Well it was said in another thread that the CREEPERS knew Toy's so I figured I would post my build here as well. It was done last year just posting it here for others to see and to spread some Toyota knowledge. I copied and pasted from our web site so there might be some refrences to what others posted.

Well I have decided to move on from my old rig, mainly becase I wanted a streetable rig. My old ride was green sticker and I lost my trailer so it was spend $1700 on a new trailer or just build a new ride that is street legal. Well I decided to go with option B. They are some thing's on the old rig that looking back now I wish I did different, so here is my chance. Here is a pic of the old ride before I started to tear it down. Well I already pulled the hood. :-D



Kevin

After day one. Wait till you see the other side of the garage. :? It look's like a freakin bomb went off.



Kevin

Remember the bomb I was talking about?



Kevin

Here is the new ride. Aint she pretty all small and stock? :twisted: :twisted:



Kevin

For the most part it will stay the same set up. I am gonna keep the 44044's and Chevy's for spring's. I am most likley going to lower it a tad bit, get rid of the 38.5's and beadlock's, and I am gonna keep the stock bed. I will probally end up running a 37" Toyo or MTR. I have also considerd running 35's. If I do then that will bring the BFG MT's in as an option also. I hope that after I lower it that my Bilstien's and Rancho 9000's that I just bought last year wont be to long. I am also hopeing to generate enough money from the sale of the part's I am not going to use to get the 30 spline Long's. I am debating on a couple of different thing's right now, maybe yall can help influence. I am debating on bobbing the bed, I am debating on keeping or selling the beadlocks, and last but not least the 35" or 37" tire choice. Right now The old truck is gone, all I have is a pile of part's. The engine is on a stand, and I am trying to get the smog garbage on before dropping the engine in. My plan is to get an engine in, smog it then pull the engine back out. At that point I will pull the cab, bed and all drive train.I will do a frame off type deal. Get it all cleaned up, bracketry welded on then I am thinking of DIY bedliner on the frame. I am gonna take my time with this one and do it right. I will keep yall updated on the build as I progress. It will probally be a little slow but we will see. Sorry for the long read.

Kevin

Well here is a little update. The old truck is almost gone. The only thing left to sell from it now is the engine. A guy just came and picked up the cab and 1/2 doors for $300. I bought another truck, it's an 81. It is complete and runs pretty dam strong. The bed on it is probally a little cleaner, so I will probally swap it to the white truck. I am going to swap the engine from the '81 into the '83 along with the bed and part out the rest of the '81. I am going to try to get the engine swapped this week, possibly tomarrow, if I can get all my duck's in a row. I'll post up again when I make progress.

Kevin

Here is another update. I went over to Eliot's house the other night and barrowed his cherry picker. I started working on getting the engine out tonight and already ran into a few prob's. I think they are going to be easy to work out but we will see. The wiring harnesses are different, The '83 does not have the same plug's as the '81. Some are the same but not all. I am considering swaping the wiring harness's as well but I am not sure if there is a better way yet. The only prob I have with that is I have an SR5 gage cluster in the '83 and would like to maintain the Tach. as I have never had a tack in a Toy. Now, the donor rig has a tach as well, but it does not work. If it is somthing simple and the plug's are the same I could just put the newer style cluster with the older wiring. What do yall think?


Kevin

so is the chassis going up for sale? I might know a guy who would be interested??

Well if it aint one thing it's another. I tried to pull the engine last night and it wont budge. Some how or another it is stuck ? I dont know what the deal is but I know that it is pissing me the fu#k off. I am not sure what I am going to do about it yet.

We actually got it out today. It took 3 of us though. What happend is the pilot bearing was stuck on the input shaft pretty good so we were fighting that the whole way. Nothing like tring to pull out a pressed bearing with the engine huh.

