Topic: Dwill817's 1981 Toyota Build

[Dwill817]

I decided I would start a build here & get to posting some since I spent a lot of time lurking over here.

My name is Drew. I'm from North Alabama. A long ways from Cali & Marlin Crawler!!   

I know you guys enjoy a clean stocker so maybe this will keep you interested for awhile. Unfortunately, its become less and less clean, but its turning into an amazing wheeler. I've done the usual work so I'll catch y'all up to where I'm at..

This is how I bought it:





Realizing that I had bought a pretty clean stocker, my intentions were to every so slightly modify and restore the Pickup to its former glory, but that all changed when I started wheeling..

I offroaded the truck stock for a LONG time because I still had intentions of keeping it stockish, but then I got around some buggies and more built rigs and well...

Then it was time to start upgrading.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

So I got a pretty good deal on a set of 32x11.5 Kenda's and I bought a set of black steel wheels and cut out the lower valence:



Decided it was time to lift it.

I went with 3rd gen OME rears & OME front leafs with 12" Bilsteins all around and F250 towers

Unfortunately, I lost nearly every work picture when I broke my phone.. Here's a before & after:

Before:



After:




These make me laugh!! 
Before:



After:



After this I ordered up a set of tube doors from 4xinnovations & a set of rocksliders from Bashfab:



Used by buddy Will's welder since I had yet to buy a MIG.. I sucked at welding then :



First shot with them on & my buddy Will's truck in the background:


Somewhere around this time is when I ran into a local group! Really ignited the fire to ride and very thankful for a clean group of guys to wheel with.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

I wheeled and wheeled and didn't take many pics!

While wheeling, I started saving parts for this next stage of upgrades:

-RUF
-Chevy 63s
-5.29s & lockers
- Highsteer
- IFS hubs, Marlin Diff armor, knuckle ball gussets, Taco rotors, V6 calipers
- IFS rear w/ full disk brake kit.

Started with the rear:
Got the old bearing pressed out..


Old vs. New:




New axle seal pressed in:


New bearing pressed in:


Cups all cleaned and painted with new seals and bearings:


Forgot to get a picture when I pressed the bearings cups onto the axle shafts..

TADA:



Okay then on to the front

But first I bought a Hobart Handler 210:



Pure beef. Diff armor and knuckle ball gussets/shock mounts..



Up close:





All back together with Marlin Full axle rebuild, IFS hubs, etc. Hadn't yet put the brakes on.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Started with the rear:

Got the bed pulled:


Got the Chevy 63s all in.. I still had to cut the stock brackets off and do a little more cleaning and painting. No pics of all that:



I finished cleaning everything & threw the bed back on.

I also installed a FZJ80 brake master cylinder somewhere in there.

Then I started on the front inside the shop this time:



Got my Sky's Low Profile front hanger welded up. I went 1/2" forward and the shackle is just perfect along with the lift height.

Probably overkill going all the way across the front, but I was having fun with the welder.



Up close of welds:



Just because Will said this spot was hard to weld



Got high steer on.. Pretty aggravating to get it all lined up perfectly, but I got it..



Booyah!

[OVRAROK]

looks like a great start, what are your plans for it ?

[Dwill817 [OP]]

looks like a great start, what are your plans for it ?

Getting there slowly! 

It takes awhile to make these dang build threads!

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Then I bobbed the bed 8" :









Then I dovetailed 16" & build a rear bumper..





Craptastic picture of the dovetail huh? I got in a hurry

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Got it back together FINALLY and went wheeling:

























Oops:



The 5.29s and locker did awesome! However, the Weber carb did not! That'll have to change soon..

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Okay so now I am all caught up..

My plans now are:

- 36-38" tire: Irok, Swamper, TSL, etc
- 22re swap or Propane. Haven't decided.

All my tire & motor swap money went to this so now I'm having to save back up:

[OVRAROK]

without a good co pilot, its just not as fun, congrats

[redneckcustoms13]

Nice build. Where is the tailgate? Do you still have it? Also where in North alabama are you?

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Thanks! She loves wheeling, but now she's wanting to drive so she may just get this Toyota one day and I'll build a Toyota based buggy..

