Hey everyone, so I decided to make a huge thread detailing the semi-resto of my beloved '85 P-type! Okay first I wanna share the history of the car since I'm lucky enough to know it! You can totally skip it since it's going to be very long :x..
I'm the 5th owner of it now, which isn't too bad I feel, the first owner(s) was an old couple but I think it was primarily the wife's! I don't know too much about this part of its life, just who bought it. The second owner was a friend of my cousin. He owned it and worked on it for some time then decided to sell it in the late 90s, and that's when my cousin bought it. My cousin had it and drove it around as a daily I believe, he had a friend of his custom make the hatch wing (check out the pictures!) and he put some, imo tacky, rims on it. He owned it until the early 2000s when he gave it to my other cousin, his brother, and he used it as his daily for a short amount of time. Now I'm not sure which cousin put the body kit on the car but I believe they both knew the same guy, anyways. My cousin unfortunately never actually registered the car so he ended up not driving it anymore since he couldn't afford to pay it it then sat for ~13 years in the California desert. And now I was lucky enough to have him give it to me! TL;DR: old lady owned it, then friend of a cousin, then said cousin, then cousin's brother (other cousin), then me
Here's a picture of it sitting in the desert at the cousin's house
My goal now is to get it to be a good reliable daily, and have it road worthy in time for SIV! Work on it has been a bit slow I will admit, but it was due to my broken wrist and still being in a cast.. but now I'm getting a lot of my strength and mobility back so it's been picking up.
Initially I checked everything on the car and that basically everything needs to be changed haha -v-;; the engine had NO oil, and I mean NO oil. I went to change it and when I pulled the drain plug only like 2-3 drops came out 0.0 which is really weird because like where'd it go??? Maybe the plug is leaky?? It actually had coolant tho, or at least in the overflow, it was hard to tell the color but I think it's safe to say it was a nasty color. The hoses were ROCK HARD, ALL of them, even the little vacuum hoses; but I totally expected this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the engine was covered in rat turds by the spark plug wires, YUCK!!! then I found where their nest was, DOUBLE YUCK!!! and found that the little bastards chewed thru the wiring harness!!! >.<
Here's a picture of it with the new more stylish wheel the day I brought it home
The brakes are BAD. They should've bee changed LONG ago! There was a lot of pad life left, but they were all wearing unevenly, and the rotors were WAY under specs; the discard on the fronts are .787" and they measured .717" and .740" x.x NOT GOOD!! the tears weren't any better, uneven wear and a discard of .709" but the rotors were at .688" and .690" x.x also NOT GOOD!! The good thing tho is that there's still pressure in the system! I was expecting the seals in the master to give out! But regardless I'm going to have to restore the brake system, I've already got pads and rotors, I'm going to find the caliper rebuild kits and rebuild the caliper, and then take apart the master and clean all the crap out of it(the fluid looked really BAD too) probably should do the same to the clutch cylinders too, haven't done that before yet should be fun!
The suspension doesn't really give you canfidence, the struts and shocks are totally shot all around as expected, and to add to it the front springs are cut x.x I personally don't feel completely safe running cut springs so i need to change those out asap. I was thinking of going the coilover route since it'll be killing two birds with one stone and I'll be able to keep it at the stance it's at now (which I'm crazy about!!)but I may have to wait a second since I don't know how to weld and don't know anyone since I want the BC coilovers. Those darn rats also chewed thru one of the rack and pinion boots too >.< all the bushings are hard and cracked, gotta replace all those too. That's all the damage I can recalled atm
The rack and pinion boot that the rats went to town on >.< bastards...
