Step 6: Wheels Go On

Today I put the wheels back on the Mirage. Looks really cool. As you can tell from the picture, the front shell windows have been removed. They are made of tinted Plexiglass, and being 26 years old are checked and very brittle. The rubber seals are too hard to be used again. I will need to research replacements.


Notice that the striping is being removed for the paint prep. I purchased a $10 heat gun at Harbor Freight to accomplish this. Comes off pretty easy, just have to be careful not to get it too hot. When it gets too hot it actually gets too soft, and is harder to remove.


Here is a picture of the underside of the hood. As I mentioned in a previous post, the hood has issues. It appears that it was pushed in at one time, and someone pushed it back up and then used expanding foam to brace between the cross bracing and the hood sheet metal. This will be unacceptable in this build. I have found a couple good used hoods, but they are an hours drive from here, so that will have to wait till I have time to travel. I spent the rest of the afternoon re-arranging and cleaning up the shop for body paint prep. I am constructing a temporary paint booth, and I will post some pictures of that when it is completed. That's all for now, time to go back to work for a few days. CAIO

Step 5: Wheels and Tires Continued!

After much discussion, we have decided to repaint the entire Mirage. I decided that to stay true to the original color, to paint the wheels to match the entire rig, rather than the gray color the wheels were on the Dolphin. So I went to town to get a paint match to the original Mirage color so I could start on the wheels.

With the wheels sanded and primed, I was ready to go with paint code 1884 041 new white. I dug out my painting equipment that has been hiding in a storage box for years and went to it! And they turned out fantastic!
I went and got my wife to check it out. She came up, and said "wow", and then she told me "the white is too white"....."they need to be more creamy". I went back to the tag under the hood, and there was one other paint code, 1984 033. The next day we went to town and bought the 033 paint, but since I had to go to work the next day, I couldn't repaint for several days.

Several days later, I again prepped the wheels for paint and shot them. I know you can't really tell by the picture, but they are now a beautiful creamy white.

I then turned my attention to the truck body. I need to remove all of the original striping, prep and paint the body.

After removing the side mirrors, I discovered some rust under where the mirror brackets bolt to the doors. So I sanded down the rust until I got shiny metal, for the most part, and then sprayed the rusty areas with "Rust Reformer".

I also rubbed down the doors and front fenders with Enamel reducer to remove and wax, this will help reduce "fish eye" when we do the final paint. I need to find a new hood, the current one is banged up, and has some issues on the engine side. So I will go see if I can find a good hood in a couple of days when I mount the tires on the fresh painted rims.That's all for now, see you in a few days.

Step 4: Wheels and Tires

Today I needed to change out the good tires that were on the old Mirage wheels with the old tires on the dually rims that came with the Dolphin. So I loaded up all the wheels and tires in my trailer and headed to the tire shop.

I had reserved 4 tires for my SUV the evening before, so they knew I was coming. When I got there, they were very busy, so I took off my sweatshirt, and dove in with the guys at the shop. I had done tire work many years ago, and it was really fun showing my skills as we threw wheels and tires around. I even helped with a car that came in for 4 tires. We had a great time! While I was changing out all of these tires, I realized that the dually rims needed to be cleaned up and painted, so I did not mount tires back on those 6 rims at this time.

Everything back in the trailer again, and away I went. I swung by Autozone and picked up 2 new shocks for the front of the Mirage on my way to Home Depot for some painting supplies, and some other supplies for the Mirage interior.

When I arrived at home, I put the old Mirage rims on the Dolphin, so I can still move it around. I installed the new shocks on the front of the Mirage and started sanding those 6 dually wheels. Needless to say, it was starting to get late, so I was only able to get 3 sanded down, and primed with Rustoleum gray primer before it was time to call it a night.

I hope to have the rims done by Monday, so I can put the tires back on the rims, and set the Mirage back on the ground again. I will also try to get the tranny gear oil changed out, and the motor tuned up by then. CAIO!

Step 3: The Dolphin Addition, Chassis Rebuild

Mirage chassis rebuild/retrofit. The previous owner had upgraded the front end of the Mirage to 1 ton spindles and wheels, but the rear end was still the 1/2 ton with the original wheels that were bolted together. There was a recall on these wheel sets years ago, so I knew I needed to take care of this. In addition, the rear wheels were 5 bolt pattern, which would require carrying 2 spares! The previous owner sold us a 1 ton rear end to go with our Mirage, but after getting home and doing some more research, I found out the hard thing to get was the 1 ton dually wheels!

That's when I went back to Craig's list and found a 1983 Toyota Dolphin Motor Home with 101,000 miles on it, and a good 22R motor and transmission, and yes, with a good 1 ton rear end and those (4) 1 ton dually wheels! The inside of the Dolphin is water damaged, so I will be parting it out on Craig's list after I take what I need. So I took the rear end out of the Dolphin, and put it in the Mirage.

This took several days. I cleaned up both rear ends, and chose the one that I felt was in the best shape for the Mirage. The emergency brake cables, and shock mounts had to be taken from the Dolphin to accommodate the Mirage chassis. The drive-line rear yoke had to also be taken from the Dolphin and changed out with the 1/2 ton yoke on the Mirage. The 1 ton rear end I purchased with the Mirage came with a really cool anti-sway bar, which I also retrofitted to the Mirage chassis. The rear brakes were cleaned and rebuilt, the bearings inspected, cleaned and re-greased. The rear differential drained and refilled with new gear oil. The rear-end was primed and painted. Ready for the road! (Almost!)

Notice that the rear windows have been removed for the interior remodel, coming soon. I currently have the front end torn apart, as I detail and check the front end for any problems.

Step 2: We Buy The Mirage

So to make a long story short, we drove miles and miles, saw the potential, bought it and drove it home. As you can see by the pictures, the interior was mostly stripped out, but all of the original cabinets were saved, and in good shape.

The cab is in really good shape, the plan is to redo the front seats in the same material as we do the rest of the motor home in. I should note that this motor home is powered by the Toyota 22R, and has 66,000 original miles. Driving it home was like driving a pick-up truck. My 7 year old son Ryan rode with me, and my wife followed in the car. Ryan was fast asleep by the time we reached home at about 1:00 in the morning.

It may be wise to eventually upgrade the 4 speed transmission with a 5 speed for freeway speeds.

Step 1: Mini Motorhome Research

My wife approached me with the idea of getting a small motor home. We discussed the type and size we wanted. Not too large, it needed to fit in a normal parking spot. Easy to maneuver. Easy on gas. And above all it needed to be water resistant. We had seen what happened to these motor homes that are clad with metal over a wood frame. They all leak and eventually rot.

We had looked at conversion vans in the past, but we wanted something we could stand up in.


So began our search. It didn't take long for us to discover the Toyota Sunrader. Lightweight, good on gas, a 2 piece fiberglass shell, and at 18 feet we could park it anywhere! We specifically liked the 1986 and 1987 Sunrader. They just look cool. Our search was frustrating, since any Sunraders we found were at least a days drive away. The only local one we found was totally trashed.


One evening my wife was searching Craig's list, and came across something different. A 1984
Toyota Mirage. She fell in love with it! The only problem was that it was a 5 hour drive away, and we were at the start of a work week We contacted the owner, and he agreed to hold the Mirage until we could make it up to see it. In the mean time we started to do some research on the Mirage, and discovered it was very rare. They were originally made in Elkhart Indiana, with limited production. The Mirage has a solid fiberglass shell much like the hull of a boat.