i was offered a whole truck in decent condition the other day. Free (but a couple of hours away), Theres a few around and cheap so I could have gotten a whole roof. But I have seen a few others rust out in the same places, so I may as well persevere with this one, at least I know what I have.
Ever onwards. I'm over fixing rust, dents, and generally making things right for now. So on to probably the first actual modification/upgrade I've done to the ute.
Standard 1st gen 3.88 open diff out
2nd gen 4.22 LSD in
So far so good. I noticed the 2nd gen handbrake cables have square ends, 1st gen ones are round. Don't think it will be an issue. Other than that I just need a brake hose C-clip thing to mount the soft line to the diff.
Cool, so for anyone wanting to put a 2nd gen diff in their 1st gen truck it pretty much goes right in. The only thing you will need other than the diff is the 2nd gen flexible rear brake hose and both of its clips, as the 1st gen only clips on the chassis end.
Nice. I'd like having the LSD rear and taller ratio diff. The open diff doesn't cut it for traction (I was able to pull wheel spin out of the wrecked truck I bought - even with a dud carby, no vac advance on the distributor and the timing belt flapping like a rubber band...) I'll be using my L200 as an all rounder - work and fun stuff. It'll be good to be able to pull a decent load behind it.Originally Posted by tortron
Not to mention the 2nd gen brake shoes are considerably cheaper and easier to find on the shelf. At least over here
Good to know. Most of the time I try to factor in issues like part obsolescence when I perform a mod.
1st gen and 2nd gen brake line difference
https://youtu.be/U-MUdfq1BPI
https://youtu.be/7GjP9k8KUSM
Made a start on the roof. Showing some improvement after roughing out with a dolly to beat the roof back out and over crowned to give it some rigidity. I then ran over the creases and brows with a shrinking disk. The second video is after a second round of roughing out.
https://youtu.be/zu06zTaC_VA
Getting tighter. Another round of roughing out and it should be back in shape.
I see you took it for a test run with the Gen 2 rear in it and now it blitzes through gears like it's got a close ratio gearbox - you didn't happen to have GPS to compare the accuracy of the speedo with the Gen 2 rear in it?
I run the commodore electronic speedo through a yellow box - yellr.com, so i adjusted the signal to my final drive before it even rolled out of the garage I'm afraid.
there was something like a 24% difference over the standard commodore read out. With larger tyres and different diff ratio than the standard commodore
Just changing the 3.88 to a 4.22 should result in about a 9% difference. could be ok with a a change in tyre size. but i believe different speedo gears are available
Plenty of final drive calculators online if you want to figure it out for your setup.
different speedo gears are available, but finding them new in the USA is about impossible. 10% is about right for the speedo difference. There is a chart in the John Baker catalog that shows the different gears and tire sizes - it may be in the manual section.
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
So...hypothetically I could remove a speedo driver gear from a Gen 2 transmission and fit it to my Gen 1 and the accuracy issue would be fixed?
Have a look at the gauge faces. It should show how many rotations per mile or km they are for somewhere. Maybe take a Speedo from a 4wd? There's lots of 4wd first gens rusting away on farms here so easy pickings. I actually have a couple of Mitzi Speedos here too Il check them.
You can also buy mechanical Speedo correctors. They are not super cheap tho
3d printing is quite good now days. I think you could have whatever you wanted made up
Pretty tight now. Made a spoon up to get up under the windscreen areas and lever out the creases. Raised that area a good 5mm, I imagine the centre of the roof has raised about 2cm minimum.
https://youtu.be/p0XITdRUO_8
https://youtu.be/p0XITdRUO_8
Also some bad news. I have a couple more pin holes in the roof Il drill those out and patch them like the last one. I think that will tighten up the rest of the roof enough to lose the remaining soft spots. I'm also debating cutting out a strip above the driver's seat. This area was creased in and is rust pitted.
Drilled those two spots out and patched them. Also ran a bead down that pitted crease which worked a trick at thickening the steel there up and shrinking it down. Only 1 small canning area which pops with a shove. Have now sprayed some more black paint over it and Il begin to smooth the surface with hammer and dolly. This should tighten up that area too I believe. Also, because the bonnet was up, I went ahead and removed an old bracket that was unsightly. Then cleaned all the windows from overspray and vacuumed the remains of the bog dust from inside the cab.
Might take a break now, get sore arms trying to reach the centre of the roof with a dolly.
Going through a commodore body loom at the moment. Would have been nice if they labelled it when they unplugged it, the manuals are not great in the loom sections. Luckily I have a half loom that I labelled when I got it at the wreckers.
Lots of options for me to keep, aircon and cruise control circuits, delayed interior lighting and central locking and theft control modules, as well as various lighting relays and nice stuff.
