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Post by chip on Mar 25, 2016 13:30:34 GMT -8
Ok I'm going to start a build thread, even though the build is almost done. I'll start from the beginning, back before I decided to go racing with it. Here it is on my driveway the night I brought it home, the engine was a mess, head and pistons destroyed when it dropped an exhaust valve seat in the #4 cyl. Had to trailer it up from San Diego where I bought it.
Those are my two sons in the front seat. I later taught both of them to drive in this truck. Don't ask me what the hell the Handsome Meat Co. was! |
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Post by chip on Mar 25, 2016 13:53:25 GMT -8
Well, While I was gathering parts for the motor, I decided to dive into the rest of the thing. turns out the engine was not the only part that was in bad shape.
It was rusted this bad at both sides of the windshield.
Likewise the floor and rockers were rusted to hell on both sides. Clearly I had my work cut out for me. |
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Post by classicjackets on Mar 27, 2016 12:53:40 GMT -8
That's a lot of rust! Will be interested to see how you tackle replacing all that metal
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Post by chip on Mar 29, 2016 14:50:53 GMT -8
Well, I'll tell you how I did it. Since I didn't have a welder or the knowledge (at the time) of how to weld sheet metal, I used glue! no joke. As you can see in the photo below, I fashioned patches from sheet metal and then stuck them down with JB Weld and pop rivets, lots of JB Weld and lots of pop rivets. It is surprising just how well this worked. These areas became rock solid again and have stayed that way ever since. Here's a before and after of the drivers side floor.
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Post by torq4u on Mar 30, 2016 16:43:34 GMT -8
did you use a rust stopper ?
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Post by chip on Mar 31, 2016 6:49:43 GMT -8
I didn't put anything on it, just gave it a good hit with the wire brush. JB Weld sticks to anything, and forms a strong enough bond to exclude water. Once all the patches were done, I used a rust inhibiting primer over everything and sprayed a good heavy coat of rubberized undercoating on top of it all. After four years it is all still solid and there is no evidence of continuing rust. |
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Post by chip on Jun 21, 2016 8:44:04 GMT -8
Well I am ashamed of how long it has been since I added a post here. Been busy getting the truck whipped into shape for racing. So I am going to cut to the chase here on the first round of restorations I did to the truck. Bottom line, I patched up all the rust holes as detailed above, and broke out the rattle cans for what was going to be a digital camo paint job. the digital proved to be tooooo much work, so it just got a coat of flat olive drab paint and a canvas cover for the bed.
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Post by chip on Jun 21, 2016 8:50:51 GMT -8
I drove it around like this for a long time. Then finally at the beginning of 2015 I bought a new Toyota and the old courier was up for retirement. I had been thinking of going SCTA racing for a couple of years, so rather than send the old girl to the scrap heap, I decided to race the Courier. I'll post a few pics of the process, but the bottom line is, I started from scratch. Stripped it down to a bare chassis and started scraping and painting and replacing everything that moves. Complete replacement of every moving part in the front end 5 speed transmission All new clutch parts All new brake and clutch lines and gas line Front discs were swapped on Then I re-installed the body and the real work began . . . |
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Post by chip on Apr 18, 2019 14:25:25 GMT -8
Well I don't know how long the forum has been back on the air. I gave up on it a couple of years ago and thought it would never re-appear. I've got three years of racing the old courier behind me now and a few stories and photos to share if anyone is still interested. Let me know and I'll start posting again. |
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Post by rmfool on May 3, 2019 23:00:29 GMT -8
HELL YA I WANT TO HEARD AND SEE MORE!!! I moved a couple years ago a few hours from bonneville. Before I moved I had the chance to buy my grandfathers old courier and I was thinking of doing a land speed truck. So yes tell and show more please!!!
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Post by chip on May 6, 2019 10:06:53 GMT -8
Ok. I've been super busy recently but I'll try to put together some posts and pics.
Meanwhile, here is a link to in-car video from a run I made in May 2017. this was only my second or third time racing the truck, and the speed was just a shade over 96mph. Not super fast, but keep in mind that the engine is nearly bone stock. I don't know any other stock Couriers that go that fast.
I've gone faster since then but I'll get to those details later.
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Post by littlefordpickup on May 10, 2019 19:31:36 GMT -8
great
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Post by rmfool on Jun 6, 2019 13:33:34 GMT -8
Awsome!!! Man reminds me of being 17. According to the speedo in ours it went 100 after having it floored for about 3 miles, haha and on asphalt. First vehicle I ever drove that fast. Thanks for that video. I had a kid last year so the courier project has not got off the ground yet. Hope to figure some of it out soon. I have a 302 in a mustang that is a fairly stock 68 motor with 289 ported heads and cam I might install or a turbo 2.3 or was thinking about a rotary and drive train from a rx8 (I owned one few years ago). But kid comes first.
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Post by littlefordpickup on Jun 7, 2019 23:05:48 GMT -8
Awsome!!! Man reminds me of being 17. According to the speedo in ours it went 100 after having it floored for about 3 miles, haha and on asphalt. First vehicle I ever drove that fast. Thanks for that video. I had a kid last year so the courier project has not got off the ground yet. Hope to figure some of it out soon. I have a 302 in a mustang that is a fairly stock 68 motor with 289 ported heads and cam I might install or a turbo 2.3 or was thinking about a rotary and drive train from a rx8 (I owned one few years ago). But kid comes first. family always first,i had a rx7 wagon that had a rotary engine .it had a 4bbl carb on it,was very fast,but i had a pinto wagon i put a 302 in it, scary fast,good ol days, |
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Post by chip on Feb 8, 2021 13:51:07 GMT -8
Once again it's been forever and I haven't posted anything new. Life gets in the way.
Anyway, to update - with a few more tweaks to the basically stock engine (I.E. An Offenhouser intake manifold and a Weber 38/38 DGAS) I got it up to 102+ MPH in May of 2018. It was a great run and I got all there was to get out of it as I went through the gears. So in round 2 of course, I was determined to get just a little bit more . . . and blew up the engine!
Not really as bad as it sounds, just a blown head gasket and three quarts of oil all over the engine compartment! But what it meant was that I wasn't going to get any more out of an essentially stock engine. So I went to work on it and never got back to the track that year.
In fact, it hasn't been raced since. The winter of 2018/19 was so wet that it wrecked El Mirage dry lake where we race and we didn't get a race event in until October of 2019. The courier wasn't yet put back together so I didn't race it.
Then 2020 - well you all know what happened to 2020.
But 2021 will be a different story and I'll be back at it with an improved motor. Still the same bottom end and rotating assembly in the truck but a completely new head. Larger valves, much larger ports, a cam with nearly twice the lift, beefier valve springs. Plus I installed an AFR meter so I can get the carb jetting dialed in - I never was satisfied with the jetting.
Plus, to be sure I don't blow another head gasket, an ARP head stud set so I can get better clamping action on the head and a better seal.
Of course none of the new parts are "Courier" parts. The head is a complete Frankenstien assembly, Toyota valves, Ford 4.5L valve springs, custom seats etc. but at least it's a genuine Courier head casting :-). The ARP head studs are for a Porsche and required some modification to the valve cover to work.
Still haven't quite got it all back together and fired up, but it won't be long now. I'm planning a test and tune day for March.
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