Hey guys, so about 2 days ago I picked up my very 1st yota pickup. The way it all started was another member in my club owns a 75 hilux and one weekend before a show we did a static drop on it, and I fell in love, the body styling was IMO what a classic Mini should look like, and the grill reminded me of my old datsun. So after that I was on craigslist goofing around and came across an 81 Standard cab for $250 bucks. So I called the guy and he told me hes had 13 calls on it, 12 of them were people wanting it for scrap, and that I was the only one who wanted a truck to actually fix. So he promised to hold it for me till the weekend and let me have it for $200. Well that weekend I picked it up. And here she is.


The story behind it is, the guy That owned it drove it from Rockmart to Atlanta (88 miles there and back) 5 days a week for 3 years! lol So of course the truck has 348,295 miles on it. He just had new ball joints put on a week before the motor blew, and according to him it slung #3 rod bearing, and blew what looks to be a 3-4inch diameter hole through the side of the block by the oil filter. which he said is common in the 22r engines? I have no idea as this is my 1st yota.Also the driver's side front fender is bashed in from the old owner's wife's car, said she couldnt see it backing up....(sounds a bit Tiger Woods to me lol) As for the truck itself, shes clean, she has rust in the usual spots, the rear corners of the bed, below the tailights on the rollpan, and a bit of surface on the roof. The engine bay is actually very very clean, to have so many miles, and the bed looks to of had the liner in it, it's whole life and there isnt a single dent in the inside of the bed or wheel tubs. There is no rust in the floorboards, the seat is a bucket/bench? if that makes sense and the plastics for the dash have been ruined by someone who apparently wanted a stereo very badly. But As of now my plans are to take my 4 bolt main 350 and 700r tranny and squeeze it down in there.But I dont have but these 3 photos at the moment, so I will have more pictures up tomorrow. and hopefully this build will go great with help and advice from you guys.Best Wishes. -Joe[/URL][/IMG]

 

I got some more pix of the blue smurf.
First off I know what your thinking, lol, no it isnt a 4x4 although with those ugly trailer wheels and tires it does look it.


Some new fenders will be needed, I'd love to find some 4x4 fenders to get that flared look.


not too much to say for the passenger side...except looks like half the job is done for shaving the antenna


That farmer john bumper is going, just because I live in Georgia doesnt mean Ima be pulling a bush hog with it.


This is the outside of the bed....not swiss cheese.


abit more patina on the seam of he bed.


Ima bit afraid to pull those taillights out to see what goodies await me inside. hopefully it wont be ate up too bad.


mmmm doesnt that look cozy? better than the 4 seasons. see what I meant about the bench/bucket seat?


Im still trying to figure out is that material plastic,vinyl,??? reminds me of some old welcome matt.


the gauge cluster is nice...


...although everything else isnt.


Now this is what sold me on the truck, come on 300k miles and its that clean under the hood?


look at those fenderwells not a spot of rust & smooth as a baby's ass, those wont be cut out.


same for this side.


here is the bad, look behind the oil filter and you'll see that lovely hole in the side of the block.


headboard of the bed is clean, no dents. Also that isnt rust in the bed, thats mudd&sand. I have no idea where the sand came from?


look at how clean those tubs are! not a dent in them.


this truck had to of had a liner in it its whole life and couldnt have hauled much.


I need some 4x4 fenders bad...


the grill has one crack in it there by the driver's side parking light, and that bumper has been pulled back out from a previous hit it seems.


I have no idea why I took that picture at such a weird angle, but thats behind the driver's door, and in the picture it looks like a hole but its really just behind that crease and its only rust.


and lastly there is the rust on the roof, no holes, but it needs a good sanding and some primer before it gets worse.
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nice truck man, i'll definitely be following this thread, so what are the plans beside the new motor

 

Sweet truck at a great price!

Good luck fixin it up. LMK if you have any questions of what you can do to it.

