So a friend of mine called me,

"Hey man i got something really awesome i know you would love, its a 1974 toyota pickup... and the lady only wants $150."
Without Hesitation, "I'll take it, let me get the dolley."

So we headed out about 45 minutes east of my place, pulled up, truck looked nice from the back, it had a good body on it still, and it had all matching paint. Then i parked gave it the old walk-a-round. Walked around to the front of the truck.

By now the lady selling it had come out and was walking up..
"So you can see it had a little engine fire."
"Yea little alright..."



So i thought about it.... Hell why not i can probably make a cool project out of it.
Now i own my first, 1974 Toyota Hilux. Got her home nice and safe and began tearing it down, interior had to go, has a few cancer spots her and there but nothing i cant fix. I started with the engine bay, pretty much everything was done for.



The bed wasnt really a problem getting off, but i was worried about doing the cab by myself, i didnt have a picker anymore at my house, so i had to get a little crafty... and i had a bunch of 4x4's laying around.










And now i have a good rolling chasis to work with. I plan to drop this thing down as far is it can do, havent really decided how im going to go about it, wether it be bags or just suspension, but im just going to start from the ground up.
Cleaned the interior out next.


Found a sun roof off a old single cab 80 Ford Ranger that is going to work perfectly.

So starting with my fresh chasis, My first plan is to do disc brake conversion in the front, picked up some from a 85 toyota this morning for $30 at the local scrap yard. and thats where she is now. Hopefully i can have a sweet slammed ride like a lot of the ones i see here, hope to talk with all of you one time or another, Thanks. Kyle.

 

nice! reminds me of mine a few years ago lol.

i took my cab off by myself. it was scary . i even did it with the motor in it

 

Yea i looked through your build thread, how long did it end up taking you to finish? it took me like 2 hours to just read your thread lol

 

Today i pulled off all the brake lines, fuel lines, dropped the front end off the frame.

Went through 3 cans of Gunk De greaser, this frame has 38 years of crap caked on it, let it sit about 30 minutes, then pressure washed for about 2 hours. And i'd say it came out pretty good.

So i was planning on the truck being black and red, the truck black, with red accent.

So i thought oh maybe it would be cool to have a red frame and i was looking around NAPA and i found Rubberized under coating in a spray can, bought one to test it out.

I think it looks friggen sweet! i was just thinking of using it for the fender wells and such, but it worked so nice on the frame. Especially because the frame is pretty rough, it evened everything out and gave it a really nice look. So I will be back at napa when i get some money, 7$ a can lol.

 

keep us updated.... doin a great job!

 

Just traded the stock bench seat in it for some mid 90's Black leather BMW bucket seats last night, and they even have the heated seat option... im going to be big timing it

 

Keep the updates coming!
Good work!

 

So today i had some time to put in my moon roof.



After the cut i made sure it was clean for a good seal, used some basic cleaner and a rag to scrub off the edge really good.

Used a simple grinder with a cut off disc.. Measure once cut twice right? haha no i made sure i measured over and over and over again, wanted it to look clean and centered, and by the looks of it, came out really good on placement.

Here was the first dry fit-



Pulled it out and gave it a nice thick bead of sealer i bought down at the lumber store, paintable, water proof, couple $.

Then set her back in and anchored it down!




and vualla! No moon roof < Moon Roof

Also some pictures of the BMW leather bucket seats i traded my bench seat for. They are semi-worn, id give one a 6 out of 10, the other a 7 out of 10. But who knows i could get the re-upholstered or something.





They look a lot better after i cleaned them up with armor all, theres a lot of dust on them in that picture.

let me know what you guys think! thanks for all the comments so far

 

So I went to napa and O'rielys today... 49.99 a peice for upper ball joints, 52.99 for lowers each... still waiting to figure out how I can afford ball joints for that much money.. need to hit the WWW. And try to find them cheaper. But installing the disc s up front is next

 

they have em on rockauto.com for a lot cheaper

 

33.79, not bad, deffinetly cheaper.. i managed to save 1 lower taking my discs off, so about 100$. hmmm

 

i found 2 blocks today that are both good for a rebuild, a 22re and a 7MGE... would the 7mge fit in a 74?

 

OK, getting the 7mge longblock motor out of a 86 supra $100. Going to pick it up around the first... Starting to get exciting lol

 

The 7m is gonna be a tight squeeze. Gonna need to do some fab work under the hood but it will be savage. I have a friend doing a 5m in his 77. I'll see how far he is and let you know

 

Hey thanks for any info you can get me, yea im really excited to go look at both of these motors, i was thinking a 7m would be so cool, but i deffinetly need to do some research or find someone that has done it

 

Alright for progress, so i found out that i have full access to a hot tank parts cleaner at my college. And as my last week we have a total free week to do whatever we want.
So today i pulled apart the front end totally so all the parts can go in and get extra clean so i can paint!




Also emptied out the tranny so it can get all sparkly as well



Then i got my paycheck and had enough to get the motor ive been scoping out on craigslist for the last 2 weeks
A 1992 toyota supra 7mGTE motor, running ( recommended rebuild) for 100$ he cranked it over for me so that i could see it was functional, drove about 200 miles round trip, so worth it!

It was dark but i had to get some pics for a update...









Also the other day i stopped at the pick-a-part, not sure why i felt like going because they crushed all the toyotas last week, but i thought i would check if they got anything new... way out it the back of the yard...... a 73 toyota hilux! i almost crapped myself, they guy inside said they have only had a handful in that year EVER. So i found a new brake master and a clutch master, and a pair of Chevron mirrors, spent 15$.









I also found the OEM mudflaps! well only one... so im looking for 1 more if anyone has! i cant wait to drag these around.

 

Getting stuff moved-





Tearin into the 7mge







Cleaner parts-













Head came out great could use a P&P, and the upper a-arms are going to look really nice re-painted. I probably have a few more days of cleaning and bead-blasting. The block just has so much grease caked on so ill probably run it through the cleaner a couple more hours, was the last part to go in today so it only got about 30 minutes. But im happy with the results im getting and just having fun doing it.

 

Great posts!
Great work!

 

Thanks bud!

So next week or so im putting my schooling to be a automotive tech to work, replacing main bearings and rod bearings in a friends honda civic ep3, doing it for 1000 cash.

Plans:

- Block machined and bored over 0.020
- Get some metal to fab up a 7 inch C notch for the rear
- Hopefully find a air bag kit i can afford

Wanting to replicate this one i found a picture of

 

Ordered bags and got some metal for my C notch today, im going to start as soon as im done with the civic motor, probably Friday Saturday!