Many of you may remember the 1980 pickup I snagged a few years ago:   http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=60079.msg744011#msg744011

That thing has been far and away the favorite vehicle I have ever owned.  Since then I have wheeled the heck out of it, camped with it, daily driven it, drag raced it, road tripped it, herded cows with it, towed mules with it, hauled most of our firewood for the last 8 years, towed trailers, skidded logs, brought home whole dead cows, rescued multiple other vehicles with it, built a house with it.  Danged thing will start at -20 F, and colder if you start a fire under it.  Broke all the plastic pieces off it twice over.  35s fit with only 1.5" of lift.

I got in the habit of hauling large square bales of alfalfa, weighing in at about 1,500lbs, then strapping the bale to a tree and driving out from under them dumping the clutch to unload.  This finished off what was left of the all ready hammered bed.

Right after we got it I welded the rear and added an aussie locker up front, which gave it instant street cred as a sleeper on the trail.  Took power steering off some old axles I got in trade which helped keep my thumbs intact. I added rears up front and some home fabed shock hoops which gave it pretty decent flex up front, despite the low ride height and push-pull steering.  Made a winch bumper and added my Warn M8000.  Made some square tube sliders. The torque rod did un-install itself from the frame after a while  .  That's the way we used it for the last few years.

The 20r is all original and now leaks so much out of every orifice that we quit driving it on the road and now we just haul water with it, about 1,670 lbs a load.

All this time I have never been stranded in it.  Sometimes I have limped it home on duck tape, bailing wire and pieces of ball point pen.

Biggest problem I have had is in the winter you get so much moisture from the frozen cow piss mud on the floor boards that it corrodes up the fuse block.  Then you have to take a wire brush to the fuse block and get all the green stuff off for everything to work again.

We had planned to put an engine in the truck next year.  The 20/22r Hybrid in my 4runner took a dump last month so I took inventory of what I had and started building a kind of hot 20r with the intention of getting the 4Runner back up, then after remembering that I was wishing for a pickup all last summer while hauling greasy parts and lumber in the 4Runner, I decided to put the 20r in the old pickup.  The 4Runner has been an ongoing project and a big red idol reminding me of all the out of state trails I never have time or money to make it to and making me wish I was about 15 years younger.  In the background the poor old neglected '80 has been earning it's keep and running happily on left-overs, providing service and fun the whole time.

I was going to sell the 4Runner, less an engine for a good deal and put a bit of the proceeds into the pickup.  After doing a little math and planning my end goal I decided the best route for time and money would be to take everything off the 4Runner that was bolt on and put it under the truck.

The end goal will be an unassuming, modest looking pickup with a hot engine, more drivetrain beef than it needs and all the crawl ratio I can put together with the parts I all ready have plus adapter I will buy when I sell the 4runner.  I will try to make everything bolt on and as close to stock style as possible, where if something goes you can just swap another piece in, rather than having to grind it all off and fab again. The exception would be moving the front end up a bit and maybe a fabricated t-case cross member. I am determined to use the stock push-pull steering though and keep it really low.  I want it to end up laced with clever one off cheap tricks. This will be an all around vehicle, tailored for what I use it for, not what I wish I had time to use it for.  It will not be the biggest, baddest or the flexiest.  I plan to build what I need not what I want.

If all goes as planned it can do work, trail and DD duty on some 33s and just barely fit some 36" Iroks or whatever fat meats for some big snow on the weekends.

So begins the super-sleeper 1st gen build!



 

Love the 79-83 Toys.

I'm all for early Toyota of this era, but is there any way you can keep this and your 4runner? You've done so much to it, it seems a shame. All those pictures in the first post are excellent though.

-snip-

that just seems like pretty normal behavior for a toyota guy...or a mopar guy, I think they're weirder than us

good luck with the 4runner and the 80!

This morning at stupid-thirty I continued to chip away at the drivetrain swaperoo.  Wind was blowing 30 mph but it was in the 40s so not too cold.

Really wanted to take my nice trussed, gusseted housing but the u-bolt flip stuff wouldn't clear the stock steering on the '80 and the stock 1980 hardware wont quite fit on the nice '85 housing because the bottom truss is a different shape and size on the drivers side.  Oh well, I will work on that housing next year when I do a good knuckle job on it and some new front springs.

Took apart the front end of the 4Runner yesterday and today I took apart the spindles on the '80 and played in some "birf soup".  Got the nice fresh 5.29/aussie locked front diff in it.  Needs some more clean up, inner axle seals, brake pads and fresh grease before I put the marfield axles in it and button it up.

I like this idea!!! swap the cases and everything over to the truck man. make a stockish 4runner to sell.

After adding up what it would cost to replace the parts I am stripping I have determined there is no other way.

