Sinking Creek 4WD Association

So late last year I spontaneously bought a 1983 Toyota Pickup. I was indecisive about what to do with the truck, but now I'm basically rebuilding it from the ground up. In the end I want it to have a small lift, 35's, high steer, regear, 3rz, and I want to do something with the cases, but I haven't decided yet. Here is a picture when I first got it:





I am pretty far along in this build, but i still have a long way to go. I will update this more when I have time.

I wasn't sure what to do with the truck when I first got it because the frame basically looked like a cheese grader. I thought of getting it patched, but a guy I work with had a 1982 with a good frame. All I had to do was tear it down.








These are pictures of the original frame. It looks much worse in person. And now pictures of the donor truck with the good frame:

Got the donor home and tore it down.









After I got the truck down to the bare frame, I took it to NC to get it acid dipped.





I also drilled drain holes in the frame and welded some thick washers over them.



I also found a bad spot in the frame where two boxed sections merged. Cut out the bad metal and welded in a patch.

Once the frame was finished being prepped, I painted the inside with 3m's rust fighter. It's kinda like cosmoline.



I did 3-4 coats on the inside using a shutz gun. Once it was finished I started on the outside with POR15.





So I finished with the POR15 and then primed and top coated. No pictures since it looks the same as the POR15.

Nice Rig!

Looking forward to seeing this build thread develop!
There's a meeting at 7 tonight, you coming?

Collison wrote:Nice Rig!

Looking forward to seeing this build thread develop!
There's a meeting at 7 tonight, you coming?

A meeting? Lol what? This is my first day posting so I'm definitely out of the loop. Not only that, but I work till 11!

After I finished my frame, I began tearing down the real truck ill be using.







I also made a custom engine stand:



Also cleaned up an old pneumatic hoist, so now I have a convenient way to pick up the heavy stuff



And as far as suspension goes, I'm doing a RUF setup for the front. The springs are 3in longer. And I wanted new springs since I've already put in a bunch of work on this thing. So I ordered a set of OME rear 2" lift springs for the rear of my truck to use in the front. I'll also be using Sky Manufacturing boomerang shackles in the front. For the rear I'll be using 2" OME rear springs for 89-95 Toyota pickups which are also 3" longer than stock rears. Here is a pic of my springs and highsteer:

A lot of guys run different setups that require cutting spring hangers and welding new ones on. Well I haven't done that yet because I want to see where everything sits once the truck is back together. Well back in the day Toyota had these F'ed up spring hangers that have a 14mm hole on one side, and 18mm inside where the spring sits, and the outer hole which is around 1.5 inches (or whatever that is in mm). Well my front hanger bolts were too far gone to re-use, so I pressed out the studs from the original shackle plates and made my own.







All I did was drill out some 9/16 washers to 23/32, then welded two onto each stud, and then welded a nut on top. I could have gotten them from the dealer, but they only come in a kit with other crap I didn't need. I'm also cheap, that's why I made my own greasable bolts for my shackles.



My front shackles actually came with greasable bolts, but for the rear I just ordered 5.5" shackle plates from trail gear. The bolts I used are m18x120mm with an 1/8in grease passage.

I was originally going to re-gasket my gutless 22r to hold it over until I found a good donor for a 3rz. Well I took the valve cover off and found this:





I think the reason my 22r was so gutless is due to the lack of cam lobes haha. I really didn't want to sink money into it because by the time I spent all the money on a rebuild kit, machine shop work, and desmog I could have spent comparable money on a 3rz swap. Well guess what? The first day I look on Craigslist I found this:







Picked it up for a great price, has basically everything I need to do the swap, runs and has no CELs. AND it is the TRD model so it has the factory e-locker in the rear. I've seen debate
on whether Toyota made 4cyl TRD Tacomas from the factory, well here it is, and yes it's real.

Aside from my recent Craigslist find, I've been working on rebuilding the front axle. I picked up a rebuild kit from Marlin, and their HD knuckle gussets. So far I've cut all the useless brackets off my axle and welded up the lower gussets.

I ride solo a lot so I've gotta improvise:





It's a TIGHT fit between the edge of the weld and the edge of the scraper gasket on the knuckle.





So this is where I'm at as of today. I have to redo the entire floor in the cab. I have no experience doing floor pans, much less a whole floor. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I've been holding off on it for awhile. And I may or may not do a dash swap, too, for sake of having to do very little to no wiring. I'm not good at wiring AT ALL.

Damn! First day on the board and already posting up some awesome stuff! I absolutely love the first gen pickups, they just have that bitchin classic yota look. I cant wait to see this thing finished, should be purrty badass. Btw, good find on the TRD taco, you really lucked out on the elocker and 3rz, those are pretty hard to find. Oh, and welcome to the club!

FJCcrawler wrote:Damn! First day on the board and already posting up some awesome stuff! I absolutely love the first gen pickups, they just have that bitchin classic yota look. I cant wait to see this thing finished, should be purrty badass. Btw, good find on the TRD taco, you really lucked out on the elocker and 3rz, those are pretty hard to find. Oh, and welcome to the club!

Thanks! I've ways wanted a project and I love Toyotas, so this has worked out well so far. And I definitely lucked out with the Tacoma. I had no idea it'd have a locker in it when I went to look at it. Hopefully I'll be able to get more involved around here if time allows!

looks like this will be interesting!

5 second snap chats are bold

Krantz has a dialed in Yota that works exceptionally well offroad. Hopefully he'll be along shortly to give some suggestions/advice.

Nice build. Welcome to the club.