The tailgate was a complete rust bucket, surprisingly the only rust on the truck besides under the battery and a small spot in the floor where the gas pedal attaches. (which i still need to patch  )

I'm kinda lazy with working on it & love to freakin wheel. It takes every bit of motivation I have to stop wheeling for a weekend and work on it! Lol

I'm in Jacksonville, Alabama.. If your from the Southeast, then you've prolly heard of our college JSU (Jacksonville State University).

I wheel Morris Mountain, Choccolocco, Stony Lonesome, Hawk Pride (going on the 5th), Windrock (buddies all went for the first time when my rig was down), wanna go to Harlan soon.. Bunch of other places too mainly private parks.. I wish we had to open backcountry to wheel and explore like most of y'all do. I'd love to wheel Moab and the Rubicon. I plan to make it out there one of these days. 27 hours to Moab 

[redneckcustoms13]

We used to hit mm every year for rbd and settc, been a while though. We're supposed to go to stoney lonesome last weekend but ended up going to boggs and boulders.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

We used to hit mm every year for rbd and settc, been a while though. We're supposed to go to stoney lonesome last weekend but ended up going to boggs and boulders.

Awesome! Where are you at?

I'll most likely be at RBD this year..

Let me know whenever your up here and we'll do some wheeling..

Those last batch of pictures were at MM.. I crawled right up every line at good, bad, and ugly.. Crawled destabilizer, loop springs and all the trails around it, and I failed on V-notch cause the carb kept cutting out. I'll be back for it & Los Primos once I get rid of this crappy Weber. 

I broke the driveshaft in Rock Garden on the last ledge..

[Dwill817 [OP]]

I'm really looking at going with Cary's GotPropane kit and a set of 36 Iroks or 37 MTRs.. Then I'll start saving up parts to do dual cases..

[jimbo74]

looks great!




and congrats on proposing!!!! I can tell by the look on her face it was a yes!!!!!

[Dwill817 [OP]]

I'm trying to keep this thing as low as possible.

I'm running a 4-pack RUF & a Chevy 63 rear main leaf with 2 Hummer H3 springs under it.

Hopefully I'll have some updates over the next few weeks.. I still gotta mount rear shocks and I wanna get rid of the F250 towers and go to shock hoops. I'm also going to french the rear hanger in & possibly drop down a shackle size in the front.

My goal is under 25" frame height on 37" tires.

[redneckcustoms13]

Goodluck on primos, she's a pregnant dog if your not in a bouncer. I did it with my sammie on 38s and it was some extreme pucker factor lol I'm in mobile so it's not terribly far. I won't be able to make any rides for the next few months. My wife will be having our 2nd child on the 24th. I like your rig man its nice to see some other guys on our side of the country that are into crawling rather than bouncing. My billfold doesn't allow for a bouncer lol

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Goodluck on primos, she's a pregnant dog if your not in a bouncer. I did it with my sammie on 38s and it was some extreme pucker factor lol I'm in mobile so it's not terribly far. I won't be able to make any rides for the next few months. My wife will be having our 2nd child on the 24th. I like your rig man its nice to see some other guys on our side of the country that are into crawling rather than bouncing. My billfold doesn't allow for a bouncer lol

Yeah I prolly won't make the right side but I don't wanna just go left and crawl right up by the tree. I'm gonna make it as hard as possible.

Congrats on the kid. Hopefully I'll have one or two in a couple more years.

I've got a good group that I wheel with that like to crawl.. They both wheel TJs & crawled v-notch on 33s.. I woulda make it on 31s if my truck would run at an angle. It's amazing at what 13" more wheelbase does for my Toyota. They struggled on Good, bad, and ugly and I went right up on bald tires..

[redneckcustoms13]

The last trip we made to settc I took my 80 short bed as a spectator/support rig for the one lew competed in and it did alright but certainly nothing like the bouncers did. Trade that street carb you have for a factory aisin, adjust your float level and route the bowl overflow vent out of the breather. You'd be amazed at how well they perform at angles. I have been in a few spots where mine would die but it is either flopped on the passenger side, or standing almost 75° vertical. The got propane kit is awesome, just a major pain in the ass if you ask me. A few guys in our local club were/are running propane. Hassle to keep filled, use more lp than gasoline to make the same power, takes up your whole bed to safely and securely mount 2 tanks. Personally I'd get a stock carb to wheel until either swapping a 3rz or 22re intake and whatnot.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

My stock carb took a crap and that's why I went Weber. It does fine on road, but it blows offroad..

