Let's build a mini-truck. Set the time machine to "high school parking lot 1989"

Adrian_Thompson said:

wheelsmithy said:

It bears repeating that I love everything I've seen you do from the long-bed turned short-bed, to the miata to the civic. Sano.

Hang, there are more Cousin Eddie builds?  Unfortunately there isn't an 'all threads started by' feature on GRM.  I've looked at all the threads that Cousin Eddie has commented on and gone through those 12 pages.  I've found this, the Civic and the Miata.  Are there others I missed?  Can someone point them out to me?

To be relevant to this thread.  Outstanding work.  I can see that you were once an A&P, why the change to Firefighting?  Love the attention to detail in all the threads I've found.  I wish my brain could create results like yours.

There's a thread somewhere for my 74 Chevy C10 pickup. Really, it's a goofy thread. What moron buys a long bed, six cylinder, 3 speed truck and converts it to short bed, V8, auto truck ? That right there is someone who simply bought the wrong truck to start with.

As for why I career changed from airplane mechanicing to firemanning.....Better pay by far in the fire service. Shorter time till retirement. More days off to mess around with car stuff.

In other news, I put 50 miles on the Mazda today. It ran out okay. Only problem that turned up was a split vent hose on the gas tank under the bed. When I filled it up with gas it burped out. I've already replaced the hose as soon as I got home.

I'm ready to climb underneath the thing now and start on some suspension work. That should be a project for next week.

the header is bluing nicely!

are you going to patch and chrome paint the screw holes above the headlight?

FunkyCricket said:

the header is bluing nicely!

are you going to patch and chrome paint the screw holes above the headlight?

I don't know. There are guys selling brand new chrome grilles on Facebook for around 100. As soon as I quit hemorrhaging money at this thing and the holidays are over, I may get a new grille. As scabby as the truck is though, the current grille isn't unduly out of place when you see it in person. It's not the ugliest part of the truck is what I'm trying to say.

Just read through this thread. Excellent work so far! 

I'm also living vicariously through this build, as I tried buying one of these locally earlier this year. The one I was trying to buy was a 1989 extended cab SE in that late 80's blue that everything in Japan was offered with back then. It was so rad, but the seller wouldn't return my messages. 

Tony Sestito said:

Just read through this thread. Excellent work so far! 

I'm also living vicariously through this build, as I tried buying one of these locally earlier this year. The one I was trying to buy was a 1989 extended cab SE in that late 80's blue that everything in Japan was offered with back then. It was so rad, but the seller wouldn't return my messages. 

I wish mine was an extended cab. I’m wanting to get stupid with stereo equipment (vintage of course) and the extra room would allow more boom. 

when are you de-rusting the brake master cylinder?   ;-)

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I will do all brake work at the same time. When I have it torn apart for suspension refresh I will make a brake parts shopping list and turn it into a sub project.

Cousin_Eddie said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I will do all brake work at the same time. When I have it torn apart for suspension refresh I will make a brake parts shopping list and turn it into a sub project.

You mean when you have it torn apart for the hydro install right?

And Daytons

Today I tore into the dash and swapped the cluster to the deluxe version with tach and clock. I had to add a couple of wires to the factory plug for the clock. No big deal, I just grabbed a plug at the junkyard and harvested the wires from it.

I also went ahead and replaced all the bulbs. Two boxes of new bulbs was 3.80 from Rockauto. I just couldn't justify buying all those LED bulbs when incandescent are so cheap.

My original cluster.

Deluxe hawtness. The donor truck was 7 years newer than my truck and it was apparently from "up north" since it was rusty. It's obvious it hasn't seen the Texas sun like mine has.

I left the dash apart because I ordered a dual USB socket to put in place of the OEM lighter plug socket. That is scheduled to be here Saturday. Scope creep...

Dude I love that little digital clock, that is awesome. 

Looking at the cluster it has a check engine light. And a carburetor. Is this cluster from a newer truck? -- I just re read and yes it was. Nevermind. :) 

Good looking little truck. I'm loving this thread.

Had a string of 1980s Nissan and Toyota pickups over the years. Never owned a Mazda though.

Mmmm, nothing better than making acrylic gauge lenses clear and shiny again.

the details on all of this is amazing. thanks for sharing.

Today I went down a rabbit hole with repairing the radio console. It's a small, self contained unit that sits atop the transmission tunnel beneath the dash.

Poor picture.

