YotaTech Toyota Truck Build Stays in the Family
Selling a precious ride often means you’ll never see it again. Thankfully, that isn’t the case with this sweet Toyota truck build.
Selling any vehicle, at least for us enthusiasts, is a bittersweet deal. You just grow attached to your ride, no matter how big of a headache it might have been. And then, just like that, it’s gone. Unless you’re lucky enough to find someone who lives locally, you might never even see it again. Or worse, maybe the new owner doesn’t take care of it like they should. But when a certain Toyota truck changed hands via the Yota Tech forums, we knew it was going to a good home.
When 80s Rule took possession of kawazx636‘s 1983 Toyota truck, he was kind enough to point out that it will live on as it should.
“I was the lucky guy to end up with Dave’s awesome 1983 Toyota truck. He did an amazing job and I have big shoes to fill with regards to being the caretaker of this truck. Anyway, rather than continue the build up thread, I thought I would start this one to share the installation of air conditioning. Here in Texas, the 110 heat index persuaded me to spend almost $3K to have a complete Vintage Air Gen IV Magnum AC system installed.
Yes, that is a chilling amount of money (smile), but I plan on driving this truck enough to make it worthwhile. Here are some pics I took during the visit today. Total shop time will be 3 weeks, about half waiting on parts. This system will use all the original dash vents and totally replaces the original heater core system.
An interesting fact: the owner of the shop told me he was the leading Houston, Texas port installer for the Toyota dealers back in the early 80’s. He installed hundreds of AC systems back in the day.”
Having lived in some pretty heated areas of the south, we can certainly agree with the decision to drop that kind of coin on A/C. And considering how nice this truck was to begin with, we can’t imagine the OP wanting to part with it anytime soon.
“Picked it up Friday and the A/C works great. My son and I took it to a local Saturday night car gathering near Kemah, Texas and it got a lot of attention. Thanks to Dave. Amazing how many people came up and said ‘I use to have one of these back in the day.’ We had a great time and were cool on the drive.”
It’s also nice to know that the previous owner approves of the work!
“Nice work Garry! When are you installing the autopilot??? LOL it’s good knowing that Pepé is getting the attention he deserves!!”
Of course, the OP couldn’t just leave it at that. This truck was crying out for more!
“I also wanted to give the truck a little wider stance. Love the look of tires sticking out a little. So I installed 1.5″ spacers.”
And the itch to keep going just got more and more intense.
“Latest update. I realize it is not practical but I installed a 7″ lift with 35″ Nittos. For what I am using it for (Saturday night car cruises) it is awesome. And hey, I can always lower it back down later. I did do the Marlin Crawler high steer crossover conversion which helped tame some wandering/bump steer I was having. To totally make the steering solid I would need to install a panhard rod. I also lengthened the front drive shaft by 3 inches.”
Sadly, flooding from Hurricane Harvey led to the OP losing three cars. But thankfully, the Toyota truck was sitting up on a lift and was unaffected. Obviously, it did put this project on hold for a bit. And while we think it looks amazing as is, we wouldn’t be surprised if there were some future changes in store. Be sure and head over here to catch up on the build, and keep up with any coming progress!
