Hello,

My name is Zach and this is my truck.








I love my truck. She is a 94 California built Ext. Cab w/22RE 5spd. It has 299,923 miles. Picked it up for 600 bucks, the guy told me it probably won't last very long.........that was 15 months 8 Wellsville trips and 7k brutal miles ago. It currently has front Ball Joint spacers, rear add a leaf, and an Aussie Locker in the rear. It wheels pretty good but alas it is time for an upgrade.





From an 85 pickup in Medina Ohio from a nice guy with a bunch of toyota toys. Spins good, birfields look good, everything looks good.

It didn't look like that for long.


Sandblasting was a pain but I think it will be worth the time.







I just need to find a metal shop that is open this time of year so I can armor it up.

More to come.

 

I picked up some steel for my spring hanger and rear shock mounts. Glenshaw Steel Supply off RT8 great guy he gave me a ton of 1/4, 3,16 plate for nothing.




Picked up a set of 87 rears for $20 thanks Brian. The Ranchos were not that cheap


But before any of that I need to install this baby...


I'm going to need those...Crawlin on a budget son...


Disassembled


Detroit locker 250$ by far my best deal.


Ready for assembly.


Locked and loaded.....


Everything was going great....so I knew something would go wrong. My pinion felt awfully rough when I was turning it right before I put it all together. I took the flange off and the seal was loaded with dirt and mud.


So this happened....


The bearings had some grime in them so I cleaned them up. Reinstalled the pinion without a crush sleeve to check for the pinion depth.

 

That's done. Now I need to make some springs.


Apart



All apart and bushings out.......That was rough X2 for the other side.


Time for sandblasting


Nice and painted.


I have one more spring to add so I will have a Normal 86 rear pack with a BDS spring as well so a total of four springs. I may need more but I want as little lift as possible.

Time for my spring hanger. I started with a piece of 2x2 3/16 square stock. I am using 1/4 plate for the hangers.


Endplates tacked on. I put a second hole an inch behind and a hair lower just in case there are complications with the drag link and tie rod hitting I can adjust it.



95ToyCruiser (aka Shane) came and gave me a hand. This definitely helped speed up the process.


So this started happening.




Now it was time to weld er up

 

hey do you still have the contact info of that guy in medina with the toy parts i live in central oh and woild like to get a solid axle also and maybe a few other things thanks and keep up the build im watching

 

To be totally honest I do not. Look him up on Craigslist. He seems to be selling stuff all the time. He has a barn full of stuff a nd a sweet 84 truck. If you get a hold of him let me know his number as well.

 

My Welding...work in progress.




The hanger with the springs in it. They unfortunately warped a fair amount and it is a struggle to get those things in there.

 

Good stuff. Welcome from the other side of Pennsyltucky. And i know what PV=nRT means.

 

Ideally everyone should know that......

 

I finished up my Spring hanger. The feeling of self pride sure wasn't enough to merit the time and effort it took me to make that thing instead of buying one. If I were to do it again I would buy the Sky Hanger kit and save some time. But I think it turned out to be pretty nice. If I were to do it all again I would make a lot of changes but this will hold up so hopefully I won't have to.





I was losing steam and desire to finish anything else so I cleaned up my axle.


I have knee surgery phase 1 of 2 so I will be slow to update my progress. Couple of weeks and I will be back on track.

 

Whereabouts around Pittsburgh you from dude?? I'm from canonsburg, live in Houston now... good to see some more Toyota ppl around here

 

nice progress though and i found judge judy"s grandma my friend bought a bedoff a guy in zanesville oh he has a huge supply of toy parts and he gave me his number. that was 3 years ago , so i called today to find themeaniest old woman on the planet sooo no toy parts there he he oh well. keep up the good work which surgery ya getting i tore my hmmm dont know the correct spelling but here we go miniscus and got operated on and walk out of surgery better than i walked in but have problems with it locking up every now and then good luck bro

 

Nice work on the hanger, you probably saved a ton of money doing it yourself than buying the sky kit.

 

I'm from Coraopolis. We have a decent group around here. Couple pickups and an fj80z with factory lockers and 35s. You go out to wellsville?

 

Good deal...we got a decent crowd down this way, about 6 toys, couple Chevy guys...you on pghoffroad at all?? I'm on there n pirate frequently

I have yet to make it to wellsville, just about everyone else has but me haha. But we wheel down around ohiopyle for memorial day weekend, its worth the trip...we got ppl from about 5 different states that come out for it...

 

lemme know if you're interested, we camp out at a campground in ohiopyle, its a 60-100 person site, and we wheel about 10-15 mins in either direction from the campground... pretty decent wheeling...lots of drinking and getting loose at the campground haha but theres usually between 12-16 trucks that go out on each trip, so it makes for some good times... im trying to get people together to go to smock for one of the days to wheel, its near uniontown, and there's a lot of pretty badass trails there

 

hey akelkoup where abouts is that i live in ohio and have been looking for some places to go and some people to go with

 

google map Ohiopyle, PA...trails are at a disclosed location, PM me for details

 

It has been awhile since I have posted so updates are going to be coming quick.
Hanger done.


Axle Time



Birf Build. Stockers until they break.


Looks like I fished the diff out of the river.




FFWD

 

FFWD

 

Now the worst part of the swap. The rippin and a tearin.


Crossmember has to go,(California and Southern Viewers should look away while real men work on toyota's), but seriously i have to replace that, you can just push the steel in with your finger.



Dealt with the IFS (It F*&$ing Sucks) first though.



Cross member terminated.





Frame cleaned up. There's something soothing about hearing a grinder screaming and grinding steel for hours on end.



Fitted the 2.5x2.5 3/16 bar.



I normally drink Iron City or Pabst Blue Ribbon, but free beer is free beer. Hanger mocked up on the new cross member.