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1994 Amigo Build - UT

21K views 69 replies 14 participants last post by  redcentinela 
#1 ·
Barely got home from a 6-hour round trip to pick up this sweet truck from the UT/CO border. This is Isuzu #12 for me, yet I still have a lot of learning to do.



I sold my 2x4 space-cab with the intention to turn around and get something 4x4. I had two Amigos back in Alaska that I never had time to fix up roadworthy, so I was excited when this popped up in my local classifieds. I got it for a steal considering the condition ($1000). The owner seemed to take very good care of it. He barely cut out all the rust on the rockers and welded in new sheet metal, then he painted it. He also just replaced the Clutch, Throw-out bearing and pressure plate. The Engine runs awesome and has no valve ticking like my spacecab had.

The goal is to keep it highway worthy, and trail ready at the same time. There's a lot of great campsites in the Uintah Mountains and I plan on getting a lot of trips in during the summers. I'm still attending school at UVU in Utah, and have access to all the schools auto shop welders, lifts, air compressors, and paint booths. I'll be taking a night class this summer that's pretty much for people to work on their cars. I'll be doing most of the work then.

Here is a list of things to work on, Hopefully in this order. I could use some suggestions of things I should consider during this build.

-Figure out the electrical issues. The speedometer bounces between 5-20mph all the time, but once and a while jumps to the correct speed for a short time. Does this sound like the cluster itself or the speedometer cable? The weird part is that the ODO is working fine, but the trip meter doesn't move at all.
Also, the Temp Guage doesn't move at all, it must be disconnected somewhere, or maybe the thermostat is stuck open? The head never gets very warm, even after a 3-hour drive with the heat on high.
The blower wasn't working for the last owner, so he wired a switch directly to the blower motor to make it blow on high the whole time. Do you think I just need to replace the resistor pack?

-The Check engine light came on after about 2-hours of driving, it started turning on and off every 10 minutes or so. I'm not very worried about it but I need to read the code. Does anyone have a link to the guide for which terminals to jump to read the code on these?
-When engaging the clutch from 2nd and 3rd gears, I sometimes feel a light thud that feels like its coming from the rear dif. Any ideas what that could be?
-The previous had no recollection of changing the timing, so I'm thinking about doing it. Is the water pump tied into the timing on this one? Also is it possible to carefully take off the old belt and install the new one without moving the components so that I don't have to re-time it?

Okay, now for the fun stuff

-Redo the body and paintwork, I'm leaning towards the Desert Sand color on the Toyota Tacomas.
-Fabricate front and rear ARB style bumpers
-Build Rock Sliders and roll cage for the rear half of the vehicle w/ built-in roof rack
-Locate some good Fender Flares, If anyone knows where to get some, please let me know.
-2" Torsion Bar Lift w/ Rear lift shackles
-Tires/Rims, I'm thinking about getting some 16" Snowflakes from a salvage yard and getting some lightly used mud tires. Arent the 15" and 16" the same lug pattern? I also need to figure out how big I can go without rubbing, and I also don't want my fuel economy to hit the fan
-Redo the interior, right now the seats are trashed. I also want to pull out the rear seats and carpets and get the back half bed-lined so its no big deal hauling firewood and animals around.

I have a lot of other small ideas to do as well, but this is the focus list. Like I said, I'd love to hear suggestions and tips, I want to do the work right.
 
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#5 ·
SRN said:
Saw your Amigo in the parking lot. And I assume it was you poking around at Rodeos while I was doing the same with Troopers.
Also, I may have a set of the Snowflakes you're looking for. I'll have to check.
Haha yeah that blue color really sticks out. I was wearing a snap on jacket and glasses.
I was looking for some snowflakes and I only found two in rough shape. Id gladly buy a set off you if you have some. Either 15" or 16" should work.
 
#6 ·
Richey said:
SRN said:
Saw your Amigo in the parking lot. And I assume it was you poking around at Rodeos while I was doing the same with Troopers.
Also, I may have a set of the Snowflakes you're looking for. I'll have to check.
Haha yeah that blue color really sticks out. I was wearing a snap on jacket and glasses.
I was looking for some snowflakes and I only found two in rough shape. Id gladly buy a set off you if you have some. Either 15" or 16" should work.
Richey,

The '94 Amigo came with 16" wheels and the 16" snowflakes, look amazing in stock form, IMHO! Hopefully, SRN has a set for you. The '94 Amigo also came stock with the larger front brake disc, same ones found on later V6 troopers & Rodeos B4 1998. The 16" wheels tend to give a bit better brake ventilation than the 15" wheels IMHO!

