Well i know i originally said a 350, then i got on this kick about wanting a 383.. then tossed out the idea of going ls1 or a tundra 5.7... so what does all that tell me... it tells me i don't know what i want yet, ha, but i DO know that i do want a big nasty street cam in it, ;D

I lowered the GMC only 2" in the back using drop shackles. I planned on a complete 2/4 drop but i have this small dent in the passenger quarter panel and i prob won't keep this truck forever, so i'm debating on buying the belltech drop shocks, 2" hangers, and 2" drop spindles needed to complete the drop. The hangers were super easy to swap out, i paid $17 for mine shipped believe it or not, got them from a "for sale" section on GMfullsize.com - i'm a member on there too. They are DJM brand shackles.

You would want to use a flip kit if you had a Club cab (since the hangers on them are welded to the frame unlike the reg cab and ext cab where they are riveted) and flip kit will give you 6" of drop in the rear, but i still need to haul the yota around and didn't want to notch the frame, so 4" is low as i'm willing to go in the rear.





Went outside and just took this pic, yea the truck is pretty dirty, this is stock suspension up front, only 2" drop shackles in rear, and since a pic i posted of it last year sometime during my build, i have added 20" Chevy LTZ wheels to give it a little character.

 

Yea I have the same truck color and all il prob just toss on some shackles .sense it's my daily and still need to jump curbs and do truck whatnots ..

 

It seemed like a long wait, 5 weeks later, my Cando Specialties bumper brackets have arrived! These are made to convert a 94-89 bumper onto an 88-84 model truck. They will be used to put my 94 4wd bumper on that I bought from a friend. I am anxious to test fit it but at this very moment we're dealing with Hurricane Isaac so it may be another day or two before the rain stops.
Steve at Cando provided some clean brackets, they look oil free and the welds are clean. I'm not extremely knowledgeable about welds, the bead looks nice, however, it is only welded fully on one side and tacked in a few places on the opposite side. I'm assuming that this is fine. The brackets are pretty thick, 3/16" steel.
Once I have test fit these brackets and proven that they fit perfect, I am going to bring them to my friend Nick's (same guy that coated the calipers) to have them powder coated.

 

You should just buy my toyota and go from there. You know you wanna.

 

Sorry, I'm building this particular truck because it holds great sentimental value to me. Good luck on selling yours, I think I saw it on Mautofied or Craigslist recently. What are you asking for it? I have a friend in Laurel that was thinking about buying an 88 like mine from my uncle since he was wanting $1k for it, but its very stock.

 

Well the storm is over and our typical smouldering hot Mississippi humidity has returned, so off to the storage unit to test fit the Cando brackets before powder coat..

First I went by the auto parts store to pick up a few pieces of hardware such as M8 nuts, split lock, and flat washers, and some new nylon nuts which insert into the lower valence since the old looked raggedy. After installing the bumper and giving it a good look, I decided i may replace the lower valence unless I can straighten it out - possible..

Old nylon nuts


New


Old OEM bumper bracket on the left (pass side) and Cando specialties bracket on the right (driver side) - just for comparison.



First I mounted up the chrome portion of the bumper which was easy, however I found it to be rather difficult to install the valence.





I removed the bumper and installed the valence, and found that it was easily as difficult to install the complete assembly without having perpendicular access to the bumper bolts, a 17mm ratchet wrench is really needed on this - not sure why I don't have a good set of ratchet wrenches yet.. oh well soon enough..









Rolled the truck out and laid it down to see how far I have to body drop.





Found that I need to message a few area to correct the clearance of the fenders in respect to the bumper and hood.





Overall it is a great fit and the brackets are very robust and worth the money for the quality and time put into designing them.

 

Well, I bought my first house today and I have been working on getting it for well over a month now. Now that I have a home and not an apartment, I can ditch the storage unit and have the Yota there with me all the time, so I should be more pro-active on working on the truck. Look for updates soon!

 

looking great man! i read the whole thread and its come a LOOOONG way. sorry to hear about the passing of your father, but its nice that you have something to remind you of him. keep up the good work!

 

Nice..

 

Well, its been quite a while since I have updated this thread.
Quick update on progress, I haven't really done anything :/

Back in the Fall I bought a house, so I moved the Toyota out of the storage unit and it has been sitting in my car port ever since. I work full-time plus i'm going to school full time for my Engineering degree, so I do not really have time during the school year to play with the truck. Plus, I am trying to complete a few other projects, Usaci SPL builds, turbo build on my sierra, all at the same time.

