Newbie - 83 YOTA!

[kyle_22r]

i've always thought a/c was a myth before '85 or so.  i've never seen a 1st gen truck with it...except they all have the nice cheesy "A/C COOL OFF" slot for the missing switch.  i'd like to see a modern car company get away with doing that today

[WHITE_TRASH]

You can fit 35's with just rears up front and a little bit o' firewall tubbing.  I tubbed mine about 3" very easily.  I put pics in $300 of the tub job around page 3 I think.

[Brian83]

Nope, mine has A/C for sure, works like a dream too.

[Brian83]

whats the best option for my front driveshaft? I know I will need a longer one with my rears up front. Hey WT, cheap ideas? I know you got em

[WHITE_TRASH]

You want cheap then why not go to a wrecking yard and get a driveline out of a midsize GM car from the late 70's to mid 80's.  Something like a 77 buick regal will work (guess how I know)  Just cut your stock tube in half and cut a section out of the junk yard shaft, the yota fits inside the GM tube with just a bit of slop.  Weld the ends and your on the road.  Or you could always go to the wreckers again and get the rear half out of a longbox toyota of your vintage. (79-83 duh)  It has no slip on it at all.  Cut the ends off of it and get some square tube and voila long slip driveline!  Heres the one I built for the 81.  I still have it but now I cant use it!  Why did I have to go and do the duals?!

[Brian83]

.Vibrations? Squeaking? Binding? .stout? problems? size? Wanna get rid of it?

[WHITE_TRASH]

Vibrates like a dog shittn' razor blades above 20 mph, doesnt squeek, it does bind a little bit on full droop but that was my horrid pinion angle, will not break, its the right length for your truck but it'd cost more to ship it than build another one.

[Brian83]

ok, building one as soon as I get the ends from a junkyard. what size tubing? I was going to start stripping down the truck today but the electric motor on my compressor gave out. $80 bucks for a new HF one! Maybe I'll go steal a compressor from the shop I work at. So all I got done was taking off the topper(Ever tried getting one off yourself and not breaking the glass?) the bumper, the interior is stripped(New dash and carpet), and tailgate. oh and heres a bragging pic of the 5 foot pit in my garage, realllyyy nice to have, also have an old wood burning stove in there to to keep me toasty during the winter.

[WHITE_TRASH]

The tubing I used was 1.5" 1/4 wall and 2" 1/4 wall.  If you look at the pic you can see the the small side has a sleeve of 2" on its end.  I had to do that because the driveline end is a cup and it would have been impossible to get good penetration in there so I sleeved it and welded the 2" then stuck in the 1.5" and welded them together.  I used 2 wheel drive ends on mine but then dont have as much missalignment as 4 wheel drive.  I would strongly recomend you swap it all over to the 84 and up ends because they have much more angularity available than 83 and prior.

EDIT:  To take your topper off undo the anchors and get inside and lift with your back against the roff of the topper as its likely stuck on the edges.  When its unstuck get behind the truck and pull the topper  back so the rear part hits the ground the just flip it onto its roof.  Ive done that many a time with no busted tops yet

[Brian83]

yeah thats pretty much how I got mine off. Still would have been nice to have another set of hands. My roomate went home for the summer to michigan so I have no help anymore because the rest of my friends are idiots when it comes to vehicles

[WHITE_TRASH]

Thats not so bad, most of my friends are just plain old fashioned idiots.

[brainlessfool]

none of my freinds are idiots, but some of them say I'm a brainlessfool

[Brian83]

just thought I'd throw a little update in. Work is hell right now so the little time I've had has gone to a few minor things. I re upolstered the door panels with marine vinyl, made a new dash out of aluminum, and took out the cat converter and put in a muffler after the header( I am registering the truck in the county where my dad lives-
NO EMISSIONS!!!!!!!), and will most likely throw a rattle can paint job on it this weekend. Pics soon. I'm having a hell of a time finding some chevy springs for some reason as well as an IFS box under $250!!??(my friends scout box was junk)

[WHITE_TRASH]

I should have a good ifs box next week, Ill make you a sweet deal on it.