Probably best to dump the body control and theft modules and run that through a modern alarm. I wouldn't mind adding aircon one day, but I will probably remove the wiring for now and box it away somewhere. Same with the cruise control, I might keep an eye on Holden wrecks if I can get an upspec model with all those goodies. Going to replace all the headlamp and IGN wiring with the Holden stuff which has relays already, maybe repurpose a couple of circuits for an under hood trouble light and some tray lighting. Luckily the L200 is lacking in any real electrical systems.
The engine loom is more or less seperate and I will just reroute the one I already have.
I think I will also draw up a decent loom diagram, my eyeballs are falling out after a couple of hours searching the ones I have
I'm going to have a notebook with all the mods logged in them so if in the distant future I part company with my truck be by choice or fate, I'll know exactly what has been done to it and what seviceable parts need to be sourced.
Yeah I do the same with mine and my minor. My old commer had 30 years worth of notebooks with everything done, and any part that was original and replaced was cleaned, bagged, and tagged.
Really helpful when the distributor was actually a Landrover unit made to spin backwards
I planned some stuff out the other day, and the next thing on the list is to start on the 1st gen tray. I have a few things planned that all involve the tray being at least on the truck. its a big job, So lets get started.
first I'm going to need to clear this junk out
Cant fit my bullbars because the sides foul on the 2nd gen tray. Its galvanised pipe and looks to have been closed eyed stick welded
so I cut the arms off
now I can tuck it away till I need it. I will probably make these removable in the future.
Lots of extra wiring in the tray, and this rope which is held on by a riveted plate?
Flip her over and take a peek under her skirts
Mostly its pretty good. But typical rust traps - triple layer seams and the terrible angle supports in the wheel wells which catch muck and rust out.
This hole has been there at least 10 years - it wasn't getting any bigger so wasn't fixed last time this was painted. Id believe it because its big enough to let any water run right out.
Are these supports factory? they were bent out of shape and have been poorly welded onto the panel lip way too high. This tray once sported some flares so I think it was moved to accommodate these. The front part of the wheel arch has also been creased inwards on both sides, and going from the pop rivets this was also done for the flares. Luckily they didn't do the job properly and cut the original arches out.
From the above pics we can see the problem areas. Major rust in the front lip/flange of the wheel well at the seams, THe angle iron looking supports in the wheel wells have rusted through (if you have a 1st gen tray go and flush these out and drill drain holes in the middle ), and rust in the bodyline seam. This is mainly affecting the metal of the top half of the tub. The floor is very good and theres only some 'minimal' rust on the lower skirt lips.
I guess I wont be using my spot weld cutter - its all stitch welded
I cut all these out with a mix of a cutting disk and my finger sander - notching out the fused area.
and this is why I recommend pulling one this bad apart
The lip for the tub has pretty much totally gone in the areas behind the wheel wells, which isn't surprising. So without the lower skirt in place they just flap in the breeze.
A real easy job with the tray off the truck and on its back.
My next plans are to
- baremetal the skirts. They are pretty good, I just have a spot of rust on each, fix the seam lips expecially on the rear ones, remove the flare crease and then il epoxy primer them and put them away. I'm going to make some under tray storage - inspired by the under tray battery compartment on the 1st gen 4wd's. So these probably wont be welded on, and cant be fitted until the tray is on the chassis to check clearances.
- Repair the wheel wells. Mainly just the under tray seams, they are totally rusted away so at least they are easy to remove. This is just the flat section on the leading edge of the tub, so I will just replace that whole bit. The fuel tank side is the worst, with a little extra rust down the inside face, so this will be patched in place as this section actually runs the whole length of the tray.
- With the wells done I think I will try remove the upper tub sections as they will need totally new seam edges, the bits that are still there are pretty bad.
The front section of the bed just unbolts - so no issue there, I think I will undo the seam at the tail light section.
The tail light section and the under bumper cowl area is actually very good. a small hole of rust in one corner but I think I can leave all this attached. The seams look nice and clean.
Just ordered a barrel of paint stripper, and I have everything else so no excuses now huh
You love a challenge, doncha? Your tray body looks pretty straight but that cancer is out of control... It will look good once you mate the correct tray and body together. I am thinking about getting a custom tie down/roll bar made up for my truck tray once it's on the road (let's be optimistic here lol). Hope you got a decent pair of tail lights with that tray!
Honestly, although a big job, this ones going to be pretty straight forward as its mostly just the unseen flange edges that need replacing. And they are all flat. Luckily this tray had been removed from the truck 10 years ago and stored indoors. The cab had been left under cover but had badly rusted at the seams, so luckily its not too far gone to be worth my time at least.
Yes got a good pair of lamps with it. Lenses look decent. I did also get a repro set of lenses out of Thailand incase I need them. I might see if I can get a better fit by heating them
Got the repros - the plastic isn't thick enough around the edge seams (and generally all over, and the lens joins suck a bit, and the chamber partitions don't fit properly...) They need a thicker seal or a bead of sikaflex to build them up. I think they aren't that water/dust proof but the cops can't pull you up for having busted lights so in that respect they are a cheap investment.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks