Racersonly

With the Toyota up in Las Vegas getting the body mounted, I have some time to get other stuff cleaned up and ready for powdercoat. First thing I did was removed the over Dzus buttons that were on the sides of the radiator scoop...



Then I finished up cleaning some odds and ends that will be powdercoated gloss black....



Here's some other pieces that were sandblasted and now ready for some brite red powdercoat...



Also have to finish up stripping the old paint off the oil cooler mounts and the radiator mount (not pictured) so they will also be ready when the time comes...



ALLCOAT in Kingman Arizona is handling all our powdercoating needs, as usual, and should have everything back in a couple weeks...

Racersonly

History lesson- Race #15, The 1985 Frontier 250

For Team Toyota the season would come to a close the first week of December as team Toyota was just finishing up licking their wounds from the Baja 1000. Some changes were in store for the 1986 season including slimming the race team down to 1 truck instead of two. Frank Arciero made the best of his last run in the class 2 unlimited Toyota as he ran a good strong race and ended up 2nd in class and 5th Overall on what most racers would call a pretty rough course.....more suited for the buggies. Ivan luck ran out within the first few miles of the race as his motor went south and they had to call it a day...



Here's the rest of the story with captions from the January 1986 issue of Dusty Times magazine.
Words: Jean Calvin
Photo's: Trackside Photo

Race Specs:
Race distance approx 240 Miles
Car/Truck entries- 259
Finishers- 116
10 hour time limit
44.8% finished the race

Walker Evans would earn the cover of Dusty Times with his Air Conditioned class 8 Dodge. Walker got to enjoy the AC for another season before class 8 was too competitive to have such luxuries adding weight to his race truck. Interesting side note, Curt LeDuc was his co-rider for this race...



Ron Brant on his way to the SCORE/HDRA class 1 points Championship, along with his 1st win of the season...



The debut of the Raceco pickup truck, built in 9 days!!!! Not a bad 1st race...



Rod Hall at it again...



Class 7s, 5/1600 and 14 winners...



Always a fan favorite, the class 3 winner all the way from New England!



Some kid by the name of Rob "MaCcracken" won class 10 in a Bunderson, was in contention for the Overall win but had a few problems to push him back to 4th Overall...





The list of results....

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

the caption under the 55 chevy is so sad. poor lonely guy. hahaha.

Racersonly

Yea, but that 55' Chevy had to do ALL the race miles just like everyone else.....hahahahaha.

Turns out the truck will not be going to the Off Road Expo this week, there was a little scheduling conflict but nothing major. We will reschedule a date to display the truck at Bilstein shocks later. The truck is slated for display at the BFGoodrich booth (outside near the SCORE display) for the SEMA show so we want to make it as purdy as possible for the event.

I returned from Kingman Az the other day with a load of parts freshly powder coated by my buddies at ALLCOAT. It's truly amazing what a little powder coat will do to a part. Although a lot of the suspension parts will NOT be powder coated due to constant rock rash, a lot of the other parts protected behind aluminum panels and other things got the preferred treatment. Here's a few pieces for the trans, radiator mount, rear end tie down loops, misc screws and jack mounts that we did in red...



Radiator mount...



Oil cooler mounts...



And some misc parts for the front bumper, spare tire mounts, pedals, shifter and mount for oil cooler...



Spare tire carrier and radiator scoop are also done (in black) and will be mounted shortly. Some of this stuff will be mounted on the truck for the SEMA show so the truck will look more like Ivans race truck then just a primered Toyota mini truck. We can't wait to see how Darryl is doing with the mounting of the body, this will be another big step in the process.

Racersonly

Darryl Putman is moving right along with the mounting of the body. He is only able to work on it during the weekends due to his full time job so it slows the process down a little. Darryl is so anal retentive I give him a break on hounding him too harshly because i know it will be done right and that takes time. Here are a few shots of the front end as of last week. As you can see below the front bumper needed to be trimmed down...



The front tubing for the grille and headlight supports had to be cut off because the originals were replaced to accommodate a Tacoma grille buy the previous owner. Darryl put it back to the way it was in 1988...


Grille is tacked into place...



