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90 Amigo teardown...And rebuild (hopefully lol)

40K views 157 replies 23 participants last post by  mudoilngears 
#1 ·
Hello Planet!

I've been wanting to post up what I've been doing to my Amigo, and right now I have the time so here goes...
Here's what it looked like when I bought it.

Pretty rough in the looks dept, but mechanically sound. To my present knowledge
It's a 4x4 manual 5 speed with an LSD. Has non working AC that I plan to fix.
I started taking off the many layers of paint on there...

The hood after a lot of sanding and scraping...

And after a coat of etch primer


The mess after pulling the dash


The rust under the windshield, yeah I broke it getting it off. I was almost done and my knife flipped. I'd rather a new windshield, than have the rust under an old one.
Forgive the quality... Cell phone...


Plans include full paint, maybe pull off the body to good paint job on the frame, a slight suspension lift, on board air, redo the seat upholstery (my sister is going to help with that) and a winch if I can find one I can afford.

Back to the paint dept...
A closer look at the drivers side...
It seems to have had a disagreement with something solid at some point.


I thought the damage was limited to what can be seen here, but later discovered the whole wheel arch was pushed in about an inch.
I don't have auto body repair experience, or equipment so I rigged this up to pull it back out.

Further up, pulling again.

Kinda weird, but it worked pretty well.
Moral of this story is, look at all the details before you buy...

Current status went from this

to this yesterday


In the onboard air dept...
Old AC compressor mounted in place of the smog pump. Yes I will have to lubricate it, but since I won't be running it a lot, a shot of oil before each trip should do.

And a mock-up of tank location.

Right side, just opposite the silencer.
I still need to get the whole thing set up right, and get a pressure switch, but on a test run I got 140PSI easily. Not that I am planning to go over 125PSI though.

I changed the valve stem seals and the timing belt too. The seals were past bad and the valve cover was leaking. I passed the emissions test even with the bad seals though. Take a look at the plugs.

I installed some NGK V-Power plugs now.

Well, that's about it for now. I started this thread so you can point me in the right direction when I come to a problem, and so you can give me ideas. And of course, so you can see what it looked like. That way when I'm done we can do a poll to see if it looks better or worse, cause I've never painted a car before...
Thanks to everybody for all the great stuff on this site! it is now my browser's start page!
I'll try to update as I go...
 
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#3 ·
Ummm I failed to mention that I bought it over three months ago, but aside from the speed (or lack thereof) it's coming along OK. I'm sure I'm going to need some help when it comes to the diff drop and such things ;)...
 
#4 ·
looks like fun project to work on, I feel the inline4 isuzu are not too bad to work on...
 
#5 ·
projects definitely take their own sweet time if you want to do them right. ive been slowly but surely working on my rodeo for over a year now and just finally got a basic lift on it. not everyone has tons of money set aside to throw at their trucks, for the rest of us it takes time and know-how, and for me and you it seems like it not so much know-how but a willingness to learn haha
 
#6 ·
You know, sometimes I think it´s more satisfying to do it our way. Than to have tons of money to throw at a truck at once. I have visions of all kinds of cool stuff, but that isn´t going to happen right now. For now, get it on the road looking a bit better than before, and add a bit of useful simple mods. and see what I can do further down the road...
Here´s my other project

I built it bit by bit and this is the finished product...
 
#8 ·
calebduff1 said:
most of the kids at my school had a bunch of "mommy and daddys" money to throw at their cars :| now thats a real shame and bad parenting if you ask me. but to each his own!
I am one of these kids.... :( unfortunately... at least I'm not driving a $40,000 BMW or Mercedes.... :p
I am here in the State on Student visa, but have been here for 8 years.... and I really want to become a citizen tho... I want to work and earn my own money....
 
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#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello guys!

It´s been a while since I've posted in this thread... Still haven't got it painted yet, but I'm close. I have a lot of pictures to post and things to write but no time right now!

Here's a picture of the bumper I'm building, got one wing tacked on tonight just to see how it fits...

bumper.JPG

bumper2.JPG
 

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#15 ·
Thanks guys! I see I have some broken links for some of the pics. One of these days I'll take the time to fix them and upload some newer ones... Cleaning up the horrid mess I had on the back porch right now. It was bad enough I got tired of it, and if a mess is big enough for me to mind...
 
#17 ·
Managed to knock the whole front end, with no tires, off a jack. Dented a fender which was pretty much prepped. Entirely my fault, and could have been worse. I thought I was done sanding bondo. I had lifted the front to reposition the stumps I use as jack stands. Had everything in place and was lowering it when it decided it didn't want to be on the jack anymore... Next time I'll make sure I have the jack placed securely.
 
#18 ·
mudoilngears said:
Managed to knock the whole front end, with no tires, off a jack. Dented a fender which was pretty much prepped. Entirely my fault, and could have been worse. I thought I was done sanding bondo. I had lifted the front to reposition the stumps I use as jack stands. Had everything in place and was lowering it when it decided it didn't want to be on the jack anymore... Next time I'll make sure I have the jack placed securely.
wow, lucky it was just the fender that got smashed! :shock: I once heard a story of a guy doing his front brakes and poorly placed jackstands allowed the truck to slip off right onto his leg and crushed it. Ever since, I shake the hell out of my truck to make sure the stands are 100% solid! I'd advise getting some real stands too instead of stumps. Those can split in half and fall apart at any moment no matter how many times it's worked before! All it takes it that ONE time and something tragic could happen. Good build thread btw! I like the bumper you're making!
 
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
I would trust my stumps over a jack stand... Don't see them splitting unless you put them under a sharp edge or something... Here's a picture of the dent...
IMG_0092.JPG
 

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#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
A few random pictures.

Glazing putty, bondo, etch primer, you name it, it's on there. lol
DSC_0007.JPG


Front 10 bolt third, ready to come apart for installing the Aussie locker.
IMG_0693.JPG


Installing lower control arm bushings, froze them first...
IMG_0658.JPG


Some of these are kind of old, but you can see what I've been up to...
 

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#26 ·
Today was supposed to be my painting day, finally just about ready. And it has been raining since 3:00 am. Oh well, I just hope its sunny by 1:00 when I get off work...
 
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