So, today I took a pic of it as it sits.



Since moisture gets to the truck easier now, I have built up a little additional rust inside the truck. I figured I better clean it out now, the worst part is on the driver side floor board. Also, I wanted to remove the factory deadener. Once the final product has been done (one day), I will use some acoustic deadener/heat shield on the floor.



I had to hit it with a flat head screw driver, wire brush, grinder with sanding wheel, and the vac to clean it up some. Not perfectly clean yet, but good enough for today.



Then, hit it with some WD-40 for now until I can primer it. I'm not too worried about "finishing" the floor for now as i'm sure it will get cut up even more.



Little rear window love for now.

 

Thanks guys! This build is truly a SLOW one, especially looking back to when I started it. The truck has been moved 4 times since my original pictures where I picked it up. It's going to get dragged out a few more years, but I will document it all!

 

Keep on it!

 

I bought a 4L80E transmission for my GMC. As soon as I can get a 5.3 for the GMC, then I can pull the 4.8/4L60E out of the truck - this will be the power plant for the toyota. Once it is out, then i can modify the transmission tunnel and start test fitting the engine mounts.

 

5.3 LS swap! I'm in!

 

Well I was digging through some old photo albums and came across a photo, so I decided to scan it. This is back when I drove the truck everyday, probably 2001-ish. Back then I thought it was a good idea to rock the hub caps since the factory ones had fallen off and I surely couldn't afford aftermarket wheels at 16 years old. However, I really wish I knew that I could have dropped this truck with little to no effort, back then when I searched through the mini-truckin magazines, I never recall seeing people mod these, nor did I ever come across lowering kits for them, so I always assumed no one made them. At this time I did not know the truck had torsion bars or even what they were. Had to scratch together $200 for my soft top bed cover which I thought was awesome, until it rained and acted as a small swimming pool, never the less Katrina ripped it off the truck a few years later anyways.

 

Bump, time to get back on the Yota project. I got lazy and left my Cando brackets "unfinished" on the truck and they got rusty - shame on me. So I took them the other night and sandblasted them, I will powder coat them and post pics of them soon. Also, I think I'm going to spray a coat of primer on the yota for right now since it is taking me so long to work on it. I am currently in the process of finding someone that can narrow the rear end for me about 3" or so.

I need some motivation to get back on this project. Right now I am working on an SPL build in my accord, but I do not need to further neglect the yota, I have had this thread going for 4-5 years now, lol.

 

Hey, this build thread still exists, awesome! Well my wife is on me about selling my SPL car, while I'm not too happy about that, it won't be such a bad thing. Plus, with that project out of the way, I can get back on the Toyota. If all goes as planned, I should have a 5.3 sitting on the engine stand within the next week or two, we will see.

 

Today, I finally made a commitment to the power plant for my Toyota; I have gone from 383 stroker to stock 350 to possible SC400 4.0 swap to possible Tundra v8 swap. I ended up getting a 5.3 SBC motor, I feel comfortable with this motor and I have one in my Silverado. This is one from a 99-03ish truck since it still has the clutch fan. I will be tearing this engine down and inspecting it, new gaskets and seals of course. More than likely I will rebuild the engine and add performance parts up top, and possibly go with a different set of heads, 799/243 or something. So It looks like now the 5.3 is a sure thing now that its here, but the next question is, do I stop there or not. With that being said, I have an idea on what to do about a grill, and a long skinny intercooler between the headlights is sounding pretty sexy right now ;D

 

I messed with the engine a little today. This engine was one that was pulled at a dealership because there was an engine bay fire, basically the plastic intake manifold melted. I found some remnants of the molten plastic inside the cathedral ports, on the valves, and inside a few of the cylinders. It seems to chip and come out pretty easy. I cannot get the tq converter off though since I cannot get this engine to turn over for whatever reason. I will probably end up dropping the oil pan to find out why it will not turn over at all. I'm not sweating it too much as this engine will be gone through 100% anyways and spend its time in the machine shop getting freshened up.




Today I pulled the heads off and water pump.




I will not get really any opportunity to work on this for a few weeks, but when I can, I hope to sit it under the hood of the Toyota so that I can get a visual on how it will look and fit. So far I have about 32" from the radiator support to the firewall, and the engine from the back of the heads to the crank pulley up front is about 28", so yea it will be a tight fit, but I will do whatever I need to do to make this work out. I already plan to have to cut and remake the trans tunnel anyways.

 

Best of luck on the fit!! Post up those mockup pics as soon as you get em. Glad to see you back on the project.