Build for a buddy. 2wd SAS 84/1st gen truck
 

Well it all started out with a mutual friend of my good buddy chris AKA (kornhuskerwizard), wanting to rebuild a pretty cool 1st gen 4x4 pickup with a bad frame.

Since I am an auto instructor at a local high school in my town, I decided to offer up my services of having my advanced class help with the build. They do job shadowing at a local GMC dealer Tuesdays and Thursdays but are back with me the rest of the time.

So here we are. I am going to try and update this thread as we go along.

We started the build a few weeks ago by getting the original truck to the school, and tearing into it.

Her she is.
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The plan was to find a frame, and swap the cab, and drivetrain over to the frame. Well as fate would have it, the 1st gen cab was pretty roasted just like the frame. All four cab mounts were severely rusted out beyond a reasonable repair.

So I ended up finding a nice 2wd Frame in St. Joe, MO that the owner of the project picked up and brought to me.

Nice frame with no rot or rust anywhere!
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Had all the students help carry it in and quickly get it setup on some stands.


From there we did an initial inspection of what we could use. The engine and transmission are pretty solid. And from what we know, the engine has had some work done to it as per the previous owners word.

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Then we came to find that the floor was worse than we though. But hey It has hardwood floors!!
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Kind of a bummer for everyone, as we wanted to see this build with the nostalgic 1st gen cab.

But the hunt was on for a decent 2nd gen body, since they are easier to find than a 1st gen.

Low and behold, Chris (kornhuskerwizard) has a buddy that was looking to part with a basically complete 84 regular cab pickup.
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We got the truck this last Sunday 3-9-14, and started to plan a few things out.

Basically a complete truck minus the bed, tranny and transfercase. This truck had a way better cab with a little bit of rot on the drivers floor board. Plus the axles are in way better shape than on the 1st gen.

Monday morning:
Yanked engine out and started to make progress on getting the cab removed.
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Monday afternoon

Had all the body mounts out and everything disconnected minus the e-brake cable.

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Tuesday Morning 3-11-14

Got the cab down off the lift and onto some dollies I had the students make last year for cradle drops.

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Started dropping the gas tank, which is different from the one that we need. We need the shorter 2wd tank.
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We were able to get all the useable brake brackets and lines off of the 84 frame and swapped onto the 2wd frame.


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The kids mentioned doing some bodywork to the cab, since they wanted to learn. And I know enough to get myself in trouble so we started tearing into that.

I have some older body work tools that we started using to pull a larger size dent on the drivers side of the cab.
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I am going to have some of the kids weld the holes up from the slide hammer tomorrow.

A few of them were anxious to see how to mix body filler and spread it. So I showed them how to mix and let one of them spread it on a small dent on the passenger side roof.
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End of day today

We were able to get alot of work done in the last two days. Tomorrow we are going to keep progressing with the body work and removing parts from the two frames.


Also made a big order in a Lowrange yesterday afternoon.
We are going with the OME 2" lift leaf packs and OEM greaseable shackles. Got everything in the mail to build the suspension and SAS the front end.


Will update tomorrow with more progress.

I hope you guys like the build. The kids and I are pretty excited to get it all complete.

Wow You guys are getting alot accomplished!! Making one outta 3!!! Great pictures and progress. Glad to hear you made an order with lowrange for your suspension. I wish we could of done stuff like that when i was in school, instead i made a sweet magazine rack outta maple wood!!!!Keep up the good work buddy!!!

I am so happy to see this project! My 8th grader is signing up for Tech classes for next year. Are your shop students 10th, 11th and 12th graders? He won't start at the Tech Center 'til 10th grade. We toured it and they just built it 5 years ago. He took wood shop in 7th grade and will take small engine and an intro course in 9th grade. You must have a lot of patience!


Anyway, subscribed!

I wish I could have done stuff like this in High school also! We did not even have the option to have Auto unless we went to an auxiliary location that had nothing but auto.

Thanks for subscribing!

My students range from 10th -12th graders. But right now, Last trimester, I primarily have 11-12 graders. We have the same policy as far as needing to be in 10th grade before you can come over to our facility. Alot of the students like coming here, but there are also alot that are very much not motivated to do anything.
Glad to hear that there are still kids that want to take these classes. Sometimes it feels like our numbers are slowly dieing.

Update
 

Well I received some bad new from Lowrange last night.

They emailed me saying that the Front springs were out of stock! Good thing I called, because they have Nothing OME brand left in stock. Nothing!

They informed me that there is a Boat shipment getting sent from Australia to ARB -usa with OME components but no Springs. The guy even said that their source told them, they are not even sure what all is on it!!!

So Now its time to develop a Plan B.

Any of you guys have suggestions on an equivalent setup for the springs? We are really not looking to go with anything crazy like 4-5". Just keep it simple maybe 3" at most. I saw a few other brands that I have used on other trucks like Procomp, Skyjacker, etc... but not sure if we want to go that route.

