Picked up a 93 4 door Sidekick for pretty cheap, so I've decided to rebuild it as necessary as a gift for my daughter. I'm going to try and build her a reliable, capable and frugal little backroad-er and sometimes no road er.
The good news: no rust, straight body panels and bumpers, glass is good, even has a nice Hidden Hitch class 1 hitch. Radio ( not stock) works! has aux inputs of the standard size for ipod or whatever. Heat, fans, vent controls all work, has ac but who knows it's too damn cold outside to test it. light and compressor do engage when switch is pushed though.
Bad: looks like someone tried to clean it with a scotch bright, and as expected most of the clear has peeled off the hood and roof. Normal amount of dings and branch marks but surprisingly not many. Going to need a paint job but at least it will be easy to prep. Lights and lenses all there and work with the exception of 1 marker, lf.
Trans seems good, tcase good,4wd and both ranges good. Auto hubs gotta go. rear diff questionable, power steering not working. Got a good pump if it needs it.
Interior, the good. it's got seats.
The bad:
Looks like a family of mud hens lived in it. It's going to be a real challenge to just clean it. Upholstery is filthy carpet stinks and is filthy, headliner is even nasty. I think the best thing to do is gut it , rip out the carpet and herculine the tub, and clean every thing outside the cabin.
Engine? The good Thing starts right up and runs, idles fine. Alternator is a bit funny but is putting out the correct voltage. Was supposed to be a sometimes smoker, but I haven't seen any yet.
no knocks rattles or strange sounds other than the typical cracked exhaust and several air leaks due to dried up hoses.
The bad, it leaks out of every upper end gasket, oring and probably casting, hoping the head is ok. Had to clean the whole engine just to be able to do some tests, it was so oil and dirt encrusted. Haven't tested compression but it runs decent. Exhaust system should be replaced so I'm going to go with a 2 ".
The rest of the bad: it didn't have any brakes, to the floor almost immediately. A couple of quick pumps would produce pressure but it fell right back off. Needs total brake job. Tossed some shoes and used wheel cylinders in it and stopped the leaks and brought the pedal back to normal after a good bleeding. The front rotors look shot too so there gonna need the whole thing, rotors , pads. Going to clean and repack the front bearings and hope there in good enough shape to keep.
Steering is a bit loose, but the tires are 3 different brands in various stages of decrepitude so I'm hopeing some good balanced rubber will help, then a good alignment.
Drive shaft was about to fall out, front joints had no bearings in at least two sides. R and r'd that with one I had that was just a bit used, and it tightened the driveshaft up great.
Engine should be rebuilt, and that's probably the easiest way to replace all the leaking gaskets anyway. Going to use as many OEM engine parts as I can get my hands on.
Hoping to reuse crank and pistons, especially since it doesn't seem to smoke or knock, a valve job, again reusing as many of the stock parts as possible.
Suspension need a good freshening at least. Good shocks and struts, I've got a set of very good low milage stockers, air bag the rear, got some of them too. Plan on putting a mild 2" suspension lift via spacers and run 225 at's, no bigger. trying to go for economy.
