Ftoy #11

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Got sick of prerunning KOH in a sxs so I picked this up off the old site last November.

Toyota F-Toy Rock Buggy

Toyota Formula Toy Rock Buggy For Sale This car a great History and was one of the original Hammer Buggies. Built by Steve Parker and has Best of the Best Parts Marlin Crawler Trans Marlin Crawler Dual T-cases Built Engine and running on Propane. Remote Dual head Oil Filters. Easy to turbo New...

www.pirate4x4.com

This is one of the original ones built and has some great parts, sadly the OG build thread has dead picture links.

Formula Toy #011 Build-up

NOTE: Past pix and info concerning Formula Toy #011 is posted (Hi-Jacked:eek:) on Formula Toyota Posted by SeaBass. So now I'm starting a my own thread so I don't have to hi-jack Seabass's thread anymore.:D You can also follow my progress on my Website Here is the latest: Fabbed motor mounts...

www.pirate4x4.com

I found a couple pics of it at a comp at Donner competing with the yellow #6 I used to own years ago.

Met the seller at Johnson Valley for American thanksgiving to test out for the weekend then take home and start seeing how bad it really is. Its a 20 year old ftoy with I would say little to questionable maintenance done over the years.

Right off the trailer, clutch slave blew as seller was pulling off trailer. NBD but this should have been a red flag haha. Ran to the Napa in lucerne and grabbed a new one, all was good. Electric fan wasn't turning on either so wired it into the ignition. All was sorted out so we headed out on the trails by ourselves taking it easy until we bumped into someone else, realized I didnt have ton of self recovery gear. Ran into a local xchassis on sledge hammer and ended up hanging with them all weekend, thanks again Scott for the hospitality!

Few hours into the night, clutch slave **** the bed again mid obstacle and flopped it, at least it was easy access to swap out. At this point I knew something wasn't right with the setup but it was supposed to be all stock toyota stuff....

Scott did some quick welding repairs of some chassis crack in the morning and had a blast wheeling the next day and just starter walking the buggy as slave/clutch took a complete dump.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

When I got home, I started going over it and noticed a few thing right off the bat. Previous owners had issues with the clutch slave as there was this contraption connecting the shift fork and slave, I started off by ordering a new shift fork slave and trans maintenance stuff from marlin.

Got the transmission out and really start to see what we had going on in there. Broken pivot ball in the clutch, missing bolts on clutch, cracked pressure plate. They had been trying to bandaid this thing for years instead of actually taking it out and fixing it :(

Struggled with rusty counter sunk bolts on the skid plate, had to get the skid plate off to reinstall.

After got the clutch and trans back in I started to pick away at luxury items :D

Added a temp switch for the electric fan so its not on ALL the time.

This entire buggy is held together with ****ing self tappers. Hate that ****, so started installing so Dzus tabs for the side panels. Ill get to filling and removing all the other ones as time goes on.

Removed a ton of garbage from this thing ie stereo system, power welder, and front stinger etc before taking it back down to KOH in January.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Well showed up to KOH a weeeee bit to early this year and had some snow/water to deal with.

After it dried out I got a ton of wheeling in and got to run and put eyes on all the rock trails this year. Had a blast the ftoy just flat works and is fun to walk up obstacles other struggle on.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Back from KOH and have a few upgrades and changes to make over the next bit.

With only 4knuckle studs and 39 stickies I was always worried about busting the studs. The ftoy was supposed to have a tg trunnion bearing eliminator in it but could see from outside there were no grease nipples in the pins/arms so that wasn't true. I ordered a pair of Keyed Highsteer Arms and 25mm big bearing kit from FROR and their IFS hub swap brackets. Figured get rid of the wheelspacers in the front while we are at it.

Had my friend machine the knuckles for the keyed arms.

Was able to pull a set of IFS hubs off a friends old project, he machined them down on his brake lathe and the got them sand blasted and painted.

Installed ARP hub studs and extended wheel studs - ARP 100-7715

All assembled currently waiting for brake calipers, I went with the smaller 4runner calipers to clear the inner beadlocks.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Next up was tackling some of the smashed metal and bent tubes. As you can see the factory front crossmember was not doing much. I got some box tube, made some holes (FML), and replaced it along with the winch plate.

Wanted to put a grill hoop on it like my old one, a friend bent me one, the die radius is slightly different so the new grill will be slight different shape in the corners. I have another friend redrawing the grill to get laser cut.

Old stuff out and new pieces welded in

The fibreglass propane tanks it came with are super cool, but way out of inspection and I cant get anywhere around me to fill them. I added a 3rd strap so I am able to use a regular aluminum forklift tank in the same spot.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Replaced the drivers side roof tube, added new roof tabs and filled in all the dam self tapper holes in the roof and side panels.

I know there are so many more under the interior panels but we are going the right direction.

Thats currently where it sits, next time I am back I need to bend the new aluminum roof skin and finish putting the front back together.

maveric · Jun 4, 2025

Good to see the old Ftoys resurfacing. Miss mine some days. They were such a capable rig for all of their limitations.

