Hi all,

I've been working on this for the past 6 months or so but the poor truck has been sat idle for almost 18 months now. still there has been progress & I have a question or two so I thought now would be the time for a project thread.

Few pictures:

The day I collected the truck


Then I allowed a guy at work to paint it.
He needed to learn & at the time the truck was utterly worthless so this happened...


Anyway, I'll just have to live with that as all the red under the black is still as shiny & unsanded as the day I picked it up. So the black is steadily falling off.

Then we settled on the idea of making it a touch faster.
I had always intended using the Lexus 1UZ V8 with a Supra gearbox but when I went to collect the box the 2JZ engine was available with all wires, fuel tank, lines etc for not alot more money.
I think I paid €750 for the lot.

 

Shortly afterwards a Lexus LS400 with one warped head turned up for €250 & the little truck that could went to get it.


When I borrowed the trailer in the picture above I had to tow it up a steep wet hill on the way to collect the Lexus. It took more than one run to go forwards all the way up the hill but we didn't need help in the end!

So following a big strip down on the driveway of a rented house in the middle of the suburbs I was left with all my running gear and wiring in a friends shed.
I had also salvaged wheels with good tyres & a full set of disk brakes from the Lexus.
I made a coffee table from the V8 seeing as it would cost so much to fix & convert to manual gearbox.
We got a couch for the shed which used be a back seat.
And I managed to sell off €200 worth of interior & mechanical parts.
The gypsies gave us €50 for the shell with all my scrap in it.

So that made for free wheels & brakes.
Picture with the wheels on, truck may be lowered here?


The front wheels went on quite easily, I had the hubs machined down to 60mm (I left them at 67mm for the first 10mm not knowing I'd never use steelies again...) & used long studs with 10mm spacers.

The rears needed concentric spacers making up so I did some drawings & the machine shop I use through work made up a pair for me & a pair for a workmate running a US Tacoma.

The truck was my only car & ran like this with the 2.4 diesel Non-turbo for a few years. I loved it & thought I would get through the engine swap in no time at all.

 

Next I moved to the countryside & bought a daily driver for €50 that had a cracked cylinder head in the back.


I decided to use the non-turbo motor from the Ducky Truck.

I have never hated a car so much in my entire life!
Do any of you guys run a 4x4?
Man they are an overweight, wallowy, fond of breaking down, slow.
Anyway, I still have the Hilux Turf. We use it for driving on things & dragging things out of the ditch.

So progress moved on with the Ducky after alot of distractions with cars belonging to me, my girl, mates, family etc.

I have had a few weeks un-interrupted now & have managed to sort out the big brakes on the front.
I won't be doing the rears until I settle on an axle layout.


I know that is a ****ty photo but what you can sorta see there is a Lexus LS400 rotor (widened to 74mm centre bore) mounted on a hilux hub from the front.

I would like to have a good long look at the hubs at some stage & decide if it would be ok to machine them down to 60mm all the way in?
If that would work then a stock rotor will mount from the front.

Then I mounted the LS400 4-pot calliper directly to the upper calliper hole through a 20mm spacer with longer bolt.
I made the spacer using the calliper carrier from the original sliding callipers. It just happened to be exactly the correct thickness.
So the spacer mounts as normal to the lower calliper hole on the hub.
And finally I drilled the spacer to line up with the remaining calliper mount.

If that doesn't make any sense, I'll get a photo!

The brake hoses needed a new end, with a 10mm banjo fitting.
The brake servo & master cylinder from the LS400 have also been used.

The master must be removed & rotated 180deg.
Then the unit lines up exactly with the original holes for the Hilux servo.
The only real modification for this part was the need to move around some brake pipes & make up new sections to suit the different layout.

 

eek, thats a rough yota man. glad to hear its still chuggin along though. how many miles on it?

 

That brings us to the motor & gearbox I suppose.
First, the tacky gold **** came with the engine & will go as soon as I have less important things to do.

