Big Blue - 1991 LWB

[Sedole]

Hey all!

I'm new to the Montero community and 4wd vehicles in general, but have been wanting to get into something 4wd for some time now.  I wanted a truck for light wheeling with friends, winter trips to ski resorts, and transporting my dog, Axe.  I ended up with a Montero because 1) price was right (I'm in dental school and have taken on way more loans that I care to think about), 2) I love having something you just don't see everyday, 3) LR discovery seemed like too much of a headache, and 4) I love the retro looks of the gen1 Montero and the stoutness of the drivetrain. 

Here's a brief synopsis to bring y'all up to where I currently am with the truck:

Fast forward to April 2017, and I found my truck.  1991 LWB LS so headlight washers, sunroof, bouncy driver seat, and rear LSD  .  4.63 gears.  2 owner vehicle, with the 2nd owner having purchased it from the OG owner in 1994.  The truck ran but had been sitting for 8 years as the PO couldn't get it to pass smog after an engine swap.  172,000 miles on the clock (unknown on swap) and the owner couldn't recall ever even using the 4wd.  The truck was in great condition with the exceptions being the rusted out moonroof track and the stench/filth/cigarette/wet dog that had perpetrated the inside.  Since the truck ran so great, I got a trip permit, changed oil and coolant, and drove her 200 miles home without any issues.





Immediately I fell in love with the truck.  Coming from a background of lowered cars, I now totally understand why people love trucks so much!  The only thing bothering me was all the blue!  Seriously, everything in this thing is blue.  The paint, the seats, the carpet, the dash...even the windows have crappy blue tint.

First order of business was to de-filth the truck and replace the rusted moonroof track and get rid of some blue:

First I scrubbed down the dash as best I could, then yanked the carpet and seats for several rounds with the rug doctor...  The filth just kept on coming and coming.  Finally when the water came out clean, I decided to begin dyeing the carpet with colorbond carpet dye.



Since I had to pull the headliner in preparation to install the new moonroof track I pulled from a 97 at the pick and pull yard, I also cleaned that as well.  For those wondering, a moon roof track from the gen 2 will drop right into the gen 1 with only two welded on bolts needing to be cut off the track.  Cheap and easy fix if you moonroof rains rust flakes on you like mine!







Cleaning and dyeing the carpet and headliner immediately made a huge difference on the look and smell of the interior:




At this point I picked up a couple goodies while at the junkyard and got right into installing them:



Install was easy enough since the gen 1 seats provide a nice flat platform to work with:  simple as trim down the brackets of the LR disco 2 brackets flat and prep, weld, and paint!





These seats totally change the look and comfort of the interior.  Armrests make a huge difference!!

At this point I started getting the truck ready to pass smog.  After a preliminary smog test to see where the truck was at, I ended up replacing/redoing timing, spark plugs & wires, distributor cap/rotor, O2 sensor, and cat to get a good smog.  Getting this truck road legal was a great feeling!



Since I could now drive around in the truck, I got rid of the crap tint (still working on the rear door...), painted the grill and skid plates, and installed some lights:



Also got some new tires to replace the crap all seasons the PO had put on the truck.  Went with 31x10.5r15 goodyear wrangler authority...already wish I had gone with 33s lol.






Now that the truck is on the road, I've slowed progress on it to work on my (surprise surprise, it's broken..) Mazdaspeed6.  So, the truck currently sees DD duty on my 3 mile commute and trips to the dog park with my boy, Axe:





Long term plans for the truck include redoing the entire interior in a tan/black scheme, roof rack, mild lift, rock sliders, bumpers front and rear, and repainting the exterior to a satin grey color, etc...maybe a 1UZ or LS swap? Who knows...we'll see where it ends up!  I'm basically drawing a lot of inspiration from the builds done by Mohenic garages.  I'm hoping to end up with a sweet-looking and very capable (off road) truck!

I've already received a lot of help from many of you and am glad to be part of such a great community!

Cheers!

[IncorpoRatedX]

Wow, this is coming along nicely. Thanks for sharing.

[PajEvo]

Great first post! Epic actually. I had the same truck back in the day, except it was an 89 LS. Those seats really make a difference in there. I look forward to seeing this one continue.

[TOASTY]

Nice interior transformation!

[Sedole]

It's been a busy couple months with the holidays, school, and my Mazdaspeed6 breaking down but I have some updates on the truck. 

Ever since I got it, the brakes, both front and rear, have squealed like a freight train so I decided to was time to overhaul them.  Pads still had life, but I could not stand the noise.  So, in goes new wagner pads/shoes front and rear and a rebuild kit to go along with the drums.  No more squealing!  Something I learned: don't forget to compress the bladder on the underside of the brake fluid reservoir cap--you'll get a brake light on your dash that won't go away.



Also decided to try out colors for the interior dash/plastics using colorbond LVP:



Turned out pretty good IMO, so I'll be color switching more pieces in my free time.



Fixed the horn with some extra foam from an old pelican case:



Drove to CO to visit family for the holidays and played in some snow!  I wish I had taken the montero out there to have some fun, but the girlfriend didn't want to.. Oh well, hooning around in my mazda3 daily was fun too.




Came back home and went wheeling with some friends on new years day. (more like 3 wheeling haha)





We found an abandoned jet ski so of course we had to hook it up to the back of my friend's tacoma and hop on:



Fun day, but also broke my driverside auto hub, so ordered some japanese aisin manual hubs and am slapped them on as soon as I could...can't wait to try them out off road!




And unfortunately my mazdaspeed6 blew its rings soooo there goes a lot of money that I was planning to put into trail armor/lift/audio for the truck.

Womp womp.




I think once I find some time I'll spray the roof satin black and get those window trims painted too... paint is cheap.

[kalieracer]

Bummer about the mazda.. Spray the roof white so the truck stays cooler!

[chuckchuckZ]

Wow, what a thread!!  Lots of very useful information. Love how you saved the truck from the wrecking yard!!

Curious about the moonroof.. . Is the moonroof glass on gen 2 exactly same size as gen 1? Mines is quickly losing its battle to rust around the glass and would love to make the same swap!

Also about the disco seats.. Did you wire up the power seats and heaters? I dreamed of the swap at pick and pull a few times, glad to see it actually done!!

[Sedole]

Yeah the glass is the exact same size!  I haven't had any troubles with leaks since (although it has been a pretty dry winter here in SoCal...).

I intend to wire them up at some point, but I've just been too lazy to do so.  For now I just jump the seat motors from my LED light's switch with tester leads when I need to adjust them haha

[Sir_Monty]

Man those seats are awesome. They would look great in a gen 2 or 2.5. Also that sucks about the Mazda.

[reversecaoboy]

Awesome!

I really need to get around to cleaning the carpet on my Montero as well. I just threw an entire axle from a junkyard back there, and I'm about to pick up a 13BT for my (also broken mazda) RX7 and toss it in the back as well.

[TOASTY]

 I just kind of sort of got a Gen 1 LWB, hope to pump out some resto parts.

[Sedole]

Looking forward to those parts, TOASTY!


Not much going on with the Montero.  For a while everything worked, but it was, of course, short lived..




My RR door harness is likely messed up.  I took the switch out and it's good so must be something down stream.  It used to come on and off when I hit bumps and now it just stays on.  I've been lazy to fix it.  CEL...who knows.  Also been lazy haha. 

Threw in a refurbed JVC unit.  Still need to replace the trashed factory speakers though.  Also have a DIN pocket that I need to adapt to fit.  As well as make up a face plate.



And lastly, welded up an exhaust.  Magnaflow muffler and 1/4 inch larger diameter pipe.  I did the project over two weekends and drove during that week with the exhaust partly finised.  Don't do that.  You might melt some wire harnesses like I did.... *facepalm.  Fortunately my local LQK yard had not one, but TWO gen1 LWBs in stock!!  Was able to scavenge a harness and splice it in. 







Don't leave your exhaust unfinished at this spot...



Me of course being as observant as I am, did not see it until I had finished the job.  I thought the very strange electrical problems were attributed to me letting my friends (more-so just one in particular) help take out my dash unsupervised.











I dig the sound, especially the pops and burbles on decel.  It's a great noise level:  just loud enough but not obnoxiously so.

[Sedole]

Speakers are in!

6.5" rears were cake.  All they needed was some spacers on the factory grill to clear the new speaker.
5.25" fronts were easy except for running the speaker wires into the door.  Huge PITA.  I ended up taking off the fenders to get more room to work with.  Rears sound fantastic.  Fronts are okay...much better than factory but still leaves a little to be desired.  I'll probably upgrade them to 6.5" components sometime down the road.

[TOASTY]

 About to put speakers in my '91, I don't want to cut my door cards so I was thinking about just replacing the dash units. How does it sound?

[Sedole]

About to put speakers in my '91, I don't want to cut my door cards so I was thinking about just replacing the dash units. How does it sound?

Honestly, for the amount of work I put in, I think I would have rather just put 4" speakers into the dash--especially if you plan to add in a subwoofer as well.  The work to sound quality ratio left me desiring for more than 5.25s.  Like I spent maybe 3-4 hours? getting them in and when I turned it on for a listen, my immediate reaction was:  "this is it?!?"...  I honestly had to just close my eyes and really listen for the subtle differences to notice them. 

I think if you do door speakers, put 6.5" components otherwise it's not really worth it, imho.  Or a nice deck with more amps and nicer speakers would probably make a bigger difference too--mine was all low-mid range stuff haha.

I did some listening with one side factory and the other with 5.25.  The dash speaker side had much better highs (location helps here), whereas the door side had better mids and lows.  However, unless I really blasted the sound, the difference was not that pronounced.

I certainly don't claim to be an audiophile or expert by any means, but I did pay for my first year of college on a trumpet scholarship so I figure I know a thing or two about sound?