Goldi-Locker and the three Diamonds. 1999 Montero - Adventure Engineered.
 

Hello everyone! My name is Joshua and I'm a life-long Mitsubishi enthusiast.

I'm not sure what took me so long to find this forum, great place, lots of Mitsubishi content! I've been visiting the platform specific forums over the years instead of a single conglomerate forum. I've owned many a Galant, Lancer, Eclipse, Montero and Montero Sport, from the base models to the highest trim, I've covered most levels of those platforms over the years. Driven across the country in a 73 Galant, 75 Galant, 87 Montero, and covered tens of thousands of miles in my VR4's, GSX's, and have nearly always owned some form of Montero as a winter vehicle in the snowy winters of Michigan. Now I live in the southwest and lately I've been building a 1999 Montero named Goldi-Locker.

Abandoned Studebaker Factory, South Bend Indiana
https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/at...1&d=1532665484


Vehicle: 1999 Montero with locker.
Project Name: Goldi-Locker
Purpose: 7-10 Day Expeditions, daily driving, errands and common use.

Beginning specifications:
Exterior: Sudan Beige
Interior: Tan leather
Engine: 3.5 liter single over head cam V6 "6G74" - Iron block, aluminum heads, timing belt driven
Transmission: Aisin AW03-72LE - overdrive auto transmission
Transfercase: Superselect, 2wd, synchronized shift-on-the-fly awd, Standard 4wd high and low.
Axles: High pinion 8" up front, 9.5" rear with factory air locker, 4.27 differentials


Proposed specifications:
Exterior: Adventure Driven Design Livery - Grey and Blue topography over battleship grey, white top, black lower trim.
Interior: Tan canvas
Engine: 3.8 liter single over head cam V6 "6G75" - Iron block, aluminum heads, timing belt driven, eaton supercharger
Transmission: Aisin AW03-72LE - overdrive auto transmission - shift kit - larger cooler
Transfercase: Superselect, 2wd, synchronized shift-on-the-fly awd, standard 4wd high and Marks4WD 2.7:1 low.
Axles: High pinion 8" up front, 9.5" rear with factory air locker, 4.90 differentials

Pt. 1
Day one:.

https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/at...1&d=1532793725

I had just moved to the southwest when a friend called me up and asked about the Turbo Diesel E350 and 24 foot car trailer I had moved down with. The van was a craiglist find from a contractor in chicago. He gifted me a pocket knife and told me how hard he had worked to move into the country. He and I unloaded tons of tools from his diesel van, and I bought it with a bad driveshaft u-joint that for some reason he did not want to fix. He had purchased a newer van and decided to let that one go for a low price as long as it went to someone willing to put in some sweat. We got along pretty good in the short hours after he got home from work and before having to go inside to his family. I named the van Ron Burgundy and used my dad's car trailer to move my turbo 4G63 RWD Galant station-wagon. That friend who contacted me was looking to have a Montero picked up from California, so I went to LA and got my taste of LA traffic, found some neat places to explore along the way and van-camped in some canyons under the stars along the way. While in LA I picked up Goldi from a nice couple that rescue pups and loved the truck, just couldnt find someone to put in the wrench time it needed to get back up to snuff. On the trailer sat my friends 98 Montero and behind me drove my girlfriend in our newly acquired 99 Montero.

En route to Arizona, the trailer lost tread on one tire, the 99 came to the rescue and back tracked an hour, got a tire, not once, but twice after the first new tire went on the trailer, the second tire on that side, fatugied from the short distanced we had stopped in on that single tire, also gave out. The second time we just got another 3 tires and finished the job. Better safe than sorry and shouldve done it the first time, I was a little light in the pocket from the recent purchase though.

https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/at...1&d=1532665224

Recent times:

My brother and I just returned from a 1500 mile adventure to Mitsubishi Owners' Day in Cypress California, where we met the CEO of Mitsubishi, engineers responsible for product development and the Pajero/Montero heritage. The experience was like nothing I've ever had with Mitsubishi, they asked to speak to 16+ of the Montero owners and the CEO then came out to the lot and checked out the trucks, among other things and was part of the crowd. It was a lot of fun. Around 30 Montero's showed up to the event and afterward we hit some really scenic trails.
https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/at...1&d=1532665224


