Her Name is Frank

[Twisted Minis]

There aren't any left. Reso is gone, Drop Zone is gone, Summer Madness is weak. There's nothing left worth going to. It sucks. It costs too much money to put them on these days. My truck was by the Acro/Characters camp at the last DZ.

Ya I am buying a 91 Toyota X-cab for a daily. I need something with more room.

[TIMS89CRAWLER]

ya that blows there are no good 3 day shows left..... I remember seeing your truck there the nice 1st gen hilux caught my eye and when I saw it on here I knew it looked familiar..... ya I hear ya on the more room thing the mazda I am buying in a few is an x-cab too and its gonna be nice to have some room!

[82 HiLux]

i wonder whats worse to drive as a daily driver...a single cab toyota thats bagged and body dropped with big exhaust, or a single cab toyota thats lifted like 6 inches and body lifted with big exhaust and big tires. i wouldnt mind having both lol

[Twisted Minis]

Let's trade for a week and find out. Lol.

I just bought a new truck. Here's a picture the owner had:


It ended up being cheaper to buy this than a stock truck. And I got the stock wheels off it too, and I have stock suspension parts. I'm going to put it back to stock for right now, and try to sell the wheels. Then I want to find some steel or aluminum 15s and some 31's or so, and lift it kind of prerunner style. Do an axle over flip out back, and figure somethign out for the front. I think they still make 2WD lift spindles right?

[Twisted Minis]

Actually I have some stock spindles, I will probably just build something.

[TIMS89CRAWLER]

hell ya man thats a nice truck.... I was gonna say I am sure you can whip something up better than money can buy.....

[Tallchevy]

Nice truck  That 91 is just like the one I had back in 90, same color. I've been looking for one to drop again.

[crawlerdan]

hey- i had a 85 2wd with the fabtech "ivan iron man' lift and fiberglass...it was fun.... expensive though

[Twisted Minis]

I found a company that makes some, modified stock style. But they look kind of to me.




I might build something similar, and of course TIG them so I can use the right kind of filler. Thinking about using a vertical mounted uni ball (horizontal bolt) for the upper. Kind of like this:



If anyone has any 15" aluminum or steel wheels with the 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern let me know. I seem to be having trouble finding some.

[boggerunner]

mustangs and rangers use the same bolt pattern, ive got a set of 17"  mustang gt rims i had on my 2wd 84. 

[pumkin toy]

i'm sure you can make some spindles yourself that look alot better than those!

[Twisted Minis]

mustangs and rangers use the same bolt pattern, ive got a set of 17"  mustang gt rims i had on my 2wd 84. 

Ya I have been looking for Ranger wheels. I want something I can put some 31's on.

[GJToyotabug]

jason has some aluminum 5on 4.5x15 ill see if he wants to sell them

[boggerunner]

hey i just remembered jeep wranglers and cherokees also use the 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern.  that might help widen your search for some cheap steelies

[Twisted Minis]

I was curious about that. I found some for a Jeep but they guy said 5.5" bolt circle so I passed. Wish I'd had a tape measure.

Today was the first day driving it around a lot. These tiny tires are killing me. The sidewall is almost an inch shorter than on my blue truck. Didn't think it would make that big of a difference. I might just put some stock tires on the 14s for now and call it good.

[boggerunner]

the 86 and older jeeps ahd the 5 on 5.5, the 87- present jeeps have 5 on 4.5

[kneedownnate]

The wheels I have on my 81 are from a wrangler, 15x7.  They sit barely inside my wheel wells, so on yours they'd be too far in.

[boggerunner]

they look good on there, u should build that truck

[BUDDERS]

Wow Nate, those wheels look good on that old truck.  Now you got me thinking.......Hmmm

[GJToyotabug]

get a 4wd bed and fenders and i bet they would tuck nicely

[kneedownnate]

That truck's too far gone to use for anything but building a total ugly sleeper, but it needs almost everything to be drivable again so I'm probably just going to junk it out later. 

I should also mention, those wheels are far and away the HEAVIEST I've ever held!  I liked running 15" slot mags on that truck, which usually stuck out enough that you did need 4wd fenders/bed to clear, but I've never been able to find a matching set of 15x8 slot mags to go with my 15x8.5 rears.

Ok, end thread jack 

[Twisted Minis]

I keep forgetting my camera, but the front is bagged, painted and assembled.



Built a new transmission cross member, cut out the old one, and installed the new one.

[TIMS89CRAWLER]

sick man!!! nice work as always

[BUDDERS]

I really dig that trans crossmember.  It's really simple and high enough to not drag on the ground.  Being able to unbolt that crossmember will be a real help whenever the trans will have to come out.  Getting them out of a stock 2wd has always required 2 people and a lift from my experience.

It looks like the front upper ball joint is torn and needs to be replaced.

So how low does it sit now?

[Twisted Minis]

Ya the upper boot is torn, and the balljoint is still original. It undoubtedly needs to be replaced. The lower balljoint is worse, it's pretty sloppy. Usually I can talk customer's into rebuilding the front end at this point, since everything is already apart it saves labor. But he has a set price he absolutely will not go over, so more parts are not in the budget. And I am not willing to take it out of my own pocket. He will have to do it on his own time. The outer tie rods are pretty loose too, inners aren't too bad. I would rebuilt the whole front end if it was mine.

How low does it go. Theoretically it should go all the way down and lay the frame flat now with all this work to the frame Z and transmission cross member. But the tires hit the firewall, I figure it will hold the truck up 2 inches or so. Again comes in the budget I can't go over. So he will have to deal with the firewall tubs himself, or have someone close to him do it. The DS firewall is rusted through though, so that side might go lower. I can stick my finger through it.

Ya I have always hated doing a clutch job on these trucks, which is why I designed the crossmember that way. And now it also isn't an inch and a half below the frame. It also served to raise the transmission up an inch, and level the motor back out to where it was before.

[tom w.]

beautiful work man

[Twisted Minis]

Got the power wire measured out, and wrapped it in TechFlex. I found some red shrink wrap with glue inside, and I really like it. I ran it, and finally set the truck on the ground. Final pictures of that will wait until tomorrow when I get the bed on. I basically had to rebuild the entire exhaust system. I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but nothing was working. So I cut it behind the transmission crossmember and started over, moving the cat back about a foot, and it went smoother from there. It's basically a recycle exhaust system with the stock tubing, with the only new parts being the muffler I made, and a turn down out the back. I forgot to take pictures, but I will try to snap one tomorrow.

[Twisted Minis]

How low does it go. Theoretically it should go all the way down and lay the frame flat now with all this work to the frame Z and transmission cross member. But the tires hit the firewall, I figure it will hold the truck up 2 inches or so.

I was pretty far off on my guess. The firewall holds the front of the frame (before it kicks up) about an 1/8" off the ground. So it looks like it's laying flat.

[BUDDERS]

Once the bed is on, what will be done about a fuel filler?  I'm sure you have something in mind.

[Twisted Minis]

The fuel filler is on the truck where it will stay. It will basically exit out the back behind the tailgate. There is a filler plate from when the raised the floor. I will cut a hole in that.