oh, one other little thing I forgot: finished my front wheel well splash shields. The OEM ones were long-gone so cut some out of some scrap thin HPDE sheet, used some push-fasteners, and hit them with bedliner. Because keeping as much mud out of the engine bay as possible is always a plus, as I've learned from the rally car...
mr2s2000elise said:Funny when I met her, she had a first gen mazda3, purple sedan. Bought from enterprise at 30k miles. It was the biggest POS ever. In DC/Boston/RI all electronics would cut out going 80mph . Randomly
at 80k we replaced it with a Nc2
from 17-30 I heavily modded all my cars. WRX, hondas , miatas.
since then I stopped modding heavily. No reason. Just turned myself off. I would have new wheels, coil overs, exhaust, before even brought a new car home. Every car has volk, ssr, bbs 2-3 sets each car.
these days I mod still - but much less. I mod what I need.
yep, my DD GTI has almost nothing done other than better wheels/tires and resonator delete. I much more enjoy working on the old cars and just driving the new ones. And the GTI is so good stock, I don't feel as if modding it heavily is worth the time or money. But old cars, they are much more fun and much easier to make "better than stock"
Ok, so a bit more fun update today. Tires were mounted! To make it better, the tire shop that I use a lot told me the scratched the paint on one during balancing (big deal, I rattle-canned them!) so they basically comped the price and charged me for two mount/balances instead of five. So, can't complain there. wheel scratches don't concern me in the least...they're gonna get a lot more scratches.
So, of course I put them on immediately :)
The truck has a bit more rake to it than I liked, so I cranked the torsion bars and brought the front up a bit over an inch after I took this photo. Did an alignment/check - pretty much zero camber up front and just slight negative in the rear - I'll have to see what the factory specs are. Then after eyeballing it I got out camber plates (yeah Jim, I still have them) and got them to zero toe - again, will have to check to see what is recommended.
While I was doing that the UPS guy showed up with some endlinks I ordered based on measurements of the stock ones, which were pretty much dead-on. The old ones were completely shot, and missing one of the bushings anyhow. Not that I need "performance" but the urethane ones were cheaper than ordering OEM anyhow.
Also delivered a cheap fuse box I got off Amazon. I have the same one on the Porsche and it's worked well for the past couple years and is inexpensive, so figured I'd just get that one again. mounted it up on the battery tray "guard" piece. Right now just two things run to it...
Did another quick drive up the street and back to test the 4wd shifting, and it worked, as did the lights for it, so i know my switch wiring back on the transfer case is good...
And, to join the GRM sticker on the bumper, had to add an ExPo sticker since those are the two places that I'm posting this thread and the two places that have been the most help in my research and questions.
Two other things:
1) I chalked the tires for my run up the street and looks like around 25psi is about right on all four to get them full-tread on the ground - since these are narrow wheels with fairly wide tires. Will play with it a bit more once the car is legal to drive on real roads.
2) I noticed that 2nd gear syncro is not very good at all, and requires double-clutching (my 500-foot drive didn't give me a chance to get rev-matching right). Which is funny, since on the vid of the guy on Hooniverse test-driving his '89 Montero, he had the same issue. It won't take much getting used to, though, because the rally car's 2nd gear synchro is sticky as well so I always double-clutch into 2nd (though that car has a LOT more power so doesn't really need a downshift to 2nd very often. This may just be from it running bad fluid previously - so perhaps after some miles with the Redline MTL it'll free up better. We'll see, but not a huge issue.
Could be a scene from a suburban driveway in 1989...
Nice! Those tires look mean on there.
I was browsing the Expo forum and saw your thread there today too lol
MTL transformed my E36. Second gear was okay but not great when I got the car. The first switch helped but I actually noticed even more of a difference after the second change. From then on it was perfect.
I tried penzzoil synchromesh in a parts E36 I got going and it brought back the same synchro from the dead but it was never quite as good as the MTL.
spandak said:Nice! Those tires look mean on there.
I was browsing the Expo forum and saw your thread there today too lolMTL transformed my E36. Second gear was okay but not great when I got the car. The first switch helped but I actually noticed even more of a difference after the second change. From then on it was perfect.
I tried penzzoil synchromesh in a parts E36 I got going and it brought back the same synchro from the dead but it was never quite as good as the MTL.
lol yeah it's the same thread, just cut and pasted. Seems like only a few people actually follow it there, I only get regular comments from a couple users lol....probably because it's a forum FULL of awesome overland builds, so nothing I'm doing is all that neat by comparison :)
Yeah, hopefully the MTL will free it up. Time will tell :)
The e30 still has the G240 (M42 transmission) mated to the M50 and it uses ATF instead of gear oil. It shifts great overall, just have to be a bit careful on the downshifts to 2nd. With the M42 and its low power, that was an issue since we used 2nd a lot in slower corners. WIth the M50 and it's great torque there is really no need to unless you're REALLY slow.
