1972 Highlander -The making of a daily driver

[BruthaMan]

After my first project, Pancho Villa, I swore I'd never do it again. I'm a software developer for crying out loud, not a mechanic <slash> paint and body man <slash> car guy.

And here I am again, sigh. Had been looking for a 67-72 over the past year, off and on, that I could "freshen" up to be a daily driver. Picked up this 72 down in the Austin area about a month ago.



Mechanically, it's very sound. Has a GM crate 350 motor that starts immediately, first time, every time. Drove it back to San Angelo, about a 3.5 hour drive, and it drove like a champ.

I could have taken it down, got the inspection sticker and just started driving it, but NOOOOOO, my OCD just wouldn't allow for it. You know how it is. "Hey, I'll put in that RetroSound deck from my other project that I didn't use." and "well, I should probably get some speakers," and "oh, look...those shiny chome ac vent balls on ebay would look cool!"

And so it began. So I'll document what all I'm doing. Heck, if I don't, I'll forget most of what I did! Either the 67-72's are easier to work on then the 73-87's, or maybe I actually learned something from my last project.

Here we go:

Hood to cowl seal:



And of course, while I was there, I recalled reading about some trouble spots prone to leaking/rust in a thread somewhere, so naturally I was compelled to pick up some POR15. And naturally, living in a small town, you can't find anything in a store here other than beans and rice, so I ordered it online.

And when I received it, I touched up these areas (there was no rust, but figured while I was there, might as well hit these areas):



and the other side where the antenna hole is:



Didn't take photos, but the first things we (my youngest son....23, is helping out some) did were replace the upper/lower ball joints, sway bar bushings and shocks. And of course, while I was there, I couldn't resist breaking out the power sprayer, degreaser and a screw driver to take off years and years of caked up dirt/oil/motion lotion build up.

And then we started on the interior. Out comes the seat, as I ordered new seat covers from TruckSeats (here on the forum). And of course, I just *had* to replace the carpet, right? And heck, if I'm going to do that, I might as well get some sound deadener too, right? Heh! (have you noted my self-depricating cynicism yet?)

Vent windows. Pulled them. The seals had more cracks and stretch marks than Rosanne Barr. I read many posts here about replacing them. I ordered the seals and the rivet kit. The first one took quite a while. I was probably over-analyzing the procedure (ya think?), but it really wasn't too bad. Didn't take pics of this, but here's some picks of it after installed, after polishing (glass polish) the window, new mirrors, door locks, outside door handles:







It took longer getting the passenger side vent window BACK IN, then it did to do the vent window seal. My patience was *more*than tested!

Continuing with passenger side door, after vent window installed, I took the opportunity to add POR15 to the inside of both doors. Protection! They were really pretty clean.

One of the trucks previous owners put not just one, but TWO speakers in both doors. This was not pleasing to bruh'man, but I knew I would get over it. I removed both speakers from both doors. Used a hammer/dolly to flatten them back out some from where they drilled/cut, then lined from the inside with fatmat, then on the outside with another layer of fatmat.



For the main door area, I had this crazy idea of "hey, what if I cut to fit a single sheet of fatmat," and I set out measuring, remeasuring, cutting, recutting aligning, fine tuning, etc, until I had one single sheet of fatmat. I used a socket to cut out the center holes for the door/window handle, then used a hand cleaner can to do the rounded corners, until it looked like:





Then I did something very unusual. I had a brilliant idea! With the fatmat cut to perfection (don't ask how long I spent, it was ridiculous!), it occurred to me to take that piece, turn it over on the fatmat roll, and draw it out so I'd have perfect piece for the driver side when I got it. Bruh'man was pleased, as he doesn't often experience such epiphanies!

Door panels. They were in pretty good shape, though I'm pretty sure these are not originals. And that's ok, they still look pretty good. And no, I couldn't leave well enough alone!

On black plastic/rubber, I use some stuff called "forever black" tire gel. I really like this stuff. It's like a cream (more so than a gel) and it's a dye. It soaks into the plastic/rubber and really brings life back to whatever you put it on, that's black.



And here's some of it, as I'm applying it to the door panel:



it's not fully coated here, so you can get an idea of what it looks like as it goes on. Might be a useful tip if you have some black plastic/rubber you want to give some depth to.

Here's the door panel reassembled. I ordered the black carpet panels to go over the fatmatted area where the speakers were. New door/window handle (not NOS, my obsession is drawing the line there on this project).





The cab floor is fatmatted. Haven't taken pics of it yet, because I have stuff scattered about and wanted to get some clean shots. Was really surprised at how little rust there was. In the passenger side, right at the seam of the floor and kick panel area, there was a little rust, but no cancer. I cleaned it with POR15 Prep/Ready, then sealed the small area with POR 15, before we laid the sound deadener down.



Bruh'man doesn't like the dark. It's not that I'm afraid of the dark, but rather I've stumped my toes, stepped on crunchy toys (think of Home Alone with the jacks on the floor), banged my head, etc too many times in the dark. I like to see. So I picked up some courtesy lights and pointed them to the floor on driver/passenger side:



Picked up LED lights from superbrightleds.com for the dash (no pics yet), dome, AC and the courtesy lights above are LED. LEDs make a huge difference! I'll get some pics of those later in the project.

Currently working on the glove box area. There was no liner (have one to install, along with glove box light). I polished up the inside glovebox lid:



Then wetsanded the outside of the GB door with 2000. Polished half of it out, but it still shows it's years.



Has a YG8 code on the tag, Highlander.

And that's pretty much where I am, as of this evening. Have rally wheels along with new center caps and trim rings that I will be mounting on BFG RWL tires next week. New carpet has arrived, but have to finish up other interior stuff before installation. Working from passenger side to driver side.

More to follow as I "freshen up" this old truck to be a daily driver and not a garage queen, like my other truck!

Later in the build, I'll reveal a top secret modification/addition I'm going to put on this truck that will truly make it very rare, very desirable and very nostalgic. For me, it is the ultimate addition to any classic daily driver that will truly bring back fond memories of better days and it only costs a few bucks. No, it's not fuzzy dice (but I do have a "big foot" gas pedal and it is going in!). It will make sense when I reveal it.

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I was just about to make this first post when my daughter and son-in-law stopped by, just now, to share with my wife and I that they are having another baby! I'm overwhelmed with happiness! My eyes are watering and proud to say it's not from onions! This will be our fifth grand child. Our Father in Heaven has truly blessed us.