After spending a couple weeks rebuilding the transmission, installing a new trans cooler, redoing all the cooler lines, relocating the front rad fan, making all new battery cables, building a new battery tray on the passenger side plus a few other things I got the truck up and running. With the gf in mexico I decided it was a great time to take the truck out on a shake down run. Looks like I have more work to do.

Harrison Lake


Getting down to harrison lake. I drove my old 323 GTX down this road 2 years ago. This pic doesn't do justice of what the roads like but if the GTX wasn't 4wheel drive I would have never made it. There were a few occations where I had the car on only 2 wheels.I also beat up the stock skid plates so bad I had to throw them out.


Taking on "V" rock on the way up to Sunrise Lake


Little Camp out lunch, managed to get some sun.


Sunrise Lake, really nice little lake. There is a great rope swing set up thats lots of.


Playing around up at the lake after lunch, I also crawled up the same ledge.


"V" rock on the way back down, Front suspension is flexing out pretty good here.


A New meaning to 3 wheeling..



500 meters after V rock I heard a bad snap.. scoping out why my steering wheel went really loose.


Oh thats not good. Main steering linkage that is supposed to be bolted to drivers knuckle. This piece controls the steering to both tires.


The next night hauling the truck home. I was soo glad it wasn't vandlized after we had to leave it there over night. Remember kids when hauling a 4wd or rwd truck to disconnect the drive shaft. Crawling in the mud sucks!


Over all a great weekend, even when you get stuck 25km up the west side of harrison lake road.

Well it looks like the truck is doing well at it's purpose. Looks like a great little place to have fun getting into then have fun enjoying the unspoiled scenery.

Looks like awesome fun! Was that Brad following you on a dirtbike?

...with beer in hand!! Atta boy!

Of course once I broke the truck and knew I wouldn't be driving home, it was beer time!

Figured I would post up the fun I have been getting my self into with the blue bastered..
The carnage that left the truck stuck up at the entrance of sunrise lake..


Took the truck out on another shake down run.. The truck worked pretty good it made it home this time on its own power.. I did have one problem though the truck didn't seem to be charging up the batteries... I decided it was time to truck from head lights to tail lights.. The wiring was a scary rats nest..

A couple nice shots from that run..


my co-workers toyota.. its a really nice clean truck..


this is video of Wes getting pretty hairy trying to go up V-rock before sunrise lake...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v680/ ... I_0042.flv

Ok time to start ripping and tearing.. Day 1 started out looking like this.. I figured out part of the charging problem was a bad connection in the wiring to the alternator.. That didn't surprise me, the wiring is a mess in this truck..



quitting time as the rain started, so this is where I left it..


thankfully we had some nice weather and I was feeling good enough after work to put in some time on the truck...here is where I last left it


all the wiring I was stripped out of the truck so far... it was scary I found in some sections of wire 3 or 4 crimp connections used in order to make 1 wire long enough...

continued the fun with some more ripping and tearing.. heater hoses are getting redone as well..


New S-10 front bench seat for the truck.. this should be much more comfortable then the torn up stock front seat...Picked it up for $50..

had a buddy over for beers so I enlisted him to help me get the front seat mounted...


Top mounting plates positioned


Had to do a little clearancing on the the bottom of the cab for the bottom mounting plates

This is how she sits right now.. I picked up some new sheet metal for the front... I also managed to get a second stock gas tank.. It should be good to replace the rotten aux tank the truck has in it all ready..

Old beat up junk.. compaired to the new fender... These fenders look like they are brand new factory replacements.. they have dealer tags on the inside of them with no real signs of every getting dirty...



ahh that hood looks better..

Looking good. Hows the wiring going on it??

The wiring is going slowly... I started running most of the main engine wiring today.. also made up some new filler plates to fill the radio area and give me a place to mount all the switches and gauges..

Nice progress!

Damn wiring can be such time consuming work.. I have been working on it little bits here and there and making some head way... also made up some new pieces for the dash so I have places to mount the gauges and switches...

I relized to late that my hole saw was to big for the gauges.. I managed to dig up some pipe and decided to try and mount the gauges facing the driver... well its in there and worked but it sure isn't pretty.. some day I'll get around to redoing it but for now I have to get the truck up and running asap... my gf and I will be moving in the next few months here..


New pannel for the switches.. it worked out ok.. I could have spaced out the switches more but oh well..


Motor wiring coming along.. I still have few more wires to run, but for the most part this is how the wiring is shaping up to look... much cleaner then before..

whats a bastered? lol

Things are coming along slowly.. The truck is up and running now, almost road worthy.. For the most part the engine bay is done.. Once I make up a couple of brackets to support the cooler lines for my second rad and a couple of new battery tie downs I can move on to the interior..

That engine bay looks WAY better then the old birds nest of wires, lmao...what's the 2nd battery for, is that a backup or just for extra lights/accesories

Looks a million times better than when you got it.

off road lights, back up, and extra juice for the winch...

the truck is up and running now.. I still have lots to do, but for a little while it was road worthy.. lol.. I took it out 2 weeks ago for a little test run and confirmed that my alternator was dieing a slow and painfull death.. I ended up swapping that out in the parking lot of port kells comunity center.. everything else seemed to be working good... I took it out again this weekend hoping to have some fun going up to hut lake but unfortunatly I only got as far as the trail head.. My power steering pump sprung a leak on the way up and then something cut my lower rad hose.. I managed to duct tape the hose up good enough to drive the truck all the way home from squamish... so for now she'll sit again till I get around to fixing her up...

DAMN thats a long drive on duct tape lol

yeah I kept the rad cap loose on the second rad that is up in the bed of the truck.. that way the system wouldn't build pressure....It never leaked the whole way home... its sitting in my driveway still full of water... lol..

NICE