Project Chronicle

While I hadn't intended to put any more money into the Trooper RS before relocating - especially with the news that the headgasket had started leaking - logistics demanded that I do something with the truck before moving it over to my mechanic Jay's house as a fall/winter project. 

The bodyshop I use has been performing some smaller projects so I can focus on simply maintaining the vehicles going forward rather than also dealing with cosmetic repairs. When the bulk of the rust was repaired on the Trooper, it was a grueling, messy project. The shop hit a breaking point where they just wanted the truck out of the way, so we left one section of rocker un-repaired on the passenger side.

With a gap in their schedule and the Audi S6 Avant not quite ready to come over to the bodyshop to replace the windhshield and fix some very small rust on the A-pillar, the Trooper slid in to get the remaining rocker rust taken out and repaired. As of now, the RS is effectively rust-free - which will make parking it outside at Jay's place for the colder months a little less unnerving. 

I have been attempting to check off some long-standing to do's, and one of them was installing period-correct audio components in the 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS. I had snagged an old Blaupunkt and have long had a vintage K40 CB radio to install and finally found time to get to Sights & Sounds in Wakefield, RI for the install.

First, the Blaupunkt I got out of a junkyard was no good. Fortunately, Scott - the owner of Sights & Sounds - reached into his deep inventory of NOS equipment and found an awesome JVC cassette deck with perfect backlighting to match the neon green glow of the Trooper gauges. It works beautifully and the stock speakers still sound surprisingly good.

The K40 CB I rescued out of a junked Mercedes eons ago powered up as expected, and Scott drilled a small hole in the drip rail to mount the whip antenna securely. The unit itself mounted neatly under the glove box on the passenger side.

All told, for a very modest investment, the Trooper has a tidy audio setup that matches the cabin perfectly and gives some classic 90s audio equipment a new lease on life in a truck that came back to life itself just last year. 

There comes a time when a project is finally to the point that you can drive it - for an extended period - and you realize it was all worth it. 

More than other efforts, I struggled at times to understand if restoring this rare 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS - code for short wheelbase and 3.77 gears - was worth it. I had to move it multiple times, starting with going from Massachusetts to Maryland, where I thought my brother would hook me up with a shop to work on it (he didn't.) I then decided to haul it back north to a shop that was all of 15 miles from where it was originally found as they promised to work on it (they didn't.) I was about to lose all hope when a chance encounter on Instagram of all places led me to a guy named Jay Gaston who offered to bring the Isuzu back to life as part of a moonlighting gig he had working on Japanese four-wheel-drives. 

Jay did everything he promised and then some, revealing the Trooper was a healthy truck under years of faded paint and gummed-up fuel systems. However, as is often the case, it was not just bad gas that needed resolving. The floors were gone, as were the rockers. There was a heavily compromised control arm assembly on the driver's side. The time in the body shop was far from cheap and made me question my decisions on a very personal level. 

But finally being able to drive it for 30 minutes like any other car and finding out it fits like a warm glove with the perfect door placement so your arm rides on the window sill with your hand gripping the vent window frame - all while it bounds happily down the road like some metaphor involving a labrador puppy - well, that's the stuff, kids. That's what you hope for when it's all done. All the mental anguish caused by small problems that become big and only you alone can solve make owning a restoration project a master's class in project management. 

This Trooper RS is a honey, and we are psyched to finally give it a forever home after sitting in a western Massachusetts junkyard from 2005 to 2020. 

As we know by now, I've had some unfortunate surprises related to rust on the '89 Trooper RS. The first was the driver's side floor, which was effectively, gone. What I thought was floor turned out to be a very robust carpet pad and when lifted away, there was daylight everywhere. 

While this was a monumental job in and of itself, we weren't out of the woods. Jay - my mechanic - noted that the driver's side control arm assembly was compromised by rust. Not the arm itself, mind you, but what it bolted to. There had been, at one time, a little housing that held the brake line and likely also provided some reinforcement to the shims that were used to align the front end. That housing was effectively gone on the driver's side, along with the plate that lent support to the motor mount. Needless to say, there was no avoiding this work given how deep I am into the truck. Not going to roll the dice on life safety. 