Here is the update part now. Got the donor engine out cleaned up and ready to go. We pulled the wiring harness out of the 83 degreased and cleaned up the engine bay. If I dont go wake boarding tomarrow, a fresh coat of paint will be applied so she will look top notch. We also got the tranny, T-case, and drive lines pulled out of the donor truck. I am gonna keep the tranny out of it because it was recently rebuilt. So I am gonna sell my old tranny and the T-case out of the donor. Hopefully I will get the engine in soon.

Kevin

UPDATE: Well I really got the itch to get it together quicker now. I went to DMV the other day and got a temp reg. for the new truck and juck title's for the other two. I have the harness's pulled and hope to get them swapped out Mon. or Tue. then get the engine in the following day. After that it will be back to a slower pace. I need to pull the cab, bed, and axle's out of the 81 and get rid of them. As soon as that stuff is gone and I can get the 83 into the garage the cutting welding and building will comence.

Kevin

Well I got the engine in the other night, hope to have it hooked up and running this week. I still have to pull the harness out of the truck and put the new one in. As soon as I get the new harness in It will all be easy plug and play stuff.

Kevin

Well I got the old dash out and the old wiring harness out. I got the new harness in and got it pulled through into the engine bay. I have not got anything plugged in yet but hopefully tomarrow it will be running.

Kevin

Well thank's to Eliot who has been over here helping me and putting some drive back into my project, she is almost running. I got the engine all hooked up exept the radiator. I am waiting on trying to find a three row crank puly for the power steering before I put the radiator in. I got all the loose end's tied up the drive line on, all the brakes hooked up and the dash in. All I have to do now is hook up about an hour of plug's and dash panels, you know like gauge cluster, heater control thing's of the sort. I also have to bleed the clutch and brakes. Hope to get it smogged some time this week. As soon as I do that and get rid of the red truck the "real" build will comence. I cant wait to get to that part. I hate this engine, wiring, dash garbage, I want to cut, bend, weld and destroy what I dont want. Anyhow big fat and a side of for Eliot for his help in the project so far.

Kevin

SHE'S ALIVE, SHE'S ALIVE. Yes you heard it right, she is alive. I got her running tonight with the help of my buddy Rick, and of course I had a "tech on the line" thank's to Don (nor-cal vegtable) he was on the nextel trouble shooting with us. I have a few more thing's, like actually set the timing, hook up the 02 sensor but she is running. Oh man it's time for a ice cold :kranker:

so I just read it all and answered my own question.....lol

Well I (actually we) made some progress tonight. We got the truck into the garage and got the bed pulled off. Eliot was here helpin me out but the bed was still an awkward lift with just the two of us. We started wire wheeling the frame to clean it up and also getting rid of some of the junk we are cutting off. Hopefully Eliot will chime in with the pic's, he had his camera and took a few picture's. Also, Eliot I found a rebuild kit from http://www.engnbldr.com for $253 or somthing like that. I can add a cam for about $90, I am thinking about going that route but not sure yet.

I made a gallery for your photos on my site:
http://www.dnxhosting.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=9

Here's pics from yesterday:

Well the rear is dam near done. All I have left to do is get the spring's to compress flat (trust me this is harder than it sound's) so that I can set up my bump stop's and my shock tower. As soon as I get these two thing's done the rear suspension will be completly done. I would have some pics except some one has it and they went wheelin this weekend, however I wont mention any names... ELIOT.

More pics, gallery updated if you want full size pics,

http://www.dnxhosting.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=9

Well I got the intire front end pulled out tonight. The front axle all the steering, spring's, shocks and all. I am hoping tomarrow to get the frame all cleaned up the steering box itself off and out of the way. I would also like to get the stock shock towers cut off and ground down. I need to make my front spring hanger still also, hopfully I can get around to that tomarrow also. My goal is to have the rig sitting on the new front suspension and axle by the end of the weekend. If I can get that done then I can move it around again and focus on getting the steering box mocked up, drill the mount's and make my reinforcement plates. Then it will be time to move on to the interior for a short time.