 

well honestly I had plans of a Rat Rod styling, at the moment Im thinking of pulling the v8 from my Monte Carlo, and its a bone stock 350 4 bolt main, and running some aluminum heads,solid lifters,a mild cam, gear drive timing,tunnel ram intake,and two 4 barrels. when I get the motor the way Im wanting, Im going to start looking for a swap kit so I can use the toyota 5speed and not have to worry about driveshaft issues. and inbetween motor swaps that'll give me time to shave the firewall of all unused bits. and once its running fairly decent I hope to do a monoleaf on the rear with a C notch just big enough for it to lay in the rear. and from doing hydraulics in the past I have 2 Brand new pumps that I had specially made to my specs for myself that I've never ran on anything. theyre a 2" block, with 1" ports and a few other goodies. and the blocks & backing plates are engraved "Low Joe" I'll post up a picture of them. Also I was needing to know, on these trucks does the rockers sit below the frame rails? as in, would I need a body drop to lay the rockers? Also the usual on Shaved handles, and Suicide the doors. And I have a few other neat ideas, but thats it for now. Any tips or suggestions would be great guys, Id really appreciate it. -Joe

 

Hey Raffaelli,I was wanting to ask you on your build up page, the 82 you have, are those the 4x4 fenders? with the big flare, and if so could you tell me what year I'd love to find a set for mine.-Joe

 

Here is some pictures of those pumps I have that I plan to run on the little yota. I have other parts. and I almost forgot I had this street charger to charge the batteries while I drive. As far as a setup, I hope to run a double pump setup, single pump to the front & rear, with 4 dumps for each corner, either 4 or 6 batteries, most likely 4 just to keep it simple. #6 hoses, no poweballs on the rear, just cups on the axle to hold the cylinders. also run 6"cylinders up front and in the rear. Prestolite motors, and Marzoochi #9 pumpheads for front and rear. along with Italian dumps. and lol before anyone asks no Im not going to wires, lol I made that mistake before and I've had flats,blowouts,wheels fall off,slow leaks,etc... I hope to run either a nice set of smoothies for the classic look,or a nice set of mesh wheels, with a somwhat low profile white letter tire, soI can grind it out for some wide whitewalls.

 

Yup. Any 79-83 4wd fender bolts onto the front. The tricky part is the plastic flares that bolt onto the back. A 4wD bed is slightly different, but they will work if you drill the holes carefully.



Meshies FTW!

 

Awesome...lol now the hard part will be trying to find a pair that isn't beat to hell from 4x4 fun through the woods. do you know of any companies that make reproductions?

 

They are still made. (China or Taiwan).

Rockauto.com lists em in stock for 53 bucks each. Cant beat that. I got mine at the JY. Toyota ones are heavy duty but a PITA to find.

 

Wow nice find and nice truck. Love what you want to do with it. Cant wait so get started now.

 

lol I plan to get started as soon as possible, first thing is Im debating on doing the body,& suspension while the motor is out of the truck to give me room to work and keeping the motor in the MC untill I ready for it that way I can fire it up and let it idle for a while. so more than likely Im going to pull the engine and do a progress on that, then start on the suspension.

 

Body and paint should be the last thing done. Id say Get it running first then worry about the body

 

very true, but I suppose there is someone on craigslist right now looking to buy a "project" car that has a sweet paintjob...but after the bodywork and paint the guy ran out of money and is selling it, and thus another guy will buy it and shovel all his cash into interior & a system & then himself will run out of $$ and sell it so sadly in reality most project vehicles do actually get finished...after having 5 previous owners, then the poor fella that ends up with it isn't satisfied with the vehicle because it's the styles of +5 different people, so he ends up stripping the whole thing down and the cycle starts all over again... soooo I think I'll pull the engine, do the hydraulic setup, and then do the v8 swap. and leave the cosmetics for last.

 

Alright Guys the noob has a question...take it easy on me, Well I've been looking around for some small block swap kits for the 81, Im not needing motormounts,those can be made cheaper than bought, or a new radiator,etc... all Im looking for is the adapter to hook up the 350 to the yota's 5speed. well....I came across a site that said the toyota 4 speeds and pre 85 5speeds are to weak to handle the power and would most likely be a faulty setup...which may be so, and I can run my 700r tranny but I really don't wan't the headache of all the alignment, driveshaft lengths,diameters,notching for the tranny & driveshaft tunnel,etc... all I'd like to do is have a very mildly built smallblock,on a yota 5speed,with the peace of mind that if I decided to get on it in a straight, that I won't be impailed by clutch disks,gears,and spline shafts. If anyone has any experience in running the stock "pre 85" 5speed on a v8 please let me know, and also a point in the right direction towards a decently & "fair priced" adapter, I would greatly appreciate it guys. Best Wishes. -Joe

 

Heres a story for you. I blowd up a supra w58 that was is in my truck. So I bought a super clean low mileage 4 speed for a temp replacement thing.

