Hi guys'. New to the forums, I randomly bought a 93 g10 shortie a couple weeks ago to haul around my mini bikes to and from the track. I was looking at selling my daily driver and buying a transit-connect but decided to go with something i could "classic plate" and hopefully not cost me too much out of pocket. I've always loved these things, but never actually did any research on them, I just knew i wanted to stay fuel injected and have AC if I could. I already have 2 bikes with carbs that I have to maintain. Anyways, I bought the car about an hour outside of Las Vegas and had the sketchiest drive back home ever. sealed beams had so much corrosion on them the headlights would slowly fade during the drive back, and eventually was driving in pitch black following my buddy. Lost power once or twice also....so it's been fun to say the least LOL.
Here's a pic of when I got it home.
The next day I found a huge leak coming from the weep hole in the driveshaft. So I bought a new seal and dropped the shaft. Put some toyota fipg on the weep hole and vacuumed it through to make sure it doesn't leak again. I also took out the home-made wooden shelves and removed the sony headunit with house speakers the PO installed and rewired in a decent looking panasonic headunit I had laying around.
Yeah it's [censored] gross under there. I finally registered the car today and got my plates on so I'll be taking it to get pressure washed sooner than later.
I ran to the junkyard and got a few parts off a few g20 vans that I needed. (gauge cluster bulb sockets, rear door latch, the bracket that keeps the rear doors from swinging all the way open, and a new driver side lower door hinge. I also replaced the sealed beams and swapped out ignition cap & rotor, ngk lines, ngk spark plugs, TPS, and then started to look at the cooling. I flushed out radiator, and then flushed out the heater core (also found out PO deleted Heater control valve - I have a replacement on the way), I did wish i had a high pressure hot water source I could use.....still a bunch of nastiness came out but I got heat again...not crazy heat, I gotta still look into this more, the airflow isn't the greatest currently, so i want to clean out the blower motor assy next but I did change the thermostat while I was in there. Also did an oil change - used rotella since I use that in all my vehicles. I'm currently waiting for a chevy FSM to arrive that I ordered off ebay. I'm pretty excited for this thing.
Heat seems low right? at least it' flowing again I guess. Will probably flush out the heater core one more time and try to clean out the vents as best as I can.
I went to a junkyard I normally don't stop at because I heard they had a 78' G10 on hand. I grabbed the head lamp doors, turn signals and tube grille. I wanted to grab a few more things but it was packed against a wall. I kind of want to go back for the chrome front bumper, but its not a huge priority of mine right now.
not anywhere close.....they look so similar at first!
Decided I wanted to still run the tube grille if I could since my 93 grille was cracked in maybe 2-3 places - one major. I made some brackets today with some spare 1/8" flat stock I had laying around and welded the top brackets. I slotted the holes to give a little more adjustment also. I'm pretty happy with the results.
kind of overkill but whatever. I also sprayed the headlight doors with some leftover ceramic silver paint I had for another project. I didn't prep them super well because I plan on replacing them whenever I find a good OEM set. Brackets ended up getting some black paint. Ended up cutting out clearance for the AC lines. overall pretty happy, just need to figure out something I can use for the upper/lower trim. But this is how it looks as of this evening.
I just got my DRC moto bindings, and I'll order up some anchors in a day or two. Despite being a mini, I plan on mounting it in the middle because I do have plans to get a R6 designated track bike later this year. Next on the list is flush brake fluid, new belts/tensioners/pulleys, replace most of the accessible vacuum lines on the motor that may be split/cracked, replace fuel filter - inspect fuel lines, then either wheels and tires or start collecting parts for the suspension. (front LCA's, new sway bar bushings, 2.5"-3" drop spindles, and refresh front and rear brakes while i'm there) The van runs so much better already. I am absolutely thrilled how cheap parts are coming from older BMWs.
Anyways, hope to learn some things from you guys', and hopefully the van will hold up for all the socal trips I have planned.