[Brian83]

That would be cool. I don't get why I can't find one here, the cheapest one I found this morning was $210 from a boneyard. My reupholster job came out looking like crap so I might go get some aluminum cut for the door panels. Oh, and The truck might get a new engine this summer if my freind does decide to pull it out of his truck - it's not a gas engine!!! It's an 83 yota with a diesel, he wants to put in a cummins 4bt and I might get the eng and trans for free. I was also thinking, I used to see some kit from a company like petroworks or something for putting a VW turbodiesel in a suzuki? Anyone else remember this? could that work with a toyota? I know a lot of people rag on diesels but I love them.

[WHITE_TRASH]

That would be a cool swap.  I crushed an 82 diesal 2 wheel drive at the wrecking yard I work at about 1 week before I bought my 81.  Talk about feeling stupid!  It had all the parts I needed even a good windshield!  AAHHH Karma got me that time.

[Brian83]

anyone know the best way to clean/strip/sand the chrome off of my front grill so I can paint it black?

[yotaboy79]

burn it off 

[Brian83]

oh, another question, I've been trying to sand down my truck all day with my an air sander I picked up at HF. I have a 2 HP 5 gallon air compressor and my air runs out after about 15-20 seconds of sanding and I have to wait for the air compressor to catch up to start sanding again. I have the comp. set to run at 95PSI. Any ideas? is it the cheap ass sander or my compressor? What do you guys use to get the paint off a whole truck?

[yotaboy79]

they make a grinder that enstead of using a grinding wheel you put an abrasive sheet on it and they make low grit sheets that work like sand paper thats what i use just watch your fingers cuz most of them dont have any gards

[brainlessfool]

I have a 3hp with a 20 gln tank. I get about 45 secs. before it starts to go low. air sander are air hogs. thats all there is to it. I bought another one that's 2hp 10 gln. tank that is oil less. run them both and that does better.


  P.S. my sander is a DA.

[Brian83]

I was looking at those at HF yotaboy but I didn't see any grit higher than 180 which seemed pretty abrasive, I'll go to another store for those cause they look like they would work great. I'm reallly suprised my HF 4 inch grinder has lasted for a year, the thing only cost 15 bucks and has never given me any problems. not sure yet what color I'll do, I like the factory greyish charcoal color on it but I might just do something like flat black so I don't care about it too much.

[yotaboy79]

yeah the hf grinders are cheap and they last for ever or almost for ever depending on what you use them for

[WHITE_TRASH]

I dont think they last long enough!  Ive got 2 in the shop that have less than a year on and I am now forced to borrow ShawnB's to finish my truck. 
A cheap air tool will use MASSIVE amounts of air.  Even a good air tool uses a lot but mainly its you lack of air storage that is killing you at the moment.  Id try and find an old hot water heater and rob its holding tank

[yotaboy79]

mine has lasted 3 years of my abuse and still works

[Brian83]

I was gonna post pics today of some of the things I've gotten done but I can't find my camera   

[Brian83]

my buddy wants to go dual batteries on his 86 runner. What does he need, besides a second battery  Diagrams? Scematics?

[brainlessfool]

how does he what to run it? in my chev i have duel batt. there just run in parial. when I have my camper on my yota it then has duel batts. too. the sec. one runs off a relay that goes open when I trun it off. so it will not drain the main over night.

[Brian83]

he wants to isolate 2nd one to just run accessories

[brainlessfool]

like a radio and that? ok, after he finds where to put it just go to NAPA and get a 12V A/C relay. I'll try to find the # for the one I use ,but anyway I run a hot batt. lead to the relay on one end then run the out put side to the sec. batt.   the thr. goes to ethere the ing. or a switch to use to trun it on and off. In my toy I run the power from the ing. switch to a nother switch and then to the relay. that way I can trun the charge to the sec. batt. off if I want to while running down the road. butt at the end of the day when I trun off the truck it go off no matter what. was a bit of a hassel to set up butt I like the way it works.


         hope this helps.....the fool