Tacoma 4500 build

[Malburg114]

Several other 4500 cars being built so figured I might as well post mine up. Plan is to have it done for 2026 but would like to have it done summer of 2025 to get some time in it.

Plans are ls, th350, atlas, 609s, rantz steering servo assist with a double ended ram etc. pretty standard 4500 build.

I picked up a wrecked 5 lug 3.4 95 Tacoma a few years ago. Original plan was to strip it, build a cage in it and swap the cage to my current white truck.

few years go by, I moved houses, actually started the cage and got the racing itch and things snowballed

I started collecting parts earlier this year and started actually working on it mid August 2024.

I’ll try to keep this up to date but I do post a lot of stories on Instagram of my progress so shoot me a follow at @hambone.114 or @hambone_fab_works

 

[Malburg114]

Day I hauled it home several years ago

 

[Malburg114]

I quickly stripped the interior and trans (motor was missing) after I got it (December 2021) We moved to our new house early the next year and it sat till the following winter when I pulled the cab and started a cage. It got pushed back outside onto the frame when the a new red project came up and I started on the new frame middle of August 2024.

Table I made to move the frame around

 

[Malburg114]

I then got to cutting. The plan is just a Tacoma shell on a “chassis” essentially. The floor is cut out and a subframe will be made. The front section of frame rail are 2x3x.188 and the section under the body is 2x3x.120 wall. Most the cage will be 2 in dom wirh 1.75 dom gussets .

I started small but things escalated quickly
The frame rail sits just inside the body seam under the door. So I cut all that out to get the body sitting how I wanted

 

[Malburg114]

And then made some motor mounts. Turned the bushings down from delrin and sleeved with 3/4 dom for a half in bolt. Most things will be cut out of 3/16 and then plated with 1/8 or 3/16 for strength. I find working with 3/16 is easier over 1/4 and my cnc plasma table cuts 3/16 way better.

 

[Malburg114]

this was pre Labor Day weekend. I got themotor where I’m happy and about to start making the motor mount tubes.

 

[Malburg114]

Needed to get the frame strong enough to support the motor to start working on everything else. So got it welded and the top section plated and the motor mounts in and welded. I don’t normally like to fully weld anything till I’m done but I need all this strong enough to support everything without crushing me. If I need to move it later, I’ll just embrace the suck and go to town with the grinder. I also started to try and figure out how I want to do the subframe and link mounts

 

[Malburg114]

Subframe and trans mount progress and a bunch of goodies from poly performance. Cam over there has been a huge help and can’t thank him enough. Remade the trans tab as I didn’t like the angled tabs. Just looked funky. Subframe will get additional supports to the frame to tie it all together better and subframe will get extended back for rear link mounts.

 

[Malburg114]

I had stock inner cs I never used from the last build so bored them out and then found a set of “new” used solid cs I bought as they are significantly more beefy. I drew my own link mounts for the frame and they needed some tweaking. DIY offroad has very similar ones and it was more time and cost effective to just buy their file so spent a few bucks and bought some files. And picked up a swag tube bender as my hydraulic bender didn’t like doing 2 in and kept kinking it. Made a stand for it.

I’m using off the shelf 88-98 inner ford shafts with Chevy/dodge outers. These are the same shafts my dad uses on his jeepster and I built my other 609 to match his to make carrying spares easy. I stuck with kingpin stuff so everything in my white truck swaps over for spares.

 

[Malburg114]

I then started figuring out axle placement. My other truck has 43 ish lower links and they bent to crap so I knew I wanted a shorter link and shot for about 36 inches while building the subframe. And started on the upper link and found my first issue of the upper link gets into the motor mount so that’ll have to get redone to get the uptravel I want.

 

[Malburg114]

More upper link pictures. The sleeve will get redone and tapped for a fine thread 5/8 bolt. The bolt would be so long if I used a nut, I’d either have to sleeve the frame to get the bolt in and out or take the trans out which is less than ideal when trying to make it easy to work on. The mount got adjusted a bunch to keep it straight. The bottom of the frame will need to be trimmed as well once the motor mount gets adjusted and upper link can go higher.

