Topic: project extend-a-toy

[bslh8tr]

This truck is  I have wanted to see a good build on a 1st gen! Keep up the great work!

[yotaneck13]

well ive red through page 9 now and wow you got mad skills   i hope mine comes out as good as yours but dont worry im not taking your ideas just using them to help with my build i have a 3rd gen anyways uve given me mad inspiration tho thanks    

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

hey guys!!  thanks for the good words as always!  

the truck is on hold at the moment..   (life happens too often..   )  but oh well..   i am obviously not in a hurry to get this truck done but will have it done this year...    i have been quite busy with my landcruiser for the last while and am saving up for longs, a toybox, and a few other goodies..
 the cruiser..
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=73027.0


as well, i have been busy helping out my buddy ben with his truck that is also on this forum..   i recently got most of the re-wiring done on his truck and cant do too much while he decides what he is doing with the final details.. then i can place the wiring as needed..

  http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=33738.60

i did actually buy the 30 spline upgrade for both front and rear outputs and as well a few other secret odds and ends that i will discuss at a later date but other than that it will sit till i get the cruiser done..    i am getting married this september and the future wifey and myself are making a roadtrip to marlin crawler roundup this year as part of our honeymoon..  ( this confirms that i know that i am going to marry the right one!!)  i will have either Extend-a-toy or Rankenstein done for the event..   my ideal situation would be to get extend-a-toy done and then get a rooftop tent for it and drive the truck down, wheel it at the round-up and then continue on with the honeymoon but this might be too ambitious this year.. we will see...

thanks for the continuing interest everyone!!

[THK Matt]

Freakin Sweet!

Congratulations!

[yotaneck13]

   i am getting married this september and the future wifey and myself are making a roadtrip to marlin crawler roundup this year as part of our honeymoon..  ( this confirms that i know that i am going to marry the right one!!)

  mabye ill try to convince the gf that when we get married to make that part of our honey moon lol good idea btw :claps:

[87hillbillyoter]

    i am getting married this september and the future wifey and myself are making a roadtrip to marlin crawler roundup this year as part of our honeymoon..  ( this confirms that i know that i am going to marry the right one!!) 

yall comin to tahoe for your honeymoon? daggum tourists haha no im kidding. tahoes an awesome place especially for a honeymoon. hopefully my truck will be built and ill see yall there! heres an early congrats!

[Redbeard1]

looking good keep it up

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

looks like the new plate came in today..   

[jsimp]

i love that plate man!

[yotaneck13]

Wow finally had time to sit down and read from pae 9 on ur awsome i am in complete love wish i have the cash to do my build i got my 3.4 torn down to rebuild but thats about it cant wait for more updated keep up the good work

[punchyyoter85]

i just read this whole build and all i have to say is wow! you have skills!

[toyotech]

just went and looked at all 13 pages. wish you lived next to me lol.  love the build, you have some awesome ideas. cant wait to see this thing done

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

its been years and years and years!!!  oh well.. 

there will be no real progress till next winter where i can resume this thing and get it the heck done!!   

not really an update but more something to try..

i am parting out a 95 runner and it has some very nice dash pieces so i thought i would see how close the two interiors really are.. i have read a few links on the internet of people doing it and i have a few pics of it being done but no good write-ups..  i ran into a guy on the rubicon with a beautiful red first gen that had a newer dash in it and i always wanted to  know how hard it would be to do..
but first,   i originally tried to put the 1995 inner door panel on a first gen door..  it will actually work with some minor mods..  its not perfect but it is do-able..  it would be nice to find an inner door panel from a 4runner or truck that has manual doors to try out..  you would have to do something with the power window switches on the inner door panel if you chose to try to make that panel work..  i think there is an actual difference in a door from a 4 runner and a pickup as well..  i know the two wont swap with each other..  mabey the pickup has a more well suited door skin for a 79-83 door??  i dunno..