It was broken and busted nearly hopeless. I chose to try and use fiberglass resin and cotton cloth for the repair. I'm still not sure if these were good choices and methods or not. 

Large crack on the top.

I fortified it on the inside with fiberglass and cloth.

Pretty decent end result.

The bottom was completely broken.

Of the four mounting screws, three were completely broken out.

So I sanded the remnants flat and fiberglassed 6mm fender washers in place.

For now, I'm running this 20 year old Pioneer SuperTuner.

Meh. Not too perfect, but good enough for the kind of girls that will ride around with me.

So, scope creep set in and it cost me two days.

While I had the dash apart swapping the instrument clusters, I had the crazy idea that my life would be incomplete if I didn't swap the lighter plug for a USB socket. So, Amazon and two days later I got it all back together.

And I found this old hood bra on eBay. It's new, and old. Never used, but been in the box for a couple of decades or therabouts. It needs some Texas sun and heat to relax the wrinkles, but it screams old school 80's. I had one on my Nissan 27 years ago.

The carpet in this truck is past saving. No amount of pressure washing and scrubbing will replace worn holes and threadbare. So I shopped around and RockAuto killed everyone on a new Auto Custom Carpet delivered to my door. They beat Summit racing by about 40 dollars including Summit having free shipping. When the carpet comes in, I'll pull the seat out and do a little mini project with tuning up the interior some more. 

Now that I review what I just posted, that USB port looks crooked. I think the dash will need to come back out and fix that. I'm not sure how I let that get past QC and onto the internet for the world to see.

Cousin_Eddie said:

Today I went down a rabbit hole with repairing the radio console. It's a small, self contained unit that sits atop the transmission tunnel beneath the dash.

Poor picture.

It was broken and busted nearly hopeless. I chose to try and use fiberglass resin and cotton cloth for the repair. I'm still not sure if these were good choices and methods or not. 

Large crack on the top.

I fortified it on the inside with fiberglass and cloth.

Pretty decent end result.

The bottom was completely broken.

Of the four mounting screws, three were completely broken out.

So I sanded the remnants flat and fiberglassed 6mm fender washers in place.

For now, I'm running this 20 year old Pioneer SuperTuner.

Meh. Not too perfect, but good enough for the kind of girls that will ride around with me.

 

 

Just when I thought I'd seen everything you come up with the solution to repairing the side cover panel for my JD4410 compact diesel tractor...cotton cloth??? like cheap wash cloth from MalWart.....and resin from the repair kit in automotive??? Hey the USB looks square ,it's the font style that is throwing you off.......not 

759NRNG said:

Just when I tiought I'd seen everything you come up with the solution to repairing the side cover panel for my JD4410 compact diesel tractor...cotton cloth??? like cheap wash cloth from MalWart.....and resin from the repair kit in automotive???

Cotton cloth, like an old tee shirt from my rag pile. Fiberglass resin from the bodywork section of Walmart's automotive aisle. I see all the stereo kids on the internet using old tee shirts and fiberglass to build their speaker pods. I figured they might be on to something. It worked for me.

No!!!!!.....how rigid is this when it 'sets'???? If this truly works I'll be saving over $120.00 .......top of my to do list when I get back to Magnolia Tx......well not really, need to run Pblaster LMT thru all my small motors first

In reply to 759NRNG :

I'm not sure how to quantify that. By the time you fortify the existing plastic with the added layer of fiberglass behind it, you're really doing something. It's completely rock hard and inflexible. I'm sure you could break it if you tried, but the same could be said about a brand new plastic interior piece. I feel like it exceeds any glue or adhesive fix.

Cousin_Eddie said:

In reply to 759NRNG :

I'm not sure how to quantify that. By the time you fortify the existing plastic with the added layer of fiberglass behind it, you're really doing something. It's completely rock hard and inflexible. I'm sure you could break it if you tried, but the same could be said about a brand new plastic interior piece. I feel like it exceeds any glue or adhesive fix.

Yes the tractor 'shakes' so maybe I'll try two layers.....couldn't hurt Thanks CuzE I'll let you know how it works out.

In reply to 759NRNG :

It's the same theory used in skin on frame construction. Instead of using fiberglass which is a royal bitch to sand, you use cotton/canvas/dacron etc .Easier to sand, use the more expensive epoxies and it will even be uv resistant as well. 

Artsty photo with just the workbench lights on.

Uh-Oh !

It should be a busy morning.

Yessss. Happy Monday!