Her Name is Frank

[Twisted Minis]

a 289 for your little blue toyota? holy !

Yup. Probably leave it stock with a small Holley or something. Its double the power so that should be good. I'm getting tired of how gutless mine seems after working on these muscle cars with 250-400 horse range. Plus I've had nothing but issues with carbs, and the cooling system.

[Twisted Minis]

That is, assuming I can actually make it fit. I haven't done any measuring yet, just some e-research.

[jimbo74]

i am sure you can get it to fit... the 302 and 350 are popular swaps for the toyotas

[82 HiLux]

if i ever do a v8 swap on any toyota, which i am 100% planning on doing at some point whether is a 4x4 or 2x4, it will be a ford 302 or a mopar 340.  id rather do the 302 because if you get it out of a 89-92 mustang, they have EFI and the most horsepower stock of any 302s. those are my two favorite v8s. id rather have EFI in a wheeler for steep hills.

[Twisted Minis]

I mostly worry about header to control arm issues. Most of the swaps I have seen have been in 4WD trucks, which don't have upper control arms up by the headers. And they also don't have a narrowed frame. Lol.

I plan on sticking with a carb, because I'd like to keep the wiring basic, and it will also be easier to referee. I plan on robbing the parts from an 83-85 Mustang, which ran a 4 barrel, and the only smog equipment was an EGR valve, charcoal canister and a smog pump, which is all my truck has. And apparently once I get it refereed I can put an Edelbrock manifold and a Holley on it, and it will still pass at the pipe.

It's still kind of a pipe dream though. I need to find something else to drive while I do these things to my truck. Or just build something to drive.

[82 HiLux]

yeah you gotta love how easy a carburetor is to set up and tune and maintain. i know i do. its nice when your engine doesnt have a brain!

[boggerunner]

my 84 2wd yota had a built 283/th350, wand a professionaly built driveshaft from th350 to toyota rearend?  no vibes at 110+ mph.

[Twisted Minis]

[THK Matt]

WOW!!!!! That's all I can say.

[Twisted Minis]

Lower shock mounts.

[boggerunner]

over kill, but nice  very nice

[Twisted Minis]

Well I made the mistake of showing the owner a drawing I had done of those, and he wanted them welded onto the differential. I told him if it was cast steel then okay. It ended up being cast iron, so no go, and he was heavily disappointed. So he got them anyway, just in a different spot. They are pretty much just for looks when it comes to shocks, which don't see much load.

[Twisted Minis]

I pulled the axle out to do the final welding.

Put it back together and built my now standard link bar brake line.




I moved the stock muffler forward 6 inches, and made a new mount to bolt to the factory hanger.

[twistedtoy92]

WOW!! that looks VERY NICE!!!

[Thomas P]

  so sick.....

[Twisted Minis]

Finished mounting the gas tank, and relocating the evap system, then cut out the bed floor.








Here it is aired up, relatively stock looking.

And with the bumper on the ground.

[jimbo74]

looks good

[Bazzi]

nice work.  probably a dumb question.  is your work there finished? do you do some sort of rust protection or something like that

[Twisted Minis]

Most of the time I do, but this customer wants to be as hands on as possible. So he is taking it all apart to do finish work, paint, plumb the air system, bag the front, etc.

[Bazzi]

makes sence, I would like to take it all a part paint it and so on so I could get 2 know ewerything  a litle better and so on...

[82 HiLux]

how much would it cost to get my 1st gen 4x4 bagged?


haha

nice flippin rear suspension, that is some CLEAN ASS WORK

[Twisted Minis]

Thanks dude.

You should get that thing 4-linked with coilovers. That would be way cooler.


It's finally Chad's turn. He's been waiting patiently for everything else to get out of the shop. After Gary's truck left I got on a cleaning binge and cleaned pretty much all day. So all I got done was putting it on jack stands, but tomorrow will be tear down, measuring, cutting off the backhalf, and planning out the new rails.



I also built a rack that holds all my TIG wire that bolts to the side of the welder.

[GJToyotabug]

hey how much is a bag kit for the front on a 2wd 3rd gen? and how hard is it to put it on since im to far away to take it to you

[Twisted Minis]

Toyota? The bag brackets themselves are like $65 or so. The work to put them in is fairly extensive, and beyond most people. But if you are decent fabricator it's not too bad. Kind of hard to figure out the first time though.

[GJToyotabug]

i know someone that wants to bag his i think he should do the entire kit and i know if i had pics from one of the times you did it i could do it right

[82 HiLux]

i dont make nearly enough money to pay anybody to do anything for me, and i have way too much fun doing it myself LOL. im always doing work on my friends toyotas to get extra cash.  eventually i will learn how to build link systems and 4 link my truck front and rear. ive been starting to read up on it and learn the basics.  if i had money to throw around, that would be so sick if i could pay you to link it up, because i know the setup would be beyond anything i could make. i have never worked with links so what i build on my truck would be my first shot at it. leaf springs are kind of boring 

[82 HiLux]

just curious, what do you use to cut the body metal on the beds and fenders?

[Twisted Minis]

If you got questions just run it by me. If you come by the shop I speak better with my hands, and draw pictures to make more sense.

For cutting the bed floor, I use a Matco air saw. It's wonderful. With a little blade I can make really tight radius cuts.

[Twisted Minis]

Cut the rear frame off today. My favorite part of dissasembly was cutting the batteries out.



Backhalf removed. Ready for a fresh start.



Unfortunately the fuel cell wasn't fastened down that well, and the back had been moving around a bit and rubbing on the mounts. When I went to pull it out the bottom of it tore open and flooded the shop with gasoline. So it's going to get a different fuel cell now. No more plastic.

[Duffil]

sweet! I am really looking forward to seeing this.