Well I got the front spring hanger done and in. The 44044 front's are in place with the lift shackle's and my front axle that I have all gusseted and what not is in also. Tomarrow I will pull the steering box and get working on the IFS box and bracing for the X-over that I have on my good axle. I was able to push my front axle foward 3 inches hoping that I will have to only tub minimal amount of mateiral from the fender well. Stock wheel base for a short bed is 101" ( I have a stock short bed on the drivway, makes it easy to measure) and mine measure's 104".

Well it is coming along nicely. I have been working on it almost every night, I have been doing a bunch of little shit lately but today Eliot and my buddy Rick helped me pull the tranny and t-case. We fought that bitch for about an hour before we relized that Eliot put the nut for the starter back on to the stud and we were fighting the dam dust shield thing. You should see that SOB now it's bent to shit. We definatly got a hell of a laugh out of it after the fact.

Well here is an updated pic of the truck. I went and picked up my new tire's today, they look bad ass on the truck. 8)

Kevin

Couple more pics:

Well I got the brakes bled today and took her for a test drive. It was running like shit due to all the getto fabulos exhaust system. Hope to get it better dialed in soon. I discoverd that the master cylnder is bad so I will need to replace that. Here is a pic of it on the drive way to prove it left the garage.

Kevin

Another pic

Well my 30 spline Bobby Long's will be here on Monday. I dropped off my front D-line today to Gary, it should be done by Friday. My buddy has an extra 1" bore master cylnder so since mine is shot I will get that one from him and improve my braking at the same time. I have a few other small thing's that I need to do like the speedo cable, accelerator pump and finish painting it. I am hoping to sneak over to Pretty Shitty (aka praire city) for a half ass shake down run somtime next week and was thinking about trying to do a day trip snow run on next Sat. (day before X-mas eve day). Anyone down if I get it all wrapped up?

Well my Long's got here on Friday. I even got a cool little birfield shift knob for free. I replaced the accelerater pump but it did not solve the problem. I think I am just going to rebuild the whole carb. However this project is going on the back burner for a short time since I blew the head gasket in my DD. I need to get it fixed before I go spending time on the rig. Hopfully it wont get put off for more than a week or so.

Well I got half a day of yesterday so I got my 30 splines in. I also fixed my hesitation problem. I spayed the carb with some cleaner, it did not work so I got all pissed and rev'd the shit out of it trying to blow it up... and it fixed it. I drove it from Galt to Downtown Sac. yesterday and it seemed to do ok down the highway. I was cruising right about 60-65, I dont think I could cruise to much faster but it felt pretty good. It goes down the road pretty well but still dont stop all that great. When I can afford it I will order the larger vented rotor's, I already have the larger Master and bigger calipers. Hopefully that will stop the pig a little better. I also need to find some oil leak's. The guy I bought the engine from said he fixed the only leak, just never cleaned it, BULLSHIT. O'well it seems to be ok for now.

got rained out today so I decided to head over to Prairy City and do a little testing. Everything worked out good. I think I could get a little more out of the rear if I moved the shackle hanger forward about a 1/4" to maybe 1/2". The tires were stuffin and I had just a little tiny fender rubbadge on the front fender's. I think I might be able to get away with just trimming and NO tubbing. My buddy that went with me brought his camera and got some pics and some video but I have not got any of them from him.

Well I wanted to find a way to store the spare tire with out loosing bed space and not blocking my rearview mirror. The way I did it leaves enough room for my battery's in the back on the bed floor up at the front in the corner's of the bed. All my gear like tent's sleeping bag's, chair's, table, thing's of the sort will fit on the rack. My shovel and jack mount on the rack itself. The ice chest and bin that we carry all our junk in will sit on the bed floor behind the rack. I still need to mount a few thing's like the shovel, my spare rear drive line, my axe and maybe a few other thing's. I have the thought's in my head of how I am gonna do it I just need to get around to doing it. I am also going to rig up some chain to lock the high lift into place. The way I will do it will not allow the jack to be moved from where it mount's thus also locking the spare tire in place. What do yall think?

