Minty Fresh '88

[InvitedChaos]

Don't let the name fool you - this little guy is in need of some serious TLC!

 

Bought in January, put in new battery and sparks but still had to jump the solenoid to limp it home on 5.5cyl (cyl 6 kept cutting in and out, seems to be a short in the wiring harness). 

 

Frame looks to be in pretty excellent shape, and tires are relatively new (only about 300mi on them, allegedly).

 

This thing has:

- 82k original miles

- No heat pump

- No rear bumper

- No exhaust

- No working dash gages

- Incorrect fuel injectors

- Bypassed coolant reserve

- A half-detached bench seat

- Drooping head liner

- Frozen hood hinge

- Painted-over chrome trim

- Awful LED headlights, and

- A crappy paint job that allegedly cost $2700, but was clearly done without sanding or a primer coat and is already peeling/trapping rust. 

 

I'm determined to get it back in respectable driving condition! Ideally, it'll be my daily driver and short-range camping vehicle. 

 

First up:

- Unfreeze hood hinge

- Determine whether the BMW injectors installed are actually detrimental or just non-ideal, and figure out if the system can adequately compensate 

- Buy and install a heat pump

- Route new tubing to reconnect coolant reservoir

- Redo the crappy wiring harness repair for injectors on cylinders 2 and 3 and inspect for damage on 6

- Troubleshoot gage clusters and repair or replace

- Get it to my godfather's shop so we can put it up in the lift and check out the overall structure

 

Wish me luck! 

 

[89 MJ]

Looks like a nice straight and solid starting point, although not the best taken care of for only 82k miles.

 

What do you mean by a heat pump though?

[ratrapp]

was wondering the same thing

[fiatslug87]

Welcome and have fun with it! Thanks for adding it to the registry.

[Chico]

Looks great! Man, don't quote me but, back 20 years ago, I think i put in the same fuel injectors a Ford 5.0 was using and they worked great and were relatively cheap at the time. Lemme see if I can pull up the old info from 20 years ago and I'll get back to you.

[Chico]

Forget the injectors. I might be wrong but the ones I pulled up that I think we put in 20 years ago are running $500 for the set. I'll have to check again in the morning when I can read clearly but that price is unbelievable and not worth the money IMHO.