Dirt Diggler

So some time ago i became a new member in hopes to rebuild a 4runner and build a wild standard cab short bed beast and got alot of parts lined up to do so... well because time frame and budget were both very unrealistic i had to reconsider my choices and i scraped the truck project(for now) and started tearin into my lil smurf blue 4runner... so when i got it in a trade deal it wasnt much more than somthing to piddle with... 22re with chewed up wiring,5spd, chevy leafs front and rear,welded spiders in the rear, and alot of headaches... so to start i bassically ripped anything having to do with the fuel injection and droped a carb and intake on it, a plastic racing fuel cell and battery in the bed ran just a few hot wires for the ignition... aired the tires up and most importantly installed a radio from a non running vehicle haha(thankz whoever parked that car there 4 months ago)... i ran it into the ground testing every limit of the supension on and off road almost rolled it over in the back yard befor i even drove it a mile haha... ended up eventually knockin the bearing out of #1 and drove it till I exploded a clutch doin a burnout with the 36s and than it got parked....
NOW THE FUN BEGINS....
Removed a few leafs to soften them up a lil... got ahold of a 250hp 4.3 v6 and after throwin headers cam intake and a carb itll be pushin 300hp... traded a spare sm465 and np205 for a 700r4/np208??? i know i got ripped off but it was my cousin and he needed the manual trans bad so he still owes me a few favors lol... anyway used the v8 motor mounts that i bought for the truck and built my own trans mount... I didnt like how low my tcase was hangin down so i built a nice 2in body lift, then i built my self a 100%custom aluminum sheetmetal dash... new fenders... doors...hood .... got a slightly used aluminum 4core radiator from a friends racecar pile that fits in the frame perfect... cut all the inner fender wells and rad support out and replaced it with .075 wall tubing... found out a easy trick for extended brake lines by just usin a few extra rubber rear brake lines to my 4runner bought 10 cans of gloss black 15 cans of flat black and 5 cans of neon green.... alot of stuff isnt finished yet cuz im mainly just pickin at it as im waitin for important parts to show up.... like my wiring harness i bought a month ago and still aint arived yet... anyway here comes some pics from start to finish... its a work in progress so dont bother flamin the crap out of me or it.... if u have any ideas please share haha

Dirt Diggler

Thats what i started with...

The donor...







Getting the motor and trans in



Hand built aluminum dash



New skins







NOTICE THE GRILL??? YEA BUDDY!

And thats to date


Still alot of work to do but its gettin there...
Up next is....

EVERYTHING ELECTRICAL(when the 12 circut harness and fuse box shows up)

FINISH THE DASH... was thinkin bout just sealing the seams with sylicone and layin bed liner over it just so it looks like a smooth one piece

BUILD SHIFTERS(tcase shifter is just a dirst track shifter and trans shifter will be some kind of cable floor mount)

INSTALL SEATS (still looking want 2 buckets up front and 2 low back buckets in rear

HAVE DRIVE SHAFTS BUILT (still looking around)

other than that shes almost ready.... so.... whatcha guys think?


I still have the kit to install chevy axles with folding 2piece shackles but im gna save that stuff for later down the road since i havent looked at what is needed to make the crap stock d44 steering work

This is gna be my daily driven truck but will also be beaten to death more than once one the trails and mud pits so with that being said... am i over looking anything? Got any thaughts,ideas,advice, or pointers? Im always lookin for new ideas

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Great looking project you have. That motor ought to make it scoot along just fine. Looking forward to your build.

kornhuskerwizard

Great project!!but the grill needs to go,I say 1st gen truck grill with round headlights!

rustED

iTrader: (2)

Nice work, its looking good! That's a good cheap way to extend the brake lines, I did the same thing!

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Nice project. Theres a good base to build from.

Im with Kornhuskerwizard. Stick a factory grille or a 1st gen grille on their.

kornhuskerwizard

Any updates on this diggler?