Fastcarguys 1981 Chevy C10, 2016 Tacoma SR (and dads 66 GTO)… and a bike?

[Fastcarguy]

Well Ive been here on this forum for a good few years now, and have been driving for about 3 years now. Figured I should make a thread on my car. Its nothing special, haven't really done anything with it. Its a 2002 Audi A4 Quattro with a 1.8T and a 5 speed manual. Its my first car, and Ive put roughly 15,000 miles on it. At the time of writing this it has exactly 150,500 miles on it. Got a good deal on it. Belonged to my mechanics daughter. She moved to California and didnt want to ship or drive the car out there. Got it for the grand total of $2800. Its pretty rough cosmetically. It lived in Boston before I got it so its got the usual parallel parking scars on the bumpers and someone keyed the drivers side at some point.
Rough history of car from time I bought it to now:

Brought it home my junior year of High School, August 2016.

Bent a wheel in february 2018 and drove around on some not so great "sport edition" brand wheels for a few months

At some point I picked up a set of Sparco Podio wheels.

My brother borrowed the car in May of 2018 and Hit a deer. Car was fine, but the deer hit the windshield. Insurance covered it and Safelite came to my house 2 days later.

The most recent thing that happened is the turbo blew up halfway home from work a week ago. The car is sitting in my garage and Im not sure if I want to fix it. So there it is. If something interesting happens Ill update the thread.

 

[Fastcarguy]

So I needed something to get me to and from work. I only live about 10-15 minutes drive from work so it didnt need to be perfect. My brother recently came into possession of a 1981 Chevy c10 Step side. Straight 6, 4 speed manual, and 2wd. It supposedly has almost no rust as it came from Texas. I just purchased it off him for $1000 and he should be bringing it home sometime this week. This is the only picture i have of it:

 

[TheHun99]

Dude, I thought for a moment that you got my old car LOL

I had a 2002 A4 1.8T with the same original wheels: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/post-a-pic-of-your-real-car.14747/page-476#post-12618207.

I bought it back in 2010 with about 90K miles on it for 7 grand and "traded in" for $400.00 in 2016 for the A3 that's in the post. I spent a few times more than its purchase price to keep it running, did about 50k miles in those 6 years. With all the issues it had, I loved it when I came home from a business trip and got in behind the wheel - felt so much more home than the army of rental Camrys and Altimas.

Nevertheless - 20/20 hindsight - I made 2-3 mistakes with regards to cars in the last 3 years:
- shouldn't have traded in the A4. Given the trade-in value, I should have kept it for a project car. Proper 4WD, manual gearbox, would have been great...
- I gave back the A3 in the post and switched to a new one (both leased). Again, should have actually bought it, looked significantly better than my current '19 A3 and it had better suspension with 19' wheels and proper sports tires mounted on it (I also had a set of winter tires on 17' alloys) - my current car is much less stable in dynamically driven corners and offers less grip, partially due to the all-weather tires
- I'm an idiot having not considered Certified Pre-Owned cars, could have gotten into a nice 6 cylinder BMW 3 series...

 

[Fastcarguy]

Finally drove my new to me truck home. 1981 c10 stepside with unknown mileage. Odometer is only 5 digits and it reads 1686. 250 straight 6 2wd and 4 speed with granny low, so effectively it’s a 3 speed most of the time. Some small things: there’s some surface rust but luckily there’s no rot. It needs tires. The ones on it have plenty of tread life but the truck sat for 3 years and they are starting to crack. She doesn’t really like to idle when cold and sometimes while slowing down I’ll need to tap the gas to keep it going. The interior is not done. No dashboard or door panels. Right now it’s going to be a daily driver until the snow starts, then I’m going to do some work to it over the winter. Eventually I want to make it look new and maybe swap out the very very tired straight 6 for a carbureted v8 of some kind.

 

[eiriksmil]

Too clean for salty winters. Very cool

 

[Fastcarguy]

