So aside from the exhaust I haven't touched this thing in months.

But I got a little bug up my ass to mess with it, in the little spare time I have. I just moved too, so that ate up a lot of time. But I got the frame horns swapped back over to the stock ones and aligned the sheet metal, and adjusted the tilt on the bumper to my preference, so I took a camera pic.



Also picked up a few things for it. I got an automatic transmission, a stand alone ECU for it, an aluminum radiator, and a big shiny transmission cooler to go right behind the grill. Going to do an automatic swap, and looking to do a little to the motor at the same time. A scratch built header may be in its future at some point soon, but only time will tell.

 

Looks good. Nice to see you working on it again.

 

nice dude, good to see you back in here!

not sure why but for some reason i thought the truck was an 84+ body style?

 

Thanks. And ya its an 80, same as my old truck. Which is nice because I still had a few parts.

 

What stand alone did you go with for the trans? My buddy Rory ( RADesignsproducts.com ) makes a sweet controller that makes a paddle shifting possible. I have one in my wheeler, its bitch'n.

 

Glad to see y found some time Seth. How all has beenwell with you and the shop. I know when I met up w/u in May you were slammed. Anymore work on the misu? That was a killer frame.

 

I actually talked to Rory a lot before picking a transmission. He was very helpful, and I actually planned on using one of his controllers, but he was the one that actually steered me away from it a bit, based on what I wanted from the transmission. I talked to him on the phone several times, and he ended up recommending using a stock shifter, with a stand alone ECU, and gave me the names of two companies. He recommended that with the option of using his manual controller if I did not want to spend the money on a stand alone ECU. But I want my wife to be able to drive it with ease, and not have to think about shifting. So I want to make it as stock feeling as possible for her. So I ended up buying a Suprastick V2 stand alone computer. It gives me the option to tune shift points, TQ lock up, stall points, and also run a manual shift mode, like paddle shifters. And it was not much more than a shifter from Rory, but will be a little more work on my end. But it is what I wanted.

I also ordered a TPS to make it work. I am excited to give it a shot and see what happens. I will also be able to tune the shift points for a turbo if I ever go that route. And you can run two modes, so I can set one up for around town, easy shifting, and mileage in mind, and set on up for more sporty driving.

Also coming is an AFCO aluminum radiator, and a polished transmission cooler that is huge, I am hoping it looks nice behind the grill.

Things have been going well. I haven't been working as much as I like, because I just moved, and that has taken a lot of time. The Mitsu is not a lot further along, we hit a few delays, and went backwards a few times. But it is starting to roll forward again in the right direction. You will see something on that soon. But I need to focus on two other smaller projects a bit more first.

 

That's a sweet computer setup to let you tune the parameters to your liking. If I was to swap in a 2x trans is go with an Aw4 from a 2x cherokee with a simple bellhousing swap and use its factory computer along with Rory's controller piggybacked. That would allow full auto or giggled at the flip of a switch. Now that I know of other options though...

 

He told me that to use a stock computer, I would need to run the EFI motor out of the truck too. I got an A340E out of a 22RET truck, that had no motor or harness left. So stand alone is just easier for me, than trying to figure out how to make a stock harness work with what I have. I don't really want to go EFI, unless I run a turbo with a custom intake manifold and a stand alone ECU for the motor. I have not owned a 22RE I liked.

But ya, the Suprastick lets you switch from full auto to manual shift with a toggle switch. I was thinking there are 3 horn buttons on my steering wheel, one by each thumb, it might be possible to make two of them shift buttons. Not sure. But all you do is plug in a lap top with his software on it, and a serial cable, and you can change shift points and all kinds of stuff any time you like.

 

wow..... pretty neat stuff!!

 

So got my AFCO radiator. Polished B&M oil cooler will go in front of it.


Tried mocking the front end up nothing really fits. Think a bumper mount is bent, and I probably need an early core support to run round headlights. Some mounts for the bezels aren't there, they don't line up with anything, and the grill fits terrible. And its an OEM one.

 

Hey friend......Congratulations....Great project..

 

Love the thread. Inspires me to get going on my 83'. How much has it set you back at cost? And how much do you think it would be consumer price? I'm just trying to ball park here. haha. But love the build thread. Hopefully one day my toy can be this low and solid.

 

truck is turning out amazing....... um theres well over 10k of custom work here^^^^

 

I am not sure I could say what the cost is really. I mean I traded labor/stuff for some of the parts/materials, I had several parts around already, I used credit card points to redeem things like stereo stuff and the oil cooler, I traded a 4WD transmission for the 2WD Automatic one, and can buy some parts at wholesale. Or I look out for deals, I found the radiator on Craigslist with a few bent fins brand new for less than half the retail price.

So I may have been able to do it cheaper than someone else, but maybe not if you are resourceful. I would guess that I have less than $5k in it right now, but I stopped keeping track at some point when I stopped caring as much about the budget.

At some point it became less about doing it cheap, and more about doing it right, and making it reliable for my wife and I to drive and have fun in.

I also put a ton of hours into it so far, and if I where charging someone for that labor, the price would be a lot different then as well.

 

Ya...Basically what I was trying to say, without saying it. Lol. There is a ton of work in the truck, plus the parts I have bought.

 

Well said. Quality isn't something to spare.

It's great to have friends that are willing to help do things whether it be run wires, build arms, paint/powder parts, or whatever it may be as well. Then "right" isn't always the opposite of "cheap." I know you have the ability to fab what you need, but in general...it's good to keep your friends list longer than your foes list .

 

It can't be said enough my me ,your work always shines.
Hope you & your wife will be driving your baby soon!!

 

Thanks Gary!

This is very true. My friend Shawn has actually helped me a lot with this truck. A few other friends have too, but Shawn stands out to me. He was there after work almost every day for a few weeks and weekends helping me when I was staying late. He helped me with clipping the front and squaring it up at 11PM, which I could not have done alone. He helped me countless times pulling the motor in and out. He did a ton of cutting and grinding on the frame removing some of the old stuff, transmission cross member, helping cut out tabs, hold stuff while I tacked it, etc. His brother comes and helps quite a bit too, and I know when it comes time to do final assembly and get this thing driving, both of them will be there. And I know Catherine will too. She helps out a lot as well, usually painting or cleaning stuff, but she is learning more as well.

 

I wish I was back in Orlando all the time because of this. I have buddies that I have known through mini truckin for close to 10 years now (Freshman year of highschool.) that I know would be down to help fab things. I also know they would give an honest opinion and not do things they know they can't do! The scene is lacking around here aside from 4 or 5 guys about an hour away or so.