Greg_Canada

I'll take a shirt or 3.

Racersonly

Dropzone, I'll probably have both. If i'm racing i will run the LED's but when it's on display anywhere it will have the original halogen lights. Still working on the shirt design, hopefully within the next couple months.

Travis richardson

Are you going to be painting the truck? Or doing a wrap? Would like to use the design on my 95 pick up!

Racersonly

Travis, Chris Hukil will be painting the truck. He is the original painter of the 001 Toyota when he worked for PPI back in the day and said he would be more than happy to paint the truck. Hoping to have the paint started by the end of summer but I have had some set backs that seem to be pushing that date a little farther away. Not a big deal, just the regular crap that happens during a restoration of this caliber.

Travis richardson

that's awesome, there's alot of detailed paint to do! Will all the decals just be stickers or painted as well? If stickers do you have info on where to purchase the coors decals?

Racersonly

Travis, all the logos on the truck are stickers as they were back in the day. Any sticker company can make the die cut Coors decals.

Kinda in limbo with the Toyota as of late. Original plan was to pull off all the suspension and have it painted. Well, Darryl is almost ready to weld the new top on the truck so I decided to wait till that is done. Trying to do some small projects in the meantime but some of those small projects include buying a big ticket item. Sooo, I decided to notch the grill because the upper torsion bar fingers protrude through the front grill as seen in this photo....




The 001 Toyota ran a few different front grills depending on the year. The first couple years the cut outs for the torsion fingers were nice and clean. I think over the course of the years they didn't make it as clean due to the fact if they had to get in behind the grill during a pit stop they needed more room. Sooo, more of the grill would be taken out to accommodate that. As for me, I'm going for the cleaner look as this truck will most likely only be raced a few times (by me) and at no where near the pace that the "Ironman" raced it.

Here's a shot of the grill before cutting....




I drew some lines of where I wanted the cuts and put on painters tape to help it from splintering the plastic (which worked great).....




This is one of the covers that holds the Torsion bar and Finger in place. The torsion bar has been pushed flush in this photo as the grill is in the way...




After some die grinder work the grill is notched to accept the torsion bar and finger. Their is still some clean up work to do but you get the idea...




The grill is almost complete minus a bit more of cutting for the front bumper tubes that attach to the top of the front push bar and then the tubes behind the front grill....




Doesn't seem like a lot of work but I had to mount and remount the grill about 4 times to make sure everything fit tight before cutting. Next up is the front tube bumper that mounts to the half tubes below the torsion covers. Once I get that bent and cut into place I will work on the stock front bumper and mount that. It too will need to be cut to fit but is only there for aesthetics.

*Still waiting on the rear yoke for the back of the trans, it's not holding me up but just one more thing I'd like to cross off the list. I swear, every time I get to cross something off the list i have to add 5 more!

Racersonly

As with the last couple updates not much to report. The summer months slow me down quite a bit but I was able to get the truck back up to Darryl Putman so he can swap out the new(er) top since the other one has a bit too much rust in a few different spots...




And also some shotty body work...




The truck is currently sitting quietly at Darryl's shop until he can tackle the fab work after Vegas To Reno....



The replacement top is ready to go...




Ex PPI fabricator (for the Frank Arciero 002 Toyota) Lance Barron sent me some pic's of these cool glasses he has had tucked away in his box of goodies...







Hopefully by the end of August I'll have the truck back in the race shop and ill start stripping the parts from the frame for paint prep. Cross your fingers....

Racersonly

Darryl Putman in Las Vegas has been working on the putting the new top on the 001...



With the old top off he has cleaned up the edges getting the new top ready...



The new top also being prepped for installation...




With the new top on it is time for some minor trimming to get things perfect. There will be material added to the inside to help make it stronger but the top will also be welded and attached to the tubing when finished...



A little closer look...



Still a lot of work to do before the top is mounted because it’s a lot of measuring and fitting. Can’t wait to get this done so I can finally cross it off the list. The top was one of those things holding me up from disassembling the truck to get it ready for paint. Now I’m actually getting closer although I want to separate the chassis from the frame and media blast both before paint but they will need to be put back together again for the paint job (stripes) Fun fun fun.

Sorry about the lack of updates, I hope that changes from here out as I think it will be moving along a bit more fluidly now. Cross your fingers!

Racersonly

The #001 PPI Toyota build is still in full swing but not in my hands at the moment. The good news is (and I use this phrase waaaay too much) I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Darryl Puttman in Las Vegas is just about finished with the replacement top. When timelines don't match up and the truck shows up late from one shop to next, projects gets shuffled, that's what happened to mine. I could of pulled the truck out of his shop and found another shop but trying to find the right people to do specialty work is very difficult so you just have to roll with the punches some times. I get it, I may not like it but I get it. It never crossed my mind to pull it out of Darryls shop anyways, he is the right man for the job.