Kevin

Well I finally got the pic's from my buddy when we went to Pretty Shitty (praire city). I have more but the dial up was pissin me off. It took me 30 min just to upload the one pic I am going to post and it did not even load all the way. So I will post a couple more soon.

Kevin

Here is another.

After a paint job.

I hate full door's so I got started hackin them up. One door is almost done, I need to get a few small thing's to make the cup holder's and weld in the final cap piece and it will be done. I have a question for you Robert (and who ever else knows stereo crap). If I fill the doors with that spray foam filler will it be to dense, and make the door speaker sound like shit? Do I need to leave a hollow spot behind the speaker to act as a "box"?
Here is a picture of the progress I have made. I have another picture but the dial up was pissin me off so 1 is all you get for now.

Kevin

I got me some new seat's! I finally bought me some new seat's, I was so sick of sitting on old beat to shit feel the spring's poking my ass and back pile's of shit. They sre some leather racing seat's from Kragen. They were on sale for $250 for the pair and I got a 10% good customer discount on top of that. They sre black bucket seat's that are pretty comfy. The came with the slide mounting rails and recline. They have the slot's for harnesses as well. I figured for $250 I could not go wrong.

Well this week I have been working on the rig to get it ready for the upcoming trip. I got my new seat's in and mounted good. They are some pretty deep bucket's that dont allow much room for sliding out of them. I think they will keep me put pretty darn well.
I also got my cage back in. I decided that since I had no seat's in it I mind as well get the cage in.
Don came over and helped me adjust the rear break's so they are working properly now. Also in turn of that we adjusted the E-brake and got it working good also. No more finding a big rock to hold the truck.
The little oil leak that I had on the front crank seal turned into a big leak on the last trip. So I fixed that as well, now I have no oil leak's either. I am very happy about this.
Last but not least, I took the rig in to a buddy of mine who has an exhaust shop and had him redo it for me. He redid from the header back. He put in a new cat, used Flowmaster muffler, and new pipeing all the way back to a dump just after the rear axle. He kept it tucked up nice and tight and it look's good. Hopefully tomarrow I wil fix the leaks at the header/head and have a kick ass no leaking at all system.

Here are some of the most reent pic's of the rig.

Well I decided to build me some hybrid front sping pack's. I have wanted to try stock Toyota rear main's on top of the 44044 pack but did not have a spare set of 44044's. When I saw that Marty replaced his front spring's I gave him a call. I was hoping that his old spring's were 44044's but they were not. He had Marlin 4" spring's. He gave them to me for a good price, thank you again Marty. O.K. now on to the good part, I had some stock Toyota rear's laying around so I used the main leave and the second one from the top with the military wrap. I removed the top two from the Marlin spring's and put the Toy's in place of them. Once I got them mounted in under the rig I was happy with the end result. I ended up dropping the front of the truck 1" wich I am happy about and moved my front axle forward another 1.5" for a total of 4.5" over stock. My wheel base is now 105.5" I took the truck to a loading dock and twisted it up, there was also a 3' man hole cone there that I pulled up on top off. The spring's seem to be working pretty dam good but we will have to wait and see how they do on the trail.

Some new rubber for the rig. Got me some 16x38.5x15 Super Swamper TSL's.

Kevin

Here is a pic of the Hybrid spring's against the 44044 for comparison. The front spring iss the 44044 and the back is the hybrid. The front bushing's are lined up in the picture. Although the hybrid sit's higher it actually lowered the truck.


Kevin

Most recent picture's of the truck with the new tire's and the hybrid spring's going to work. I need to trim the front fender's a little to clear the tires, but the kicker is I need to trim the FRONT of the fender's not the back. 8) Sorry for the poor quality it is from the camera phone.

Kevin