Her Name is Frank

[Twisted Minis]

Ya, I am planning a sit down with the owner. I made a detailed list today of all the tings he wants done, trying to include the nitty gritty little stuff that ads up at the end. The amount of work left is staggering, so I want to have a talk with him about the amount of work left before I step into something big like that, to make sure the dream isn't bigger than the wallet. Basically I found out the body line on the bed is 1/2" lower than in the door, and a different shape. Which means reshaping the bed, so the job just got that much harder.




And yes, the same 67 Double Cab I worked on before. He has a big list and a small budget this time. It came in mainly for exhaust, which it will leave with. Things he wants that may not happen this visit: Dry sump tank, tow hitch, boxed frame, gas pedal, throttle bell crank, hydraulic clutch master mounted, hydraulic clutch slave mounted. We will see. I had to wait almost a month for the stainless exhaust stuff, so he may have more money now.

[Twisted Minis]

Also cleaning out my garage, found some Toyota stuff I don't really need any more. Gonna stick it in the for sales.

[Twisted Minis]

Starting on a hitch for the Double Cab. Needs some more bracing due to the drop. Drop is to line it up with the bumper.




Mufflers will hang off the cross member, so it needed to be there first. Tips and hitch will go through rear bumper.

[Twisted Minis]

Working on the exhaust, these down pipes look simple, but they have been very challenging so far.

[Twisted Minis]

So not much has been happening in the shop lately. I moved into a new house with my fiance, and we are still setting that up. I am trying to get back into the swing of things. But everything is getting well organized now and back on track. I will be finishing a few things on the VW, and then back into the D50 as well as my truck. I have ordered a few thousand dollars worth of parts for the D50. And I ordered a new radiator, transmission cooler, Suprastick control module, and picked up an automatic transmission for my truck. I am also thinking about getting a new intake manifold and running a Weber carb, as I need to run a TPS to work the automatic properly, and it will be easier to adapt to the Weber. But I need to figure out if I want to swap to a 20R head or not. If I do, I would like to do a new timing chain on the motor, and put a cam in it, and eventually build a header.

[Twisted Minis]

I got the frame horns swapped back over to the stock ones and aligned the sheet metal, and adjusted the tilt on the bumper to my preference, so I took a camera pic.

[THK Matt]

reason for swapping back is...

[Twisted Minis]

Because I used a 90s frame clip up front, to get the better suspension geometry, and scrap the poor bag job that was done to the stock frame. The frame horns are longer and have different bumper and body mounts, so I had to weld the stock frame horns back on.

[Twisted Minis]

So got my AFCO radiator. Polished B&M oil cooler will go in front of it.


Tried mocking the front end up nothing really fits. Think a bumper mount is bent, and I probably need an early core support to run round headlights. Some mounts for the bezels aren't there, they don't line up with anything, and the grill fits terrible. And its an OEM one.

[Twisted Minis]

Just thought of something, anyone know if the 4WD and 2WD core support is different? Wondering if that is why the 4WD grill isn't fitting well. I think I have a 2WD somewhere to try.

[locked 4x4]

Yea I believe the mounting points are different.  Someone else on this form just had the same problem and a different grill was the fix.

[Twisted Minis]

Dammit. I really wanted to run the 4WD grill, I like it better, but it doesnt seem to fit at all. Its really far away from the headlight buckets, doesn't really make sense.

[Twisted Minis]

[twistedtoy92]

incredible work as always!

[CrazyYota]

Dammit. I really wanted to run the 4WD grill, I like it better, but it doesnt seem to fit at all. Its really far away from the headlight buckets, doesn't really make sense.

Why not modify the mounting points to fit the grill? I'm sure it would be no problem for you.

[Twisted Minis]

I guess I could, but for some reason it seems like it doesn't want to sit far enough back. I probably need to get the hood on to see if it will line up.

[Twisted Minis]

Here are some better pictures of the VW DC exhaust.

[Twisted Minis]

Here are the diagonal braces for the shock mounts and hitch.

[tri2hunt]

That looks fun.

[Twisted Minis]

Exhaust and bracing from above. Double Cab is done for this visit, and going back home soon. But I will try to get some high res pictures before it leaves.

[GONZO97]

sick work man all your work is top notch

[Twisted Minis]

Thank you. I like your 4Runner.

[GONZO97]

Thank you. I like your 4Runner.

thanks the craftsmanship on it isnt all that great but i do like a clean truck

[Twisted Minis]

It looks nice, I was looking for one that body style to build. But my Audi broke an axle shaft yesterday morning. So I think its about time to do the turbos. Borrowed a friends car today so I can take it off the road.

[GONZO97]

make sure you post up all the pictures of that so i can watch! The runner is a good truck just should have never gone with 3.0 but oh well

[Twisted Minis]

3.0 was the one thing I worried about. And I need something automatic my wife can drive sometimes.

But the Audi has become the next project. I snapped an axle shaft a couple days ago, and my control arms are going up front, with one bad turbo. So I borrowed a friends car, and decided to order the bigger turbos, downpipes, up pipes, clutch, upgraded axles, and upgraded control arms. Going to finally do stage 3 turbos. Not sure if I can afford the tune and fueling yet, but I will see if I can find some used downpipes to save a little.

[GONZO97]

Yeah the 3.0 isnt a bad engine if the headgaskets are rebuilt and put on correctly especially with the automatic which i have.

As for the turbo that would be super sick to do hopefully you can get that tuned to a T.

I have a Subaru Legacy Outback that I DD is has the 2.2 4cyl and once that goes out i want to drop WRX Turbo charged engine in it. I hear thats the best way to do it. So im trying to look into that as well

[Twisted Minis]

Try to find a transmission as well. A guy in our club knows someone that made that swap, and blew the stock transmission pretty quick.

I've ordered turbos, downpipes, high flow fuel pump, and a clutch so far. Went with a stage 4 clutch, in case I ever want to step up the fueling and aim for more power. Need to get up pipes, then axles and control arms, and a few maintenance things to do while I have the engine out. Think I am going to build my own exhaust again from the downpipes back. Got a good deal on some 3" downpipes, the the 2.5" single exhaust needs to go. Stock downpipes are just over 2". I'd like to break the 400 AWHP mark.

[GONZO97]

That would be pretty sick man i cant wait to watch that build.

What i was thinking on turbo for the subaru was to maybe even look into the 2.5 liter which is used in the 97 outback but i havent looked into too much, do you have any experience with that?

[Twisted Minis]

I actually don't really know much of anything about the Subarus. I have always wanted to build up an inline 5 from them or Audi though.