I got a deposited Saginaw box with a sweet Howe ported steering servo but it was missing the sector shaft so made two boxes into one and got a mount whipped up.

 

[Malburg114]

I also bought the trail gear rear back truss from diy offroad and with minor modifications made it work on the front. I need to get the steering together with the ram in to start the panhard mount and find full bump next.

 

[Malburg114]

And that’s pretty current. Haven’t really touched it much since mid October because works been busy but here’s some pictures of parts sitting on the shelf waiting to go in. I left the front housing long till I get hubs ordered and on so I don’t cut it short but I think I have the cs where they need to be based off of measurements.

 

[Treefrog]

If you haven't welded it down yet, it may be worth seeing if you can rotate the rear truss back around the axle. That way it braces front to rear some as well as up and down. I think the 4400 UFO cars are set up that way.

 

[Malburg114]

If you haven't welded it down yet, it may be worth seeing if you can rotate the rear truss back around the axle. That way it braces front to rear some as well as up and down. I think the 4400 UFO cars are set up that way.

This is only the front housing. I’m working on the steering ram mount now which will act as a front truss. The rear axle when I order it will end up getting a top truss and backbone probably.

 

[fl0w3n]

Love a thread that starts off with all the updates right off the bat.

Will you weld the body to the frame or make it removable?

 

[Malburg114]

Love a thread that starts off with all the updates right off the bat.

Will you weld the body to the frame or make it removable?

I’m pretty torn on this. I want it removable cause I’m sure I’ll destroy the cab at some point and it sure would make it easy to service things as the trans will have to come out through the doors but I’m not exactly sure how to go about doing that. The body seam/rocker actually hangs below the frame right now so it’ll get trimmed up similar to a boat side or atleast the seam cut and maybe holes drilled for the sliders in the actual rocker. I haven’t decided.

There’s a Toyota build thread on the old site called jumby and he essentially cut his like a boat side and welded the body to a piece of rectangle tubing to it and that bolted to the frame. I like that but still undecided. It may just get stitch welded to the frame with some dimpled plates between the cage that are also stitch welded.

 

[McBastard79]

Awesome!

 

[posford]

I’m pretty torn on this. I want it removable cause I’m sure I’ll destroy the cab at some point and it sure would make it easy to service things as the trans will have to come out through the doors but I’m not exactly sure how to go about doing that. The body seam/rocker actually hangs below the frame right now so it’ll get trimmed up similar to a boat side or atleast the seam cut and maybe holes drilled for the sliders in the actual rocker. I haven’t decided.

There’s a Toyota build thread on the old site called jumby and he essentially cut his like a boat side and welded the body to a piece of rectangle tubing to it and that bolted to the frame. I like that but still undecided. It may just get stitch welded to the frame with some dimpled plates between the cage that are also stitch welded.

Theres a Power Wagon build in the Dodge forum, guy made the cab shell bolt to the frame to be removable, worth checking out to see if it sparks any ideas.

Badass build!

 

[WiscoF100]

Beyond rec wheelin, a “removable cab” isn’t very desirable. They become a bowl of jello under racing conditions and require a lot of support. That was one of the largest self criticisms after my first KOH. The bolt on cab drove me crazy all day. New cab is fully welded to the chassis.

Thanks for sharing the build. Good fab detail and even though some of your pictures I had doubts on a certain process, in further progression you made sense of them.

What’s going on with one of those sector caps? Not a vent is it?

Good call on 2” cage. The 75lbs difference across an entire chassis is well worth the guarantee you can race….although roll cage Karen’s date back better part of 20yrs. There’s 2-1/4” roll cage jokes in the desert world and the same standard has survived this long.

