Hello everyone. I'm a short time lurker and first time poster. The site looked great and the members seemed nice, so I decided to join. I own a new (to me) 1989 regular cab, short bed pickup. 4x2 with a 22r and its the first foreign car I've owned as I come from a long line of Ford people. I have to say, I'm impressed with the little truck. Everything on the truck seems to be in perfect balance and its fun to drive. I got it from a friend who parked it in her back alley in a rough neighborhood with the topper off of the bed. It wasn't long before three panes in the back window and the drivers side window were broken out and the windshield cracked. She planned on selling it but when she went to drive it, it developed a bad vibration, which is when I was called in to look at it. I jumped the dead battery and as it started up the first thing I thought of was a childs voice saying "Grrr, I'm a big scarry Kenworth!" I guess you could say it was love at almost first sight. So I bought it. I fixed the vibration (it was the bolts on the driveshaft that had loosened up) and named it Little Boy, Lil' B for short as he lives in a driveway full of full sized, 70's Ford trucks and a lifted SUV. Since then, I've cleaned it up, replaced every window in the cab except for the passenger side window and one window in the topper, taken out the mildewed carpet, cleaned the seat and am just now starting to do the long overdue maintenance on it. Current mods: Lifted the seat about 3/4 inch (I'm short and like a taller seat.) Installed 6.5 Rockford Fosgates in the doors. Frame mounted, Valley Industries hitch I found in a junk yard and painted up like new. Planned mods: next few months: Re-build carb. Tilt steering. rebuild front end. Poly bushing kit all around New wheels/tires (wheels I have for it are from and Explorer Limited) Herculiner the bed under the plastic bed liner fix the couple rust spots in the cab and Herculiner the entire interior of the cab, then two layers of Dynamat Extreme or other sound deadener on the doors, behind the dash and on the back wall and floor. ( I did this with my Explorer and I love it.) Then re-under coating the bed and cab. Seat cover New carpet Q-logic kick panel pods on order 6.5 seperates to go with them and a subwoofer box behind the seat. Long term mods: 8.8 rear diff swap from my Explorer when its axles get upgraded so Lil B will have big rear disk brakes. Upgraded front breaks. and... And finally... this is mostly dreaming here, but: A Ford Coyote motor swap. Maybe the motor swap if I win the lottery. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope I won't annoy everyone by asking too many questions, but this mini-truck stuff is all new to me. I do promise to try to use the search though.
Welcome aboard. Questions are ok but like you said search. Would love to see some photos of lil b and good luck with the build. You have some nice mods in mind.
Welcome to TM. Post some pics up. Nice bike in your Avatar pic. I just rebuilt one just like it for my kids and me to play with.
Thanks. Here's a couple of quick pics. Lil B hooked up to our pop-up. This was how I found out the bumper brackets weren't tight. The bumper just kinda sloooowly sagged down between the storage place and my house. I'm glad I have the reciever hitch now. edit: Hmm. it doesn't seem to want to allow me to paste images. Lets try it this way: http://s1167.photobucket.com/albums/q621/raylcc/?action=view¤t=9-6-2011008.jpg
Ok, thats better. Here's one with my boys on a gold panning trip. IMG00185.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket Here's one of the door speakers I installed: IMG00170.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket
And heres a couple of the Explorer and its buildup. IM000525.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket IM000356.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket IM000484.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket IM000485.jpg picture by raylcc - Photobucket
Thanks again everone. The trike in the avatar is one off the internets, but I am building up a Schwinn Meridian full-sized trike to putz around the neighborhood on. Schwinn Meridian Adult 26 inch 3-Wheel Bike - Walmart.com So far I've added no-flats tubes with skinnyer tires (to match the tubes), a huge front basket and a few other things to make it easier to ride and haul better.