Well i didn't take any pictures, but my wipers on the truck stopped working the other day. A quick diagnostic session with a test light made me decide it was a bad wiper motor. I had power to the switch and power to the motor, but the wipers didn't move. My brother has been restoring almost the same truck for a few years, an 87 2500, and currently has the cab sitting in the driveway. So I stole his wiper motor and put it in mine, and now my wipers work. Some more small things I've found: water gets into the cab somehow when it rains hard. I couldn't trace the leak this time around so ill have to wait until it rains again, but my piece of shag carpet under the pedals was wet. I may need to redo the rubber seals around the doors and windows. Also, I think the choke is sticking. When you first start it, it revs up pretty high. You are supposed to be able to hit the gas pedal and it will go to idle normally, but sometimes I have to hit the pedal a few times to get it to stop revving up. Also, found out my wooden bed is completely rotten. Put my floor jack in it the other day and one of the wheels went straight through. Need to do that over the winter. But considering it sat for 3 years before I got it, its running pretty well.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Small update on the truck. Having some serious carb/choke issues. The truck starts up beautifully and idles damn near perfect. But if you go anywhere near the throttle, even just resting your foot on the pedal, something sticks and it gets locked at WOT. The only way to get it to quiet down is to hit the gas pedal really hard. But if you go near the throttle again, she gets stuck wide open again. Im thinking its a bad vacuum leak somewhere but I cant find anything. Will rebuild the carb at some point in the future. If that doesnt work I will try to find an adapter to get a four barrel carb. It has the Rochester 2 barrel on there, pretty sure its the one it left the factory with, and who knows when it was last cleaned. The Audi is still sitting broken in my garage and Im actively searching for a cheap under $1500 4wd truck or Jeep I can beat on for the winter.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Had some unseasonably warm weather over the weekend, so I dragged the 81 out of the garage and went for a drive. Apologies for the crap quality, was a Snapchat video.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Have a cold start.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Ive decided that unless me or my brother can get really cheap parts for the Audi, Im going to part it out. As it sits the wheels and tires on it are worth more than the whole car, and the interior is damn near perfect for 150,000 miles. It needs an exhaust, a full front end rebuild, and a turbo, and Im not looking to dump more money into a 20 year old A4. It was my first car, and it served me well, but its a money pit.

In other news, with all this time, I now can get to the rear brakes and a wheel bearing I’ve been putting off. Right side rear wheel bearing and a full rebuild on both rear brakes

 

[Fastcarguy]

Finally got my parts and got the brakes done on the truck. They actually lost the shipment and I had to order all my brake stuff again, but they refunded my first order and gave me a 25% discount on it, so I’m happy. Good to be driving it again.

 

[Fastcarguy]

I went and got new tires on the c10. Nothing special, just some cheap generic tires to get me through inspection. But it does look better with the new actually black rubber.

On another note, I put the a4 up for sale. If I have no responses in a month it’s going for parts and eventual scrap.

 

[Fastcarguy]

I have had the Audi up for sale for about 2 weeks now, and have even had someone come out and look at it, but I think he got scared off when he realized he couldnt drive it home. I might need to sell for parts or might just scrap it as the only parts really worth anything are the interior. Would be a shame to scrap it as the interior is just about perfect, heated tan leather front and rear, and the seats are nearly perfect. But both my mother and I are tired of the car sitting in either the driveway or garage. loved the car but i want it gone

 

[Fastcarguy]

The Audi is gone. scrapped it. I haven't done much serious resto work to the truck as I dont have something else to drive if i park it for a while and start tearing it apart. Ive been doing small little things just to keep the 6 running while I daily it. Today I did an oil change and went for a little cruise around the block. I put in 10w30 non synthetic and it quieted down the noisy valve train considerably. previous owner had put 5w30 in it and it was far too thin for this chunky old straight 6.

In other news, the search continues for something to drive in the winter. As soon as the snow starts flying, Im parking the c10. The trucks never seen salt or snow and I intend to keep it that way

The old oil was pretty dark and definitely ready to be changed

 

[Slash]

Looking sharp man!

 

[Volksauto]

Those old stepsides look so nice. Great truck!

 

[Fastcarguy]

Well my brother just backed into my truck with his truck. Needs fender, headlight, shroud, and front end trim at least. Door and hood won’t open though so I don’t know the true extent of damage, and I’m quarantined right now after a potential covid exposure. Don’t know when I’ll have a chance to dig into it. Though I have a feeling taking the front end apart is going to kickstart a lot of resto things.

 

[wfooshee]

Ugh... If the door won't open, an awful lot of structure got shoved backwards! That's worrying.

 

[Volksauto]

Ugh... If the door won't open, an awful lot of structure got shoved backwards! That's worrying.

Is the frame straight?

 

[Fastcarguy]

Ugh... If the door won't open, an awful lot of structure got shoved backwards! That's worrying.

Fender got pushed back for sure. I’ll have to wait to really dig into it though, still waiting on my test results. If I come back negative I’ll dig into it soon.

Is the frame straight?

