The '89 Isuzu Trooper RS can't have too much more thrown on it, aside from whatever shortcomings are revealed as it gets driven. Jay, the mechanic who's been bringing it back to life on nights and weekends, has pretty much done all he can do short of driving it around every day for a week (he's not going to do that, by the way.)
Over the past two weeks, he cleaned up the vacuum lines with new wires to replace some brittle hoses. I dropped off a new OEM hood replacement cable from the man himself, Jerry Lemond, who has a huge supply of NOS Isuzu parts in his barn in Georgia. The only remaining mechanical need Jay identified was an occasional stumble when it's cold, so we ordered a throttle position sensor. It can't hurt to put it in, even if it doesn't resolve the stumble - at least it's one more thing that's done.
It kills me to take it out of Jay's shop but he wants to get paid and I need to get bodywork underway. As long it stays running well enough to get it around my property and the body shop's property, we can call that a win for the time being. If it goes back to Jay after some of the bodywork is completed, not the end of the world - but I really hope we can just keep driving it once it's home for a spell.