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Just curious -- if this thing gets sponsored by somebody with the pockets for it, could this thing possibly go on tour? I can see it drawing a good crowd. I know, pretty ambiguous. I'm more or less just being an excited kid about how cool this truck is lol
maybe get a hold of Slacker on here for the fiberglass work. He owns Toyotafiberglass and while hes based out of Canada, he makes some top notch stuff. You can see his quality in his build threads over in the vendor build ups section.
i love how you go back to the original source when you can keeping the restoration as true to history as you can.
awesome!
Thank you sir, luckily for me there is plenty of guys still around to ask questions and get answers.
Originally Posted by bootscootboogie
Just curious -- if this thing gets sponsored by somebody with the pockets for it, could this thing possibly go on tour? I can see it drawing a good crowd. I know, pretty ambiguous. I'm more or less just being an excited kid about how cool this truck is lol
That is a possibility. Most likely what will happen is that I will take it to shows like SEMA, the Off Road Expo in Pomona and maybe some other off road racing events to put on display. Not only that I will be racing it at the 2019 NORRA Mexican 1000 (I'm shooting for 2018 but not sure that will happen) and then possibly the MINT 400 after that.
Originally Posted by space-junk
maybe get a hold of Slacker on here for the fiberglass work. He owns Toyotafiberglass and while hes based out of Canada, he makes some top notch stuff. You can see his quality in his build threads over in the vendor build ups section.
Too bad he is located so far away, shipping would most likely become an issue but I will look at his work in the shop section....Thanks!
After getting the Mastercraft seats in the mail the other day, I went back out into the garage to start working on the rear hubs. I bought the races and bearings a while back so i was ready for business. The only dilemma I had was that I didn't have the right tool to seat the races into the hubs. I found an old 1/8" round scrap metal that a buddy had made from his plasma cutter a few years ago and he gave me a few in different sizes. I found one that was close and used the bench sander to make it fit the race and inside the hub perfectly...
Then used the socket to tap it into place in the hub...
I placed the races in the freezer for about an hour and THEN tapped them into place and they went in with no problem....repeat X3...
From there I packed the bearings with grease and then mounted the passengers side hub up first...
Keep in mind the hubs still need to be cleaned up a little more but mostly cosmetic but I need the truck to be a roller so I can easily transport it up to Las Vegas next month. After I finished up the hubs I figured all that was left to make it a complete roller was to get the necessary hardware, put in the steering box and slide the torsion bars into place so it can hold its own weight. I stood back and looked at the truck, but not 100% happy with what I was looking at. So, I spend the next hour mocking up the old body with clamps, wood and vice grips so I could get a little motivation on what the 001 is going to look like....
I had to admit, the multi colored race truck is a far cry from what it once was but the 001 is showing some progress and is starting to show its true colors. The rear view isn't that bad either....
I've got a long way to go but all the little stuff that has been going on over the past 6 months is getting us to see the bigger picture and give us a preview of whats to come. I'm now working on a set of used tires so i can mount them to the Centerline wheels so this will be a true roller. The steering box needs to be cleaned up and put back together and i will most likely tackle that early next week, along with the torsion bars.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the interest in the truck. I made a trip down to Long Beach this past week and finally picked up the donor truck for the 001 Toyota. The front PPI clip is in GREAT shape for being made 20+ years ago. It will need some massaging but not too much. I arrived at Richards shop around 11am and started putting some braces on the inside of the front clip to keep it somewhat rigid for the transport home. The hood was never mounted to the Toyota so I had no way of securing it to the truck so in the back of my Ford it went....
The truck was then loaded onto the trailer and we were ready to head back to Arizona...
A highlight for me was meeting Larry Wood. The name might not sound familiar but I'm sure EVERYONE here knows his work. Larry is one of the lead designers at Hot Wheels. Larry also designed the body for the 010 Toyota back in the early 90's. Here's the original body of the 010 truck when it was built...
