So I'm going to assume most of you don't know about my little Trooper, but I'm about to get some work done to it to get it back on the road so I figured I'd start a little mini-build on here just as an excuse to post more and show off the ridiculous-ness of it all. This is not going to be to everyone's taste.... hell, it's not even to MY tastes but the Trooper has always been just a funny ride to drive around and I'm going to keep that idea going. Pretty much everything for this is going to be craigslist or second-hand, so it'll be a fun little budget build.
We got this Trooper awhile back for a farm vehicle for a whopping $1000. Thing ran great, had a super awesome camo-paint job on it and they even blacked out the back side windows and had some t-i-g-h-t POW-MIA stickers on it. I drove it for awhile in between vehicles and eventually we ditched the skinny wheels and tires and put some OEM Toyota Enkei wheels with 31x12.5 Super Swampers on it, scrapped off those back windows, swapped in some better front seats from a junkyard Trooper and rocked it. The sum-***** used to do wheelies with the itty bitty skinny tires it had... ok so you had to bounce the gas on and off to get it in the air, but dammit there was oxygen under the front wheels. We eventually had some issues with the oil cooler lines which prompted my dad to get a buddy of his to bypass the stock oil cooler and just loop the two barbs with some line that we came to find out could not hold up to the heat/pressure of the system. The line would get hot, kink, and blow one end off and pump every bit of oil out on the ground. It happened a couple times to me but as soon as it happened, it shot oil straight on the exhaust so it was obvious and we'd just shut it down and haul it home. My dad drove it one day and when it happened to him, it pissed him off and he drove it the 2-3 miles home. Which of course locked that motor up. We managed to get it free by soaking it Marvel Mystery Oil and ever so gently yanking it down the road, but it lasted a whole day before grenading. And so we parked it.
Fast forward quite a few months later and a customer came into our store and was building a 2.8L for his Blazer (who the flip does that?) and was going to have his factory motor for sale as soon as it got done so I scooped it up for $150. Motor ran fine, needed a new timing set and a couple oil seals but the guy ran synthetic in it as long as he owned it and drove it everyday until he pulled it to swap in his new motor. I threw a new timing set in it and we're hauling it all this weekend to a friend who's going to be doing the actual swap for us.
So here's what I plan to do to it when I get the truck back:
-I've got a set of 15x14 (yes, 15x14) steel wheels with the super duper awesome simulated beadlocks. Tires on these wheels are shot, so of course the 31x12.5 Super Swampers are going on. Woah super JDM tyte stretch yo! "Beadlock" rings are coming off and getting powdercoated (thinking gold if I can get it like I want) with black bolts. Every other bolt will be replaced with spike bolts. What says ridiculous more than spike bolts? Nothing. Hopefully they'll fit without spacers but if I need them, they'll go on too.
-Planning on cranking the torsion bars up, and finding a way to lower the rear a smidge to get that bulldog look. If you don't know the look I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. It's got a few different names (cali lean, tennessee tilt, etc) but the basic idea is front end of the truck up, ass-end down. Looks like shit, is stupid, but it's ridiculous enough that it's going to happen. May actually buy a lift for the front and do it correctly if I can find a deal on one.
-Got a 12" sub and little mini system to throw in the truck. It's already got some Walmart special speakers sliding around in the back but I'm going to try and find a way to get everything mounted down and a LITTLE more professional (keyword: LITTLE) for a little boom-boom when I'm cruising in my Troopah.
-The stock bumpers were trimmed by the previous because they did meth or something but they look like poo so they're going ASAP. Planning on finding some sort of tube bumper and making it work and throwing one of those fancy LED light bars on it for that "baller" status. and trimming the front of the fenders up level with the rest of the front end.
-Scuff and touch up some of the camo. It was a crappy spray bomb job and has started flaking pretty much everywhere. Not doing much more than scuffing and spraying over the top of it.
-Bye-bye sway bars for better "mall crawling" photos.