Tires look great!
I will have to check your thread on the expo forum!
mr2s2000elise said:Tires look great!
I will have to check your thread on the expo forum!
lol, it's exactly the same, really.
Love your work, especially the plaid interior.
Most of the SWB Pajeros have rusted away and disappeared here in NZ.
I found a copy of this book at a swap meet a couple of years ago, 124 pages of Pajeros and Dakar action from 1987 (link to an example NMNA https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubishi-9e-Rallye-Paris-Alger-Dakar-Book-1987-Like-New-Collectible-/113973629699
LoneWolf said:Love your work, especially the plaid interior.
Most of the SWB Pajeros have rusted away and disappeared here in NZ.
I found a copy of this book at a swap meet a couple of years ago, 124 pages of Pajeros and Dakar action from 1987 (link to an example NMNA https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubishi-9e-Rallye-Paris-Alger-Dakar-Book-1987-Like-New-Collectible-/113973629699
Damn, that's cool. Does it have any details in it about vehicle setup, etc?
The trans in my car had ATF too. I didn't know any better when I put the MTL in. I never understood why they put ATF in as a factory fluid.
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:LoneWolf said:Love your work, especially the plaid interior.
Most of the SWB Pajeros have rusted away and disappeared here in NZ.
I found a copy of this book at a swap meet a couple of years ago, 124 pages of Pajeros and Dakar action from 1987 (link to an example NMNA https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubishi-9e-Rallye-Paris-Alger-Dakar-Book-1987-Like-New-Collectible-/113973629699
Damn, that's cool. Does it have any details in it about vehicle setup, etc?
No sorry, just lotsa pics, including all the Pajeros which raced that year, not much text,.
Those tires are perfect on there! You've done an awesome job with this Raider in such a short amount of time!
Good find on the endlinks, may have to splurge on those for our gen1!
Extremely jealous of those "pomegranate" wheels, they turned out really good with that color combo.
engiekev said:Good find on the endlinks, may have to splurge on those for our gen1!
Extremely jealous of those "pomegranate" wheels, they turned out really good with that color combo.
I definitely think they are some of the coolest wheels available out there for older trucks. I was pretty excited that this one came with them. The bronze seems to have worked well - we'll see how it all looks once my full "exterior look" is complete. Nice thing about old trucks with old paint and lots of dents is that I can play around with some things and not worry if it doesn't look good initially :)
The endlinks were like 20 bucks, as I recall.
So I'm pretty excited about today's project, especially because I'm fabbing it literally with just a bunch of random stuff I have sitting around:
Some 1.50" DOM tubing and some 1.75" DOM tubing left over from building the rally car's roll cage years ago.
A piece of decking board (1.5x6 or so) left over from my deck project last week
The last decent-size piece of my plaid fabric
Random pieces of scrap metal I dug out of a plastic bin under my workbench.
So yeah, totally free project. So here's what I'm doing. The Montero Gen1/Raider has no freaking center armrest (other than the cover to the little cargo bin, which is far to low to actually put your arm on). That's actually pretty annoying. I really like having an armrest when driving pretty much anyplace (there is a long discussion on this topic in a Gen1 Montero on a Hooniverse video on youtube that's dead-on). So after thinking about it, decided to fab something up. The main requirements were 1) doesn't look to ghetto, 2) preferably can be made out of stuff I already have, to avoid going out to buy stuff, 3) preferably will be able to be adjusted in height, and 4) in a good position to not get in the way of shifting during regular driving.
So initially I played around with some square-profile tubing I had, but didn't have good sizes to work with each other. Then found some scrap pieces of DOM tubing left over from building the e30's cage, in two different diameters, which I already knew would slip right inside each other if the ends were clean/deburred. Then dug around for some smallish pieces of scrap metal (not sure what thickness offhand, but it's about as thick as I can cut with my jigsaw, basically, and is not flexible at all).
After a good bit of measuring and cutting, set it all up and welded the upper tube to the back of the "main plate"
The added a piece of small angle iron as a stiffener
and some paint.
So with the upper platform and arm completed, moved on to the armrest itself. I just happened to look over and see a scrap piece of decking board sitting there....conveniently already with rounded sides. So cut that to the length I wanted (slight bevel to the front end) and sanded all the corners and edges to round them off
Had some leftover thin upholstery backing, so doubled it up to add a bit of padding..
Then wrapped it with my last decent piece of the plaid stuff (I kept this piece specifically with this in mind, and it was literally just barely big enough - any smaller and I would have been out of luck and been forced to use some black vinyl fabric I also have.
Then used some screws to attach it to the upper base plate. Note the little exposed metal "triangle" directly over the post. This was left intentionally, as I have a future use for it that I didn't do today.