How we got here... (see Pt. 2)

Part 2 - Maintenance Before Modifications
 

1999 was 19 years ago. (at the time this post was made)

The Mitsubishi Montero is a very reliable and robust vehicle, descriptions like "over-engineered" and "rally-bred" have been used to describe the chassis by enthusiasts and yet, had our current CEO Fred Diaz been a part of the conversation some twenty years ago, he may have sat the accounting team down and showed them the investment needed to make American truck-nuts go wild, but he was still with Chrysler back then, likely watching Mitsubishi from a distance since Chrysler has been in some form of partnership with Mitsubishi since the early 70's.

Had he been given the task, he may have been too young at the time, too busy with other things, but years later he stepped into the Ram truck revitalization and his work started to stand out, he then later stepped away from domestic trucks and into the Nissan truck expansion. He was able to show the auto manufactures what the enthusiasts really want. That's why the newer RAM trucks are significantly better than they were in the 90's, that's why the Nissan trucks have the option for a Cummins diesel engine. From and enthusiast point of view the hope for the future of Mitsubishi trucks has been rising in waves. I was fortunate enough to meet with the new CEO of Mitsubishi at this years' Mitsubishi Owners Day and had some great candid conversation regarding trucks. One thing we touched on was that nearly ever truck in the lot had near a quarter-million miles each. Why? Well, from a Montero owner's perspective; bang for the buck, there's no better truck.

Goldi-Locker is a mild build compared to most of the Arizona Monteros, so far. Here's why...

Goldi grew up in LA, at some point Goldi fell in with the wrong crowd, running a car-fax sets off alarms like you wouldn't believe. The rig was totaled in LA traffic, not once, but twice. Odometer roll-back, odometer fraud, service records indicating tons of random problems that arose from neglect. When I finally brought Goldi home the truck was nearing catastrophic failure, yet it made the 10 hour ordeal from LA to Phoenix (and ran rescue missions twice) without skipping a beat, AC pumping the whole way.

I've been a car enthusiast for most of my life, my mantra over the years has become "Maintenance before Modifications" so I set to work, new timing belt, Aisin water pump, OEM tensioner, the vital pieces to any reliable 6G engine. Fresh composite headgaskets (ditched the multilayer steel in favor of a more forgiving gasket) and a new OEM Thermostat. The discount autoparts store alternator was barely hanging on from day one so a fresh Denso unit was installed. With fresh fluids and the general maintenance out of the way, modifications could begin...

Enter the Bilsteins:
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For years there has only been one major option in suspension upgrades for the Montero; the OME suspension. That all changed a couple of years ago and now there's a whole array of stock replacement up to long travel suspension parts for the chassis - I opted for the mid-travel rear kit, replacing the Kill-Your-Back (KYB) Shocks I had been bumping around on, they're nice for on-road driving but anything above a rough road sends the NVH factor through the roof. The Bilsteins are from the 5100 series and are much softer, so there's more body roll on-road and the truck handles a little more like a trophy truck than a sports wagon, but I like it that way.

With 31" tires and some 15x8 Turbine wheels, the truck was quite capable.

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But, that didn't last long. The Yokohama Geolander tires were purchased used and had some miles on them, I racked up the miles over another year of using them and with hundreds of trail miles, they were starting to show wear. Goldi was upgraded to 33x12.50 Yokohama Geolander ATS G015's, great on the trail and wonderful for my long drives to work and the many road trips we use this truck for. At that time I also bolted on some stainless steel skid plates for increased protection of one of my favorite possessions.

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At this point Goldi was looking a little slung low, a new set of springs and torsion bars were acquired resulting in a minor suspension lift.

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Plans for Armor, 4.90 gearing and some flair started going into effect, the gearing is almost set up and ready for install, 1/3 of the armor is finished, from here, we are reaching present day status of Goldi-Locker and I'll be updating as the truck progresses further.

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Thanks for taking the time to read my story, if you made it this far!