Project Chronicle

Well, although it seemed like a pretty done deal, I confirmed today I will finally be a Land Cruiser owner as of tomorrow. I've been searching for a very specific truck - the FJ80-series Land Cruiser with the Lexus trim, otherwise known as an LX450 - and my friend Jeff, a local mechanic, snagged this one from a customer. 

The cherry on top was to find one wearing the pretty shade of blue/green paint that was unique to the Lexus variant. This truck, which I inadvertently took a picture of in the background of a photo of my departed Trooper, belongs to a family from Newport, RI. I visited it in person today and while it needs a serious detailing and has some rot issues to resolve, it's surprisingly solid for a New England truck. 

It drives nicely; runs cool; and any negative surprises (so far) have been pleasingly mild. I keep forgetting this is a Lexus from the golden-era of Toyota's luxury arm over-engineering everything they built. The Lexus does have some leaks, primarily an oil leak from the pan gasket area and a power steering leak. The rear hatch took a direct hit near the lock mechanism, and as such, it doesn't open. The driver's window falls off the track if it goes down all the way, and the radio just blows static.

Overall, minor faults, and while the rust will need to be addressed, it's contained and I have a good local resource now for rust repair (even though he hasn't called me back about when the Cosworth can come by....) More to the point, we can use it as I've always intended, which is a vehicle we all fit into that can drive down to the beach and back when called upon. 

And, when funds allow, we'll find some must-have off-road pieces, like a set of wheels from 1552, larger tires, and an ARB brush guard with some period-correct off-road lights. Exciting! 

This was a big day. I really wasn't expecting to do much when I stopped by German Motors other than to get a code read on my 2011 328xi, which finally let me know that the passenger front axle and speed sensor are crying uncle. But Gerry tossed me the keys to the 190E so I could see how confident I was driving it out of there next week. Let me just say this: what the hell. 

May I remind you I bought this car sitting on its belly. No wheels, no radiator, no indication it would ever run again. As of this week, it happily runs up and down North Main Street in Providence, rowing through the gears, maintaining temperature and a steady idle. It's as fun to drive as I had hoped. It makes absolutely no sense that I bought this car, but I now feel increasingly vindicated that I did the right thing by saving it four years ago. 

This is also a reminder of just how incredible Mercedes products of this era are. These are overbuilt machines, a quality I certainly recognized after owning a standard 190E 2.3 and my father running through a lineup featuring two W126s and two W124s. He was not kind to his cars, and those machines held up incredibly well. 

There is still an incredible amount of work to be done on the Cosworth. But knowing I can hop in and drive this car at a moment's notice is a pretty rad feeling, even if still looks like a complete deathtrap. 

When I had the blue '86 Trooper, one of the best days was when the General Grabber 31" tires went on, mounted to the stock steel wheels. It just transformed the truck, even with the stock wheel fitment and offset. 

One of the long-standing goals I had with the Trooper RS was to get the original wheels it came with - a full set, including the spare, of American Racing Outlaws - mounted on the 31-inch Grabbers. It would transform the truck while also offering a nice upgrade for light trail driving. 

Taking the recently powder-coated Outlaws over to Melvin's Tire Pros (which matched Tire Rack's price for the tires), I had the tires thrown on and dropped them off with Jay today for eventual mounting on the Trooper. I also gave him a set of Old Man Emu shocks and he'll throw those in when he's got the truck back on the lift for a transmission service.

I also found more rust....sigh. I hope this thing stays with us for a long time once it's done. 

I swung by German Motors today to see the 1986 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth that now runs, drives, stops, and turns without issue. It's hard to put into words how good it feels to be at this point, especially with the bodywork stage ready to begin. 

I discovered the Cosworth in a junkyard in September of 2018. It has been sitting in storage and slowly picked away at ever since. Today, I watched it go on a spirited drive down North Main St. in Providence, and the engine is healthy; the transmission shifts as intended; it holds a steady idle; it does everything you could reasonably ask of a car with such a colorful history. 

To me, seeing a car at this point after it was discarded so carelessly is incredibly rewarding. Like the Trooper RS, it's total vindication for taking a potentially risky path to saving worthwhile vehicles. Now, the list of things the Mercedes needs is still incredibly long. For instance, the windows don't work. The rear windows are just hanging in place with no regulators. The dash is cracked. The three-pod gauge cluster that sits below the radio hasn't been installed. The rear suspension accumulators are shot. The alarm was proving to be quite annoying and has been disconnected. And so on. 

But at the end of the day, I will be driving my high school dream car this summer. And while I can't go back and take the prom queen to the homecoming dance, I can rip along backroads in the car from my 16-year-old fantasies, and that's pretty great too - especially doing so in a car that was thrown away and rescued after a chance phone call in 2018. 

Incredibly, my 1986 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth has seen the open road for the first time in 10 years or more. It only went about 20 feet, but progress is progress. 

