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Squamch

Canadian
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
93
Messages
1,498
Loc
republic of Vancouver island
My buddy mostly built this years ago. Started as a 2wd 2nd gen pickup. 22r/5spd. For the time being it has a single case, eventually I'll get duals. He built it until it was drivable, then beat it relentlessly for a couple years, blew the front end up one last time, and walked away and bought a quad. It sat derelict in the woods behind another friend's place for a few years before I finally said "you're not doing shit with it, let me love it." And dragged it into my shop.

This is what I started with. At least it had some good stickers.

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So I stripped a TON of old janky wires out. Smashed rocklights, electric fan with no fuse, relay, etc. Pulled the busted ass doors, got a new hood, pulled off the old half a box, random wires to and from nowhere, with marretts for connections. I pulled the dash and put a new heater core in, the old one leaked so he just bypassed it and lived with the foggy windows.
pulled the front diff, which was tack welded, and the welds were all broken. Swapped in a welded 4.56.
Bought a FROR style tcase mount and did a flatbelly.

I've got an old flatdeck from a buddy's old farm truck to go onto it too. I'll have to chop it down some, but it'll work.

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The general plan for this is that it will be a badass hunting truck. My wheeling these days is to access places, not just driving over stuff for the sake of it.
 
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Did a little more poking at this unit the other night. Pulled the steering box, which never had frame plates, and started chopping some out of an old excavator hatch I harvested off an old logging road.
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Then chopped a foot out of the old flatdeck. I also got it to crank over, so it's not seized, which is good. The trans wasn't shifting, so I pulled the shifter and plate, and reinstalled it correctly.

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Really thought D.c. woulda been in here once someone said "TOYOTA" :lmao:
When's last time we saw his h8in azz:grinpimp:
 
Got the hint from the wife today the third time she said "you don't have to hang around here all day." And headed to the shop.
Got the shortened flatdeck glued back together, started bucking extraneous chunks of metal off the frame (like the old box mounts, shock mounts, etc). Pulled the 14" shocks, started cutting the hoops off (killed my last Sawzall blade and abandoned the project).
While I was hacking and slashing out back, my buddy, and partner on this build, was gluing in the steering box plates. He's a ticketed welder, does all kinds of highstakes shit like submarines, so I generously let him handle the welding.
Gotta punch through the frame and run the sleeves through still. If ya spray paint it while it's still hot, it's pretty much like powder coating.
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Didn't get any pics, but the steering plate is all dialed. Gotta get some bolts for it and we can get that back in place and start to reassemble the front of the truck, and build a bumper. Gotta find a winch too. I have one, but it's destined for my Ford...I think. The runva 12,000 is pretty appealing for that though.
Flatdeck is tacked in place, needs some chop cut rebuild for tire clearance, Clarence, but it's progress. The shop is on a buddy's property, 25 minutes from my house. I usually head out there after getting my 3 year old into rhe bath and handing the parenting reins over to his mother, get maybe 2.5hrs progress, and that's it. Picking away!
the division of labour is as follows- I do the knowing what the fuck we're doing, and 95% of the cutting and grinding. I also own all the tools, hoard all the rusty steel and toyota parts.
guy welding- my best friend for the last 25 years or so, welds and talks shit about my steel fitting work. Drinks beer.
Guy on the right drinking beer- drinks beer, talks shit, owns the property the shop is on. Borrows tools, sometimes tells me.
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I'm going to try to find a Ford van tank, or maybe even buy one new.

Headlights- the rad support is smashfucked, it had tractor lights for headlights before. I'm thinking of buying some of the 7" rounds with buckets I can get on Amazon and screwing them to whatever I can up front. Yes, no, better idea?

Built a rad shroud today out of a street sign I found in a swamp last week. 11" fan in the only spot it fits.
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Loaned a buddy my bender for awhile for his buggy re-do, and he paid me with a couple procar suspensionish seats.
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now that the rad is in, spaced back 1/2", I'm gonna start on the front bumper. I'm still torn on whether to use an 8274 or an x8000i. I'm leaning toward the x8000 just for the lower profile and easier packaging. I would ditch the solenoid pack on the x8000 and use m8000 tie rods and a runva contactor.

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I'm going to try to find a Ford van tank, or maybe even buy one new.

Headlights- the rad support is smashfucked, it had tractor lights for headlights before. I'm thinking of buying some of the 7" rounds with buckets I can get on Amazon and screwing them to whatever I can up front. Yes, no, better idea?

Built a rad shroud today out of a street sign I found in a swamp last week. 11" fan in the only spot it fits.
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Loaned a buddy my bender for awhile for his buggy re-do, and he paid me with a couple procar suspensionish seats.
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now that the rad is in, spaced back 1/2", I'm gonna start on the front bumper. I'm still torn on whether to use an 8274 or an x8000i. I'm leaning toward the x8000 just for the lower profile and easier packaging. I would ditch the solenoid pack on the x8000 and use m8000 tie rods and a runva contactor.

