Underdog777's '88 4x4 build

they do make matte clear coats as well, pretty cool stuff out there. offers a little bit more protection on the paint too.

 

Interesting. Would that be something offered as a single stage paint?

 

It all depends on what you want. I'm sure there are single stage paints that have a flattening agent added to the matte finish .If your using a 2 stage paint, then the clear would have to have a flattening agent mixed with it.

 

Thanks for the info man. Nerdish research and phone calls will be made. I appreciate that

 

no problem haha, subb'd !

 

After many debates, discussions, polls (on FB), and self reflection I decided I will be painting the truck black. What made it final was a buddy of mine reminded me of saying I would never own a vehicle that isn't black.

I played with colors all day today in MS paint and black still appeals to me the most. Does it seem odd to own two trucks the same color? Sure. But to the points my friend reminded me, I always fall in love with a vehicle with a well maintained black paint job.

Prep work will start probably in February. Stay tuned

 

Right on man! It will look beast for sure

 

I figured I could use it as a tactic to confuse people

 

"the black truck, No the other black truck, The one that's all black" lol

 

exactly

Dude saving up for parts (for a change) is bitter sweet. Every time I park away the money and see it going up I don't want to stop. Then for the time in between I want to order crap or I get new ideas. It is time to start playing the lottery.

 

OP cleaned up/updated. 1000% on SAS now.

 

The Relic is starting to show it's age. At 24 years old some of the major mechanical parts are starting to show signs of failing. All of the steering components have been ordered to rebuild it yesterday. Today backing out of the PX it bucked so hard I thought I hit something. I looked all around and nothing. The ring and pinion was the first thing that came to thought after I knew I had not caused an accident. Moving forward I got to my buddy's house with no issues.

On my way home I rolled backwards in neutral and the truck once again bucked, but this time stopped dead in it's tracks like a large rock was behind it. I put it in reverse gave it a bit of gas, and it didn't want to move. I pulled forward and looked behind the truck to find nothing obstructing the tires. I rolled back once again and nothing.

I get to the parking lot out side of the barracks, and I go to back into a spot and BAM it does it again, and corrected it the same way (moving forward etc). I'm pretty sure my R&P are about to take a fat shit on me. The steering components ran me $745 bucks, and the idea was to have it good to go for a trip back to AZ this month. I priced out two R&P's and two rebuild kits and that is going to hand me a $885 dollar kick to the nads.

Plans to re-gear were in play, but not this soon, and not for this reason. The money to do it doesn't bother me as much as the timing of it needing to be invested. At this point re-prioritizing must (once again) be put into play to get this monster mechanically 100% before any major suspension work gets done.

To make things better I tested all the shocks on the truck, and only ONE has a charge over 5 psi. I'm considering either replacing the shocks or just having these rebuilt. One thing is for sure that if I go the replacing route I will get ones that will change right over to the solid axle. More to come, thanks for reading.

 

Damn man.. can never catch a break huh. guess Its part of it being a project tho right? And when its finally said and done, you can be proud knowing you made a kick ass, mechanically sound, crawler. By yourself. Ya gotta pay to play ya know.

 

word man. I read that to myself with sean connery's voice in my head. sounded epic.

 

Maybe try going to a junk yard and pulling a full third member?

 

Not a bad thought. Usually something I don't think of since the nearest junkyard is like 100 bajillion miles away I'm parking the truck until this weekend until I can pull apart the drive shaft and see if it is not the slip yolk that is about to take a shit on me.

 

Try calling cal mini they ship so u wouldn't have to drive

 

Ima do that. Thanks dude.

Got the shocks pulled off. Headed to pro dirt motorsports meow to drop them off for re hold and recharge. Gonna get a quote too for sas labor.

 

After many small repairs on the Relic it has been determined that this whole project will have to happen all at once in one massive tear down.

Problems: 1) There is a hard clunk coming from the rear end. The tires spin fine off the ground, but buck when going in reverse. Assuming the worst I want to say the R&P is about to grenade. Other possibilities are the carrier bearing or slip yolk. 2) Because of an upcoming trip in March I had to cancel my order for steering parts. The trip is for family I have not seen in 7 or 8 years so it's more than worth it but with this have figured it would be best to just gut out the front end for the solid axle since I'm not too far off from being able to purchase the swap kit.

Solutions: Parking it with what has been repaired leaves it at a decent stopping point for me to track down an axle, get the swap kit, and save for things like tires, lockers, gears, rear leafs/shackles, sliders, doors, lights, blah blah blah off road bbbraaaaaaaaaap.

The shitty part of all this was that I could have organized to have both trucks here so I could continue making some of the repairs that would put the Relic down for how ever long. Also bringing the Taco back will be huge distraction, although, it is going to get painted shortly after I come back here. That's my book long update for now.