I always liked samurai's becuase they were fun and different and some of my buddys had toyota's. I traded one of my samurai's for a "different" toyota. I got a 1980 Toyota pickup with a strectched samurai body. I started out with this:






It was a 1980 Toyota frame with a 22R motor and tranny swap. A 1987 Samurai body stretched and set on the yota frame. Lots of "special" rigging was in place in order to make the whole thing work. The motor ran great and had an aftermarket intake, header, and carb. No running lights, no wipers, plexiglass windshield, no bump stops, almost bald 33's, and more that i cant think of right now.

 

I wanted to start upgrading it to use it for this seasons mud bog, which had already started. I easily found out that it was open front and rear. I wanted to change that so i order a 1610 lockright. Here is what i found when i pulled the rear end:

Im not sure what that consisted of. Oil, water, mud, and clay maybe?




The trans had been swapped which made it so the crossmember wouldnt work properly:

This lovely contraption made the transmission bounce like crazy.

 

Picked me up a winch for a good deal. Right place right time.

 

nice! i give credit to the guy for doing what he did, but man, there are some scary lookin things on that truck. but its a good project! i wanna see how it turns out

 

Pulled the rear for a full rebuild. Loading pictures on photobucket now. Wait till you see the aluminum blocks they had under the rear springs lol!

 

Also got some 38 12.50 swampers to replace the bald 33's

 

Pulled out the rear for a full rebuild. Kept hitting my head on this. It will be cut off lol.

Here are the aluminum blocks the back sat on. They crushed lol:





Sitting in the shed, prep for tear down. Still waiting on the rebuild kit to arrive.

Thanks for tuning in!

 

waiting for parts sux. good thing is, there is always something else to do.

 

Yeah, i am waiting on the ifs gearbox mount, front end rebuild kit, rear rebuild kit, high steer kit, and a front locker. I have a few things i can do, lol. I have been watching your build and your truck is awesome.

 

I am also looking to get a rear disc conversion for the back. For some reason the mud likes to stay in those drums, wierd huh. LOL!

 

Pulled the axle housing apart. Found that the passanger seal was bad therefore the axle had some water in it.

Drivers side:


Passanger side:


The 3rd was a little rusty:

Started sanding the housing for paint after removing the seals:


Found there to be a fare amount of weld slag on the housing so i will try and grind it off for a cleaner look. This is a timely process sanding it by hand. Wish i had a shop instead of a shed to work out off. Guess thats why we started Backyard 4X4 club, most of us work on our stuff in the backyard. lol

 

grinded and prep'd as much as i can stand!

Starting paint:

Finishing the first coat:

 

Recieved my rear end rebuild kit this week. After work its to late to do anything on the truck. Hope to get some work done and post some pictures this weekend. I also picked up a locker for the front end, locked front and rear. I am contemplating cutting the drums off the rear and doing a disc brake conversion. Should do it now while its apart. Anyone have the caliper adapter plates for sale? Or even the whole disc brake kit? PM me if you have one.

 

Been a little slow around christmas and new years with travels and family but i am ready to get back on track. Started the transformation of rear drums to four wheel disc, via reading forum tech write ups.
Before

After

A buddy had a set of brackets that i thought would work but no luck too big.


thanks to TINMAN for the free 87 cab i will be changing the Toyzuki to a Truggy now. I will post some pictures of the free cab i got today.

 

Weekend forecast called for 1 to 2 inches of snow. Well we got about 6" instead. Just got the cab unloaded today but got some pics.

 

wow, the floor of that thing looks really good. was that a north carolina truck?

 

I dont know. I have not researched the vin on the cab yet. Only one bad spot though.

 

Finally got my complete front end rebuild parts and my power steering box mount in. It only took a month to get from cali to nc! lol Hopefully we will get some decent weather this weekend and i can get something done.

 

I can relate to the mud took me 2 years of piecing it together but finally got all the junk for my rear disc brakes...bummer those brackets of yours didn't work out

Your cab is in awesome shape from the floor to even the battery tray...that is a nice change to see...usually the exact opposite

 

Yeah the cab was a nice gift, and with a clean title too. Thanks again to TinMan!! Read on the forums about removing the bearings from the rear axle and it worked well. Got the bearings removed today. I will clean everything up and hopefully have it back together tomorrow. Little tip to anyone doing a rear rebuild and a disc conversion at the same time. Dont, i repeat DON'T cut the drum brake assembly from the axles until you have removed the bearings!!!!. I cut one prior to removing the bearings and it took over 100 slams on the ground to remove the bearing. The axle that still had the drum on it took 2 hits. The extra weight helped BIG TIME!. Here is what i got so far. You can see the differnce between drum and without.


Pretty nasty huh!