the other thing that i have always wanted to try is to see if a dash from a 89-95 4runner/truck could work in a 79-95 truck..    96 was toyota's next big design change and i have found that a lot of things in the past were interchangable from 79-95.. or at least you can use the newer stuff to upgrade some smaller components on the earlier trucks such as brake calipers, master cylinders, third members, etc as we all know..
 i like the layout on the 89-95 dashes better than the earlier trucks so i really would like to see if i could make this work.. plus there is more room behind the dash to add extra stuff if i need to and better places to put nicer speakers as well..
 so i got the newer dash more or less just propped in the cab of extend-a-toy to see how it will look..  whatcha think??  there would be a bit of work to get this dash to fit being that all of the bracketry that would actually hold the dash in place needs to be modified..  i think if i am going to try this though i want to try to incorporate using the airconditioning and the heater box assembly with all of the vents as well.. the only thing that might be a problem is that i modified my wheel wells and i dont know if i have enough room for where the heater motor sits.. i will do a rough check tomorrow..  the idea of being able to use the entireheater and  a/c would be kinda neat..  both the heater and the a/c are 10 times more efficient than what was in there.. and although i have all of the components to put together an original a/c system i would have to upgrade it a bit to accept r134 where as the a/c system from the 95 4runner has r134 already..
 like i said though, if i cant get the heater/ a/c to fit than i will ditch this whole idea and just continue to use the original dash..

here are a couple of pics..i would use the steering column from the 95 runner as well.. i just am using the original column because its still hooked up and it was just easier for now to get an idea of how it will look.

[THK Matt]

grab that dash crossmember from the 4runner!!! get it to fit in there, then no need to make custom brackets. Tacorunner, on here has photos up of his tacoma dash in installed into his 1st gen 4runner!!

[THK Matt]

okay we need updates, you're slackin.

[86bobbedtoy]

okay we need updates, you're slackin.

x2

[greg_k113]

X3

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

x4     

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

ummm,                the first rule of the extend-a-toy build-up is that we dont talk about the extend-a-toy build-up..   


seriously though, i am saving up for the next big round of mods..   i will not be working on it this winter unfortunately..  no time and my fj45 is taking all of my time and money again..     http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=73027.0
 i am getting ready to install a Marlin crawler toybox in the cruiser along with my intercooler, a fuel cell  under the box so i can get rid of the fuel tank in the cab, a new power steering pump from psc and finally a fj80 axle in the rear with a diamond axle up front with new chromo shafts..    big money again..

what i am saving for on project Extend-a-toy is the 4wheelunderground 3 link kit for the front of my this hilux..  i am watching a build very carefully by x250f23x here in the buildup area to see how the 4wu 3 link kit is going to work out on his truck first.. we have the same frame so i will be able to cheak out what challenges he has to deal with so i know what i have to do to get into mine..   i never really did care for how i did the front diff on my truck and i want a chance to redeem myself..   plus, i have thousands of dollars into this crazy rollercoaster of a truck so i may as well throw more into it..
 to go along with front 3 link is a diamond axle that is going to be as wide as the rear 1990 diff in Extend-a-toy.. i might even go wider.. not too sure yet..  i was looking at the Ruffstuff diff and find them awkward to deal with on the phone regarding diffs and what i want out of a diff plus they dont come with knuckle balls, steering stops, spring perches, etc..  very odd and i dont have the time to piss around with a half built diff..

trust me..  it kills me to have all that time and money sit in the corner of my shop..  the truck needs to be on the road.. or more so, on the trail..

[THK Matt]

sounds like you have some so plans and directions, I admire your attention to detail and how thurough and stout you build everything. Keep on building!

[Jesus Is My Rock]

Any updates???

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

not right now..       this poor truck is on the backburner again till winter time..  i am in the middle of house renovations and wont have time or money for a little while yet..   the landcruiser i own seems to take whatever extra money and time that i have also..          trust me..  it drives me nuts to have all this time and money just sitting in the garage doing nothing...  i appreciate the interest!!

i really should just stop screwing around and get this build together but doing the 4w underground front 3 link has caught my eye a bit sinse i never really liked how the front suspension turned out.. not that its bad, i just think i can do better..      also i ended up going with a diamond front diff with my landcruiser and would love to get one for this truck with a little added width to match the rear ifs diff..

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

ok, so i am buying some stuff for the next phase of this build after I finish selling a few things around here..  i am still looking at the 4wu 3 link and a diamond axle for the front..  also, i am ditching the box that i had planned on making for right now and am going with fiberglass box sides and maybe front fenders as soon as i can get ahold of Corey at toyota fiberglass up here in Canada.. but what i need from you guys are some measurements..

i dont have either version of a first gen box handy at the moment but need some measurements so i know which box sides to buy..   the fiberglass box side that i am using in this pic has been modified already so i cant use it for any kind of stock size measurement..  thanks Ben for letting me borrow your box side from project "Toyotal Chaos"...
 i dont know if i need to buy long box or short box box sides based on the wheel placement on my truck.. i am hoping to buy the short box sides only because they are cheaper and there will be less to modify..   
 if you have either truck and feel like spending 5 minutes with a tape measure and measure a box to help a guy out that would be much appreciated!!
i will post a pic..  i need to know measurements of A, B, C in both the long box and short box versions..   based on these measurments i will know which box sides to buy from Toyota fiberglass..  my google foo seems to be weak lately..     i will have no real updates till after the new year on this..  i am still collecting parts..  just thought i should get on some more of the planning end of things here...

[toyotaman88]

This truck is swweeeeetttttt 

[dropzone]

Don't have the measurements you need since I have a bobbed Trekker but am happy to see that you are still plugging away at the this thing.

Oh and current wheels look much better than the ones earlier in the build thread

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

well it looks like a few venders got some of my money this christmas..         I really wish i had to the cash to spend on the 4wheel underground 3 link for the front of my truck but it wont work out so i ended up buying a bunch of stuff from roughstuff and tmr customs in canada..  i think i will be able to build a front 3 link that i will be proud of..  i am going to be buying the rest of my heims and coilovers and such from a company in Alberta Canada called EMF..   they hand build and assemble some monster heims that are all fully rebuildable..
I scored some 2" 1/4 wall dom from a neighbor also.. i just have to go pick it up..  i was hoping to make all 3 link from it and mabey a spare but i dont think i will have quite enough...

and then the diamond axle for the front is gonna happen somewhere in all this too..  i am thinking that i will get it built to the same size as the ifs rear or perhaps 3 inches bigger than the ifs rear and run spacers on the back till that axle gets replaced..   not too sure yet..      i will get that ordered at some point and have it shipped to the border for me to pick up..  it seems as soon as UPS or any other freight company sees something as big as a custom diff getting shipped across the border they feel its justified to somehow want to charge me 500+ bucks to get that thing to my house..    i can go and take my wifes civic for a 7 hour round trip, cross into the Usa and come back for a third of that.. the only thing is the time to do it but its not even a question for the savings involved..

and lastly i have an order going into Toyota fiberglass quite soon as well for some high clearance front fenders, fiberglass boxsides and 5 inch rear flares to finish the body stuff off..

i am still working on the landcruiser till spring but i am quite excited to get back to project Extend-a-toy soon!!

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

okay, well, for not actually working on this truck i sure am collecting a lot of parts for it again!!    out of no where i ended up aquiring a diamond diff with longs already in it....   much appreciated for that!!
 and then i got looking around and a canadian vendor that isnt too far from me is having a January sale of 10 percent off..  its not much but it will still save me a couple hundred bucks..  and they are a Radflo dealer so it looks like some 14 inch coilovers are on tap as well..    so by about march/april  i should have all my brackets, heims and coilovers here..  i already have everything else and i am picking up the rest of my link material tomorrow from a buddy..

ok update over...... now back to all of your other builds in this section that are actually going somewhere.. lol..

[Wainiha]

 :bowdown:I've read 2 of your builds.  Damn your good.  This S/C'd 3.4 is going to be a beast in that truck.  I also like the custom xtracab.

[fj-rankenstein [OP]]

just another update..  i just got my used diamond axle on the weekend..  its a thing of beauty..    i am going to cut it up a bit though because it wont quite work with what i am doing..    sinse i am linking the front i am cutting off the spring perches..   also, the caster is set wrong for what i need..  so out comes the zip disc and i will be cutting the welds on the knuckles and rotating them back to 5 degrees..  and while i am at it i will be taking an inch off the long side to bring this thing back down to 61 inches..  it was built for 62 and i think that extra inch is just too much more to deal with for a street driven rig..  heck, i think 61 will give some issus but thats what flares are for in case the po po start giving me hassle..     pinion needs to also go up to 6 degrees or so.. overall it was a great buy and i didnt have to drive to the border to pick up a diff that i would have to wait months for..  the changes should take me an evening..

i am also ordering my radflo remote reservoir coilovers this week.. along with the rest of my heim joints and suspension stuff..  i cant wait!!

oh yeah, i also borrowed some scales from a buddy to weigh my truck...   i expect to be in that 4200-4400 pound range when all together..

here are some quick pics because i know we all like pics..


here is what the truck weighs now.. 

[Wainiha]

You cut yourself on those axles?