Project: The '81 "Yoter"

[a1gemmel]

[toyodaaddict]

Those leaf springs are wild

[a1gemmel]

Those leaf springs are wild

Haha, they're certainly something. Would not recommend copying my setup, but they do get the job done

[a1gemmel]

My cab has had a crack in it for quite a while, decided to fix that up today.







The root cause of this crack was that the fender broke off of the tab that bolts it up near the A pillar, so it pulls this section apart. I'll weld that up too and this shouldn't happen again.

[a1gemmel]

I've had a vision in my head for a while of how I wanted to make rock sliders happen. Well, let's get after it...

Starting by cutting the whole dang rocker out



Cut the dang back side of the rocker out



Cut even more out



3/4" tube steel door sill



Cut the bed to match, trim the cab mounts



Now the door skin is actually the lowest part of the cab and sliders can fit up directly under the door. Nice. Still tons of work to do.

[OVRAROK]

I've had a vision in my head for a while of how I wanted to make rock sliders happen. Well, let's get after it...

Starting by cutting the whole dang rocker out



Cut the dang back side of the rocker out



Cut even more out



3/4" tube steel door sill



Cut the bed to match, trim the cab mounts



Now the door skin is actually the lowest part of the cab and sliders can fit up directly under the door. Nice. Still tons of work to do.

Looks like the beginning of boat sides

[Gnarly4X]

My cab has had a crack in it for quite a while, decided to fix that up today.







The root cause of this crack was that the fender broke off of the tab that bolts it up near the A pillar, so it pulls this section apart. I'll weld that up too and this shouldn't happen again.

Geezz... THAT is some serious "fabrinating" going on!!!

A talent only enjoyed by a few. 

[a1gemmel]

A lot of work since the first post without feeling like much progress 

Plates are welded onto the frame, sliders are built (off the truck). Photos of that later.

Repaired the cab corners, blocked all the holes in the door sill and finished welding/grinding the tube door sill.







Ran out of gas, been doing this all flux core just for the thrill. My friend got a little fast and loose helping out with the plasma cutter and set the passenger seat on fire - lost the seatbelt and burned up the taillight harness and my subwoofer wiring. That's mostly been all patched up now.

[a1gemmel]

Welded up the sliders as a pair - 2 of the outriggers are straight, 2 are angled down 12 degrees. This should give the slider some amount of triangulation to prevent flex. The fifth outrigger is just behind the front fender and is 15 degrees angled forwards (perpendicular off of the curved frame), I fitted these up on the truck. Somehow I didn't get a pic of this.



I tacked up and partially welded on the ground, then lifted up to reach all the remaining seams. Notice how the slider doesn't look to be parallel to the body/bed anymore with the droop from the lift 



All done and painted, endcaps welded on.



The fender is trimmed so the slider goes under it, then the inner skin is bolted to a rivnut on the cab corner.



Hi-lift test - the sliders don't have any noticeable flex with both tires off the ground. They're statically at a loose finger gap under the body, and under load they're still a slightly tighter loose finger gap. Nice.

[a1gemmel]

Hear me out...





Relocate the bed mount...





Slider drilled and tapped...



Gotta boatside the toolbox, of course...



Add a locking mechanism...



Hmmmmm...

[a1gemmel]

This Lund visor popped up on marketplace and so of course I had to pay way too much money and become the owner of it. If I understand right, the '81-'84 visors are even more rare than the '85+ ones? Anyways, let's make it pretty.

Sanded "smooth" and all the silicone scraped off. I also painted the underside satin black.



Primed.



Colour and clear-coated.



Drilled holes in the roof - electrical tape stop to avoid punching holes in the headliner. I also brush painted the holes afterwards.



Rivnuts and a generous smear of clear sealant in and around the rivnut.



I added door seal foam to the underside of the visor so it doesn't rub and scratch through my paint. The stack for the fasteners goes: bolt -> metal washer -> rubber washer -> visor -> rubber washer



Nice, I like the look.

[toyodaaddict]

Looks good.

My only complaint with the visor is limbs getting hung up. I kinda miss mine though and may put it back on.

What are you using to do the rivnuts? I like that.

[a1gemmel]

Looks good.

My only complaint with the visor is limbs getting hung up. I kinda miss mine though and may put it back on.

What are you using to do the rivnuts? I like that.

I have the harbor freight tool: https://www.harborfreight.com/10-in-professional-rivet-nut-setter-kit-58078.html
You can get basically the same thing from ebay/vevor/amazon/wherever.

Yeah, I did think about tree limbs being a concern. I keep a saw in the cab, may just have to be more proactive at hopping out and trimming on tight trails.

[a1gemmel]

A friend made me this absolutely gorgeous shift boot, what a piece of art!

[OVRAROK]

A friend made me this absolutely gorgeous shift boot, what a piece of art!

Manual shift e locker.  Nice.

[a1gemmel]

A little wheel repair action for a friend's truck - he forgot to tighten his lugnuts!

Made a fixture for the rotary table





Video of the machining - used a custom cutter I machined out of S7 and heat-treated:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nBqq-YJ5U94

Polished up a bit too

[a1gemmel]

These doors have been sitting in my yard for what's gotta be years at this point - I'm on a roll with projects right now, let's make half doors...

[Gnarly4X]

I'm on a roll with projects right now, let's make half doors...

OMG!!...  The Metal-Terrorizing Fabrinator is on a roll!! 

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

Getting real snowy up in these here parts. Was some real butt puckering shelf road to get to where this photo was taken, threw on the chains to get back to the trailhead.