I really would like to have a 3rz/22re, but I can get propane on so much quicker so I won't have to have my rig down for a swap and that's why it's so appealing..Plus it's a very simple setup.

[redneckcustoms13]

Do you know people running it so you have 1st hand experience with it?

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Do you know people running it so you have 1st hand experience with it?

Yes.. One of my wheelin buddies runs propane. He loves it..

I trailer to and from the trail. The only time it ever gets driven is if I wanna drive to work or something..

[J_Cole92]

Good start man! Shouldn't be too hard to keep it below 25". We're finishing up my friend jarrods truck now and it's on 37" kevlars right about 25". Like 25 and a quarter, with 2nd gen rears and ranger springs in the back with 7" shackles. There's a few pics of it on my thread.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Good start man! Shouldn't be too hard to keep it below 25". We're finishing up my friend jarrods truck now and it's on 37" kevlars right about 25". Like 25 and a quarter, with 2nd gen rears and ranger springs in the back with 7" shackles. There's a few pics of it on my thread.

Thanks! Its about time for tires. I feel like I've done so much work & no one sees it cause it's all in the axles and suspension.. Tires make the rig!

Yeah I was drooling over that thing earlier! I think once I french the rear hanger in I'll be golden.

I'm 21.5" right now and my tires measure 30" on street pressure. So if I get a true 37" tire then I'll be exactly 25".. Hoping I can french in the rear hanger and let the front springs settle down and I'll be where I really wanna be around 24" or so..

[J_Cole92]

Thanks! Its about time for tires. I feel like I've done so much work & no one sees it cause it's all in the axles and suspension.. Tires make the rig!

Yeah I was drooling over that thing earlier! I think once I french the rear hanger in I'll be golden.

I'm 21.5" right now and my tires measure 30" on street pressure. So if I get a true 37" tire then I'll be exactly 25".. Hoping I can french in the rear hanger and let the front springs settle down and I'll be where I really wanna be around 24" or so..

Yeah tires will make a rig look good, which could be good or bad haha

i thought about frenching the hanger on it but didn't really think it was that necessary in order to keep it low. Plus its gonna sag when he has all his camping gear, tools, and parts when he goes on trips. And the springs will settle a touch like you said. You said you had a 4 leaf ruf and 63 with no blocks you will be deff be low. 24" on 37s is for sure possible.

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Yeah tires will make a rig look good, which could be good or bad haha

i thought about frenching the hanger on it but didn't really think it was that necessary in order to keep it low. Plus its gonna sag when he has all his camping gear, tools, and parts when he goes on trips. And the springs will settle a touch like you said. You said you had a 4 leaf ruf and 63 with no blocks you will be deff be low. 24" on 37s is for sure possible.

My 63s are a weird hybrid pack. They were 3 leaf 63s (2 main + overload) and they just didn't flex for crap so I pull the bottom 2 out and put 2 cut down leafs out of a H3 that I done a SOA on..


They have lots of arch now and flex great, but they lifted me about an inch or more.. I'm gonna french the hanger and eventually build an anti-wrap bar!

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Well.. I went and bought a brand new in the box GotPropane kit including 2 tanks (one is full), brackets, & the BBQ adapter for $550! 

His receipt was in the box and it shows like $850 without the tanks! Pretty happy about that!

[Dwill817 [OP]]

Still haven't got the propane on! 

I'm needing a stock carb base and the plastic spacer that goes between the carb and intake. I got one from a buddy up in the Carolinas, but it wound up missing a few throttle linkage things so it didn't work out.

Still looking for one.

[J_Cole92]

You need a whole carb? Jarrod has one he's been trying to sell. If it's something you want let me know and I'll talk to him. Just transfer money with PayPal and I can ship it to you from work for freeeeeeee. Up to you man. Let me know.