Topic: "The Pearl" 1988 x-cab sas on 35" km2's. Engine updates!

[Jrod]

I bought this truck a little over a year ago, and have been making some progress on it. I have a thread up on a local forum, but thought I'd put one up here because this forum has tons of good info and marlin products are the bomb.
Here's some from when I first bought it, and a flex shot(or lack there of).




One of the first big things I did was swap 63" chevies in the rear.



My flex improved...


I live above the rust belt unfortunately.

My buddy and I bobbed my nasty bed.



My truck developed some horrid death wobble, and I wanted to get rid of the d44/toy hybrid front axle with weak steering. So I bought this stock 85 4runner front axle.


Tore it all down


Sand blasted it


Got this beast installed for the rear end. With the help of Zuk's awesome site. gearinstalls.com




Finishing up my front axle.



My buddy bought a new paint gun and we wanted to test it out.







It looks a lot better in my opinion.
I finally got the front end back under my truck. It's still pretty tall up front compared to when I swapped those chevies out back.





So to lower it, I'm going to move the front shackle hanger thru the frame, like sfa toyotas, and how it should be.

And here's my front end, needs steering and a few loose ends tied up.


I also decided to run some Toy rears up front. Using 4crawler's awesome site http://www.4crawler.com/4Runner.shtml and good ol' pirate I came up with this...

Anti Wrap - 4runner military wrap leaf
#1 Leaf - pickup main
#2 Leaf - pickup mil. wrap
#3 Leaf - pickup 3rd leaf
#4 Leaf - 4runner 3rd leaf
#5 Leaf - 4runner main
#6 Leaf - Remaining 4runner Mil. wrap.

I've been prepping the leaves for this graphite anti friction paint I ordered, and bought some new poly bushings too. This pack seems to have worked decently for others so we'll see how it goes and if I need to modify it at all...


And this is how she sits now...

I got the springs mounted for the most part, just need to put the tubes in my frame. I'm also remounting my steering box with a flat pitman arm and that should be finished up in the next day or two.

[gtoyonrocks]

sweet bro, looking pretty good.

[SFD4x4]

Lookin good!

[John Doe]

Looking good. Ive always liked the 2nd gen extra cabs.

[Jrod [OP]]

Thanks guys, the xtra cab is my personal favorite  along with first gen round headlight pickups and first gen 4runners.
I got my box mount done though, and my truck has steering again!

[gtoyonrocks]

Sweet... I remeber back in the day before anyone had a kit to do this. I have broke so many steering boxes right off the frame. Keep us posted. Thanks for the update.

[Jrod [OP]]

Yeah I used Front range off road's kit. I had to do some chopping to the outside plate, but I got it to fit how I wanted. I read tons of those horror stories before mounting up my box.

[4XFlyin]

Looking good. Keep it up.

[SloCrawler]

Nice

[Jrod [OP]]

Got my tubes welded up

And my shackles on  8)

I need to cut my old mounts off.
Coming soon:
Some sweet wheelin footage!!!

[Peterbuilt84]

lookin good  nice build. Are you running a block in the back? Does it still sit level after you moved the shackle mount through the frame?

[Jrod [OP]]

Yeah my truck sits nice and level. I'm not running any blocks, I think they're a horrible way to lift a vehicle. I am running the overload springs, but I'm considering taking them out though since I'll never really carry enough weight to need them.

[Peterbuilt84]

Yeah my truck sits nice and level. I'm not running any blocks, I think they're a horrible way to lift a vehicle. I am running the overload springs, but I'm considering taking them out though since I'll never really carry enough weight to need them.

Didn't think you were, just couldn't tell in the pics. I'm about to put in the same setup so was just askin, I agree about the blocks too

[Jrod [OP]]

Yeah I'd definitely recommend pulling the overloads out of the chevies before you mount them up. It'd probably make the ride a little better, but I can't complain at all with my setup. I've been driving around town putting break-in miles on the new R&P gears and my truck rides pretty good, and it drives nice and straight now without the stabilizer hooked up. I aligned it myself with the info from 4crawler's website, but I'll probably get it aligned without a stabilizer, then put one on for the time being.. Until I run hydro assist 
Tomorrow I'm taking a nice little trip and I'll post up!

[Jrod [OP]]

I got my truck out, nothing extreme but it was a good trail ride

[Jrod [OP]]

Not much of an update, I've been wheeling more than I've been wrenching on this thing 


I put the classic ammo box in place of my falling apart center console. Much more solid, more space too.


And I got a short block for dirt cheap, I'll start building this to replace my cracked block with spare time/money.
I'm building a tube bender at school right now, should be buying a die soon.  8)

[twistedtoy92]

nice start!!! love those 2nd gen xtra cabs!!

[Jrod [OP]]

*Small Update*
Beefed up the front bumper mounts



Made my own winch plate.. Not quite finished yet.


Sweet handmade bumper coming soon!!!!!!  

[chunkybutfunky934]

nice truck dude!!

[Jrod [OP]]

[Jrod [OP]]

Off topic, this is a front bumper I've been fabbin for the my buddy's Samurai.




My truck's clutch has went out and unfortunately she's been sitting
I'll get that taken care of when the weather cooperates or when I have enough time to spare. I wanna get some snow wheelin in this year so the engine rebuild/replace plans will wait until late winter/early spring. In a perfect world I could just pull the motor and do it all right the first time but there's fun to be had right now.
May as well squeeze every mile out of a tired 22re anyways.

[Jrod [OP]]

I forgot to mention I traded my chrome grille, trim, and bumper for black. My end of the deal was taking the nasty bumper, but I wanted black, and I'll have my winch bumper made soon enough.



And what would it be without a overland-back country pic??

[jimbo74]

love the fender flares and mismathed tires

[Jrod [OP]]

Yes I'm poor and try to be street legal.

[Jrod [OP]]

http://s917.photobucket.com/albums/ad13/Coalescence/?action=view&current=DSCN0237.mp4

a little bit of video action

[Jrod [OP]]

Not too much building has been going on lately, but I've been driving my truck almost every day and have got a couple snow wheelin trips in.

[Jrod [OP]]

This is my bender before I got the die, I have been making some "practice" bends.. I'll have to see if I can start getting the hang of making some stuff. 8)

[Rocksnail]

Thats the bender im building right now. I hear alot of good things about them.Its a really good bender for the price i hear, i bought everything for under $400. Lets us know how it works.

[Jrod [OP]]

Oh I've been using it! It's great, you're gonna love it. Super super clean bends and easy to get accurate with. I just need to get myself a notcher now though.

[Peterbuilt84]

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of bender is that? What size die did you end up getting? I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to benders