Turns out the fiberglass front clip had been modified when they made a mold to make it a one piece so I had to drop off the old hood so Darryl could get a better measurement on how to cut it out. He will also have to start shaving the fenders to get them back down to the width they were in 1988. We thing the hood has been widened approx 3" in the center, more towards the front. The measurement at the back of the front fenders is close so I'm guessing we will have to shave 1-2" at the front of the fender and back to about 1" at the rear of the fender. With the old hood on Darryl was able to find the correct location of the grille, then the headlight bezels and corner markers followed...



Another...



With the front "kinda" figured out, Darryl moved to the rear to start laying out the fenders...



This will most likely be a heck of a lot easier than the front. The rear hoops are done, now it's time for the front mounts (he's working on those as we speak) so the rear of the truck could be done SOON!



I'm pleased with the progress so far, although I would like to get the truck back ASAP so I can clean up some stuff and add some powder coated parts on the truck (Spare tire mounts, radiator scoop) for SEMA so it shows better. I'd also like to primer the cab and then put some decals on the truck along with a story board of some sort. Oh well, I will cross that bridge when i come to it. Enjoy the update....

Dans91_yota

glad to see this awesome piece of history coming back to life and with some much love behind it as well.
keep the posts coming

Racersonly

History lesson- Race #16, The 1986 Parker 400

Correction from the last update. Frank Arciero's last ride in the class 2 Toyota did not come until late in the 1986 season. I was misinformed and took it a face value....bad off road wannabe historian....BADD! Anyways, Both Ivan and Frank would have sub par results at the Parker 400. Ivan would be close to the front of the class after the California loop, as was Frank, but then both fell victims to problems that slowed them on the Arizona side. Ivan would finish 6th in class 1 while Frank finished 14th in the class 2.



Course maps.

California side (1 lap)...



Arizona side (2 laps)...



Here's the rest of the story with captions from the March 1986 issue of Dusty Times magazine.
Words: Jean Calvin
Photo's: Trackside Photo

Race Specs:
Race distance approx 317.38 Miles
Car/Truck/Bike entries- 415
Finishers- 207
12 hour time limit
49.9% finished the race

Overall 4 wheeled winner: Tom Koch, class 1 unlimited Raceco. 5:12:54.
Overall bike winner: Dan Smith/Dan Ashcraft, Husky. 5:06:43. 61.99 mph average

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

gotta ask, are you gonna take a lap in this when you are done?

Racersonly

Oh HELL YES!!!! Plan is to have it completed by the end of 2018 and then test in early 2019. I would like to race it at the MINT 400 and of course the NORRA Mexican 1000. Keep in mind when I say race i would drive it at about 75%. I've had great success driving at that pace and keeping the car in one piece with minimal to no problems.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

i don't blame you for not going balls to the wall, good to hear you are gonna put it back into action.
Quite the investimate in time, money etc to get it period correct.

Racersonly

Got some good news last night, Darryl Putman is almost done mounting the body and should be completed this Sunday. Darryl has had his hands full with mounting the body, especially the front clip. One thing "HE" noticed was that the front of the Ivan Stewart truck IS about 2-3" wider than stock. He found this out by looking closely at some old race photos and seeing that the headlight bezel area was wider than stock on both sides. If you look closely behind the KC logo on the truck you will see a 2" gap between the chrome headlight bezel and side marker light (blinker)...



Here's some photos of the body close to completion. A shot of the inner fender well where the front fender mounts to the grille area...



Front fender rear mount...



Rear fender mount behind cab...



Rear fender mount rear of truck...



Darryl had to do some trimming on both rear fenders because stuff was not lining up. As you can see he figured it out...



Here's the front clip mounted and now a 3 piece kit instead of a 1 piece...



Here's a good shot of it about 90% complete. Still need to finish mounting the door skins and side marker lights, then hopefully I have enough time to rattle can the cab primer for SEMA and put a few stickers on it.



She's looking good so far, finally looking like a truck again.

Dans91_yota

the build looks fantastic, im very excited and im sure everyone else is as well to see the end if this amazing build.
I wish i could take on an endeavor this awesome.