Anyways, so here's where we're at. Darryl has been working on the top and slowly trying to sneak up on getting the fit just perfect. If you don't recall, the donor top had a little too much cancer in the a pillars and drip rails, along with some shady body work behind the c pillars. I figured it was no big deal as I've seen worse but was told by the body guy it would be cheaper and easier just to replace the top. Soooo, a new(er) top was delivered and Darryl has been in the process of matching the 6 points of contact and trying to get it as close to perfect as he can. Lots of tack welding, manipulating, cutting, grinding, smoothing, repeat. It's tedious work and I know it's kicking his butt a little but nothing he can't handle.



Sometimes I hate posting pictures of work like this because I know someone is going to comment on how it could have been done faster or better or whatever. Since I have never done work like this before and Darryl has replaced MANY cabs and skins on old class 8 trucks and desert trucks I tend to leave there style to them.



I've always been happy with the finished product out of Darryls shop and I can already tell by these pictures that I'm going to be extremely happy.



Sorry about the lack of updates, limited budgets and extended times at race shops are the norm for restorations like this if you can't do all of your own work. Thanks for being patient guys, I want this thing finished too but you can't rush this type of work.........well, unless Toyota and TRD want to jump on board and send over that open check book [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img].

jakey poo

Thanks for the update!!! I was wondering where this build was at. Don't worry about the timeline, you're still making more progress than me

Redthies

ev13wt

The best part is finding the thread now!!!
Hoping for updates soon. Really great profect, thanks for saving the truck man!

Racersonly

UPDATE: The #001 is now back home in Arizona and I couldn't be happier with the work that Darryl did on the top of the cab. This was by no means an easy task and he spent a lot of time on it. Trying to match up 6 different points of reference is not easy especially when you only have 1 shot to get it right.










With the cab pretty much finished besides some minor body work to smooth everything out, I will start prepping the rest of the cab/chassis for paint. One thing I need to do is work on getting some new urethane bushing chassis mounts made to fit the 12 contact points on the chassis.







When I dismount the cab from the frame I will prep the frame for paint along with the suspension pieces. The cab will be sent out to Chris Hukill (original PPI painter) and he will get the white base paint on the body while also spraying the inside of the cab light grey. The tubing in front of the cab and behind the cab with be gloss black along with the frame.

Here's some pictures (courtesy of Lance Barron) of the #001 when it was being built back in 1984. Chassis...




Back half...




Lower front suspension...




Interior...

Racersonly

History lesson- Race #20, The 1986 Fireworks 250.

After winning class 1 at the Baja 500, Ivan was hoping to make it two in a row at the Fireworks 250. The rougher race courses were more challenging for the Toyota's due to their lack of HP and extra 1500 lbs. Their pace would have to be higher than that of their competition to make up for their short comings. The California desert in Barstow would yet a gain plague the Toyota's with gremlins as Ivan would finish a disappointing 10th in class 1 and Frank Arciero down in the standings in class 2.




Photo credit Trackside Photo

Here's the rest of the story with captions from the August 1986 issue of Dusty Times magazine.
Words: Judy Smith
Photo's: Trackside Photo

Race Specs:
Race distance approx 231 Miles
Car/Truck entries- 293
Finishers- 147 (50.2%)
12 hour time limit

Fastest time Overall- Class 1- Rob MacCachren-Chenowth- 4:54:00

Rob MacCachren would earn the cover of Dusty Times this month with one of the most impressive runs seen in a long time. The starting order would be Class 10, Class 1 and then class 2. 35 class 10 buggies and 4 class 1 buggies started in front of Rob MacCachren and after the first lap (77 miles), Rob would be the 2nd car on the road. That mean Rob passed the 4 class 1 cars that started in front of him, and then passed 34 class 10 buggies....in only 77 miles! Rob would have to stop for fuel and a torn CV boot along the way, also fighting a broken Parker Pumper, but still managed to win the Overall even AFTER getting assessed a 15 minute penalty for running a check point. Rob won class 1 over Mark McMillin by :53 seconds!













One of the best races of the day came from Manny Esquerra and Roger Mears. Running in the dust, both trucks fighting for the win 3/4 of a mile from the finish, blew a turn and BOTH rolled over an embankment. Roger was able to get his truck righted and towed a short distance while on 3 wheels but then continued to the finish. Manny stayed to work on his truck and then finished a ways behind Roger but Roger was disqualified due to being towed within a mile of the finish line, a BIG No No...

jakey poo

Any updates??

Andrew Parker

Rory, I caught wind of this thread two days ago and have had a very difficult time in doing much of anything else but to read it through as I am sure there are many of us who are quite familiar with the period and are enjoying your travails with great anticipation!...

