Enjoyed catching up on your build. I dont know how you guys do it, but I try keeping my engine bay looking good and it just doesnt happen. I am going to try using yours for some ideas.

 

Yeah, I really like a neat, simple engine bay. Of course, desmogging the truck was how I was able to strip out a whole lot of stuff and really clean up the engine bay.

 

Another update. I'm almost back to the present, I promise. Great things are happening right now, though!

After I got the truck running, the next step was fixing the horrible suspension. I got a full Old Man Emu 2" suspension kit with leafs, shocks, torsion bars, steering stabilizer, etc. I bought it from Rocky Road Outfitters, who had the best price by far. I heard a lot of bad reviews, of people complaining it took however long to get their parts. But if you call ahead and ask them which items in the kit are backordered, you can be informed before purchasing and have a pleasant experience. I didn't mind waiting for the parts, so I would rather pay the lower price.

Here is the truck before the lift




The rear end sagged bad, and the shocks were the original to the truck, so needless to say the ride was abysmal.

Here is the rear mostly installed




The only problem I ran into with the rear was the front leaf spring bolt being seized inside the metal sleeve that you have to remove from the bushing. I had to cut the whole bolt out. Unfortunately that left me without one of the sleeves that I needed. Fortunately I was able to find at Lowes some sort of pipe extension that had the perfect outer diameter, but too small of an inner diameter. I was able to solve that problem easily by drilling out the inside to fit my new grade 8 bolt.




The front end went very smoothly. I installed the new OME shocks as well as some of 4Crawler's 1.5" ball joint spacers. I haven't installed the torsion bars yet.

At the same time I also replaced all the inner and outer tie rod ends with new Sankei 555. They appear to be very good quality.




Here is how it sits after the lift.

 

Toyota ftw!! Great info, thanks for putting that up.

 

Thanks for the link to the a/c conversion! I can't wait to get mine fixed. Been without a/c for years and let me tell you that is NO FUN! I gotta say man, I REALLY like your truck. That front suspension looks like it came from the factory!

 

Haha no problem 84 yota dude.

For sure! Man, no a/c? That's no good! Yeah it's been a few months and so far so good on the conversion. Just hoping it stays that way! Thanks man, I really appreciate it. It's not perfect, but about as good as I can accomplish in a driveway. A little Rustoleum goes a long way!

 

I just finished finals in school so I can finally get this build thread completely caught up.

The next step after installing the new suspension was body and paint work. I originally planned on trying to at least do most of the body work myself, and maybe getting someone to paint it. But over the summer my 20hr/wk job became a 45-50hr/wk job so I got a lot less done on the truck than I anticipated. I ended up driving the truck to school the day after I started it for the first time! So I ended up not getting any body work done, but I also made a lot more money than I anticipated...

I decided to just find someone to do the body and paint for me, because I decided it would just be too difficult to do it on my own. I don't even have any kind of covered parking...

I ended up finding a nice guy who owned his own small body shop and had been doing body and paint work for a long time. He inherited the business from his dad. He had a lot of sentimental value with the truck because his dad's 86 Pickup was one of the first cars he ever painted. He was really excited about the project and quoted me an extremely good price. (Think less than half I had been quoted at other small body shops) I was actually referred to him by one of those "other" body shops that told me he did really good work. With the truck done now, I can say yes, he does.

 

x2 Absolutely beautiful.

 

Thanks Joe!

Alright, so here are a few "before" pictures of what the truck looked like before body and paint.











Also, the condition of the body and paint really is worse than it looks in the pictures.

 

I got new doors and fenders, well used OEM. I'm not a believer in the aftermarket stuff. I found some doors with the vent windows, I really like that feature.

They stripped everything down to bare metal, fixed all the dents, and then started from the ground up. It was a big job. It took the shop about 5 weeks to complete. I dropped in once or twice a week to see how things were going. They let me do some blocking as well as help out in reassembly once the truck was painted.

Here are some pictures from the process

 

Dude sweet!!!

 

And here is some paint starting to go on the pieces.

 

New engine, new suspension, new brakes, new paint...like a new truck man!!

Any plans for the interior?

 

beauty wish i could do the same for my runner

 

It may look just about new but it's still far from it! There will always be some pesky little problems... Right now I'm trying to track down some pesky little water leaks.

Here is the truck all put back together.




As soon as the paint was finished I installed my new wheels and tires along with a Softopper that I got.

I got 33x10.5r15 BFG All-Terrain KO2's and mounted them on some Black Rock Series 997 steel wheels in 15x8 with 4.5" backspacing. Even with almost factory backspacing they still stick out of the wheel wells a small amount.








Here are some pictures with the Softopper installed. So far I have nothing but good things to say about the product. Everything is very high quality and it looks like it will hold up very well.

 

Wow..Nice!!

 

^^ I WANT YOUR TRUCK!!! You have no idea how much this takes me back to my childhood. I have a lot of memories in a truck that is essentially the same truck you have built. It was a truck like this that made me want a Toyota to start with!!!

 

Man that truck is nice, always liked the design of these 4runner and Pickup trucks from that era.

 

Looks great! I really like the looks with the new tires/wheels and soft topper, almost looks like a 4runner!

 

Looks great man just caught up on this entire thread awesome build man