Racersonly

Dan, it's not as bad as you would think. If you just concentrate on one thing at a time it makes it a lot more manageable. Yesterday a guy named Lewis posted a picture of the Toyota from the 1987 Baja 500 and i noticed something on the back of the truck that wasnt there in previous races. Here's the post from RDC...

Lewis, YOU'RE A GENIUS!!! I've been trying to figure out what the hell this was for and you answered the riddle for me! Well, sort of. Now that I know where it goes I have to figure out what it was used for. Looks like some sort of fluid carrier. Doubt it's for the radiator since the water fill for the radiator is located under the "5" on the number 105.







Now if i could only figure out where this goes.....and what it is for!







Awww the joys of restorations, sometimes out of the blue an answer finds its way to you. Thanks again Lewis.

Racersonly

Sneak peak...

Prafeston

Man this is one sweet project. I'm following!

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

for that last part, any other place on the truck that looked like it had copious amounts of velcro?
thinking it was inside the truck, maybe behind the seat...wild guess though at it being for the interiour

Racersonly

Sorry for the shortage of updates lately but not much has been going on since the truck came back from Darryl Putmans to get the fiberglass hung. Racing with Cody Swanty at the Baja 1000 did not help but who's going to turn down that gig right?!? Here's some up close pic's of his work. There rear hoop uses the existing mounts from the frame...



The front half of the rear fender is mounted to the rollcage and the back of the cab, just like it was originally...





Here's the front fender where it mounts near the door...



And a couple shots of the front clip...





Here's a shot from the front of the truck looking back at the inner front fender...



And the passenger side...



Now that I have the truck back it is time to schedule another stint at Collins motorsports to massage the front suspension. When thats complete it will go back to Darryl so he can cut the top off the cab and put a new roof on the Toyota due to cancer eating away at the a-pillars and some other issues...



Back of the cab...



Glad to be back on the truck, its been too long since i've worked on it so I need to get back into the groove. It will be interesting to see where we are at this time next year. I'm hoping it will be close to complete by then but I'm not holding my breath, Thanks for sticking with the build everyone.

Racersonly

Phase 3 is now underway.

I call it phase 3 because it's work that can't be done by me and the other 2 phases were the rear suspension and mounting of the cab. Collins motorsports will be working on the front suspension over the next couple weeks and buttoning up a few odds and ends while it's there. The front suspension is pretty much complete but there is a little binding when the suspension goes through the travel. Not really unheard of if you've ever had a VW beam car, sometimes the beam gets tweaked and it will bind a little, just enough that there is a little resistance. This can still be raced on and for the most part won't cause you any problems.....as long as the binding isn't too bad. The binding isn't too bad and it might just be that the front isn't shimmed yet and a few of the delrin bushings need some love. The lower arms are using the Delrin bushings...


photo credit Lance Barron (1984-ish).

The upper arm is a little more sophisticated as it uses brass bushings inside aluminum blocks that the a-arm rotates on...





There are also brass shims that push the upper arm forward or backwards to fins it's happy place. If thats not enough there are also shims that are located BEHIND the aluminum blocks to push the upper arm in or out for camber adjustments.....there is a lot going on there. This is the reason I have Collins motorsports handling this portion of the restoration. We will find the happy spot for the front suspension and then note all of the shims in the book so we know where everything goes.

I have to mount the trans back in the truck but it turns out that the rear output shaft is the wrong one for this truck. Jeff Field had to change out the rear shaft in the trans (upgrade) to a 30 spline and now I have to find the correct output shaft...



The trans needs to be mounted back in the truck to set the limit straps and remeasure the driveline. After thats all set and done it will come back home.



So here she sits, waiting for the completion of phase 3, very exciting as phase 4 consists of a new top for the cab and then separating the cage from the chassis for bodywork and paint prep.

Greg_Canada

Truck is looking awesome - I'm going to be in Vegas Dec29-Jan2... think I might be able to check it out in person? Would love to see this in the flesh. I do however assume they may be closed over the holidays.

Racersonly

Greg,

I'm not the one who makes the rules on shop tours but I'm sure if you give Collins motorsports a call they might be able to oblige. I've never asked them what their polocy is on shop tours but I can tell you some shops get a little "funny" about tours......mostly due to liability issues. Give them a call and ask for Robbie or Billy!