Jeff tries to make a hot rod out of a farm truck. '92 Mighty Max

[Jeff V.]

I'd basically have wasted ~2k on my current truck. I'd have to pull the engine back out, mod the red truck's firewall and radiator mounts, and swap over my LSD axle.

It's a clean truck, but I would basically be starting over from scratch.

There's a red Ram 50 that just showed up at one of the junkyards. I might grab some body parts off it they're as clean as they look in the photo. That'll help. It's going to be a while before I can get over there though. And I have no idea how I'll move a complete bed assembly.

[ChargerX3]

Im saying, if that is the one truck that you really want then there are options. But it you like your current one then dont bother.

Me, im a glutton for punishment, so i bought 2...and a SWB Montero. I haz the Mitsubishi cancer.

[Jeff V.]

That's a nice truck, and there's an immaculate 3.8 Montero for a similar price right now. I'm really annoyed at where I'm at with various things right now, and seeing stuff like that is just pissing me off more.

[ChargerX3]

Well, the good thing is that its just temporary. Put your Monti up on Craigslist and let it sit until you get your number. In the meantime, if you have space you can pick up one of the two you like and make whatever repairs you need to have done to the monti.

[vegasidol]

[quote=""ChargerX3""]Well, the good thing is that its just temporary. Put your Monti up on Craigslist and let it sit until you get your number. In the meantime, if you have space you can pick up one of the two you like and make whatever repairs you need to have done to the monti.[/quote]

[Jeff V.]

There's no guarantee any of these other used vehicles will be any better than what I have now. I'll just deal with the Montero until it either breaks completely or the weather warms up.

I'm tired of throwing my money away.

[ChargerX3]

Well if they are close enough by you can perform your own inspection, test drive, and at least have a really good idea if something is up. Purchasing not running, or off the net is where business can get risky.

[BillyC]

What's wrong with the Montero? I thought it was in drivable condition?

[Jeff V.]

The Montero runs, but I feel like it's on borrowed time. It's a fucking mess. Literally and figuratively. It's in much worse shape than I thought it was and it's an embarrassment.

The only reason I'm still working on the truck is because I can't stand the shame of giving up on it, and I'm hell bent on paying the Corvette off early. So I'm trying to be cheap with my DD.

If it wasn't for that, I'd scrap or donate both of them, push most of the crap in my garage into a rollaway, and be done with it all.

[ChargerX3]

Sounds like you need to get out of the Monti and into something worth your time.

[BillyC]

Nothing wrong with cutting your losses

[Jeff V.]

These are all very logical positions.

Emotion fucks it all up, as usual.

[ChargerX3]

Screw emotions. You’re a facts speak for themselves kind of guy. Tis but a bump in the road.

[DCIV]

Here is how I try to look at things....if this is something youre gonna keep, get the nice one. Yes you will lose money on the deal. But you gain something that your proud of for a long long time.


Coop

[stealthee]

It's almost like me with my Stealth. I had a TON of work already into the Stealth when I ran across the 3000gt shell that was too clean not to get. I originally was just going to use clean stuff from the 3000 to fix the Stealths ills but in the end it made more sense to start over with the 3000.

It sucks, but it will be better in the end.

[vegasidol]

I kind of feel that way too...

[Jeff V.]

I had an interesting lunch break today.

Originally I went out to one of the junkyards to scout a RAM 50 that I thought might have some nice body parts to swap on to my truck. With the exception of a passenger door, there wasn't much worth taking.

Oh well, it did have a really basic bluetooth capable radio in it. I grabbed that for the Montero. Even better? It was essentially free. More on that in a minute.



Here's where it gets interesting. I went to check out a 4g Eclipse they had. It's got some electrical stuff I might go grab tomorrow. A couple cars down, they had an 08 Lancer GTS. I look inside, and no shit...OEM Mitsu nav system. There car has been there for a week and nobody took it.

This thing is 11 years old, it's way outdated, and I'm sure I could get some generic Chinese head unit that's way more capable. But for $50, why the hell not? It'll be fun to make it work in the truck, and it keeps with the theme of putting original Mitsu parts into an old ass farm truck that was never meant to have any of this stuff



(That's not where I live. I didn't grab the antenna yet and I think that's just the last GPS fix it had)



When the guy rang me up, he only charged me for the nav unit. So as far as I'm concerned, the el cheapo BT head unit was free.

Oh, the Lancer also had the keyless go ignition system. I'm seriously tempted to harvest the hardware for that too

[Chris GTO TT]

All that is awesome, but really it'd be comical to have keyless in that truck

[Jeff V.]

All that is awesome, but really it'd be comical to have keyless in that truck

Hence the reason I want to do it

But the problem isn't so much the hardware as the interaction between the keyless module, the body module, and the engine module. I'll be lucky enough to get the regular keyed 4G Eclipse immobilizer working. Getting the keyless system from a totally different platform integrated would be a miracle. I'll have other opportunities to grab this stuff after I get the truck running.

[ChargerX3]

Nice head unit! Now you can travel in style. The keyless would be icing on the cake!