Offroad Project

More sales

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:49:00 +0000

I've sold the Rear Lift kit, for quite a bargain. I guess the opportunity to sell a custom item like that doesn't come up all the time so I just sold it for what I could.

The transmission I sold is not being used, but I received word that the engine has been rebuilt and installed (mated to a manual transmission), and the current owner is very happy with its performance. I enjoyed hearing that news, it's nice to know that it is being used.

So all I have left to sell is the 1985 Toyota Pickup front Axle. Good axle for anyone doing a SAS.

I still haven't touched the small rust spots on the Xterra, I should get to that soon. My wife is going away for work soon, perhaps that is a good time to work on it.

Engine and Transmission Sold

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:22:00 +0000

I managed to sell the engine and transmission. Got a dismal $350 for them but I'm glad they are getting used, and I'm glad to have it out of my relatively small garage. All that leaves me with is a 5 inch rear lift kit and a 1985 Toyota Pickup front axle.

The bumper and hitch are mounted on the truck they look great. I decided there wasn't enough rust to bother fixing, so on Lloyd's suggestion I coated the whole area with Rust Check spray and then put the bumper back on. With all that stuff off I had access with the spray that I would not have had otherwise. I would like to post a picture soon.

The next task on the list is to fix the little paint chipped spots. There are about 6 of various dimensions all around the car ranging from ball point pen tip to the other end of the ball point pen. Should be pretty easy to fix, my only concern is that one of the spots is not a paint chip, it is rust under the paint, I worry that this is a case where the rust is not actually surface rust. Technically speaking I think you are supposed to cut the area out, but that seems intense for a tiny little spot.

Recharge the AC and Rusty Bumper

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Here is a non-stock photo of the new truck.

My desire for a project has never really abated. But now I am picking on things that I can actually handle, I think.

The AC was not quite cold but from what I understand that happens often enough after about 4 years. The refrigerant eventually leaks past the O-rings and gaskets. One simple needs to add refrigerant, a process called recharging the AC. I was going to take it into Canadian Tire for about a $130 job, but Princess Auto had kits on sale today for half price so I figured I would give it a shot for about $35. It turns out to be very easy, I went from knowing nothing about topping up refrigerant to completing the task in 15 minutes with helpful instructions from http://xterra101.com/airconditioning.htm. The hardest part was knowing when the compressor is actually running (this is when you measure the refrigerant pressure. Once you find out which device on the network of modules on the belt system the compressor is then you've got it.

Since the vehicle is new to me and I need a hobby, I've got it in my head to routinely make the truck in better condition hence at infinity ending at a mint truck. The current weak link in the trunk is a not too bad rear bumper:

I've removed it and the hitch. Paying for sand blasting and painting was $135, I'll try to get it back on the truck soon and post a pic. But first I'm trying to decide if I should paint the chassis under the bumper with POR15, it is barely rusty but since I have the bumper and hitch off maybe it is worth it ... Hmmm I'll have to think about it some more.

So I guess this weeks addition to the cost is -$100 (how much I saved on AC charging costs) + $135 for the sandblasting and painting, so an additional $35 this week.

Project Cost: $10,535.

2003 Nissan Xterra

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:25:00 +0000

Bought a 2003 Nissan Xterra on the weekend. Great shape and a pretty decent price. I'll post a real pic later, but this is a stock picture (except mine is black).

It has some bells and whistles like a super charger, 300W stereo, hitch, low mileage ...

I'm hoping to do a 2 inch body lift on it, pretty cheap ~$250 and seems easy enough. Have a look at the instructions. Doesn't seem too bad. Though I'm being tentative (some lessons learned from last project). Of course it will wait till the vehicle is paid off and my wife is happy enough :-/

Project Cost: $10,500 (including last project).

Death

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:13:00 +0000

The project is dead.

For reasons to be posted later, I have no space available to work on it nor the technical expertise to see it through. Probably bit off more then I can chew anyway :-( I guess you live and learn.

I have re-obtained about $500 for the headers, $750 for the front suspension, $200 for steering pump and tires and $150 for returned unused tools.

Need to sell my refurbished engine, rear suspension and front axle to make a little more money back (hopefully $1500 more back). My wife is so understanding.

Project Cost: $4500.00

Its a boy

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Last week I put on some of the brakets for the front suspension which also needed some frame patching and the front axle was dissassembled.

The engine has all of the pistons in.

Lloyd and Annika have given birth to a healthy boy, Tallon. Congratulations to them!

Obviously that means I'll be doing the next few weeks alone. Over the next few weeks I would really like to the have the suspension brackets in place, the front axle rebuilt, the chassis sand blasted and the engine completed. If anyone ever feels like dropping in for a day of work feel free to email me. Payment is a ride in the finished product :-)

Project Cost: $6100 (new pistons cost about $300).

Its Christmas in June

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:13:00 +0000

All my parts have arrived. 10 boxes of stuff from Trail Gear. They include front and rear suspension, front axle gears, and headers.

The chassis is ready to receive the components of suspension that need to be welded on. The next step after that is sand blasting.