4-5 months behind a little 150+ HP 4 banger, and its definatly loosened up to the point of making lots of wierd noises in the top end.

I dont think it got torn up from the power, as much as the almost constant 6K shiftpoints, and 100+ MPH speeds.

Now you want to put it behind a v8? It aint gonna hold it. Take my word for it.

What year is your 350? If its a one piece rear main seal, get a 5 or 6 speed out of a LT1 camaro. Like 93-97. They are strong, have a hydralic clutch, and for the most part cheap. They are compact to boot. If you have an early block. Centerforce has a special flywheel if you have the two piece block.

The last thing I would ever buy would be a 700R4.

 

Yea behind a 350? W58 for a little while, then another, and another....
Yea I'd swap in a T56 or you'll be swapping a lot of W5x's. You could get away with a 4.3 V6 but that would blow a W58 up eventually too. Stock W4x or W5x trans? Nope, wouldn't last long.

Good luck man, swaps are tough but there's enough people on here who have done swaps that can help if you need it.

 

lol yeah no kiddin, even in my MC the 700r just felt sloppy, its like the power was there it just didnt put it to the ground the way it should, and In my other car Im running the 350turbo but it just feels like its geared too high, Although I've never ran the gm400. any experiences with the 400?

 

~*Quick Update*~
Ok guys well now that my plan of using the yota's 5speed has been shot down thanks to the build quality in japan . I've got a new game plan.
1. First things first, Im going to pull the 22r & tranny from the yota and set it aside to part out.
2.While I have an empty engine bay that'll give me room to get in there and completely shave the firewall and fender tubs of all unwanted junk & clutter.
3. once its all smoothed I can start building my motor & tranny mounts and make sure it's all squared up and check my clearence.
4. Once all the fab work is done and Im for sure it's all going to line up the way I want, Im going to strip every single bit of paint from the engine bay to the bare metal, and then clear coat over it.
5.Once the engine bay looks exactly the way I want it, to the T, I can start building the 350 with a mild to hot cam, solid lifters, "maybe aluminum heads-if the wallet can handle it", high rise tunnel ram intake, my two 4 barrels, and try and build some custom headers to fit in the little truck, OOh and of course steam blast the block, and try some ceramic gray or silver high temp. paint to match the bare metal & aluminum finish on the rest of the truck.
6. Take some Vaseline & Astroglide & shove that v8 down in the little truck, wire up the basics, and take it for a spin
7.When shes runnin half ass decent, then I'll start on the interior. I've already pulled the "p-leather" dash pad off to find an all metal dash waiting for a welder, so I'll weld up all the unused holes and grind down the edges for a smoothed look. and build a nice cluster for the gauges. And if Im able to find some, try and use some aircraft themed gauges, and maybe a lcd screen with a aviation radar scanner as a screen saver for it built into the dash or center console. just an idea, but also do the inside in baremetal.
8.Im thinking of doing the seats outta old pickle barrels and doing a metal pan inside them and getting it covered in sheep's wool for the upholestery, and maybe even a wood floorboard? and going to walmart and picking up one of those aircraft joysticks for video games and making that my shifter knob?
9. order some 4x4 fenders, find a new front bumper, and try and build a new grill outta metal instead of cheapo plastic. shave the door handles, suicide the doors, take the entire cab down to bare metal and the clear coat it. and get some new rubber for the doors,windows,& windshields.
10.shave up the old gas door, run a beerkeg as a fuel cell, see if the top of the diff. is going to hit the bed floor and knotch if have to. then strip the be to baremetal & clear along with tailgate, and then just worry about the setup.

lol but I better quit running my mouth otherwise I'll never get anything done, then I'll look like a real smarta$$. lol but plans change, and money decides alot so who knows, anyways any suggestions would be great guys or different Ideas. But anyways thanks for looking at my post. Best Wishes. -Joe

 

I ran one in my 82 Camaro Z28.

Its tough. I never broke it behind a torquey 350. Its heavy, and a PITA to rebuild (if you can do trannys).

And its not geared "low". Although low gearsets (planetarys) are available. But I wouldnt see a need in a 2800 lb pickup truck.