Hello everyone! I run a YouTube channel called Dirt Garage. I get asked "Do you have a build thread on Yotatech?" ALL THE TIME. So I figured I should finally make one!

This is my 1989 Toyota Pickup April 1st 2014, bone stock!

 

First off I told myself, all I want is a 2-3 inch lift and 33s and that's it! So I jumped on Ebay and got a set of balljoint spacers. Installed those beautys! And I was mall crawling in no time!


And eventually got some cheap 33s.



And some other "bling" addons

 

Alright! Next up we are getting into the more serious mods. Hanging around these forums too much back in the day convinced me that 3.4 swap was a must! The ol' 3.0 was still running just fine, just leaked a bit of everything, and was super slow, and made worse by the automatic and 33s!

So I picked up this 3.4 with 370xxx kms on it for $550 bucks!



I'll add a few photos of swap, but really if you want to learn more checkout my swap thread here: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f160...pickup-290977/

 

Out with the 3.0 with over 424xxx something kms on it! (This was years ago, don't remember exact details

 

In with the 2" body lift, I was not keen to cut out my hood to make the 3.4 fit.

 

And here is the mostly complete 3.4 swap!

 

Next up was manual swap! The original plan was to keep the truck auto with 3.4 swap, and even bought and installed the Inchworm adapter and 4 cyl t-case. Problem was the wiring, for some reason that trans did not work in reverse, and just overall was not happy! Me, now being confident in my mechanical skills after successfully engine swapping, decided to give the manual swap a go.

The 3.4 auto trans next to my new fancy manual transmission!



Installed.jpg

 

After she was running and driving great I moved back to cosmetic mods, the fenders where getting very rotten. So I opted to go with fiberglass fenders from http://www.toyotafiberglass.com/



This is about the time I decided to start my YouTube channel Dirt Garage. And you can see the showcase video from how my truck looked at this point

 

And finally we get to the good stuff! SAS, I went with the Trailgear 3" IFS Eliminator kit. I did not have access to a welder or a shop at this point in time, so I hired a welder to weld the hanger in and install the frame tube. And finished the rest of the SAS myself on my neighbors driveway

 

After the SAS I was on a tight budget, and I used a 4" block and an add-a-leaf to level the rear. Also, did the TG disk swap at the same time!



I know the leaf pack looks terrible, and the blocks are rubbish, and so on. This setup did not last long.

 

Finished SAS! Look completed with new Blackfoot Grizzly rims, and 35x12.5r17 General Grabber X2s



I made a walkaround video of my truck after the SAS was complete:

 

And then one of the worse days of my life happened. Somebody tipped off this RCMP that my frame was modified, and he decided my truck was no longer road legal without an inspection...

 

And of course, it's a almost 30 year old truck at that point. And there was ALOT of little things that needed to be done in order to pass a proper inspection. That and I had to find a shop that would even look at a SAS truck! I did all of the body work, I repaired the gas tank crossmember, and I did to much to list here. But I summarize a fair bit of it in this video:

 

And somewhere along the journey to getting my truck passed a inspection I stumbled across a supercharger for $1200 on Kijiji, and jumped on that!

 

And here is the day I finally got my truck back on the road!! My buddy Ryan helped me greatly on this one, as you can see in the video. Also he welded up my new bumper from Fractal.

 

 

Alright, next was fixing up that nasty bastard leaf packs in the rear, and the 4" block. My axle wrap was TERRIBLE. The solution? OME 2" lift springs, Tundra shackles and 2" block!



Also installed a fresh set of Bilstein 5100s in the rear!

 

Locker time! I installed a Lock Rite locker in the rear of my rig. Unfortunately no photos of this, but I recorded a video of it

 

My YouTube channel ended up getting sponsored by Toyo Tires, and I got a crazy deal on some 37s and jumped on it! 37x12.5r17 Toyo MTs. Also added the Smittybilt winch!

 

Finally that brings us to today! (Time of starting this thread) I really want my truck to be lower. So we have removed the 2" block from the rear of the truck, and installed the TG U-bolt flip kit.



Next step for the front is a little more invasive... The whole front spring hanger got chopped off, and so did 2" off the front factory crossmember!



And the spring hanger got welded in its place.



And onto steering. The high steer would have binded like crazy with new lower front end, so I purchased the IFS steering box mount kit from Trail Gear, and it was modified to work on my frame.