cr@ves4wheelin

HEY FELLAS!!!!!! Some of you may remember me, some of probably don't know me. It's been a while, but yesterday I brought back home a project. A '90 Toyota Hilux SR5 Extended cab, 3.0 V6 with a manual tranny.

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As you can see, it's got something wrong with the motor, so I towed it home with my '79 Chevy K10. It has been sitting for 3 years, while the previous owner went into the military. He said, it was making a tickin sound that kept getting louder and then the motor just quit and wouldn't turn over again.

The frames got a mixture of mud and rust, but nothing too major.

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Interior
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I was planning on working on this in the apartment garage, but my dad called me and well, he was like "there's no way you'll be able to work in that small of a garage", so the yota is livin in his garage right now.

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Spent last night, reviving the battery with my charger. After that, I tried starting it, but all you hear is the starter click.. Tried the hammer tap method, but that didn't work. I think it's seized for good. So after that I went home, towing a truck a long ways for the first time is mentally exhausting.

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

ToyoTech559

Sorry to hear about your other truck. Glad your back. What are the plans besides getting it running and possibly a 3.4 swap? Getting lonely with the LT. Are you gonna do another LT build?

cr@ves4wheelin

Thanks man.

That's the plan. As for a 3.4 swap, if I get the 3.0 running and I find there's something really wrong with it, then I'll go for it.

93Xtra-Cab

It's nice to see that you're back in the Toyota game! It's a shame about your other truck. I can't believe it's been over a year since it was stolen. I hope this one turns out just as cool!

cr@ves4wheelin

Thanks for the kind words man. This truck will be built in my last ones honor.

I've been tearin her down today, I'll post up some pics tonight. It's gonna be a long project. Not workin too hard today though haha. It's been a long while since I actually had a day off besides sunday.

It's just good to be back in the forum, you guys are awesome. I don't know if I missed anything new this past year, but I'll be reading it up.

cr@ves4wheelin

Alright, so today, got the truck off the ground.
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Then I got the old starter out.
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After that, I did some other stuff, since I didn't have a new starter on hand.

Taking off skid plate
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Checking brakes, which were fairly decent.
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Taking off the front bumper....I really liked the tube structure and how it looks, I even said to the guy that he could probably make money selling these. The only thing I didn't like was that it utilized the stock front bumper mounts to attach to the front crossmember. The mounts are way too weak to handle anything in my opinion. So a few bolts and cutting through some welds, I tore it off.
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Gonna need some manual hubs, I'll probably buy em from wabbit by winters end I'm guessing.
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And it was on to address the rust situation. The rear of the truck has it way worse than the front.
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These shocks lol
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And I went and got the rear axle out. Now I planning on getting this thing down to bare metal, but then I thought....If I'm goin LT, why not just get a T100 rear axle as a replacement. Since I'm pretty sure I read that it's fairly easy to do.
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That's pretty much it for today. Probably won't have a lot of time again because of work, but more updates will be coming soon for sure.

cr@ves4wheelin

Finished tearing the rear of the truck down.

Gas tank skid, and rear drive shaft.
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I cut most of the exhaust off, since it is pretty much useless the way it is.
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Took off the front fenders and grille to get the paper wasps nest out.
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Bed is off, I needed to get the gas tank out before I could get get the leaf spring out, which I eventually cut off anyways.
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With leaf springs and gas tank out, more frame rot than I thought.
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Here's a better picture of the rear axle housing, its so rusted the backing plates were even falling apart.
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So I started getting that down to bare metal.
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Then a storm came, so we brought my step moms newly bought tacoma in. Just in case of oversized hail.

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Gonna try to get the rear axle done today. As for the frame though, I was thinking of just back halfing it. That would cut the worst of the rust off from spreading to the front. Still back and forth on it, but I just don't know what else to do since the rust will just continue inside the frame anyways. For those who don't know what back halfing is, here's a good pic thread from another forum: http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/portfolio/152609.htm

What do you guys think I should do?

ToyoTech559

I was gonna suggest tubing out the rear end. Which is what you ment after I clicked on the link and realized its the same lol.

Def be easier for a sweet rear suspension set up once done

cr@ves4wheelin

Thanks, I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinkin bout it. I think it's the best way to go.

I got my rear axle housing mostly rust free today. What'll probably happen is I'll go ahead and give it some proper paint and sell it. If I'm gonna four link, might as well get a full floater axle. Get it done right the first time.

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ToyoTech559

Heck yea. Now is the time to do it right if money allows. Have the vehicle down once instead of in stages. Rather be rolling on all 4/ than to keep working on it down the road.

cr@ves4wheelin

Exactly. I'm glad I got the Chevy to drive around, cause on this build, there is no one day time limit. Gotta be thankful to my dad though for letting me use up the space in his garage. After I get all the rear end all painted and done, I'll start working on the front end pretty soon here. The bed part of the frame is good for hanging and painting parts lol.

ToyoTech559

having a garage is a major plus when working on any project. a second vehicle helps a lot too. cant wait to start seeing it look like a race truck

cr@ves4wheelin

Me too man, its too bad things like this are so expensive. But hey, for a Toyota, I'd work on trucks like these 24/7 if I could.

ToyoTech559

i work on newer toyotas for a living and its not that great lol. i hate working on my own already. maybe im getting old and i just wanna get out and use them instead of working on them.

i might enjoy working on toyotas if i worked for a toyota only shop that deal with suspension/race trucks

cr@ves4wheelin

I hear ya, I would love to work in a shop that built trucks. I miss my land cruiser shop job. Best job ever, it's too bad the boss just didn't want to do it anymore. I'd probably drop everything to just have another opportunity like that haha.

Anyways, Letting the paint dry today, while I work on the third member housing.

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This is flat black paint. I've used gloss black, but gloss black really stands out from the rest of just about any truck you put it in lol. Looking at it now, the flat black will really match well with the paint scheme in my opinion.

You can also see the left side of the housing doesn't have the brake line mounts, and that's because I cut it off. They were just too rusted.

ToyoTech559

thought your gonna use a different rear end? paint job looks great

cr@ves4wheelin

Thanks man. I am using a different rear end, I just cleaned it up because I'm sure nobody would buy it the way it was.

ToyoTech559

haha true. a little paint will go a long way

93Xtra-Cab

Any updates?

cr@ves4wheelin

Well, as for an update, this project took a turn. Not necessarily a bad one though. My dad got a new Polaris Quad (Its an 850, this thing is awesome), but anyways with the new quad and my step moms new tacoma, I want to get the toyota out of the garage so it's out of my parents way.

So the new plan is get the truck rebuilt back to stock with a few modifications, and when I have time, do the major mods later on. Which is fine, because I really want to drive it badly.

I've been working on it though. I'm gonna start putting the rear end together hopefully in the next two weeks when I get parts in.

Interior all apart so I can check the heater core for any rats nests, and so I can disable the ABS light since Im going without. I read that it's crap.
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Getting the seized bushings/bolts and out of the leaf springs.
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Got the steering components all apart, since I will be replacing all of them.
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Torsion bars, that I thought I never would have to deal with again.
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Gonna need a new gas tank, pump, and sender. You don't want to know what the inside looked like.
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Heres an earlier pic of the whole thing with parts everywhere. I'm gonna have to buy a plasma torch sometime to get the lower controls arms off. I don't know how I'm gonna do it yet.
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As for the mods, there are only several off the top of my head I want to do.
1-piece driveshaft
ABS Delete
Corner light Turn Signals