G2 Ring & Pinions w/master kits & solid spacer sleeves:  $740
Aussie Locker                                                              $299
Spool                                                                          $119
4.7 Marlin T-Case                                                      $1,300
Long Spline front driveshaft                                          $549
27 Spline Marfields                                                       $278
AllPro T-Case E-Brake                                                   $349
Warn M8000                                                                $640
Optima Blue Top                                                          $276
Total...                                                                      $4,274


There is no way I could get anywhere near that for the 4runner in this region, especially with no engine. That's not even taking into account the AF gauge, weber stuff, header and LCE bits for the engine.  Probably another $1,000 there.


Plus I am helping get my boys wheeling too.  Caleb got my 35s and rims REALLY cheap and he will get the t-case e-brake which he badly needs (no e-brake on his rig).  I am donating my 4.37/Aussie Locker/Welded thirds from the '80 to Jake for his '83. He wants to just run 31s so that will be perfect.  So all of us will at least have good gearing for the tires we are running and all 4 tires going.  Should be able to have some fun times with three set up Toyotas. 

Interesting that the typical build costs probably $5K in parts now.  Seems like it used to be cheaper.  Maybe I was just fooling myself.

I figure I can still get something for the carcass with the suspension and hy-steer intact and the interior and body in good shape.  Somebody can just add their parts from whatever raisinized crawler they happen to have  .

Hope to get enough to fund a dual adapter and a top shift conversion kit for the 4.7 case.  More would be great, I need some slightly larger tires too

We used to just run a tractor light on the headache rack facing backward.  That was awesome for winter time chores.

spectacular. Thats awesome

Many of you may remember the 1980 pickup I snagged a few years ago.....

That thing has been far and away the favorite vehicle I have ever owned.  Since then I have wheeled the heck out of it, camped with it, daily driven it, drag raced it, road tripped it, herded cows with it, towed mules with it, hauled most of our firewood for the last 8 years, towed trailers, skidded logs, brought home whole dead cows, rescued multiple other vehicles with it, built a house with it.  Danged thing will start at -20 F, and colder if you start a fire under it.  Broke all the plastic pieces off it twice over.  35s fit with only 1.5" of lift.

I got in the habit of hauling large square bales of alfalfa, weighing in at about 1,500lbs, then strapping the bale to a tree and driving out from under them dumping the clutch to unload.  This finished off what was left of the all ready hammered bed.

The 20r is all original and now leaks so much out of every orifice that we quit driving it on the road and now we just haul water with it, about 1,670 lbs a load.

All this time I have never been stranded in it.  Sometimes I have limped it home on duck tape, bailing wire and pieces of ball point pen.

If all goes as planned it can do work, trail and DD duty on some 33s and just barely fit some 36" Iroks or whatever fat meats for some big snow on the weekends.

So begins the super-sleeper 1st gen build!

This is a powerful testimonial for the reliability, dependability, utility, maintenance, durability, value, and cost of ownership of an early Toyota truck.

Gnarls.

Yeah this truck has been one of those good ones that all the hype was based on .

I want one of those someday... Who made them?

These birfs are actually "Bellfields" made for Marlin back in the day before Marfields came about.  Old school with the welded ring and then heat treated.  I figure with the massive gearing upgrade in store for this pickup I had better use them.

Cleaned out the birf soup and packed them with some fresh grease.  Installed some new inner seals. That's all I got done this morning because I had to dig a L52 out of the shed and haul water for the house...

I dropped the trans and t-case out of the 4runner and dug out an L52, 2 t-cases and a W56A.  My 4runner 4.7 case is a forward shift. After looking over what it takes to top-shift convert the t-case and playing with the various trans I have I decided to use the W56A and regular duals.

My reasons why go like this...

By the time you top shift convert the forward shift case you have done the same labor as building a crawl box.

I like the shift feel of the W56A way better than the L52.

Using the W56A I would all ready be changing drive line length, so why not use duals.

I thought about dual ultimates but I just don't think I need that for this pickup.

This truck gets used for a lot of muddy work duty where the stock low range would be useful.

This truck gets used for a lot of muddy work duty where the stock low range would be useful.

I am actually pretty impressed with the standard low range gears in mine. In first gear and 4L I can stroll along next to my Hilux so for going through mud I think they are sufficient.

By the way, I read your response to your last quote and fair enough, I understand. Good luck with the project 👍

I wanted to get the spindles weather proof again with the precipitation showing up.  The rotors on the '80 were pretty rough from lots of mud and worn out pads.  I dug through my shed and way in the back in a milk crate I found a set of rotors on wheel bearing hubs that had been turned years ago but were kind of rusty from sitting on whatever front end I got them off of.

I found some wheel bearing hub seals from Napa that were Japan instead of China and $4 instead of $12.  They are from their "ATM" line which seems to be mostly Japan sourced.  PN 221 7203

I scrapped off most of the rust and cleaned up the wheel bearings with some gas and carb cleaner.  After the bearings dried up I packed them with fresh grease and put it all together.

That's what I did before the sun came up 

Ahem, sniff, eeeemu, cough, cough...