Hey guys, I decided to finally start my own build thread, please keep in mind that this truck is my only vehicle and thus it is my daily driver. So all mods I do must be DOT legal. Luckily there are not smog laws here in Alabama. So I can get away with a little bit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The truck is a 1980 Toyota Hilux 4x4. I came with a 20r Engine and 4spd tranny wrapped withing a long wheel base body. The vehicle itself sat behind my neighbors house for roughly 4 years, who in turn bought it from a hunting partner of his who was the original owner of the truck. I was told that the truck sat in the original owners yard for nearly 16 years.

I purchased the truck for 800.00 dollars and dragged it over to my house (Next door) the next day. Here is how it was when I purchased it and here is where the build begins.

 

Well, the 20r was shot. I finally got it to start and changed all the fluids in the tranny, motor, and axles and there was a rod knocking. Talk about big disappointment. I was told that It ran just fine when it was parked.

After some searching I found a nice little old lady in the next town over and bought a used 22r from her. Her son had taken her truck while she was in Mississippi and totaled it. I had to buy the motor and transmission, unfortunately the tranny was a 2WD 5spd tranny and I could not use it.

New (Used) engine is now in, rock on!


Excuse the dirt and mud... I had to um.. test out the motor very thoroughly to make sure everything worked.. yeah..that's it.

 

New brakes, drums and rotors installed. Brakes are nice to have, especially when they work! The emergency brake is now working too.

 

Got some new meats! Hankook Dynapro MTR 32.5 x 12.5 x 15. And I got a used set of rims for 100.00 bucks as well. They looked pretty rough, but with some Mothers Chrome polish, I think they turned out really well. They will work until I can get me a set of black steely bead locks.



Thread pattern:




I gotta say, theses tires are pretty nice and they offer a superior road ride with VERY low noise. I dont have any snow here in Alabama to test them on but in the mud they do a great job of cleaning themselves out and digging in. I was able to completely cross a mudhole that I previously could not with the Goodyears on there. They do about average on loose sand, If I air them down a bit. If I dont they will try to dig in and get me stuck. On the rocks they are very good, they seem to "stick" like glue and the sidewalls are very very tough. Overall, for daily driving and trail use, I think they are a good upgrade.

 

Nothing fancy done lately, I pressure washed and steamed the truck.. I cant believe it was white under there! It cleaned up pretty well to have been sitting as long as it did.

I took off the original 5' tall radio antenna and installed a rubber "stubby" antenna in it's location.. I bet back in the day these trucks could have picked up radio stations in Japan, man that's the longest radio antenna I have ever seen.

I also installed my Cobra 25 LTD (CB Radio) and 4' firestick antenna. Had the radio peaked and tuned and man it works nice!

Oh, and lets not forget my superman tag.. I know it does match anything but it's been on every car that Ive had for the past couple of years. Im a HUGE superman fan.








Yeah, the trailer is mine, it's nothing fancy but it's my first place, and I own it and the 4 acres of land it's sitting on. I plan to eventually build a house on the land. It's nothing fancy but one day Chip N' Dales will hire me and then i'll be rich! SCHAWING!

 

I didn't have a camera until today, so unfortunately you have missed a few tech articles on simple additions and changes that I have done. But hey, at least you are finally getting some pictures.

Today I put in a set of Marlin Crawlers Chromoly 4340 Birfields. While I had it down I cleaned up the knuckles and hubs and bearing and put fresh grease in everything.

But, he's a nice door prize, my new sticker!

 

Im about to begin sanding and fixing some small cancer spots, I cant believe that there is very little rust on this thing, I have crawled over and under this thing, stripped the interior and the floorboards are perfect! Lucky me!

Here's the few spots I have to fix:
Passenger Front fender


Drivers Front fender


Tailgate/bed


Bed, near front cab

 

I love sickers

 

That's it for now, Im looking into having some trail armor and custom bumpers made now. More pics soon.

 

i love the lift it cause fat chicks cant jump i rock the sticker on my bumper some people done like it so much ha sweet truck though

 

Yeah, that's my favorite one too. I love it when I'm sitting at a red light and I look into the rear view mirror and I can see someone reading it and they laugh, then they stop laughing because it refers to them. Then, I laugh.

 

Way to save a gem Coop! Looking good man. Keep at it!

 

It's a slow but steady progress that's for sure. I have wanted a straight axle toyota for years and finally have one. I love it and dont think i could ever go back to another vehicle again.

Im open for comments and suggestion on what you guys think I should do next. I like hearing different opinions and view from all sorts of people.


Plans:
Body armor
Custom winch bumpers
Baja style tire carrier in bed, near cab
new rhino liner in bed
interior roll cage
Aussie locker in rear
ARB locker up front
Onboard Air
dual batteries
37" tires
4.88 or 5.29 gears
5sp tranny
dual transfer cases
chromoly long and short axle shafts (front)
chromoly axle shafts (rear)
Krylon flat green paint
White star on each door
random product support stickers
Black steel beadlocks
Histeer steering
upgrade steering (IFS)
strengthen and support axles with gussets
axle armor

and god knows what else.

 

Dude, the lift kit goes on the truck, not the trailer house! lol jk
Cool truck. Good find for $800. I wish I had one like it.

 

This is now how you properly break in new springs?

 

That looks good! I'm thinking about finding an ealier grill for my truck so I can put the round headlights in. It'll be nice to watch your progress.

 

My brother has an 83 with the squares, we talked about swapping them, then i decided to keep the round ones. I'm glad i did, I found a kit where you can put hella lights in there and use them as headlights.

 

I cant quit rolling from the fat chicks sticker!!!

 

I have seen a similar sticker that says "Jack em up high so fat chicks cant climb" or something along those lines.

 

Yeah, I like both...I have the square headlights and like them, the truck's still old-school but with a kinda modern look. The round lights make it pretty fully old-school looking, which I at least want to try out for a bit. Apparently you can get much better lights with the square ones, but whatever. I wonder, though...the FJ Cruisers have round lights, so do Jeeps and Xterras, so I wonder if there's an easy way to fit those in there. Those must have good modern light technology in them.