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A Blue 94 Hilux "sonny"

D.Dixon

Active member
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Member Number
2819
Messages
28
Loc
NSW, Australia
So I decided I'd start a build thread for my 94 hilux "sonny" from the land down under.

She started life as my fathers old ute that he'd had for probably 20 odd years, blow up 2 engines towing horse floats with it and eventually retired it to farm use and for me to learn to drive in. Anyway I've never been a big fan of dual cabs and got bored with a cousin oneway so we decided to chop it to a custom length cab, slightly longer then a single cab so there's plenty of room for taller guys and a cage inside, plus it looked cool. I learnt a lot of skills doing the chop and from there just kept building, looking back i should've just sold it and bought a single cab but hey I was 15 and having cheap fun. Now I'm 17 have learnt a lot an dam still hunting bargains having fun, will eventually compete it and get out wheeling more but this is her for now.

Specs as it sits now are as follows:
Dual cases with 4.7s in the rear and home-brewed forward twinstick
Ruf and later model Hilux rears, front end has slider boxes which I love
Fox shocks rear- no-shocks front cuz budget:flipoff2:
Welded f&r
Highsteer
2.8lt factory diesel with more oil on the outside then the inside
37 sticky traps on Chinese bead-locks
flat bellied
All in all sub 6k AUD spent thanks to marketplace hunting and a great local tyre shop that I've spent some time at!

How it started:
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Whilst it was on some cheap 35s, pre dual cases and with the tray I originally built, cut the wings off it to hang the tub sides on later down the track
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And finally how it sits today, currently just doing some tidy up work whilst I get funds together to buy some chromolies since the stock cvs finally had enough. On that note anyone used the Nitro Gear Chromos? They're fairly well priced over here
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Will update with more photos and build story once I get photos sorted out and pulled off my Instagram @team.sonny.lux
 
December 2019-
Photos of chopping the cab and getting the rear wall tacked back in place. Nothing to it really just measured and marked and remeasured. Then stripped the rear interior out, pulled off the old tub, covered the fuel tank with some wet blankets and had at it with a 5 inch.
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Painters tapes great for straight lines

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Chopped and rear wall tacked in place within the hour- Then began the process of tacking it back together

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Over the next 2 days I worked away at tacking it all back together, made up some filler panels out of the old roof section.
Went shopping at some point in there and picked up some 12" Fox 2.0s for the rear from CalOffroad who's local to me(Could've gone longer but had different plans at the time, great shocks tho)
Also went to the local scrapyard and got some 2004 hilux 2" lifted springs for the rear, sort of our version of chevy 63s just not quite as good. Much more common tho. Got some steel for future projects to but no photos of that
 
Welds got ground down and I started working on filling and smoothing the chop. Also picked up my 2004 springs and got them mounted up + made a shock hoop for the rear inverted shocks. Slowed down bit here as holidays ended and I went back to school but kept chipping away, started laying out the tray design and got my 35s and Bead-locks ordered
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Extremely safe jack stands at this point:homer:
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This is actually a little while after I built the shock hoop but was the only photo I could find
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Took about 4 months for me to weld out this chassis chop :smokin:
 
That's honestly probably the perfect cab size. I always like the 2nd gen xcab size, but they are so expensive and I generally like the 3rd gens or tacomas better, but felt like they are too big for a wheeler. I have wondered about chopping 6-8" out of the window. :laughing:
 
That's honestly probably the perfect cab size. I always like the 2nd gen xcab size, but they are so expensive and I generally like the 3rd gens or tacomas better, but felt like they are too big for a wheeler. I have wondered about chopping 6-8" out of the window. :laughing:
I wish it was easier to get chops registered over here because I absolutely love it, would be awesome in a daily having habit more room to stretch out and put stuff without being a full length extra-cab. Maybe one-day I'll pick up a 2nd gen just for this reason, and their bitchin:smokin:.That or import a tacoma!
 
Heres a bunch of photos from my original tray build, went for a sort of comp/wheely style setup that I've seen from you guys in the USA and liked at the time. I liked it but was never totally happy. This never got painted and eventually I cut the sides off and hung tub sides instead, I'll tube out the rear eventually when I cage it.
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First time getting the Chinese bead-locks and 35s on it, was really starting to see what I was building. Still had stock drivetrain and there's version 1 of the ruf in there using slider boxes- More on that later.

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Had to add massage the tray bit.
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First time really stretching its legs, was pretty happy with how everything sat.


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Couple more random pics whilst skinning the tray, its way more heavy duty than I'll ever need :cool2:
 

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I’d sell a kidney for a 4 door.
This seems to be a common theme… Personally I'm not a big fan and would much rather the abundance of old school single cabs you guys have, Hence I cut one up:flipoff2:

In all seriousness though I'm not sure what your importation laws are like but I'd love to try bring one over there in the future and see what sorta cool shit I could swap it for.
 