And here's a picture of the 010 after Larry designed the new body...
It was a pleasure meeting him as he showed me his "man cave" located a couple doors down from Richards shop. Larry likes to tinker on old cars too and has a nice collection of cars.....and a few Hot Wheels diecasts floating around...
I couldn't wait to get home and put the front clip on the Toyota. Once I put it on the truck I noticed a few small tubes need to be cut off because the previous owner added them for the new updated body they were planning on putting on the truck. Getting this piece of fiberglass is HUGE for the restoration because i don't know of any more fiberglass that exists for this truck ANYWHERE. The lines line up really well although it doesn't look like it here in this photo, but it slides into place almost perfectly...
I will cut the fenders from the hood so it will be back to an original 3 piece front end and the fiberglass located where the front grill is will be cut out and be replaced with the 1987 Toyota grill.
I'd also like to thank Ed Wong from Philadelphia for sending me an old TRD catalog that has part numbers for old TRD motors. It might come in real handy when looking for parts for the motor or just searching for certain parts and pieces........THANKS ED!
I will be mounting some old BFG race tires to the Centerlines in a week so I can get this thing back on it's wheels for the first time in almost 15 years (from what I was told). I'm working on the steering box right now and hope to have that in the truck early next week.......then hopefully off to Collins Motorsports for the front end work.
Last edited by Racersonly; 07-19-2017 at 06:00 PM.
I'd also like to thank Ed Wong from Philadelphia for sending me an old TRD catalog that has part numbers for old TRD motors. It might come in real handy when looking for parts for the motor or just searching for certain parts and pieces........THANKS ED!
I'm just so glad I could be a part (albeit a tiny tiny one) of this amazing project
are you gonna make a mold of the hood before its cut up? i mean, if this is the last piece of front end fiberglass in existence, might come in handy when it gets in a fender bender.
are you gonna make a mold of the hood before its cut up? i mean, if this is the last piece of front end fiberglass in existence, might come in handy when it gets in a fender bender.
space-junk, the plan is to get a mold made of the front end (front fenders and hood), but I will wait to do that. I'm guessing when the truck is about 90% complete I will send it out and get a mold made. The mold will NOT be a 1 piece like this one is, it will be a 3 piece like it was originally. I think the guy who made this on made it a 1 piece as he fiberglassed all the original fenders and hood together. I will post on here after I get a mold made to see if anyone is interested in some ORIGINAL PPI Ivan Stewart molds. None of the current fiberglass in the market looks as good as these do, trust me. 😬
Now that i have possession of the fiberglass it is now time to have it mounted. Since I have never mounted glass before i didn't want to practice on the 001 so i figured I would have a professional do it. Darryl Putman who put the cab on the chassis for us will be mounting the fiberglass. The plan is to take it up to him within the next 3 weeks and have him mount the rear bed sides, front clip and the brackets for the front bumper and grill. I'm hoping to order the bumper and grill/headlight rings and side markers this week and mock them into place. Hopefully this will make it easier for Darryl to mount the front clip.
The rear fiber glass has been taken to my buddy Jason Tilley here in town and we started filling in the holes from the old Dzus fasteners. The rear glass is in decent shape but they definitely need some attention. With all the cracks and holes filled in will give Darryl a clean canvas to mount how he wants. The plan is to make new rear fiberglass panels out of the molds that I have but possibly use these panels to run at the NORRA race. The new panels will be used for display purposes only.
Here's Jason prepping the panels for fiberglass. The holes cleaned up and material removed to the existing glass so the new glass will stick to it. There is ALOT of bondo on these panels, they sure got every ounce of use out of these things that's for sure...
As you can see these panels have had quite a few different colors on them over the years. It looks like you can actually see the original red in some of the photos...
Jason then started sanding down parts of the panels that needed to be massaged...
It was now time to mix the resin for the fiberglass...
And apply it to the fenders...