I also know that TG and some others have a 3" option, but now we are talking alot more money, since they are more of a high dollar (totally worth it if you chose to go that route) option.


Thanks for checking in guys. I will post back later with more progress.

I have a Rep Coming today from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA from the Toyota and Lexus dealer certification program. I think I am more excited for him to come down that the students are.

Thats awesome you have your students working in it to learn. We had auto tech at my high school but he would only let 10-15 students in each year(year long class). So I did machinist class and learned auto from my dad and working on my 78 Bronco. Can't wait to see how the kids do

Its pretty fun working with the kids who want to be here. I wish they could let me be more selective on who comes in and the # of students I have in my classes. Right now they let anyone and everyone in and, a typical class size for me is 23-27 students. Which is a lot, especially with no other help.

Looks like a great project you have going on there. Looking forward to the build. Wish we would of had something like this when I was in auto classes in high school. I would of been all over something like that. Let me see if I cant fudge a few numbers on my birth certificate and sign up for your class. lol, Those kids are lucky to a teacher like you and the oppurtunity to learn early on major projects like that. I had to self teach myself and that is the long slow way.

Keep up the good work Mark.

Thanks for the compliments Terry. I also wish I had this kind of opportunity when I was in High School. It makes me wonder how much more advanced I would me at this very moment in my life.

Update 3-13-14
 

Have some bad news and some good news.

Had to cancel the entire Lowrange order since non of the OME stuff was a guarantee on arrival time. Bummer.

But now we have decided to go with some NWOR 2" springs all the way around. I just found out yesterday, when I spoke with them, that their springs are USA made!! And in stock!!!

So I am going to be making a call back today to put in an order for the springs, shackles, and u-bolts.


Onto the pics.

We were able to get some more bodywork done yesterday. I had them using an older style slide hammer to get out a big dent on the back of the cab. Then I showed them how to fill the holes with the 110v MIG welder that I have. We were able to go over the different wire sizes and feed/voltage settings and how they effect the weld.
They also got to experience the Thin Toyota metal. haha

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We were also able to get alot more of the 2wd brackets that are welded to the frame off. The kids could not believe how tough that stuff was.
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We were also able to get some primer down on the Wiper Cowl, and part of the door.
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Awesome project! I think that's cool that your introducing the next generation to toyota's at a young age! I'm sure some of them will catch the bug and be yota enthusiasts for life!
Are you guys doing a small block Chevy swap as well? Lol.

Lookin good!

Train em young!

I have already been converting them!! MMMMWWWWWWAAAAAAAAA

In the last two years, I have had two students buy a yota and another kid is now looking to buy one.

I honestly think they see me work on them and realize that they are fun to work on, easy to work on, and reliable. And not to mention parts are cheap.

Plus they know Im a Yota parts hoarder, so I typically always have parts that they or I need.

Funny you say about the SBC swap. We did one last year on my buddies (283yotacrawler) truck. He unfortunately stripped the project and sold everything.

Oh yes. Kornhuskerwizard calls them my young Jedi's

Update #2 today ---3-13-14
 

So I finalized the total on the NWOR order for next week. But I am having an issue finding OEM stock Height greaseable shackles. No one has them in stock. Well Lowrange has the front ones in stock but does not have a rear.

So now I am debating to build my own or not.

On to the pics.

Did a little more body work today on the back of the cab. I had a few different students mix up the body filler and spread some on.

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And started sanding down the fenders, as well as filling a few holes from the PO dent repair.
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We were short handed today and waiting for parts, so we worked on one of the students cars.

It is a GS eclipse. He bought a header and down pipe for it. I surprised him with a Turbo Back SS exhaust that I had from a GS-t a few years back. We are going to have to make a piece to fit in between the down pipe and the rest of the exhaust tomorrow.
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Hopefully I can figure out something on the shackles and get moving when the Suspension arrives.

your a man of magic my freind! Coming along nicely. The brigade of young jedis will be ready to destroy the HEAP deathstar in no time. By the way i noticed the skidsteer in the background.... thats sweet as well as the ramhorn exhaust manifolds on the v8s sitting in the background on the primered cowl shots. These kids are a inspiration to me hoping my son follows the same mechanical knowlege path himself. Your a great teacher.

HAHA Heap destroyers, front and center!!

Im fixing the skidsteer for a friend of mine that used to teach building tech here in the district. Its currently having some ignition issues. Has an older Onan engine in it.

I have quite a few of those old ram horns laying around here. We are getting ready for my intermediate level class to start tearing down those blocks. Hopefully they can gather all the info they need off of all the casting numbers I made them find yesterday.

There is no doubt your son will be interested in this stuff. Look at you! You are a great dad and always have him around when you are working in on stuff. Thats how I started when I was a kid.