This seems to be a common theme… Personally I'm not a big fan and would much rather the abundance of old school single cabs you guys have, Hence I cut one up:flipoff2:

In all seriousness though I'm not sure what your importation laws are like but I'd love to try bring one over there in the future and see what sorta cool shit I could swap it for.

We only have an abundance, because it's all we have. Central americans also export them at an alarming rate. Never cared for the crews as they're too small. I'm more jealous of a 3rd gen solid axle.
 
I don't really have a good order of what happened here as a destroyed my phone whilst away working. But basically I welded up the tray, welded the rear lsd solid and sprayed the cab. The proceeded to beat on it a little bit.

Oh and I also got the front slider boxes all built which I dont have many photos of the process but it was pretty simple. Basically just drilled and cut some steel to have slots in it, mounted some rails and made up pucks using a thick old chopping board. Super simple, strong and work great. Will get some more photos if anyone wants to see more.

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Truck worked great like this had a heap of fun smashing it round some local fire trails for that winter but I knew for more technical driving I needed to get my hands on some reductions or dual cases and to put high-steer on it so I began trawling facebook and after a couple months I was contacted by a bloke who told me he had a freshly built 21-spline dual case with 4.7s in the rear case that he'd had sitting in his shed for 6 years from a never finished build AND after some talking we came to a decision of around $1600 shipped with a spare g52 and bellhousing for 3rz thrown in:eek:. Which down here in Aus was a crazy good deal, I was stoked to say the least. This did however leave me broke so it sat in the shed for a couple months whilst I worked on more parts and a game plan.

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6ft of fun:grinpimp:
 
We only have an abundance, because it's all we have. Central americans also export them at an alarming rate. Never cared for the crews as they're too small. I'm more jealous of a 3rd gen solid axle.
true and its the same story here, we mainly had dual cabs so thats what we have. Sadly we are seeing an increase in exports aswell as a price jump as more people realise how awesome they are.
These 3rd gens have built abit of a cult following over here and in NZ
 
Very hard to find someone your age with your abilities you should consider a career in being an auto tech . I’m sure your Dad is proud!
 
true and its the same story here, we mainly had dual cabs so thats what we have. Sadly we are seeing an increase in exports aswell as a price jump as more people realise how awesome they are.
These 3rd gens have built abit of a cult following over here and in NZ

Where are they being exported to? Some southeast asia shithole? 3rd gen solid axle is the best mini truck you could ask for, but the land cruisers you have take the cake.

I've spent a lot of money on a 2LTII, one day I'll get it dropped in. Any plans to turbo the 3L?
 
Very hard to find someone your age with your abilities you should consider a career in being an auto tech . I’m sure your Dad is proud!
Thankyou sir! It was actually dads old car and I must say his draw dropped when he first saw it in half, his visions changed now though.
I'm currently working on going into a heavy plant mechanic as I've spent some time around light vehicles and dont find changing Hyundai getz oil very exciting. I'd love to get into some more performance work in the future however and maybe into Ultra 4 building in some form!

Where are they being exported to? Some southeast asia shithole? 3rd gen solid axle is the best mini truck you could ask for, but the land cruisers you have take the cake.

I've spent a lot of money on a 2LTII, one day I'll get it dropped in. Any plans to turbo the 3L?
Yep mostly the south east. The Hilux's have long been a workhorse but Land cruisers certainly are our staple.

We will see about turboing the 3l, they can make some decent power but for the money spent I'd probably do a supercharged 1uz or a turbo 3rz since I have the bell-housing before getting carried away on the 3l. Will probably semi rebuild it ,as its got more leaks then a government agency, to get me by till I can drop something with abit more go in. Diesel is good for a daily or tourer over, but not so much for a crawler/comptruck

I have 98 model daily (ifs next gen) that has the 5l in it that I'm about to put a Holset He200wg on to replace the ebay special thats on it, that should be a pretty tidy setup however the 5l has a questionable rebuild on it so the 3l is my current backup.
 
Yep mostly the south east. The Hilux's have long been a workhorse but Land cruisers certainly are our staple.

We will see about turboing the 3l, they can make some decent power but for the money spent I'd probably do a supercharged 1uz or a turbo 3rz since I have the bell-housing before getting carried away on the 3l. Will probably semi rebuild it ,as its got more leaks then a government agency, to get me by till I can drop something with abit more go in. Diesel is good for a daily or tourer over, but not so much for a crawler/comptruck

I have 98 model daily (ifs next gen) that has the 5l in it that I'm about to put a Holset He200wg on to replace the ebay special thats on it, that should be a pretty tidy setup however the 5l has a questionable rebuild on it so the 3l is my current backup.

Diesel vs gas is all personal preference in an offroad truck. We all want what we dont have. I wouldnt waste time putting a 3rz in a hilux, yall wouldnt waste money on a 2LT either.

I'm seen some trick builds with a 1kzt and a mitsu 4M40 pump.
 