 

[Malburg114]

Beyond rec wheelin, a “removable cab” isn’t very desirable. They become a bowl of jello under racing conditions and require a lot of support. That was one of the largest self criticisms after my first KOH. The bolt on cab drove me crazy all day. New cab is fully welded to the chassis.

Thanks for sharing the build. Good fab detail and even though some of your pictures I had doubts on a certain process, in further progression you made sense of them.

What’s going on with one of those sector caps? Not a vent is it?

Good call on 2” cage. The 75lbs difference across an entire chassis is well worth the guarantee you can race….although roll cage Karen’s date back better part of 20yrs. There’s 2-1/4” roll cage jokes in the desert world and the same standard has survived this long.

Good info thanks. I’m all ears on suggestions.

The one steering box is already depowered. Guy I got the box and servo from filled the box full of grease and put a zirc on the one side and a vent on top. We will see how it works or else I’ll either pull the internals to copy or put I. A different box I can add fluid too.

There was no way I was making this thing under 4400lbs so just made sense to start with 2in. Koh rule book is pretty gray when it comes to some things so I’m trying to build it best I can and using scores book to help as well.

 

[Thornbird1]

Looks awesome.

 

[GiS]

The guy can weld, uses a fixture table AND takes decent pics?!? ... Hell yeah, I'll be following

 

[Malburg114]

Spent yesterday getting the housing cut really close to length. Won’t know if it’s correct till I order spindles and hubs. I tried putting the solid axle industry cs on. Used a hone to clean them up some and heated them in the grill and sanded the tube. Same way I did my last axle but something was off and they wouldn’t go on. One got stuck and I beat the shir out of it to get it back off and called it a night.

Today I just threw them in the mill and spent the time to get the boring bar centered and a single pass made it so they slip on with the tap of a hammer. This let me assemble the inner c and get the knuckle on so I can start to figure out the steering ram. Need the steering ram on so I can figure out the panhard and get the steering box in place before I throw it back under the truck.


This was what I started with to mount the ram. Just a piece of 1.75 bent at a 45. I didn’t like the ram hanging over the front and how high it was.

 

[Malburg114]

So I notched the tube around the center section and lowered it some and placed the ram at an angle. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing just using some pictures as a reference. Tomorrow I’ll measure how much steering I have on my other truck as it’s identical besides the knuckles on it are stock dodge ones. But that’ll give me an idea of how much steering I’ll get and if I need to move the ram closer to the housing to get the shaft inline at full steer.

If anyone has any input I’m all ears. I’ve never set up a double ended ram before.

 

[Pitbullcruiser]

Looking good! TrailGear has some good info on full hydro ram placement.

https://www.trail-gear.com/media/downloads/pdf/instructions/300891-INS.pdf

 

[gt1guy]

How much caster are you going to run?

 

[Malburg114]

How much caster are you going to run?

I have it setup for 8 degrees of positive caster and 8 degrees pinion angle. I’ve had a few people tell me to run more on social media but everything from searching says 3-6 (granite old tech from the old site and things have changed)

Considering adjusting the cs for 10 degrees of caster and 8 of pinion.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Check out Richard Hulse at Hulse Engineering on instagram. he has some slammed ram mounts that capture each end and gets rid of the internal clamps. You will only need each end instead of 4. They are trick. Sasquatch motorsports also makes sweet set of them.

Killer start to a build.

 

[Malburg114]

Check out Richard Hulse at Hulse Engineering on instagram. he has some slammed ram mounts that capture each end and gets rid of the internal clamps. You will only need each end instead of 4. They are trick. Sasquatch motorsports also makes sweet set of them.

Killer start to a build.

I looked for a set for this 2.5 Ram and seems everyone only sells them for the 3.0 ones. They are also a lot more low profile and in hindsight I should have asked if one of the guys would make a set for a 2.5 Ram but oh well. Already to much money invested in these clamps. They’ll work and I have a plan to make some plates to capture the end of the Ram to keep it from sliding.

Thanks