I've done a bit more, welded the tub back together and shorten the drive shaft, park brake cables and exhaust. Also fixed up a couple of dents in the tub and removed the strips. We have had a heat wave and the temps been about 50C degrees thats 122F and it's even hotter in the shed so I'm not doing much more until it cools down a bit. Bloody stupid Aussie weather, fine one day on fire the next. Just got to fix the clutch which is gearbox out and find somewhere for the gas tank to fit, and it should be good to go.

 

As you can see the clutch had a small problem, Ill put another one in tomorrow. The back of the tub is almost finished, some progress photos below.

 

nice work.

 

Thanks McBoost, I posted an update a week ago but its disapeared, looks like ill have to write it again.. :-(

 

Here is some more pics, Ive welded the bum back on, and replace the clutch. Replace the headlights with LEDs and they have the indicators and park lights inside. Painted the grill and headlight surrounds, seatbelts tempary fuel tank and lots of little jobs and it can now be driven. Goes quite well considering its an 18r engine from the wrecker. Ive got to paint the ugly doors and find a bumper.

 

awesome progress.

when I bought my truck the previous owner had a gas tank on the passenger side of the bench seat, heh. Your idea is better.

 

Looks pretty good. Very interesting fuel tank indeed

 

Thanks McBoost,
did you have to roll down the window to fill it up?

 

Thanks, I will put a fuel cell under the tub at some stage, I'm just going to do a few little jobs first, the headlights need relays to reverse the Polarity as LED headlights won't work with factory Toyota wiring. I've got a Toyota carby that I'm rebuilding, It's currently got a Mazda carb on a 3d printed block, I don't expect that to last very long. It's also sitting on the bump stops on the front, so I need to do something with that, probably cut them down unless I can find a better way to do it.

 

LOL.

 

Keeping with my low budget, I decided rather than buy a new carby that I would fuel inject the engine. Sounds wrong but a good Weber carb is around $500, I can inject it way cheaper. So far I found a centre point throttle body off a ford falcon which almost bolts straight on the Toyota manifold, I little filing and a custom gasket and it will be done. I got a couple of water temp sensors from a commodore (V6 GM) and to my surprise when a pulled the smog crap off they screwed straight in. One will be used for an air temp sensor. I built a megasquirt ECU years ago for a friend and he no longer wants it,
So far the parts have been scrounged and the total cost so far is $0
Just got to find a fuel pump, O2 sensor and bung, and convert the dissie to electronic. A bit of wiring and fuel lines, and it should be good to go.

 

I got anO2 sensor off a ford falcon, and the bung for the exhast for free and got that fitted, so just got to pick up the ECU and start wiring.

 

So started making the wiring loom for the Megasquirt ECU and I had to spend some money on the plug $10, and some wire, $10. The heat skrink I had in the shed all shrunk, (did I mention it gets bloody hot here) so I had to buy some more $13 for a box full. I might do some more when it cools down, its around 40C or 104 F and even hotter in my shed, Im not liking this long hot summer at all ...

 

Looks good

 

Your doing a great job bringing this old girl back to life.

 

Thanks truckaction, just having an issue connecting the ecu to the computer, it uses a serial port and my usb adaptor doesnt want to play. Ive order a new one, and ill see if that fixes the problem. It was all going so well untill then.

 

So After much mucking around with a new usb to serial adaptor, drivers, settings, and swearing the ecu is now talking to the laptop. So a bit more wiring, fule lines and pump it should be good to fire up.
Ive also been wire wheeling the tub, Ill get that nice and clean and clear coat it with some polly.

 

Shortys Alive! After fitting the throttle body and finshing the wiring she fired up first try. I had to adjust the idle, but man does the engine run sweet. It was idleing at 400rpm, so i bumped it up a little. I havent driven on the road yet as i run out of wire for the fuel pump so the tank is on the ground at the moment, as soon as thats fixed it ill be time for tuning. I can already tell it going to go a heap better than the carb set up.
If you want to replace your carb i can recommend the EA falcon throttle body they pretty much bolt straight on, a couple of custom gaskets a bit of filing on the toyota base isolator and a couple of washers and your done

 

Took shorty up the road, even without a proper tune it goes way better. It now has a fantastic intake noise when you floor it, and easily pulls a burnout in my shed. Just need someone to go for a drive while i turn it on the laptop or find a dyno.
Oh I also better replace the points with an eletronic ignition before i get to far...
;_)

 

I put in the eletronic ignition, And i got a mate to drive while i made some adjustments to the fuel map, turns out it was running very lean, so it now goes better than ever. The oil light came on, but it turns out it was only the pressure switch crapped itself. Ive got a small coolant leak from the heater tap to fix, and and oil leak from the front crank seal. The fuel lines need tidying up and Im going to remove the old fuel pump off the engine.
Im sure theres more to do, the engine and suspension need a good clean.