[a1gemmel]

[Gnarly4X]

a1gemmel,
You are engaged in some potentially dangerous terrain.
I hope you have a roll cage and you know when to tighten your 5-point harness.
My 1st 1986 Longbed was totaled (head-on collision) and my 1985 shorbed was totaled from a roll-over.

Here's what a roll-over looks like with NO roll cage....

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

Don't have a cage, would be a reasonable idea to add one. I will be taking the interior out soon for another project...

In the meantime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Tullock#Tullock's_spike

[a1gemmel]

How to get more attention at Cars and Coffee...



Before someone says something, it's just melted snow/frost 

[a1gemmel]

Finished welding, hit em with some primer



grinder work and some filler



rattle can bedliner on the insides



It's 32 degrees right now, gotta get the panels warm before paint



Reasonable result for rattle can color match and 2k clear



Ready for winter!

[OVRAROK]

Looking good, can't go wrong with 2k aerosol..

[a1gemmel]

Up next is this W56



Guy I bought it from said it popped out of gear. Most of the bearings seemed trashed so that tracks. Gears look good though.

[OVRAROK]

 

[a1gemmel]

Now that's a well used bearing!

[a1gemmel]

Hey, we're back! I've done a lot of things, let's get up to date.

I widened my front axle 3 inches by cutting off the passenger side knuckle and pressing in a sleeve. This uses a +3 27 spline axle shaft I got from Longfield (PN 140220-1). The sleeve is a piece of 3.5" 1/2" wall DOM tube that I machined down on my lathe. There's a much longer write-up on doing this here.



I then also had to lengthen my tie rod and drag link, just machined some solid sleeves to make that happen.



New W56 went in, cleaned up the dual cases at my local car wash the best I could (they love me there)



This is where things get a little wacky tobaccy. I cut out pretty much all of the tunnel and had a friend keep lifting the rear of the driveline higher and higher while I cut out all of the floorpan that interfered. We ended up about 2.5" higher than factory. I then did the same at the front - cut the motor mounts off the frame and pushed the motor up 2.5" to match, then welded them back on.





Believe it or not, the hood still closes. Though I think the air box is touching the hood. I'll need to use some playdough to find the spots and cut some of the webbing out of the hood, or go to a different style airbox.

Then I got a FROR crossmember and chopped it up to fit the driveline lift.




Why do all this? Now the truck is nearly flat bellied, except for the front output on the t-case. Fantastic break-over angle improvement. Plus, now the oil pan is tucked up above the frame rails and no longer limits up-travel with the drag link and panhard bar.

Wait, panhard bar? Yep, it's three linked now. I used a mashup of parts from Barnes, Ruff Stuff, and Ballistic Fab to put together a kit.  I'm also using Dominator 2600 airbags as the spring setup. They're a lot cheaper than coilovers, the adjustable ride height is interesting, and I craved figuring out the packaging challenges they brought.

I'm aiming for a 24" frame height on 37s, with about 4" of up-travel and 5-6" of down-travel. It's not the most hectic setup but it should feel pretty balanced with the rear leaf package. I'm using Rancho RS999269 shocks, which are the perfect length that the airbag acts as both the bump stop and limit strap without hitting the ends of the shock travel.

Ride height:



Full bump is absolutely perfect - everything reaches clearance limits at the same time. The drag link is 1/2" off the oil pan, the upper link is 1/2" off the clutch fork, the upper link bracket just tucks right under the motor mount.



Full droop:



Articulation:



With airbags installed. I'll be using a Jaxaire manual valvebody to control them, for now they just have schraeder valves plumbed straight into each bag.




It took a while to get all of this right and get the suspension geometry numbers where I wanted them. I can adjust anti-squat from 60-105% with an adjustable upper bracket, roll axis is about 1.5 degrees oversteer, bump steer is less than 1.5 degrees over the full range. I could get the bump steer better if I need to, but I cut the panhard bar and bracket to length a bit too early and would need new parts if I wanted to make it longer. As is it's slightly shorter than the drag link.

Fabricating the new tunnel, I figured I would make a replaceable shifter panel to future-proof the truck in case I change the driveline to something else.



The bellhousing piece I cut out was reusable with a few bends and tweaks, saved me a lot of work. Surprisingly the factory HVAC box still fits, that was a big question for the project.



The upper link comes up above the floor a little bit in its highest position, so I had cut the floor out and made this panel to cover it back up.



The rest of the owl. I got a bead roller to recreate some of those factory stamped steel effects and add some strength to the panels.



Painted and seam sealed (on the underside as well)



Sound mat installed



I bought raw carpet ("80/20 Loop Automotive Carpet") from Texas Fabrics and Foam to try to class up the joint a bit. Used double sided carpet tape and 3M spray adhesive to glue it down, heat gun and weights to make it take some shape.



My awesome friend made me some shift boots for all of the shifters and parking brake lever (from a JK Wrangler). Real pro quality work.



Why the JK parking lever? I'm realizing as I type this up I never took any photos of this, but I've swapped the transfer case parking brake for a Trail Tough rear disconnect. I rerouted the factory parking brake cable to actuate the disconnect - pull to disconnect the rear driveshaft, release and a large return spring pulls the shifter back to connected. I'll get some photos of that for the next update. The JK parking lever will be plumbed to the rear axle, which now actually has working parking brake hardware since I swapped in the 3rd gen rear end.


I've taken it around the block and it drives pretty good so far. Still more work to do, like finishing up the interior and plumbing/wiring the air system. Other life demands have gotten busy at the moment.


Longer form video of me rambling about pretty much all the same stuff while walking around the truck:

[Gnarly4X]

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! 

I don't know why you keep messing around doing that piddly little simple stuff?? 

When are you going to get serious about REAL fabrication!! LOL!!

Gnarls.