The chassis mounts are original, the rubbers are original diesel rubbers. I have made up the engine mount arms from steel & shortened the standard Hilux gearbox mount to suit the longer box. The rubber gearbox perch is standard Hilux too.

The gear lever is very short & has moved back in the truck about 11" or 12".
The remote shifter assembly from the Supra left standard. The stick sits next to my knee now & just slightly above the height of the seat cushion.

I've just realised I have no pictures of any of this, I'll sort it.

I'm not sure if you've noticed yet but this is sort of project re-cycle. I have used all original Toyota parts from my donor cars wherever I think I can get away with it.

The radiator is an aftermarket item designed to fit a Mitsubishi 3000GT from eBay and was quite cheap.


It sits just above the chassis rails & should fit inside the bonnet. This rad doesn't come with a filler neck.
So I had the neck welded in, the top hose union was cut off & a 90deg. outlet added at the correct angle to line up with the Supra hose run.




I have yet to cut out & move the lower outlet.
This was just about perfect until I fitted the PS lines, now they are in the way.

There will be twin electric fans on the front of the rad as space is at something of a premium. I had intended to use the fans from the A/C Radiator in the Surf but unfortunately they were beyond repair.
So I've setted for cheap eBay fans for now & we'll see how they do. It's never really warm here & I don't do alot of driving in traffic.

The fans are wired up in a relay box, again from the Surf, to operate from a temperature switch in fail-safe configuration. That is if the sensor wire is damaged or disconnected the fans come on full.
There is another relay in the same box so I wired it to a standard fan switch from the Surf on the dash to manually turn the fans on.

I only did this in case I don't get the correct temperature switch so I have the option of running the fans full time.

 

The body has about 100k Miles on.
The new motor has 112k Km.

But the entire suspension/steering bit was refreshed with all new parts about 6k before the re-build.

Worth mentioning that I kind of prefer my cars with added "character".

Every ding and paint dribble has a story.

And anyway, if it were shiny it would attract too much attention.
I would hope that when it's finished, no-one would even consider that there could be anything resembling performance under the bonnet.

 

Morning everyone,

Have had a busy weekend.
We took the bed off the chassis & removed all of the crust, (air chisel is the finest tool in the world).



Then polished it all up with a wire wheel & gave it a lick of paint.



I know it's a short update but it was a good 20 hours of work by the end of it.

 

defiantly post pics

 

Morning all,

Got a little more knocked out last evening. I mounted up the Fuel Tank.


That there is the original diesel tank cleaned out with the fuel pump assembly from my Supra donor car mounted. The Supra tank is alot deeper than the Hilux one so the pump bracket & internal pipework has all been shortened to suit.
I also nicked the plastic (swirl pot?) tub from inside the Supra tank. That has been rivitted to a strip of 0.9mm steel & then welded to the floor of the tank just under the pump.

All of the extra pipework & wiring at the top of the tank was going to come close to one of the support ribs under the floor of the flat-bed. It was a bit of a water trap too & was the worst of the rot underneath the truck.
So the old stiffener got the chop & was replaced with a chunk of 10mm flat bar. It gives about 35mm extra headroom for the tank.




Spotted a patch of see through steel in the bed floor as well.


Then gave it a splash of blackness.


I'll be mounting the Hydraulic handbrake this evening but I'm waiting for a delivery of assorted pipe nuts before I can finish off the plumbing.


edit: Toy_spd - Those pictures of the big brake conversion are coming too man, just for you!

 

I'd like to see some info on those brakes to . And nice work man cleanin it up getting it back to a solid platform

 

I like where you have gotten with this! Use the LS400's Independent rear suspension

 

Nah man,

The rear diff made most of the cost of the donor back for me. The electric areil & headlamps refunded the rest.
I really only wanted it for the front brakes, everything else is a bonus.

The truck will end up as a daily driver & I'll use it for hauling all sorts.
So the idea of an independent rear end doesn't appeal to me.

