Thanks for the comments.

I used MAR-HYDE aircraft aluminum paint remover and a pressure washer. I still need to remove the paint in many other places. I'll polish them up in the fall.

I bet the 7mgte is sweet in your truck. I think my truck may be putting out a little more power than stock. It seems really strong. I think the head is from an N/A 22re. This truck came with a 2.5" downpipe/exhaust with a flowmaster muffler and no cat. I will have to get the cat installed soon.

 

Yeah those 22rte's have lots of potential. I think the next Yota i get will get a 22rte in it. But unlike my 7M it wont be stock! PS very impressed with the work on your truck! Looks amazing compared to what it once was!

 

. . . have to agree there! Awesome progress! I looked at the pictures a few times and dayyum, look slike you could almost eat off that motor, hella clean! Great Job!

 

Looking good

 

A few updates.

I have been working on the interior. I bought the truck with a sad interior missing almost everything.

I found carpet and console from a 4runner. The gauge surround, and other dash pices from a 2wd truck. Seats from a toyota FX-16. Shifter boot from a pathfinder. I am looking for a black one.




My original hood was bent and did not close properly. I found a hood from a 4-runner but it still had a nickel size rust hole near the rear edge.



Since the hood was not perfect, I decided to try something a have wanted to do for a while.







Not pictured is the 1/4" steel rod I tack welded to the upper three edges. This will both stiffen the cut edges and provide the foundation for the small lip I want to mold around the opening. More pics to come.

 

Pics with the 1/4 steel rod used as the lip.









Needs more work.

 

Thats justa handfull of inspiration and a hell of a kewl mod man, I like it. . .

 

nice truck, do you plan to keep those sheilds on around the door glass?

 

Dam nice mod there!!!! Looks good!!

 

Thanks for the comments. burnzya and lowandloud, your compliments are saying something considering the cool work you guys ( and others) are doing.

Yeah, I'm keeping the window flares. They keep the wind from beating me up on the highway and with the rear window open, the ventilation is great. They are true oldschool. I found them on ebay the day I dragged the truck home. Only 40 bucks "buy it now". I let it sit for a couple days before I bought it.

 

This is going further than I originally planned. I just wanted to get it running and use at for light duty home use. Well, I picked up another part.

Theres alot of room behind the grill.


Fits in there nice and clears the bumper.



Trimmed the grill some to install but it needs alittle more trimming to fit right.



No longer has a sleeper look. 16x9 starions all around.



I havent added the tubing yet but I have driven it around to see if the intercooler with restrict enough air to the radiator to cause it to overheat. Results are inconclusive since the temperature outside hasn't passed 55 degrees.

Next, I will rearranger the rear shocks so that they both will mount behind the rear axle. I'll add some gabriel coil over shocks in the rear with a sway bar. Then I'll be finished.

 

ive been looking through your build and im really impressed where you have taken this truck. very nice work!

i am curious about the lower valance tho...... whats the deal with it? where did you get it? or did you modify it to look that way? almost looks like out of a newer 90+ truck. looks killer!

 

Thanks SD,

The valance is from an isuzu rodeo/ honda passport. See below.





The valance has about 4 different styles and the later year rodeo/passports look the best to me. Mine is the later year. The valance doesnt need any mods to fit. I did have to weld 1/2 inch wide flat stock steel to the bottom of my toyota bumper to mount the valance. The toyota bumper didn't have enough lip to mount the valance. It would have been easier to mount the entire isuzu bumper with fabbed up brackets. The problem with that was all of the rodeo/passports in my local JY had bumpers with a dip in the middle. They were not flat across the top like in the pics above.


The rodeo/pasport bumpers are the same width as the toyota bumpers so they should look like factory when mounted on the toy truck.

 

Man, see what ur done, is making want to fix my car so i can give it to my parents to use and get my little truck back. Well thats after the turbo truck is lowered. im planning ahead for mine.

 

Looks good man! I like the Intercooler lettering in the grille. Very discrete.

 

Damn. To take something that doesn't look like much to begin with and to turn it into something like THAT, in what looks like your driveway.... WOW. There are quite a few guys on this forum who in my eyes are just extremely talented. Give them a fork and a spoon and they'll make a four-link!

It's downright inspirational to have you guys around.

 

Thanks. I did build it in my driveway but I couldn't have taken it this far without cheap parts from my local junkyard ( and ebay,cough..cough). You can do alot for cheap if you diy. The best thing a backyard car builder can do is buy a relatively cheap mig welder ( that can be upgraded to gas). Learn to weld halfway decent and you will be pretty much unstoppable in your builds.

lol, I pulled it off a volvo many years ago hoping to have something to put it on one day.

GIT ER DONE!!! Hey, www.vadriven.com is having a big car meet in march at a park near the corner of ocean and general booths blvd in VA beach. I hope to drive my truck up there. Do you know about this??

 

thanks man. ive been torn as to what i want to do with the front of my truck but couldnt find anything i really could stick to..... i think ill look further into the valance.... looks super clean! thanks for the info.

 

i havent been to that site in a long time. can u get the exact date? im like 15 min from there and can show up in my truck