Project cost: $5800.

Time to Fight Entropy

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:24:00 +0000

The maximum state of disorder has been reached and now it is time to put stuff back together. The engine has the crankshaft back in and the chassis is ready for welding on the brackets for the new suspension.

Project cost: $5800.

Welding

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Not much to report, I've been welding in the nicks and groves that resulted from the IFS removal. Kind of dull picture and story wise, but very interesting work. Welding is a lot of fun.

Project cost: $5800 (All new suspension (front and back), Downey header, and Axle rebuild kit).

Axle

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:09:00 +0000

Got my new front axle today. It looks pretty damn tough, I managed to get one of only two years of Toyota trucks (1984 and 1985) in which the axle was reinforced with a truss. I'll post a picture soon.

Project cost: $2930.00 (return the Oxy-Acetylene Torch, getting a plasma cutter instead).

Full bore

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:21:00 +0000

A week ago I decided to cutoff the old IFS front suspension and go full bore with a Solid Axle Conversion. There are three main reasons, 1.> I have the body and engine out so there will never be an easier time 2.> The old IFS needed some repair with regards to rust, 3.> I would have to purchase an IFS lift kit which approaches the cost of the solid axle conversion which comes with 4 inches of lift.

So I'm going to order a 4 inch lift SAS kit from Trail Gear. And a 5 inch rear lift and coil to leaf conversion kit for the rear.

So I spent this weekend cutting off the old suspension components and griding the frame flat. I also had another guest appearance, my dad decided to join me on Saturday for some hard core metal cutting.

This coming weekend I'm going to weld the nicks and gouges in the frame and order the kits. Next weekend I will be in a motorcycle race school so the weekend after that installation will begin. I'll weld on anything that needs to be welded, sand blast and paint the whole frame then begin bolting on everything.

Project cost: $3030.00 (began the purchase of an Oxy-Acetylene Torch.)

Front End . . . Not so Nice

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:57:00 +0000

I've got another hangup. There are four nuts and bolts the nuts all come off but the bolts are seized into their bushings. . . all four. Pretty much the transmission bolt issue all over again..

So I have to cut all the four blots using a thin crack between the edge of the bushings and the chassis. Which was easier when Lloyd suggested lifting up the whole chassis with the engine hoist.

I just have to buy a large cutoff wheel and I should be able to get the front end off. At which point I have to make a decision on doing a solid front axle conversion. I am on-again-off-again on that subject. One part of me want to do it full bore especially since all the parts are off and I have ready access to everything. But the other, more conservative part, says maybe I should put it all together and make sure it works first before sinking more cash into it.

The engines are back from Constantine's. Looking all shiny :-) (I'll post a picture after the weekend) I've spent a little time cleaning up my pistons while Lloyd has been painting his engine block. This is where I learned that a wire wheel spinning on a drill on your skin hurts.

We are going to do one engine at a time with four eyes on each one, so I have until his is put together to have all my parts purchased. I need a new timing belt, timing belt pulleys, and headers.

Project cost: $2970.00

Nice Rear End

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:25:00 +0000

Removed the gas tank, rear axle, brakes and suspension this weekend. Front axle, brakes and suspension are half-way removed.

Also, Constantine's should be finished with the engine tomorrow.

Project cost: $1620.00

Nice Body

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Got the body off the chassis on Sunday. Took some muscle, cutting, grinding, swearing and hammer induced persuasion but the body finally came off. Thanks a $1000000 Lloyd and Sushil (my brother) they devoted 5 hours of their time to the cause.

Certainly a nice milestone.

Project cost: $1620.00 (lumber to make a bench for the body)

Engine Prognosis

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:50:00 +0000

The report is in. Looks like about $1500+tax to bring the engine back to factory standards.

More then I expected and it would probably have been over budget if I had the foresight to make one. But I'm going go for it! Of course.

It turns out the cylinders were fine. So the usual cleaning and honing needs to be done, the deck and the base of at least one of the heads needed to be planed and the crankshaft needs some machining.

Project cost: $1585 (will double next week when I pick the engine up)

Constantine the Great

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:02:00 +0000

The engine has been stripped down to the block and has gone to Constantine's Engine Machine shop. We'll get the word on the feasibility of the blocks in a few days. Even after around 400,000 km the 4Runner cylinders looked great, a testament to Toyota quality. But apparently the issue with the Toyota engines is that they are more prone to deck warp then cylinder scoring.

This weekend I have to get back at the body, the engine will need a home.

Project cost: $1585.00 (but about to increase fast)

Engine Stripping

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:30:00 +0000

The engine's are in the garage and are in the process of being stripped. I keep having to make my own 'special service tools' to take parts off but at least the tasks are easier.

One example of a special service tool:

Project cost: $1565.00

Engines are at home.

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:05:00 +0000

The engines have finally made it back to my garage. That sheared bolt mentioned in the last blog post proved to be quite a nuisance. There must have been considerable corrosion around the bolt (so shearing was probably inevitable) a hammer and pry bar could not separate the transmission from the engine even though it was only an unthreaded portion of the bolt attaching the two. So eventually I had to resort to cutting the bell housing around the bolt to remove it. That's madness.

