Okay heres the deal, after long consideration on what my plans are for this truck ive decided to SAS it like so many others have done. My plans are to have this done sometime this winter, but we will see what will happen, since we all know life happens and money cannot always be spent on the rig.

Currently ive purchased an 85 SFA and am starting to build it. The first night we picked it up, we tore it down in a few hours and since then ive painted it and am starting to get the knuckles back on.


Pictures are to follow....

Cliff notes:
Engine:
-3.4L swapped from a 99' tacoma.
-Custom made crossover pipe/exhaust
-cone intake
-Magnaflow high flow cat
-Magnaflow muffler

Front Axle/suspension:
-Housing trussed, Marlin knuckle ball guessets, diff armor/extended breather.
-Stock birfs for now. Longs coming soon..............
-Completely rebuilt
-FJ Rotors and ifs brakes
-Trail gear high steer
-4cyl Diff w/ Yukon 5.29's and a Detroit ez Locker
-12" travle Bilstein 5125 shocks
-Trail Gear 4" springs

Rear Axle:
-Diff Armor
-Yukon 5.29's with lockright, set up by ZUK
-63" chevys custom pack, 7" shackles and a 2" block.
-Rancho 9000's for now, bilsteins soon to come.

Transmission:
-R150f with 263,000 original miles.
-Super heavy duty marlin crawler clutch (2100 pound pressure plate)

Transfercase:
-Stock v6 chain driven for now. Duals to come shortly.

Armor:
-Trail gear sliders
-Trail gear front bumper

Interior:
-Cobra 18wsxtII Cb
-Kenwood stereo deck
-4" polks up front
-6.5" generic speaks out back
-10" boston sub going in shortly.

Wheels/tires:
-35" pro comp xterrains
Deciding between 39.5" iroks or 39.5 pitbull's.
-Eventually plan to do a weld on bead lock kit.

 

Okay heres some pics:

Heres the axle, the night i picked it up!




About three hours after getting it in the garage we got it down to this:




Next day we started, wire wheeling it, and i picked up a 4" angle grinder and some cutoff discs and started cutting off unnecessary brackets and grinding it smooth. (85toy using the angle grinder)



Here you can see where somebody torched off a bracket before i got it and got a bit of the housing. Ill fill this in when i get my hands on a welder, this would be under the area where the upper truss will go.




After we got it all ground down smooth, to the best of my abilities, i gave it a few coats of primer.




Gave it a few coats of flat black paint:

 

So i ordered some parts from marlin! Got them next day!
Knuckle rebuild kit, wheel bearings, upper truss, knuckle gussets, Marlin heavy duty inner axle seals, and a pull scale!

My first box of goodies towards the project! Thanks marlin!



Comparison shot between factory inner seal (left) and marlin's heavy duty seal (right). Look how much beefer Marlin's is!



So heres how it practically sits now!




I have put one knuckle on and will get the other one on maybe tomorrow. I put the factory steering arms on at the moment and they will have to be pulled off and exchanged when i get the hi steer parts. But the more im around this axle the more i learn about the workings of it. Im kind of at a halt until i can get the kit so i can completely get the axle back together.

As of yesterday i had just under the amount needed for the sas kit, but i finally got around to inspecting the howling from my rear diff, and it turns out the pinion bearing is out. I had the diff rebuilt about 6 months ago and the guy who did it was very cool about it and is warranting his work and will do it again for free. He was not sure what happened, for he said he had the preload and other things setup perfectly. Ive heard many good things about his work and don't question it at all. I was contemplating regearing for a while and the guy said he would do that also for no extra cost. I find it very cool for someone to stick to their word and do this without wanting any more money than what i paid him the first time. So i will be doing business with him again!!!

So i ordered some 5.29's yukon's and another install kit from marlin and will hopefully get this thing done in the next week. As of now i only ordered the gears for the rear, i am trying to find an already setup third with 5.29's for the front to try to save some money.

Marlin is most likely having no problem taking my money in exchange for parts, for a few days ago my clutch master cylinder went out and i bought one from them too!

My marlin stickers are adding up!

 

beautiful but its gonna be hard to weld throught that fresh paint

 

Hahaha, i know. Anxious i guess! lol

Im gonna sand around the area where i will have to weld and then paint over the truss when its done!

 

This will hopefully be one of the last wheeling trips i do on my ifs!

 

guess it coulnd hurt to have a little rust protection underneath the truss

 

Thats what we were going for. Who knows! lol

I won't miss this! Check out the front flex!

 

We gotta see the rear shot

You should send me some of that marlin flair


Ill actually be ordering one of those MC's from MC... Soon..My O'rielys unit likes to leak after 6 months...ghey..
/thread spaming...

Cant wait to see the finished product mikey

 

Yea same here. i can't wait but at the moment i haven't even really started.

Yea the Master cylinder was such a PITA. Trying to get that linkage back onto the pedal was the worst part, but marlin sells ASIAN MC's, and the local dealer wanted $120 and a 3 day wait, and Marlin's was like $70 after shipping and taxes and got it the next day!

 

I care about your thread !!!

 

glad you're starting the build dude, i'll be following this one.

p.s. cage your truck.

 

Thanks!

and about the cage, ive been contemplating one for a while, but i wonder if a marlin one would really help or not???

I really wanted to make mine look like yours!

 

Okay, just got off the phone with marlin crawler and my 5.29's have been sent out today.

I will hopefully get them tomorrow and then i can pull the rear third and bring it to the shop and have them installed.

Still looking for another 5.29 third that i can use up front for my sas. Let me know if you have anything near chico California! Thanks!

 

yay i get to be part of a build thread! nice start.

 

YUP!

Dropped of my diff and 5.29 yukons off at the shop to have them installed. Hopefully it will be done soon!

 

it will keep what happened to me from happening to you, and you can always build off of it later. i say worth it.

i'm flattered you want yours to look like mine... that means a lot to me. pre-roll though, right?

 

Yup pre rolled alwyas good!

haha. Theres soo much i want to do to my rig, its not even funny. The only thing stopping me, as i am sure for most of us, is money.

So at least when i sas it it will be the major start of customizing!

Every sick rig i see, i want to make mine look like it! hahaha

 

hey let me know when you get your 3rd back and ill come help/watch you install it haha.

 

Cool! When you getting that aussie?

Okay. so heres some new pics...

My new gears!



And how it sits now, except the door is shut!



The guy who is setting up my gears said they will be done by this weekend. Which is great, since he is super busy and im not paying for labor again.

So i need to start cleaning out the axle housing for the second time. Do any of you guys use an additional magnet in the housing to collect some of the metal particles?