I’m not too worried about the frame. In a way it’s a good thing my brother has a 2500 pickup, nice high bumper. missed my bumper that probably would have done a lot more structural damage. everything looks straight from the outside and it still goes down the road like it did before.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Well I did some things.
Got the hood and busted fender off, everything looks mostly straight structure wise, except for the rad support. Door opens and closes just like it did before now that the fender is off so I’m not worried about structural damage. Still drives as straight as it did before. I already have a fender that my brother had bought for his 87, will bolt right up. Need trim pieces around the headlights and a new grill, will inspect rad support further once it’s more taken apart. Overall it doesn’t look too bad, could have been much worse

 

[Fastcarguy]

It’s so close yet so far. I spent the better part of a day outside with a blowtorch, a hammer, some pliers, and a straight piece of wood banging the rad support back into shape.

test fit on fender with no bolts

Nothings quite lining up perfect but I guess that’s what I get with a 40 year old truck made out of 3 different trucks parts after an accident

Needs some work still and I need to take it off again and make some adjustments with a hammer, but she’s nearly back on the road. A hammer, some time, and some trim and she might be back on the road for one more drive before the snow flies for 3 months. Plan on doing some major work over the winter while she’s parked, namely interior.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Im actively searching for a cheap under $1500 4wd truck or Jeep I can beat on for the winter.

In other news, the search continues for something to drive in the winter

So I bought one. 2001 Jeep Cherokee, 4.0 straight 6 automatic. has 250k miles and I paid 2,000 for it. Seems exceptionally well maintained and very little rust for a 20 year old jeep in New England. If it gets me through the winter, ill be happy, anything more is a bonus.

 

[Fastcarguy]

This thing is really fun to drive. U turns on a dime. I probably could have made it further up the snow bank but it was about 45° and the snow was soft, it just was sinking in

I’d like to maybe do a small lift, 2-3 inches maybe.

2inch lift and some meatier tires look really good on these

 

[Fastcarguy]

Check engine light came up on the jeep. A cheap harbor freight scan tool later and it turns out to be a cylinder 2 misfire. 4 codes came up but only p0302 was active. not actively misfiring though so it probably just needs a tune up/ plugs/wires. Other than that it’s running and driving as well as a quarter million mile Jeep can.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Changed my plugs. Quite frankly I have no idea how this car was running and not actively misfiring. 4/6 gapped to .055, 1 at .050, and cylinder 2 where it had a misfire was at .070. They’re supposed to be at .035.

 

[Fastcarguy]

The jeep has been going really good. Changed the oil on it and its handled daily driver duties fine. Its far from a luxury driving experience but for my 11 mile round trip commute to work its adequate. It just crossed over 257,500 miles. Its got some pretty bad rust under the bumper and the drivers floorboard is pretty much gone, but its a perfect vehicle to learn how to weld on because I dont care about how it looks. The c10 hasnt been touched since I put the fender on, its just covered in snow and its too cold for me to work on with no heated garage. When it gets warm enough for me to work on I am going to get the fender and hood fully back on and do a rear wheel bearing, and then hopefully ill be able to put my new floor in. Fingers crossed Ill be able to drive it for the summer

 

[Fastcarguy]

Well my brother, father and I dropped the trans out of the GTO to do the clutch.

My truck is still up on the trailer from when we needed to make room in the driveway for the roofing guys dumpster. once more snowmelt happens I hope to get it down and stick it somewhere I can work on it

 

[Fastcarguy]

Ooh, been a minute. Don’t have much of an update, but it’s something. I’m waiting on parts for the c10. Worldwide parts shortages have made it surprisingly difficult to get what I need, in fact my first order got canceled and refunded. I’ve since reordered parts and am hoping they come through, though it’s been 3 days and still processing. The fender is (mostly) reattached, and today I put the hood back on.starting to look more like a truck than it did.

The jeep... well it’s a jeep. The 4.0 is still chugging along. Not sure if it’ll pass inspection this month. Got me through the winter which was it’s intended purpose. It’s pretty rotten underneath. I’d say it’s done alright for having basically driven the distance to the moon. It needs a brake job and 3/4 tires have leaks around the bead and need to be filled weekly, but I’m not spending money on this thing unless it passes inspection at the end of the month.

 

[wfooshee]

I have to say I've not seen ramps turned that direction. Did you actually drive up backwards, or are they there as jackstands after lifting the car? For driving backwards up the ramps, amazing that you have clearance under the rocker panels. For jacking the car and putting them under the wheels, how high did the car have to get to get the wheels that high?!