Diesel vs gas is all personal preference in an offroad truck. We all want what we dont have. I wouldnt waste time putting a 3rz in a hilux, yall wouldnt waste money on a 2LT either.

I'm seen some trick builds with a 1kzt and a mitsu 4M40 pump.
Very true, dont get me wrong diesel is my normal go to.
But if I ever want to compete with this truck I won't be doing myself any favours even with the most built 3l I can afford. Will most likely be going the v8 route coz v8 :dustin:

Theres a few guys over here that have built some sweet setups, even a couple compounds. 1kz is defiantly a solid engine, probably last really solid 4 banger diesel Toyota built. They're newer stuffs good and has more power but doesn't have the same reliability, even the 1kz had its troubles. The 3ls are still the most desirable I would say.
 
Got twitchy with the 5 inch and decided that I wanted more body panel, was a good decision in my opinion.
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Started by cutting the skins off, since this was a dual cab tub I figured I could cut the rear lights off and swap the sides round so what used to be behind the wheel is now infront. Then I used cardboard to mock up the look and some old panel parts to fill the gaps.

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Bunch of random picks out and about at home, added a few dents to the unpainted tub skins here:mad3:

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Also picked up some seats for a score that just needed foam and had new covers. And some fresh harnesses, definitely made driving easier not bouncing all over the place when.
 
Son, sorry for the threadjack but I want some egotistical loudmouth bragging know-it-all forum member to read this. jimmy123456789
I'll delete it later... Keep up the good work & carry on:smokin:

I can’t remember who posted it on here, but someone said “I’ll bet Jimmy Numbers lives rent free in half the users heads”.

Posts like this make it clear that it’s true. :flipoff2:
 
Shit, I didn't know aus even got snow.

Or maybe it's because of damn climate change! :mad3:


:flipoff2:
Only in a few places.
You know where the ozone layers still intact :shaking::lmao:


Continuing on with the build for a couple months I collected parts, did a-bit of work and just drove the truck occasionally. (unpainted of course:dustin:)
Found a second hand line unopened trailer high-steer kit on facebook so picked that up, ended up being for a wider axle, probably fj60, but it worked. Also decided that I wanted to get as close to flat belly as possible whilst doing my dual cases without lifting the motor so started some research for that.

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First diff armour I ever built for the rear axle, no plasma or anything fancy just a mig and a 5inch. Not super flash but simple and strong as hell.

Then it was time to pull it back into the shop and start the next stage of the build. Got the dual case separated from its trans and went over everything to make sure bolts where tight and seals sealed.
Then I bolted it up and started cutting...

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I ended up cutting a lot more...
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Built a frame up out of 25square to later get skinned. May redo the whole floor later down the track but this is working for now.

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Low res pic showing clearance after i built up the new crossmember. No good pictures of it unfortunately but its effectively just some 150x6mm flatbar(6x1/4") thats i cut, weld and drilled to fit. Then i added some strength with some angle accross the back to stiffen it up, its fairly protective for the cases but no good as an actual skid. Have already bent it once after getting bellied out, but its not intended to be a skid would've been much thicker if it was. Need to build a full belly skid still just been procrastinating that for a year or so now, steels to damn expensive.
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Heres a measurement of clearance gained. Sits about 15mm below the frame so with a full belly skid it should be about 25mm below. Im happy with that.
Also can see the plasma cut holes, around that time I picked up a Unimig cut 30. Absolutely love it.

I decided that with all this extra gearing I might aswell be looking for some better tyres since the Chinese specials where already showing some rock love and I wanted stickies. Sold the 35s for a solid price (they were practically new just some chunking)
Local tyre place who I'm good friends with the boss and have worked for hooked me up with some 37x12.5 r16 sticky treps to suit my existing Bead-locks. :smokin:

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Realising I may have some fitment issues, but a deals a deal:flipoff2:
 
Back where I left off. Got the 37s mounted onto my beadlocks and threw them onto the car to start making some suspension adjustments and plan out the highsteer.
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:smokin:
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Chopped up the crossmember to make some more room for the rear driveshaft, didn't feel like moving the fuel tank and handbrake so went with this option, 14mm plate and I did at some more bracing after these pictures to make It stronger. Also had to grind one side down just a smidge to completely clear the larger square driveshaft.

Also skinned the new tunnel at this point. Originally planned on using nutserts but I had these clamps spare and with this setup I can access my entire t-case and cv joint setup in 30 seconds. All 1.6 or 2.6mm steel so not worried about safety either.
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Mind the booger welded seat mount :flipoff2:
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You can also see the twin stick setup that I custom designed because I didn't want to pay $300+ for a triple stick from the US. This is basically what im running now with some reinforcement on the shifter base, the shifters are in the perfect position for me to use without getting in the way. I plan on making an alumnium version oneway when I have access to the equipment but the 3D printed parts are working fine as is and cost next to nothing if I do manage to break them. I'll have to grab some more detailed pics oneday...
 

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