So before spring break I was able to finish fixing the wiring harness and added some oil to the engine. I went in to test and see if it would work, and success!!! It turned over!! Awesome I totally didn't botch the wiring!! Lol. Before I start it I'm going to put in a new intake since the old one was full of vacuum leaks and the pod filter that was put on it was old and decrepit and packed full of dirt and yuck. Currently I'm waiting to go back to school (that's where it's parked now) and get it started and running. I would like to put some dye in the oil, then take it home and take it to get smogged so I can finally get my tags and be fully legal for the first time in like 13-14 years hahaha then I wanna take it back to school and find where the leaks are, do a compression and oil pressure test and go from there. I'm hoping that I don't have to rebuild the bottom end and will just have to reseal the engine
The wiring harness after I finished soldering it, it looks very ugly rn but I plan on buying some conduit and making it look acceptable again
Another picture too because I'm obsessed c:
I'll be updating as I fix stuff and find stuff wrong and all that good shit
I'm the 5th owner of it now, which isn't too bad I feel, the first owner(s) was an old couple but I think it was primarily the wife's! I don't know too much about this part of its life, just who bought it. The second owner was a friend of my cousin. He owned it and worked on it for some time then decided to sell it in the late 90s, and that's when my cousin bought it. My cousin had it and drove it around as a daily I believe, he had a friend of his custom make the hatch wing (check out the pictures!) and he put some, imo tacky, rims on it. He owned it until the early 2000s when he gave it to my other cousin, his brother, and he used it as his daily for a short amount of time. Now I'm not sure which cousin put the body kit on the car but I believe they both knew the same guy, anyways. My cousin unfortunately never actually registered the car so he ended up not driving it anymore since he couldn't afford to pay it it then sat for ~13 years in the California desert. And now I was lucky enough to have him give it to me! TL;DR: old lady owned it, then friend of a cousin, then said cousin, then cousin's brother (other cousin), then me
Here's a picture of it sitting in the desert at the cousin's house
My goal now is to get it to be a good reliable daily, and have it road worthy in time for SIV! Work on it has been a bit slow I will admit, but it was due to my broken wrist and still being in a cast.. but now I'm getting a lot of my strength and mobility back so it's been picking up.
Initially I checked everything on the car and that basically everything needs to be changed haha -v-;; the engine had NO oil, and I mean NO oil. I went to change it and when I pulled the drain plug only like 2-3 drops came out 0.0 which is really weird because like where'd it go??? Maybe the plug is leaky?? It actually had coolant tho, or at least in the overflow, it was hard to tell the color but I think it's safe to say it was a nasty color. The hoses were ROCK HARD, ALL of them, even the little vacuum hoses; but I totally expected this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the engine was covered in rat turds by the spark plug wires, YUCK!!! then I found where their nest was, DOUBLE YUCK!!! and found that the little bastards chewed thru the wiring harness!!! >.<
Here's a picture of it with the new more stylish wheel the day I brought it home
The brakes are BAD. They should've bee changed LONG ago! There was a lot of pad life left, but they were all wearing unevenly, and the rotors were WAY under specs; the discard on the fronts are .787" and they measured .717" and .740" x.x NOT GOOD!! the tears weren't any better, uneven wear and a discard of .709" but the rotors were at .688" and .690" x.x also NOT GOOD!! The good thing tho is that there's still pressure in the system! I was expecting the seals in the master to give out! But regardless I'm going to have to restore the brake system, I've already got pads and rotors, I'm going to find the caliper rebuild kits and rebuild the caliper, and then take apart the master and clean all the crap out of it(the fluid looked really BAD too) probably should do the same to the clutch cylinders too, haven't done that before yet should be fun!
The suspension doesn't really give you canfidence, the struts and shocks are totally shot all around as expected, and to add to it the front springs are cut x.x I personally don't feel completely safe running cut springs so i need to change those out asap. I was thinking of going the coilover route since it'll be killing two birds with one stone and I'll be able to keep it at the stance it's at now (which I'm crazy about!!)but I may have to wait a second since I don't know how to weld and don't know anyone since I want the BC coilovers. Those darn rats also chewed thru one of the rack and pinion boots too >.< all the bushings are hard and cracked, gotta replace all those too. That's all the damage I can recalled atm
The rack and pinion boot that the rats went to town on >.< bastards...
So before spring break I was able to finish fixing the wiring harness and added some oil to the engine. I went in to test and see if it would work, and success!!! It turned over!! Awesome I totally didn't botch the wiring!! Lol. Before I start it I'm going to put in a new intake since the old one was full of vacuum leaks and the pod filter that was put on it was old and decrepit and packed full of dirt and yuck. Currently I'm waiting to go back to school (that's where it's parked now) and get it started and running. I would like to put some dye in the oil, then take it home and take it to get smogged so I can finally get my tags and be fully legal for the first time in like 13-14 years hahaha then I wanna take it back to school and find where the leaks are, do a compression and oil pressure test and go from there. I'm hoping that I don't have to rebuild the bottom end and will just have to reseal the engine
The wiring harness after I finished soldering it, it looks very ugly rn but I plan on buying some conduit and making it look acceptable again
Another picture too because I'm obsessed c:
I'll be updating as I fix stuff and find stuff wrong and all that good shit