3rd times the charm...The kids low budget Rodeo build

[comerz]

Hey I hear ya there! Would you happen to know what they are?

[Torquemonster]

The tie rods are moog p# es3369t and es3370t, which are left and right hand thread, for 97-03 F150. The adjuster is I believe es3201s, but I cant quite remember, thats from an Intrepid. It only works for the short tie rods on the older rodeos and troopers, doesnt work for the wide track trucks

[Torquemonster]

And you have to trim 7/8ths of an inch off of the threaded part of each tie rod, and use a washer under the retainer nut on the spindle and center link, otherwise the nut will bottom out on the threads

[Torquemonster]

Guess what I just got (no not the spacers ) it about 8 feet long, barely fits inside

[Combatspace]

I was gonna say driveshaft till you said 8 feet long...my guess is rock sliders/side steps?

[urankjj]

A new extra hi-lift farm jack ??

[Torquemonster]

Nope and nope

[Torquemonster]

Its a smittybilt retractable roof awning

[Combatspace]

lol, that is something I never would have guessed...

[Torquemonster]

I took my roofrack apart and tightened up the crossbars a bit to make them less sloppy, how to here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82289&p=728812#p728812

So now I can weld the brackets for the awning to my roof basket, mount it on the truck, and hopefully be camping ready for the may long weekend!

[Torquemonster]

Hehe......hehe hehehehehe
I quite like this thing

[Torquemonster]

So, I took a big step today and trimmed my fenders. The thought of chopping into perfectly good sheetmetal absolutely kills me. I only did it on my explorer because it was rotten and even then I could barely stand it. And this Rodeo is absolutely rust free, which is rare for any Japanese SUV around here. But since I plan on owning this thing for a long time, I justified it. I trimmed the fenders so I could either run a wider rim with less backspacing, or run spacers behind my current rims. My ultimate goal is to clear up my frame rub with the 33s and to do that I needed clearance. But this isnt your typical XJ sawzall hackjob, I took my time and having previous experience with bodywork and rebuilding the wheel arches from scratch on my little english car I made a nice job of it, I think

I started with a template of how I wanted it and some measurements, well one. The bottom corner of the fender where it meets the door is 3/4 of an inch thick now, so I took quite a bit off. I drew my line and then I drew another line following the same curve about 1/2 an inch below that, for a lip so t will have rigidity. then I cut a bunch of relief cuts. This is so when you fold the lip back over its a hell of alot cleaner.


Fold them over one by one, the more cuts the cleaner it comes out, I go every 1/2-3/4 of an inch. Tomorrow Im gonna go over to a buddies house to use his welder to tack all those relief cuts back up, which is what makes it rigid again. without the welds it will still be flimsy. Im also going to add a sheetmetal plate that connects the lower corner by the door to the firewall. Since that area is only 3/4 of an inch thick its quite flimsy, and although welding the lip up my help I want to be sure. It will also provide one more mounting surface for the inner liner. Once the lip was folded on both sides I wire brushed the loose paint off (it is 110% likely to chip while you fold the lip) and I sprayed it with red tremclad to prevent rust.


So heres how it sits now. Will weld the lip tomorrow, then Im going to feather all the chipped paint back, then paint it with more red tremclad (unless I can find a closer match) so its all sealed, I will modify the inner liner to fit again, most likely by cutting it at the top and extending it with an old mudflap as a filler. Then im going to the Peterbilt service center next to my work for some of that universal rubber fender flare stuff to finish it off for a super clean look. I gained tons of clearance for my spacers or new rims....

[urankjj]

Great job, that Rodeo is gonna look sweet. Since it's a keeper for you, here is something that you might want. If you don't already have one. Knowledge is Power. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISUZU-1995-1995 ... 1336403137

[Torquemonster]

Thanks! That ones for 95.5, mines the early 95.

So I got some more goodies for the truck (got a bonus at work) First off is a Smittybilt 2781 Compressor, used from my buddy.


My buddy also works at a Ford dealer and gets a good deal on LED headlight kits from a company called Glare


The kit includes the 9004 type bulbs (3200 lumen), heat sinks with a fan that attaches to each bulb, a controller for the light/fan, and instructions with less than understandable english, but I didnt find them necessary


They took maybe 10 minutes to install, and use the stock housing and all that. I cant wait for it to get darker so I can try them

[comerz]

sweet man. was looking at these the other night! post pictures of how they look man!

[Torquemonster]

Kind of a poor picture but its the best I can do of light output, they are bright but the picture doesnt do it justice


I got my flexy flares the other day, stuck them on today. When I get my wider wheels Ill be legal!



Since I had the rear wheels off I lubed the brake caliper sliders and I wire brushed some surface rust off the frame (I found the factory black frame paint on most of it!)

[Torquemonster]

After a summer of camping and loading the truck up I decided I wanted a split rear seat. Puck and pull yards around here are pretty Isuzu scarce, but a yard near me recently took in a 2001 Rodeo. It had been there a week and the front seats were already gone, but it still had the rear and it was even gray, to match my interior. The price list at the yard listed SUV rear seas at $84, car rear seas at $24. The clerk didnt ask and just rang it up as a car rear seat, which I dont mind.

