Hill-Billy-Mobile (The Trials and Tribulations of a RT4WD)

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Comments

  • I don't know what to do!

    I've done like I said and repainted repaired and replaced any parts I touched as far as removing the coil overs.

    For example. Along with the images above.
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    The only thing I could potentially do right now is replace the front cross member since the last owner cut it. BUT I could wait to do that when I pull the motor..... Which leads me to where I am. WTF do I do now?

    I basically have a few options:

    #1: I send the car into a shop pay 4k and have them drop in a Z6 and while the motors out get it repainted and the dings fixed. Easy for me but not on the wallet.
    #2: I pull the motor myself and send it to get painted and dings fixed. I'm at that point where I know I could do it but I'm not fluent enough to do it well or any where near efficiently! I'm heavily considering this option, not just because it will hopefully be cheaper but because I will be able to to do those little extra things that the shop can't because it would skyrocket the cost.
    #3: It's basically the same as #2 except I find someone willing to hold my hand while I do it and pay them to guide me when I hit road blocks. Only problem with this is that I don't know that someone. Haha.

    What do you guys think? What would you do?

    But on another note I pulled that cut to shit bumper off the car. It was so much worse than I could have imagined haha. Look at this crap!
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    But luckly I found a replacement. It has a tear in the bottom right hand corner. I think it could be repaired, I'd have to talk to a body guy but I don't know why it couldn't be fixed with epoxy.
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    I also traded 90 RT4WD (Cody) the frat boy bumper for some speaker pods.
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    And I found this little gem. With 503Wagon's help I was able to bastardize it out of a junk wagon.
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    Now I basically have 2 sets of runner gear between the frat boy and hillbilly mobile.

    But anyways let me know what you guys think about what to do next!

    And on a final note don't forget I'm parting out the frat boy so if you need anything let me know, I'd hate to send it to get crushed with usable parts on it.
  • 503Wagon503Wagon moderator
    hooray for getting that engine / trans out!!!!

    #Winning
  • Pulled it. Was easy. Really easy. Going to pull my front cross members, sand blast and repaint them. Then throw the wheels back on so I can roll it to a body shop. Boyeah.

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  • I bought a DOHC ZC OBD1 and its on it way. In the mean time I've been stripping the car for body work and also repainting the front cross member from the frat boy car. The one on Hill-Billy had been cut to fit the radiator. I'll get a picture of it tomorrow at work. The only thing left is to strip the engine compartment and figure out what the hell to do with my steering rack cross member. It's badly rusted from brake fluid leaking on it. Also the car had power steering and they took it out. I not sure what to do.... I'm on the fence about replacing the entire thing since I don't even know if its functioning properly. It has oil all over it and I'm not sure if it is form the motor or not. I'll just take a picture so you get an idea.

    Rust
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    Oil
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    The car as it stands
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    When I took the bumper off I found this, snail shell. Seemed ironic.
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    Should have it back on its wheels this week and in a paint shop this month.
  • Got the new motor. It's pretty nasty and going to need a lot of elbow grease.

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  • Keep posting lots of pictures. Am hoping to do the same maybe next summer, either with my current RT or possibly a 2WD.
  • Motor got me motivated again. I really need to get those crossmembers cleaned up and painted as well as the steering rack pulled. Turns out the steering rack was total shit. It had rocks in it and was leaking from every seal. Also when the owner before me pulled the power steering lines he didn't cap them and all sorts of debris got in the openings.

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    Almost done with the front crossmember

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    And I stripped the motor down a little.

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  • SPWSPW Senior Wagonist
    Love the attention to detail. Did you powder coat the front crossmember?
  • JHMEE4JHMEE4 New Wagonist
    Keep it up man! Another DOHC ZC! :cool:
  • I'm thinking about doing the DOHC ZC on my RT4WD Wagon.

    Can you post if you have any problems fitting the ZC.
  • SPW wrote: »
    Love the attention to detail. Did you powder coat the front crossmember?
    If You look again, there is a spray can in the picture ;)

    Nice work! These mods makes the car feel fresher, although no one can see this :D
  • 90 RT4WD (Cody)90 RT4WD (Cody) Senior Wagonist
    I was able to get a re-man power steering rack from O-rileys, it was a Honda rack too. also the rack is RT-4wd specific too. A rack from a civic sedan or hatch will fit, the ratio's are just slightly different.
  • Just rattle canning it. Cleaning really well, 3 coats self etching and 3 coats chassis paint. Charb is saying to just go with a manual steering rack. Might do that, I guess it takes a little modding to get it to work with the ZC.
  • bkmc24bkmc24 Senior Wagonist
    You should stop working on this, it makes me want to keep my wagon and rebuild the ZC lol. Lookin good man!
  • Found out that the steering rack crossmember needs to be one from a manual in order to fit a manual steering rack properly, which is good and bad. The good is that I already needed to get a new crossmember because after cleaning my old one I realised it was rusted much worse. The bad, I have to get a new steering rack crossmember lol.
  • Got a steering rack crossmember and cleaned it up. It was hard to find a rebuild 88-91 SI steering rack however and it took me a few weeks. I put everything together today but I am concerned that I made a bad choice with the suspension. If you remember I has having a hard time finding quality stock RT4WD springs so I went with Integra lowering spring, they were super cheap so I winged it. I think they are going to make the front end sit way to high and the rear end sit way to low. As much as I don't want to get coil-overs I think that's what I'm going to do. It had ground controls on them but the guy installed them wrong and ruined them. Here is how it looks so far.

