Okay to start things off, My dad passed away about 6 weeks ago, he was 49 years old and had a heart attack in his sleep.

Me and him bought the toyota to be my daily driver in highschool and a project after college. Now, he had life insurance and a bunch of other money in retirement. I plan on putting about 15k-20k into my toyota. Its not running now and the wiring harness is all brittle, plus there is fire damage from when my alternator shorted out.

I also sold my camry and now I am driving his 03 4.8 extended cab chevy silverado 2wd (65000 miles)

So the plan is, to build the truck that me and my dad always wanted, with some of the money that he left me. And keep it street legal!


Heres what we wanted to do:
SAS with 5in springs (marlin)
rear 5 in springs (marlin)
3.4 swap with New wiring harness Headlight to Taillight (ors)
R151f with 3.0 bell housing (marlin)
transfercase e-brake (marlin)
double x-fer cases with 4.7 gears in one case (marlin)
rear disc swap (marlin)
Upgraded birfs (dont know which company yet)
5.29 gears with ARB or Detroit lockers (marlin)
Line-x frame and underside of body up to rocker panels
Ramsey 9500lb winch (dont know which front bumper yet)
Marlin rear bumper
(5) 37-12.5s boggers, TSLs, or Iroks on 16s or 17s
Mastercraft seats (marlin)
interior weld in cage (probably marlins)

One of my fellow toyota owner friends has a shop at his dad farm, with welders, plasma torches, grinders, etc. I might be able to work on my truck there and just pay him a little rent, and some labor for doing the welding (I dont know how). But If not there is a company here that does SAS and I would just pay them to do it, and get my friends dad to do the other small welding jobs.



Now a few questions:
Anyone running 37s on toyota axles with 5.29s?
Which upgraded birfs should I run (marfields, longfields, etc)?
What front bumper would you think would look good with the marlin rear bumper?

 

Why dont you just build it yourself?

Real trucks are built not bought...

and sorry about your dad

 

Sorry....I didnt mean to come off sounding like an jerk...

What I meant to say is that you should build it in your shop with your friends and dont take it somewhere....I would think your dad would be more proud if it had your own blood and tears into it than if some moron in a shop built it.

Plus the learning experience you gain from it is invaluable (in the shop AND on the trail)

 

sounds awesome, sorry about your dad. I would go with longfields.

 

Trust me, I want to build it, more than anything on earth, but I just dont have the experience or tools. And the SAS was the only thing i would have the shop do. I was going to do the motor swap and wiring harness myself. I am going to take the body off the frame and pretty much rebuild the whole truck.

 

Sorry to hear about your father, I hope the build up helps you deal with his passing.

You'll get lots of great advice here, just as dirtoyboy mentioned, but first make sure your future is well funded if you plan to attend college or at least have you a good chunk of money to put down on a house someday. I wish someone would have given me that advice early.

Good luck with your build up.

 

I am already in college and about to graduate in 7 weeks, I am going to use some of the money to pay off my student loans, and I am going to put some money away, probably to buy my moms house from her.

 

No one is born with a tube bender and MIG welder in hand....

start buying tools and practicing......this experience you cannot buy with money

your dad would be proud!

 

yeah, i just dont want to practice on my truck, cause when it comes to that toyota I am a perfectionist!! I really want to take a welding class sometime!!

 

Theres lots of things to practice on besides your truck.....

and some of the best welders I know of are self taught.....don't underestimate yourself! You said you was a college boy right?

 

yeah just go buy a welder and start goin on a bunch of scrap metal i did that about a year ago and now i got a stick and a wire feed and i love welding im gettin pretty good. its easy and fun you just gotta jump right into it. you could go to a community college and take some classes too

 

haha "an jerk"

 

 

Sorry about your dad.

This sounds like a SICK build. Keep it updated with pics please!!!

As for 37's, and 5.29's, Flygtenstein on this board is running 37's on 5.29's and a 3.4 swap auto in his 95 4runner. He is sort of running toyota axles, in that he has toyota based full width diamond axles on his truck.

His comments have been that he would have upgraded to a larger diff than the toy 8", if he had it to do over.

The toy 8" is a fairly weak carrier in the arena of hard core rock crawling. Most guys who want to stay toyota step up to a tundra or 100 series landcruiser diff in a custom axle housing.

Longfields are going to be pretty good for your application. Glad you are getting to have some fun in what must be a very sad and emotional time. Keep your chin up, and enjoy the build.

Happy Trails!

 

Some shots of flygtenstein's truck:

 

lol nice

 

yeah definitely keep us updated.. ill subscribe!

 

$15-20K into a Toyota all at once...as an old fart, dad and a Toyota enthusiast...poor choice. I know that if something happened to me I would want my boys to build the trucks I have already bought for them, but not with my life insurance money. I would want that money to go towards making sure they are taken care of and have a roof over their heads and 3-6 months worth of money to live on in an emergency.

If you are getting some kind of windfall from your father's life insurance and retirement, put it in savings, invest wisely, buy a house and some property, but don't blow it on a truck.

Sure, build the truck you always dreamed of...but take the time to get established and build it yourself and buy parts as you build it. Good things come to those who wait.

Sorry to hear about your dad.

 

For the most part, I agree with the Wabbit.

Even if you feel the need to build the truck, which I wholeheartedly agree with doing, do it as if you were building it with your father. Do 'this' and then do 'that'. Build it in stages as you would've done building it with him.
Learn from your experiences as if you were there doing it with him.
Don't jump head first into the project just because you have the money to do it. You might learn that you don't want an all-out project truck, but rather that something less is exactly what is needed.
You are not out to conquer the world, so don't build your tribute to your father in that manner.

And my deepest condolences for your loss. I wish my father had stayed around long enough for he and I to start something like this.

 

sorry to hear about your father.. i think abe and wabbit have pretty good points. but in the end its all about you my friend.. do what makes you happy!