Preliminary looks and measurements looked promising. Both seats measured about 51" across, and my floorpan was even drilled and tapped for the center pivot bracket


As I was unbolting my stock rear seat I noticed the brackets were different, the 95 having 2 mounting holes to the floor and the 01 having only 1.


Thats the 01 bracket on the left and the 95 on the right. The 2 holes to hold it to the seat are farther apart but you can drill another hole and have it fit


Id like to note that that is the proper spot to drill the hole to maintain the right gap between the seat base and the back. After I did this I ovaled the bottom hole on the 95 bracket to bring the seat as far up as possible, to try to line up the seat latch better. It didnt work

So after the hole was drilled I was able to put the seat in and tighten the nuts on either side finger tight. Thats when I found out the pivot bracket is too far to the right and a little low. Ill make some sort of bracket to compensate


Also the catches for the latch are too high, these will have to be lowered, Ill do that next week.


The seat base is very simple, all the brackets line up, the extra holes are already drilled and tapped and they even have a bolt in them, you just need to trim your carpet. Again the catches for the seat latch on the base sit about 1" too far back so that will need to be adapted.


Please note, if you are doing this like me, with days off a week apart, dont put anyone in your rear seat if it isnt locking in place. I never have rear passengers so Im not worried.

[Torquemonster]

One thing I realized just today is that the seatbelt buckles arent the same, I I will either swap out the clips or the belts themselves.

I did find ONE front seat that matched, the rodeo I found someone had dissassembled both front seats, took the foam and cover from just the base of the passenger seat and left the rest

Oh well, drivers side was still good.

the 2000 and up tracks will not bolt into a 95, and the 95 tracks will not bolt to the 2001 base (I did re drill and try but it angles the seat down to the left)

The easiest way I found to put the 2001 seats in the 95 is to skin the bases and swap the upholstery... The backs of the seat mount up the same so theres nothing to worry about that. Taking the cover off the 2001 base is easy, its 4 long plastic clips that slide over the base. then the foam and cover just pull off.

The 95 is a little harder, it uses hog rings, and you gotta cut them all. Theres about 16 of them. once those are all cut again just pull the foam and cover off. And the foam and covers interchange, the new cover clips into the old base, and then the back bolts onto the base, then it bolts in just like original.

heres the 2001 cover on the 95 base


And the new seat in. I find its got alot more foam, and more support, and it sits you up just a touch higher, which I like


If you want you can either re assemble what you have left as another seat or just take all your leftovers to the dump. If you re assemble, you can use zip ties as hog rings, its alot easier and you dont have to buy special pliers

[Torquemonster]

Alright, its been awhile...

So its always had low oil pressure, but the last few weeks Ive been hearing a knock at idle, Sounds higher up in the engine, something like wristpins maybe, so Ive picked up an engine to rebuild. Unfortunatley Isuzu parts are scarce around my area, found a fellow with a few engines, he is the only one with those 3.2s and he knows it. It cost me $400. The story I was given, is that an owner of a Rodeo, always took it in for regular service, but something in the motor went and it was either rebuilt or replaced. Then shortly after that, the tranny went and the owner sold this rodeo cheap, to the guy I bought the engine from.

When I picked it up, the upper timing covers were off and the timing belt was gone. It was late so I didnt inspect the engine much untill today. I could turn one cam by hand, but the other wouldnt go so my mind instantly jumped to "Seized cam" but once I got the valvecover off and saw that everything looked good, infact almost new, I put a breaker bar on the end of the cam and it turned with ease, the rockers/valves were just holding it.

So I pulled the intake, and it all looked clean, and I tried to pull the one head, that I already had the valvecover off of. Ive heard horror stories of headbolts either rounding off, breaking, pulling all the threads out with the bolt, and just in general being a pain in the butt. but pretty much all of mine came out no problem, all of the 10mm hex ones came out with almost no effort, just my 12" breaker bar, which makes me think they werent fully torqued when they were installed. Although, the 3 smaller, 6mm hex bolts at the front gave me trouble. There was evidence of someone being in there, and all of those bolts were starting to round off. I got 2 of them, but the one in the middle rounded completely on me. I dunno how Im gonna get it out.

I was gonna bolt it to the stand today but the bolts I bought were about an inch too short, otherwise the pan would have come off. But overall the engine looks like its in good shape, although looking in through the intake ports a couple cylinders have some rust on the intake valves, looks like its just sitting on carbon, hopefully its just a wire brush and a valve job to get rid of it.

[Torquemonster]

Well the engine rebuild is on hold for now due to constraints with working in a storage unit, however I did get a good score on a parts truck


Its a 91 4x4 Automatic, Chev 3.1 V6. Its rotten, interior is moldy, and even worse its RED, has 330,000 kms on it, trans is slipping and it has a GM 10bolt in the back. But it was $100! My dad and I both contributed $50. My dad is taking the 3.1 to rebuild and stick in his 2.8 trooper, Im taking the doors for the vent windows, every dash switch, relays and fuses, lights and lenses, and any interior panel I think Ill need. Did I mention it has the intermittent wiper relay and switch? Score! That relay is $140 after the conversion rate and shipping. It was a good little score.