I told German Motors that the "secret" bodyshop that is willing to work on the numerous rust spots can get the car in the first week of May. The one thing holding the project up was installing that power seat module I reported on tracking down a few weeks ago. In order to install the seat, the seat frame had to be re-assembled because the replacement Recaros I found came without bases. I understood this was a pain in the ass project, so I didn't push too hard - but I was happy to see it was finally done and Gerry, the shop owner, took the Mercedes on a maiden voyage.

You can see a quick, low-quality video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLJJq4svJj8

I'll swing up to the shop on Monday and hopefully get to drive the car myself for a few seconds before shutting it down and assessing what else it may need in order to drive it to the hidden bodyshop under its own power. 

The 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS - after two years of moving it here and there, leaving it with different shops and seeing no progress - is finally running. And incredibly, it didn't even need that much to get to the day I had this weekend, where I drove it around the lot of Jay's 4WD and it drove as if it was never parked for 15 years in a junkyard. 

Jay, my shadetree mechanic who is working on the Trooper as a side-hustle, did a fair amount of work. But it's still somewhat of a short list given how long this truck sat dormant. He dropped the tank and replaced it with a rust-free one; rebuilt the fuel tree and installed a new fuel filter and pressure regulator; replaced all belts, some hoses, and the water pump and tensioer; rebuilt the front axles and front and rear brakes (calipers, rotors, and the passenger front hub); wheel bearings; and that's about it. He did plenty of diagnostic and investigative work, too, but from a parts perspective, it wasn't that extensive.

And here's the crazy thing: it drives REALLY NICE. With no real suspension work, oversized tires, and zero fluid changes in the transmission or transfer case, it just hooks up and goes! The transmission feels very tight, and the Troopers with the 2.6L had a very stout Aisin transmission, so it's good to see its reputation is holding up. 

The lights work, the front and rear washers and wipers work, the horn works, the gauges work....it's really pretty shocking. And right now, we're down to a valve cover gasket, some timing work, and changing the transmission and transfer case fluids. I'm going to have Jay throw on the bumpers and lights, and install new Old Man Emu shocks and bushings all around. I'm just stunned but also feeling a strong sense of redemption that this rare '89 Trooper RS was a real-deal 55K mile truck that fell into the junkyard due to some pretty insane circumstances. And while it still needs bodywork, I am more committed than ever after driving this 1-of-800 short wheelbase Trooper RS this past weekend.

Years ago, powder coating was kind of a taboo subject. It was sort of like - what, you're not baller enough to get your wheels professionally repainted when they lose their luster? It seemed that way at the time, but after having my first powder coating experience has changed my mind.

I had a set of wheels that would seem pretty ordinary on the outside. American Racing Outlaws in 15x7 with a 6x139.7 bolt pattern. Strangely enough, these are not entirely easy wheels to find. The other factor in my trying to keep these wheels alive is that the offset is perfect. The stance has always been one of my favorite details about the truck, as they poke out just enough to fill out the fenders without being obnoxious. 

Since I didn't want to risk shelling out $600 for another set and have them be all wrong, I had the original rollers powdercoated by a local shop. I am really happy with the results as the wheels were heavily corroded and a professional wheel repair shop would have charged a crazy amount just to prep them for paint. The wheels were originally polished; that finish is impossible to re-create affordably once it's gone, so they now wear a color known as "Heavy Silver." Looking forward to getting some properly-sized General Grabbers once we're at the point of bolting on wheels and tires worth more than the truck. 

After years of moving the 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS from one shop or storage locker to another, it finally left its latest home away from home running under its own power. It's a big day. 

The RS has gotten a crash course in resuscitation, with Jay over at Jay's 4WD rebuilding the brakes and fuel system along with installing a fresh timing belt in the course of a month after work and on weekends. Jay earned every bit of that bonus I promised him, and while we're not done, it was incredibly gratifying to see the truck leave the shop under its own power this weekend.

The Trooper has successfully gone into reverse and second gear, so fingers crossed the transmission will find the other two cogs before too long. Jay likely wants his shop space back - after all, we agreed to get it running, not restore it all the way back - but I hope he's willing to tackle a few more projects before I bring it home to begin the bodywork phase. 

The seat module saga for the Mercedes was more daunting than expected. There were rumors that a module from a W126 or W124 would work, which would have been helpful given those are much easier to find. Not true, as comparing photos of those modules with mine absolutely showed numerous pins in different locations.

There was a module for a 190E on eBay, but it specified it was for a 1991-1993 model. This didn't make sense, until it did: the later cars had the position of the telescoping steering wheel tied into the memory function of the front seat, which again led to pin locations not lining up with my car, which was a very early model with memory controls. 

So, I turned to Facebook, and found a 190E owners group that was predominantly made up of users from Europe. A shop in the UK that parts out and restores Mercedes came to the rescue, even going so far as sending video showing the seat moving normally with the module hooked up. Hopefully, this brings this chapter to a close and we can bolt a seat in securely and take the 190E Cosworth for a drive.