New Member & New Owner 1993 Lightning Red

S

Saccyclone

New member
Hi everyone,

As the title implies, I just purchased a 1993 Lightning Red from a friend of a friend. The truck has been sitting in the original owner's backyard since he parked it there in 2005. I tried to purchase the truck a few years ago but we couldn't come together on price so i kept it in my data banks for future reference. I knew that the truck was not advertised and was in a area that was remote so no worries there.

Did i mention that it was running when parked and has 66K original miles. It appears to be completely factory optioned including the original Firestone Firehawk tires.

Last week I brought a battery with me to check to see if the electricals all worked and they did. Did not attempt to turn it over or start as the gas is really old etc.

Plan is to tow it to my shop, remove the plugs, change all fluids, check fuel tanks or drop them for cleaning and see if I can get the engine to spin over by hand.

Maybe you chaps have some other suggestions on bringing it back to life???

I know the tires will need replacing so I am open to brands that are viewed in a positive light. Since I have the original wheels i would assume that the stock size tires would be in order??

Thanks for taking time to read my intro and I will post up some pics or start another POST in the restoration section when the website gives me permission to do so.

Mike
 
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That's like one of those barn finds you come across on occasion! Great find!

Pretty limited in terms of stock size tires these days in a performance tire. A billion Dodge trucks came with similar sizes from the factory, so there are a ton of LT and AT tires, but in terms of performance rubber, we're pretty limited. Hankook Ventus, what I run, is a summer tire. Toyo Proxes and Goodyear RS-As are good all-season tires. There's also Yokohama Geolanders, which probably isn't bad as a LT tire.

It sounds like you've already got a path forward that's pretty logical. Change all the fluids, flush the gas tanks, see what she'll do. May also want to drive the oil pump with a drill to get fresh oil in all the bearings and rockers before firing it up.
 
welcome to the site, Mike. sounds like a real nice purchase. squirt a little pb blaster into the cylinders and let it soak a while before trying to turn it over.
 
Welcome! I look forward to seeing your restoration thread.

As far as the tanks go and as someone who let their truck sit for quite a long time I would advise dropping them and replacing them along with the pumps and any soft parts (filler hoses, vent, etc). Fuel turns absolutely nasty after sitting for long periods of time.
 
Thanks everyone for the welcome and for the information.

I loaded up the truck today on the trailer and towed it to a buddy's shop. The tires and wheels were removed and sitting in the bed of my truck while I research tires and prices this weekend...thanks for the suggestions as well.

Plan of attack is to go through the fuel system, cooling system and brake system at the shop and see where we are on that front. I know that most soft items have perished and will need to be replaced including some of the rubber suspension bits which we noticed once the truck was up on the lift.

So, I have tried many times using the "insert image" (from computer) button to try and upload images into my thread but I get an error message "upload of file failed". Any ideas of what I am doing wrong???

Thanks, Mike
 
FMOS Racing said:
That's like one of those barn finds you come across on occasion! Great find!

Pretty limited in terms of stock size tires these days in a performance tire. A billion Dodge trucks came with similar sizes from the factory, so there are a ton of LT and AT tires, but in terms of performance rubber, we're pretty limited. Hankook Ventus, what I run, is a summer tire. Toyo Proxes and Goodyear RS-As are good all-season tires. There's also Yokohama Geolanders, which probably isn't bad as a LT tire.

It sounds like you've already got a path forward that's pretty logical. Change all the fluids, flush the gas tanks, see what she'll do. May also want to drive the oil pump with a drill to get fresh oil in all the bearings and rockers before firing it up.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff, wheels are off already and researching these tires this weekend for price and availability.
 
FMOS Racing said:
That's like one of those barn finds you come across on occasion! Great find!

Pretty limited in terms of stock size tires these days in a performance tire. A billion Dodge trucks came with similar sizes from the factory, so there are a ton of LT and AT tires, but in terms of performance rubber, we're pretty limited. Hankook Ventus, what I run, is a summer tire. Toyo Proxes and Goodyear RS-As are good all-season tires. There's also Yokohama Geolanders, which probably isn't bad as a LT tire.

It sounds like you've already got a path forward that's pretty logical. Change all the fluids, flush the gas tanks, see what she'll do. May also want to drive the oil pump with a drill to get fresh oil in all the bearings and rockers before firing it up.
Click to expand...

Went with the Hankook Ventus after finding them at Sam's Club for $702 OTD including mount balance and warranty purchase. Interesting that Sam's was a lot cheaper than America's Tire.
Thanks for the advise.
Mike
 
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