See if you can get the tanks reinspected. I had mine done a couple years back by one of the tech's at the propane place. (Amerigas) He inspected and restickered it, so good for another 10 years.

maveric · Jun 4, 2025

mdogg said:
Replaced the drivers side roof tube, added new roof tabs and filled in all the dam self tapper holes in the roof and side panels.

I know there are so many more under the interior panels but we are going the right direction.

Thats currently where it sits, next time I am back I need to bend the new aluminum roof skin and finish putting the front back together.

Should add a B-post (wing window) while you are in there...

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

maveric said:
Good to see the old Ftoys resurfacing. Miss mine some days. They were such a capable rig for all of their limitations.

See if you can get the tanks reinspected. I had mine done a couple years back by one of the tech's at the propane place. (Amerigas) He inspected and restickered it, so good for another 10 years.

these ones were recalled bank in 2013 so I think its a no go. Lite Composite Gas Tanks Recalled; Company Insolvent

they still fill them at the propane place in lucerne valley. My only issue is when im back home, which is not often.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

maveric said:
Should add a B-post (wing window) while you are in there...

I know, thought about adding an X too.

posford · Jun 4, 2025

Man, theres something about the F-Toy that I love. I've always wanted to do a spin on that with my Ranger once the body is completely rotted.

bad zuki · Jun 4, 2025

mdogg said:
I know, thought about adding an X too.

I'd just do the double a pillar, the one I drove had suicide doors and I really miss that rig.

Etyler2 · Jun 4, 2025

Awesome. Can I ask you where the ID number is stamped. I have a raw chassis and was curious.

mdogg · Jun 4, 2025

Etyler2 said:
Awesome. Can I ask you where the ID number is stamped. I have a raw chassis and was curious.

some of the original ones them had an ID plaque from "Seabass" or "12voltguy" I think. Pretty sure there was no lasered or scribed numbers on any chassis but I would be wrong.

This ones doesn't have a number or tag but have been able to trace it back to the original build as being number 011. 006 that I had before did not have a ID or tag but I bought it from the original owner RE:TODD RIP

There was a list on the old site but at some point the east coast chassis builder started using the same numbers so it got confusing.

Etyler2 · Jun 4, 2025

Copy thanks. Mine has surface rust from outside for probably 10 years so once I sand it or get it blasted I may find it. Don’t have to know but I am curious.

maveric · Jun 5, 2025

mdogg said:
some of the original ones them had an ID plaque from "Seabass" or "12voltguy" I think. Pretty sure there was no lasered or scribed numbers on any chassis but I would be wrong.

This ones doesn't have a number or tag but have been able to trace it back to the original build as being number 011. 006 that I had before did not have a ID or tag but I bought it from the original owner RE:TODD RIP

There was a list on the old site but at some point the east coast chassis builder started using the same numbers so it got confusing.

I believe the east coast vendor chassis’ were all 500 series. West coast started at ? Zero ?.
My 092 chassis didn’t have anything stamped from Hendrix, but I did have the engraved tag on it.

m016324 · Jun 5, 2025

Yeah I still have #5 and I have an engraved tag for mine that was zip tied on the dash forever.

-ben

Weasel · Jun 7, 2025

mdogg said:
I know, thought about adding an X too.

Need a x more then the door bar tube.

Cool rigs local guy has one he's been working on for several years. Hoping he gets it done soon!

mdogg · Aug 28, 2025

Got a chance to work on this a bit when I was back home for a few weeks.

New evolution tie rod ends installed, Missing caliper showed up from rock auto so was able to get it all bled and back together.

Been a while since Iv done an alignment on anything with a steering box, forgot to start with centering the wheel. Took longer then planned.

Drive Flanges showed up from Front Range after about 8 months

mdogg · Aug 28, 2025

The seats were pretty rough from getting beat in the sun the last 20 years, I was going to replace them with a set of PRPs but more than I wanted to spend at the moment.

I have a friend Daryl @goldsby_motor_works who recently started doing some upholstery work and offered to help me replace/rebuild the existing covers on the Beard seats.

I have never taken the cover off a suspension seat and wasn't sure how the foam would look underneath.

Pulled them out, cut the paracord holding the cover around the bottom, then they just slid right off.

Underneath looked better than I expected. The foam showing through the cover was just the cover backing not the seat foam.

Now the hard part and where my friend took over. He reused the Vinyl material from the cover and remade the centre pieces out of some foam backed marine tweed material.

He added some pass through straps on the shoulders to stop belt from flopping around. He popped by my shop whole I was gone for a test fit and they were perfect. Slid right back on with no issues.

Got new paracord string routed and secured around the seat bottom. Tossed them back in, they should last another 20 years.

If you're interested in doing something like this yourself my friend might have posted some more pics info etc. on his instagram Daryl Goldsby (@goldsby_motor_works) • Instagram photos and videos

mdogg · Aug 28, 2025

Made a new 1/8 aluminum roof panel, tried to bend / roll the front edge.

I started by heating the bend area with a torch and letting it cool to aneal it and hopefully have less spring back.