Hey all, so this is my first post I thought I'd share my 86 pickup.
Im on the north eastern side of the US, so salt and rust is a serious issue, I found my truck for 700 bucks (2017) an hour away from me running and driving (22r), bone stock with a title and some frame rot. It had a flatbed on it as I'm sure the original rusted out years ago, but it did only have 60k miles on it. I took it home, cut as much rot out as I could and ended up plating the frame from the cab back with 3/16" plate on all four sides. I also cut out the old rear crossmember and replaced it with one I bend out on a brake.
In 2018 I fixed all the other rust issues expect for the fenders as you will see, I polished the aluminum on the bed and gave the bed some paint, and got some decent 33x12.5x15 tires and some (I think) pro comp 15x9 rims

Stock ride height on 33s.

Mid 2018 after having a lot of trouble getting hi centered, I decided after a lot of research to go with some 63" chevy springs, I used the Low Range offroad kit, and some 2500 4wd springs (I think), I took one leaf out for a 3 leaf pack, I made my own adjustable upper shock mount and I designed and had my uncle cut out some lower brackets, and i got a crazy deal on some 12" travel bilstein 5100 series. I had to mount them / \ to have enough up and down travel without hitting the bed (flatbed probelms) so I designed and 3d printed some 3" spacers from nylon (Still holding up to this day) and did a cheap-o-depot 4" front ifs lift with blocks and a diff drop.

63" chevy leafs, 3" spacers on the bed, 4" front ifs lift (blocks and diff drop) and I know I'm missing a lug on the back, its fixed now.
2020: I should mention I'm a college student, I'm going for electrical engineering, this is my last year of school. I mainly work for my dad fabricating, or working on machines in the strip mines in my area (he gets around a lot) so with the stuff going on and my school closing in person I've had a lot more time to work and save (we were considered essential) and now. After breaking some ifs stuff, hating the ride, and wanting to be able too flex in the rock bars (the 63s are amazing). I'm finally ready to sas my rig, I've got a solid front and rear with 4.11 gears (mines got 3.xx in it now) only paid $400 for the set and no chunks in the oil or anything weird.

Front axle as I was starting the rebuild.
It's now sitting rebuilt, and when the shop is less busy I'll get some trusses cut out (I want some cool logos on them) I plan to do just a standard truss then some balljoint gussets. I've also got the stuff to swap to vented rotors and swap my ifs hubs onto it. Once Christmas is over I'll order my hangers and hi-steer (I think I'll go Allpro as their hi-steer is priced well) and I'm just going to make my driveshaft (done so before with my dads help) and make a custom ruf pack using my stock rear spring and a pack I got from an 87 with 80k miles at a junkyard.
Future plans include getting a 4-runner electronic locking diff, new or cutting the rot out of the front fenders, getting a heavier front bumper, and potentially swapping over to a 22-re, although my 22r runs flawlessly after a little tune up.

Doesn't look too bad wet.

How it sits now, needs new fenders and a bumper.
Any advice or comments are appreciated. I'll post updates as I get parts in.

 

Looking good man! Where in the Northeast are ya?

 

Thanks, and I'm from the mountains of Maryland!

 

Well after 5 years I suppose it is time for an update. I've been wheeling the crap out of this rig with the IFS and a cheap-o IFS lift. I also found a junkyard XJ front bumper, which actually looks great adapted over to the Toyota.


This IFS has been beating me to death however lol. So I finally finished gathering parts for the SAS. In typical SAS fashion I cut off the IFS to start.

I'll skip the in-between since its been done thousands of times. Next up drilling the frame holes and mocking up the front hanger, I am planning an abnormal RUF setup so I opted to drill the rear hangers a bit further back then normal.

Now on the drivers side I've been aware of some typical rust damage, so before I install my frame plates I'm finally going to fix it right. Cut out the rust and install some fresh 3/16" plate, pretty happy with how it turned out.




This is probably overkill, but I wanted to make sure I never need to mess with the frame again, so I'm topping this front end off with a ruffstuff frame plate kit.

 

At this point I decided the next step was to mock up the axle under the truck, before that I went ahead and rebuilt the front axle and do the IFS hub/brake swap. I also installed the trail gear knuckle wipers and all new seals / bearings and shimmed up the knuckles for the hi-steer.

I was able to score some reman calipers for $110 at my local auto parts store, threw some paint on them, looking good IMO. For the brake swap I went with the FJ-40 rotors, laying the oem IFS rotors over them, getting a center hole and drilling it out on my drill press.

For anyone wondering, to mount the calipers I decided to use the original threaded holes in the axle, mount the caliper on the outside of the ears and thread the oem hardware in from the outside.

Finally got the axle mounted up and left the shackle angle a little forward for when the leaf springs settle / when I get my RUF pack dialed in. For the RUF I am using the OME CS009R 2" rear lift springs. I am hoping starting out with a fresh pack I can avoid bending the leafs. I plan on mixing and matching some oem rear leafs in as a get the truck out and on the trail.

With that mocked up tine to move the steering box, pretty straight forward with a flat pitman arm (yes it does clear). Since I installed my hangers a bit further back then normal I was able to keep the box enough back that cutting into the core support or modifying the steering shaft was unnecessary.


Next up shock towers, personally not a fan of the tube style I see so I decided to go a different route, LROR shock towers, I will be using 5125 shocks on the front to match the back, again maybe overkill, but I went with the 14" travel version. A little trimming of the inner fender and some measuring and that's taken care of.

Next up driveshaft, the good ole square tube, a chunk of ~2" ID receiver hitch tube from Amazon and some 1/4" 2" OD tube I had laying around. To get everything on as straight as possible I opted to throw the tube in the Lathe and machine out the tube to mount the yokes. I'm really happy with the tolerance on the fit, and as far as I can measure things are plenty straight for a square tube driveshaft.


At this point I will be finishing up all of the welding, cutting the driveshaft down to size and installing some brake lines, should have the time to get this wrapped up and out on the trail in the next few weeks.

A few photos from the last few years of wheeling gotta love the Chevy 63s flex.

 

A little break from the SAS while I wait on parts, some much needed rust repair and new seats.
The floor where the seat mounts is pretty rotted so I cut out the bad and scabbed in some new material.
Not pretty but its solid, I will need to repair the front of the cab in the near future, I have a new floor pan waiting so I'll show that when I get around to it.

Ebay bucket seats I had laying around and some home made brackets, much more solid then my broken bench seat I've been sliding around on.

 

Well got the truck back together and took it out for a few




I forgot how gutless this 22r was, so instead of doing better gears (4.10 now) I decided the only logical option was to buy this 1.9 alh with adaptor plate and clutch!

 

Got the engine out of the truck yesterday, will go back for a test fit as soon as I get time. And down mind PO's rats nest of wiring that does only god knows what. I'll be doing a custom harness for the swap, wiring is my livelihood.