First phase of the glass work is complete, now it will sit for a couple days and we will jump back on it. When I say "we" I mean Jason. This is his line of expertise but I'm very eager to learn the craft. I've never really done fiberglass work but Jason was more than happy to show me. He could most likely have this done in 2 days but is taking his time to show me some stuff and I appreciate that. Ok, here's a pic from the finish of stage 1, lots more to do to get these fenders back in shape...
Big THANKS to my good friend Dave "Modelman" Baldwin for sending me this "SIC" poster from 1986. I've been looking for this poster for a year now and Dave said he had one but needed to find it. Turns out it was hanging in his pops garage behind 2 other posters! It is not safe and sound sitting in my office awaiting a frame so I can hang it in my office...
The truck was originally going to head to Collins Motorsports to have the front suspension worked on but they are about 6 weeks out so I'm trying to fit stuff in between to speed up the process.
Back in the shop and now working on the steering box. Luckily for me the steering box was still with the truck and in very good condition. If there was no steering box I would have been in BIG trouble because redesigning and reproducing it would have cost several thousand dollars. I was told Mike Schoffstall was the one who did all the work on it and started with a solid block of billet aluminum. If the name sounds familiar, after leaving PPI Mike moved on to co-ride/prep Rob MacCachrens class 8 truck...
And then went to co-ride/prep Jimmy Smith's Ultra Wheels Trophy Truck...
The only issue we found was the pinion was cracked and could only be used as a last effort spare, and even then it's questionable. A new pinion will be made later but for right now I just need this thing to steer as we get ready for the truck to be shipped to Vegas and we need it as a roller. Here's the pinion....and of course it's a one off so no running to Butchs speed shop or McKenzies, this has to be cu$tom made....
So, now it's time to put this beast back together. Collins Motorsports had already magnafluxed all the parts so everything (besides the pinion) is in good shape...
I had to order up some brush material to help keep debris out of the inside of the steering box because the old stuff was pretty hammered...
Here's an inside look into the steering box. This is the passenger side and you can see the "rack" hidden inside the channel. The bolt you are looking it is where the tie rod bolts up to...
Here's a look at the drivers side complete with the brushes in place...
There are a lot of parts to this thing but it's pretty straight forward once you see how it goes together. Here it is complete and this is how it would bolt into the truck with the brushes facing the rear of the truck. The pinion is located on the top of the box in the center...
Here's the front side of the box, missing the ram that goes in to the aluminum shield but you get the idea. The ram is here, just need to have some new seals put in it...if i can find some that is...
Soooo, the steering is near complete but good enough to bolt back into the truck and steer the truck as a roller. While working on the #001, the UPS truck showed up with some goodies I ordered...
And Jason at SBP Motorsports is getting closer to having the rear fenders completed...
Pretty good week, we'll see what next week brings us.
Jason Tilley at SBP Motorsports is still working on the rear fenders in between doing his real job, should be done today or tomorrow. The fenders had a TON of bondo on them and he had to do a lot of sanding to lighten them back up. He will be shooting one more light coat of primer today....
The UPS truck showed up again the other day and dropped off the 3 piece front bumper...
and side markers...
Now I have the entire front end ready to be mounted...
Been a little side tracked the last 2 days as I'm getting ready to have Challenger IV prepped for a museum stay to empty out my garage for a while. It will be nice knowing Challenger IV will be sitting in air conditioned bliss for a change, she deserves it.
I bet you wish you had a better A/C unit or a swamp cooler right about now...The weather in the NW is approaching 100, I can only imaging desert conditions!
The biggest off road race in the world (arguably), The Baja 1000, would once again prove disappointing to the PPI Toyota team as bad luck continued to haunt them. Ivan would draw the #2 starting position along with a field of 17 class 1 unlimiteds as they headed south down the Baja Peninsula. His race would be cut short after he passed the only buggy in front of him (Bud Feldkamp/Ron Gardner). This put Ivan first on the road and leading, which has its disadvantages like sweeping the course of spectators. Ivan would get tangled up with a 3 wheeler (spectator) coming backwards on the race course causing damage to his Toyota. He would continue on only to lose the motor before Valle De Trinidad.
