Carl the Trail Raisin

[LcknHubs]

This is carl. Carl is a shitbox in the making. Carl will be fun. Carl will be capable. Carl will eventually be a Trail Raisin... The life of Carl started out as a rusty old 1985 single cab toyota pickup rotting itself away in an old mans backyard. I scooped it up, and let it sit and rot in MY backyard for about 6 years... It looked better here. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find the pictures of the truck when i first got it but will post them once i get ahold of them. But from there I cleaned out the years of junk that was sitting in the cab and the bed, and determined if the truck was worth working with. I found a mint Straight Axle toyota frame in Richmond that was already stripped with 350 motor mounts for $175, loaded up the trailer and scooped it up that weekend.

[LcknHubs]

Got the frame to my grannys house, where it was stored inside for a year or so before i decided to pull it out and start cleaning it up. Cut off some ugly ass side steps running along frame rails (still have in case i want to convert to sliders) and starting flap disking/wire wheeling the frame... Put a couple coats of primer on the frame and let it sit covered up for a few more months as i got busy and lost motivation for the project. Once i gained interest back again, I transported it to my house and washed the frame/added a couple more coats of primer and brushed on a coat of tractor enamel... looked fucking great for my inexperience

[LcknHubs]

Some time passed, as i had fall semester ahead of me and i made time right before Christmas to get the frame swapped and haul the truck to a friends house as he was kind enough to let me use a bay in his shop to get this fucker going! Swapped the frame with the help of like 4 friends, and managed manhandle the thing onto the trailer as it didn't have a rear axle or steering components hooked up anymore. It was a giant PITA

[LcknHubs]

Got it hauled up to my buddies place and started working immediately. Got it pulled into the garage on jackstands, cut out the 350 motor mounts and tacked the 22r motor mounts back in it, cut the rear shackle mounts and hangars out and ground it down somewhat clean. Also that is not a frame plate on the picture where i ground down the rear shackle hangar, its where that old step bar was mounted and i got too lazy to finish cutting/grinding it off.

[LcknHubs]

Chopped off the front hangar mounts to make room for the Low Range Low Profile Hangar. Tacked the front, rear leaf spring hangars in place and then tacked the rear-most shackle mount in place. Went home that weekend and pulled my 22r and W56 from my silver shitbox, took it to Nathan and let him work his magic cleaning that muddy bastard and turned out great!

[LcknHubs]

Started Chopping up 3rd gen 51" springs and 2nd gen 48" springs for a 6 leaf bastard pack for the front end as well as torching some stuff off the front axle. mocked up some shackles with 5" and 6" holes too

[LcknHubs]

Got it on its own weight, learned that my shackle angle was absolutely fucking trash and that my hangar needed to go forward like 3-4"

[LcknHubs]

Picked up some 1/4" plate and extended the front hangar so it could be extended far enough to get a decent shackle angle. Borrowed some 35's to see what they looked like on it and man did i like it.. Started to mock up the Allpro Hy-steer and found out that the drop pitman arm just wasn't gonna work without chopping way too much out of the core support.. So i ordered a flat arm.

[LcknHubs]

Next on the shit list, while waiting on the flat pitman arm, was brakes front/rear and new lines. Carl got a drum rebuild, new drums, new discs, pads, studs, calipers and most hardware.

[LcknHubs]

after bending/breaking 7/12 studs during removal and waiting on new ones to show up, finally got the front end back together and got the steering gearbox in place with the new flat pitman arm. giant PITA by the way... Once that was set in place, i started torching the old shock tower since it wont be used. who needs shocks. they'll just limit your fun.

[VerticalTRX]

Looks great on those 35s, hope to see it on the trail soon.

[LcknHubs]

Soon my friend, soon. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel

[4krawler]

Need to get that shitbox runnin so we can go wheeling! Looks good though!