How often does that happen? In my book, never, so I'm celebrating.<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Moving to Arizona I expected to have a year or two of downtime, no 4x4 action, no big builds, lots of time building back a good guy network since all my car friends got left back in the midwest. Im sure you guys know what I'm talking about since most/all (i havent met you all) of you in this section of the board are part of a really solid group of local people.

First Toasty put me into the mix with a great deal on RunningBird's old raider through Monte3, a little work and the truck went from left for dead to daily driven, then adam again found a deal down in tucson, a buy-one get-one gen-1 mighty max deal. Scored a 2wd Diesel and a 4x4 with great patina.

I had plans for the Raider (v6, locker, 35's) and was going to give Adam the Patina, but he scored a great truck so the raider will get a good buff and some detail restoration work, then live it's life as a light trail duty vehicle and daily driver with air conditioning for the girlfriend.

Before:


After:




The patina on the other hand now gets the name "The Hyena" a rough looking little monster feeding off the scraps of the desert.



1984 Power Ram



Looks a bit like a rust bucket, but it's only the top and sides of the body, the underbody is clean as can be.

So far I've accumulated the following parts for the build;

6G74 SOHC engine in need of some valves
V6 AW2 Trans
NP231 T-case
8 Inch front diff with welded spiders

I'm still going to need the following:
-3.5 SOHC ECU and Harness
-Montero Sport locking rear axle (leaf sprung) or SR axle and I'll make it work
-15 inch 35's
-driveshafts

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm missing. Mostly the little [censored], brakes, shocks, radiator etc.

By the way, for any of you with a 2.6 powered truck rocking a body lift, you can get a 3 row aluminum radiator for a 280z on ebay for $133 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/14147804364...49&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I put one in my diesel, since there's no body lift i had to clearance the front frame cross member, but any montero/raider/d50 with a 1.5-2" body lift will accept this radiator for massive cooling capability!

Hopefully adam will post a build thread for his new toy "Rainbow Brite" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

Waddabout the dismal?

I like the patina.

Not much to say except waiting on lug nuts so i can start driving it more. nuts should be here today.



turbine wheels will go onto the patina once i source some decent 17x10's for the dizzle

That intercooler looks really badass until you find out it's attached to a diesel. My first thought on seeing that truck is "4G63T conversion".

Yeah, I can do those too. How is it a problem on a diesel? 4D55 is a bad ass engine in my book, and I've built a handleful of boosted variants of the 4GXX engines.

Not only does Alpha have some cool cars, he's also one lucky dude. Not many people find their lost items in the middle of McDowell Rd an hour after losing them.

HoseB is going to apply detailing magic to one of the cool collection today. Should be transformational.

John B.

The Diesel in a pickup is a haul ass setup... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

That wagon is sweet!

Wait until you see the Colt.

John B.