Project dropzone.. 91 reg cab short box 4.0 aut

well heres the story.... My dad calls me up and asks if i want to start anther project .,.. I have a 45x30 shop that has 4 projects in it and theres 3 out side weighting to get in so I reply with not really but curious I asked what he had in mind... well come to find out he had purchased his neighbors 4.0 auto standard cab short box for 200$$ .... I asked why so cheep is it totaled .. turns out the motor was blown ..
I went over and looked at the truck and its very clean .. it was parked up against a tree that swayed in the wind and pushed the bumper in a little but other then that no rust and it has a complete under coating .. he wanted me to put a diff motor in it for him to use as a daily.. I told him as soon as i get one of my others out i would get it in and swap it for him ....

so two weeks go by and I finished one of the vehicles and called him and told him i was ready for it.. he tells me that he has decided its to small for what he needs to use it for and that if i want it i can have the truck.. (in the two weeks he had picked up an 83xxx mile 4.0 from the local salvage yard).. so thats were it all started ...


I brought the truck home tore out the old engine and tore the newer one apart and installed new rings and had the heads cleaned and a valve job done,, I took the top end apart and cleaned and painted every thing ,,

this weekend Im heading out to Wisconsin to pick up a beltech 3/4 lowering kit..I have a few pairs of rims lying around the shop.. haven't decided witch set im going to use yet .,.

and I know this thread is useless with out pics so here they are ..

here's the truck the day it cam into the shop..




heres the first set of rims there 16s




and heres a set of 18s i have but i cant find center caps for them


here's the new motor fresh from the salvage yard.



time to tare it apart clean it, paint it , I installed new rings and bearings and had a valve job done on the heads ..
Motor all put back together ready to be installed



while i was weighting for parts I pulled out the degresser and power washer and cleaned up the engine bay alittle bit..





and how it all sits now..








Some pics of the drop kit weighting to go in

what are you plans for it besides lowering it?

Man, 45X30 shop? That's crazy, I have to do all my work in the driveway . Anyway, this looks like an intresting project, and X2 on what nuclassic said, wanna hear some more about your plans.

well im not 100% on anything yet ,, I like clean classic stuff .. once its dropped im gona put it in the parking lot next door and take a bunch of pics and let it tell me what to do ..

I do have Some thoughts thow... Im removing the mirrors and either using a set of the smaller paddle style that I have or maybe some mirrors off and old Harley..
I also found this site
http://www.airbagit.com/product-p/rat-fr8292.htm
and have been tossing around the idea of a removeble hard top..
who knows its still in the air ..

well I got the motor completed and started today .. I backed it out and took some pics.. Its dirty and the hood is in the bed but its a start ..

well I got the front portion of the kit installed .. here's a few pics

tomorrow I'm gona get the rear portion done and then I can start the body/interior mods... I took a trip out to my local u-pull and got fenders hood lights and surrounds a few different grills and some mirrors .. I'm gona go back and get a bumper or two ..

I threw on the rear rims just to see how things looked..




then I took off the bed to get started on cleaning up the rear and installing the rear lowering kit..

Looks like you are off to a good start. I wish I had that shop to work with.

Got some more work done tonight... spent some quality time with the wire wheel on the frame ... Then I grabed the cutoff wheels and went at the old leafspring mounts .. after they were off i went back in with the wire wheel and cleaned up were the mounts were .. Tomarrow im going to paint the frame with a rust inhibitor and then give a good coating of black paint..

I did get a few things done last night ..
first i hit all the frame I could get to with a wire wheel on my right angle grinder ... then I cleaned it all with acetone and put three coats of rust stopper prohibitor stuff I picked up at napa .. then I sprayed about 3 coats of black frame paint i got form eastwood.com
I went with 5 cans of this http://www.eastwood.com/ew-chassis-black-gloss-aerosol-14-oz.html

I tried the rear set up normally and with the hanger flipped and I ended up going with it flipped .. I also started to tare the front apart .. newer fenders hood and grill .. heres some pics..

man, you wanna come pull my engine and clean it up and paint it??? lol

how'd you paint the aluminum parts? to keep it from peeling

I painted everything with kroylon engine enamal.. I cleaned everything as good as I could and anything that wouldent be harmed went into the oven for about 20 min at 350 to out gas the parts then I primed , cured , painted and cleared , and threw what i could in the oven agian this time only at 200 ..

so.. wanna come do mine now? lol. looks good.. keep it up. keep us updated on the build

what color Im rebuilding the 4.0 i pulled out of this truck .. haha