Hi folks
I used to frequent RR years ago but dropped off from not owning anything suitable. Have been playing with this for a month or so but just getting around to making this thread.
We ave the ‘modern car’, Duties call for a work hack and chopper hauler, so time to hunt for another project.. Some recent changes in our registration scheme means anything 30 years or older can be put on club registration.. much cheaper registration and insurance and makes having multiple toys a very attractive proposition!
In terms of other requirements, had to be single cab for the tray be long enough to fit our bikes. However single cabs can be cramped for tall people, so this was a concern. My last old car was a RN25 hilux but it was just too small inside.
This beater came up for sale on the dreaded Gumtree. It looked a bit rough but price was fair and worth going to look at. 1987 Mitsubishi Triton (aka Mitsubishi Mightymax/ Mitsubishi L200 /Dodge D50), 2.6L 4g54 with a 5 speed. A lot of kilometres but maintenance has been done with parts replaced as needed, it seems.
Quick once over, yep a bit of rust, can sort that, rest of body is ok but the paint is stuffed, tray is huge.. heeeaps of room in the cab, things are looking positive. Started up fine and took it for a drive, no smoke or rattles abs all seemed well but terribly slow and the brakes are soft.
Bit of negotiation, a deal was done and we drove off into the sunset towards its new life!
Well as it turned out, a bit of rust quickly progressed into where’s the bloody window frame gone!! Oh yeah.. i forgot the many joys of retro rides !
The inner lip was still OK so replacing the outside of the frame would have been doable, but the rust had gotten through all 3 layers of the roof on the right corner, into the gutter sandwich and would have been a PITA to cut out and keep all its integrity.
The result was splicing in a half a roof section from a 1992 donor car. Sounds easy, it’s just cutting and welding - Well what a nightmare. First off, either it was a update shape or the fact it was an extend cab, but the new roof has about 10mm extra CROWN in the roof skin and more curve in the corners. Frustratingly I ended up putting most of the original roof skin back on, could have saved A lot of work and welding had this been apparent earlier. Weld joints reinforced and everything all back together. Amazingly the A pillars on this are just single sections of <1mm steel!
Both doors had a patch of rust in the same spot, chopped out and replaced. Whilst I was at it I deleted the original mountings for those massive mirrors. Replacements to be determined but it won’t be hard to get something better looking.
By this stage I had stripped the body of all its panels and taken most of the interior out so as not to set fire to the car when welding the roof. Upon taking the seat out, some rust holes on the back of the cab floor and one in the drivers floor pan.. these will all be repaired soon.
The front guards are solid and straight but had lots of curse word built up behind them from 30 years of work. Always good to pop these off on an new purchase and clear out debris, bottom of the guards form part of the water management and need to be kept clear.
Guards and bonnet Cleaned and scrubbed down with soapy water and scotchbrite
New windscreen purchased and ready to go in, $100 and off the shelf. Not worth trying to cut out and reuse an original screen as they are glued in.
Next to sort out this whopper dent. I did try to beat it out but it was all too stretched. Chopped out and replaced with new steel. All solid inside. Skim of filler and it’ll be fine.
Front bumper was in a sad state of rubbish paint, although mostly straight. Looking much better after paint stripper and some sanding!!
Getting closer to paint stage now.. which means we gotta look at pulling the tray to access the back wall. I’ll be modifying the tray as well, dropping it down the the chassis rails to get the floor as low as possible. This’ll require some wheel tubs but have something planned for that.
Steel sides removed, they were packed with plywood sheet and weighed much more than they should of! Racks roughly cut off for now as well, to be cleaned up later.
Someone had put some concrete sheet over the tray as the timbers had all rotted out underneath. Well 16mm sheet was certainly overkill, probably 100kg shed right there.
And then came the boards. Screws pretty rusty but thankfully all the rotten wood was easily broken up and removed with some crowbars.
Result! Everything looking solid under here. To my surprise, everything is bolted together here. Planning to narrow the tray to match the width of the cab, by cutting a section out the centre. Doesn’t make sense now that I can just trim some off the ends and redrill.
And that’s where I’m at currently, a quick recap over the last few weeks. Had planned to get a lot more done over the Xmas break, to have the cab painted and tray sorted at least, but extreme heat put a stop to any work outdoors.
Progress to resume over the weekend, on target to get this thing in a new colour!
Until the next post. Cheers!
