I recently purchased this beauty 07-13-13 from a guy who put 5 years of good use to this truck. He loved this truck so much he was talking me out of buying it. Finally gave in tho and now its mine!

• Weber downdraft carb
• Fender flares and front spoiler from 1985 Celica GTS
• 4:1 Pace Setter Headers
• Flow Master exhaust 2.5" pipes
• Most importantly California Smog Exempt
  
  

 

Upgrades

First things first was to lower the truck and after realizing that there were no torsions on the truck, I had no patience but to cut 2 1/2 coils equivalent to a 3.5" drop.

While lowering the truck, I needed to replace one of the studs and during removal of the front right brake calipers, bolt snaps . At this point the only option was to drill the bolt out since it was seized.

 

Too excited to see the finished product decided to zip tie the untapped hole of the brakes and lowered it to the ground.

Here is the raked /demon dropped look

 

Front view

 

The next day, 3" rear blocks and bumper deleted.

 

Dropped

3.5" Front & 3" blocks at the ass

 

Over this past weekend my friend Jose and I went Sacramento to score on some parts not knowing we were about to meet the guy who built this truck Mike Santos from Santos Toy Shop (STS) RHD Hilux. He specialized on Toyotas/Datsuns Pre-77. http://www.santostoyshop.com/



I ended up picking up a bunch of goodies including dash cap, front and rear side markers, center dash piece, rear and side marker bed covers, shift knob, and some Celica center caps.

 

Dash cap and MOMO steering wheels installed. Dash cap makes a difference and can be purchased at this link. 72-78 Toyota Truck, Standard Cab Dash Cover 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978.

Here is what it looks like installed.

 

Right now I am in the process of installing the calipers back on and I forgot to mention, while tapping the hole, tap snaps.. Waiting for tap extractor tool to be delivered I bought from Ebay. In the mean time I am restoring the caps I bought from STS.

 

Those look like caps from the steelies on cars. I have a bunch. I should see if they fit my 17s. Looks great. I saved most of your pics to look closer at the flares. I have a set of the same ones in my basement. Couldn't decide if I liked them. I test fitted them on 14s tho, the 17s might look way better. Check out my build. I'm sure there's some stuf I've done you'll wanna copy.

 

I have looked at your build and there are many things I want to pick and choose from with other builds as well. Why reinvent the wheel right?

 

Exactly. The things I suggest are the late model brake booster from an 81. It's narrower and allows the inner fenders to be hammered further. You may like my center dash bezel and center console too. Let me know if ya need help with anything or specific pics.

 

Yes I will PM you when I start the interior. Right now I just want it back on the road and enjoy it for a little bit. Once I polish the lips of the Starions and I am looking into a 22RE or 1JZ swap. I will probably do the interior last just incase there are and firewall fabrication. Thanks for the booster tip will look into that. Did you ever think of changing the rear drums to discs and what it would take to do that. There is a leak on my back left brakes and we just plugged it so there is better pressure. It also stopped the leak but I'd rather invest money on disc swaps.

Oh yeah gotta fix the steering play next then Tokico shocks in the front and Bilstein HD's at the rear. Then start building the motor.

 

Sounds like a good plan. Hit me up with any questions. A 22R is physically the same size, so no firewall issues there. I have a 22r with a 20r head. A JZ engine would probably be a bit long. The M series 6s barely fit between the firewall and core support.

As for rear disc, I want them. I had been waiting until I had big rims again. From what I have rear, a MK3 supra setup will all bolt right up. 1 of the 4 backing plate ears needs to be rotated about 45*. It also pushes the back rims out about 20mm per side. There have been lots of rear disc conversions but that always seemed the best. Uses a drum type parking brake inside the rotor. They're about 11.5" solid rotors with 1 or 2 piston calipers. I will upgrade the front discs before I do rear disc though. I will probably have to swap to a different master cylinder with the proper center bore to match the new calipers. I think the 81 is 7/8" the 78 was 15/16" I think. Ill probably need a 1" from a late model tundra. The 81 booster also gives you 4 bolt masters which have mny options of stock bore size from various Toyotas.

 

Quick Update on the Broket TAP

I received my 1/2 in tap extractor made by Walton and I was able to remove the broken tap in less than a minute.









Next up finish the tap and get the truck back on the road.

 

No bueno another tap broke!

 

Installed the rear Bilstein shocks yesterday and received the Mighty Max springs from Belltech. Just waiting for the Tokico shocks for install. Here is what the rear looks like:

 

Can you get some close up pics of your fender flares? And maybe a few pics of how they mounted. I have a set I'm test fitting again and wanna see how similar my plan is to how yours were done. If it goes as planned I can run some big spacers until I get low offset 17s. Give it a really nice stance.

 

Truck looks great!

 

I'll take some close ups and have it posted by this weekend!