90excab BD - project GetBY.. bed repair started..

So I recently purchased a former minitruckin feature truck. I have been into minitrucks since I was 16 (now 35) but haven't had a truck in about 10yrs. I bought this truck out of IL and have been busy trying to get the bags and things back up to acceptable standards. The truck has an engine compressor and everything works but once I got it home I found a torn front bag and figured out the front setup was done improperly. So I have been focused on trying to get it back to safe. Here are a few pics and links..

Truck in better times.. minitruckin feature..



Bringing it home... graphics were not my decision I prefer clean and simple two tone..



Rebuilt the link setup in the rear new bushings, replaced 1 endlink.. ground off some ridiculous mounts.. straightened some brackets and moved a bracket to straighten the rearend because it was a 1/4" out of square!

This is where the front started..


This is where I ended up after about 14~20 hrs of cutting and grinding then rewelding..



So thats the driver side now I need to paint everything the reassemble everything and start all over again on the other side. There is a car show here in KY in Oct I hope to be able to at least drive it to the show..

I hope to update this thread regularly but progress is slow with a job, family etc.. everyone knows the drill.. I mean it has taken me about 5 days to do what I would have done in one night when I was 20 HA..

There's just something to be said for a simple paint job on 2wd sheetmetal. Definitely my favorite look.

still looks nice man...wat show is coming up, and whats the dates

It's just a local show in Winchester Ky. Hot rod show but I have set goals, it's just how I motivate myself.

oh ok..i was going to go to the one in cave city but my brother backed out at the last min so i didnt go

Keep us posted man love the truck!!

nice truck like the color remeber when that was a feature turck... nice all one color...heads up for you, so you cant have the upper mount like that perp to the ground it needs to be perpendicular to the lca at full droop... probably why it had a torn bag from pinching it at droop..and it will continue to at that configuration

look in the tech section there should be a thread on the front and hoow to do it...finger likin colonel sanders bought some of these mounts ...i think airbagit.com strikes again with no engineering...

u made it look as nice as possible and i think u can haver it fixed in a night with some new upper mounts...just dont leave it that way or you wont get full travel and u will replace bags all the time...its like i tell my frineds when they buy shit for there trucks, all bolt on means is it has holes in it ... doesnt mean it corresponds with anything on your truck

Thank you for the reply and the advice.

I actually read through that entire thread before I cut the first thing. The reason the first bag tore was because the original setup was pushed so far out it was rubbing the spindle. I have actually bagged a Mazda once before but I like to research everything and see how others do it. You can always learn from others. I think the new setup should be fine. I will report back once I have it on the ground. I put the first side back together tonight will be posting pics below..

update pics...

Ok so with some schedule shuffling I wound up with a garage night on my hands. My buddy came over and we reassembled the drivers side. Below are some pictures:







Had a little bit of a set back I kinked a brake line trying to rerun because it was kind of just wadded up by someone. So I have to order some parts and bend some brake lines.
Cut off all the old garbage on the passenger side and started to grind it all down but it was 11pm so it was time for a shower. Maybe Sunday I can get back on it again.

couple more pics..



Figured out how to make the pics bigger.. so here is a bigger pic of the truck..



and one gratuitous shot of my buddies wagon... we have been working on this thing for over 10 years.. its baaad..