old bolts that had been on there since the early 80s, so they weren't coming out without a fight. I heated all of them up with a torch until the rubber was burning and then I elevated them on a plank of wood and pounded the end of the bolts out with a mallet. This method worked great on two of the bolts but the other two were a pain. Most of my day was spent trying to pound these other ones out but no matter how much I heated them up, pried on them, and tried to twist them, they wouldn't even budge. 

I texted my Dad and asked him what time he got out of work and if he could help me pound on them because after hammering for so long I was finally exhausted and took a break to go eat lunch and do some research.

An hour later or so my Dad gave me a call back and said to try soaking them in dish soap because sometimes it'll just help them slip right out. I went right back out to the barn with some Dawn and coated the bushings in them, and sure enough they slipped right out.

Here are the springs with the bushings removed

Where a bushings sat for 30 plus years

I didn't end up getting the bushings installed like I had hoped but now I have them all ready to be installed tomorrow, hopefully that process will be quicker than the removal was. I'll keep you guys updated daily with my progress! See ya tomorrow.

On The Way!

This weekend I made my order of parts for the truck from rockauto.com. I double checked with other websites and basically all of rockauto's parts were cheaper than the competitors. My order consisted of:

• Parking brake cable
• Rear Transmission mount
• Front brake pad and rotor kit
• Front and rear shocks
• Leaf spring bushings
• Muffler
• Cap and rotor for the distributor
• Spark plugs and wires
• And a fuel filter

And all that stuff should be here by the end of the week, so hopefully I'll be ready to get some work done throughout fieldwork time.

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

This truck needs a ton of work, and its one of those projects where ill continuously be doing more work to it over time throughout my ownership.
But right now my main goal for my senior project is to get the truck as close to road legal as possible. I'm thinking my budget will be in between $1,000-$1,500 not including what I've already put into it This week I'm ordering 500+ dollars of parts off of rockauto.com which will include suspension, brakes, and many other components. On top of that I plan on needing to buy more pieces as we tear down the drive line and potentially find more parts that need replacing. I also know that I'm going to have to pay a professional to replace my windshield seal and bring it to a shop for an alignment (unless I find someone who knows how.) There's lots of little things to troubleshoot and replace that I wont remember all of them until we start driving it or get tearing something apart, but I know that no matter what it is we'll be able to fix it. Throughout my ownership the goal is to not invest more than the truck is worth, and I'm staying on track to keep that goal.

Not Really Affected

With this whole pandemic going on everyone including me has been affected in different ways. Remote learning has become the standard for our classes and a mandatory "stay home, stay safe" order is in act. Luckily, for me, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy while stuck at my house, including my senior project. Since I don't have to travel anywhere far away or interact with a wide range of people I'm able to continue my project as normal.
There are a few small issues however like a lot of parts stores being closed and since my Uncles shop occasionally has a good amount of visitors, my Dad and I decided to halt going up there for a few weeks while the virus dials down.

The good side of this is that before the virus hit hard in the states we got a LOT of work done including getting the truck driving under its own powerhouse. While in quarantine I'm searching online for the best deal on parts; so far www.rockauto.com has the best bang for the buck for all the pieces I'm looking for. This week I plan on doing a big order of $500+ of parts including brakes, suspension, and components for many other parts of the truck. These parts will be more than enough to keep me busy and hopefully get this pickup ready to be on the road and legal.
I've also been indulging books and forums including my Haynes Repair Manual, and Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance. These resources help me look at the project from a different perspective, one of a more professional mechanic or enthusiast.

Overall I'm very fortunate to still be able to pursue my project with minimal delays. Hopefully this pandemic doesn't last too long and I can drive around town in the truck ASAP.