So there it is, simple little fun build. If you don't like it, that's fine but I promise you 110% you will not change my mind or make me feel bad about it and I'll be laughing everytime I take it down the road.
Anyways, here's a couple pics of the Troopah. Picking the wheels up in a couple hours. Hopefully work will start next week.
We got this Trooper awhile back for a farm vehicle for a whopping $1000. Thing ran great, had a super awesome camo-paint job on it and they even blacked out the back side windows and had some t-i-g-h-t POW-MIA stickers on it. I drove it for awhile in between vehicles and eventually we ditched the skinny wheels and tires and put some OEM Toyota Enkei wheels with 31x12.5 Super Swampers on it, scrapped off those back windows, swapped in some better front seats from a junkyard Trooper and rocked it. The sum-***** used to do wheelies with the itty bitty skinny tires it had... ok so you had to bounce the gas on and off to get it in the air, but dammit there was oxygen under the front wheels. We eventually had some issues with the oil cooler lines which prompted my dad to get a buddy of his to bypass the stock oil cooler and just loop the two barbs with some line that we came to find out could not hold up to the heat/pressure of the system. The line would get hot, kink, and blow one end off and pump every bit of oil out on the ground. It happened a couple times to me but as soon as it happened, it shot oil straight on the exhaust so it was obvious and we'd just shut it down and haul it home. My dad drove it one day and when it happened to him, it pissed him off and he drove it the 2-3 miles home. Which of course locked that motor up. We managed to get it free by soaking it Marvel Mystery Oil and ever so gently yanking it down the road, but it lasted a whole day before grenading. And so we parked it.
Fast forward quite a few months later and a customer came into our store and was building a 2.8L for his Blazer (who the flip does that?) and was going to have his factory motor for sale as soon as it got done so I scooped it up for $150. Motor ran fine, needed a new timing set and a couple oil seals but the guy ran synthetic in it as long as he owned it and drove it everyday until he pulled it to swap in his new motor. I threw a new timing set in it and we're hauling it all this weekend to a friend who's going to be doing the actual swap for us.
So here's what I plan to do to it when I get the truck back:
-I've got a set of 15x14 (yes, 15x14) steel wheels with the super duper awesome simulated beadlocks. Tires on these wheels are shot, so of course the 31x12.5 Super Swampers are going on. Woah super JDM tyte stretch yo! "Beadlock" rings are coming off and getting powdercoated (thinking gold if I can get it like I want) with black bolts. Every other bolt will be replaced with spike bolts. What says ridiculous more than spike bolts? Nothing. Hopefully they'll fit without spacers but if I need them, they'll go on too.
-Planning on cranking the torsion bars up, and finding a way to lower the rear a smidge to get that bulldog look. If you don't know the look I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. It's got a few different names (cali lean, tennessee tilt, etc) but the basic idea is front end of the truck up, ass-end down. Looks like shit, is stupid, but it's ridiculous enough that it's going to happen. May actually buy a lift for the front and do it correctly if I can find a deal on one.
-Got a 12" sub and little mini system to throw in the truck. It's already got some Walmart special speakers sliding around in the back but I'm going to try and find a way to get everything mounted down and a LITTLE more professional (keyword: LITTLE) for a little boom-boom when I'm cruising in my Troopah.
-The stock bumpers were trimmed by the previous because they did meth or something but they look like poo so they're going ASAP. Planning on finding some sort of tube bumper and making it work and throwing one of those fancy LED light bars on it for that "baller" status. and trimming the front of the fenders up level with the rest of the front end.
-Scuff and touch up some of the camo. It was a crappy spray bomb job and has started flaking pretty much everywhere. Not doing much more than scuffing and spraying over the top of it.
-Bye-bye sway bars for better "mall crawling" photos.
So there it is, simple little fun build. If you don't like it, that's fine but I promise you 110% you will not change my mind or make me feel bad about it and I'll be laughing everytime I take it down the road.
Anyways, here's a couple pics of the Troopah. Picking the wheels up in a couple hours. Hopefully work will start next week.
