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'88 Trooper resto...

29K views 130 replies 26 participants last post by  mrmuse1155 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
...part 2?

Hello all. It's been a while, but I'm back with the original Trooper. It made a few cameos in my original build thread of the off road truck I built 11 years ago and chronicled on this site. My parents bought this one brand new in 1988, and it has never left the family. It criss crossed the country many times, often pulling a Uhaul, as we moved from place to place. It's been a very reliable truck, and my parents took great care of it. The interior, although slightly worn, is spotless. It has a little bit of rust around the windshield due to shoddy windshield replacements over the years, and a small amount in the rockers. I believe there is a little bit hiding in the rear doors as well that has been covered up by body filler from past repairs.
Last year, the clutch stopped working, so I towed the truck to my house and figured I'd change the hydraulics and send it back to the parents.
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Crawling underneath revealed oil everywhere. It was leaking so much engine oil, it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I yanked the motor.
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#104 ·
Bolted the hinges up, but the paint is still soft enough I decided not to mount them back on the truck today. I installed the door panels and realized they were a little shabby, so I upholstery cleaned them. It’s starting to come together.
 

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#113 ·
Been following build here and there. Immaculate. Of course I et envious because of the size of your shop. I'm also a fan of the Raptor bedliner spray. Been using it on small projects here at the house, and use it on Fleet projects at work.
I'm right in the middle of repainting my Subaru Baja. Just stripped off all trim, and fixing to have a shop paint the top half, while I will shoot the lower plastics. Going to do my rockers in the Raptor as well. Looking forward to the final completion of your excellent project. Dennis
 
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#114 ·
Thank you for the kind words. Trust me, it’s far from perfect up close. A drafty pole barn is far from ideal for painting. But the rust is killed and it’s a little shinier than it was before. I got the window frames shot in single stage black today. I had a ton of house projects to get done so that’s as far as I got.
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#115 ·
You will always be your own worst critic. Most folks will look and say WOW, great job. Only you will know about that little run or dimple. Part of the satisfaction of painting it yourself is you only have yourself to blame if rust appears or any serious flaw shows up. You have the satisfaction of knowing "I did that, I can fix that". Nothing worse than paying big bucks for paint and getting a screwed up job - or it chips or fades in 6 months. I had the one place wanting to chare me 2500.00 to shoot just the top. "I don't think so Tim". I said I'll paint it myself for that. Dennis
 
#120 ·
I don’t know of anyone, but I’m sure someone on here could recommend a mechanic around your area.
Bumper stuff was blasted and painted except for the main part of the front bumper since it was too big to fit in the cabinet. I’ll sand and paint it later. Bedliner was sprayed on the rockers and lower doors, and the window frames are done.
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#121 ·
Take it from an oldie. Been working on cars forever, and the absolute hardest thing to fix is rust and advanced rust to the extent of body cancer. Overhauled engines, replaced trannies, and third members, but the 85 I restored for my son had a very small area of just surface rust on the rear roof. Hardly could see it. Addressed it, I thought. Had car painted and darn if it didn't show up after a few years. You seem to have a handle on how your handling the resto on your Isuzu. Been following along. Detailed work should pay off with one nice resto.
 
#122 ·
I sure hope the rust doesn’t come back. I’m probably going overkill on some stuff like the wheel tubs but it would be better to address it now instead of it popping up later. The windshield repair concerns me since there isn’t a great way to access the backside of the welds to coat them, but I’m looking into some type of cavity wax with a straw to reach into the door bottoms, rockers, and windshield frame.
Speaking of rust, I found some more. Working on it now and figured I’d share progress pics. The small rear door had some bondo repairs in the past that turned into rust.
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#123 ·
#126 ·
These last few are from after the truck was completely wet sanded in 1000/1500/2000 grit and buffing started. I originally started with Meguiars on a blue foam pad on my rotary but it cut way too fast. I switched to the softer yellow pad with 3m perfect-it compound. I followed with Adam’s One Step polish and their microfiber pad. It’s far from perfect but not bad. I may wait the summer for the paint to harden fully and then resand with 2000/3000 and buff again to get all the defects out. Tamco clear stays soft for quite a while and it’s easy to burn through with too aggressive of action early on.
 

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