Take a look at the pictures and you can see the night and day difference. After grabbing a panel cut from a Trooper frame with the housing intact, we learned that Isuzu overhauled the front suspension in 1988, so the cut we got didn't line up with my suspension geometry. I called a friend who had a pretty rusty truck in his yard, and he managed to carve out enough of that section of the frame to give us a useful amount of metal to repair the bad areas on mine.

The work is done; the before and after is hugely satisfying, even if it means this second phase of bodywork isn't going to be much cheaper than the first. 

One of my favorite things about old-school cars is single-stage paint. It's a shame the industry moved away from this (though I understand why) as there are few things more rewarding than scrubbing off some chalky, faded paint and seeing original luster come back to life in front of you. 

As we near the end of the bodywork phase on the Trooper RS, my body man Nelson started to buff some small areas. He sent me these photos as they capture what the rest of the truck will eventually look like. It's absolutely incredible and probably one of the most rewarding moments of this journey; when I laid eyes on the Trooper in a salvage yard in Western Massachusetts, I was pretty confident the paint would come back to life. Now I have near infallible proof that it will. 

Before I picked the truck up, I had never looked at the odometer. It wasn't until it was being loaded I peered in and saw it had just 55K miles. From the lack of wear on the pedals to the cleanliness of the interior to the perfect compression numbers, we had all the evidence we needed that this mileage was genuine - but buffing ou that small corner of the fender leaves no doubt this is one of the lowest mileage short wheelbase Troopers in existence. 

The Trooper RS is over the biggest hurdle it has faced since becoming a running vehicle. The driver's side floor and rocker were basically non-existent, so this represented two problems: it was the most expensive aspect of its restoration and the most time consuming. 

It quite literally needed almost all of the front half of the driver's floor rebuilt from scratch; the same for the rocker. It took about three weeks to get this done from start to finish, and it included hanging and re-hanging the door multiple times to get it sit evenly. 

My bodyshop has left the lower panel in primer for the time being, but we're likely going to fudge the math a little bit and paint up to the molding. The next step is to repair the passenger side which isn't nearly as destroyed, and I also have a very nice piece of original passenger floor from a junked Trooper for that section. We'll also be removing the driver's side control arm assembly and replacing it with one that isn't quite so rotten.

None of this is easy, but quite literally, the hardest job is done. 

When we last checked in, the awfulness of the floors in the 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS was on full display. Nelson, my trusted body guy who is going to charge me way more than he expected, has turned my porous Trooper into one that is structurally sound yet again.

Seeing sound metalwork back in place is a relief, especially since I acquired this for my wife to use around town. Doubtful she’ll appreciate all the work that’s gone into it, but that’s not what it’s about.

What keeps me in this is that it’s likely the lowest mileage RS in existence. It will clean up incredibly well, and even if we need to sell it at some point to make room for a new project, it should return the investment to me when we move it along.

When I bought the 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS out of a western Mass. salvage yard, I figured it had rust....somewhere. I didn't look too hard. Basically, I wanted this dumb short wheelbase Trooper badly enough that I just looked at the odometer and decided its unicorn-like low mileage made it worth saving.

I still believe this, but now that it's in my secret bodyshop, I'm mildly concerned at how much floor work is needed. The driver's floor is basically gone. Or, in my glass half-full voice, it's halfway gone. The rockers are destroyed - I knew that - and thank God I had the salvage yard near my in-laws in Georgia cut up a pretty decent truck to get the rockers off of them, as those pieces are saving my butt in a big way right now. 

Nelson, my secret weapon body guy, is blowing apart the other pieces I've pillaged from parts cars over the years, but I honestly wish I grabbed a bit more. One truck in particular had a big chunk of the floor still intact that we could really use at the moment. 

The other side has issues as well, but not quite to this extent. Plus, on the passenger side, I was able to get a huge chunk of the floor from a local truck that was solid on the right side but looked just like this on the driver's side. 

I knew long ago this project would never make any financial sense as it's purely my illogical desire to save this 1-of-800 shorty that's keeping it moving forward. But this latest phase of work will be the biggest investment yet. 

Big news! The 1989 Isuzu Trooper RS is moving out of Jay's 4WD shop and heading over to *another* shop; this time, it's for bodywork. I am very excited by a few things, namely: this brush guard. This bull bar, brush guard, whatever the hell it is was on the first Trooper II to sell on Bring A Trailer in 2016. The truck ended up in Utah being parted out, and I found the listing on a Salt Lake City classifieds sight from a very sketchy seller. Needless to say, he followed through on sending it to me and it's been in my garage for the last two years, taking up a ton of space. Great to see it finally reach its intended destination. 

Jay got it mounted up and wired in two Hella 4000 spotlights with a custom switch. In addition, he's replaced the valve cover gasket; replaced all vacuum lines; replaced the PCV valve; drained and replaced the transmission and differential fluid and transmission filter; and adjusted the valves. He also mounted the bumpers and replaced the lights / bulbs with OEM pieces; the original lights, grill, and front bumper were all stripped off the truck while it was in the junkyard. 

I am getting it picked up and moved to the bodyshop this week. Unlike the Cosworth, they have not seen this truck in person so it will be interesting to see how much they hate it or love it, but truth be told, the Trooper has less rot to address than the Mercedes. Not much, but every little bit less makes a difference. 

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. 

My mechanic Jay has been working on (what he very much wants to be) final punch-list items for the '89 Isuzu Trooper RS. I'm a little melancholy, as there was a comfort that came with knowing Jay has been fixing plenty of little items along the way, and now it will be incumbent upon me to figure out what still needs doing.

In this latest installment, Jay has installed four new Old Man Emu shock absorbers and replacement sway bar links; replaced the valve cover gasket and adjusted the valves; and even done some body work by installing a replacement bumper up front and replacement bumper ends in the rear. He did note the hood latch cable is shot and needs replacement.  

He also threw on the genuine RS grill I snatched up a few years ago along with a set of good headlights and turn signals, parts that all disappeared when the Isuzu was still being occasionally scavenged for parts in the boneyard. 

It really can come home at this point, but I'm not sure if it will be towed or if it's ready for an interstate trip just yet. Jay is going to perform some road tests near the shop to see if there are any last-minute fixes to perform. 

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. 

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. 

As mentioned the other day, the Trooper RS is finally under the knife after two years of moving it around to various storage locations. My mechanic, Jay Gaston who runs Jay's 4WD, is in the thick of it at the moment, taking apart the front axles and brakes to refresh the components within.

The passenger side is back together, but we found the driver's side hub was pretty rough. The bearing race was just falling out, so I found a used replacement at Woonsocket Auto Salvage. New wheel bearings ordered front and rear, and we'll also track down a set of replacement control arms with new bearings pressed in at some point. The cool thing about that last job is this guy - known as Jerry Lemond - still has NOS parts in his barn from his days as the head trainer for Isuzu corporate. He bought out the domestic parts supply when Isuzu stopped selling consumer vehicles in the states.

As part of this, he's offered to have me send him a set of replacement control arms from a southern junkyard and he'll press in fresh bushings before sending them onto me. This project is a bit of a fool's errand - I'll not likely sell it for what I'll have into it - but I really do love this truck and want to see it come back to life. 

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was having trouble getting the lone gun mechanic I hired for the Trooper RS revival to start on the project. I dangled the prospect of a bonus, but what seems to have gotten things moving is that I'm now paying rent for this thing. 

Bear in mind: I did not pay rent for the six months it's been stored at a commercial property in Portsmouth, RI. But here's what I realized: if Jay, my mechanic pal gets hit by a bus tomorrow, there's no connecting him to me as far as the property owner is concerned. So, I pressured Jay into connecting me to the owner to kick-start an agreement, which not only provided me some ass-coverage but also made it clear that I was committed to this project - and now had even more skin in the game.

Who knows. Maybe the two are unrelated and I'm just an idiot for paying rent when no one was asking. But the Trooper did move indoors this weekend, with the fuel system being cleaned and replacement parts swapped in (gas tank, fuel pump, etc.) Jay let me know all of the calipers are condemned, so I just ordered replacement calipers to go with the replacement calipers and pads I sent over last year. 

The timing belt still needs to be done, but I'm hopeful we're going to see some real progress over these next few weeks.