85sr5excab's 85 sr5 ex cab build
 

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.

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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.
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Here's a pic of the taillight housings I made
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Here's a shot of the hole in the old gas tank.
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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.
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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.
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Another shot of the tank and mount.
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This is a pic of the rear frame. You can see I replaced both crossmembers and I have the ford springs installed here.
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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.
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The other side.
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This is how the truck currently sits with the ford springs on the back.
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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.
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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. Attachment 158807

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.
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Got em all painted
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