Anyway after that we simply loaded our engines on Lloyd's trailer and headed to my garage.

Project cost: $1565.00.

Guest Appearance

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:14:00 +0000

After a fun filled holiday of drinking, eating, sleeping and merry making I was back at the rig. Denise joined me for the afternoon which was a nice treat.

She undid the bolts joining the transmission to the engine except one. That is the tight one the big and husky man had to tackle. I screwed it up and sheared the bolt. Should have gotten her to do it I guess :-/ The remainder of the bolt is still through the transmission but there are no threads engaged, so with force in the right direction the transmission should disconnect from the engine. I just lubed and raised the engine, hopefully gravity will remove it by next week.

We also took the carpet out of the rig to expose the bolts holding the body to the chassis. I lubed and left those as well, they look a little too rusty to tackle right away and I didn't want to redisplay the impatient aspect of my gender again and shear some more bolts off.

Next week I'd like to have the engine and transmission disconnected from each other and the body mechanically disconnected (if not electrically) from the chassis.

Project cost: $1565 Needed some firewood (not counting transportation gas of course).

Sometimes, size really does matter

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 22:18:00 +0000

Spend about 6 hours at the garage/bakery today (note the wood stove chimney in the background), Lloyd was gracious enough to give me the hours of his day. So I guess I owe him some hours now, but then again, shingling his roof was a lot of work :-)

So anyway the engine, transmission and transfer case are finally out of the rig. It was a rather large object that had to come out of a comparably small hole.

We have an engine hoist so we attached it to the engine block and started hoisting. We started uncovering points that were not disconnected yet (oops) but with some last minute removals and heaving we were making progress.

The unfortunate thing is that the hoist only goes to a certain height . . . not high enough. We were pumping the handle and the engine was being pried from its home, but then suddenly we weren't getting anymore height. Through a combination of jacking up, lowering, prying and persuading we managed to get the engine almost out. It just so happened that after hour 4 the engine needed about 6 inches more height to clear the front clip. So we took the tires off and rested the rig on some blocks of wood. At which point we needed 2 irritating more inches. Anyway, after a series of even more complex, and quite unorthodox, maneuvers we were able to get it out. The last 10% took 80% of the time.

Finally a milestone to be proud of, things are certainly looking up.

Project cost: $1560. I needed a new chain for the hoist.

Jack Frost

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:48:00 +0000

Old man winter is upon us. Too cold to be out there this weekend past since the bakery is unheated. This weekend we will be putting in a wood stove so that work can resume.

Project cost: $1550.00.

Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:38:00 +0000

Alright, you've heard it before but this time it is true, the engine is almost ready to come out. I would have started the actual lifting but there were some hoisting accessories I needed, as well as some bodies.

It won't come out this weekend either since Lloyd can't make it to the garage this week and I'd rather someone who has done it before to be around. What I will be working on this weekend is taking the actual body off. I'm not sure I can hoist it up and over the engine, but at least it can be ready to come off once the engine and transmission are out.

There is always fun to have.

Project cost: $1550.00.

Cold Molasses

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:17:00 +0000

Progress is still ebbing along slowly. After about 3 hours I removed the front drive shaft, one bolt of the exhaust (the others are of course rusted) and all except one bolt of a subsection of the chassis that keeps the transmission in place (guess why the last bolt is still in there).

Only a few more bolts and the engine and transmission will be ready to come out . . . I hope. It will be exciting to have part of the project at home, so I can work on it when I have a few minutes in the evenings.

Project cost: $1550 (I was busted by Adam on the last post for knocking $50 off)

Rust never sleeps

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:12:00 +0000

So I had about 12 hours on the rig this weekend. My process is slow due to a lack of understanding and damnable rusty bolts. Well maybe it feels slow because Lloyd's jeep is like a Lego model a bolt here and there and it comes apart which in combination with his experience and skill makes for an intimidating pace. For someone tackling a first project, the jeep is certainly a great way to go.

On the plus side I am making progress and I am learning a lot, the biggest plus of all is that I don't think I have removed things that I can't put back on :). So perhaps that is all that is important for now. So this weekend (rather pathetically) I've removed the rear drive shaft, half of the front drive shaft, disconnected the shift linkage, removed the power steering system, removed alternator belt, disconnected ignition system, removed rear tires, and disconnected the AC compressor. So although visually it looks the same so I wont post a picture, 'under the hood' progress is being made.

So it appears I only have to remove the exhaust system, and engine mounts to remove the engine and transmission.

Project cost: ~$1500.00 (not counting man hours of course).

Mechanics for dummies

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:42:00 +0000

I found a section in my shop manual titled "How to remove the engine" :-). Not exactly a bolt-by-bolt description since they have single steps such as "remove power steering system". But I think it is good enough to get me through. Hopefully I'll be well on my way to removing the engine after my next session.

Project cost: ~$1550.