In the beginning of your thread, there is a picture of were my place is in all of this! The PPI Toyota's are shown as is a picture of Mike Falkosky's Toyota 7S in the lower left hand corner. That bit of publicity is right after we had first got this truck sorted out and were running Jack-man steel wheels because that is what we could get our hands on. Later on we had the American racing aluminum wheels you mentioned when you were having trouble with the rim lock wheels and scored 7 of them. We got Rooky of the year with that truck the first year we championed it. It was an 81-83 body style with three Rough Country B-Mark-5's on the A-arms and four on the rear axle. All of it was quite state of the art for 7S back then. In 83/84 Mike got a brand new truck from Toyota at the Long Beach dock with a damaged tail gate and it cost us $1.00 for the title and the truck was ours. I remember the countless hours spent figuring out how we could get a pair of Rough Country Nitro Chargers mounted through the upper A-Arm down to the lower arm with a two stage Sway-A-Way torsion bar that we had on that truck. It was an EFI turbo truck so it had the bigger transmission and rear end but we ended up putting the Weber's above the valve cover to make room for the upper shock mounts so that the progressive rate would be as best we could manage given the stock limitations in 7S. I know for 7S we had one of the longest travel front ends because we used Henry's ball joints like the Class 8 guys were using which allowed huge swings of the A-arms without binding. We also got the weight bias on this truck much better than the 81/83 truck and with almost 1/3 more wheel travel at 12 to 14 inches this truck fairly sailed over the whoops like we had never been able to do before. I will never forget that experience in heading out from the Barstow Junior College and heading for the Slash X bar as the first time we had a chance to run this truck and it just tip toed across the whoops in second gear at 40 MPH and never pitched or yawed the whole time it swallowed up the bumps. That was complete nirvana for a moment.

Mike was given a brief moment to champion one of the regular cab PPI trucks at a Micky Thompson stadium event some where along the way and I remember the level of fabrication being very high as it had a quick change rear end on it. But the lasting impression was that the steering rack was very limited in lock to lock turning radius and if you didn't steer the rear with the throttle you would not be able to get round the hair pin turns on the track. This also made the truck exceedingly hard to correct for if you over did it and needed to counter steer. We did a lot of doughnuts that day! I hope #001 has something a little bit different than what I remember on the short course truck delivering!

Cheers,

Racersonly

Wow, I apologize in advance for the lack of updates on this thread but time sure does fly by now a days. It has been 3 years this past weekend that my daughter and I made our way down to almost the tip of Baja to go get the 001 PPI Toyota.











It’s come a long ways since then but still has much more to go...






So what’s new? Well, unfortunately not much. I explain the reason below but I try and fit a few little things in here and there so to not totally ignore the Toyota. A couple things that got finished up was the new slip yoke for the back of the trans that had to be custom made (of course).....






Then I stumbled upon a guy who polished wheels who gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I sent him 6 of my beadlock Center Line wheels to polish (minus the beadlock rings). It was such a last minute deal I didn’t even have time to take off the beadlock backing plates so he could get them done right (yes, the se beadlocks come completely off the wheel). Since I was just trying him out I just gave him 6 wheels, I have 6 more that will need to be done. The guy did a fabulous job at a fabulous price so I will send him the other 6 which are in better shape then the 6 I had him do.....






The real reason for the slow down is threefold.
First we are thinking about moving and I have a ton of crap in my shop. I have been buying up old buggy parts for a build I’ve been wanting to do for about 5 years now. Well, a Chenowth 1000 frame practically fell in my lap about 6 months ago and I figured I could kill 2 birds with one stone. What do I mean? Well, I could bolt up a bunch of these parts lying around in my garage onto this chassis and then sell it. The ladder part meaning I could use the money for the sale of the Chenowth for the Toyota. Investing the small amount of money I had left in the Toyota budget into the Chenowth 1000 budget, I could turn it into more money towards the Toyota.

Soooo, possibly moving, get a bunch of parts out of the garage, less stuff to move, make money in the process, then more money for the Toyota.....sounded like a no brainer to me.

Funny thing is, the Chenowth 1000 frame is being built into a tribute car as Ivan Stewart’s old Modern Motors buggy from 1976......the car that earned him the “Ironman” name.
























This is what it should look like when it’s all done...





In action at the 1977 Baja 500.....42 years ago!





Photo credit Centerline Images.

Hopefully you all will forgive me but there is a method to my madness. Well, you’re all caught up on what’s going on. I hope to have the Chenowth done sometime this fall.

jakey poo

Thanks for the update!!! This is one of my favorite threads on this site. I completely understand a slow project! I planned to have my '83 finished last year, but life/money definitely have a way of changing plans!

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

is that a bus transmission or a Rhino case? been out of the AC VW's for awhile now.

That was quite the pile of booger welds you cut out!

saw the recent updates on instragram!
Like Jakey Poo said, one of my favorite builds!

jakey poo

Would love to follow on IG, what's your handle?