Photo credit Centerline Photo
The #002 of Frank Arciero would have a little better luck but could only manage a 7th place finish in class 2 after problems plagued their Toyota.
Here's the rest of the story with captions from the December 1985 issue of Dusty Times magazine.
Words: Jean Calvin
Photo's: Trackside Photo
Race Specs:
Race distance approx 822 Miles
Car/Truck/motorcycle entries- 211
Finishers- 111
35 hour time limit
45% finished the race
The Biggest story of the race was Steve Sourapas and Dave Richardson winning the race OVERALL in a class 10 buggy! The first and ONLY time a class 10 has won the race OVERALL.
Just a little update to give you an idea of how the "little" things turn into a PITA. I need to put some tires on the Toyota so i can make it a roller. My buddy Joe Hauler gave me some 33X10.50X15 BFG's that were on their last leg, which is pretty much what I needed (thanks buddy). I was one short so my other buddy Ron Banks let me borrow one. I went to put them on the beadlock wheels and i'll be damned if i get get the 5/16" bolts to work...HMPT. Upon further inspection 1/4" bolts are too small so i was guessing metric. Well, a 7mm fit barley but it was almost too snug. I took the beadlock down to my nut and bolt guy and he also scrathed his head. He found the perfect bolt for the beadlock, unfortunate for me it was an aircraft bolt so 100 of them cost me more than i was willing to spend (but did) for some beadlock bolts that I did'nt think I was going to have t buy because i have a couple million of them in the garage. Oh well, they look good and if i feel like safety wiring them i can, hahahaha......
Long story short I have 3 of the 4 wheels mounted but of course they all leak air so i might just have to use some tubes. Another option is use some of my 5 on 5 American Racing wheels that are basically the same wheel minus the beadlock that I used on Challenger IV. I'll see how i'm feeling tomorrow and go from there. On a side note the front of the truck is now resting on the front wheels for the first time in about 10-15 years (I'm guessing). Nice little milestone for me...
Not a bad day all in all but just some of the little things that eat up a $100 bill on a daily basis when you thought you were in the clear. I should have just bought the truck when it was for sale in the back of Dusty Times magazine back in September of 1988.....I would have bought them BOTH, WITH THE MOTORS, AND I'D STILL BE SAVING MONEY!!! hahhahaha....
It's been a pretty good week for me and the first really big goal has been accomplished. Before i get to that there were a couple obstacles to overcome. Remember when I said I went and got all that hardware for the beadlocks? Well, after fighting with them all for about 3 hours it turns out that NONE of them will hold air. I kinda figured they would leak a little but maybe take a few days to go flat....try abut 20 minutes. I haven't had a chance to take the old silicone off the wheels and give them a fresh application which it needs.
As fate would have it, I bumped into a buddy of mine a couple days earlier at the hardware store for the Centerlines and he said he had 7 American Racing Outlaw II's just sitting in this garage and wanted them gone. I didn't really think much of it until and said I didn't think I needed them. Well, turns out I did. A quick call to Frank Russell and i was on my way to pick them up. Frank has helped me over the years and was a lot of help when helping diagnose the overheating issue on Challenger IV a couple weeks before the NORRA race back in 2014. Anyways, all I had to do was ream out the lug holes to accept the 11/16" studs.
I then started on the rear torsion adjusters and cleaned up some of the aluminum that held the cantilevers into place...
The steering box was next and that turned into a fun day. What should have taken me 20 minutes turned into 3 hours because a certain bolt going into the passenger side upright decided to get stuck. After throwing the majority of wrenches within my reach I decided I would leave it alone for now as it was still steering without issue. The steering box going into place...
B O O M ! !
Keep in mind I have not completely finished the steering box and the shafts. For now I'm using the old shafts just so i can get it steering again. Here's a top view of the steering box in place...
The "thingy" the red steering shaft is attached to is an Ingersoll Rand 90 degree impact adapter.....I think thats what Tommy Morris said it was. anyways, you can kinda get the idea of how the steering works between the two pics. Thanks for designing this stuff at NASA boys, I R E A L L Y appreciate it...
First major goal has been achieved, the 001 PPI Toyota is now sitting on all fours and is a roller!
Rear...
A couple more things to button up before it heads to Las Vegas again on Saturday to get the body hung. Thanks again to Frank Russell for the wheels, saved me a couple extra days of grunt work that I don't really have right now. Motivation is in FULL SWING!
Thanks Daniel. Spent a lot of time in the shop this week buttoning up some stuff for the roller so it could make the trip up to Las Vegas. Darryl Putman will once again work his magic mounting the body and maybe a few other little things. Time is tight so we will have to see what he can get done in the short time he will have the truck. Besides mounting the steering box I went ahead and put all the Bilstien shocks on the truck too. After the truck gets the body mounted it will go back to Collins Motorsports to have the front suspension massaged. Here's the front end lookin' purdy...
And the rear...
The truck made it to Vegas with no issues. On my way I stopped off at Butch's Speed shop to see if they had a 40 spline adapter for the steering wheel. Of course since it is an odd ball one that doesn't get used they didn't but lucky for me I got my buddy Tommy Morris on the phone and he replies with "I've got 3 of them sitting in my garage, I'll send you one". I'll need one of these so I can weld a plate on it for the steering wheel adapter...
The truck was unloaded into Darryl's shop and went over the to do list with him...
I started cutting off a few mounts on the hood area so we could lay the hood on correctly so we could get a better look at it. I didn't want to start cutting anything off until I talked with him first since he's the guy that has done this before, not me...
hood pins...
Darryl has a lot of work in front of him but I hope he'll get it all finished when i pick it up at the end of September. My garage has no race cars what so ever in it right now which is so strange for me since I always seem to have something in there.
Updates will now come from Darryl when he gets a chance to send me pic's. I'm sure I can find some other parts to work on while the trucks gone.
Not much to progress to report on the truck just yet as Darryl is finishing up some work on another project before he can start mine. Also, I ordered some Dzus hardware the other day and it should be arriving at his shop sometime today....
The most exciting thing that happened this week was BFGoodrich Tires sent us some new shoes for the #001 PPI Toyota so she would be sitting pretty at the Off Road Expo coming up at the end of September. I don't think BFG could let us put the Toyota on display with old tires on the truck and supplied us with a set of tires and 2 spares for the back of the truck. Fronts will be 33x10.50x15's, while the rears will run 33x12.50x15's, all of which will be the Mud-Terrain TA's.
The same day the tires arrived is the same day the steering wheel spline bung showed up from Tommy Morris. I can't tell you how lucky I am to have the guy who helped design, build and race these trucks help me with some key questions about such a complicated race car. It absolutely makes restoring one of these trucks a lot easier knowing I can just pick up a phone and call him...
On a side note, Tommy was having Lunch with Cal Wells last week and called me to see if I had any questions for him. Of course i had a million but couldn't think of any except to ask for permission to make a mold of the front fiberglass and possibly sell a few. I was planning on making a mold no mater what but selling them was a different story as the design was not mine to sell. Cal gave me his blessing so when ever I get a mold made of the front clip I can sell them.....Thanks again Tommy (and Cal).
I have some clean up work to do on some parts I'd like to have powdercoated before the Off Road Expo that would make the truck more "Presentable" so I will get that stuff ready so i can bolt it back on the truck when it returns.
Until next time, enjoy a couple of old school Coors commercials featuring the #001....
07-05-2017, 04:27 PM
