I got a 77' toyota hilux thats been sitting in my parents garage for around 17 years. It was my dads project truck but he gave it to me to start working on. It is way low to the ground. About 4 inches right at this point. The doors and tailgate are shaved and the antenna is frenched. It is yellow with a 4 - 5 inch chopped top. It has a brand new 20r hioutput racing engine with straight exausts, no cat:banger. The truck was built to be a show truck and also a track racer so it has recaro racing seats and a interior roll bar. Its a fast yota to, my dad ran it at bout 160 down our street once. Any suggestions for what i should do to it?

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...y/truck007.jpg


http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...y/truck008.jpg

 

How about some pics?

 

How do you change the pixle size for the pictures? Ive been trying to post some up but i dont know how to get the size right?

 

use photobucket.com

 

I got some pictures up, they are not the best because as you can see our garage is cramped.

 

right click on your picture file while its still in a folder, or on your desktop. this will give you the option to open it with the program you choose. if you can open it with microsoft picture manager, choose that. in there, you can choose "edit pictures" and choose "compress" to web size, then resave.

If you only have "paint" as a program to select, open it in that, then choose image, then choose stretch/skew. that will open a little box where you can change the horizontal and vertical size to a smaller percentage, like 50%. then resave it as a jpg file, making sure its not a bmp file.

once you have it resized, you can upload it to a place like photobucket which will host the image and you can choose the IMG link to show it on a forum like yotatech.

meanwhile, what kind of suggestions are you looking for man? it sounds like it runs, so my suggestion would be drive it! ha i'm joking. what is left to finish in the project? motor is done? have it dyno'd and tune it a little more if you want.

is the suspension good? if its too low, replace the lowering springs with hydraulics, so you can increase clearance when you want to.

how 'bout stereo? if you're into music, pick out some decent stuff that you can install stealth so it doesn't attract thieves of course, and if the interior is still stock, pull it all out and sound deaden it first. sound deadening makes little soda can toyota bodies sound like nice firm lexus bodies.

if its quick, you'll want to stop fast too. how's the brakes? do a rear disc swap and front disc upgrade so you dont go flying off the road some day.

how's the seats? still sportin' a bench? drop some nice buckets in, unless you prefer your signficant other to be able to slide up next to ya.

and then of course, there's custom paint. yellow is a little extreme by itself, can look like a taxi or a construction truck. but its a good base for adding a nice fade effect, like doing the top surfaces red for a sunset look, or the bottom surfaces silver and black, for a racier look.

then of course, there's all kinds of tire/wheel options, right? and tint? have fun man, and good luck with it.

of course, first thing may be to get an alarm and a lojack type system, so if anyone steals it, you have a chance of recovery.

 

oh.

now i see your pics. you got a ways to go. first get that motor finished, then finish that body work, and start pulling parts and/or taping off to paint the whole thing.

make yourself a shopping list of parts you need (ex: wipers) and start browsing ebay and junk yards as often as you can. you may also wanna ditch that nissan grille and quad rectangle lites if you want it to look like a toyota.

start acquiring parts when you find good deals and focus on getting that engine bay finished, then move to the chassis, make sure your suspension and brakes are safe and functional. once you have it to a point where its ready for paint, spray it, then reassemble with your acquired parts that you've prepped for install, and replace that windshield.

then, once its able to pass a state inspection, go back and read my previous post and start customizing.

good luck bro, that's a sweet little truck!

 

Thanks for the advice man. This truck is my baby! haha My first project ever. I cant wait to get it running again. I was planing on putting a dual weber sidedraft set up on it like my dad had before. I had no idea that was a nissan grill though! I thought it was just a custom fab. Are the front clips on these early yotas meant to be one piece or are they in seperate pieces?

 

doh! actually, looking again, it appears it IS custom, some kind of metal rod/tubing for the grille. but the quad headlights is typical style of 80's nissans so at first glance i thought you had something swapped in. my bad.

a quick search on ebay will show you some examples of what i'm talking about, vs. what your year truck usually has for a grille. but hey, custom is unique so keep it that way if you like it!

the "front clip" typically refers to the entire body section forward of the firewall, which is made of fenders, inner fender wells, and front rad supt. usually they are bolt together, and come apart, unless welding has been done.

starting with the motor, when's the last time its been run? you'll need a carb for sure, but you may want to grab a cheap stock version to test the health of the block before you spend on some thing nicer, unless you're sure its ok.

you're in CA so i dont know much about rebuilding and eliminating emissions parts. getting your intake side set up appears to be first though, as it appears non existent.

 

Oh my bad, I meant the outer side fender sheet metal and the lower out front valence. Its like is one piece. Either my dad just did a bondo job over the seems or something. doesnt look like a weld job though. The motor has never been ran, i dont think. My dad never got to finish putting it together before i was born. Its virtually new inside.

 

i'd make a sleeper racer out of it. Reminds me of my old 77

 

Thats what i was thinking about doing to it, i gotta find the parts for it. I dont really think people wont notice a old 77' truck with a 4 inch chop and 4 inch ground clerance though. haha They are gonna know somethings up. Whats come of your old 77'?

 

hard times came and it got sold. Still see it ocassionally.

 

Thats good, not the selling part, but the fact that its still on the road and was not torn apart for parts. Speaking of parts, do you know of a good place who carrys pre-80's yota parts?

 

first off, please don't do 160 down your street, take it to the track.

Try California Mini Trucks for parts http://www.calminitruck.com/

when posting your pictures, use the [IMG] code, 4th one down next to your picture:



The windshield looks like it might be a problem especially with the 4" chop. You might look into having a piece of Lexan or Makrolan cut and molded to fit...It would be cool to see that old school truck back on the road..Tru Spoke

 

very cool ... get to work

 

160 mph in that! lol i would b scared

 

My dad had a special place that made his windsheilds for cheap. I was considering doing that for the side and back windows though.

 

cool...roll that thing out of the garage sometime and post up some more pictures. Nice truck

 

I would LOVE to know the name of this place ..

I'm working on a little project myself .. and the only reason I havent "chopped the top " is because I cant find any one to do the windshield .