Roy's Garage: '90 2.4-4G64 5-spd D-50

[royster]

While rummaging around a junkyard a few days ago, I visited the only D-50 they had. Poor thing was stripped pretty much, but I noticed the instrument cluster (always looking for the Sport cluster) and while it was standard, it DID have a trip-meter on it. Interesting. I was tempted to get it, just for that feature, but decided to hold out for the real thing.

The junkyard I found is a treasure-trove of stuff. I'll be going there for bucket seats, and also to look for the illussive chrome rear bumper I want.

Haven't checked the valve seals, yet: I'm tolerating smoke on start-up, for now. Once it's warmed up, no problem. I deleiriously hope for just improperly installed valve seals, but I also accept it may be the valve guides, meaning the head has to come off, again. I'm not worried, either way: it drives fine, for now.

[royster]

While rummaging around a junkyard a few days ago, I visited the only D-50 they had. Poor thing was stripped pretty much, but I noticed the instrument cluster (always looking for the Sport cluster) and while it was standard, it DID have a trip-meter on it. Interesting. I was tempted to get it, just for that feature, but decided to hold out for the real thing.

Thanks to a 'heads~up' from Lem Forder, I got a lead on a sports cluster on Craig's list.

One component I'm putting priority on is finding a gas tank, with fuel pump intact, from a 2.4 fuel-injected model. Last year, when I dropped my tank to fix a leak, I was able to see how badly rusted the nuts-n-bolts were: it's obvious that repairing the tank would take much more work than I care to do. Finding a tank in decent condition will allow me to spend that same effort on making it serviceable. My main concern is the fuel pump deciding to die while I'm out remote, somewhere. A serviceable tank would prompt me to replace the pump with a new one, for (hopefully) some worry-free driving. You can't gravity-feed a fuel injected engine in a pinch.

In other mundane and obsessive news, I'm cleaning up the little center hub caps that originally came with these trucks. I'm photographing the process. Instead of painting them standard black, I've stripped them and polished the steel. So far, the results are good, and I hope to get a rally-wheel affect when it's finished. These caps are impossible to find, and most are beat up from tire-changers whacking them out of the center with a hammer. Retaining the stock parts is one of my obsessions. Custom rims do look good on these trucks, but my choice has been to keep it as stock as possible. There are a few stockers on the forum, and I know they appreciate the retaining of genuine factory features.

[royster]

Some photos of the "tuna can" hub cap project. While I had the wheels off, I clear coated them.

Here's what I starterd with, and then how it turned out. (The flash doesn't do it justice).
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I found that a stripping wheel was perfect for inserting into the cap in order to spin it. Discovering this, I was able to do the whole process in fairly little time.
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I had 3 caps off the parts truck (I gave one to a forum member some time ago) which were in better shape than the ones my truck came with, so I used those and the best one from the original set. Spray paint stripper first, then a series of sandpaper, stripping pads (the plastic ones) and on some of them, wire wheel for stubborn spots. Some un-denting was conducted (carefully).
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When pretty smoothed out, I used a series of rubbing compund, polishing compound, and finally PlaticX (for headlight polishing) and some mother's aluminum polish...using an old t-shirt and the hand drill. It turns out that the center indent is exactly the size of a 2" PVC coupling, so I used that to spray a center accent (hammered paint). I experiemented with clear coating a finished product, but it diminished the shine, so these are all protected with some McGuire's polymer wax.
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The truck was happy about the upgrade.
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These photos are literally photos: I use a disposable camera, have the film developed, then scan them to my computer. A couple pics came back with some interesting lighting affects.
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I need to take some daylight pictures of how well the wheels came out...they very much look like rally wheels, but most of the photos were taken last evening, when I was finally done, so I used a flash...and the images suck.

Today I took out the "redneck air-conditioning" rear window from the parts truck, and spent a good part of the day cleaning and restoring it. I got it installed this evening, and it looks terrific. Photos another time. And I do agree with those who said removing and installing the back windows is easy.