Realized I hadn't started one of these yet so I figured I should get it going. I have a build thread for my Jeep on my Jeep site and love looking back at it and having everything documented.
Anyways, I bought #1852 off eBay in December of 2015 out of Salt Lake and had it shipped over to Denver. It wasn't quite in the condition I had hoped it was in based on the eBay listing, but I'm still satisfied with the purchase. Here she is the day she got to Denver:
The ad had said it was "all original" and that's close to being accurate. Didn't care for the polished wheels, some of the cladding is lightly damaged, the interior is pretty well worn, and the hood is IMO not the original hood. Also some issues with the paint. Appeared to me that the truck sat outside most of its life and wasn't properly cared for. But it was still what I wanted, something I could buy cheaper, put the work in myself, and end up with a nicer truck.
The truck was pretty dirty when she showed up, so I pulled it into the shop and spent the better part of a weekend washing and detailing the Ty.
I still have some concerns about the quality of the paint job that's on there, but for a 25 year old truck I'm okay with it for now.
Then it was time to get to work on the rest of the truck.
First step was the stereo, the cones on the speakers in the dash had actually partially disintegrated and the HU was an old Eclipse unit that barely worked. Total 90's throwback. I pulled that out in favor of a Pioneer flip out screen that was almost identical to the one in my F250 (except the F250 is a true double DIN so the screen is all in the dash and doesn't flip out). I like the unit, but torn on looks so far. Swapped out the 4x6's in the dash and 6x9's in the b-pillar for some Pioneer speakers as well.
From there the next item on the list was the shocks. The shocks that were on there were doing absolutely nothing at all. Got some Bilsteins and it made a world of difference.
The tires were still completely suspect though. They were undersized, old, and crappy tires to begin with. One tire was dry rotted to the point it wouldn't hold air for more than a couple days, another had a plug in the sidewall, bad stuff. So I got a hold of some stock wheels from fivetodrive and put some BFG G-Force Sport Comp 2's in the stock 245/50R16 size on the truck and it looks much better now. Also drove considerably better have some real rubber under the truck.
Having had the truck for a few months now at this point and having put a few hundred miles on it, I was able to start compiling a list of what needed to be done on the rest of the truck, and have started working on that. My original #1 concern was that it leaked oil like the Exxon Valdez, so I began to acquire parts to clean that up, but one night driving home under WOT I heard a little pop and lost boost, still not 100% what caused that.
The truck hasn't moved under it's own power since Thanksgiving or so, but here's the list of what's currently being done:
SportMachines Block Oil Filter Conversion
SportMachines Tune-Up Kit
SportMachines Silicone Vacuum Line Kit
RPM Cold Air Intake
RPM Turbo Drain Hose
New Vacuum Ball (old one was oddly mangled and the nipple to connect the vac lines looked broken)
I also pulled the inner fenders on both sides for all of the work I've been doing, made it TONS easier to get to everything. I'm going to put them back, but like many of you have already done I won't be re-using all of the fasteners. Although zipping them out with air tools really doesn't take that long.
Quite a few things have been done on this truck that seem to have been done by someone with questionable mechanical ability so I'm hoping to slowly make my way through all of those and make this a solid running, mostly stock truck.
Current status:
I also have to give props to the guys over at SportMachines. Great products, great communication, fast shipping, top notch. I've dealt with a lot of niche vendors over the years and they are a great example of how a vendor should operate in such a niche market.
Anyways, I bought #1852 off eBay in December of 2015 out of Salt Lake and had it shipped over to Denver. It wasn't quite in the condition I had hoped it was in based on the eBay listing, but I'm still satisfied with the purchase. Here she is the day she got to Denver:
The ad had said it was "all original" and that's close to being accurate. Didn't care for the polished wheels, some of the cladding is lightly damaged, the interior is pretty well worn, and the hood is IMO not the original hood. Also some issues with the paint. Appeared to me that the truck sat outside most of its life and wasn't properly cared for. But it was still what I wanted, something I could buy cheaper, put the work in myself, and end up with a nicer truck.
The truck was pretty dirty when she showed up, so I pulled it into the shop and spent the better part of a weekend washing and detailing the Ty.
I still have some concerns about the quality of the paint job that's on there, but for a 25 year old truck I'm okay with it for now.
Then it was time to get to work on the rest of the truck.
First step was the stereo, the cones on the speakers in the dash had actually partially disintegrated and the HU was an old Eclipse unit that barely worked. Total 90's throwback. I pulled that out in favor of a Pioneer flip out screen that was almost identical to the one in my F250 (except the F250 is a true double DIN so the screen is all in the dash and doesn't flip out). I like the unit, but torn on looks so far. Swapped out the 4x6's in the dash and 6x9's in the b-pillar for some Pioneer speakers as well.
From there the next item on the list was the shocks. The shocks that were on there were doing absolutely nothing at all. Got some Bilsteins and it made a world of difference.
The tires were still completely suspect though. They were undersized, old, and crappy tires to begin with. One tire was dry rotted to the point it wouldn't hold air for more than a couple days, another had a plug in the sidewall, bad stuff. So I got a hold of some stock wheels from fivetodrive and put some BFG G-Force Sport Comp 2's in the stock 245/50R16 size on the truck and it looks much better now. Also drove considerably better have some real rubber under the truck.
Having had the truck for a few months now at this point and having put a few hundred miles on it, I was able to start compiling a list of what needed to be done on the rest of the truck, and have started working on that. My original #1 concern was that it leaked oil like the Exxon Valdez, so I began to acquire parts to clean that up, but one night driving home under WOT I heard a little pop and lost boost, still not 100% what caused that.
The truck hasn't moved under it's own power since Thanksgiving or so, but here's the list of what's currently being done:
SportMachines Block Oil Filter Conversion
SportMachines Tune-Up Kit
SportMachines Silicone Vacuum Line Kit
RPM Cold Air Intake
RPM Turbo Drain Hose
New Vacuum Ball (old one was oddly mangled and the nipple to connect the vac lines looked broken)
I also pulled the inner fenders on both sides for all of the work I've been doing, made it TONS easier to get to everything. I'm going to put them back, but like many of you have already done I won't be re-using all of the fasteners. Although zipping them out with air tools really doesn't take that long.
Quite a few things have been done on this truck that seem to have been done by someone with questionable mechanical ability so I'm hoping to slowly make my way through all of those and make this a solid running, mostly stock truck.
Current status:
I also have to give props to the guys over at SportMachines. Great products, great communication, fast shipping, top notch. I've dealt with a lot of niche vendors over the years and they are a great example of how a vendor should operate in such a niche market.
