Her Name is Frank

[83 Crawler]

sorry if i missed it but where is your shop at?

[Twisted Minis]

Windsor CA. Not Canada. Basically Santa Rosa.

[83 Crawler]

o sweet man. you do amazing work more people need to know about you 

[Twisted Minis]

Thank you.



Put the cross member back in. Modified a brand new drag link I've had laying around for years now. And tried to take a picture of the top of the frame transition, but my phone wasn't having it.

[Twisted Minis]

If anyone has the bracket for the brake booster/pedal and steering column I need one. Half of it is missing on the truck and modified. So I need another, with the brake light switch if possible. But I can buy that new if I need to.

[THK Matt]

since im going automatic and dont need the clutch... would you be interested in a trade? is it there enough to work for my situtation? (im going 5.7L with a 700r4 Auto)

mine is an 87 2wd 22R 5spd

[Twisted Minis]

Well, I have the clutch pedal and mount (which I will probably modify or rebuild anyway), but its the brake booster/pedal mount that I need. If you are going automatic, you still need your brake pedal right? And it also has to be 79-83, they changed the design in 84. Mine the clutch bracket and pedal is separate, and the brake pedal bracket bolts to the dash firewall and steering column. And the cut the part off where the booster mounts and the pedal swings, and they did not give it to me.

[Twisted Minis]

It sucks they changed the design or it probably would work to trade. Or I could probably find one at Pick-N-Pull. This body style seems rare there, or picked apart before I get to it. The newer ones are more plentiful.

[Twisted Minis]

Also think I want to buy the grill that looks like this:


But I don't want to buy their shitty one. I got one from them before and it was super wavy and didn't fit.

[THK Matt]

Well, I have the clutch pedal and mount (which I will probably modify or rebuild anyway), but its the brake booster/pedal mount that I need. If you are going automatic, you still need your brake pedal right? And it also has to be 79-83, they changed the design in 84. Mine the clutch bracket and pedal is separate, and the brake pedal bracket bolts to the dash firewall and steering column. And the cut the part off where the booster mounts and the pedal swings, and they did not give it to me.

oh from looking at the last pics of it with the front clip cut off. it look like a 2nd gen, i forgot about that!!!
Well good luck then man.

[Twisted Minis]

[twistedtoy92]

Hell yeah that thing is lookin good so far!

[GJToyotabug]

Also think I want to buy the grill that looks like this:


But I don't want to buy their shitty one. I got one from them before and it was super wavy and didn't fit.

certifit has been awesome for me. better quality then stock always fits and good price, the should have one near you.

[Twisted Minis]

Certifit is better than that place? There is one close but always heard it sucked. I got my last grill from that place above, and I had to zip tie half of the mounts because they didn't line up.

[GJToyotabug]

my grille came from their havent had an issue yet. idk if they go back to first gen anymore last time i ordered from them they did

[Twisted Minis]

I may look into it, but I think I found a clean stock one. I have had better luck with clean stock parts in the past.


My neighbor was powder coating stuff for his truck, and asked if I had anything small I wanted silver. Only thing I could figure was ready was spindles. So I stuck my balljoints in and measured for a spacer, machined one and welded it on. Looks better than stacking washers to line the cotter pin up. They should be silver tomorrow.

[bleakhorizon]

i gotta say man.. i just spent 3+ hours of my life reading your posts.... bravo, sir.  You have endured as a young shop owner and an amazing fabricator.  If everyone nowadays had your motivation the world would not be in the state that it is in LOL... 

You do some amazing work that is just unspeakably clean...  Sad to say i have no way of opening up my own shop, and after seeing your work i almost wouldn't want too.  That is, knowing there is someone like you out there as competition !


Very glad you have decided to share this all with us also, as this is mainly a 4wd site, but the fabrication is one and all.

I think im going to steal the idea of the merc fenders... i think that looks pretty damn cool...

[Twisted Minis]

Thank you very much man. Its always nice to hear people appreciate what I do. This whole thread started because one guy asked me to share pics of my truck. And it just snow balled from there. I'm glad people enjoy watching it.

And feel free to steal any of my ideas. I doubt any of them are truly original. I guarantee I stole it from someone else, wether I know it or not.

[Twisted Minis]

Spindles are powdercoated silver, read to go on. Lower arms are almost done. Plated the bottom of the notch Bob started so I could place the axle and start building the links.

[Twisted Minis]

Link bar teaser....

[94MtnYote]

Looks clean, tigged?

[kneedownnate]

Also if anyone has some decent carpet for this thing I am looking. Haven't seen anything I can clean up at pick n pull, and I don't want to spend the money on new carpet.

On that note, pnp is having a 1/3 off sale this weekend, so if you need to snag any other goodies 

[Twisted Minis]

Yes, that is TIG welded. Almost all the link bars I do now are TIG. Just looks better.

And thanks for the tip. Hopefully it stops raining so I can go out and look. It would be nice to find decent carpet, I doubt it, but it would be nice. I don't want to spend $150 on new stuff.

[Twisted Minis]

Link bar.  Trying to limit my use of square tube.

[Twisted Minis]

Satchell Link.

[Peterbuilt84]

Just read the whole thread, all I can say is wow. As has been said countless times before, you are a hell of a fabricator and your work is top notch. I really just want to go pick up a 2wd now and bag it. Too bad I have neither the time or money.

I did figure out one thing you need, a shop camera so you can keep us updated in everything you have going on I can't get enough lol

[Twisted Minis]

You mean like live feed video? Lol.

Discount weekend at pick n pull, so I picked up a few things I needed. Not pictured is some stock carpeting that covers the back wall that is clean. I've never even seen that piece before. Got the upper bars placed how I wanted, so I welded the tabs on and removed the scrap holding the axle to the frame.

[Peterbuilt84]

I didn't mean a live feed, but that defiantly would be cool. Although a little intrusive.

Can't wait to see how your shop truck turns out. If I were to build something like that it would probably be along the same lines, except not nearly as bad ass as yours is gonna be.

[Twisted Minis]

Got the bungs welded into the rear axle for Chad's truck.  Started putting together the sheet metal lower links, and got the fish plates on the rear of the frame.

[Twisted Minis]