Cheers,

GB
 
#7 ·
gb89amigo said:
The '94 Amigo came with 16" wheels and the 16" snowflakes, look amazing in stock form, IMHO! Hopefully, SRN has a set for you. The '94 Amigo also came stock with the larger front brake disc, same ones found on iater V6 troopers. The 16" wheels tend to give a bit better brake ventilation than the 15" wheels IMHO!

Cheers,

GB
Thanks for the info. I was stoked to see that this year had all 4 disc brakes. Right now it has 15" rims on it and I'm not a huge fan. I'm going to restore a nice set of snowflakes and keep them polished up with aluminum polish.
Do you know how difficult it would be to swap out the cluster for the XS/spacecab cluster? I like having the oil pressure and tach on the instrument panel.
 
#8 ·
Richey said:
gb89amigo said:
The '94 Amigo came with 16" wheels and the 16" snowflakes, look amazing in stock form, IMHO! Hopefully, SRN has a set for you. The '94 Amigo also came stock with the larger front brake disc, same ones found on iater V6 troopers. The 16" wheels tend to give a bit better brake ventilation than the 15" wheels IMHO!

Cheers,

GB
Thanks for the info. I was stoked to see that this year had all 4 disc brakes. Right now it has 15" rims on it and I'm not a huge fan. I'm going to restore a nice set of snowflakes and keep them polished up with aluminum polish.
Do you know how difficult it would be to swap out the cluster for the XS/spacecab cluster? I like having the oil pressure and tach on the instrument panel.
Richey,

Can only guess the PO must have liked the smaller diameter better, but the stock size AFAIK, was 16" for 1994! I may be switching to 16" as they have more tire sizes available than 15". My '89 XS has a fully gauged panel! You may only have to check out: car-part.com to find a "XS" version for your ride. Otherwise, take careful measurements of your gauge cluster to make sure the space cab cluster will fit. l'm 75% confident it will! BTW, '89-'94 Amigos, 2WD & 4WD, all had 4w disc brakes, except 2.3L 2wd!

Good hunting, Cheers,

GB
 
#9 ·
Did some work on the interior. The seats were shredded and had springs poking through. I was hoping to install some sweet racing seats from a GTI or a Camaro, but I couldn't find anything that wouldn't require a considerable amount of welding and fabricating, so I decided to go close to stock. I scored some seats from a 2nd Gen Passport. I thought they would bolt right in, but it took a little modification. You have to use the sliding rails from the 1st gen, and mount the 2nd gen seats onto them. Also, the Amigo seat mounts on the outside of each seat are about 2" offset from the inner, so I had to make some brackets to lift them up. Also, the front two bolts line up just fine, but the rear ones have to be drilled about a half inch shorter. All in all, I didnt have to drill into the floor at all, just into the seat brackets, and that was my main goal. I want to avoid as much cutting and drilling as possible.

Before:


Installing the leveling brackets:


After:


Super pleased with the turnout. I would highly recommend doing the swap if your factory seats are shredded, or you want to switch to vinyl.
 
#10 ·
I'm waiting on some parts to get the emissions engine light off so in the meantime, I did some fun work. Something I've always wanted to install is a powered mirror. This one is a Gentex 117 out of a 2002 Chevy Avalanche. It has auto dimming, compass, and temp. You have to pull the ambient temp sensor along with the mirror if you want it to work right. I mounted it on the core support where the grille is blocking it from direct wind. So far works great!


I have some 6x9" speakers to fit into the rear speaker ports. The stock ones only accommodate 6.5", plus my black covers are cracked so I designed this adaptor to 3Dprint.
 
#11 ·
I found a hard shell up in Boise, so I justified driving the 10+hr round trip to go get it. It's in great condition. I already installed some new lift supports on the hatch. The inside carpet is in good shape too. I couldn't be more satisfied. I never realzed that its kind of a pain to swap between Hardtop and Soft top, But I guess ill only have to do it once a year.

 
#13 ·
Love the hard top. On Amigo .It was long trip to get, thanks for picfures
 
#14 ·
If you haven't already done it the swap between a spacecab and amigo cluster is actually really easy. I did it to mine so I had a tach and full gauges. Just have to make sure the engines have the same amount of cylinders. If it's the same generation it's plug and play. Only thing to remember is the oil pressure on our amigos won't read as they just read if you have pressure or not. If you want to see the actual pressure you will have to get a new sensor that reads it.
 
#15 ·
I've been wanting to get LED lights on this body style for a while. In the past, I've used bolt-on light bars, but I had one stolen last time, so I figured id just change the headlight assemblies altogether. I was a little worried because it wasn't a name brand, but I am super happy with them. They make a nice crisp line of white, and the high beams are like a floodlight. They are aimed just right so nobody is flashing me because they're in their eyes. I would highly recommend them.


 
#17 ·
#19 ·
SRN sold me some 16" snowflakes to replace the 15". I finally got around to getting them sanded down and painted. We had a wrecked F150 come into work with a set of Cooper Discovery 265/75/R16's. I think they look pretty good in black. I was going for polished aluminum but the scratches were too deep on some of them. In the end I'm okay with painted because the polished aluminum is a lot of upkeep.
When mounting the tires, the shop stripped out two of my front lug studs, so Ill need to take the hub assembly apart to replace them. I figure I may as well do all the rotors and brakes while im at it. Also if anyone has some lift shackles for a 2-3" lift they're willing to sell, im looking for a pair.

 
#20 ·
Hey - I saw those LED headlights. How painful was it to swap them out? I have been thinking about upgrading my headlights since i bought my amigo. Were there any tricks / how long did it take you to remove the original housings and replace them entirely?
 
#21 ·
klicknklack said:
Hey - I saw those LED headlights. How painful was it to swap them out? I have been thinking about upgrading my headlights since i bought my amigo. Were there any tricks / how long did it take you to remove the original housings and replace them entirely?
They were very easy to swap out. after removing the grill there are 4 screws holding a bracket around the headlights. You remove the top two screws on each housing and then you can take the old bulbs out and install the new ones. I crimped the marker lights to my running light circuit, and that was easy too. The only thing is that some of the LED housings have the high beams wired to reverse polarity, so you need to rig up or buy a relay system to invert it. I just purchased one off of ebay. Here is the link.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Headlight-H4 ... 2749.l2649

Without the harness you will have running and daytime lights but high beams won't work.
 
#22 ·
The last few weeks I bought all the materials for my front and rear bumpers. Im going for an ARB style. So far I have the Winch plate welded up to 3/8" plate and its bolting up to OE mounting.

The outer shell of the bumper will all be 3/16'.

I also have been doing some minor improvements:
-Tach/Oil Pressure/Voltmeter Cluster installed. I robbed it from my poor space-cab thats been sitting on blocks.
-New horn from a ford
-swapping in intermittent wipers
-retrofitting a rodeo roof rack

 
#23 ·
Another question: I have a 1998 Amigo - The pictures of the LED headlights you bought dont really show the bolt pattern anywhere. Got any suggestions on how to determine if those badboys would fit a 98' ?

Thanks, your build is really inspiring :D
 
#24 ·
Additionally, I had one of those Harbor Freight wireless winch remotes laying around that I never used. I took apart the solenoid housing and spliced in the wireless box so now I can use either the corded remote or the wireless one. I tested it and can get about 40-50ft distance out of it. Not bad! I was a little worried that the wiring would be complex and I would jack something up on the new winch, but it was pretty straightforward. Interestingly, both the HF control box and the Smittybilt winch have a 5-pin connector, however when you strip them down they each only have 3 wires. This makes things a whole lot easier.



 
#25 ·
klicknklack said:
Another question: I have a 1998 Amigo - The pictures of the LED headlights you bought dont really show the bolt pattern anywhere. Got any suggestions on how to determine if those badboys would fit a 98' ?

Thanks, your build is really inspiring :D
The 98 Amigo is early 2nd generation. It is a whole new body style and drive-train. Nothing about it is the same with the 1st gen. The 1st gen uses a sealed unit so the housing was the bulb. You had to change the entire unit to change a burnt out bulb. The 2nd gen uses a twist-in bulb. You can buy LED bulbs that will replace the specific bulb size for the OE bulb. However this only ever works well if the light housing is equipped with projectors, which the 2nd gen is not. Without the projectors the LED puts out a lot of light but it also directs light all over so you end up blinding oncoming traffic. That is why in my housings you see a bunch of little projectors, they control the light pattern to make a nice crisp line of light in front of me without blinding oncoming cars.
 
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