Pete M

hvac is out! maximum grossness. but it's trash anyway so I don't care. plenty of rust on the floor, but I don't see the streaks of rust coming from multiple places like with the last truck. found out how they got in. the previous owner's solution was some foil tape over the hole

mmmm... tasty. radiator fluid was pretty nasty. hoses/t-stat/etc will be replaced, but I think the radiator is usable. we'll see what the inside looks like when I do the t-stat. might pull the pump just to check condition. another fun surprise. some of the fan blades are bent at the tips.

on ebay

the junkyard was good to me also got a radio and vacuum canister. and snagged an Expedition hitch to go with the Scar-fab brackets that just showed up. also got Brandon's seat brackets. the Expedition is one of the few rigs out there that has a hitch that's wide enough to use the center bit on an MJ. everything seems to mount their hitches to the inner part of the frames and so they are too short.

personally I dislike the tape-on versions. to the point that I'm going to be paying out the nose for some in-channel versions for my pt cruiser because they are all located overseas. (as soon as I have some extra cash)

managed to get the front end off before the sun hit the driveway. also found that someone before me broke the vacuum canister and glued it back together rather than replacing it.

the more you dig, the more you find looks like I'm ordering some new sockets too.

lord only knows how long it sat with rainwater getting in.

this is what I'm talking about. if it's steel and not painted, it's rusty. but most of it is not being reinstalled so it's mostly fine.

oh, and started stripping out the doors

the hvac is absolutely filled with nesting material sourced from other parts of the truck. but that's a fight for another day. today I got the dash out.

I haven't shared all the rodent damage to the aftermarket wires. factory harness seems to be good though. looks like the aftermarket wires were made of the tasty stuff.

don't see why not. what is holding the bedsides to the wheelwells? is it cut or folded or what?

belongs to Maydaymalones.

some of the custom wiring I found and the pass side speaker hasn't made a noise in a while

the next day I got enough out that I was able to pull the carpet. going to need a full floor replacement on the drivers side, including up the trans tunnel. but the pass side seems solid except for 1 hole in the inner rocket centered around one of those stupid self tappers. time to invest in some more cutting wheels and spot weld cutters. lots of them.

for starters, this time I know up front what I'm getting myself into and so I bought a large shelf to contain all the goodies that came with the truck and hold all the parts that come off the truck. step one was a doozie. due to rust, the floor brackets were in horrible shape and the bench didn't slide forward or backward anymore. only a couple of the nuts came free as they should. ended up needing to cut 3 of the brackets to free the seat. the 4th one was already severed. that chunk of rust is one of the nuts. but after much sweating, I got the bench out

this time it's a 91. (and hopefully less of a basketcase, but we'll see) 4x4/4.0/AX-15/aluminum rims/full cluster that contrasts with having no AC, non-int wipers, and even a radio delete. (which explains the odd radio and wiring I found). the radio, alarm, and rollbar w/lights were added at some point. she's only got 30k miles, but it's clear that she's sat for much of her life. the floor is wasted and every bracket and brace that wasn't painted has rusted due to trapped moisture in the cab. but most all of it is not being reused, so it's ok. lots of rodent evidence too, but the dash and hvac are getting replaced so that should take care of the smell. basic plans are to fix the floor, the water leaks, and anything else that's broken or rusted. while we're at it we'll upgrade with AC, better dash, radio, small lift, and anything else that the owner wants to freshen up the truck. so follow along on this sweaty summertime adventure. join me, shall you?

how much tire coverage do you want? I'm sure I've seen guys mount the factory units a bit higher up. can't get much more factory looking than factory.

oh crap!

@jdog

it is a new AUX port (headphone jack style port) soldered to the AM input inside the radio. Jeremey has a writeup on it somewhere here on the CC and I imagine by now other guys have youtube vids on it. another option I found that might work for your current deck (read the whole thread):

have you looked up adding bluetooth to the original radio? Jeremy did that to a couple of mine (meaning he added an AUX input in place of the AM input and I added a bluetooth dongle to that). I put one of them in my Liberty