I'll take a picture of the 5-link that is under the Surf this evening for you guys.

Rough tape measurements suggest the lower links will bolt up to the leaf spring mounts.
Then I would only have to locate the top links, probably using the cross brace straight out of the Surf.
Fuel tank may be in the way but I figure I could pocket the tank to make the room needed.

The Axle casing is about 2" wider too & the diff is a 30-spline so the half-shafts ought swap across without too much messing.

But as I said, all of that rear axle business is going to wait until I finish the important work & get it road legal.

 

Morning,

Small progress, have mounted the handbrake.
It still isn't plumbed because all of the wee flares ordered from eBay are hanging out at a post office somewhere.

EDIT: All of the photos were taken with the gear lever in 2nd. That's where I expect I'll be getting the most use from the brake.

Mounting Plate:






Handbrake Switch:






And all covered up:

 

And a bit of an explanation of the bigger brake setup.
Comments & criticism most welcome but be sure to finish off with:-

"But sure, it'll be grand.."

The new rotor has had it's centre widened to 74mmm to match the original hub diameter. In retrospect I would have rathered machine the hub to 60.1mm all the way in & use a standard rotor. Most places around find it difficult to swing a 300mm+ rotor.
Old vs. New:


The original rotor mounts to the rear of the hub meaning that the hub has to come off for rotor changes.


The hub has been machined down to 60.1mm centring to match the wheels but has been left at its original diameter for the last 10mm. The backspacing of the wheels dictate that I use a spacer, 16" wheels don't clear the upper ball-joint.
Hub with the heat-shield cut down:


And the mounting adaptor, this part is the calliper carrier from the old single pot brakes.
I'm not sure if you can see from the photo but the upper hole has had its threads drilled out.
I've cut down the excess & drilled it to a spacing that matches the LS400 calliper.

The calliper itself has been trimmed as you can see on the shiny part to make room for the bracket.
There aren't any thin spots behind what I've removed so I'm fairly sure
It'll be grand..



The assembled calliper & adaptor then bolt up to the hub using one long & one short bolt.




And mounted:


This is the brake hose:

 

That's a nice BBK.

 

x2

 

Morning,

Took a shot at some of the bodywork last evening.
I started at the worst bit, there was a big chunk of filler that had fallen off & specks of rust were showing through so Iknew there was filler in there.
I didn't know there was 1/4" of filler covering half of one side of the bed.


So I grumbled & chopped it out.





The kink is not perfect but the rest of the truck isn't perfect either so I think it will be grand!









I'll need to do some more hammering to get the join between the two repair panels looking about right & maybe a skim of filler over the welds.
But I will be happier with a visible repair than a well hidden bodge.

On the up-side though the rear quarter, where I thought it was worse looks like it will only need some pin-holes repaired.

 

Howaryez?
Some very small progress made:

Fuel system is sorted.

I've cut down the diesel fuel line from the Left inner wing to just the front of the passenger side floor and flared the steel to match a Supra Fuel filter.
The link hose from the filter to the fuel rail is original Supra as well.




This shows where the fuel line terminates just below/behind the drivers seat.


The middle pipe is the one that goes to the filter & on to the motor.
The original Supra hose from hard lines to the tank is slightly too short to reach in under the cab to this spot.

So I've flared a joiner into the bit of pipe I cut from the inner wing & extended the end of the pipe out behind the cab to just alongside the fuel tank.

I said this is a temporary fix at the time I was doing it but it may turn out to be one of those temporary fixes that get fixed again after it turns into a problem.

This is the extension pipe but I'm missing a photo of it in place.


I finished off the plumbing for the hydraulic handbrake as well but again, no photo.
That should leave the brake system ready to be bled through.

 

Fuel line in place:


Fuel Line beside the tank:


Handbrake finished & plumbed:

 

Just a few more patches sorted today.



Inside view:


And one for fixing later today: