B2600 4x4 Project

I wanted to go ahead and start a thread in case you guys had any advice on my restoration.

It's a '91 B2600, 4x4, extended cab, 5spd., 200k miles, 3" lift.



I put a new windshield and sliding back glass in it as soon as I got it home.

When I bought it, it didn't start but turned over fine, so I was fairly confident I could get it going again. I pulled the head and replaced the disintegrated head gasket ().





That fixed the starting issues, but then I noticed a leak around the crank pulley (). I got a new timing cover gasket set today. I should be able to get that on this weekend to stop the now massive leak.



The plans for this truck are at a minimum making it a reliable and comfortable daily driver. There is also a possibility of making it into a really fun truck and building some wider a-arms and throwing in a Ford 9" rear end to build it like a mini trophy truck. At that point, it may get an engine transplant to something around the 300HP range. That would only come after some major chassis stiffening including interior/exterior roll cage.

I found a matching red tailgate at a local salvage yard. It even had the matching cover for the bedliner.

The bumper ends were ordered today:

A replacement bumper is coming from eBay:

I repainted the grill yesterday (pictures to come).

It will get RX8 seats.

The wheels are coming from a Nissan Armada. They will be painted flat black.



For tires, I will probably run 32" Goodyear Wrangler MTR's.



I bought a deck for audio/video last night, too:

I bought this one because of the way it slides down instead of sliding up. I'm going to install this one in the hole below the AC vents instead of the normal radio pocket. With it sliding down, it will not block the AC, which only blows hot air right now.



My next major purchase is the RX8 seats. If you know of anyone near Birmingham, AL that is selling a set of these seats, please let me know.

If you guys have any build suggestions, let'em fly!

I like the way your thinking into making it a mini trophy truck.

There's a salvage yard up here in North Alabama that has a really nice mint set of b2200 buckets if you're not dead set on the RX8 seats.

Head unit installed just under the center AC vents. Heck, I didn't realize I was going to have to cut on the dash supports. Oh well, I like it much better there than where the OEM head unit went. I put Memphis 4" speaks in the dash and Memphis 6x9's in the rear, all powered by a 4 channel Memphis amp. No subs at this point. I'm going to try to do without them in exchange for more functional space behind the seats.

I also pulled radiator and timing pulley to fix the leak. All is well now and while I was in I went ahead and replaced some other gaskets. It should be good to go for a while now.

I picked up some leather RX8 seats:

I think I'm going to try to fiber glass a console. I've never done that before and always wanted to. Suggestions?

I noticed while I was under the truck that I need some new sway bar bushings. Do you guys know of any place with a polyurethane bushing kit for these things?

Wheels, check.



The RX8 seats came in Thursday. They looked great except that the driver's seat pan was bent (and they rubbed due to no packing material). Apparently these "mint" seats aren't so "mint". The seller refunded $100. Now I have to tear them apart and fix the broken parts and straighten the bent parts. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Pictures to come.

on the bright side he refunded some money

Yeah, I basically gave him the option of refunding $100 or giving me a full refund. I think he made a good business decision by just refunding the $100. And you're right; most people would have just been dishonest about it and screwed me over.

glad he worked with you

Update

The Armada wheels didn't work out (for sale if interested). I just didn't like the offset. I wanted something that allowed the wheel to stick out of the fender well a little more. Until I figure out what I want to do for wheels, I just got some other tires to mount on the stockers. It's nothing special, but at least I'm not running on threads now.

I got the seats installed. They're exactly what I wanted. During this process, I also moved the amp from under the passenger seat to the jack compartment after cutting out all of the jack brackets. I mounted it upside down to the bottom of the jack box cover. That way you can open the "lid" to the jack box and have perfect access to the amp if needed.

The truck is now at the paint booth for a new shot of red and dent "fix'n". Hopefully it will be done within the next couple of weeks. I was thinking about going back with a single stage paint from Sikkens called "UTech". Have any of you guys had experience with this product? It's going to cost me (materials only) about $150 (wholesale) to do the truck in a single stage versus about $400 for base coat/clear coat.

I'm also going to have line-x sprayed instead of putting the OE bedliner back in.

Finally made some progress at the painter.

The top of the truck will be flat black down to about 3" below the bed line, separated by a silver pin stripe.





Bed will get a spray in liner.

All photos: