Hijet Renovation & Upgrade Project

Nice write up--looking good! I've thought about painting mine but, per your comment, the prep looks insane. There's so much exposed structure & mechanicals I feel like I'd be cleaning and sanding for months.

 

I worked on it more today. I sanded, hung and acetone wiped the engine hatch, headache rack, both bed sides and tailgate. I masked (for the second time) the four windows, two door handles, two door lock faceplates, and two plastic trim darts on the lower doors. I also masked the Hijet logo on the front so I could bed liner around it. One advantage of masking the truck twice is that the first coat covers 98% and that is true for the trim as well. I was able to see the areas adjacent to the masking where there is exposed white paint so I masked those areas precisely and marked them for dry brushing trim cut in to ensure they get bed liner on the second coat.

Because I was unable to apply both coats of bed liner yesterday, I needed to scuff sand and acetone wipe the entire truck to ready it for the second coat. That took about an hour, but I think I'll get a better result masking the truck twice and cutting in the trim twice. If I was able to paint it twice yesterday, I would have had some white paint showing around the trim, but I could have masked only those areas and used a model brush to apply bed liner when painting the interior. As it is, I'll be doing a lot of trim painting with a 1" brush under the bed when I paint the interior later. There is a lot to paint under there or it'll look goofy with the white showing on the frame.

I was all set to put the first coat on the hanging parts (tailgate, etc.) and the second coat on the truck, then a second coat on the hanging parts, but it started to sprinkle this afternoon. I'd been watching the weather and knew there wouldn't be significant rain, but I didn't want to paint while it sprinkled and the overcast made it difficult to see so the second coat wouldn't have been very good. I wrapped the cab with construction plastic again, and delayed the painting for another 3-4 days when it'll be sunny.

In mathematics, we'd call this project asymptotically approaching a limit. I get closer and closer but never quite complete the project.

I ordered a tool from Amazon to push the retaining clips off the window crank handles so I can pull the door cards to do a better job of painting the doors when I paint the interior. I need inside the doors to install the remote keyless entry actuators for the door locks. Many mini truck projects!

 

That vid looks similar to Hijet's, with the clear plastic washer.

that what I used to remove window crank handle, when cutting door cards to install speakers.

 

Great video. I love these tips & tricks videos for repair jobs where you probably don't have the proper tool. Now I feel like an idiot for paying $7.64 for the tool.

I owe you guys an update. I've been busy wrapping up the Hijet paint job. It's been back on the road for a little over a week. I think I'll make a Monstaliner paint job video sharing what I learned and what I'd do differently.

But I'm heading out now to do the annual maintenance - oil & filter change, inspect belts and hoses, such the brake fluid out of the reservoir and replace with new brake fluid to get half of the moisture out of the brake system, etc.

 

So, the amount of time you plan on spending on this project is:

lim 1/x as x -> 0+

 

I used a fine model brush to manually paint the Hijet logo on the front of the mini truck yesterday evening. I do all of my best painting at dusk, in the fading evening light. Photographers call it the golden hour where the light filtering though the thick atmosphere as the sun sets makes the most glorious color as the shadows lengthen. I should have replaced the Hijet logo with the infinity sign to represent the never ending project.

 

Hijet - Mileage Update

I'd been getting approximately 31 MPG for many months, which I thought was very good for a 4WD pickup with a full size bed that I use as a half ton pickup. I considered it to be very good mileage considering it has a carburetor and distributor cap instead of an engine computer, electronic fuel injection and electronic ignition. However, my mileage has been decreasing.



There has always been some variation based on the accuracy of the meter in the gas station fuel pump, the alcohol content of the fuel (10% ethanol is standard but the more ethanol the lower the chemical energy in a gallon of fuel), and driving conditions. The most recent fillup showed that the Hijet only got 27.5 MPG in the last 215 miles. The last three fillups indicated a downward trend.

What could it be? Fouled plugs? Cracked distributor? Clogged jet in the carburetor?

Based on my observations, my current theory is DRIVING LIKE A HOON.

 

It's also possible that one of your odometer gears is starting to slip, so that might be something else to check if everything seems mechanically in order. But my automatic with the same engine gets about 25 mpg if I spend a bunch of time on the highway, or 27 if I stay off of it. Both are probably getting worse for me as I get more comfortable with the truck and my foot gets heavier...

 

Pull the plugs and see if its running rich. My van kind of showed this behavior before it finally died with a massive internal to the carb vacuum leak. Also check the valve adjustments as well. I ran the piss out of mine for 10km over 2 years before this happened to me. I'm fixing it now along with new wires/plugs/timing belt/valve cover gaskets and of course a carb rebuild kit.