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  • are you going for "stock height" wagon?
  • SPWSPW Senior Wagonist
    Looks really good man. Are you going to bedline your wheels wells?
  • I wanted to lift it in the beginning but now I think I'll go just a tiny bit lower than stock only because it'll be a commuter when I'm done. I got those HX wheels but they sit inside the wheel well way to far and look a little silly. I'll Most likely will go with 15x7s. SPW right now I'm currently ripping out the drive shaft and differential so I can rebuild them and while all that's out and the car is being painted I'll have bottom and wheel wells re-coated. Wryann at VIP has my tranny and transfer case giving it a once over. I'm also getting the ball rolling on a supercharger for the DOHC I bought. I'm also stripping the engine compartment so paint is next. I'll get some pictures up here in a bit I've just lost my motivation to upload pictures and what not.
  • ChaifeChaife Instagram grand master
    Very cool! Looks thorough. Thumbs up.
  • Keep going man, your attention to detail is top notch. Can't wait to see the finished product.
  • Alright. So I was looking at my parts wagon drive line and saw it was in much better condition then the one on my wagon. This is probably because it spent some time in Bend, OR which gets more snow. Anyways I decided to pull all of the running gear out of my parts wagon and put it on my wagon. I'm right in the middle of this but I'm planning on doing the rear diff mod and replacing all bushings. I also already ordered everything I need to rebuild the VC and replacing the diff seals and anything else that might have some wear on it. No pictures of that yet sorry. I also found that one of my U-joints has a sticky spot and I'm currently talking to 503Wagon who is actively trying to talk me out of replacing it because its a total bitch to do.... So there is that. Here are some pictures.

    Parts wagon stripped. My neighbors must LOOOOOVE me cause its sitting right in my driveway.
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    The loot, still need some cleaning and repainting plus all the bushing replacement and rebuilding.
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    Seals and bearing for the VS. Crack that bitch open tomorrow. Still waiting on the fluid, BTW I'll have a ton extra if anyone needs some.
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    Anyone have info on these bushings? Can they even be sourced or am I gonna have to get real ghetto with them?
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    Also what the hell is this thing and can it be serviced?
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    And this is all that stands between me and getting this thing to the paint shop.... it has been aaaaaaaanoying trying to organize all this crap in my garage.
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    And here is the reason why my garage is chaos, notice the trowel laying on the ground. He likes to pick stuff up and move it around, I turned my back for a couple seconds and he had a hand full of bolts and I have no idea what bin he pulled them from, that will come back to bite me.
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    Let me know if there are specific pictures you wanna see cause I'm not good at taking pictures when I'm working.
  • that's a tripod joint just like in your driveshafts, allows the tailshaft to change lengths while the engine is moving
  • I wish I had the time to disassemble, sandblast and repaint all the details!!
    Looks good, have fun with it!!
  • My garage was out of control. I pulled a pick up load worth of junk out of the house and garage today and cleaned up so I could finally have some workable space.

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  • And I got all this out of my wagon in prep for the refurbished stuff.

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  • Got a little more done. I basically have the wiring harness and a few odds and ends left and it will be ready for paint.
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    Getting the area prepped for wiring.
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    I knocked off any rust with a drimmel and started repainting crossmembers and hangers for the rear dif. Got the bushings ordered up too.
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    These hangers made me sooooooo fucking mad. Idk how I didn't break them.
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    I also half stripped this brake line. I filed it down and will get a open ended box wrench and see if I can get it off. Might heat it too if breaker fluid doesn't work. What a nightmare if that strips all the way. It couldn't be one of the front ones that strips, it has to be a rear one.
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  • And on a final note don't forget I'm parting out the frat boy so if you need anything let me know, I'd hate to send it to get crushed with usable parts on it.

    I'm looking for the interior front seat fabric...
    What color is the frat boy? I need the lite gray that's in the red RT's PLEASE!!!
  • Frat boy is light brown and it's been sitting in the rain for months.
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    These are rusted so bad there isn't even a spot for the screw driver.
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