Fan shroud from a sign. Thats awesome. It like a double miracle. You got to use an item you in part paid for with taxes you paid, as well as help clean up the environment. In todays world thats worth a Noble Peace Prize Nomination.
 
Love it, nice old school dirt cheap toyota build!!

Yep! We are trying to buy a house in an absolutely retarded market (average 2 bed 1 bath 45 minutes out of town is $400,000+), so I'm basically doing whatever I can to beg/borrow/liberate parts for this truck. I've had a few buddies really help out, and people seem to appreciate the flashback to the fresh out of high-school type build...except with more experience building:laughing:.

I picked up a tabor 9k for this yesterday for $25. No cable, and he says it doesn't work. Worth it for the time being for mock up to build a bumper around.

I also just love building trucks, so this is a good way for me to escape real life for a few hours once or twice a week and fiddle fuck around.

I do need to finish the 9x7 flatdeck for my f350 that is sitting behind it though, clear some space up in the old tarp tent, to get my dirtbike in and get the new muffler on it...and figure out the squeaking noise from the 4runner...and and and.:rolleyes:
 
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Yep! We are trying to buy a house in an absolutely retarded market (average 2 bed 1 bath 45 minutes out of town is $400,000+), so I'm basically doing whatever I can to beg/borrow/liberate parts for this truck. I've had a few buddies really help out, and people seem to appreciate the flashback to the fresh out of high-school type build...except with more experience building:laughing:.

I picked up a tabor 9k for this yesterday for $25. No cable, and he says it doesn't work. Worth it for the time being for mock up to build a bumper around.

I also just love building trucks, so this is a good way for me to escape real life for a few hours once or twice a week and fiddle fuck around.

I do need to finish the 9x7 flatdeck for my f350 that is sitting behind it though, clear some space up in the old tarp tent, to get my dirtbike in and get the new muffler on it...and figure out the squeaking noise from the 4runner...and and and.:rolleyes:

Love it man!! When I did the SAS on my tacoma I went into it with the same mentality, do it as cheap as possible because I'm a cheap ass and as a challenge lol!!! Ended up doing it for less than people drop on coilovers using used parts, hookups and shit I found for free. So much fun!!
 
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Cradle is done-ish, sticks out 4.75" past the front crossmember. Not bad. Has about 1.5" from the winch to the rad, loads of room for cable tangles!
Winch cradle is built out of the rest of the excavator hatch that we built the steering box braces from, and a piece of scrap steel from the shipyard. I think I have enough DOM left to build the bumper.
 
Well, I had to get fenders on it, so I could build the bumper to line up nicely, and it turned out the inner fenders and rad support were in pretty rough shape. Actually really rough. One side was 1.5" shorter than the other, and held together with self tapping screws. Soooo....logically....

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I'm documenting the same stuff in the "chopping inner fender and rad support off" thread to make it a little more searchable.

Did a 3" per side dove, just a little tuck, but hopefully keeping room for all the shit that lives under the hood.

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I used tube clamps up by the firewall, and tied into the stock body mounts out front. I think it'll be stiff enough. Plus it means the whole front structure will be removable for service, should be easy to pull the drive train out the front this way.
 
Bit more progress to report.
The tube clip pulled a bit so it takes a little pushing and pulling to get it to bolt up, but it bolts up.
Got the rad mounted today, headlight buckets will sit in the triangles on each side. I'm going to run 7" rounds off Amazon, in whatever sort of adjustable buckets I can find...Harley, jeep, whatever.
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Headlights in place. They're Chinese "harley" headlights off Amazon, I'm going to use the halos as turn signals, as they're set up for that on a bike.

Next move is build a bumper that doesn't look like shit, and protects the headlights.
I also picked up a sub 200,000km 22re and full harness from an 80s 4runner. So the old 22r will get stuffed under the bench for a spare and it'll get the internet!
 
Well, the pictures make the bumper progress look fucking awful, but it's not bad in person. I'm going to do some kickers off the fender tubes by the headlights to support the edge of the fender, and use tube clamps to brace the bumper off of the front tube clip.
As with any project, I did an artist's rendering before starting work.

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Then started bending tube.
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My die is a 5.5 radius, so the loops are larger than I'd like, but they have the desired effect of protecting the headlights.

Anyone running steel mesh in front of their headlights? How badly does it cut down on output? Thinking I will do a steel mesh "grill" to keep the sticks out of the rad.
 
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Removable front clip is ready to be welded out, and the engine is prepped to be pulled on the next visit, the the 22re and associated wiring will go in.
 
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