Well I've been putting this off for too long. As the title says, I have an 85 sr5 ex cab Yota that I bought approx. 7 years ago then sold a year or so later and re-acquired 2 years ago. Unfortunately the buddy I bought it back from didn't treat it so well. He dd it for a year and then it became his mudder/wood hauler/dumpster. Luckily when he was ready to get rid of it he gave me first dibs (which he promised to do when I sold it to him). And I picked it back up for next to nothing. I've been trying to work on it as much as time and money allow which isn't much. I also have an 88 Yota that was originally going to be my project truck but became my parts truck when I got my 85 back. So far I have patched the rear frame at the front spring mounts, swapped the new gas tank from the 88, put some 56" ford springs in the rear, and I have assembled my ruf packs for the front. For now I want to get my ruf packs installed, get the flatbed I made for it bolted on, figure out what I need for shocks (front and rear), high steer, rebuild the front knuckles, and a few other things but for now i'll just post some pics.

 

This is what I saw when I went to pick it up I had to unload all the junk in the back into another truck b4 I could drive it home. And let me tell ya it was an interesting drive. It would spit and sputter intermittently. Later I found out that the gas tank had a hole in it, the pass front brake line was leaking, and the e-brake was stuck on.

 

Here's a few pics of my parts truck. Also these are the only pics I have of the flatbed I built. Sorry bout the pics, all of them are from my cell phone.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a pic of the taillight housings I made

 

Here's a shot of the hole in the old gas tank.

 

This is where I patched the frame on the driver's side, it didn't have any holes thru yet but the pass side did and I figured I would make them match.

 

Here's the new tank installed and u can kinda see the bracket I fabbed up to mount it to the new crossmember I welded in.

 

Another shot of the tank and mount.

 

This is a pic of the rear frame. You can see I replaced both crossmembers and I have the ford springs installed here.

 

This is the truck a couple weeks after I got it home. The wheels are Chevy rally wheels painted black. The center hole wasn't big enuf to fit over the front hubs so I cut them out bigger with the plasma torch. Fit perfectly now and I like the look.

 

The other side.

 

This is how the truck currently sits with the ford springs on the back.

 

The driver's side. If the tires look odd it's because there are 31's on the front and 33's on the back.

 

Here's my ruf packs. I cleaned them up with a wire brush on my grinder and gave them a coat of rust converting paint.

 

Here's where things get a lil interesting, I thought I would try painting the leaves with EZ-SLIDE. Its a graphite based paint that is used for painting the inside of gravity wagons and other agricultural equipment. My hope is that it will help the springs flex a lil easier and keep them from squeaking.

 

Got em all painted