I used to frequent RR years ago but dropped off from not owning anything suitable. Have been playing with this for a month or so but just getting around to making this thread.
We ave the ‘modern car’, Duties call for a work hack and chopper hauler, so time to hunt for another project.. Some recent changes in our registration scheme means anything 30 years or older can be put on club registration.. much cheaper registration and insurance and makes having multiple toys a very attractive proposition!
In terms of other requirements, had to be single cab for the tray be long enough to fit our bikes. However single cabs can be cramped for tall people, so this was a concern. My last old car was a RN25 hilux but it was just too small inside.
This beater came up for sale on the dreaded Gumtree. It looked a bit rough but price was fair and worth going to look at. 1987 Mitsubishi Triton (aka Mitsubishi Mightymax/ Mitsubishi L200 /Dodge D50), 2.6L 4g54 with a 5 speed. A lot of kilometres but maintenance has been done with parts replaced as needed, it seems.
Quick once over, yep a bit of rust, can sort that, rest of body is ok but the paint is stuffed, tray is huge.. heeeaps of room in the cab, things are looking positive. Started up fine and took it for a drive, no smoke or rattles abs all seemed well but terribly slow and the brakes are soft.
Bit of negotiation, a deal was done and we drove off into the sunset towards its new life!
Well as it turned out, a bit of rust quickly progressed into where’s the bloody window frame gone!! Oh yeah.. i forgot the many joys of retro rides !
The inner lip was still OK so replacing the outside of the frame would have been doable, but the rust had gotten through all 3 layers of the roof on the right corner, into the gutter sandwich and would have been a PITA to cut out and keep all its integrity.
The result was splicing in a half a roof section from a 1992 donor car. Sounds easy, it’s just cutting and welding - Well what a nightmare. First off, either it was a update shape or the fact it was an extend cab, but the new roof has about 10mm extra CROWN in the roof skin and more curve in the corners. Frustratingly I ended up putting most of the original roof skin back on, could have saved A lot of work and welding had this been apparent earlier. Weld joints reinforced and everything all back together. Amazingly the A pillars on this are just single sections of <1mm steel!
Both doors had a patch of rust in the same spot, chopped out and replaced. Whilst I was at it I deleted the original mountings for those massive mirrors. Replacements to be determined but it won’t be hard to get something better looking.
By this stage I had stripped the body of all its panels and taken most of the interior out so as not to set fire to the car when welding the roof. Upon taking the seat out, some rust holes on the back of the cab floor and one in the drivers floor pan.. these will all be repaired soon.
The front guards are solid and straight but had lots of curse word built up behind them from 30 years of work. Always good to pop these off on an new purchase and clear out debris, bottom of the guards form part of the water management and need to be kept clear.
Guards and bonnet Cleaned and scrubbed down with soapy water and scotchbrite
New windscreen purchased and ready to go in, $100 and off the shelf. Not worth trying to cut out and reuse an original screen as they are glued in.
Next to sort out this whopper dent. I did try to beat it out but it was all too stretched. Chopped out and replaced with new steel. All solid inside. Skim of filler and it’ll be fine.
Front bumper was in a sad state of rubbish paint, although mostly straight. Looking much better after paint stripper and some sanding!!
Getting closer to paint stage now.. which means we gotta look at pulling the tray to access the back wall. I’ll be modifying the tray as well, dropping it down the the chassis rails to get the floor as low as possible. This’ll require some wheel tubs but have something planned for that.
Steel sides removed, they were packed with plywood sheet and weighed much more than they should of! Racks roughly cut off for now as well, to be cleaned up later.
Someone had put some concrete sheet over the tray as the timbers had all rotted out underneath. Well 16mm sheet was certainly overkill, probably 100kg shed right there.
And then came the boards. Screws pretty rusty but thankfully all the rotten wood was easily broken up and removed with some crowbars.
Result! Everything looking solid under here. To my surprise, everything is bolted together here. Planning to narrow the tray to match the width of the cab, by cutting a section out the centre. Doesn’t make sense now that I can just trim some off the ends and redrill.
And that’s where I’m at currently, a quick recap over the last few weeks. Had planned to get a lot more done over the Xmas break, to have the cab painted and tray sorted at least, but extreme heat put a stop to any work outdoors.
Progress to resume over the weekend, on target to get this thing in a new colour!
Until the next post. Cheers!
. 
