Guess I better start a real build thread. Here's where I started: http://www.toyotaminis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3317 I'd seen the truck sitting around for several months and finally took a stab at it. Drove by, left a note, guy calls me 4 days later and by the end of the week it was in my driveway. Has an 8rc motor that fires up and runs well (a little adjusting is all) It had 4 brand new tires which I quickly traded for some lower profile ones. Pretty straight body. A little rust through on the drivers side pan is all. By the looks of some stickers it was originally a California truck which explains why it hadn't succumbed to Utah salt a long time ago. A neighbor of mine just told me that he recognized it as a local mechanic's parts truck from years ago. My current plans are to get it as low as possible without cutting up the bed or the suspension too much. Leave it in its original patina while I take care of all the other little bits and pieces. Once that is all dialed in and I take it to a few shows I may mess with body work and paint. Ultimately I'd like to go with the early JDM Corolla/Celica look, but with a truck. As if someone had done a mini truck in that style back then. Low offset wheels, maybe 16s. Keep an old school look to it. I'm finding that the wheels that I want all tend to be 4 lug so I may end up with XXR002s or maybe some slot repro Ansen Sprints. We'll see what happens. Here are some pics to catch everyone up!
This winter, I started cutting up the front suspension. I've got the front set up on Slam Specialties RE5 bags and fabricated a simple notch for the rear that will tuck under the bed. Shocks and more dialing in to come.
that's on sick a$$ ride dude. can't wait to see more and definitely can't wait to see it when you are all done with it.
Thanks! Here are a few of the wagon. also: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2138739 http://s490.photobucket.com/albums/rr265/99datsun510/
More updates. Got the rear crossmember raised and the rear bags in. Now the pumpkin just touches the bed floor when aired out all the way. Working out the details so I can get it registered and start driving it. Got an exhaust on and the rear shocks and bumpstops. Even found mint '71 vintage Utah plates to register it with. Going to run the Mercedes hubcaps for a while.
holy crap you have done all the stuff i wanna do. i want old ass plates and your mudflaps for my 78. the hub caps are actually kinda cool. i might hunt around for something for mine. i still dig that im almost as low as you and youve got bags. lol.
i dont remember, does your crossmember lay out? at what point would the balljoints bind? im heavily thinkin about baggin mine. RE5s up front. and do a 5 link out back. forward lowers and wishbone (already have the bars) and rear facing lift bars. either an RE5 or RE6 in the back. since i would like to be able to haul some motors and bikes around with it. i dont care about Zing the frame or laying flat frame. just gonna take care of the low hanging stuff, tuck the exhaust, ect. whatevers still too low will drag off. lol.
I think its great that yours is as low as it is and you still drive it When I started, I knew the springs wouldn't get me as far as i wanted so that's why I started with bags. I didn't want to go through the effort to get that last little bit of drop. My cross members average about a 1/2" off the ground when aired out and thats good enough for me. I will probably de arch the rear leafs again to get the last inch and level it out. My ball joints are in the stock spots right now and It doesn't bind up. I actually played with flipping the ball joints but found out I didn't really need it. Its a good back up plan though in case i want to go a little lower. I flipped the lower and made a 1/4" spacer and modified the uppers and put the ball joint below the upper arm and flipped backward to avoid binding. Turns out I didn't really need to do that but i have pictures of what I did somewhere. I've been driving it around the neighborhood and it rides pretty good considering I don't have shocks in the front yet. I think I could hold a good amount of weight in the back with the sleeve bags.
thanks for the info. im still looking into doing it to mine. i picked up a big v twin a/c pump from a dodge. its freakin huuuge. its as wide as the valve cover. im gonna make a way to hang it off the side of the motor and use it for my air pump. then put in a tank under the bed and run all of the lines. before i even order any bags. ill probably do the front first then mess with the rear later.
Nice- you're in Boise! Good luck on your Lux. Sorry, haven't been keeping up lately. I have Air Lift leaf spring helper bags in the rear with de-arched leafs. At the moment I have four Schrader valves for manually filling the bags. I would like to get electric valves and a tank eventually but I'm still working out the bugs in the rest of the truck to get it registered.
Looks great. Definitely something to inspire as well as use for good footage photo. BTW, where did you pick up the mud flaps? Did it come from a later model Hilux?