Then drilled a few sets of adjustment holes
Then I took the larger pipe and welded it to a square base, which I then bolted directly through the driveshaft/transmission tunnel behind the center console. This area is double-layer sheetmetal and I put some giant washers underneath to distribute the load. No pics of the lower section, forgot to take them. Then I slipped the upper section into the lower section and used a bolt to set it to the middle height setting, and bolted it to the floor.
So here's how it came out - perfect height to rest my arm/elbow on but just low enough so it's not in the way of shifting comfortably.
My 7-year-old tested it out and approved (it wasn't bolted in yet in this pic so was sitting crooked)
So yeah, pretty excited about how that turned out since it was free and I kind of just built it off-the-cuff without much planning. The plan is to add 2 more cupholders at the back end, which won't be all that useful when driving specifically, but will be good to have (I have the other cupholders on the doors).
The only other thing today was a gallon of Rustoleum Professional "Sand" color paint came in. This is what I'll use for the rockers and the roof, but the actual color turned out a bit more orange-y than i expected, so I decided to mix in some black to tone down the color a bit. Because some black paint makes everything better, right?
So here's my little test pallette on one of the rockers. It doesn't show the color that well, but on the right is the color as it came. Middle to left are as I progressively added more black to it to get it where I wanted it (or, at least where I think I want it). Worst case, when I do it I'll se the color in a larger view and if it's still too light I can add more black for the 2nd coat, since a gallon of this is way overkill for what I'm doing (couldn't find it in quart size). Probably a project for next week or something, when it's warm and not humid.
So, slightly annoying safety weenie suggestion on the armrest- would you consider using a really soft bolt or something so it can rotate if it gets hit too hard? If you get T-boned you have a big fixed paddle aimed right at your torso now, and if the wood slides off the remaining sheet metal turns into a blade. I have no idea if it's more dangerous than other things in the interior but I have to think about this stuff all the time at work so it jumps out at me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:So, slightly annoying safety weenie suggestion on the armrest- would you consider using a really soft bolt or something so it can rotate if it gets hit too hard? If you get T-boned you have a big fixed paddle aimed right at your torso now, and if the wood slides off the remaining sheet metal turns into a blade. I have no idea if it's more dangerous than other things in the interior but I have to think about this stuff all the time at work so it jumps out at me.
Done and done
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:Inspiration...
https://jacksonville.craigslist.org/ctd/d/tampa-dodge-raider-pajero-montero/7119154947.html
That's really nice though it makes me chuckle that he still has the factory truck size steering wheel lol. I do not have any current plans for roof racks and stuff like that since I am not intending to carry anything up there and don't really want the dead weight. Would definitely look cool though :)
That one has a lot of really cool interior and cosmetic mods, pretty surprising it just has the stock 4 cylinder in it with all that effort! I will almost certainly steal the bumper lights idea though :)
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
Man that thing is stunning
one thing, I would change the seats to this style personally:
love the roof rack and ladder. I finally got my gobi ladder after 2 months of waiting . I have 0 need for it, but as a poseur I love it
mr2s2000elise said:In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
Man that thing is stunning
one thing, I would change the seats to this style personally:
love the roof rack and ladder. I finally got my gobi ladder after 2 months of waiting . I have 0 need for it, but as a poseur I love it
And the stock seats are pretty good actually, they even have adjustable side supports! The hard part these days is finding ones that aren't all ripped up.
I have been eyeing the Gobi ladder for the Sequoia for years now, And I actually carry a lot of stuff up there. But I still can't seem to justify actually buying it lol. I just climb up the side using the rear seat folded over as a step
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
I went back
and forth for 12 months. $235 was the price. Went on sale for $180, grabbed it
very happy
its my last mod
Didn't have much to do today. Fiddled with some exhaust stuff in preparation for installing a new muffler in the next week or so. Decided I might as well address the little rust-bubbling up on the front right corner of the roof. No idea why it's happening there (nothing similar anyplace else) - thinking maybe some moisture got in through the roll/pinch seam of the front gutter corner, since looks like a bit of the seam sealer there is gone. IDK.
So anyhow, got out the wire wheel and stripped the area and located a handful of small rust holes, as expected
Got the welder out and filled them (man, took me while to get my settings and technique right, as this is some pretty thin metal). But eventually got them filled and ground smooth-ish. Sheet metal work is definitely NOT a strong suit of mine by any means. Luckily, with this being 6 feet up on the roof nobody will notice any imperfections. Plus the roof is going to get some amount of texture when I paint it that should hide any of that.
Then a bit of bondo and filler primer
So will smooth that out better tomrrow and prime it. May pull the inner panel to see if there's any access to hit the inside with some paint as well.
Also, sneak preview of another upgrade next week....
Old school two spoke rally wheel? Recce wheel with 1-6 corner grades on it, calibrated to the turning radius of the truck?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:Old school two spoke rally wheel? Recce wheel with 1-6 corner grades on it, calibrated to the turning radius of the truck?
Nothing that fancy, but a little something from my guys down at Condor that I think will be perfectly appropriate for this vehicle :)
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